Religion & Liberty Online Archives

Politics

October 29, 2018

The slow death of liberation theology in Brazil

The Sandinista Revolution (1979 – 1990), which sought to transform Nicaragua into a new Cuba, was well-known for many things, including the way in which it highlighted the new alliance between the Latin American Communist movements and liberation theologians. Continue Reading...
October 17, 2018

Review: Bradley Birzer’s Russell Kirk biography invites us to reconsider conservatism

This is the fifth in a series celebrating the work of Russell Kirk in honor of his 100th birthday this October. Read more from the series here. During the twentieth century, one man in particular took it upon himself to make a project of defining and perhaps re-invigorating an American conservatism which the prominent cultural critic Lionel Trilling dismissed as “a series of irritable mental gestures.” Continue Reading...
October 15, 2018

Understanding Bolsonaro

When Jair Messias Bolsonaro walked into TV Cultura’s studio in July, no one had any idea of ​​the political tsunami that would engulf Brazil 90 days later. The “Roda Viva” is the oldest talk show on Brazilian television; a group of eight journalists sit on a wheel-shaped bench and in the center lies the interviewee. Continue Reading...
October 12, 2018

YouTube powers Brazil’s conservative Catholic wave

Father Paulo Ricardo is a very sympathetic man. Always smiling, he is tall, thin, and balding. His austere appearance reminds us of priests portrayed in the films of the 1960s. Father Paulo could easily pretend to be Dom Camilo, the wise Italian priest created by Giovannino Guareschi and immortalized in the cinema by the brilliant French actor Fernandel. Continue Reading...
October 12, 2018

Video: Samuel Gregg on Russell Kirk’s contributions to conservatism

This is the fourth in a series celebrating the work of Russell Kirk in honor of his 100th birthday this October. Read more from the series here. On October 3, Acton’s Director of Research, Samuel Gregg, joined a panel at the American Enterprise Institute to commemorate the life and legacy of Russell Kirk, one of the leading American intellectuals of conservative thought.  Continue Reading...
October 11, 2018

Brazil’s conservatives mount a counter-revolution

Writing to a friend about his pessimism regarding the future of Western Civilization, Jacob Burckhardt made an interesting observation. The Swiss historian believed that history was not a linear process and that he could see that sometimes that Providence contains some surprises for us. Continue Reading...