The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America

Virginia Garrard-Burnett · Paul Freston · Stephen C. Dove

Apr 2016 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

The Cambridge History of Religions in Latin America covers religious history in Latin America from pre-Conquest times until the present. This publication is important; first, because of the historical and contemporary centrality of religion in the life of Latin America; second, for the rapid process of religious change which the region is undergoing; and third, for the region's religious distinctiveness in global comparative terms, which contributes to its importance for debates over religion, globalization, and modernity. Reflecting recent currents of scholarship, this volume addresses the breadth of Latin American religion, including religions of the African diaspora, indigenous spiritual expressions, non-Christian traditions, new religious movements, alternative spiritualities, and secularizing tendencies.

About the author

Virginia Garrard-Burnett earned her PhD in History from Tulane University. She is Professor of History at the University of Texas, Austin. She has authored numerous articles and chapters, edited three collected volumes (of which this is the fourth), and written two monographs, the most recent of which is entitled, Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efraín Ríos Montt, 1982–1983 (2010). Her forthcoming monograph is on new Christian movements in Latin America.

Paul Freston is the CIGI Chair in Religion and Politics in Global Context at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. He is also professor colaborador on the post-graduate programme in sociology at the Universidade Federal de São Carlos, Brazil. He has worked mainly on religion and politics, the growth of popular forms of Protestantism in Latin America, and questions of religion and globalization. His books include Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America (Cambridge, 2001); Protestant Political Parties: A Global Survey (2004); (ed.) Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Latin America (2008); and (coauthored) Nem Anjos Nem Demônios: Interpretações Sociológicas do Pentecostalismo (1994).

Stephen Dove is an Assistant Professor of History and Latin American Studies at Centre College. He earned his PhD at the University of Texas, Austin and has published several articles about Protestantism and Pentecostalism in Latin America. His current book manuscript is a study of the transition from missionary to local Protestantism in early twentieth-century Guatemala.