The Influence of Religion in Latin American History (March 2017)

This essay first appeared in the March issue of Choice (volume 54 | issue 7).

Introduction:

This survey of literature on religion and Latin American history begins with the arrival of European Christians in the late fifteenth century. The essay addresses monographs on religion in colonial Spanish America and Portuguese America; on gender, ethnicity, faith, and resistance; on the growth of Protestantism in the twentieth century; and on the political consequences of the emergence of a theology of liberation following the Second Vatican Council. Over the course of the last half century, scholars have tapped a variety of archival sources that elucidate the actions of ordinary men and women, providing new insight into the place of …

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About the author:

Joan E. Meznar is a professor of history at Eastern Connecticut State University.