Search Results (21)

The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between the Christian faith and the spiritual traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America, seeking to identify elements that make it possible to trace paths of dialogue and mutual cooperation. It shows that historically, there have been tensions and conflicts between these traditions, but today, there is a path towards overcoming this reality through social solidarity, which serves as a basis for dialogue between the ways of believing. The research method is comparative and involves a qualitative analysis of the bibliography dealing with the relationship between the Church and Latin American indigenous spiritualities. The bibliographic base is documental, with emphasis on the conferences of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), the Synod for the Amazon (2019) and the magisterium of Pope Francis, read from the perspective of the Second Vatican Council and the current theology of religions. The conclusion is that the Church is developing an important social dialogue to promote justice and the rights of indigenous peoples. This dialogue serves as the basis for a dialogue with the beliefs and spiritualities of these peoples. The challenge for this is to review mission objectives and methods in order to overcome the conversionist perspective in the relationship with indigenous peoples, taking paths of mutual respect and acceptance and valuing them beyond being the recipients of evangelization. In this way, indigenous spiritual traditions can be recognized not only as “seeds” of the Word to be developed by evangelization but as an already mature fruit of God’s relationship with these peoples. Full article

The management of laicity in Mexico, legally and politically, is a federal issue that involves regulating the activities of Churches and religious communities in the public space, in their practices, rituals, and relations with the organs of the state. However, in recent years, the growing presence and activity of Churches at the local level has called into question the need to observe how laicity is managed by subnational governments, both state and municipal. Are there mechanisms at the local level to regulate the presence of religion in the public space? How are religious traditions presented as culturally managed? What are the demands of Churches on local authorities and what is their political relationship with them? How is the demand for religious freedom resolved locally without violating citizens’ other freedoms, such as the freedom of conscience in issues such as education, health, traffic, and freedom of expression? All this has put into perspective whether laicity and the secular state should continue to be a national dimension or whether it is necessary to rethink legal and political forms at the local level, building new frameworks of governance and governability. This text reviews the public management of laicity in eight entities of the country, which in turn is representative of the rest of the entities with their local variations. However, they generally move in the constant dimensions of religious diversity, interreligious councils, offices, or those in charge of religious affairs, and levels of municipal participation. The construction of a new laicity is then proposed, which does not exclude religion from the public agenda but rather a new secular perspective on the participation of religious communities in public affairs. From a Latin American perspective, Mexico is seen as an effective government regime that separates religion from politics, restricting the participation of religious organizations in the public agenda. However, at the local level, this regime is changing with the inclusion of faith-based organizations in politics. This will undoubtedly lead to a change in the historical concept, a reference point in the region. The term management of laicity refers to the regulation and administration of governments (services, legal support, spaces, and dialogues) with religious communities. Management (control, regulation, permits, sanctions, and recognition) is defined by law and in public policy towards religion from the federal government, but not in local governments that lack clear regulatory frameworks, intervention guidelines, and support, hence the emphasis on the term. Full article

This article presents the case of Guatemalan Pentecostalism as a highly relevant expression of Latin American Pentecostalism that helps to clarify the debate about the syncretic nature of Pentecostalism. We use the Guatemalan case to test the thesis of Juan Sepúlveda, a Chilean Pentecostal historian and theologian, who explains the success of Latin American Pentecostalism in light of its syncretic character. His argument about the syncretic character of Pentecostalism is based on the Chilean case. Paying attention to its historical development, we present Guatemalan Pentecostal theology in relation to traditional Mayan culture and religion and in relation to popular Catholicism and traditional Latin American Protestantism. Specific attention is paid to the espoused theology of Pentecostal pastors as they provide an account of indigenous Pentecostals’ lived faith. Finally, we answer the question: Does Juan Sepulveda’s approach (still) provide an adequate framework for the theological assessment of possible syncretic characteristics of (Latin American) Pentecostalism? The Guatemalan case indicates ways to improve certain limitations of Sepúlveda’s approach, such as its static understanding of culture and its exclusion of the theological understanding of syncretism. Full article

The relationship between minjung theology and the process of social change called secularization or theoretical and practical projects based on such processes of social change is complex. It requires more detailed discussions. Therefore, this paper seeks to reinterpret minjung theology as a theological minjung project using the methodology of new-style phenomenology of religion with a theoretical basis on Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s conceptions of secularization and profanation as projects with religious intentions and orientations. Through this reinterpretation, the paper demonstrates that minjung theology in relation to secularization is a unique theological project with very different goals from those of Latin American liberation theology as well as other political and situation theologies. In order to accomplish this purpose, the paper first introduces French sociologist Émile Durkheim who has explained secularization differently from German sociologist Max Weber. It then shows that secularization is not the only way in which the sacred is reappropriated through Agamben’s discussions of secularization and profanation. To identify the passage from secularization to profanation of the concept of minjung, this paper analyzes the minjung-event theory of Byung-Mu Ahn, a representative first-generation minjung theologian. This theory emphasizes the importance of “event” as a way of understanding minjung instead of defining it conceptually. Insofar as it presents the minjung as an intrinsically unnamable, invisible, and unpredictable event, a form of religious phenomenon called “the sacred”, minjung-event theory involves an attempt to secularize Jesus-Messiah as the Minjung-Messiah. In conclusion, this paper argues that beyond the secularization of the Messiah into the Minjung, minjung-event theory moves toward a dialectical project of desacralization and re-sacralization, in which the minjung itself is profaned into an event. Full article

