Costa Rica

C Caboclo Shamanism Introduction Raymundo Heraldo Maués Sociology and Anthropology Postgraduate Program/PPGSA, Federal University of Pará/ UFPA, Belem, PA, Brazil This entry is limited to the territory referred to as the Salgado region, which is part of the northeast coast of the state of Pará, in Brazilian Amazonia. The bibliography results from several studies carried out in other rural and urban areas of Amazonia, especially the shamanistic aspects of this practice, albeit without further detailing into the beliefs and representations that underlie it. Caboclo shamanism features not only esthetic practices (dance and song) but also religious ones, and there is a thorough worldview behind it, with indigenous conceptions (especially the ancient Tupinambas) and Catholic, Kardecist, and Umbandist views mixed in. But it is not a separate religion, like Umbanda and Kardecism. There is no “animistic” religious identity in caboclo shamanism or any other name given to it. Its practitioners identify themselves as “good Catholics,” as do the worship officiating shamans or healers, who also go to church, attend commemorations for saints, make sacred promises, and frequent litanies and processions. In addition, caboclo shamanism has implications that influence the way of life of Amazonian rural populations and even affects socioeconomic aspects. However, as a form of alternative medicine, it can be thought of as being of great importance for rural or rurally originated populations in Amazonian areas where healthcare resources rarely come from “official” medicine, which includes various Keywords Shamanism · Brazilian Amazonia · Popular Catholicism · Rural Shamanism · Popular medicine Definition Caboclo (mestizo) shamanism or rural shamanism is originally an indigenous form of worship, but it is practiced mainly in rural areas of Brazilian Amazonia by nonindigenous populations, and has been studied by folklorists, historians, anthropologists, and other scholars. It is presented as a therapeutic practice that is integrated into a broader system of various forms of what is called popular medicine, comprising a global medical system into which most of the rural or rurally originated populations in Brazilian Amazonia are integrated but also present in the Pan Amazonian territory that includes regions of several countries bordering Brazil. In recent years urban shamanism has developed, albeit the latter is not presented in detail here. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 H. Gooren (ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, Religions of the World, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27078-4 262 agents such as doctors, nurses, psychologists, and other professionals. It can be said that caboclo shamanism, as a form of worship and popular medical practice, is of great importance to hundreds of villages and towns in the interior of the Amazon, where health services provided by personnel trained in Western medicine are extremely precarious. In addition, even if these people can use medical services outside their communities, this is done concomitantly with the use of local medicine, of which the scope is much broader, involving religious beliefs, knowledge of nature (especially plants and animals), social relations (family, neighborhood, settlement, and members coming from other villages), as well as economic exchanges, ceremonies, participation in rituals, entertainment, etc. On the other hand, caboclo shamanism appears as one of several Amazonian medicines, since the shaman is not the only local specialist in the treatment of diseases. Besides him there is the “experienced one” (who has knowledge on many popular remedies), the midwife, the male and female blessing givers (who blesses the sick to provide healing), the “Spiritist” (someone who follows Kardecism and also cares for the sick), and the “pharmacist,” the owner of the pharmacy, who prescribes and sells medicines. More recently, with the development of Pentecostalism, many churches have penetrated Amazonia to cure diseases through exorcism and the powers of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, the shaman features as the most important popular physician in the earlier colonization areas such as the coast of Pará and the Lower Amazon River. The shaman can additionally perform the functions of the experienced ones, the blessing givers, and, when the shaman is a woman, she can perform as a midwife (being much in demand in this case, for she will work with the assistance of the “enchanted ones”). None of these specialists can, however, perform the specific functions of the shaman, who is an inspired witchdoctor. Shamanism/animism, with Catholicism, has kept its concomitant dominance as a religion in Brazil in the areas where the worship and practice of caboclo or rural shamans have developed. In Caboclo Shamanism recent years, from the renewal provided by Vatican Council II, and from the new ideas spread through the knowledge of psychology and psychoanalysis, as well as of the what is called parapsychology, the Catholic Church’s attitude toward animism/shamanism has become more tolerant, and some Catholic priests have allowed and even approved (with reservations) these practices as forms of “psychosomatic” treatment and even effective ones tout court, for that matter, given the traditional knowledge of the shamans regarding medicinal plants. The shamans, in turn, albeit scarred by the long years of persecution (undergone personally or by their predecessors), claim caboclo shamanism to be perfectly compatible with Christianity. Some of them even call for the shamanic character of Jesus Christ, casting out devils; curing the blind, the lepers, and other sick; as well as performing veritable miracles. Popular Catholicism and Caboclo Shamanism The most characteristic aspect of popular religiosity in the interior of the Amazon – despite recent transformations, with the marked diversification of the Brazilian religious scenario resulting from the penetration of new churches – is the syncretism between the conceptions and practices of popular Catholicism, and a form of worship of partially indigenous origin but also influenced by African-matrix religions (and by the very Catholicism) which is caboclo shamanism. I am aware of the criticism endured by the use of the term “caboclo” (mestizo), often applied in the past, for the Amazonian rural populations (Lima 1999). I summarize the issue in another publication on a rural community in the Amazon: Residents of the city of Tefé [in the state of Amazonas] refer to Nogueira as a caboclo community. However, caboclo is not a term widely used by people as a reference to their own identity, but to refer to those who, in the regional classification, are spoken of as being inferior to the speaker. This usage originates from the history of the term, originally used to refer to indigenous villages and, later, to mestizo descendants of whites and Indians. It is associated with a negative stereotype, which Caboclo Shamanism includes attributes such as laziness