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14 pages, 286 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Popular Catholicism Puerto Rican Style: The Virgin of Rincón, Human Agency, and Miracles

by Angel D. Santiago-Vendrell

Religions 2024, 15(4), 463; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040463 - 8 Apr 2024

Viewed by 1969

In the past, popular Catholicism in Latin America and the Caribbean was perceived with suspicion by liberation theologians and official Roman Catholicism for its eccentricities, lack of doctrinal coherence, and fears of syncretism with folk religions. Nowadays, popular Catholicism in Latin America and [...] Read more.

In the past, popular Catholicism in Latin America and the Caribbean was perceived with suspicion by liberation theologians and official Roman Catholicism for its eccentricities, lack of doctrinal coherence, and fears of syncretism with folk religions. Nowadays, popular Catholicism in Latin America and the Caribbean has been a source of theological reflection, ecumenism, and religious revitalization. The apparition of the Holy Mother in 1953 at barrio Rincón in Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico, is a case study in global Catholicism that exemplifies this turn to see popular Catholicism as a source of liberation, perseverance, and deep spiritual devotion by the faithful. Using cultural, social, and reception historiography, the article argues that the Puerto Rican faithful were not passive recipients of the literary narratives of journalists covering the events as narrated by the main protagonists, the children/seers, but rather themselves formulators of history through their reception and participation. This is demonstrated by the allegiances of the faithful to popular Catholicism and their rejection of the official mandates of the clergy to ignore the events taking place at barrio Rincón regarding the apparition of the Virgin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Catholicism)

28 pages, 1046 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘Bleeding Catholicism’: Liberation Theology’s Demise and the Emergence of Pentecostalism in Latin America

by Javier Recio Huetos

Religions 2023, 14(11), 1354; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14111354 - 25 Oct 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 4181

Abstract

This essay examines the apparent decline of Liberation theology and the rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America. Due to the retreat of Liberation theology from the forefront of public discourse in 1989 and the larger loss of emancipatory philosophy, Catholicism in Latin America [...] Read more.

This essay examines the apparent decline of Liberation theology and the rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America. Due to the retreat of Liberation theology from the forefront of public discourse in 1989 and the larger loss of emancipatory philosophy, Catholicism in Latin America has experienced bleeding, losing adherence to charismatic religions over time. Through an examination of the socio-religious landscape, this study seeks to determine whether there is any relationship between the growth of Pentecostalism and the demise of Liberation theology in a Neoliberal Age. This study aims to shed light on the complex relationships that exist between social shifts, religious concepts, the evolving religious landscape, and the social order in Latin America. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Latin American Theology of Liberation in the 21st Century)

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16 pages, 956 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Liberation Theology Today: Tasks of Criticism in Interpellation to the Present World

by Javier Recio Huetos

Religions 2023, 14(4), 557; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040557 - 21 Apr 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3756

Abstract

Latin American liberation theology appears to be an obsolete phenomenon that is unable to speak about the realities of today’s world. Since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published two instructions on liberation theology, the Vatican has been considered to have [...] Read more.

Latin American liberation theology appears to be an obsolete phenomenon that is unable to speak about the realities of today’s world. Since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published two instructions on liberation theology, the Vatican has been considered to have condemned it. Likewise, the Vatican of John Paul II and Benedict XVI focused on the reprobation of several liberation theologians attempting to silence their voices. However, liberation theology aimed at the realisation of justice in a world in which the injustice that gave birth to this phenomenon still prevails in new ways. This article establishes a relationship between liberation theology and critical thinking to offer an alternative to the future of liberation theology. We insist that, despite the end of the era in which both were born, they continue to challenge the present world. Using Adornian optics, we establish how critical thought constitutes a prophetic denunciation. Thus, liberation theology will be understood within this critical tradition and how it critiques the current reality, in which the logic of late capitalism prevails. Afterwards, the contemporary world will be studied from this point of view to try to discover the pending tasks of criticism. It is the question of discovering the tasks of critiques to challenge the present. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

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19 pages, 698 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Catholicism in the Changing Religious Field of Latin America: A Mapping

by Jakob Egeris Thorsen

Religions 2023, 14(4), 461; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040461 - 29 Mar 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6105

Abstract

This article presents a mapping of the changing religious landscape of Latin America, specifically focusing on the place of Catholicism therein. It explores how the varying forms of Catholicism in Latin America reflect a reality of mixed modernities, described as “tiempos mixtos” (Waldo [...] Read more.

