The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity

The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity
Author: Manuel A. Vasquez
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1998
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521585088

This 1997 study explores one of the most dramatic current interactions between religion and politics: the development of progressive Catholicism in Latin America. In particular, it examines economic, social and religious obstacles to progressive theology in Brazil. This 'popular' church built a utopian vision of social emancipation, drawing on Catholic social thought, humanistic Marxism and existentialism. It was a major democratizing force as Brazil emerged from dictatorship in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, however, the popular appeal of progressive Catholicism came under threat. Focusing on a Catholic community near Rio de Janeiro, Manuel A. Vásquez's incisive study shows how economic and political changes have affected religious practices, and argues that the plight of progressive Catholicism in Brazil forms part of a wider crisis of modernity and of humanist discourses.

Legacies of Liberation

Legacies of Liberation
Author: John Burdick
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2019-07-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0429516401

Originally published in 2004. In Brazil the liberationist reading of the Bible was once supposed to be an unstoppable force for social change, yet many observers now say that in the era of neo-liberalism the liberationist project may be counted all but dead. In Legacies of Liberation, John Burdick offers a bold new interpretation of the state of the Catholic liberationism. Challenging the claim that it is dead, Burdick carefully builds the case that it continues to exert a major influence on Brazilian society and culture, through its penetration of a broad range of grassroots struggles, especially those having to do with race, gender, and land. Burdick brings to bear on his analysis an understanding of Brazil rooted in twenty years of fieldwork, and a perspective shaped by anthropology, theology and history.

Latin American Liberation Theology

Latin American Liberation Theology
Author: David Tombs
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2021-11-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004496467

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.

Christianity and democratisation

Christianity and democratisation
Author: John Anderson
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2013-07-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847797113

This book examines the contribution of different Christian traditions to the waves of democratisation that have swept various parts of the world in recent decades. It offers a historical overview of Christianity’s engagement with the development of democracy, before focusing in detail on the period since the 1970s. Successive chapters deal with: the Roman Catholic conversion to democracy and the contribution of that church to democratisation; the Eastern Orthodox ‘hesitation’ about democracy; the alleged threat to American democracy posed by the politicisation of conservative Protestantism; and the likely impact on democratic development of the global expansion of Pentecostalism. The author draws out several common themes from the analysis of these case studies, the most important of which is the ‘liberal-democracy paradox’. This ensures that there will always be tensions between faiths that proclaim some notion of absolute truth and political orders that are rooted in the idea of compromise, negotiation and bargaining. Written in an accessible style, this book will appeal to students of politics, sociology and religion, and prove useful on a range of advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
Author: Frank Leslie Cross
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1842
Release: 2005
Genre: Christianity
ISBN: 0192802909

Uniquely authoritative and wide-ranging in its scope, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church is the indispensable one-volume reference work on all aspects of the Christian Church. It contains over 6,000 cross-referenced A-Z entries, and offers unrivalled coverage of all aspects of this vast and often complex subject, including theology, churches and denominations, patristic scholarship, the bible, the church calendar and its organization, popes, archbishops, saints, and mystics. In this revision, innumerable small changes have been made to take into account shifts in scholarly opinion, recent developments, such as the Church of England's new prayer book (Common Worship), RC canonizations, ecumenical advances and mergers, and, where possible, statistics. A number of existing articles have been rewritten to reflect new evidence or understanding, for example the Holy Sepulchre entry, and there are a few new articles. Perhaps most significantly, a great number of the bibliographies have been updated. Established since its first appearance in 1957 as an essential resource for ordinands, clergy, and members of religious orders, ODCC is an invaluable tool for academics, teachers, and students of church history and theology, as well as for the general reader.

Truthful Action

Truthful Action
Author: Duncan B. Forrester
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2000-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0567598705

A ground-breaking contribution to current debates within Practical Theology and to thinking about its future.Professor Forrester argues that the boundaries of Practical Theology must be extended, and that it must be both seriously theological, and also engaged in sincere dialogue with other disciplines, the Church and society. He considers especially ministerial formation and Public Theology as areas where Practical Theology has an important contribution to make, and presents case studies looking at the practical implications of different approaches.

The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity

The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity
Author: David Thomas Orique
Publisher:
Total Pages: 626
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 0199860351

Latin America, where 90% of the population is Christian and where nearly 40% of the world's Catholics reside, has its own unique brand of Christianity. The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity offers a survey of Latin American Christianity from thirty-three leading scholars. The volume systematically introduces and examines dramatic shifts in Catholic and Protestant Christianity over the course of several centuries. Its four sections explore the emergence of colonial Christianity, its institutional and popular evolution, and its dynamic role the region's contemporary developments.