and chicanery, hence the refusal of the rural population to identify with the term. (Lima n.d., p. 12, n.2) However, the term caboclo shamanism, for lack of a better expression, is used to distinguish this form of animism from that practiced by indigenous populations and secondly because of the use already made by anthropologists and other scholars. The main purpose of this entry is to present caboclo shamanism through one of its most important aspects, as a ritual of shamanic healing. It is herein called caboclo shamanism, or rural animism referring to a form of cult of indigenous origin, but practiced mainly in rural areas of Amazonia by nonindigenous populations and which has been studied by Eduardo Galvão, Napoleão Figueiredo, and Vicente Salles, to mention some of the most important (de Figueiredo 1996; Galvão 1955; Lima 1997; Nugent and Harris 2004). Caboclo shamanism presents itself as a therapeutic system, integrated into the broader system of various forms of popular medicines, which make up the global medical system in which the rural or rurally originated populations of Brazilian Amazonia are integrated. My own field research was limited to the Salgado region, which is part of the coast and northeast of Para, initially working in a small fishing village called Itapuá. The bibliography results from several studies carried out in other rural and urban areas of the Amazon. The entry presented here specially emphasizes the shamanistic aspects of this practice, but without going detail into the beliefs and representations themselves, that underlie it. Caboclo shamanism has not only esthetic implications (dance and singing), but also religious ones, and there is a whole worldview behind it, with indigenous conceptions (especially ones from the ancient Tupinambás), and also from Catholics, Kardecists, and Umbanda. But it is not, like Umbanda and Kardecism, a separate religion. There is no “animistic” religious identity or any other name given to it. Its practitioners identify themselves as “good Catholics,” as do the cult-officiating shamans or healers, who also go to church, attend commemorations for saints, make sacred promises, and frequent litanies and 263 processions. In addition, caboclo shamanism has implications that influence the way of life of Amazonian rural populations, to the point of affecting socioeconomic aspects. This texts show its conspicuous presence in Brazilian Amazonia but at the same time demonstrates the relations it maintains with other more recent religious forms, such as Pentecostalism and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR). However, as a form of alternative medicine, it can be thought of as being of great importance to rural or rurally originated populations in the areas where this research has been carried out – people who are more rarely and precariously provided with the resources of an “official” medicine. The region’s animism – as a kind of alternative medicine – is a form of worship and popular medical practice whose importance is very great in hundreds of villages and towns in the interior of Amazonia, where services offered by trained personnel within the tradition of Western medicine or biomedicine are extremely precarious or nonexistent. Furthermore, even if these people can use medical services outside their communities, this is done concomitantly with the use of local medicine, whose scope is much broader, involving religious beliefs, knowledge of nature (especially plants and animals), social relations (family, neighborhood, settlement, other settlements), as well as economic exchanges, ceremonies, participation in rituals, entertainment, etc. How can a new shaman be formed? The shaman, of course, is always subject to control mechanisms, which can contribute to his success or failure. Every new shaman arouses mistrust and can be considered as a “liar,” that is, someone who pretends to have shamanistic powers to take advantage of popular belief. Until his fame is established, he is subject to these manifestations of anarchy. The “anarchists” are usually young people who attend the shamanic session to disturb it, staying close to the house or even going inside it. From the outside, they imitate the “whistle” of the matintaperera (a witch accompanied by a bird); in the inside, they pretend to be incorporated by some spirit or caruana (an indigenous mythical entity). In a session this author attended C 264 in Itapuá, the anarchists even stole some tauari cigarettes from shaman Maria da Glória, which they later exhibited in triumph on their way home at dawn. Therefore, many shamans, especially those of lesser prestige, usually keep their sessions secret, inviting only selected people to participate in them, fearful of being victims of anarchy. It is believed, however, that if the shaman is indeed powerful, he is able to send his caruanas to punish the anarchists. If the shaman manages to “overthrow” one of these boys, that is, to make him “act real,” then his or her fame and respect become consolidated. Another factor that contributes to respect and consideration is to be seen as a “shaman from birth.” The best shamans are those who are already born with the gift. It is said, of some of them, “they wept in the mother’s belly.” This is one of the main indicators of shamanistic powers. There is a belief, however, that if this happens and the mother discloses the fact before the powers are manifested, these powers will actually be lost. Those whose gift manifests belatedly, especially after adulthood, as is the case of Mundico, who only became a shaman at 60 years of age, are less respected. They are said to be “pleasing” shamans, that is, the caruanas chose them belatedly because they “please” the latter at some point of their lives: they are always less powerful than the ones who are “normal shamans.” For this reason, no shaman ever admits not to have brought his gift from the cradle, including Mundico, although the residents of Itapuá contest that claim. The best shamans are, however, those who have been “formed at the bottom,” as in the case of Procópio Souza. Another famous shaman, who would have been formed in the bottom, was Expedito, also deceased, from the village of Santa Rosa. It is said that he was an amoré (moray) fisher, the moray being a fish used by fishermen to bait for larger fish. To catch morays, one needs to dive down to the rocks, where the fish dwells. At one point, when diving, Expedito remained at the bottom much longer than other fishermen and he returned as a shaman. The shamanic “journey” around the bottom is, however, considered a very rare phenomenon and, only Caboclo Shamanism happened with famous shamans who have already passed away. The common process of shaman training, includes a well-established pattern. The candidate for shamanism suffers from a “disease” called the “current at the bottom,” of which the symptoms have to do with the uncontrolled incorporation of entities (“enchanted ones”) that are human beings who did not die but “were enchanted.” Those who show these symptoms should be brought to a