Mark Z. Christensen's The Teabo Manuscript: Maya Christian Copybooks, Chilam Balams, and Native Text Production in Yucatan transcribes and translates a Yucatec Maya–language alphabetic religious text to examine whether it is a Chilam Balam or a new category that Christensen introduces, a Maya Christian copybook. Christensen's book connects a translation and facsimile of the Teabo Manuscript, a 44-page document that Christensen found in Brigham Young University's L. Tom Perry Special Collections, with an analysis and contextualization. Christensen dissects each of the manuscript's five sections, which address, respectively, a version of the Creation; a genealogy of Jesus Christ, parables, and apocalyptic final judgments; the 15 signs of doomsday; Mary, Christ, and the pope; and records of death and recipes for healing.
The first chapter, on the Creation, offers comparison with several so-called Chilam Balams to suggest commonalities in the production of a Maya Catholic theology. In this chapter Christensen compares all...
