"...[T]he book brings together insights that, certainly, enrich the debate about these theologies.." - Kleber Machado, Church of Scotland, Journal of Reformed Theology
"...the significance of the book is not restricted to its biographical character, as it tackles some common but misguided views about liberation theology" - Kleber Machado, Church of Scotland, Edinburgh, Journal of Reformed Theology
"Innovative and compelling" - Journal of American History
"A comprehensive history of the ideas that constituted early liberation theology. Barger's work provides critical background for understanding contemporary religious demands for social justice that are based in particular contexts, yet intersectional and global in scope." - Christian Century
"Sweeping successfully demonstrates how, across the Americas, theologians rejected abstractions in favor of slowly and painfully seeking out something to say about God that spoke to the last, rather than the first." - Catherine R. Osborne, St. Peter Claver Catholic Worker, Studies in Religion
"This book is a major contribution both to church history and religious studies." - Church History
"Calles Barger provides fascinating vignettes of unexpected connections, such as the friendship between Reverdy Ransom and Jane Addams, or Bonhoeffer's brief sojourn in New York in the early 1930s" - J. Matthew Ashley, Commonweal
"The World Come of Age is a word of historical depth and theological insight. Barger's extensive research makes this book an excellent survey of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Christian social thought." - Andrew C. Stout, Presbyterion
"A sweeping transnational intellectual history that runs from the sixteenth-century revolutionary theology of Thomas Münster to the Black Lives Matter movement of today." - Journal of the American Academy of Religion
"[this book] is better — richer, more layered and complex, and intellectually challenging — than I expected, or even might have hoped for ... This is a landmark work, whose depth and profundity may keep it off people's beach reading list, but give it a long shelf life in intellectual discussions." - Paul Harvey, Journal of Church and State
"This is an important, comprehensive treatment of the social, political, and theological forces that contributed to the emergence of liberation theologies in the Americas in the 1960s and 1970s... The book is very well researched; the footnotes alone are a valuable resource... Summing Up: Highly Recommended." - CHOICE
"As a timely, ambitious, and rigorous intellectual history of liberation theology, The World Come of Age will be of interest to broad academic audiences, especially intellectual and religious historians, as well as scholars and students of liberation theology, political theology, and religious ethics. ... Barger's book displays the vitality of early liberation theology and the ongoing importance of efforts to recover its unappreciated resources for freedom dreams in the present." - Tyler Davis, Reading Religion
"This is a landmark work, whose depth and profundity may keep it off people's beach reading list, but give it a long shelf life in intellectual discussions." - Paul Harvey, University of Colorado
"This remarkable history should be read by anyone who thinks they understand the relationship between religion and politics. Barger convincingly demonstrates that liberationists participated in the forging of a secular age in which religious claims are a familiar feature of the public sphere. Lucidly written and theoretically nimble, this book will inspire a new generation of activists to think about how their moral calls to reform might change the world." - Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, and History, Yale University
"The intellectual history of liberation theology is an obvious and yet tellingly neglected subject. Lilian Calles Barger has filled a large gap with a perceptive, comprehensive, and gracious book radiating her broad learning and her deep personal engagement with the subject." - Gary Dorrien, author of The New Abolition: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Social Gospel
"Lillian Calles Barger's The World Come of Age is a masterful exploration of the causes, course, and consequences of liberation theology in the twentieth century. Through extensive research across two continents, Barger skillfully weaves together the stories of thinkers and activists from varied backgrounds throughout Latin America and the United States. This book should be required reading for scholars of American and Latin American religious, cultural, and intellectual history." - Christopher Cameron, Associate Professor of History, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
"The World Come of Age is written clearly and compellingly ... Barger makes extraordinary use of both archival material and personal conversations with those at the center of these movements ... The World Come of Age will benefit not only undergraduates and graduate students seeking an entry point into this theological and cultural history but also those studying the cross-pollinating influences of politics and religion in the Americas." - Jennifer Fernandez, Perspectivas