The first generation of Latin American liberation theologies was marked by the methodological status of the preferential option for the poor. In the following generations, this commitment was further developed in the struggle for a new way of doing theology, even more connected to material life, and disciplines such as history and economics were added. With this, the organizational structures of life in society started to be discussed in more critical, systemic, and prophetic ways. Especially thinking of the Latin American and US contexts, the production of theology derived from this intersectionality seeks not only to highlight and analyze the economic structures that cause exploitation (class), inequalities (gender and sexuality), and racism, but to identify how religion undergirds solidarity movements. The method applied to discuss these themes is bibliographical research. As a broad conclusion, this article indicates that future liberation theologies should discuss what the multiple victims of capitalism (always the majority of the population, never merely a minority) do in order to survive, related to the alternatives they create; discuss solidarity as the foundation that opposes social evil; and discuss the illusions of individualism that cover up both existing relationships of exploitation as well as solidarity. Full article

The public face of religion in Latin America is undergoing constant transformation, and its relocation in the public sphere is part of a broader process of cultural and social change. This contemporary religious scene is characterized by a plurality of voices generated not only by traditional ecclesiastical institutions, but also by diverse practices and discourses where mediatization processes play an important role. This paper will examine how urban believers—mainly Catholics and evangelicals—are reconstructing and negotiating their religious identity and belonging, as well as their interactions in everyday life as participants in wider social contexts beyond traditional religious institutions in Lima, Peru, South America. It addresses questions such as how mediatized religious practices shape and re-signify religious identity, and how mediated religion facilitates the creation of new meanings, forms, and approaches of public engagement. I will also discuss how lived religion shapes the communicative practices and strategies of believers who are living out their beliefs in ways that go beyond traditional sacred places and spheres of secularity. This paper is part of a research project called “The Transformation of Lived Religion in Urban Latin America: A Study of Contemporary Latin Americans’ Experience of the Transcendent.” Full article

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

“Liberationism”, a term derived from Liberation theology (LT), is an analytical concept used by religious historians and sociologists as a generic designation for Latin American post-conciliar Catholicism. “Theology of the People” (TP) designates a theological school created in Argentina during the late 1960s by the Episcopal Pastoral Commission (COEPAL), although the term used by its members was not TP but “Popular Pastoral theology” (TPp). Successive generations of theologians developed new versions of TPp (“popular piety theology”, “theology of culture”, etc.). I call those versions the diachronic variants of TP, and I regard TP as their synchronic representation. TP has been called the “Argentine School of Liberation Theology”, but there are substantial differences between TP and TL. In this paper, I argue that it is inaccurate to use the term “liberationism” to refer to TP because that term alludes to LT’s model of inter-relations between religion and social change, a model explicitly rejected by the creators of TP. I frame the theoretical discussion on the use of analytical and native concepts in Quentin Skinner’s linguistic contextualism perspective and I explain the differences between TP and TL in the context of the theological–political debates in late-1960s Argentina around the issue of popular Catholicism. Full article

The purpose of this study was to analyze the prevalence of controlling violence experienced by adolescents in the Region of Murcia, as well as to analyze the patterns and sociodemographic variables involved such as sex, age, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and country of origin of the families with the consequent cultural background provided. Using a sample of 454 secondary and high school students who completed a survey, the results revealed that 29.96% of the respondents were perpetrators (exerted violence) and 35.68% were victims of at least one dating abuse behavior. Significant differences were found in the occurrence of abuse based on family background, age, and religion. Finally, the results revealed that there were no significant differences in the victimization or perpetration of violence in relation to sex, but the older the victim, the less control exercised in cybernetic media, and the greater the control of the other in relation to family origin, where those from Latin American and African countries showed a greater propensity to control their partners than those of Spanish origin. Full article

The Latin American immigrant population in Spain is growing year after year. The aim of this study is to describe how religious coping mechanisms, religiosity, acculturation and social support act in the prediction of happiness within the group of Latin American immigrants with Christian beliefs in Spain. Previous studies indicate that religious practice can be a factor that favors the perception of well-being and happiness in people. It is considered that the existence of close sources of support act as a key resource in facing stressful situations. A questionnaire consisting of 36 items was administered to a sample made up of 206 subjects of different Latin American nationalities who were going through a migration process. It was observed that religiosity, social support, religious coping mechanisms and gender were related to the perception of happiness. The results underline the importance of considering religiosity and social support together while intervening to improve the perception of happiness of Latin American immigrants in Spain. Full article

