The Mexican Reformation: Catholic Pluralism Enlightenment Religion and the Iglesia de Jesus Movement in Benito Juarez's Mexico (1859-72)

Common wisdom holds that Latin America is a uniformly Roman Catholic continent and Protestant churches only entered as a result of British or U.S. expansionism following the Spanish-American independence movements. Closer inspection however reveals a far different and more exciting reality. As The Mexican Reformation reveals the Catholic Church in the colonial era was far from monolithic exhibiting a diversity of expressions and perspectives that interacted with and were sometimes at odds with one another. In the mid-nineteenth century one such group sought to reform the Catholic Church in line with some of the policies set forth by the government of Benito Juarez. This movement eventually known as the Iglesia de Jesus would lay the foundation for the emergence of Protestant churches in Mexico. Its roots in the worldview of the baroque and in the challenges of the Catholic Enlightenment provide an insight into the evolution of a distinctly Mexican Protestantism within its social and political contexts as well as a window into the processes underlying the development of religious expressions in Latin America. This book is an important and perceptive contribution to the historiography of Mexican religiosities and of the diverse and plural manifestations of Christianity in Latin America. It is also a very insightful enquiry into the criteria that should guide such an intellectual research. Joel Morales Cruz is a learned and discerning scholar whose critical theoretical reflections deserve serious attention and recognition. -Luis N. Rivera-Pagan Emeritus Professor of Ecumenics Princeton Theological Seminary The Mexican Reformation is an informative and compelling narration of the amalgamation of the history of Mexico and the religious reformation that ensued from the encounter and hybridization (castizaje) of cultures and traditions sans a defined genealogy. Cruzs fascinating account offers the reader the history of an autochthonous Protestant reformation unfettered by the sixteenth centurys European events while simultaneously sharing some of its characteristic traits as an event of protest and protestation. -Vitor Westhelle Professor of Systematic Theology Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Joel Cruzs book tracing the emergence of Protestantism in Mexico from the reformation experience of the Roman Catholic Church during the middle of the nineteenth century is another valuable example in the emergence of a young generation of scholars in the United States tracking down the roots of their religious spirituality from a Latin American cultural heritage . . . With this publication Joel Cruz promises the first of a number of studies that will surely provide a stimulus for other scholars interested in the topic. Cruzs argument is not just scholarly persuasive but provides another important ground to continue and increase in the present ecumenical and interreligious dialogue both in Latin America and the United States. -Jose D. Rodriguez Augustana Heritage of Global Mission and World Christianity Professor of Systematic Theology Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago Joel Morales Cruz is an instructor for the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico. He lives in Chicago.