Organized Religion in the Political Transformation of Latin America

by Pattnayak, Satya R.; Levine, Daniel H.; Sigmund, Paul E.; Fleet, Michael; Orga, Andrew; Froehle, Bryan T.; Serbin, Kenneth P.; Daudelin, Jean; Hewitt, W.E

• ISBN13: 9780761800408
• ISBN10: 0761800409
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-10-03
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

This book discusses how the competitive environment of Latin America's social life has facilitated religious innovation in different regional and national settings. Pattnayak argues that organized religion has responded admirably to change and competition and will survive well in the period of increasing democratization of Latin America. In addition, the author shows how religious change that focuses on community organization, mobilization, and education of the citizenry carries wider legitimacy than ordinary political strategies. Readers of this book will benefit from its wide coverage of the Catholic and the Protestant churches and its definitive statements about the political capability of religious communities. An excellent text for students in courses on religion and politics, social change, social movements, and state-society relations. University libraries, persons interested in church-state relations in Latin America, churches and parishes that have branches in Latin America, and professors and scholars of history, sociology, anthropology, political science, and religious studies will all benefit from this concise and definitive look at religion and politics in Latin America.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Preface
Social Change, Political Competition, and Religious Innovation in Latin America: An Introduction	p. 1
Religious Change, Empowerment and Power: Reflections on Latin American Experience	p. 15
The Transformation of Catholic Social Thought in Latin America: Christian Democracy, Liberation Theology, and the New Catholic Right	p. 41
The Chilean Church and the Transition to Democracy	p. 65
From Theologies of Liberation to Theologies of Inculturation: Aymara Catechists and the Second Evangelization in Highlands Bolivia	p. 97
Religious Competition in Contemporary Venezuela	p. 125
Brazil: State Subsidization and the Church Since 1930	p. 153
Latin American Politics: Exit the Catholic Church?	p. 177
The Embeddedness of Religion and Politics: An Epilogue	p. 195
Appendix: The Institutional Capacity of the Catholic Church: An Evaluation	p. 203
Select Bibliography	p. 219
Contributors	p. 233
Index	p. 235
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.