Content area
Full Text
NATION BUILDING & NATIONALISM ¿Qué hacer con Dios en la República? Política y secularización en Chile (1845-1885). By Sol Serrano. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2008. Pp. 375. Maps. Tables. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index.
In this excellent study, Sol Serrano argues that the movement of the Catholic Church in Chile from its colonial connection with the state and the public to its new position in the modern public sphere and civil society was not a victory of the state (or of liberals) over the Church. The basic freedoms promised by the republic and promoted by liberals chipped away religious unanimity and other Church privileges, but the hierarchy used ideas of individual freedom and the new definition of public and private to build strength within republican laws and ideology. Faster communications, increasing urbanization, and other aspects of modernization helped Chile's bishops to consolidate control over their dioceses and to provide more uniform religious services. Serrano cites a wide array of documents from ecclesiastical and government archives and from the book and periodical press to demonstrate that, by 1885, more Chileans...