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 naive, 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.
Alfredo Ignacio Poggi is associate professor at the University of North Georgia.
Chapter 1: Enlightenment Chapter 2: French Revolution Chapter 3: The Industrial Revolution Chapter 4: The Russian Revolution Chapter 5: World War II Chapter 6: The Cultural Revolutions of the 1960s Chapter 7: The Fall of the Berlin Wall Chapter 8: 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Chapter 9: Covid-19
The world of political leaders, military strategists, shrewd philosophers, and other elites twisting ideologies to define and redefine the West curiously meets that of children and peasants, mostly women and poor, interpreting one of the most powerful Christian symbols ever, the Virgin Mary, while making sense of what happens around them. Alfredo Ignacio Poggi has written a truly creative, erudite, and enticing book. It will reshape how you read the history of Western ideas. -- Hosffman Ospino, Boston College By observing Marian faith, Alfredo Ignacio Poggi nuances the load of established theories and ideologies and their global accidents in the name of reason and progress. This book revitalizes the devotional notion of good and unveils the pervasive idea of a heuristic systemic/environmental equilibrium. Poggi invites us to observe the dialectics between spirituality and rationality, determining the relation between intellectual elites and anonymous citizenry. -- Leopoldo Tablante, Loyola University New Orleans
