Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity

By 2025, Latin America's population of observant Christians will be the largest in the world. Nonetheless, studies examining the exponential growth of global Christianity tend to overlook this region, focusing instead on Africa and Asia. Research on Christianity in Latin America provides a core point of departure for understanding the growth and development of Christianity in the "Global South." In The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity an interdisciplinary contingent of scholars examines Latin American Christianity in all of its manifestations from the colonial to the contemporary period. The essays here provide an accessible background to understanding Christianity in Latin America. Spanning the era from indigenous and African-descendant people's conversion to and transformation of Catholicism during the colonial period through the advent of Liberation Theologyin the 1960s and conversion to Pentecostalism and Charismatic Catholicism, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity is the most complete introduction to the history and trajectory of this important area of modern Christianity.

The handbook is an excellent and useful starting point for graduate students preparing reading lists for comprehensive exams or for any scholar looking to expand their sources., As editors, Orique, Fitzpatrick-Behrens and Garrard set out with the bold aim of integrating Latin America into the growing field of global Christianity. I have no doubt that this volume will make important strides in this direction ... As in any good collection on Latin America, transnational, cross-cultural and transcontinental points of contact are at the centre here., This rich collection of scholarship provides a lucid and valuable introduction to Christianity in Latin America from the beginning of the colonial era to the present day., Its diverse essays are tied together by a certain hopeful spirit — well informed, clear-eyed and definitely not apologetic — that captures the significance and dynamism of Christianity in this world region ... This rich, stimulating volume will be useful to academic specialists and general readers alike., This rich collection of scholarship provides a lucid and valuable introduction to Christianity in Latin America from the beginning of the colonial era to the present day...Scholars of Latin American Christianity, as well as those who study Christianity in other regions of the world, will undoubtedly benefit from the stimulating research presented here.

Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens is Professor of Latin American History and Chair of the History Department at California State University, Northridge. Her publications include The Maryknoll Catholic Mission in Peru (2012). David Thomas Orique, O.P., is Associate Professor of Colonial and Modern Latin American History, Iberian Atlantic World History, and the Director of Latina/o and Latin American Studies at Providence College. His publications include To Heaven or Hell: An Introduction to the Soteriology of Bartolome de Las Casas (2016). Virginia Garrard is a faculty member at Tulane University. Her most recent book, co-authored with Peter Henderson and Bryan McCann, is History of Modern Latin America in the Modern World (OUP, 2018).