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REVIEW ESSAY
WHO
SPEAKS
FOR LATIN AMERICAN
PENTECOSTALS?
Everett A. Wilson
Carmelo Alvarez, ed., Experiencia
Latinoamericana Departamento
Ecuminico Heindrich Schafer. Protestantismo
Pentecostalismo
(San de
Investigaciones,
143
Josi,
y Liberación,.
Una Costa Rica: Editorial
1992). [DEI]
.
Central
(San Josi,
Costa Rica: Editorial
de
Investigaciones,
1992). [DEI]
y
Crisis Social
Departamento
en Amirica Ecuménico
Barbara
Boudewijnse, Mris
que Opio.
Una Lectura Latinoamericano
y
Caribeiio Ecuminico
Andre
Droogers,
Antropológica
(San de
Investigaciones, 1991). [DEI]
Luis E. Samandu en Centroamirica Centroamericana,
(compiler).
(San 1991). [EDUCA]
Protestantismos Jos6,
Frans
Kamsteeg,
eds.
Algo
del Pentecostalismo Jos6, Costa
Rica: Editorial
y
Procesos Sociales Costa Rica: Editorial
Pentecostalismo
y
Jaime Valverde. Las Sectas Conflicto
Social
(San Josi, Investigaciones, 1990). [DEI]
en Costa
Rica;
Costa Rica: Editorial Ecuménico de
.
Abelino Martinez. Las Sectas en
Nicaragua. Oferta y
Demanda de
Salvació
(San Investigaciones,
Josi,
Costa 1989). [DEI]
up
of Pentecostals-have
Rica: Editorial Ecuménico de
made
Latin American
popular evangelical movements-increasingly
yet
to be assessed in a manner commensurate with their
rapid growth
and increased
recognition. Clearly,
the sessions devoted to the
topic
at recent
meetings
of the Latin American Studies Association and articles about
evangelicals
Research Review mark a new academic
perspective
in the Latin American
on the
region’s
1
144
evangelicals.’
Moreover,
by
the
output
of a
growing
treatments
by
David
and
representatives
the
region
and constructive the
overwhelming
social
problems dispossessed.
While
the
widely recognized
Martin,
David Stoll and Jean-Pierre Bastian have been followed
closely
number of other trained scholars graduate
students. These latter tend to affirm the
centrality
for
ongoing study
of
topics
such as the movements’ relative
autonomy
as
legitimate
of the
masses, relationship
to
disruptive
social
change
in
(rather
than
obstructionist)
or
worse,
indifferent to the Pentecostals
approaches
to faced
by
the Latin American
high
levels of
scholarly of research
topics,
for better
commitments
scholars fail to define
key
terms Pentecostal, Charismatic,
their
interpretations
distinctions that are considered movements.
Moreover,
most of these studies reflect
objectivity,
the selection and
interpretation
have become the domain of researchers who
may
be
themselves,
research not as
anthropological “participant
to
given policies
and
purposes.
For
example,
when such
or
worse, may
embark on
observers,”
but with
(sects, Protestant, Evangelical, popular, missionary, historic),
in these of some often
highly
Pentecostal
resources,
Satisfactory
treatment
impulses
that drive the
movements, processes
of
religious renewal, remain elusive. There also
appears landmark
methodological
works
indigenous,
are unclear
and,
more
significantly, may gloss
over
indispensable by participants
despite
the
appearance
informative books and articles in the wake of the
previously
mentioned landmark
studies,
in general subsequent research has shed little
light
on
leadership profiles
and
organizational dynamics.
of Pentecostal
nature of Pentecostal
spirituality
and the
religious
as well as their
relationship
to the secularization and social crisis also
to be little awareness of some by 2
Luther
Gerlach,
Felicitas D.
Goodman and Cornelia Butler Flora.2
In
part
the
interpretive problems
stem from the
popular, spontaneous
religion.