Social Sciences

Social Sciences
Author: Lawrence Boudon
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 998
Release: 2003-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780292705357

"The one source that sets reference collections on Latin American studies apart from all other geographic areas of the world.... The Handbook has provided scholars interested in Latin America with a bibliographical source of a quality unavailable to scholars in most other branches of area studies." —Latin American Research Review Beginning with volume 41 (1979), the University of Texas Press became the publisher of the Handbook of Latin American Studies, the most comprehensive annual bibliography in the field. Compiled by the Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and annotated by a corps of more than 130 specialists in various disciplines, the Handbook alternates from year to year between social sciences and humanities. The Handbook annotates works on Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean and the Guianas, Spanish South America, and Brazil, as well as materials covering Latin America as a whole. Most of the subsections are preceded by introductory essays that serve as biannual evaluations of the literature and research under way in specialized areas. The Handbook of Latin American Studies is the oldest continuing reference work in the field. Lawrence Boudon, of the Library of Congress Hispanic Division, has been the editor since 2001, and Katherine D. McCann has been assistant editor since 2000. The subject categories for Volume 59 are as follows: Anthropology Economics Geography Government and Politics International Relations Sociology Electronic Resources for the Social Sciences

The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979-1996

The Costa Rican Catholic Church, Social Justice, and the Rights of Workers, 1979-1996
Author: Dana Sawchuk
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0889209340

Provides a new understanding of the relationship between Church and State in 20th-century Costa Rica. Understanding the relationship between religion and social justice in Costa Rica involves piecing together the complex interrelationships between Church and State — between priests, popes, politics, and the people. This book does just that. Dana Sawchuk chronicles the fortunes of the country’s two competing forms of labour organizations during the 1980s and demonstrates how different factions within the Church came to support either the union movement or Costa Rica’s home-grown Solidarity movement. Challenging the conventional understanding of Costa Rica as a wholly peaceful and prosperous nation, and traditional interpretations of Catholic Social Teaching, this book introduces readers to a Church largely unknown outside Costa Rica. Sawchuk has carefully analyzed material from a multitude of sources — interviews, newspapers, books, and articles, as well as official Church documents, editorials, and statements by Church representativesto provide a firmly rooted socio-economic history of the experiences of workers, and the Catholic Church’s responses to workers in Costa Rica.

Rooted in Jesus Christ

Rooted in Jesus Christ
Author: Daniel Izuzquiza
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2009-04-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802862799

Offers a Christian proposal for radical social transformation. / Daniel Izuzquiza here proposes a vibrant interdisciplinary theology from the unique perspective of the "least of these" the poor and extends an invitation to mystical, political, and ecclesial engagement. / In Rooted in Jesus Christ Izuzquiza analyzes the language of theology, the role of social sciences, the transformation of culture, and the church s approach to politics. To that end he dialogues with some of the main theological proposals of the late twentieth century, from Latin American liberation theology to radical theology in the English-speaking world to European political theology. He also offers a more systematic development of radical ecclesiology, analyzing the sources of the proposal as alternative Christian practices. The result is a groundbreaking call to action and change for the entire church. / In this groundbreaking book Daniel Izuzquiza offers a vibrant Christian proposal for radical social transformation. His wide-ranging study explores the relationship between church and society by dialoguing critically and constructively with major theological currents of our day. Izuzquiza s interdisciplinary theology from the perspective of the poor is truly radical at once in a political, ecclesial, and mystical sense. / We need a way forward beyond our well-worn and tired debates. Daniel Izuzquiza offers just that. His splendid book engages and assesses postliberalism, radical orthodoxy, Anabaptist witness, liberation theology, and the role of the Jesuits in Christianity in order to show the need for a radical ecclesiology that is unapologetically Christocentric, socially attuned, and ecumenically generous. For anyone not invested in the current structures of power in the church, university, or nation-state, this book offers wisdom. For those of us so invested, this book shows a viable alternative preserving the good and challenging the rest. We should all pay attention. D. Stephen Long / author of Speaking of God: Theology, Language, and Truth / I am happy to recommend Daniel Izuzquiza s Rooted in Jesus Christ: Toward a Radical Ecclesiology to serious readers in the English-speaking world who may have dared to wonder if the traditional church of our time is what Jesus really had in mind. And if not, what might a church rooted in the Christ of the Incarnation look like? . . . Rather than superficially inspiring his readers, Izuzquiza brings us face-to-face with what the body of Christ could be by responding more fully to the truly amazing grace of God that has come to us in Jesus of Nazareth. Traditional Catholics and conservative Protestants alike as well as revolutionaries and political activists for that matter will be confronted and challenged here. . . . And, rather than concerning ourselves so exclusively with tactics and strategies, Izuzquiza reminds us of the importance of simply being the church, radically rooted in Jesus Christ. John Driver / author of Radical Faith: An Alternative History of the Christian Church