shaman to be treated. It is believed that a person, albeit possessing the gift to become a shaman, may also be persecuted by spirits and these, among the caruana entities which accompany him or her, may not be all good and therefore must be removed, as well as the spirits. The shaman who presides over the treatment is called “master,” while the patient is his “disciple.” The latter should accompany the master in all healing sessions or works presided over by the master, in which other patients attend to treat other ailments. During the treatment, the disciple receives the prescription of several “remedies,” among baths, smoke cleansing, and emetics. If it is considered that after having been rid of all the spirits and the evil caruanas, the disciple actually possesses an authentic gift, the treatment will be crowned with a special session, where the new shaman will be encruzado. It is a very elaborate ritual, during which, as in other rites of passage, the disciple must die symbolically to be reborn as a shaman. The following description is based mainly on the ritual attended by the author in Santa Maria do Guarimã, in February 1976, presided over by shaman Benzinho, who was “encruzadoing” a disciple of the city of Vigia. During the ritual, both the master and the disciple receive their caruanas and sing their doctrines (chants), separately dancing in the hall without one harming the work of the other, because they do this each one in turn. At one point, the master orders the disciple to sit on a chair or bench in the middle of the room. The master hands him the lit tauari cigarette and tells him to “swallow” the smoke from it. Then he summons two men and two women, each with a candle burning in hand. These people stand, forming a circle around the disciple. Then the Caboclo Shamanism master, who at the moment is incorporated by the chief caruana of his chains, blows smoke on the disciple’s crosses with the tauari cigarette, says a long prayer, and then sings his doctrine, dancing in the hall. As he begins to sing, the two men and the two women, who are around the disciple, exchange the candles among themselves, forming a cross over his head, repeating this operation several times, while the master continues the singing and the dance. This is the moment when the disciple is being encruzado. All the people present, who know the doctrine sung by the master, sing in chorus with him. When the master stops singing, the four people who have crossed the candles over his head carry the apparently unconscious disciple to a hammock. After being placed on the hammock, he is completely covered with a white sheet, including his face, as if he were dead. The master starts to sing again, asking the servant (a shaman’s assistant) to take the time on the clock at 15 min. This is very emphasized, and the master explains that if they let more time go by, the disciple runs the risk of never waking up again. When the time indicated by the master is up, the servant removes the sheet from the disciple and, guided by the master, slaps him on his forehead, calling him by name. The disciple then awakens, as from a deep sleep. He sits on the hammock and after some time the master calls him to prescribe him the medication and the recovery procedures to be kept (Maués 1977, pp. 207–208). In one of the sessions witnessed by this author, the new shaman was encruzado: the shaman candidate sat on a small bench, while four people surrounded him in his condition of being a shaman candidate and smoked him with candles burning over his head. Then he fell asleep and was put into a hammock where he remained “dead” for about half an hour. It was only after that time that the new shaman resumed his consciousness (he was temporarily “dead”) and returned to dancing and singing his doctrines. From then on, when the candidate’s entities disappeared, he was instructed to remain in an enclosed room for a week, eating special foods prepared for him and learning that, from then on, he could not eat forbidden foods that could harm his shamanistic activity. 265 Immediately after the encruzamento, the new shaman will be subjected to strict reclusion for 7 days, feeding on special foods, similar to those prescribed for children between 1 and 2 years of age and post-parturition women. Only then will he be prepared to work independently, chairing his own sessions and treating his own patients. Treatment by a shaman is lengthy and involves considerable expense, by local standards. On the other hand, most people who seek the shamans end up not becoming one, either because the entities are permanently removed (although there is always a suspicion that they can return) or because entities can be kept under control, without holding an encruzamento, with some ritual precautions (baths, smoke, occasional consultations with shamans, etc.). In all cases this author knew of, these people said they did not want to be a shaman. As for those who are initiated as shamans, they are considered not cured of the disease they had, since the disease consists in their very shamanistic gift: they have merely learned to control their seizures, and physical and psychic ills have ceased. But they cannot neglect their duties in their new status (prayers, food taboos, and others which persist), and, above all, they cannot stop working as shamans, periodically holding healing sessions and even if they do not have patients to treat, “pulling their chains” (i.e., invoking their caruanas) in sessions that can be limited to the assistance to their relatives if they have spent a long time without holding sessions. If they do not do this, their guides will punish them, as will be seen below. The shaman’s primary ritual activity is that of healing diseases through shamanic sessions or “works.” This “work” is commissioned by the patient or his/her family members who are responsible for the necessary expenses: purchase of candles, cachaça (sugarcane liquor), smoke cleansing ingredients, “tauari” or “taquari” cigarettes (made from a special plant with which tobacco is rolled, along with smoke cleansing), teas, charcoal for the stove, common cigarettes, etc. The shaman usually emphasizes that he does not receive any payment for his function, being generally a professional who works, like all the adult men in his community. The session can take C 266 place in the house of the shaman or at the home of the ailing person. Other patients who have not ordered the work attend to the session but can benefit from it. In addition, there are several other participants, of both genders and of all ages. The session is held at night and usually continues through late hours. The shaman begins by praying in front of images of Catholic saints and invoking the protection of the Christian God, placing his own spirit in the hands of the Almighty. Then, going into trance, he is taken by several entities, the caruanas, the companions, or animals of the bottom. These are not spirits, in the usual acceptation of the term, but of living albeit “enchanted” human beings who inhabit underground or underwater