Moral Majorities Across the Americas: Brazil, the United States, and the Creation of the Religious Right

by Benjamin A Cowan

This new history of the Christian right does not stop at national or religious boundaries. Benjamin A. Cowan chronicles the advent of a hemispheric religious movement whose current power and influence make headlines and generate no small amount of shock in Brazil and the United States. These two countries, Cowan argues, played host to the principal activists and institutions who collaboratively fashioned the ascendant religious conservatism of the late twentieth century. Cowan not only unearths the deep historical connections between Brazilian and U.S. religious conservatives but also proves just how essential Brazilian thinkers, activists, and institutions were to engendering right-wing political power in the Americas.

Cowan shows that both Protestant and Catholic religious warriors began to commune in the 1930s around a passionate aversion to mainstream ecumenicalism and moderate political ideas. Brazilian intellectuals, politicians, religious leaders, and captains of industry worked with partners at home and in the United States to build a united right. Together, activists engaged in a series of reactionary theological discussions. Their transnational, transdenominational platform fostered a sense of common cause and allowed them to develop a series of strategies that pushed once marginal ideas to the center of public discourse, reshaped religious demographics, and effected a rightward shift in politics across two continents.

Genres: History

294 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2021

Reviews

[Lynn]

The writer's thesis is that religious social conservatism began with Brazilian opposition to Vatican !and spread from there to the US and other areas. I am not sure he actually proves his point, but it is hard to say because the writing style is relentlessly plodding and overly academic.

[Crowgirl]

Really excellent work here. Cowan's taken an important step in allowing that everyone generally thinks they're doing the right thing for the right reasons.

[Kylie Vernon]

painfully boring and confusingly written.