This is an important book. The author examines the evolving role of the Jesuit order in religion, society, and politics in a critical period for democracy and dictatorship in Chile. Antje Schnoor rejects approaches (common in work with a rational choice focus) that treat the Catholic Church as a monolithic entity. Instead, she is sensitive to the reality of a heterogeneous institution where multiple groups (bishops, religious orders like the Jesuits, social movements, schools, publications, and the like) compete for voice and space in the public sphere.

Because the Catholic Church is, by definition, a transnational organization, debates and decisions are best understood in a multilevel context. Schnoor does this deftly, with a rich account of relations in the church in which Vatican officials, bishops, religious orders, church diplomats, and numerous civil society groups regularly maneuver and negotiate for position. In the case of Chile, this complex reality played out in the context of a political situation with dramatic shifts from democracy to dictatorship.

The empirical focus is on institutional history, but this book goes far beyond the lifeless narratives focused on recitation of laws and documents that were so common in traditional scholarship on Catholicism. The author’s account of institutional change rests on a wealth of archival and documentary data, reinforced by a judicious use of interviews. All this is disciplined by reflections on the central theoretical questions of authority, obedience, and commitment.

Obedience is a central precept for Jesuits, who, in addition to normal clerical vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, make a special vow of obedience to the pope. So how did Chilean Jesuits redefine the meaning of obedience to legitimate opposition to civil and religious leaders? The answer lies in theological and ideological shifts that underscored the centrality of obedience to a higher law, a law that takes action in pursuit of justice as a sign of authentic faith. These changes undergirded Jesuit commitment to an activist role in support of social and political justice, often in open conflict with political and ecclesiastical authority. This led to forthright and sometimes risky stances on issues ranging from poverty and agrarian reform to human rights, opposition to torture, and well-known cases of shielding people sought by the secret police in the early days of the Pinochet regime.

It is important to be clear. At issue in these experiences is not a choice between religion or politics; the two are linked in a faith-based commitment. The key change is the conviction that faith is best expressed in actions that promote justice. Schnoor cites Ignacio Ellacuría, S.J. (assassinated along with five other Jesuits, their housekeeper, and her daughter in November 1989 in El Salvador). Ellacuría wrote,

The Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. said something similar in his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” When called an outside agitator and questioned about why he was in Birmingham, King responded firmly that he was called by a higher law to oppose injustice wherever it was. In this light, true grace carries costs and is fulfilled in justice.

For many in both the church and the political world, a central question is how far such commitments go, and in what form. If advocating ideas and promoting social movements is acceptable for clerics, is it also legitimate for them to run for public office, to shield fugitives, to smuggle people into exile, or even to take up arms against an oppressive regime? All these options have been present in modern Latin American experience. Schnoor lays out the often agonized debates within the Jesuit order in search of a convincing dividing line. Late in the Allende period, she notes,

The process Schnoor details for Chile, in which ideas and actions, faith and politics evolve and change together, emerged simultaneously with liberation theology and drew inspiration from figures like Dr. King and more generally from the civil rights movement in the United States, which, of course, was empowered by the African American churches. It has since echoed through religious commitments to freedom, peace, and human rights, along with postviolence reconciliation in cases as diverse as El Salvador and East Germany, South Africa and Peru, to cite only a few.

Of course, not all elements in the church agreed with this position. Chile was deeply divided, and the church was no exception. The author pays careful attention to conservative voices within the church that supported the Pinochet regime She examines how they maneuvered nationally and with the Vatican to advance their agenda. She also provides fascinating detail on the military clergy (clero castrense), who provided an important element of the conservative position. This group has not been studied much, but it has had great influence, not only in Chile but also (and even more so) in Argentina during the last military regime.

Schnoor also sheds light on the central role played in Chile by foreign clergy, including controversial figures like Belgian sociologist Roger Vekemans, S.J. Vekemans was a close adviser to Eduardo Frei and played a notable role in elaborating the reform program of the Christian Democratic Party as it rose to power. Vekemans rejected the more radical turn later taken by many Jesuits and others (visible in the formation of the Christians for Socialism movement) and their participation

in the Allende government and in more radical parties like the MIR (Movimiento de Izquierda Revolucionaria). From Chile he moved to Colombia, where he established a think tank whose publication, Revista Tierra Nueva, became a leading voice in opposition to left-leaning movements in the church and to what he viewed as “undue politicization” of religion.

The combination of rich and varied empirical data with a consistent focus on core theoretical issues makes this, without a doubt, the best book on religion, society, and politics in Chile since Brian Smith’s Church and Politics in Chile: Challenges to Modern Catholicism (1982), or more recently, Pamela Lowden’s Moral Opposition to Authoritarian Rule in Chile, 1973–90 (1996). Schnoor’s focus on authority, obedience, and commitment in an institutional context and her detailed account of how these played out in the deeply conflicted arena of Chilean politics make this book a powerful contribution to understanding the dynamics and trajectory of religion and politics thoughout Latin America in the late twentieth century and beyond.