by Brian F. Connaughton
Translated by Mark Alan Healey

About the Book

In English for the first time, Clerical Ideology in a Revolutionary Age illuminates the role of Catholic thought in the making of Mexico as a nation by providing a nuanced sense of clerical thought during the turbulent years leading to and following Mexico's national independence. In this regional study, Connaughton delves deeply into an abundance of primary sources from Guadalajara between 1788 and 1853, including printed sermons of high clergymen, contemporaneous newspapers, pamphletry, and pastoral letters. He unpacks this literature in the broader context of the Enlightenment, looking at its potentially corrosive ideas, the rise of liberalism, the relationship between the Church and the state, and the spread of secular mentality. In essence, it is a study of the substance, contradictions, and evolution of Church thinking and political posturing in the face of Bourbon Reforms and the rise of liberalism. With a balanced approach to clerical discourse, Connaughton's book should be required reading for any teacher or reader of Mexican history.

About the Author

Brian Connaughton earned his PhD in Latin American Studies (history) from Universidad Nacional AutonÛma de MÈxico. He is a professor and researcher at the Universidad AutÛnoma Metropolitana, Iztapalapa (Mexico City). He has published widely on late-eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century political culture and Catholicism in Mexico.

Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1 A Framework for Studying Clerical Ideology in Guadalajara

2 Imperial Spokesmen for Regional Interests: The Clergy and Government of Guadalajara in the Colonial Period

3 Tensions at the Heart of Clerical Ideology in a Revolutionary Era, 1810-20

4 Towards a Reordered Church: Sermons as Discursive Testimony, 1821-53

5 A Fundamental Shift: Independence, Popular Sovereignty and Freedom of the Press

6 Hegemony Renewed: The Beginnings of a Clerical Counterdiscourse

7 Verbal Virulence and the Struggle for the State

8 The Great Unresolved Issues: The Patronage and Tithes during the Constitutional Regime, 1827-33

9 Clerical Discourse Claims for Itself the Representation of the National Will, 1833-53

Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

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