This year, the University of Notre Dame Press will publish, The Maryknoll Catholic Mission in Peru: 1943–1989, by Susan Fitzpatrick-Behrens, associate professor in history at California State University, Northridge.  Fitzpatrick-Behrens’ text explores Maryknoll Catholic missionaries’ combined religious and political efforts in Peru—particularly, efforts guided by the Vatican’s  preferential option for the poor.  This same movement gave rise to the incomparable and seminal work, A Theology of Liberation, by Peruvian priest and theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez—the foundational text of Catholic liberation theology and its non-Catholic offshoots (for example, the work of Rev. Dr. James H. Cone in the United States).  Please see the publisher’s description after the jump. Read more