Magical Realism, Latin American Theology, and the Appearance of a Pre-Critical Theory

This book examines the intriguing correlation between the surge of Marian apparitions witnessed by marginalized rural women and children, and the emergence of secular ideologies among urban elites in the same countries in Latin America.

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Magical Realism, Latin American Theology, and the Appearance of a Pre-Critical Theory: Mary versus Ideology explores why the greatest boom of Marian apparitions in history, related by poor rural women and children, occurred simultaneously with the rise of urban elites' secularizing ideologies—and often in the same countries. The uniqueness of this research lies first in demonstrating how behind the simple stories and symbols of the Marian apparitions lies a critique of the modern and postmodern social imaginaries that gave life to innumerable ideologies. Additionally, utilizing Latin American hermeneutic lenses through liberation theology and magical realism, this book shows how popular religion, with its mythical-narrative nucleus, is a space of resistance against the totalizing projects of modernity. Modern and postmodern proposals, such as the Marxist or poststructuralist ones, argue that one must use critical thinking to evade or at least expose ideologies. Alfredo Ignacio Poggi, on the contrary, maintains that a naïve, or more aptly pre-critical, perception of the world, like that of the poor children and women who witnessed the Marian apparitions, is the best starting point for challenging contemporary ideologies, since it arises from another social imaginary.