| Summary: | This paper analyses the antagonism between the established (Nicaraguan and
global) Catholic Church and the Sandinista movement and government, which was
one of the focal points for the ascendancy of a continental and global
liberation theology movement. The paper provides a critical overview of the
Nicaraguan liberation theology movement, as well as Sandinista strategies,
primarily in relation to the social functions of religion and religious
institutions. The central focus of this essay is to identify how the
left-theological and Sandinista understanding of the imperatives of the
counter-hegemonic project, the „historical bloc“ (conceived as a system of
political and social networks and alliances) and the „national-popular“
strategy contributed to the tentative naissance of a novel state religion and
a novel political project: a left-wing „theocratic“ social order. The
Nicaraguan experience is useful for focusing the wider discussion about the
importance of context-specific normative judgments about Church-state
relations.
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