In this compelling, well-researched book, Edward L. Cleary offers an ethnographically oriented history of Charismatic Catholicism in Latin America from the mid-twentieth-century to the present. His primary thesis is that Charismatic Catholicism in Latin America has been a significant social, political, and religious force since the mid-twentieth century and that is has transformed how Latin Americans experience and live their faith. Cleary takes the reader through the history of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal's U.S. origins, and in doing so provides compelling details of exactly how the movement was exported, via enthusiastic lay and clerical adherents. He goes on to internationalize the movement and shows the social and political dominance of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico in particular. Moreover, the author shows how the Latin American movement is today a major exporter of CCR back the United States. The Rise of Charismatic Catholicism in Latin America is highly readable and full of richly detailed information, which makes it an important contribution to Catholic Studies and Latin American History.

The book is impressive in its breadth and depth; it is the product of Cleary's more than fifty years studying the U.S. origins of the Catholic Charismatic movement and its explosion throughout Latin America. An intimate outsider to the movement, Cleary shares his deep knowledge of the primary laypersons and priests, many of whom have been schooled by American CCR leaders, and who have literally transformed the religious and political landscapes of their respective countries. Like its Pentecostal counterpart, CCR laypersons' and priests' successes hinge on their discourse of healing, self-improvement, lay preaching, and evangelization. With their focus on the individual, neither movement tends to emphasizes social justice and focuses instead on individual salvation and personal responsibility. While the two movements overlap in many ways, CCR's emphasis on the eucharist and devotions to the Virgin Mary give it a Catholic distinctiveness, one that has deep historical roots. Another key distinction between Protestant Pentecostals and the CCR is that the former tend to view conversion as a one-time event while Catholics view conversion as a lifelong process. Cleary points to other significant distinctions between the two movements, which includes Pentecostals' emphasis on spirit baptism (speaking in tongues) as necessary for salvation, while those in the CCR interpret the experience of tongues as a “decisively new work of grace in the believer's life” (25).

In tracing the history of Pentecostal-Catholic interactions, Cleary challenges the reigning thesis that Pentecostalism has taken over Latin America. Each chapter serves as a case study of one or more Latin American countries in which Cleary sets out to disprove this thesis, and in each case study he provides ample evidence to show that in places such as Bolivia, Colombia, The Dominican Republic, Brazil, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Haiti, and Guatemala, while Pentecostalism has certainly made inroads, it is the Catholic Charismatic Movement that has become the most significant Latin American religious movement. With 73 million adherents throughout Latin America, he shows that without a doubt, the CCR is a widespread phenomenon.

Another one of the important contributions Cleary makes to our understanding of twentieth and twenty-first century Latin American religious history is to delineate the differences between liberation theology and the CCR movement and show why the former has not seen the same successes as the latter. Liberation theology, with its preferential option for the poor and Communidades Eclesiales de Base (Base Christian Communities), has been viewed as suspect by the Catholic Church hierarchy, which silenced priests in the movement, and interpreted the movement and theology as threatening the very structure of society. The CCR, on the other hand, has been actively promoted by clergy, and after some initial hesitation, has mostly been embraced by the Church as an effective vehicle for religious revitalization. The institutional Church views the CCR as non-threatening; it is not suspected to disrupt the social order. Cleary does a fine job showing that even in cases where CCR leaders like Padre Rafael García-Herreros of Colombia developed comprehensive social justice outreach programs that were at one point in time popular, these programs and their messages became more muted over time. As Cleary indicates, García-Herreros's social justice initiatives became suspect and critics said his ideas “clearly had a communist flavor or were at the very least socialist” (58). This suspicion of liberation theology dovetailed with the rise of the CCR, which downplayed commitment to one's neighbors, especially the poor, and instead emphasized, like its Pentecostal counterpart, personal renewal and healing.

Another important contribution Cleary makes in the book is that he shows that the CCR has been empowering to millions of laypersons and priests alike. The widespread success of covenant communities, the small group movement of the CCR, as well as lay preaching and musical performance opportunities have all served as important venues for lay empowerment. Likewise, the CCR has offered priests the opportunity to embrace new roles and identities, such as music ministries. Latin American CCR priests are, as Cleary shows, savvy entrepreneurs who have their own lines of music CDs and have branded a version of Catholicism that has spread globally. The Brazilian priest Padre Zezinho is one of many “priest-singers” who have become all the rage in Brazil, especially among young Brazilians (134). And the reader is introduced to the hip Brazilian priest Padre Zeca, whose beach masses drew up to 70,000 at one gathering (138). Latin American priests have crafted new roles for themselves within the CCR movement, and as such have expanded the possibilities and opportunities for priests.

While Cleary posits that scholars and journalists have overlooked or downplayed the successes of Catholic Charismatics in Latin America, and have, on the flip side, overplayed the successes of Pentecostals, this reader was left wanting to know why. What are the causes for this skewed portrayal of lived religion and reification of Pentecostalism in Latin America? What Cleary says is an oversight on the part of those reporting on Latin America is all the more curious, given the compelling historical and ethnographic evidence of Catholic Charismatics' successes that he shares with his readers. Why is it that most scholars have preferred to study Pentecostalism in Latin America over the CCR? While the contributions of this book are many, the framing of the central thesis and argument could have been more compelling. Relatedly, this reviewer would have liked to have seen the author draw out even more comparisons and contrasts between Pentecostalism and the CCR, since a mutual dependency, even symbiosis of shared yet competing theologies seems to be at play throughout Latin America.