In this expanded and updated edition of the story of the struggles over the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy toward Central America, Cynthia Arnson incorporates substantial amounts of new primary source and recently declassified material coming out of the Iran-contra trials and other Freedom of Information Act requests. She also includes an entirely new chapter that carries the story of the Nicaragua and El Salvador policy debates to the end of the Bush administration.

Drawing on both English and Spanish sources, this critical study examines the history, method, and doctrines of Liberation Theology. Sigmund considers the movement's origins in political circumstances in Latin America; provides case studies of its role in such events as the revolution and counter-revolution in Chile; and examines the thought of the major liberation theologians and the position of the Vatican.

Assesses the impact of governmental and presidential lies on American culture, revealing how such lies become ever more complex and how such deception creates problems far more serious than those lied about in the beginning.

With the Beatification of Monseñor Oscar Romero, our current Pope Francis has asked theologians to consider how we might allow for an expanded definition for martyrdom in the 21st century. Remembering Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador responds to that challenge. How do we name Oscar Romero, Rutilio Grande, the U.S. churchwomen, and the Jesuits and two laywomen killed at the UCA as martyrs? Is it a new category with a new definition? Or is it simply an amplification of what we have long considered Christian witness? While there is a long history of martyrdom in Latin America, this book elaborates on four case studies for martyrdom focusing on the reality in El Salvador: Rutilio Grande, S.J. killed in 1977, Archbishop Oscar Romero killed in 1980, the U.S. churchwomen killed in 1980, and the six members of the UCA Jesuit community and their two female collaborators killed in 1989. Insights from the work of Jon Sobrino illuminate these case studies. First, his Christological insights from Jesus the Liberator and Christ the Liberator are used to analyze the reality of martyrdom, particularly in reference to the terms martyr, crucified people, and martyred people. Second, his more recent articles challenge a strict interpretation of the traditional definition of martyrdom, especially focusing on his terms Jesuanic martyr, a martyr for justice, and even a more polemic suggestion of an anonymous Christian martyr. Finally, the book concludes by combining Sobrino's insights and the reality of martyrdom today, updated with the recent scholarship in Romero's beatification process which attempts to show Romero as a martyr. In the end, the book hopes to offer some suggestions for an expanded definition of martyrdom in the 21st century. By responding to the call of Pope Francis for an expanded definition, the reality of martyrdom in Latin America might be better understood and applied to the universal church.

El Salvador is widely considered one of the most successful United Nations peacebuilding efforts, but record homicide rates, political polarization, socioeconomic exclusion, and corruption have diminished the quality of peace for many of its citizens. In Captured Peace: Elites and Peacebuilding in El Salvador, Christine J. Wade adapts the concept of elite capture to expand on the idea of “captured peace,” explaining how local elites commandeered political, social, and economic affairs before war’s end and then used the peace accords to deepen their control in these spheres. While much scholarship has focused on the role of gangs in Salvadoran unrest, Wade draws on an exhaustive range of sources to demonstrate how day-to-day violence is inextricable from the economic and political dimensions. In this in-depth analysis of postwar politics in El Salvador, she highlights the local actors’ primary role in peacebuilding and demonstrates the political advantage an incumbent party—in this case, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA—has throughout the peace process and the consequences of this to the quality of peace that results.

A Life at the Crossroads tells the story of a Minnesota farm boy who became an inner-city pastor, high-profile denominational executive, and the last president of the world’s most historic seminary (Gettysburg Lutheran). Cooper-White, who is also a commercial pilot and flight instructor, pursued journalism following his ministerial career. In clear and winsome prose, he shares his personal autobiography along with a treasure trove of twentieth-century ecclesiastical history. From facing machine guns in Chile and El Salvador to taking on church controversies over sexuality and ecumenical initiatives, to leading consolidation of two rival seminaries, Cooper-White’s is the story of a cleric who took seriously the call to be a public theologian. The consolidation of the two institutions, which had failed in a half-dozen previous attempts, offers a case study in patient and persistent long-term leadership.