Contradiction and Conflict: The Popular Church in Nicaragua

by Debra Sabia

Overview

Contradiction and Conflict explores the rich history, ideology, and development of the popular church in Nicaragua. From careful assessments within the context of Nicaragua's revolutionary period (1970s-1990), this book explains the historical conditions that worked to unify members of the Christian faith and the subsequent factors that fragmented the Christian community into at least four identifiable groups with religious and political differences, contradictions, and conflicts.

Debra Sabia describes and analyzes the rise, growth, and fragmentation of the popular church and assesses the effect of the Christian base communities on religion, politics, and the nation's social revolutionary experiment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780817357771
Publisher:	University of Alabama Press
Publication date:	02/28/2014
Edition description:	First Edition, First Edition
Pages:	252
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	1160L (what's this?)

About the Author

Debra Sabia is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Georgia Southern University.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

1 Introduction 1

2 The Second Vatican Council 12

3 The Rise of the Popular Church 29

4 Radicalization of the Popular Church 50

5 Shattering of the Christian Coalition 81

6 The Marxist Type 96

7 The Revolutionary Christian Type 115

8 The Reformist Christian Type 144

9 The Alienated Christian Type 173

10 The Future of the Popular Church 210

References 221

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

Sabia’s interviews provide a penetrating look at the variety of perspectives that can be found even within the superficially homogeneous world of the Nicaraguan popular church. Her nuanced differentiation of the revolutionary Christian type from the reformist Christian type is helpful.” —Hispanic American Historical Review


"Debra Sabia explains what became of Nicaragua's Church of the Poor in this informative and up-to-date volume. Moving deftly between institutional analysis and revealing interviews, Sabia shows that Nicaragua, liberation theology's greatest success story, could not escape the problems that beset the movement elsewhere in the region. The book reflects our growing understanding of the complex ways in which religious faith translates into political action and how this complexity can both enrich and undermine religio-political movements."
—Carol Ann Drogus, Hamilton College

From the Publisher