Description
Book SynopsisIn Reagan''s Gun-Toting Nuns, Theresa Keeley analyzes the role of intra-Catholic conflict within the framework of U.S. foreign policy formulation and execution during the Reagan administration. She challenges the preponderance of scholarship on the administration that stresses the influence of evangelical Protestants on foreign policy toward Latin America. Especially in the case of U.S. engagement in El Salvador and Nicaragua, Keeley argues, the bitter debate between U.S. and Central American Catholics over the direction of the Catholic Church shaped President Reagan''s foreign policy.
The flash point for these intra-Catholic disputes was the December 1980 political murder of four American Catholic missionaries in El Salvador. Liberal Catholics described nuns and priests in Central America who worked to combat structural inequality as human rights advocates living out the Gospel''s spirit. Conservative Catholics saw them as agents of class conflict who furthered the so
Trade Review
Once again, Reagan's Gun-Toting Nuns is a fascinating study which places the messiness of religion at its center and illuminates the Catholic dimensions of U.S. policy towards Central America. For scholars of Catholicism, it offers insights into how to study lived religion and gender, as well as how to consider liberation theology in the American context. It is a thought-provoking work, inviting us to grapple with the significance of religion to this particular historical moment.
* H-DIPLO *
Keeley's narrative is a timely addition to the limited scholarly work on the Catholic dimension of Reagan's Central American policy. Her study is a highly readable, unbiased account of the contentious policy debates that divided Washington and the nation during the 1980s.
* Journal of Church and State *
Theresa Keeley has written a book that is well-researched, timely, and provocative. This is an excellent book and provides both scholars and the general public an opportunity to relook at the Cold War and Central America, which ultimately has become a prelude to the ongoing and current debates about how religion, gender, and culture intersect and shape the role of the United States in the world.
* Church History Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Catholic Divisions, U.S.–Central America Policy, and the Cold War
1. From Senator McCarthy's Darlings to Marxist Maryknollers
2. Religious or Political Activists for Nicaragua?
3. Subversives in El Salvador
4. U.S. Guns Kill U.S. Nuns
5. Reagan and the White House's Maryknoll Nun
6. Real Catholics versus Maryknollers
7. Maryknoll and Iran-Contra
8. Déjà Vu: Jesuits and Maryknollers
Epilogue: Women, the Catholic Church, and U.S.–Central America Relations after the Cold War
