Pentecostals And Charismatics In Latin America And Latino Communities

Pentecostal-charismatics in Latin America and among Latinos: communities that share profound historical, linguistic and cultural roots. This compilation brings together practitioners and academics with pentecostal-charismatic affiliations, who analyse from within the development of the movement among these diverse communities.

Today over forty million Latin Americans classify themselves as Protestant, of which the overwhelming majority belong to some form of Pentecostalism. The rapid dissemination of Pentecostal beliefs has produced vibrant alternatives to traditional dominant culture and changed relations within the family, locality, and workplace. This volume introduces broad issues in the Pentecostal movement, including gender relations, political power and organization, and inter-Pentecostal and ecumenical relations. These themes are then examined more specifically in the country case studies, which address the historical foundations of the Pentecostal movement, patterns of and explanation for its growth, and the consequences of its expanding presence, including increased political influence.

The explosive growth of Pentecostalism has radically transformed Latin America’s religious landscape within the last half century or so. In a region where Catholicism reigned hegemonic for centuries, the expansion of Pentecostalism has now resulted in a situation of religious pluralism and competition, bearing much more resemblance to the United States than to the Iberian motherlands. Furthermore, the fierce competition from Pentecostal churches has inspired significant renewals of Latin American Catholicism, most notably the growth of a Catholic Charismatic movement. However, another and more recent source of religious pluralism and diversity in Latin America is an increasing pluralization and diversification of Pentecostalism itself and of the ways in which individual Pentecostals exercise their faith. By carefully exploring this diversification, the book at hand breaks new ground in the literature on Latin American Christianity. Particular attention is focused on new ways of being Pentecostal and on the consequences of recent transformations of Christianity for individuals, faith communities and societies. More specifically, the chapters of the book look into certain transformations of Pentecostalism such as: theological renewals and new kinds of religious competition between Pentecostal churches; a growing political and civic engagement of Pentecostals; an observed de-institutionalization of Pentecostal religious life and the negotiation individual Pentecostal identities, composed of multiple intra- and extra-ecclesial points of identification; and the emergence of new generations of Pentecostals (children of Pentecostal parents), many of whom have higher levels of education and higher incomes than the previous generations within their churches. In addition, Catholic responses to Pentecostal competition are also addressed in several chapters of the book.

This book is a theological-missiological study on the intercultural communication of Faith, drawing heavily from anthropological, sociological, and historical sources. The book is helpful to church workers in Latin America, to colleagues who teach both on college and seminary levels, to scholars who research the phenomenon of Latin American Protestantism, to students to Latin American studies, and in religion and culture in general.

Since the 1980s an explosion of Pentecostalism across Latin America has attracted considerable attention across various academic disciplines. This edited volume provides a multidisciplinary and continent-wide treatment of Latin American Pentecostalism by various experts, representing an important contribution to the current literature.

This book gives an overview of one-hundred years of Pentecostal history in Latin America and addresses the move of the Holy Spirit in nations such as Brazil, Columbia, Argentina Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Mexico, as well as the Caribbean.,

This collection of articles is based on an earlier book in Spanish, entitled Algo más que opio, which was published in 1991 by DEI in Costa Rica. The present edition appears in response to the accelerated rate of expansion in recent years of the region's Pentecostalism. The editors have updated the original edition with five chapters (three written by Latin American anthropologists) as well as three revised chapters. Two chapters were translated without modification. In this diverse collection, the authors address the expansion of Pentecostalism; the gender dimension; the analysis of discourse and practice; the power dimension; comparisons with similar, competing groups; the urban/rural comparison; and the contribution of Pentecostalism to the resolution of social problems.