church was being born with American saints and sinners in abundance’ (p. 102). Chapter 4 looks at Alta California, European policies and pressures, the expulsion of the Jesuits, marriage conflicts and convents, poor relief, liberalism, and quilombos. Chapter 5 discusses indepen- dence, struggles with Rome, caudillos, liberals vs. conservatives, Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion, nuns and laywomen, Christianity among slaves, faith healing and Spiritism. Chapter 6 addresses early 20th century political and social shifts and episcopal responses, ‘private Catholicism’, the marginalized poor, and Afro-syncretic traditions. Chapter 7 explores several faces of Protestant immigration. Chapter 8 looks at Protes- tant missions, national revolutions and world wars, and ecumenism. Chapter 9 discusses Vatican II and Medellin (with a focus on discussions relating to poverty), then liberation theology, including resistance to it and its opposition to the military dictatorships. Liberation theology is presented as an elaboration of the earlier developments, especially the ver, juzgar, y actuar of the comunidades eclesiales de base (CEBs). Chapter 10 offers an overview of Pentecostal, Charismatic and autochthonous movements, with a focus on Chile, Brazil and Mexico. The Conclusion offers a suitably organized summary of key themes and a valuable section that considers ‘the impact Latin American Christianity is having beyond its traditional geographic boundaries’ (p. 303). Many readers might wish for more on recent developments: material on recent decades is sparse. On the one hand, this is quite appro- priate for a book subtitled ‘A History’. On the other hand, to note one corollary, the book treats Christianity’s hybridizing relations with indigenous and African religions (the latter repeatedly described as ‘ancient’ (pp. 7, 295)) almost exclusively as old encounters with static traditions. This occludes the ongoing dynamism and transnational aspects of these interactions, as they continue to shape the Latin Amer- ican religious landscape. This caveat aside, the authors have done an excellent job in setting out judiciously chosen material from over five centuries of Christianity in Latin America. The book’s use of references is fine for classroom use, but not for scholars. There is no global bibliography. Many of the scholars cited do not appear in the index. Direct quotes are acknowledged in footnotes (37 published works, ten in Spanish, one unpublished paper, and seven websites; primary sources are invariably cited ‘as quoted in’ secondary sources). Many cases and points are attributed to named scholars, and the relevant works are listed in a five-page ‘Sources Referenced’ list at the end of the book (86 sources, two in Portuguese and 16 in Spanish, with 11 of the latter available in English). A four-and-a-half page thematically organized section entitled ‘Some Suggestions for Further Reading’ points readers to 63 books in English and two in Spanish. These details raise several points: presumably, many of the sour- ces consulted are simply not cited; it is impossible to confirm whether or not the authors drew on the informal canons that specialists take as normative for scholarship in various areas; there is no easy way to see if the work of a specific scholar was used; and quotes from distinct scholarly sources appear, on average, only every nine pages. This decision to ‘have refrained from giving bibliographical references to support every statement’ is acknowledged in the Preface, but the motive for it is unclear (p. xi). This was done for ‘similar reasons’ that certain historical figures were chosen as examples: ‘because they illustrate a particular point that needs to be made and not necessarily because they are more important than others’ (p. xi). This may justify the particular selection of sources to cite, but it does not explain why so few are cited. I would guess that the authors share a common concern that a dense scholarly apparatus confuses or discourages students. Appending a fuller bibliographic essay would have offered more value to scholars, while sidestepping this potential pedagogical hurdle. However, these issues just underline that this is a pedagogical rather than a scholarly book: the book’s handling and provision of sources is sufficient to model norms of citation for undergraduate students and to offer rich leads to further reading for non-scholarly readers. Perhaps more seriously, the book draws overwhelmingly on English-language secondary sources. The use of Brazilian sources is partic- ularly limited, despite the solid attention devoted to Brazil at many important points. Two sources in Portuguese (only one focused on Brazil) are cited in the entire book. I find no citations of Brazilian scholars in translation (Leonardo Boff and a couple of indirect quotes notwith- standing). On a related note, the discussions of, and sources cited, regarding, ‘Iberian’ Christianity are exclusively about Spain, with no mention of Portugal. This absence is felt at certain points at which coverage is sparse or important issues are missing: for example, messianic movements; arguably key figures, such as Archbishop of São Paulo, later Cardinal, Dom Paulo Evaristo Arns (active with CEBs, against the dictatorship, and for people with HIV) and his sister, Zilda Arns (Nobel Prize-nominated founder of the Pastoral da Criança and, to note a recent tragic event, a victim of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti); the upper-class face of Brazilian Spiritism, as opposed to that in Puerto Rico or in Mexico’s Espiritualismo Trinitario Mariano (the latter not mentioned in the book); hybrid traditions (for example, Umbanda is first misleadingly lumped with Santeria as an example of ‘how Catholicism continued to evolve’; later – citing a single 1987 article by two US scholars – it is more correctly linked to Kardecist Spiritism and contrasted with ‘“orthodox” Afro-Brazilian religions, such as Candomblé’ (pp.159, 180; original emphasis)); the political participation of evangelicals; and a clear distinction between Pentecostalism and neo-Pente- costalism (the latter term is not used, and the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus appears, with Mexico’s La Luz del Mundo, in a section on ‘Heterodox or Questionable Movements’, with no sense that it is just the most well-known example of important new developments). In sum, scholarly quibbles aside, this is a very fine introduction to Christianity in Latin America for undergraduates and general readers, offering a broad, well-written and judiciously selected chronological overview of ‘transformations brought by Christianity to the Americas and others brought to Christianity by the Americas’ (p. 297; original emphasis). Steven Engler Mount Royal University and Concordia University (Canada) E-mail address: sengler@mtroyal.ca doi: 10.1016/j.religion.2010.09.014 Fay Botham, Almighty God Created the Races: Christianity, Interracial Marriage and American Law. Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina Press, 2009, xiiiD271 pp., $38 (cloth), ISBN 978 0 8078 3318 6. In this cultural historyof law, Fay Botham explores the history of the relationship between religion and American law regarding race, slavery, segregation, and racial intermarriage. She traces the religious foundations upon which this legal structure was erected, as well Book Reviews / Religion 40 (2010) 324–377 354