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2007, Oxford University Press
For over four centuries the Catholic Church enjoyed a religious monopoly in Latin America in which potential rivals were repressed or outlawed. Latin Americans were born Catholic and the only real choice they had was whether to actively practice the faith. Taking advantage of the legal disestablishment of the Catholic Church between the late 1800s and the early 1900s, Pentecostals almost single-handedly built a new pluralist religious economy. By the 1950s, many Latin Americans were free to choose from among the hundreds of available religious "products," a dizzying array of religious options that range from the African-Brazilian religion of Umbanda to the New Age group known as the Vegetable Union. R. Andrew Chesnut shows how the development of religious pluralism over the past half-century has radically transformed the "spiritual economy" of Latin America. In order to thrive in this new religious economy, says Chesnut, Latin American spiritual "firms" must develop an attractive product and know how to market it to popular consumers. Three religious groups, he demonstrates, have proven to be the most skilled competitors in the new unregulated religious economy. Protestant Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African diaspora religions such as Brazilian Candomble and Haitian Vodou have emerged as the most profitable religious producers. Chesnut explores the general effects of a free market, such as introduction of consumer taste and product specialization, and shows how they have played out in the Latin American context. He notes, for example, that women make up the majority of the religious consumer market, and explores how the three groups have developed to satisfy women's tastes and preferences. Moving beyond the Pentecostal boom and the rise and fall of liberation theology, Chesnut provides a fascinating portrait of the Latin American religious landscape.
2010 •
New Ways of Being Pentecostal in Latin America (Lexington Books)
Latin American Charisma: The Pentecostalization of Christianity in The Region2016 •
LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH REVIEW
Changing Landscapes of Faith: Latin American Religions in the Twenty-First Century2018 •
Latin America today is much more than simply Catholic. To describe it as such would obscure the complicated cultural history of the region while belying the lived experiences of believers and the dynamic transformations in the religious field that have distinguished the longue durée of colonial and postcolonial Latin America. Diversity, heterodoxy, and pluralism have always been more useful descriptors of religion in Latin America than orthodoxy or homogeneity, despite the ostensible ubiquity of Catholic identity. Indeed, deep indigenous Amerindian, colonial European, and displaced African roots have intermingled for centuries and vie today for status and influence among the myriad believers who make up the multicultural tapestry of New World faith and belonging. At the same time, new religious movements along with extremely successful Protestant proselytization campaigns have come to shape the diverse character of religious life as we know it from the Caribbean to Central and South America. The four volumes reviewed here offer a snapshot of this diversity and indicate the trends in scholarship that attempt to render it comprehensible in comparative terms. OPEN ACCESS: https://larrlasa.org/articles/10.25222/larr.341/
This article critically reviews recent contributions to religious research in Latin America. Social scientists have long considered religion to be a struc-turing feature of culture and local society. Owing to the centrality of Catholicism in Latin America, early studies privileged the political influences of the Catholic Church with respect to the state and society at large. The " other-ness " of native folk religions received less attention, with scholars undervalu-ing the presence of indigenous and African religiosities. In Latin America, religions are currently experiencing a diversification and reconfiguration, owing in part to the growing influence of different Christian denominations , particularly Evangelical and Pentecostal churches. Religious change is also occurring at the margins of institutional churches through New Age, neo-pagan, neo-Indian, neo-esoteric, and self-styled religiosities, as well as through popular religious syncretisms, indicating new experiments with what is considered sacred. This dynamism poses theoretical and conceptual challenges to scholars analyzing religious diversity and the renewed role that religions play in contemporary societies with respect to secularization, syn-cretism, and hybridization as well as the emergence of alternative identities (gender, sexual, ideological and political).
Catholicism become the most widespread religion in Latin America.By the 1990s Latin America was responsible for 42% of the world’s Catholic population. Despite their common Catholic identity,Latin Americans also have Amerindian, African, and popular non-Christian religious traditions inherited from Spain. Even today many Catholics incorporate practices and beliefs that are not accepted by the Church, including devotions to non canonized saints, some of them portrayed as bandits (or who protect criminals). Over the past few decades, the religious map of Latin America has been further enriched by the presence of new religions, predominantly Protestant denominations. Because Pentecostalism shares various cognitive and emotional ties with African and indigenous religions, this may help to explain its popularity among indigenous inhabitants of rural areas and for those with a history in Afro-Brazilian religions.This chapter also discuss religious practices in Latin America, including miracles; different hierarchies of “supernatural” beings; reciprocity, which includes promise and sacrifice; pilgrimages; popular celebrations; and a variety of devotional practices
Journal of Jesuit Studies
The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America, edited by Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Paul Preston, and Stephen DoveCritical Research on Religion
An enchanted modernity: Making sense of Latin America’s religious landscape2017 •
This is an interpretative, critical, and selective review of scholarly contributions that explore Latin America’s religious landscape. We present data, both qualitative and quantitative, from Latin America and analyze the explanations given to make sense of it. After assessing the literature that uses either secularization theory or the “religious economy” approach, we study explanations that highlight a Latin American style of “popular religiosity.” These three models, in different ways, put the emphasis on religious institutions—their vitality, commands, competition, and authority. We propose, instead, a focus on the religious practices of regular believers. We speculate that embarking from that focus, the idea of an “enchanted modernity” will help make sense of Latin America’s religious landscape. Nuanced elucidation of Latin America’s religious particularities will situate them in dialogue with other regions of the world, like western Europe and the United States, while also ack...
2006 •
O UR RAINBOW OF FAITH CONFRONTS global factors that tend to be totalitarian. Often we are being told to believe in one way and not in another. However, in Latin America there are many forms of Christianity, manifested in so-called people's religion and spirituality. Inculturation (often understood as a new concern in the Church of today) has been carried out throughout the centuries, by mestizo,1 Afro-American, and indigenous peoples. All of this is significant for churches in other regions of the world, since a deep human desire is to be persons Of faith, within different cultural paths, and in a common praise for the gift of life. We would wish these links be not an unbalanced relationship between North and South, West and East, but rather a co-responsible search for a new humanity that loves this earth and longs for heaven. This aim needs to motivate the communication between us, so that we appreciate our differences and can build an authentic global reality. In this process,...
Latin American Research Review
Latin American Perspectives on Religion and PoliticsDinamiche geopolitiche contemporanee. Ce.St.In.Geo. geopolitical outlook 2023, a cura di Andrea Plebani, CRiSSMA Working Paper n°29, (solo pp. 189-202)
Hormuz e Bab el-Mandeb: sicurezza marittima e deterrenza nell'era della connettività2023 •
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Entangled Archives: Mirza Ghalib, Saadat Hasan Manto, and the Fissures in Film Texts and Histories2023 •
Power System Analysis
Power System Analysis Short-Circuit Load Flow and Harmonics2024 •
International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology
Comparative Study and Analysis of a Building Subjected to Blast Load and Earthquake Load2020 •
2016 •
2021 •
European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society
An RCT study on the feasibility of anterior transpedicular screw fixation in the cervicothoracic junction2016 •
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Redox Report
Betulinic acid protects againstN-nitrosodimethylamine-induced redox imbalance in testes of rats2017 •
Indian journal of applied research
Placental Thickness Used As an Indicator of Gestational Age and Fetal Weight In Uncomplicated Singleton Pregnancies: A Sonographic Study2016 •
Nature New Biology
RNA Polymerases in the Germinal Vesicle Contents of Ranapipiens Oocytes1972 •
Andrew Chesnut