This article argues that the (Western-oriented) right to religion has been proven inadequate in protecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights. It recognizes that this is partly because of the distinctive characteristics of Indigenous religions, which differ from other dominant religions, but also because of the way in which religion has been used by colonialism with dramatic effects on Indigenous Peoples and their beliefs, spiritualities, and worldviews. The article focuses on Latin America to argue further that in addition to colonialism, the early Constitutions also attacked Indigenous religions. As Indigenous rights are more acknowledged in Latin America, we take this region as an excellent, albeit painful, example of how Indigenous religions have been pushed aside even in the most positive contexts. The article uses the constitutional and legal arrangements in Latin American states, mainly Ecuador and Bolivia, to critically assess the protection that these favorable to Indigenous Peoples legal systems’ guarantee to Indigenous rights despite a persistent implementation gap. Also, this article highlights the weaknesses of the international system in mitigating the manifold threats that Indigenous Peoples have to face on a daily basis in their struggle to maintain and transmit their religions and spirituality, including the assault of other religions and sects into their communities and the so-called neo-extractivism. The article finally draws some concluding remarks and recommendations on how to improve the freedom of and violations from religion(s) of Indigenous Peoples in the context of Latin America as well as international law more broadly. Full article

The purpose of this article is to describe a contextual theology in Latin America in dialogue with its cultures, histories, and peoples. This contextual theology must build from a Latin American context. For this reason, dialogue begins with mestizaje to begin to describe some of the cultural, ethnic, racial, and religious experiences giving shape to Latin America. The article specifically looks at the intersection and confluence of African, Amerindian, and European origins of Latin American peoples and explores how his could inform theological thought. The essay also considers Liberation Theology as an important theological stream. Throughout this essay, Pentecostalism becomes a case study by which an emerging theology from this tradition can be faithful to both its tradition and the cultures in context. It becomes evident that an emerging Latin American theology is profoundly intersectional, containing issues of race, culture, ethnicity, and popular religions. Theologians must walk through contested spaces. This dialogue requires patience, listening, compassion, and understanding. Full article

This research aims to analyze cultural diversity and its relationship with the personal belief in an Immigrant Parish. The discussion is framed within the topic of intercultural churches and parishes, although in a setting that has not been researched (Santiago, Chile). The research was carried out in the Latin-American Parish placed in Providencia, Santiago, and a qualitative framework was used to obtain and analyze the data. Cultural diversity is understood concerning religious reflexivity and under the idea that pluralism leads to a weakening of religious conviction, as Peter Berger argued. The theoretical framework makes the difference between the vision of Berger on cultural pluralism (pluralism inter-religion) and the viewpoint by Charles Taylor (pluralism intra-religion). On the contrary to Berger, the findings of this research showed that cultural diversity and pluralism are elements that produce a strengthening of individual beliefs. Full article

Research on the mediatization of religion seems to have become a major issue both for Social Sciences and Media Studies, although some core questions concerning its definitions and characteristics are still open to debate. This paper addresses some of these interrogations from a Latin American/Brazilian perspective, taking into the account some of the particular perspectives of the region. It draws on previous studies, combined with contemporary cases, to outline an overview of mediatization, as it has been studied by some Latin American scholars, in three dimensions: (1) Theoretical: Mediatization as an alternative path to ‘media and religion’ studies by focusing on the articulation between the media environment and religious practices, both institutional and individual; (2) cultural: Mediatization has drawn religion closer to media culture and entertainment, which has allowed churches and denominations to reach a wider audience; and (3) political: Mediatization has enabled religion to get a broader visibility in the public space and to have a say in social matters. These elements lead to the suggestion that mediatization of religion is a new way of living the religious experience in everyday life. Full article

U.S. immigration policy over the last 100 years has changed the onus of political acculturation from public programs to private groups like churches. After this significant policy change, how do religion, social capital, and nativity intersect in the political mobilization of racial minorities? Furthermore, after the 1965 Hart-Celler Act, the country of origin of immigrants shifted from European countries to Latin America and Asia. Scholars have theorized that churches play a pivotal role in the socialization of immigrants by providing a place of belonging and a community willing to teach newcomers about the goings-on of American political society. How have these acculturation policies worked under new immigration populations? Previous scholarly work has connected social capital with churches, though their relationship to political participation has been minimal. We hypothesize that social capital and religious tradition have a multiplicative effect on the participation rates of believers, but that race mitigates that effect. The positioning of racial groups in broader society impacts the significance and role of churches within these communities. We use Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) 2016 data to examine the connection between social capital, religion, and political behavior in a novel attempt to systematically identify the unique role of churches in the mobilization of racial minority communities. We use these results to suggest that the current policies of privatizing political acculturation have had less success with more recent waves of immigrants. Full article