The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity

by Todd Hartch

Overview

Winner of 2014 Book Award for Excellence in Missiology from the American Society of Missiology Winner of the 2015 Christianity Today Award for Missions/Global Affairs Named by the International Bulletin of Missionary Studies as an Outstanding Book of 2014 for Mission Studies Predominantly Catholic for centuries, Latin America is still largely Catholic today, but the religious continuity in the region masks enormous changes that have taken place in the past five decades. In fact, it would be fair to say that Latin American Christianity has been transformed definitively in the years since the Second Vatican Council. Religious change has not been obvious because its transformation has not been, as in Africa and Asia, the sudden and massive growth of a new religion. It has been rather a simultaneous revitalization and fragmentation that threatened, awakened, and ultimately brought to a greater maturity a dormant and parochial Christianity. The rapid growth of Protestantism, especially Pentecostalism, forced Catholics to adopt a more active and dynamic approach to their religion. Although many Catholics left their church to become Pentecostals, many others responded to the Protestant challenge by joining new Catholic movements. Today, Latin American Christianity is so energized that the region is sending missionaries to Africa, Europe, and the United States. In The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity, Todd Hartch examines the changes that have swept across Latin America in the last fifty years and situates them in the context of the growth of Christianity in the global South.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199365142
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	01/02/2014
Series:	Oxford Studies in World Christianity
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Todd Hartch teaches Latin American history and World Christianity at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, Kentucky. His research focuses on Christianity and missions in Latin America. His first book, Missionaries of the State: The Summer Institute of Linguistics, State Formation, and Indigenous Mexico examined the role of the Wycliffe Bible Translators in Mexico.

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter 1. The Rise of Protestantism Chapter 2. Large Scale Evangelism and the Catholic Response Chapter 3. Origins and Development Chapter 4. Prophetic Christianity in Brazil and Chile Chapter 5. The Heartland of Pentecostalism Chapter 6. Charismatic Catholicism Chapter 7. Catholic Action and Base Ecclesial Communities Chapter 8. The New Ecclesial Movements Chapter 9. Universal Christianity Chapter 10. From Latin America to the Ends of the Earth Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Wonderfully illuminates the events of the past half-century and provides a striking picture of the contemporary religious scene in Latin America."—Breakpoint

"In recent decades, Latin America has witnessed an upsurge of new forms of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, which has in turn provoked Catholic revival movements. Hartch's book gives us a valuable and accessible survey of these trends..."
—Christian Century

"An astute analysis."—International Bulletin of Missionary Research

"This is a book for all serious students of World Christianity. That Latin America is a highly significant component in the new World Christianity no one doubts; but its inheritance from the old European Christendom sets it apart. Todd Hartch provides a fine sustained historical interpretation of the distinctively Latin American forms of the Catholic and Protestant traditions. This is a book that illuminates and stimulates. Those concerned with Christian history in other parts of the world will find it a boon."—Andrew F. Walls, University of Edinburgh and Akrofi-Christaller Institute for Theology, Mission and Culture, Ghana

"[This book] make[s] important contributions to the process of nuancing and deepening portrayals of Latin American and Latino spirituality... valuable to anyone interested in the history of Latin American Christianities, both in Latin American and among US diaspora communities." —Theological Studies

From the Publisher