TheAgeofRevolutionhastraditionallybeenunderstoodasaneraofsecularization,givingthetransitionfrommonarchytoindependentrepublicsthroughdemocraticmovementsagenealogythatassumeshostilitytoCatholicism.BycenteringthestoryonSpanishandLatinAmericanactors,PamelaVoekelarguesthatattheheartofthisnineteenth-centurytransformationinSpanishAmericawasatransatlanticCatholiccivilwar.VoekeldemonstratesReformCatholicism’ssignificancetothethoughtandactionoftherebelliteratiwholeddecolonizationeffortsinMexicoandCentralAmerica,showinghoweachsideofthisreligiousdivideoperatedfromwithinaself-consciousintercontinentalnetworkoflike-mindedCatholics.Foritscentralprotagonists,theera’scrisisofsovereigntyprovidedapoliticalstageforareligiousstruggle.Drawingonecclesiasticalarchives,pamphlets,sermons,andtracts,ForGodandLibertyrevealshowtheviolentstrugglesofdecolonizationandtheperiodbeforeandafterIndependencearemorelegibleinlightofthefaultlineswithintheChurch.