cities, in the enchant. The accounts the author has gathered point out to the fact that it is not the spirit of the caruana that is incorporated into the shaman but the whole caruana, in body and soul. Nobody explains how that takes place. Spirits are not welcome, because they are considered evil or “penitent” entities, in need of eternal salvation. Possessed by these caruanas, the shaman dances and sings over the hall, shaking the maracá. It is expected that only he incorporates entities. In case any of the patients or assistants enter into trance (with the exception of another shaman or a “disciple” who is already advanced in the process of his initiation to shamanism), it is undoubtedly the case of a spirit or a bad caruana, which must be removed (exorcized) by the shaman, who is possessed by his caruanas or his companions of the bottom. After incorporating several enchanted ones, the shaman finally receives the “master of healing” and calls the sick person to whom the work is destined. There are several healing techniques: smoking, rubbing the body with cachaça, imposing hands on the affected part, spiritual cleansing, dancing with the patient on his back, “sucking off” the disease – the shaman applies his lips on the patient’s skin to remove objects (insects, locks of hair and other) that are inside the body, among other body techniques. At the end of the program, remedies “of the bush” and/or “drugstore medicine,” are prescribed as the case may be. After the treatment of the “owner of the Caboclo Shamanism work,” the shaman calls other people who wish to be treated and repeats the healing procedures with them. The belief is that it is not the shaman who heals his patients but the enchanted ones that are incorporated in him. The session is not in any way held in a climate of circumspection or excessive seriousness. The shaman plays with the participants and incorporates jovial enchanted ones, and the participants tell anecdotes to mock the shaman and sometimes the very caruanas. Much of the work has a particularly playful character, which does not contaminate the seriousness required at the appropriate times, when healing is being processed. At all times of the work, the shaman is in trance, possessed by numerous enchanted ones, who succeed one another. In the end, into neardawn hours, the shaman closes the session. This is a time of ritual tension, in which the spirit of the shaman returns to his body, substituting the entities of the bottom. The shaman’s helper takes care to awaken him with great care, so that he can return to his normal state without any problems. At that moment Catholic prayers are prayed to help the shaman recover his consciousness. Returning to his normal state, the shaman usually asks what important events happened in the session, since he declares that he is not aware of what is happening when he is in a trance. In an earlier study, written in collaboration with Gisela Villacorta Macambira, discussing whether it is possible to apply the concept of Shamanism to the healings of the caboclo shaman, we have said that we consider rural animism as a form of shamanism, although this religious manifestation does not have the classic characteristic of Siberian shamanism in the views of Mircea Eliade (1951, apud Lewis 1977), that is, the journey through the world of the spirits. In the case of the Amazonian shaman (...), the phenomenon of incorporation occurs [as described above] (...) instead. We are reminded that, according to what anthropologist Ioan M. Lewis demonstrates, Siberian shamans also perform their sessions while incorporating entities (spirits), unlike what Eliade thought. For Lewis, “all shamans are mediums and, as stated by the black Caribs of British Honduras, tend to function with a ‘telephone call’ Caboclo Shamanism between man and God. Of course, it cannot be concluded that all mediums are necessarily shamans, despite (...) these two characteristics being usually linked. People who are regularly possessed by a particular spirit can be regarded as a medium for that deity. Some, but not all mediums will graduate to the point of becoming controllers of spirits, and once they ‘master’ these forces in a controlled manner, they will be proper shamans” (Lewis 1977, pp. 56–64). Thus, for Lewis, the fundamental characteristic of the shaman lies in the control that the medium is capable of manifesting over the entities that possess him but which in a sense are also possessed or tamed by him. Alongside this, it is important to note that the most powerful Amazonian shamans (sometimes called sacacas) are also thought of as being capable of performing a kind of “shamanic journey,” visiting the world of the enchanted ones but not only with their spirit: it is said that they visit the “enchantment” in a normal state, without being in trance, and there they often learn healing techniques that they will later apply to their patients (Maués and Villacorta 2001, pp. 11–12). In recent years, however, a new obstacle has grown to possibly prevail over shamanic practices as performed not only by Indians but by nonindigenous traditional Amazonian populations: the development of Pentecostalism (including Catholicism, through the so-called Catholic Charismatic Renewal). In Pentecostalism – a form of worship that is also shamanic, in the sense that its healers (lay or officiating) receive a spirit to perform the healing – the only admitted beneficial entity is the Christian Holy Spirit. The other entities that can be incorporated into the shamans, including the caruanas, are all identified with the demon, the “Enemy.” This is a new threat (similar to the one we already had in the Amazon in the colonial period, including the Visitation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in the mid-eighteenth century) against the practices of caboclo shamanism. This is already apparent in the doctoral dissertation of American anthropologist Mark Cravalho, a dissertation of which the title well expresses this tendency, found among his main subjects of 267 research on the field, although one of its characters (prematurely deceased) was someone who transited between the Pentecostalism, Catholicism, and caboclo shamanism: “An Invisible Universe of Evil: Supernatural Malevolence and Personal Experience among Amazon Peasants.” This dissertation, defended in 1993 at the University of California, San Diego, resulted from research conducted in the Lower Amazon, in a town where the presence of Pentecostals at the Assembly of God church was quite strong (Cravalho 1993). In the testimonies collected by this anthropologist, there are interpretations of the caruanas as demonic entities, which is not found in works of other scholars who have previously researched the same subject. Even more recently, in field research in the region of Salgado, very near the State capital of Belém, Gisela Macambira Villacorta was able to perceive similar situations related to the penetration of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the island of Itapuá, in the municipality of Vigia, where I started his study