Claiming the Virgin: The Broken Promise of Liberation Theology in Brazil

Claiming the Virginexplores a particularly vivid example of liberation theology--a religious and political movement that flourished in Latin America for more than twenty years. Focusing on the diocese of Olinda and Recife on the northeast coast of Brazil, it moves from the particulars of the Recife conflict to the larger debates within Roman Catholicism that the movement evokes. It presents the differing interpretations and ritual practices of community residents on either side of the issue and explains how, despite its failures, liberation theology left a legacy still felt in Recife and other parts of Latin America. Claiming the Virginilluminates the perspective of the poor--those for whom liberation theology was intended, though they were, in fact, often overlooked by those who carried out its work.

Robin Nagle is Director of the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought in the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University.