Religious Responses to Violence: Human Rights in Latin America Past and Present (Kellogg Institute Series on Democracy and Development) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 026819310X ISBN 13: 9780268193102

Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017

Synopsis

During the past half century, Latin America has evolved from a region of political instability and frequent dictatorships into one of elected governments. Although its societies and economies have undergone sweeping changes, high levels of violence have remained a persistent problem. Religious Responses to Violence: Human Rights in Latin America Past and Present offers rich resources to understand how religion has perceived and addressed different forms of violence, from the political and state violence of the 1970s and 1980s to the drug traffickers and youth gangs of today. The contributors offer many fresh insights into contemporary criminal violence and reconsider past interpretations of political violence, liberation theology, and human rights in light of new questions and evidence.

In contrast to many other studies of violence, this book explores its moral dimensions―up close in lived experience―and the real consequences of human agency. Alexander Wilde provides a thoughtful substantive introduction, followed by thematic chapters on "rights," "violence," and case studies of ten countries throughout the region. The book breaks new ground examining common responses as well as differences between Catholic and Evangelical pastoral accompaniment. These new studies focus on the specifically religious character of their responses―how they relate their mission and faith to violence in different contexts―to better understand how and why they have taken action.

About this title

About the Author

Alexander Wilde is a senior research scholar in residence at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies, American University. He is co-editor (with Scott Mainwaring) of The Progressive Church in Latin America (University of Notre Dame Press, 1989).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Modern Latin America is both notably violent and notably religious. During the past half century it has evolved from a region of political instability and frequent dictatorships into one of elected governments, while its societies and economies have undergone sweeping changes and high levels of violence have remained a persistent problem. During this same period, religion has shown remarkable dynamism as a force in society. This book was stimulated by the desire to understand better the striking coincidence of these phenomena and the relationship between them. It is the fruit of a two-year collaborative research project on how active religious responses to violence have had social impact. The chapters reveal a range of responses in the Christian churches and individuals inspired by faith, but the book aims particularly to illuminate religious vitality directed to constructive agency, with action meant to mitigate violence rather than employ or justify it.

Violence was a defining dimension of Latin America’s history in the 1970s and 1980s, and the region remains today, by many measures, one of the most dangerous in the world. Contemporary statistics on homicide, assault, police violence, and kidnapping are alarming; crime tops all other issues of concern in public opinion surveys. Beyond the indicators lies a more pervasive sense of insecurity that for many frames daily life. During this same span religion has undergone an extraordinary renewal as a dimension of Latin American life and society. Following the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), the Catholic Church adopted an active social mission, new pastoral ministries, and original, influential, and controversial theologies. In many places it publicly defended human rights against repressive regimes. Evangelical and Pentecostal churches grew at historically unprecedented rates across the region, challenging centuries of Catholic cultural dominance. Their templos have become a distinctive and pervasive grassroots presence in Latin America’s modern cities and countryside. Together these sweeping changes in Catholic and Protestant Christianity suggest something of the vitality of religion as a social force.

From the late 1960s through the 1980s―a period of repressive governments and violent civil conflict―the Catholic Church was a major public actor in many Latin American countries. Violence was then seen largely in political terms: as violence wielded by authoritarian regimes to remain in power, in many cases against guerrilla movements employing arms to overturn them. The international Cold War environment and frequent U.S. intervention in the region were the backdrop for these conflicts, and both sides invoked political ideologies to legitimate their use of violence. In this context Catholics were also divided. They had different views about the legitimacy of those employing violence. Progressive Catholics sympathized with revolutionary guerrillas aiming to overthrow dictatorships representing entrenched power. Conservatives supported existing authorities and justified state repression. But for most Catholics who took action, the human suffering wrought by violence―whether exercised in the name of national security or national revolution―became the primary concern. Over time, many found in human rights a new basis to affirm a Christian commitment to nonviolent defense of human life and to denounce the “state violence” of repressive regimes.

Since the 1980s elected governments have replaced authoritarian regimes across Latin America. Violence persists in the more open, fragmented context of today’s “real existing democracies” (Schmitter 2009; see also O’Donnell 2004),2 but it is largely seen in social rather than political terms. Criminal mafias and youth gangs are the most identifiable sources of widely felt insecurity. Elected governments are often blamed for corruption and for complicity with these actors, but the state itself is generally not perceived as the central source of violence, in contrast to the period of authoritarian rule. In part for this reason, religious responses today lack the high drama of the past, and the churches are less visible in political life. Similarly, scholarship on religion is more diverse and scattered in comparison to work on the earlier period (framed by debates, for example, about liberation theology).

But in fact the churches are addressing contemporary violence in many different ways, and their efforts are important. As this volume demonstrates, their approaches and perspectives may complement―or contradict―those of governments, international agencies, civil society actors, and the general public. The new studies presented here examine the specifically religious character of their responses―how they relate their mission and faith to violence in different contexts―to understand better how and why they have taken action. This approach also throws light on dimensions scanted in other perspectives on violence and suggests other potential strategies to mitigate its causes and effects.

This volume raises four core analytical issues that appear throughout this introduction and inform the research in this book:

1. How and why have religious responses to violence changed or demonstrated continuity over time? And particularly, what are the main factors that appear to motivate constructive social action?

2. How are the responses of church-linked organizations and individuals distinctively religious? How do they illuminate the moral dimensions of violence?

3. How have the characteristics of violence itself changed over time, as perceived by the churches?

4. When do religious responses to violence have the greatest impact?

(Excerpted from Introduction)

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 026819310X
• ISBN 13: 9780268193102
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 518
• Editor: Wilde Alexander