Engaging a lifetime of research on Latin America and extensive secondary literature, John Lynch provides a sweeping overview of the Catholic Church in the region from the era of Columbus through the twentieth century. This comparative study includes detailed accounts of the Andean region, Mesoamerica, the Southern cone (especially Argentina) and Brazil. It is thus an important general study of Latin America in addition to being a history of religion. Lynch's eloquent narrative style is reminiscent of classic Latin American history books. It also harkens back to traditional approaches to religion, emphasizing relations between church and state, equating the hierarchy with “the Church,” and simplifying indigenous and African-descendent culture and practices of faith. Although Lynch identifies his work as a “religious history of Latin America,” he focuses almost exclusively on the Catholic Church with the exception of a few references to Protestantism in the nineteenth century, a brief chapter on “The Religion of the People” (161–182) and a slim chapter on “Difference and Diversity” (324–343). Lynch justifies his focus by asserting that “the evidence suggests that for five centuries the defining religion of Latin America has been Catholic and this is the assumption on which the book has been written” (xv).

The book is divided into twelve chapters organized chronologically and thematically. The most detailed analysis of the book focuses on the colonial era, when Lynch argues that the Church was “Roman in faith and morals . . . Spanish in organization and discipline” (xi and 67). Although Lynch cites research by Nancy Farriss, Sabine MacCormack, Anthony Pagden, and others who detailed the ways that indigenous people and culture transformed the Catholic Church in Latin America, he emphasizes European practices and structures. He observes later that “Spaniards preserved their religion without surrendering to cultural relativism, and Indians clung to reserves of their own culture without challenging Christian beliefs” (162).

Throughout the book, Lynch examines points of disjuncture between Catholic law and doctrine and Church practices. Thus in recounting the role of the Inquisition, Lynch observes that it was established in Spain in 1480 primarily to investigate conversos (Jewish converts to Catholicism), suspected of being “crypto-jews.” He concludes that the Inquisition's prosecution of conversos created a dilemma at the time and for future researchers: “were the conversos secret Jews and therefore legitimate targets, or were they true Catholics persecuted for other reasons—race, greed, politics?” (5). Lynch describes an analogous dilemma regarding the “legitimacy” of the Inquisition in the Yucatán, where in 1562, Diego de Landa directed the torture of more than 4,500 indigenous people (of whom 158 died as a result of interrogation). He notes that “Landa claimed it was an episcopal inquisition and therefore legitimate, but legal norms and procedures were not followed, simply invented” (39). Lynch does not question the legitimacy of the Inquisition, but instead critiques the application of its laws.

Lynch argues that “in the eighteenth century. . . under pressure from Bourbon monarchs, the colonial Church became unmistakably a state Church” (xi). As a result, during the wars of independence the “Church saw allegiance to Spain, obedience to monarchy, and repudiation of dissent as moral imperatives. Revolution was a sin” (106). Contradicting his claim that the Church overwhelmingly opposed revolution, Lynch later notes that, especially by the latter period of independence, “the majority of the clergy. . . supported the cause of independence. . . . [An] [a]ttitude [that] reflected the deep divide, economic and social, between the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the mass of the clergy” (117). This contradiction hints at conflicts and complexities of different points of view within the church and calls into question Lynch's tendency to equate the views of the hierarchy with those of the Church as an institution.

Lynch's examination of the Catholic Church in post-Independence nineteenth-century Latin America presents weakness resulting from Liberal reforms, diminished economic resources, and a reduced number of clergy. At the same time, he argues that during this era the Catholic Church gained increased national autonomy, closer ties to Rome, and greater integration into the universal church. Lynch's detailed case studies illustrate differences in relations between church and state evident in various Latin American countries. While he suggests that many factors, including different national histories and traditions, contrasting nineteenth century experiences of state building, and the character of individual governments helping to define post-independence churches, he concludes that “perhaps the most important factor was the relative power and wealth of the Church” (191). The role of the faithful in the relative strength of national Catholic churches does not appear a defining factor.

Lynch's examination of the Catholic Church during the twentieth century reflects the challenge of comparative analysis in a complicated region experiencing dramatic social, political, and economic transformations. Lynch pays special attention to the development and influence of Liberation Theology, the relationship between the Catholic Church and dictators in South America, and the conflict within the Church and between it and governing forces in revolutionary contexts. This section of the book would have benefited from closer editorial review as it contains claims inadequately supported by evidence (notable in the discussion of Nicaragua, see especially 302–304) and includes significant factual errors (Dom Helder Camara did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize [255]), the 1978 Massacre at Panzós in Guatemala was not of Kelchi Indians but of Q'eqchi’ Indians, the Guatemalan zone of conflict he identifies as the Izcán was actually the Ixcán [316]).

Lynch's clear and accessible writing style, his use of examples and anecdotes, his breadth of knowledge, and his bibliography make the book an excellent introduction to the Catholic Church in Latin America for undergraduate students and a general audience of people interested in Catholicism in the region.