Struggle for the Spirit
Religious Transformation and Popular Culture in Brazil and Latin America
1. Edition September 1996
264 Pages, Hardcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
For 500 years Catholicism has been the dominant religious force
throughout Latin America. Its hegemony was based on a complex
relationship with popular culture; the colorful and the macabre,
the syncretic and the purist, the indigenous and the cosmopolitan,
the popular and the erudite have combined to form a uniquely
creative and reflexive cultural complex.
But in the second half of the twentieth century, just as the
Church sought to reform itself by proclaiming its "preferential
option for the poor", some of the most charismatic forms of
Protestantism, carried along by an open and aggressive hostility to
the traditions of popular culture, began to establish themselves at
the heart of the popular sectors themselves - in the large urban
slums, among Indian groups and, increasingly, throughout other
strata of Latin American societies. Today around a fifth of the
population of countries like Brazil and Chile Protestant, mostly
Pentecostal. Is this a new Reformation? A cultural revolution? Or
merely another confirmation of the illusion of liberation?
Drawing on detailed research in Brazil and extensive knowledge
of Latin America as a whole, Lehmann explores the predicament of
the Catholic Church in the face of the apparently irresistible rise
of Pentecostalism, examines the structure and practices of the
religious organizations and assesses the broader political
implications of these developments. This well informed and
carefully researched study sheds new light on one of the most
remarkable cultural transformations of our time.
Glossary.
Preface.
Introduction.
Part I: Basistas:.
1. Basista Catholicism: Its Context and Character.
2. Movements of Conservation and Renewal in Modern
Catholicism.
3. Vatican II, Medellin and Liberation Theology.
4. Concepts and Usages in the Texts and Speech of the 'Basista'
Church.
5. Discourse.
6. Conclusion.
Part II: Pentecostals:.
7. The Organizational Dimension of Pentecostalism and
Neo-Pentecostalism.
8. The Religious Dimension.
9. The Experience of Pentecostals: Exaltation, Loyalty, and
Liminality.
Appendix: Pentecostalism's Social Base.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.
Index.
antagonistic contemporary modes of thought and action, Christian
fundamentalism and basismo, through the broad sweep of
history, as contemporary worldwide movements, and within the
temples and chapels of the city of Salvador, Brazil. This very well
written and good-humoured book should be read not only by those
interested in religion, since as all good sociology it suggests
relationships and connections with society as a whole. It will
provoke heated debate both among Latin Americanists and among those
concerned with understanding fundamentalism and basismo as
global phenomena." Peter Fry, Federal University of Rio de
Janeiro
"Lehmann's accounts of basismo and Pentecostalism are
instructive and based on ... well chosen subjects." European
Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies
"Religion and its multiple intersections with society and
politics are being belatedly recognized as enormously important in
the contemporary world. David Lehmann was doing distinguished work
on this matter well before this recognition. Now he offers us, in
this volume, another fascinating study that distillates his long
immersion on this topic as well as his extremely close knowledge of
Brazil and other Latin American countries." Guillermo O'Donnell,
University of Notre Dame
"David Lehmann's Struggle for the Spirit is a rich and
insightful addition to the literature both on radical modern
Catholicism and on radical primitive Pentecostalism in Latin
America." David Martin, Times Literary Supplement
"Lehmann's book is a subtle and welcome examination of the
extraordinary recent growth of Pentecostalism in Brazil and Latin
America. The book is based on field research ... and draws, as
well, on an array of rich secondary sources." Choice
"The style is flowing and reads like a travel story; a
well-informed account, always on the look-out and guided by
interrogations framed in theoretically pertinent questions. He
opens up a large field of research as yet unexplored and
fascinating." Latin American Studies
"Lucidly written, based on an impressive breadth of reading,
long experience of Latin America and recent, original fieldwork in
Brazil ... Latin Americanists will find much to stimulate them in
this book ... An enjoyable and easily digested book [which] shall
have a significant impact within and beyond Latin American
studies." Bulletin of Latin American Research
"The book is a good introduction to the study of contemporary
religious change in Brazil." Journal of Contemporary
Religion