of caboclo shamanism several years ago. I described this issue in a recent study, dominated by a traditional form of Catholicism: it is, in Weberian terms, a process of “disenchantment of the world.” This began to happen with the entrance of the Assemblies of God church, which had been trying for several years to become implanted there, only to succeed more recently. The same notably happens with the entry of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which presents itself in the local charismatic formulation as a “renewed” movement, as opposed to the “traditionalist” Catholics (Ayres and de Magalhães 1992; Maués 1999, 2001, 2005; Maués and Villacorta 2001). At this point it is worth remembering the work of Cecilia Mariz, when she discusses the importance of the devil in Pentecostal conceptions. For this author, the substitution of the innumerable entities of traditional popular Catholicism, or of the so-called macumba (Afro-Brazilian religions) by the simpler pair of opposition constituted by God and the Enemy (devil, Satan) that occurs with the conversion to Pentecostalism, represents a form of disenchantment of the world (Mariz 1997, p. 57). The same can be said, in a way, C 268 about conversion to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which also tends to assume this form of simplified explanation of the ailments (illnesses, misfortune, etc.), which are attributed in the same way to the so-called Enemy, even though both charismatics and Catholics do not renounce, so to speak, the worship of the saints. Thus the entities of the pantheon of other religions, especially of the Afro-Brazilian ones, are now reduced to diabolical beings, within the logic of the well-known theology of “spiritual warfare,” put more clearly into practice by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God church but somehow present in the different branches of Pentecostalism (and in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal). The same happens with the entities (enchanted ones, caruanas) of caboclo shamanism, as it is possible to verify in Itapuá (...). The process is so radical in certain cases (outside the research area) that some Pentecostals abhor even the traditional accounts of the Amazonian legends or myths (big snake, matintaperera, boto, curupira, and several others), as things of the Enemy, refusing to relate them, since they have come to only wish to recount biblical stories (Maués and Villacorta 2001). However, we are entering here into terrain on which not enough research has been done as yet that can at least indicate the trends of this movement that results from the expansion of Pentecostalism and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in rural areas of Amazonia. Only new research will be able to show how the relations will be processed between caboclo shamanism and Pentecostalism and between caboclo shamanism and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and what the results will be of these relations in terms of syncretic fusion, accommodation, conflict, domination, or repulse. However, the knowledge that we have collected on traditional Catholicism in Amazonia, in which caboclo shamanism is integrated, tends to demonstrate the cultural resistance of the latter. This form of Catholicism has been maintained for centuries – facing different threats – and therefore, we can assume that it can hardly be overcome or suppressed by the new threats that still arise nowadays. Caboclo Shamanism Cross-References ▶ Neo-esotericism ▶ Novenas (Catholic Prayer Tradition) ▶ Urban Shamanism References Ayres L, de Magalhães D (1992) The social category Caboclo: history, identity and outsider’s social classification of a rural population of the Amazon Middle Solimões River. Doctorate Dissertation in Anthropology. University of Cambridge Cravalho M (1993) An invisible universe of evil: supernatural malevolence and personal experience universe of evil: supernatural malevolence and personal experience among Amazon peasants. Doctorate Dissertation in Antropology. University of California, San Diego Eliade M (1951) Le Chamanisme et les Techniques Archaiques de l’Extase. Payot, Paris de Figueiredo AM (1996) A cidade dos encantados: Pajelança, feitiçarias e religiões afro-brasileiras na Amazônia. A constituição de um campo de estudo, 1870–1950. Master’s Dissertation in History. UNICAMP, Campinas Galvão E (1955) Santos e Visagens, um estudo da vida religiosa de Itá, Amazonas. Coleção Brasiliana, 284. Nacional, São Paulo Lima Z (1997) O Mundo Místico dos Caruanas e a Revolta de sua Ave, 4th edn. CEJUP, Belém Lima DM (1999) A construção histórica do termo caboclo. Sobre estruturas e representações sociais no meio rural amazônico. Novos Cadernos do NAEA, Belém: UFPA 2(2):5–32 Lima DdM (n.d.) “The roça legacy”: land use and kinship dynamics in Nogueira, an Amazonian Community of the Middle Solimões Region. In: Nugent S, Harris M (eds) Some other Amazonians: perspectives on modern Amazonia. Institute for the Study of the Americas, London, pp 12–36 Mariz CL (1997) O demônio e os pentecostais no Brasil. In: Birman P, Novaes R, Crespo ES (eds) O Mal à Brasileira. EDUERJ, Rio de Janeiro, pp 45–61 Maués RH (1977) A Ilha Encantada: medicina e xamanismo numa comunidade de Pescadores. Dissertação de mestrado. Universidade de Brasília Maués R (1999) Heraldo. Uma Outra “Invenção” da Amazônia: religiões, histórias, identidades. Belém, CEJUP Maués RH (2001) Xamanismo e Renovação carismática Católica (RCC) em uma povoação do litoral da Amazônia Brasileira. Comunicação apresentada nas ????? Alternativas Religiosas na América Latina – Santiago do Chile, de 03 a 05 de outubro de Maués RH (2005) Técnicas corporais de cura espiritual: semelhanças, diferenças, significados. Estudo apresentado no GT “Religiões e Percursos de Saúde Câmara, Dom Hélder Pessoa (Bishop) no Brasil de Hoje: as ‘Curas Espirituais’”, XII Encontro de Ciências Sociais Norte Nordeste, Belém, 17 a 20 de abril de. See summary at http://www.ufpa.br/ciso/gts/ gt17.pdf. Accessed 15 Nov 2017 Maués RH, Villacorta GM (2001) Pajelança e encantaria amazônica. In: Prandi R (ed) Encantaria Brasileira: Encantaria Brasileira: O livro dos mestres, caboclos e encantados. Pallas, Rio de Janeiro, pp 11–58 Mauss M (1974) Ensaio sobre a dádiva: forma e razão da troca nas sociedades arcaicas. In: Sociologia e Antropologia, vol II. EPU/EDUSP, São Paulo Nugent S, Harris M (2004) Some other Amazonians: perspectives on modern Amazonians. Institute for the Study of the Americas/Brookings Institute Câmara, Dom Hélder Pessoa (Bishop) Kjell Nordstokke Diakonhjemmet University College, Oslo, Norway Keywords Human rights · Vatican II · CNBB · CELAM Dom Hélder Pessoa C^amara was a Brazilian church leader and human rights defender and archbishop of Olinda and Recife in 1964–1985. He was born in 1909 as the second youngest of 13 children in Fortaleza, in the poverty-stricken northeast region of Brazil. At the age of 14, he entered a Catholic seminary with the intention to become a priest and was ordained in 1931, only 22 years old. Strongly committed