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Instructors: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Gerhard Kruip; Univ.-Prof. Dr. Axel Schäfer
Event type:
Practice class
Displayed in timetable as:
05.866.521
Hours per week:
2
Language of instruction:
Englisch
Min. | Max. participants:
- | 30
Requirements / organisational issues:
The resurgence of white evangelical Protestantism as a significant cultural and political force in U.S. society constitutes one of the most important developments in U.S. religion since the 1930s and in U.S. politics since the 1960s. The sprawling and loosely organized movement has since emerged as the largest single religious faction in the U.S., encompassing between a quarter and a third of the population. But this also had a significant impact on Latin America. Many white evangelicals after World War II eagerly took advantage of the opportunities of the “American century” to pursue vigorously religious revivalism, missions, and institution-building in other countries. In turn, evangelical Christianity has emerged as a global religious phenomenon, with about 12 percent of the world’s population affiliated with evangelical or Pentecostal churches. There are major concentrations of adherents in Latin America, but also in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia – to the point indeed that the evangelical movement is now numerically dominated by the “majority world” or “global South”. This course explores the sociocultural and political repercussions of the growth of evangelical Christianity in Latin America and identifies the various ways in which U.S. evangelicalism has itself been reformed by its encounters with the world. On the one hand, U.S. evangelicals exported their “prosperity gospel” and their political and cultural conservatism, which frequently merged with indigenous traditions. On the other hand, as evangelical voices from Latin America have become more vocal and assertive within the movement, conservative Protestantism emerged as a more pluralistic, multi-directional enterprise characterized by instances of indigenization, anti-colonial resistance, and “reverse missions.” Aspects to be explored in the course include the relationship between religious change, political economy, technology, and popular culture, as well as the intersection of religion with U.S. foreign policy, military intervention in Latin America and the increasing influence of evangelical and Pentecostal groups on elections in the U.S. and several states in Latin America.
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