Latin American Christians in the New Christianity
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries the Roman Catholic Church provided ideological justification for a system that enslaved minorities and kept dominating elites in power. After independence in the nineteenth century, the church opposed modernizing groups who, in turn, welcomed Protestant...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2006
|
| In: |
Review and expositor
Year: 2006, Volume: 103, Issue: 3, Pages: 579-602 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Parallel Edition: | Non-electronic
|
| Summary: | From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries the Roman Catholic Church provided ideological justification for a system that enslaved minorities and kept dominating elites in power. After independence in the nineteenth century, the church opposed modernizing groups who, in turn, welcomed Protestant churches with the promise of more democratic influences. The Cold War brought tensions and divisions, but also dreams of utopias. Globalization has brought painful realities to this rapidly urbanizing continent. Attempting to address the new reality, Catholic bishops at Medellin voiced “a preferential option for the poor.” Pentecostalism became the new, growing face of Protestantism in Latin America. In spite of the fact that the Catholic Church made an intentional option for the poor, the poor opted for the Pentecostal churches. A major reason for this lay in its presentation of the Christian message within the culture of poverty. The result is a movement that empowers the poor to improve their own lives. A serious weakness in this new Christianity, however, is the tendency of those adherents who gain political power to repeat earlier patterns of corruption and self-enrichment. As a consequence it fails to transform corrupt social and political structures. Catholic and Protestant Christians must come to terms with their disunity and rivalry for the sake of Christian witness. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2052-9449 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Review and expositor
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1177/003463730610300307 |