Crossing Swords

by Roderic Ai Camp

Based on a decade of field research, Crossing Swords is the first book-length, scholarly examination in English of the role of Catholicism in Mexican society from the 1970s to 1995, and the increasing political activism of the Catholic church and clergy. The book provides the first analysis of church-state relations in Latin America that incorporates detailed interviews with numerous bishops and clergy and leading politicians about how they see each other and how religion influences their values. Camp offers an inside look at the decision-making process of bishops at the diocesan level and draws on national survey research to examine prevailing Mexican attitudes toward religion, Christianity, and Catholicism both before, during, and after Mexico's constitutional changes on church-state relations. Incorporating comparative literature from the United States and Europe, Crossing Swords reaches a number of challenging conclusions about the interlocking relationship between religion and pol