This article presents a mapping of the changing religious landscape of Latin America, specifically focusing on the place of Catholicism therein. It explores how the varying forms of Catholicism in Latin America reflect a reality of mixed modernities, described as “tiempos mixtos” (Waldo Ansaldi), where elements of pre-modern, modern, and late modern worldviews and values are intertwined in ways very different from those of the North Atlantic West. By applying the modernization and secularization theories of David Martin and Charles Taylor and the sociology of religion of Pierre Bourdieu to the Latin American context, this article takes the first step to developing an explicatory map that can help us better understand changes within the religious field in Latin America today and the role of both popular and institutional Catholicism therein. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catholicism in Latin America)

17 pages, 675 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spiritual Experience and Parishioners Satisfaction in the Online Eucharist: A Latin American Case Study

by Jose Andres Areiza-Padilla, Iván Veas-González and Tatiana Galindo-Becerra

Religions 2022, 13(11), 1104; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13111104 - 15 Nov 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2313

Abstract

This research contributes to the scarce literature that exists on the perception that Catholics have about the Eucharist online, which was continued through various digital platforms, but once the emergence of the COVID-19. In this way, the perception of Catholics is identified, regarding [...] Read more.

This research contributes to the scarce literature that exists on the perception that Catholics have about the Eucharist online, which was continued through various digital platforms, but once the emergence of the COVID-19. In this way, the perception of Catholics is identified, regarding their spiritual experience, their satisfaction, and their intention to continue attending this type of religious practice in the future, but online. For this, a quantitative study was carried out through the PLS program with a sample of 1423 parishioners in the city of Bogotá, Colombia. Bearing in mind that Latin America has the largest number of Catholics in the world, the results of this study help the Catholic Church to generate possible strategies that can be developed in various parts of the world, to combine this type of religious services with the various virtual platforms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catholicism in Latin America)

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18 pages, 325 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Globalization of Christian Democracy: Religious Entanglements in the Making of Modern Politics

by Rosario Forlenza and Bjørn Thomassen

Religions 2022, 13(7), 659; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070659 - 16 Jul 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3716

Abstract

This article throws light on a crucial, yet overlooked, aspect of global entanglements that significantly came to shape modern politics: the global spread of Catholic ideas that, from the late nineteenth century and through the twentieth century, became translated into various political platforms [...] Read more.

This article throws light on a crucial, yet overlooked, aspect of global entanglements that significantly came to shape modern politics: the global spread of Catholic ideas that, from the late nineteenth century and through the twentieth century, became translated into various political platforms and, eventually, into Christian Democratic parties. The article will cover three broad periods where such global entanglements took shape: the mid-nineteenth century up until World War I, the interwar period, and the aftermath of World War II. We primarily address developments across the Atlantic in Europe and Latin America, while briefly touching upon Asian developments. The article aims to show the role of non-secular ideologies in political globalization processes and the co-existence of centric and multi-polar tendencies in such processes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)

18 pages, 367 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘A Most Select Gathering’. Mexican National Pilgrimages to Rome during the Papacy of Leo XIII

by Francisco Javier Ramón Solans

Religions 2021, 12(7), 475; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12070475 - 26 Jun 2021

Viewed by 2700

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman [...] Read more.

