Description: This book discusses how the competitive environment of Latin America's social life has facilitated religious innovation in different regional and national settings.
Review Quotes:
"The present volume serves as a useful corrective to the flood of impressionistic works and reflects the increasing maturation of the field...it provides a solid basis for understanding the actual role of religion, and particularly the Catholic Church, in contemporary Latin America...[the book] provides not only a realistic view of the role of religion in contemporary Latin America, but also a healthy critique of much of the literature in the field." --Journal of Latin American Studies
"An interesting analysis of new Catholic pastoral strategies in Bolivia." --Journal of Church and State "Several of the essays suggest that the institutional capacity of the Church has diminished, to the detriment of any political role the Church might wish to play...the theme of diminishing resources (priests, funds, schools, etc.) is also addressed in a sophisticated empirical appendix compiled by the editor...these essays remind us that religion is a potentially powerful resource, but one which is capable of serving a variety of masters. Even in a setting not characterized by a legal separation of church and state, the political and theological barriers which render religious politics difficult are quite formidable." --Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review "Several of the essays suggest that the institutional capacity of the Church has diminished, to the detriment of any political role the Church might wish to play...the theme of diminishing resources (priests, funds, schools, etc.) is also addressed in a sophisticated empirical appendix compiled by the editor...these essays remind us that religion is a potentially powerful resource, but one which is capable of serving a variety of masters. Even in a setting not characterized by a legal separation of church and state, the political and theological barriers which render religious politics difficult are quite formidable." --Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review "The present volume serves as a useful corrective to the flood of impressionistic works and reflects the increasing maturation of the field...it provides a solid basis for understanding the actual role of religion, and particularly the Catholic Church, in contemporary Latin America...[the book] provides not only a realistic view of the role of religion in contemporary Latin America, but also a healthy critique of much of the literature in the field." --Journal of Latin American Studies "An interesting analysis of new Catholic pastoral strategies in Bolivia." --Journal of Church and State