Review by Choice Review
This is an excellent book. Many theologians believed that Latin American liberation theology was dead, killed by the failure of the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran revolutions, the 1989 demise of socialism, and the "end of history" claims of the champions of capitalism. But here Petrella (Univ. of Miami) proves this belief to be wrong. He shows that this theology can be reinvented to bring its preferential option for the poor into real world actualization in historical projects if it adopts methods developed by the Brazilian champion of critical legal studies, Roberto Unger. Doing so will entail the rejection of these theologians' unitary concepts of a despised and rejected capitalism and a canonized and accepted socialism. Petrella argues for a John Dewey-like reconstruction of these concepts and those of democracy and property, too. Especially brilliant are (1) his analyses of the differences in democracy and capitalism as practiced in the US and in the European countries inspired by social democratic parties, (2) the consequences he draws from regarding property as a bundle of separable rights, and (3) his refutations of some of the doctrines of Johann Baptist Metz and the disciples of Stanley Hauerwas. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above; general readers. J. M. Betz Villanova University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