to social change, he started to organize worker’s groups and was appointed director of the Department of Education in Ceará, his home state. In this period, he supported the Integralist Party which had strong fascist tendencies, a mistake that he later deplored, but that his critics would hold against him (Piletti and Praxedes 1995). C^amara was transferred to Rio de Janeiro in 1936, where he in 1952 became auxiliary bishop. He was strongly involved in the movement Catholic Action (Ação Católica) and its initiatives of educating young workers and students, based on the conviction that only with the mobilization of 269 lay people the church would contribute to social change. In 1959, he founded a bank (Banco da Providência) that should make it possible for poor people to obtain loans, acknowledging that social and political structures cause marginalization and poverty. In C^amara’s view, the consciousness of misery and injustice in Brazil challenged the church to find its role in developing the nation. For that reason, he initiated the formation of Brazilian Bishop’s Conference (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos Brasileiros/CNBB) in 1952, after consulting with Msgr. Montini in the Vatican, who later became Pope Paul VI and who remained his friend and ally, also during the time of military dictatorship in Brazil. C^amara remained the general secretary of CNBB until 1964. In many ways, this initiative anticipated the Vatican II’s vision of being a local church, and it was followed up by the creation of the Latin American Council of Churches (CELAM). C^amara organized its first assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 1955 and also had a central role in the preparation and outcome of its second assembly in Medellín (Colombia) in 1968. C^amara attended all sections of Vatican II where he became a leading representative of the group of bishops from the Third World that voiced a lifestyle in solidarity with the poor. He was active in the drafting of the Pastoral Constitution on “the Church in the Modern World” (Gaudium et spes) which is considered the most progressive document of the Council with its teaching on poverty and social justice. At that time, C^amara had moved back to Northeast Brazil following his appointment as archbishop of Olinda and Recife in 1964. Just few days before he took up this position, the military seized power, which initiated a dark period of oppression and violation of human rights. Dom Hélder, as he was known, now became one of the regime’s most outspoken critics, especially after one of his colleagues, Father Antônio Henrique Pereira Neto, was arrested and tortured to death in May 1969. C^amara realized that if those in power did not respect the life of a priest, much less would they care about the rights of poor and marginalized. Based on this analysis, he concluded that the C 270 church had to assume the prophetic task of listening to the voiceless and defend their cause. C^amara’s simple lifestyle affirmed his moral authority. Instead of residing in the archbishop’s palace, he insisted in living among ordinary people, wearing a worn cassock and a simple wooden cross. When addressing social and political burning issues, such as the need for land reform in Brazil, he advocated nonviolence as the only viable road to justice and peace. In his book Spiral of Violence, he claimed that the use of violence would have an escalating effect with the result that oppression would be even more brutal. The military government of Brazil did its best to silence him; censorship made his name disappear from the media for nearly a decade. His international fame, however, increased, and he attended conferences all around the world. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize four times; indications show that the Brazilian government successfully blocked that (Piletti and Praxedes 1995). In 1975, when the regime started to loosen its grip, one of his books, The Desert is Fertile, could finally be published in Brazil, thus paving the way for his recognition in his home country. In 1982, he received honorary doctorates both in São Paulo and in Rio de Janeiro and again was able to add his voice to initiatives of promoting social justice. In 1985 C^amara retired from his position as archbishop; the Vatican chose as his successor the conservative Dom Cardoso Sobrinho. Although weakened by his health condition, he continued being committed to the cause of the poor; in 1991 he initiated the campaign called “Year 2000 without misery.” He died in 1999 in Recife, at the age of 90. C^amara belongs to the group of Latin American bishops that are considered the precursors of the theology of liberation, especially by promoting a critical analysis of the social situation and by claiming that the church is challenged by the revolutionary situation and its quest for justice and human dignity. Even before Vatican II, he promoted an understanding of the church that opted for the poor, with confidence in their contributions as lay people. He reflected on biblical texts in the context of ordinary people, for Camino Rojo instance, in Through the Gospel with Dom Helder Camara, pointing at the spiritual dimension of everyday life, as, e.g., in his book of poems A Thousand Reasons for Living. His innovative capacity thus took many forms, remaining faithful to the authority of the Vatican and its teaching. References Patrick, Maria Bernarda et al (1983) Dom Hélder, pastor e profeta. Edições Paulinas, São Paulo Piletti, Nelson & Walter Praxedes (1997) Dom Hélder C^amara: Entre o poder e a profecia. Edições Ática, São Paulo C^amara, Hélder The desert is fertile. (1974) Orbis Books, Maryknoll C^amara, Hélder The spiral of violence. (1971) Sheed and Ward, London C^amara, Hélder A thousand reasons for living. (1981) Fortress Press, Minneapolis C^amara, Hélder Through the Gospel with Dom Helder C^amara. (1986) Orbis Books, Maryknoll Camino Rojo ▶ Red Path (Camino Rojo) Candomblé Ordep Serra Federal University of Bahia, Salvador da Bahia, BA, Brazil Keywords Candomblé · African-Brazilian religions · Calundu · African “nations” in Brazil as religious denominations · Spirit-possession · Brazilian popular Catholicism · Syncretism Definition Candomblé is an African-Brazilian religion characterized by invocation and celebration of holy spirits (African gods, semi-divine ancestors, and Candomblé other powerful spirits) who are believed to possess initiated people in enthusiastic trance. It is presupposed that every human creature is under the government of one or more gods whose identity can be recognized by means of divinatory rites, but only some persons can “receive” in their bodies the divine beings. Gods and spirits must be propitiated through offerings and animal sacrifices in order to make possible the transmission of the sacred vital force indispensable for the maintenance of health and well-being. Introduction There is no uniformity in Candomblé’s universe, no single and invariable Kultbild. Differences in the liturgy and in the hierarchical organization of its many