Sol Serrano's latest book will have a profound impact on Chilean and Latin American historiography. It demonstrates the significance of religion and the Catholic Church for understanding the transition from monarchical to republican rule in nineteenth-century Chile. Serrano poses the series of questions that guided her research in various national and international archives, and in the Chilean press and congressional debates. Is it possible to write a history of secularisation? Is it possible to study religion from a standpoint that is neither liberal nor conservative, neither anti-clerical nor ultramontane? Is it possible to study secularisation as a process and not as progress, as liberals would have it? Is it possible to study secularisation, from a religious standpoint, no longer as a disaster but simply as historical change? These are all pertinent questions, especially considering the partisan nature of the historiography on the subject.

To answer these questions, Serrano examines religious practices in nineteenth-century Chile in order to determine the impact of republican nation building on the long-lived compact between Church and state. It will not be entirely surprising that Catholic practices changed in fundamental ways, but rarely has anyone compiled such a rich list of illustrative examples based on primary research, informed by comparative perspectives and conveyed in a compelling narrative. Drawing from the distinction between the private and public spheres, Serrano determines that the struggle over the definition of the religious and the secular was not the product of Catholic resistance to liberal advances, but rather the product of changes within Chilean Catholicism itself. By examining the pronouncements of the clergy, Serrano finds that many of their disputes did not so much concern the anti-clerical nature of ascendant liberalism, as they did the lingering regalism – meaning the supremacy of the sovereign over ecclesiastical matters – of important segments of the Chilean Church.

Secularisation, then, is neither an automatic nor an inevitable phenomenon that occurs when a country becomes ‘modern’ and liberalism prevails. ‘It is no longer enough’, Serrano states, ‘to study secularisation as a mechanical or linear process whereby religion dissipates along with tradition’ (p. 168). Secularisation, instead, takes place in a parallel movement whereby both Church and state redefine their spheres of activity and interaction, and Catholicism competes with the secularising state in the public sphere. In this process, the Chilean Catholic Church established firm roots in civil society, extending, organising and rationalising its relationship to the population in the new republican context. Chileans, Serrano asserts, did not abandon their predominant creed, but rather adapted to the realities generated by the new political environment.

¿Qué hacer con Dios en la República? studies Chilean Catholicism beyond, although without neglecting, the institutional Church. It is a social and cultural history of religious practices that delves into a wide array of popular activities, in the countryside and in remote cities as well as in Santiago – something that is extremely important for a Chilean historiography dominated by the capital. Readers who are perhaps more familiar with the political history of Chile will be particularly interested in, and certainly not disappointed by, Serrano's rendition and interpretation of the major events surrounding the rocky relationship between Church and state in the nineteenth century: the so-called ‘Affair of the Sacristan’ (1857), which represents the first serious clash between Church and state over the boundaries of their respective jurisdictions, and which is at the basis of the formation of the Chilean party system; the heated press and congressional debates over Article 5 of the 1833 Constitution, which declared Catholicism the official religion of the state; and the appointment of a successor for the combative Archbishop Rafael Valentín Valdivieso after his death in 1878 following 30 years in the position, which was the prelude to the extensive secularising reforms of the 1880s.

Chilean nineteenth-century liberalism was not a monolithic force. Liberals held different views regarding the status of the Church in the political system of the country, but by and large they wanted religion to be confined to the private sphere. Catholics, for their part, responded by entering the public realm to advance their own agenda for political development. The Church itself adapted to the new means available to convey its message, like the printing press, which had been used for predominantly secular purposes. The Revista Católica, founded in 1843, is a prime example of the Catholic journalism that opened the way for such polemical papers as El Independiente, El Estandarte Católico and a multiplicity of provincial papers. Through action in a variety of venues, including voluntary associations and Congress, Catholicism ‘evolved from being the official religion of the state, to becoming one of the most organised forces of civil society, competing for predominance in a plural society’ (p. 174).

Sol Serrano demonstrates that in contrast to other countries in the region and in Europe, Chilean Catholics were decidedly republican, in the sense of accepting the values of constitutional rule, separation of powers and political competition. Such laws as the secularisation of cemeteries introduced enormous strains between Catholic and republican views, however, though never to the point of precipitating a complete break between the two, as in France. In this sense, the nature of Chilean liberalism helps to explain the compatibility: by the time of the administration of José Joaquín Pérez (1861–71), the Chilean government was less concerned about control of the Church than separation from it. This, in turn, allowed the Church and its representatives in civil society to develop their own venues of opinion and representation, forming some of the oldest and strongest Catholic political parties in the region.

¿Qué hacer con Dios en la República? provides a plethora of empirical information regarding the structure of Catholic organisations, the internal administration and financing of the Chilean Catholic Church, and the territorial expansion of the institution in the nineteenth century. It is also a methodologically sophisticated, massively documented and at the same time highly readable book. It will no doubt enrich the debates on the role of religion and the Catholic Church in nineteenth-century Latin America.