The objective of this article is to analyse Mexican national pilgrimages to Rome that took place during the pontificate of Leo XIII (1878–1903). These pilgrimages occurred in the context of a global Catholic mobilisation in support of the papacy, during the so-called Roman Question. This paper’s analysis of these pilgrimages draws from historiography about national pilgrimages, as well as studies on Catholic mobilisation in support of the pope in the second half of the nineteenth century. It is fundamentally based on primary sources of an official nature, such as reports and other printed documents produced on the occasion of the pilgrimage. The study’s primary conclusion is that national pilgrimages to Rome had a polysemic character since they brought together various religious and national identities. The pilgrimages contributed simultaneously to reinforcing the link between Catholicism and Mexican national identity and the global dimension of Catholicism and allegiance to the Holy See. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in Europe)

19 pages, 292 KiB

Open AccessArticle

To Walk with Slaves: Jesuit Contexts and the Atlantic World in the Cartagena Mission to Enslaved Africans, 1605–1654

by José L. Santana

Religions 2021, 12(5), 334; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12050334 - 11 May 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3667

Abstract

The Jesuit mission to enslaved Africans founded in 1605 in Cartagena de las Indias is amongst the most extraordinary religious developments of early colonial Latin America. By the time Alonso de Sandoval, S.J. and Pedro Claver, S.J. began their work to baptize and [...] Read more.

The Jesuit mission to enslaved Africans founded in 1605 in Cartagena de las Indias is amongst the most extraordinary religious developments of early colonial Latin America. By the time Alonso de Sandoval, S.J. and Pedro Claver, S.J. began their work to baptize and catechize the thousands of slaves who passed through Cartagena’s port each year, the Society of Jesus had already established a global missionary enterprise, including an extensive network of communication amongst its missionaries and colleges. Amidst this intramissionary context, Sandoval wrote De instauranda Aethiopum salute—a treatise informed largely by these annual letters, personal correspondences, and interactions with the diverse multitudes of people who could be encountered in this early colonial cosmopolitan city—aimed at promoting the necessity of African salvation. From East Asia to Latin America, Jesuits followed the example of their apostolic missionary, Francis Xavier, to bring the Catholic faith to non-Christian peoples. Through De instauranda and the Catholic Church’s collected testimony for the sainthood of Claver, we see how Sandoval and Claver, like other Jesuits of the time, arose as innovative and unique missionaries, adapting to their context while attempting to model the Jesuit missionary spirit. In doing so, this article posits, the historical-religious context of the early modern Atlantic world and global Jesuit missions influenced Sandoval and Claver to accompany enslaved Africans as a missionary theology. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Broadening Themes and Methodologies in the Research and Writing of History and Christian Mission Theologies)

20 pages, 298 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pastoralism in Latin America: An Ensemble of Religious Governmental Technologies in Colonial Costa Rica

by Edgar Zavala-Pelayo

Religions 2018, 9(7), 203; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel9070203 - 28 Jun 2018

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4315

Abstract

Based on a critical empirical application of Foucault’s concept of pastoralism and a genealogical research approach, this article suggests that the Catholic regime that operated in Costa Rica during the Spanish colonial period (16th to 19th centuries), developed an ensemble of distinctive ‘technologies [...] Read more.

Based on a critical empirical application of Foucault’s concept of pastoralism and a genealogical research approach, this article suggests that the Catholic regime that operated in Costa Rica during the Spanish colonial period (16th to 19th centuries), developed an ensemble of distinctive ‘technologies of government’—charity, ceremonial strictness, bio-political control, geo-political rule, and administrative efficiency. Drawing on documentary and archival material, the analysis highlights both the governmental ‘logics’ and the governmental ‘techniques’ of the above technologies, as well as their complex centuries-long operation. The conclusions remark how such a complex ensemble of religious governmental technologies problematizes the synchronicistic and reductionist analyses of religion and politics; historical–institutionalist studies of colonial Catholicism in Latin America; and the compartmentalization of sovereignty, discipline, and apparatuses of security that Foucault originally proposed to account for the historical development of governmentality. Full article

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