Timothy Steigena, Edward Cleary, eds., Conversion of a Continent: Contemporary Religious Changes in Latin America, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2007, 290 pp.
Latin American studies often treat religion as a “dependent variable” that is caused by an economic, political, cultural or psychological factor, rather than studying religion from a theological point of view, on its own terms. This is particularly true of Pentecostal Studies, which has frequently tried to tie its rise to deprivation and social dislocation. This series of studies is a welcome addition to the sociological and anthropological literature studying Latin American religion from a so-called scientific point of view because: a) it treats a variety of variables in these different studies, b) it looks to conversion in a variety of contexts and religious forms, and c) it treats the conversion process in a more nuanced and developmental way. In fact, some of the essays in the volume critique other approaches in the same book for being too reductive.
The book includes thirteen chapters by a variety of authors, divided into three parts: different approaches to studying conversion, different religions to which people are converted, and implications of conversion. By amplifying both the methods and the populations studied, the volume provides a more comprehensive, if by its nature limited, view of the phenomenon of religious conversion. The authors show that they have read each others’ work, both in this volume and beyond, so the book embodies a conversation and more cohesiveness than is often the case in multiple author collections.
An analytic framework used by many of the authors helps to give more complexity and texture to the analysis of conversion. It suggests four stages in the conversion process, often including a fifth: pre-affiliation, affiliation, conversion proper, confession, and in some cases disaffiliation. While the authors take different approaches in their research, both theoretically and with the various targeted religious groups, the economic theory of rational choices predominates. That is, many of these authors see conversion not as a “dependent variable” attributed to poverty or family crises. Rather, conversion is a deliberate choice in the religious free market, among a variety of “products” which fill the religious desires and aspirations of the believer. In this, Pentecostal healing and the Spirit filled community are examples.
In addition to study of Pentecostal conversion, Mormon, Charismatic Catholic, Traditionalist contemporary Catholic, Afro-Brazilian, Neo-Pentecostal, and Native spirituality conversions are used to explore the phenomenon. Some studies show that after generations of pluralism in some sectors, the majority of reported Pentecostal conversions come from affiliated members and Pentecostal families.
Likewise, because of the pervasiveness of Catholicism, active or nominal, in much of Latin America, conversion experiences within Catholicism to the charismatic movement, to engaged social activism or to other expressions of convinced contemporary Catholicism, may be more numerous than Pentecostal conversions. It has been a truism for some time that the charismatic movement is more pervasive in Catholicism than the Christian Base Community movement of liberation theology. Some of the studies here show that in some contexts these may be complementary developments and not so polarized as some of the literature may suggest. Interestingly, appreciably high numbers are given for conversion within Catholic contexts where pluralism is expanding and Pentecostalism is growing, as in Guatemala.
Different local contexts are also explored, from Argentina and Brazil, through Bolivia and the Andes, to Guatemala, Mexico and Texas. A study of the Universal Church of God’s Reign from Brazil, but in immigrant Hispanic communities in Houston, demonstrates the adaptation of the “health wealth” Gospel of this movement to a different cultural context, and the form conversion takes on there. The exploration of how the newly converted Pentecostals and Charismatic Catholics relate to politics and economics is also pursued in ways that demonstrate a variety of results in society. The generalization about Pentecostal conversion leading to either quietism or identification with authoritarian governments is undercut by demographic studies which expose a much more diverse and complex religious reality.
These essays demonstrate how the social sciences can illuminate theological themes, like conversion, and can help revise unreflected or unexplored generalizations about any religious group in a complex and pluralizing religious environment like contemporary Latin America. The book will be useful for the content of the essays, the reflection on research methods, and for the bibliography on Latin American religion they provide.
***Brother Jeffrey Gros, FSC Memphis Theological Seminary
