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Pedro Feitoza, Moral Majorities across the Americas: Brazil, the United States, and the Creation of the Religious Right. By Benjamin A. Cowan, Journal of Church and State, Volume 64, Issue 3, Summer 2022, Pages 534–536, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/csac036
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Extract
Benjamin Cowan’s new book tries to make sense of the current crisis of liberal democracies in the Americas by diving deeper into the past. After evoking a series of vignettes attesting to the rise of right-wing political forces in contemporary Brazil, Cowan asks: “How did we get here” (p. 6)? The response requires a greater historical awareness and attention to far-reaching international networks. The conservative religious agents and institutions at the core of the book emerged in the post-World War II era in close connection with their counterparts in Europe, North and South America. Cowan challenges the idea that the Brazilian right is ill-organized and merely reactive and shows how Catholic and evangelical actors mobilized their constituencies at home and abroad to oppose the ecclesiastical reforms proposed by the Second Vatican Council, ecumenical cooperation, and progressive politics. Based on research into multiple public and ecclesiastical archives, the book uncovers the mutual cooperation involving conservative Christians and the military regime (1964–85), shedding much light on the relationship between state agents and religious elites.