Because in
large
measure Pentecostals represent deprived populations
that lack the benefits of class, status and
Metamorphosis Perspective,” authors,
Religious
American ‘Virginia
Burnett, “Protestantism
in Rural
Guatemala, 1872-1954,”
Latin
Research Review 24/1
(1989): 127-142;
Jean-Pierre
Bastian,
“The
of Latin American Protestant A Sociohistorical
Latin Research Review 28/2 Groups: American
(1993): 33-61; multiple
“Protestantism in El Salvador: Conventional Wisdom versus
Survey Evidence,” Latin American Research Review 28/2 (1993): 119-140.
2Luther Gerlach, “Pentecostalism: Revolution or
Counter-Revolution?,”
in
Movements in Contemporary America, eds. Irving 1. Zaretsky and Mark P. Leone (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974); Felicitas D. Goodman,
in Tongues (Chicago, IL:
in
University of Chicago Press, 1972) and Cornelia Butler Flora, Pentecostalism Colombia: Baptism by Fire and Spirit (Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses, Inc., 1976).
Speaking
2
145
they
nature and influence. could no
longer initiatives
presented
power,
often have national, ethnic and denominational foci, and
usually are absorbed in
carrying
out their own
evangelistic commitments, have not answered in
scholarly
idiom the
questions
raised about their
As their movements
be overlooked-and as their
popular, energetic
an excellent
Pentecostal the Pentecostals
Editorial
Departamento Jose,
Pentecostalism
and
monographs,
Editorial
grew
to dimensions that
example
of the
self-empowerment
about
(DEI)
of San Latin American
statistical
directories,
memoirs
a number of
topical
invoked
by
the
sociological theory
of the 1980s-the Pentecostals became an academically
worthy object
of study.
In an effort to
highlight
the kind of treatment these Latin American
groups
have
received,
and to make the case for
allowing
to
speak
for
themselves,
this article reviews the
output of one of the most accessible sources of information about
them,
the
Ecumenico de
Investigaciones
Costa Rica. While information
has been
accumulating
on three continents in numerous journal articles,
doctoral
dissertations,
DEI has
gathered
analyses
and case studies into
books, making
them more available than had
they
been diffused in learned
journals.
headed
by
Carmelo
Alvarez,
a
Disciples
of Christ minister and author of several books and articles on
Pentecostalism,
a consortium of Central American
worked
closely
with
EDUCA, university presses,
in
encouraging Pentecostalism and related contribution merits
recognition
With an editorial board
Editorial
DEI has
and
disseminating
research on
DEI’s substantial
themes. Editorial
and
provides examples
for
assessing available
scholarly
works on the
subject.
the first of the aforementioned studies to be published,
Las Sectas en
Nicaragua, recognizes
Chronologically
phenomenon
must be understood
that the Pentecostal in
respect
both to the beliefs of the
adherents and the nature of the social climate in which
they operate.
Within this tension Pentecostal promoting
sect-like characteristics
groups emerge
as
“eclesiolas,”
and
1980s. The Pentecostal
negative product
of social
forces,
exclusiveness and
claiming
absolute
religious
truth. These
made the Pentecostals
very
marketable to those seeking religious
alternatives in a national climate of
uncertainty fear
brought
on
by
the Sandinista revolution and the violence of the
movement is thus
portrayed primarily
as a
issues of
injustice, exploitation
an immediate relief from the
symptoms
of alienation but an
inappropriate way
to address the “real”
and
suffering
which are
only prolonged by inattention
to the need for structural
change.
Las Sectas en Costa
Rica,
the work of a
specialist
in Central
religion,
advances the thesis that Pentecostals
American
in
general
3
146
characteristics,
issues of the
community. protest against unacceptable
existence, suppressed
“sectarian”
(“cultic”?)
the
to
Valverde,
were the Pentecostal
should be considered churches that affect
notably,
the
tendency
toward claims to absolute
truth, isolation from other
religious groups
and indifference to the
larger
This
religious
enthusiasm itself is a
symbolic
conditions of life and reflects Pentecostals’ desire to
separate
themselves from them.
