From the Publisher
Stimulating...Schwaller takes readers on an even-paced and informative journey through 500 years of Catholic history."-Matthew Butler,Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion
"Schwaller has produced a book that has long been needed in Latin American studies...one leaves reading [him] with vivid details rather than pre-digested summaries."-,Journal of Latin American Studies
“What Professor Schwaller has accomplished is a rather pleasant review of the pre-Columbian civilizations—the classic Maya, the Aztec and the Inca—followed by the Iberian history of the late Middle Ages and the missionary endeavors of the early Spanish Franciscan and Dominican friars in New Spain and the vice-royalty of Peru and the Portuguese in Brazil…This is his area of specialization, and he tells the story well.”-Diego von Vacano,America Magazine
“As Latin America assumes the role of the world's most Catholic continent, it becomes all the more necessary for anyone interested in contemporary Christianity to understand its historical roots. Schwaller's well-written and thoroughly researched history serves as an excellent guide to Latin America's turbulent religious past, and its contemporary realities. This is a valuable book from a distinguished scholar.”
-Phillip Jenkins,author of The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity
“Schwaller captures the fundamental question of power in this heart-felt analysis of the Catholic Church in Latin America over five centuries. Both colonial and national political figures sought to instrumentalize the institutional Church while multiethnic and multiclass peoples re-imagined the faith within their own communities. How those tensions expressed themselves in time and place is the core of this contribution to the field of Latin American history.”
-Douglass Sullivan‒González,author of Piety, Power, and Politics: Religion and Nation in Guatemala, 1821-1871
