Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism
Numerous studies have examined the explosive growth of Evangelicalism in parts of Latin America. David Smilde's book—grounded in several years of ethnographic field work in Venezuela—adds to our growing knowledge of this phenomenon by focusing on the practical reasons for conversion among impov...
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| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford Univ. Press
2009
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| In: |
Sociology of religion
Year: 2009, Volume: 70, Issue: 4, Pages: 459-461 |
| Review of: | Reason to believe (Berkeley, Calif. [u.a.] : Univ. of California Press, 2007) (Nepstad, Sharon Erickson)
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| Further subjects: | B
Book review
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (JSTOR) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Numerous studies have examined the explosive growth of Evangelicalism in parts of Latin America. David Smilde's book—grounded in several years of ethnographic field work in Venezuela—adds to our growing knowledge of this phenomenon by focusing on the practical reasons for conversion among impoverished men in Caracas. He documents how many of his respondents turned to Evangelicalism to cope with substance abuse, marital conflicts, and economic difficulties. Since drinking, drug use, and gambling are forbidden among Evangelicals, new converts find themselves in a social context where there is strong support for refraining from these activities. Moreover, their sense of masculinity is undercut by economic marginalization, which is compounded by Venezuela's macho culture. |
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| ISSN: | 1759-8818 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Sociology of religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/socrel/srp058 |