Rejection
of the world,
the author
asserts,
is “not
only
the reason for the
group’s
but of its
vitality” (p. 75).
As labor
organizations
in the
1970s, according
churches became an
increasingly employed
method
(for
some
workers)
and
(for
the
employers)
(p. 84).
The Pentecostals’
effect,
in their
assuming
a political
role,
a passive support for the status quo. Thus,
Pentecostalism not
only repressed
social action but tended to turn adherents into at least
unwitting agents
of
imperialism
and the
of
avoiding organization
conflict,
otherworldly
for
breaking
labor beliefs
resulted,
in
perpetuation
of social
injustice.
Protestantismos
articles
prepared by
academic American
universities,
y
Procesos Sociales en Centroamdrica consists of
roads to
understanding” (p. 13).
Protestant
groups
sociologists
from several Central
University
of
statistics that offer
found
primarily
where
as well as from the Catholic
Louvaine and the Latin American Biblical
Seminary,
San
Jose,
Costa Rica. Its
objective
is “an effort to
bring together
the sectarian
changes occurring
in the isthmus
are
reportedly
capitalist
investment has undermined the traditional
patterns
of land use and labor and has
produced
a rural
proletariat,
Costa Rica and Panama. The
study
also
Atlantic coasts of
Honduras, finds Protestantism
proportionately
evident
especially
on the
more influential in smaller and rural
the
growth
of Protestant
communities than in the cities.
Ultimately,
groups
correlates with
populations neglected by
the Roman Catholic
church.
This
interpretation American
Project ambitious
project country-by-country
undertaken
Studies
of the Central (PROCADES),
an
of the church
is based on the
compilations
of
Socio-Religious
by
Clifton Holland in a series of
studies not unlike other
compilations
growth
school of research. The
compiler
of this volume warns the reader that the studies are restricted to
quantitative (read “descriptive”) material and do not
attempt
to
explain
the social or economic causes
for Pentecostal
growth.
Nonetheless,
are themselves
prejudicial.
West Indian
immigrants
the
analysis developed
For
example, evangelicals
groups
are found in
large proportion
or
indigenous groups evangelized by early
and the conclusions advanced
of the historic on the Caribbean coast
among
4
Protestant
missionaries-tracing
147
profiles hardly apply
to
Pentecostals,
Central American
evangelicals. Nicaragua,
which
grew rapidly Sandinista era, are labeled Pentecostalism”
[pentecostalismo
a
the same
Protestantism to
imperialism-these
who constitute the
majority
of And the Pentecostal
groups
of and
disproportionately during
the
product
of a “misunderstood mal
entendido],
which is “indifferent
make
essentially evangelical-notably the masses. Pentecostalism
to social crisis.” The
chapters
on the other Central American
republics
point,
the
Pentecostal-approach
from Pentecostal
the
inappropriateness
of the
to the social needs of
of
papers originally
Santiago, Chile,
in December, by
their
professional qualifications,
y
Liberación is a
compilation
presented by academically qualified leaders,
who for the most
part
are
churches and are committed to an ecumenical
agenda, to a gathering of Latin American and Caribbean Pentecostal leaders in
1990.
Participants
in the
symposium
are
Pentecostal
their denominational status and
access to
publications
in a far better
position
to be heard than are most
pastors, lay persons
or even executive leaders.
Thus,
the noble sentiments with which the book
concludes,
a
plea
for
greater
and
greater
concern for social tutorship
and
guidance
of the
coordination of Pentecostal
groups issues-presumably
under the participants
majority
of Pentecostal
pastors, preparation,
of the
symposium-is hardly
the
expression
of the vast
most of whom have limited formal
Central consists of a
and
who,
at
any rate,
are
deeply suspicious
of secular or religious
leaders who
presume
to
speak
for them.
y
crisis social en Amgrica
of the author’s several studies based on field research between 1985 and 1990 as
part
of his research for his doctoral
Protestantismo compilation
dissertation
at the Ruhr-Universitat
poor,”
and
“small,
radicalized
of Bochum. A Pentecostal
by
congregation,
Schafer’s
elements of the Pentecostal
[consisting] mostly
of
experience
and
pastor
of a Lutheran-Reformed
sentiments are
clearly
with
progressive
movement. He
presents
a
three-category typology
of Pentecostalism: “an
escape
for the
poor,”
“a vehicle for
resisting
the
insurgency
of the
organizations,
members of old-line
churches,
but with some
indigenous
Pentecostals
that most Pentecostals do not share his
(p. 17),
Schafer’s
expectation
that the
rapture
of the church is imminent, and as well, with a fundamentalist view of the death and resurrection of Christ, it will not be
possible
for him or her to realize the
example
of Christ in
solidarity
among
them.”
Recognizing political
convictions
with
oppressed peoples” (p. 19).
writes,
“If one lives in the
5
148
While
providing
much
insight America,
Schafer’s
interpretation
of a
complex
analysis repeatedly
victims of an
exploitative
his work
escapes
the distortion
said that the
typical
Pentecostal under the
unjust
conditions
into the Protestants of Central
returns to a reductionist socio-theological phenomenon,
the
conspiracy.
Schafer is
clearly
competence
and
sympathy
It
hardly
needs to be
intrusion of extraneous influences
upon indigenous people
who are the
international
entitled
by
his
superior training,
obvious
with the
suffering
masses of Central America to a hearing, but whether
of an
ideological
bias or
presents
an adequate profile
of these
groups
is
questionable.
pastor,
whose
congregations daily
live
that Schafer and
every
other
person
of good
will
laments,
has had to make recurrent decisions about how to face these
very
issues. And the model
pastor, despite
his limited formal
is
likely
to have
fairly well-thought-out
based on limited
options
and a realistic sense of what
policies
are most desirable. In
any event, given
the fact that he
typically
is sustained
by his own income or
by
his
congregation,
preparation,
his
opinions
are a
consequence
statistical
interpretation Algo
political opinions
it
may
be
questioned
whether of
foreign
financial
dependency
and
unity, support
for
progressive
questionable
subtle
ideological manipulation through Sunday
School literature.
If the
forgoing
works have in each case a focus that identifies its bias-such as a
plea
for ecumenical
elements
among
the Protestants of Central America and a
profile
of Central American Protestants based on sometimes
mds
que Opio [Something
More Than Opium,
reviewed in PNEUMA 14
(Fall 1992) by David Bundy)]
offers yet
another focus for the
ongoing study
of the Pentecostal movement. The book’s lead article reviews and raises
questions
about the Droogers,
and in
general
the other
of available
sociological theory
to
diversity
and
apparent
internal contradictions.
suggestions
of
George
E. Marcus and in effect calls for a much broader
adequacy
of
prevailing
theories. authors, recognizes
the
inadequacy explain
the movements’
Following
the theoretical Michael M. J.
Fischer,3 Droogers concept
of
Pentecostalism, protean elasticity
and
versatility.
Stated
one that will
give adequate
attention to its
was
represented
as
being populations staging
a
symbolic,
simply,
these authors
argue
that the movements must be understood on their own
terms,
sui
generis,
as a product of the current social situation in the
region.
As much as Pentecostalism
a movement of
alienated,
Critique:
escapist protest
in the
past
marginal in
response
to
‘ George
E. Marcus and Michael M. J.
Fischer, Anthropology as Cultural
An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences (Chicago, IL: of
University
Chicago Press, 1986).
6
unacceptable
149
may
be
represented
in
quite
anthology,
conditions
which,
in
large part,
stemmed from
capitalist policies, increasingly today
Pentecostalism
different terms. The
profile
that
emerges
in this coordinated
questions
anomie as the fundamental cause of Pentecostal
and instead affirms the self-reliance of the
movements,
to them
diverse,
even
contradictory
tightly
knit associations
for survival and
protection
of their interests. If the authors find a basis
moreover,
growth,
attributing
find in Pentecostalism
functions. Adherents that offer them a basis
in unfavorable
conditions,
they
for the
origins
of Pentecostalism recognize
the
self-empowering includes
contradictory elements, explained by
the believers’ conservative cultural
patterns. using
their faith
pragmatically,
nature of the movement. Pentecostalism
systems
of Pentecostals
as a
scarcely recognized foreign-mainly
studies
interpreted
security. Now, increasingly,
it is
argued,
a
paradox
that is
to both innovative and
of of the entire
range
attributed almost
entirely
to
as
“indigenous”
accessibility
Pentecostals thus have the
option
of
according
to the needs of the situation at hand
(p. 55).
Whether this functional
analysis
does
justice
to the belief
remains to be
examined,
but
certainly
these authors offer a different,
apparently evolving appraisal
of their
subject.
While a brief review of one source of
scholarly analysis Pentecostalism must not be taken as
representative
of ongoing
research,
the dialectic of Pentecostal studies
generally
tends to be reflected in the books
produced by Editorial DEI. Initially
viewed
phenomenon
North
American-missionary enterprises, subsequent
Latin American Pentecostalism
movements
resulting
from
profound
social
upheaval
and the search for
these
groups
are treated
by
scholars as popular
movements that have at least an implicit social
agenda
and that speak legitimately
for the Latin American masses. From a conspiracy to
changes,
Pentecostalism
as a popular movement to build a new
society.
Available studies tend to
presupposed agendas, apparently
in some cases with
designs
on the movements’
often
well-disciplined, energies.
While it is clear that the Pentecostals are
deeply
embroiled in a social
struggle,
it is also clear that
they
have their own
objectives, priorities
and
preferences. Expecting
conform to an alien
program
or to be used
by
either
foreign
or other
obstruct
revolutionary
national interests is unreasonable.
is now more often seen
large
numbers and
abundant,
them to
Yet, many publications-among
them some with excellent
insights
and claims to
legitimacy
in
speaking
that the bulk
to
paternalistic
of
Latin American manipulation,
are
for Latin
Americans-imply Pentecostals are
susceptible compromised
their own
peoples.
by foreign
influence and resources and have
betrayed
7
150
Given the
competence
any
effort to
understand be welcomed. Pentecostals and
relating
and the
option
for the
poor displayed by
most writers who have treated Latin American
Pentecostalism,
the
process
of
spiritual, religious
and social
change
should
But it seems
especially
desirable that Latin American
speak
for
themselves, their
organizational
that
interpreters movements, men and women
interpreting impulses
their own
experience to their own
beliefs,
the
their
aspirations
and resources. What
appears
from the
longitudinal study
of Pentecostalism as
represented by
the
publications
of Editorial DEI is
have tended to
impose
their own views on the
sometimes
ignoring
the sentiments of the vast
majority
of
whose vision and dedication have
brought movements into
being. When,
as has too often been the
case,
writers have lectured Pentecostals on their social
obligations,
or have
sprinkled
with “should” or
“ought
adherents for their failure to
support given strategies,
has
simply
abandoned the task of
analysis
to use the
study
at hand as an
conclusions
ideological pulpit.
While Pentecostal
to demonstrate
solidarity found in Pentecostalism
to,”
or have berated
the
interpreter
groups may
suffer from limited
resources and forms of
myopia,
their adherents at all
organizational levels
appear
to be
essentially
a motivated
laity
that has no further need
with the Latin American masses.
Having
a way to address their own
problems, they
are not inclined to
accept uncritically suggestions
their own
nation,
social class and
religious grouping
as to what are in
their best interests.
from elements outside
and not
for their benefit in
Ultimately,
the student of Pentecostalism should be sensitive to the
interests of the Latin American rank-and-file
on them. The studies reviewed here and similar
should be
recognized
of these movements.
They
should not be taken in their
entirety
or
exclusively,
of the movements’ character and evolution.
self-expressed
impose expectations
efforts at
interpretation promoting
better
understanding
interpretations
however,
as authoritative
8
