Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America (Evangelical Christianity And Democracy in the Global South) - Hardcover

Freston, Paul

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7 ratings by Goodreads

9780195174762: Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America (Evangelical Christianity And Democracy in the Global South)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195174763 ISBN 13: 9780195174762

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

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In Latin America, evangelical Protestantism poses an increasing challenge to Catholicism's long-established religious hegemony. At the same time, the region is among the most generally democratic outside the West, despite often being labeled as 'underdeveloped.' Scholars disagree whether Latin American Protestantism, as a fast-growing and predominantly lower-class phenomenon, will encourage a political culture that is repressive and authoritarian, or if it will have democratizing effects. Drawing from a range of sources, Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America provides case studies of five countries: Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The contributors, mainly scholars based in Latin America, bring first hand-knowledge to their chapters. The result is a groundbreaking work that explores the relationship between Latin American evangelicalism and politics, its influences, manifestations, and prospects for the future.

Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America is one of four volumes in the series Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in the Global South, which seeks to answer the question: What happens when a revivalist religion based on scriptural orthodoxy participates in the volatile politics of the Third World? At a time when the global-political impact of another revivalist and scriptural religion - Islam - fuels vexed debate among analysts the world over, these volumes offer an unusual comparative perspective on a critical issue: the often combustible interaction of resurgent religion and the developing world's unstable politics.

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About the Author:

Paul Freston is a Professor of Sociology at Sao Carlos University in Brazil.

Review:

...this book is a marvelous contribution in its depiction of how evangelicals engage the political realm and help the process of democratization in Latin America, expecially through civil participation. * Angel Santiago-Vendrell *

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