communities are always to be expected. Notwithstanding this variation, there are principles the Candomblé practitioners of different ritual denominations do share. (In the coming summary of common traits, topics subject to divergence are exposed in brackets.) With reference to the main object of their worship, the adepts of Candomblé employ different African names meaning “god” in their ritual sociolects: orixá, vodun, inquice, bacuro. Orixá (orisha) is the more usual. The Portuguese term santo – meaning “saint” – is also employed with this meaning. According to general belief of Candomblé’s people, in a superior realm of the universe there is a supreme God. Under his command, there are minor deities and holy spirits of ancestors with whom communication is possible and necessary [but communication with ancestors has to be the object of separate rites, in special temples; contact with “common” dead souls may be dangerous and is often avoided]. Each human being is essentially linked to one or more gods whose benevolence is important to conquer, especially in the case of the main protector, considered the “dono da cabeça” – literally “Lord of the head” – of the individual, endowed with power to influence their destiny and personality. The deities govern different natural domains and through them is transmitted to this world the original vital energy named axé (Portuguese form of 271 an Yoruba word today employed with this meaning in all Candomblé nations). The axé may be acquired and lost: its loss endangers persons and social groups, causing misfortune. Ritual schemes make possible the concentration of axé and its transference by priests to other people, but the transference of axé implies retribution to the gods by means of sacrifice. Some people are elected by the gods to exercise sacerdotal roles: some to incarnate the gods, others to perform distinct ritual functions (Carneiro 1977; Ramos 1940; Serra 2004; Goldman 2004; Costa et al. 2016). All the gods deserve worship but they have distinct preferences in terms of offerings, sacrificial victims (animals and plants), hymns, rhythms, and prayers. Myths show the gods’ moods and powers, their interrelations and their status in the divine (somewhat variable) hierarchy, their epiphanies, preferences, and taboos (Verger 1970). Periodic celebrations of the deities in public ceremonies with appropriated sacred music and dances are indispensable and must be performed after due offerings and sacrifices. The inedible parts of the victims are consecrated to the gods, and the edible parts are consumed by the community. The assumption of sacerdotal roles is made possible by initiation [or by charismatic innate qualities]. Initiation requires a rite de passage with a period of seclusion of the neophyte and the observation of many taboos. The ritual process of initiation is generally concealed by mystical secret. Many other rites are considered secret and there are spaces inaccessible to profanes in most terreiros (Candomblé’s temples). The ethnobotanic knowledge of the sacred leaves, indispensable to the performance of many capital rites (and as pharmaka), is the appanage of priests with high status in a Candomblé’s hierarchy (Serra 2004; Caroso and Bacelar 2006). The highest post is always that of a priest or priestess known as pai de santo or mãe de santo, that is, father or mother of the saint. A common explanation of this title makes reference to the “birth” of the saint of the neophyte during the process of initiation and implies a difference between the god as transcendent being and his incarnation in a human individual [or the unique form the god assumes in contact with a human person, that’s why C 272 Candomblé priests sometimes make a distinction between orixá and santo (orisha and saint) saying that the orisha preexists and the saint is born] (Serra 1995). In some ritual situations, a spirit named erê manifests itself in the body of the medium, as a substitute to the orisha. The childish behavior of the erê seems to be a reminiscence of the saint’s “birth.” The member of a Candomblé can ascend in the hierarchy by means of rites that confirm his/her seniority or through the assumption of special functions. The relationship of the members of a Candomblé community is usually described in terms of symbolic kinship: it is said that they form a family, a família de santo. Candomblé communities are independent, but there is always a link between a terreiro and the temple where its leader was initiated or began his religious career. Differences in the Candomblé’s Ritual Varieties Distinct mythical cosmogonies sometimes determine differences in the liturgy of Candomblé’s so-called nations (ritual varieties, generally explained as a result of different ethnic traditions). The religious sociolects reflect the original languages of distinct African ethnic groups: Kimbundu and Kikongo terminology prevail in the Angola temples, Fon vocabulary in Jeje, Yoruba idioms in the Ketu, and Ijexá terreiros. In the so-called Candomblé de Caboclo, prayers are said (and sung) in Portuguese. Rhythms also differ according to the nations. However, linguistic, musical, and liturgical mixtures are common. Many Candomblé leaders are proud of their knowledge of different liturgies. A divine character of Candomblé’s mythology is a focus of theological divergences: Exu, the messenger of the gods, described in the myths as a typical trickster, troublesome and rapacious, was identified with the devil by Catholics, and this identification was partially accepted in several terreiros. Others reject with indignation this equivalence, considering Exu a great orisha, indispensable transporter of prayers and sacrifices. Candomblé The Name Candomblé: Origin and Meaning The word candomblé, a common noun in Brazilian Portuguese, was borrowed from the African language Kimbundu, idiom of the Ambundu people. This word is also present in another Bantu language of sub-Saharan Africa, the Kikongo, idiom of the Bacongo people, spoken in the ancient Congo Kingdom and today in Congo-Kinshasa, Congo-Brazzaville, and Northern Angola. In both languages, it is spelled kandombele (var. kolumbele) and its root lomba means to pray (de Castro 2001). Kandombele can also designate the place where people gather to invoke the gods and the ancestors’ spirits. In Brazilian Portuguese, candomblé has a triple meaning, congruent with its etymology: it is the name of an African-Brazilian religion, but it is also used to designate its temples and its public ceremonies. During the Atlantic slave trade era, Brazil imported more enslaved African persons than any other country, and Bantu speaking people have been predominant in this contingent for a long time. In the Brazilian State of Bahia, in the nineteenth century, the Bantu word candomblé was generally adopted as the name of the religious practices of African born and African-Brazilian people of different ethnic origins, including Yoruba and Fon speaking people of West Africa, massively imported as slaves in the final period of the black Atlantic slave trade. Origin and