"Employing the biblical narrative of Rahab the Harlot as a framework, Guider recounts the 500-year history and social meaning of prostitution in Brazil. She then tracks the Brazilian church's increasing consciousness of the issues and its determination to address the plight of prostitutes as marginalized women, as victims not sinners. Yet Guider shows that the church's sponsorship from 1974 to 1990 of eight "national encounters" for marginalized women inexorably revealed the limits of liberation for a church that, in the last analysis, could sooner abandon its class privileges than its doctrinal patrimony, especially its historical legacy concerning women. Primary documents are also included."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved