The History of the Catholic Church in Latin America


Book Description

One cannot understand Latin America without understanding the history of the Catholic Church in the region. Catholicism has been predominant in Latin America and it has played a definitive role in its development. It helped to spur the conquest of the New World with its emphasis on missions to the indigenous peoples, controlled many aspects of the colonial economy, and played key roles in the struggles for Independence. The History of the Catholic Church in Latin America offers a concise yet far-reaching synthesis of this institution’s role from the earliest contact between the Spanish and native tribes until the modern day, the first such historical overview available in English. John Frederick Schwaller looks broadly at the forces which formed the Church in Latin America and which caused it to develop in the unique manner in which it did. While the Church is often characterized as monolithic, the author carefully showcases its constituent parts—often in tension with one another—as well as its economic function and its role in the political conflicts within the Latin America republics. Organized in a chronological manner, the volume traces the changing dynamics within the Church as it moved from the period of the Reformation up through twentieth century arguments over Liberation Theology, offering a solid framework to approaching the massive literature on the Catholic Church in Latin America. Through his accessible prose, Schwaller offers a set of guideposts to lead the reader through this complex and fascinating history.




The History of Peru


Book Description

For centuries, Peru's coast, mountains, and jungles have served as the grounds for bustling civilizations, including the Incan Empire. This exciting and comprehensive volume covers social life and culture, political practices, economics, and international influence throughout the ages in Peru, from the earliest social groups dating as far back as 500 BC to life today in the 21st Century. Ideal for high school students and general readers interested in South American history, this volume is an essential addition for high school and public libraries. A timeline of key events, list of notable people who made significant contributions to Peru's history, and a bibliography of print and electronic sources supplement the work. For centuries, Peru's coast, mountains, and jungles have served as the grounds for bustling civilizations, including the Incan Empire. This exciting and comprehensive volume covers social life and culture, political practices, economics, and international influence throughout the ages in Peru, from the earliest social groups dating as far back as 500 BC to life today in the 21st Century. Ideal for high school students and general readers interested in South American history, this volume is an essential addition for high school and public libraries. A timeline of key events, list of notable people who made significant contributions to Peru's history, and a bibliography of print and electronic sources supplement the work.




Historical Dictionary of Peru


Book Description

With 10,000 years of history, Peru, with its formidable Inca and pre-Inca civilizations and its rich colonial and post-colonial past, formed the very foundations of multi-ethnic South American history and society. It is a country rich in natural and human resources, but has been largely confined to a state of underdevelopment for much of its history. However, since 2000 Peru has shown significant signs of economic and political progress as its economy grew rapidly and it polity democratized. The Historical Dictionary of Peru packages in a unique way the course of Peru’s evolution and recent trajectory, with substantial sections devoted to describing and analyzing the country’s history, politics and social order, combined with shorter entries on the important people and events that have contributed to its current state of affairs. It also includes a comprehensive profile of the country based on an array of data, tables and statistics. In short, PERU will be an indispensable introduction and source for high school, college and graduate students, travelers and tourists and American government and business personnel with Peru as a destination. The Historical Dictionary of Peru contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 700 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture.







Latin American Liberation Theology


Book Description

David Tombs offers an accessible introduction to the theological challenges raised by Latin American Liberation and a new contribution to how these challenges might be understood as a chronological sequence. Liberation theology emerged in the 1960s in Latin America and thrived until it reached a crisis in the 1990s. This work traces the distinct developments in thought through the decades, thus presenting a contextual theology. The book is divided into five main sections: the historical role of the church from Columbus’s arrival in 1492 until the Cuban revolution of 1959; the reform and renewal decade of the 1960s; the transitional decade of the 1970s; the revision and redirection of liberation theology in the 1980s; and a crisis of relevance in the 1990s. This book offers insights into liberation theology’s profound contributions for any socially engaged theology of the future and is crucial to understanding liberation theology and its legacies. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.




The Histories of the Latin American Church


Book Description

Part one provides an overview of Christianity, the Bible, and theology in Latin America. Part two provides information for each country, including: demographics, timeline, church and state, autonomous churches, major religious festivals, popular devotions, saints and blesseds, and biographies.




Liberalism in the Bedroom


Book Description

This book tells the story of how ordinary Peruvian men and women experienced their lives, and especially their marriages, in a patriarchal society and how, through the struggles involved in divorce, women tried to defend their rights and in the process helped bring about change in society more broadly. Careful examination of more than one thousand cases of conjugal suits filed in Lima's archbishopric, as well as wills in notarial records, allowed the author to trace over time quarreling spouses' relationships, attitudes, and perceptions of gender, life cycle, race, and class and to study their evolving moral expectations and the varying pace of social change. The history of this marital dialogue reveals the construction of a new terminology, based on liberal ideas imported from England and France, that found its way into domestic life and influenced how conflicts were perceived and resolved. Far from opening doors for women, liberalism maintained women's inferior status but also shifted the ground on which women waged battles for survival. By the end of the nineteenth century, many women had concluded that basic patriarchal and Christian arrangements were a sham, and they sought ways to cope within a system rife with hypocrisy. This book shows how women and children, made destitute by intimate tyranny, challenged this tyranny by finding new means of defense and social support.




Be Centered in Christ and Not in Self


Book Description

The story of the one hundred years (19182018) of the Missionary Society of St. Columban is filled with adventure, stress, and danger, with the humdrum of daily life, with martyrs (twenty-seven of them thus far, including Columban Sister Joan Sawyer), with innumerable personal and society global connections and issues, with men who went from the familiarity of daily life and people they knew to lands and people unknown to bring the good news. The story is charged with humor and courage, along with faith, hope, and love. The people in this story lived within particular national histories and an evolving global Christianity. The history of the US region of the Missionary Society of St. Columban interacts with movements of Catholic and American history. These contexts influenced the ability of the Columbans to grow in the United States, to provide desperately needed resources for the missions, and to further Catholic engagement in the mission.




Peru and the Peruvians in the Twentieth Century


Book Description

"... looks at the political history of Peru from the time it gained independence from Spain to the present. ... compares different political ideologies against economic and social aspects."--jacket front flap.