Austen Ivereigh

A rare study of Catholicism in Latin American politics prior to Vatican II, this book presents a broad and powerfully argued challenge to standard interpretations of Argentine political history through an examination of the tensions between Enlightenment ideologies and the Catholic tradition. Drawing on extensive first-hand research in Argentina and on wide reading in European history, politics and theology, the author traces the competition between liberalism and popular nationalism on the one hand, and the humanistic scholasticism informed by Catholic theology on the other. Particular emphasis is placed on the period 1930-60, when a broadly based religious revival challenged the assumptions of the Liberal Order and entered into an intense but competitive relationship with nationalism. The author shows that only by recognizing this competition can the popularity of Peronism, and subsequently its dictatorial tendencies, be fully understood. The study concludes with some suggested explanations both of the fragility of Argentine liberal democracy and of the Enlightenment roots of political authoritarianism. This is a clearly argued and forceful contribution to Latin American politics and to differing religious and secular concepts of liberty, authority and justice in the western cultural tradition.

A biography of Pope Francis that describes how this revolutionary thinker will use the power of his position to challenge and redirect one of the world's most formidable religions Based on extensive interviews in Argentina and years of study of the Catholic Church, this biography provides never-before-explained context on how one man's ambitious program began-and how it will likely end-through an investigation of Francis's youth growing up in Buenos Aires and the dramatic events during the Perón era that shaped his beliefs; his ongoing conflicts and disillusionment with the ensuing doctrines of an authoritarian and militaristic government in the 1970s; how his Jesuit training in Argentina and Chile gave him a unique understanding and advocacy for a "Church of the Poor"; and his rise from cardinal to the papacy.

Following his critically acclaimed The Great Reformer, Austen Ivereigh's colorful, clear-eyed portrait of Pope Francis takes us inside the Vatican's urgent debate over the future of the church in Wounded Shepherd. This deeply contextual biography centers on the tensions generated by the pope's attempt to turn the Church away from power and tradition and outwards to engage humanity with God's mercy. Through battles with corrupt bankers and worldly cardinals, in turbulent meetings and on global trips, history's first Latin-American pope has attempted to reshape the Church to evangelize the contemporary age. At the same time, he has stirred other leaders' deep-seated fear that the Church is capitulating to modernity--leaders who have challenged his bid to create a more welcoming, attentive institution. Facing rebellions over his allowing sacraments for the divorced and his attempt to create a more "ecological" Catholicism, as well as a firestorm of criticism for the Church's record on sexual abuse, Francis emerges as a leader of remarkable vision and skill with a relentless spiritual focus--a leader who is at peace in the turmoil surrounding him. With entertaining anecdotes, insider accounts, and expert analysis, Ivereigh's journey through the key episodes of Francis's reform in Rome and the wider Church brings into sharp focus the frustrations and fury, as well as the joys and successes, of one of the most remarkable pontificates of the contemporary age.

250 p. ; 18 cm