Diffusion of the Candomblé Religion While conducting researches in the archives of the Santo Ofício (the Court of the Inquisition) of the Catholic Church, Brazilian historians discovered documents of the colonial period concerning the black slaves in Brazil and confirmed the existence, already in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, of an African cult named calundu in different regions of the Portuguese America (Reis 1988; Mott 1994). The etymology of calundu goes back to the bantu word kulundu, present both in the Kimbundu and Kikongo idioms with the same basic meaning of “worship,” “spirits’ invocation.” Candomblé The origin of the names calundu and candomblé suggests that Bantu languages formed the basis of the first pidgin-like lingua franca of the allophone black slaves in Bahia and in other regions of Brazil. This lingua franca was the first communicational vehicle supporting the formation of the religious koine from which Candomblé emerged. Ethnologists believe that the calundu was a protoform of candomblé (Silveira 2008). But when the religion Candomblé was in the course of consolidation, already prevailed in its cradle a repertory derived from the idioms and cultures of Western Africans, mainly Fon and Yoruba peoples. Candomblé in its contemporary form flourished in the Brazilian state of Bahia in the nineteenth century and almost simultaneously in Rio de Janeiro. For decades, it remained mainly rooted in Bahia’s capital, Salvador, and in the encircling region of the so-called Recôncavo Baiano, the periphery of the Bay of Todos os Santos. The intense migration of Bahian black people to Rio de Janeiro in the final period of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century rendered the foundation of many new Candomblé shrines (terreiros) in the ancient capital of the Brazilian Republic and its periphery. In the second half of the twentieth century, new migration waves and deliberate attempts of expansion caused Candomblé to conquer new territories in the Brazilian southeastern region, mainly in São Paulo, the largest Brazilian metropolis (Prandi 1994). Today there are Candomblé temples in all regions of Brazil, in other South American countries, and even in Europe. However, Brazilian statistics show Candomblé adepts as an insignificant minority. Many Candomblé practitioners still hide their religious faith in order to elude problems originated by social prejudices and religious intolerance. Candomblé has not only members but also sympathizers and clients (the two latter may profess different religions). 273 religions. The first essay that attempted to describe this spectrum was undertaken by the French anthropologist Roger Bastide (1967). Since the publication of his work, the panorama he described has been transformed, mainly because of two factors: (1) the intertwining of some African-Brazilian religions as a consequence of increasing interregional contacts, and (2) the diffusion and growth of other creeds whose impact the African-Brazilian people immediately suffered and still suffer. Bastide’s geography of African-Brazilian religions remains trustworthy, if we take into account the increase of reciprocal influences and the great diffusion of some of the religions he studied, above all Umbanda and Candomblé. In the northeastern region of Brazil, mainly in the states of Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, and Paraiba, prevails an African-Brazilian cult known as Xangô, very similar to Candomblé, so to say a different burgeon of the same plant. The Tambor de Mina in the State of Maranhão (extreme north of the Brazilian Northeast) in many aspects bears resemblance to the Candomblé cult. The Batuque of southern Brazil is also very like Candomblé. In sum, there is a rich variety of African-Brazilian rites, and Candomblé itself has varying forms that have different interfaces with those congenial cults. Its influence is widespread in the African-Brazilian religious spectrum, but at the same time it has been influenced by other religious formations extant in this complex whole. A common trait of all African-Brazilian religions is the central importance in their liturgies of ecstatic trance and possession of devotees by deities and other spirits, during sessions marked by enthusiastic percussive music and dance. On this ground, analogy with some ecstatic shamanistic practices of Brazilian indigenous peoples has often been explored by black and mestizo communities, resulting in assimilation of rites and sometimes in the creation of new cults, mainly in Brazil’s northern region. Candomblé in the Complex of African-Brazilian Religions Candomblé and Umbanda In order to understand Candomblé’s history and configuration, it is indispensable to have in mind the complex spectrum of the African-Brazilian Umbanda is the most influential and widespread of the African-Brazilian religions. In the beginnings C 274 of the twentieth century, in the city of Niteroi, State of Rio de Janeiro, it became institutionalized. Some researchers consider this institutionalization its very foundation, but there are many evidences of its preexistence and it is preferable to say that the so-called founders of Umbanda were indeed reformers of an African-Brazilian cult. They successfully adapted it to the new ideological perspectives of the mestizo Brazilian middle classes, stressing the reinterpretation of popular religious beliefs and practices according to the Kardecist doctrine, already very influential in the black and mestizo Brazilian religious milieus. Umbanda borrowed beliefs and practices from Candomblé, but its influence in return produced a strong impact on several Candomblé traditions. The cult named Omolocô displays a combination of Umbanda and Candomblé rites. Nowadays, the name Umbandomblé is becoming usual as a designation of new religious tendencies in the AfricanBrazilian mystical melting pot. The main difference between Umbanda and traditional Candomblé consists in the prevalence in Umbanda of spirit possession by the souls of dead people, while in most Candomblé rites only divine beings are invoked and believed to possess devotees. A careful separation between the cult of the dead and the worship of the gods is a dogma in most Candomblé communities and only a few Candomblé temples are consecrated to the cult of remote semidivine ancestors. Candomblé’s Varieties (“Nations”) The Umbanda devotees used to say that Candomblé is “culto de nação,” that is, a cult inspired in the traditions of different African nations (Costa Lima 1976). The Candomblé adepts agree: they proudly affirm their adhesion to the religious legacy of Africans from different kingdoms. In conformity with this adhesion, they declare their personal sense of belonging to such nations. Some say “I am Angola,” others proclaim “I am Ketu,” or “I am Jeje,” and so on. A great number of authors of such declarations believe in the existence of distinct “tribes,” or homogeneous national unities, corresponding exactly to the Candomblé labels they use in their religious selfidentification. However, when they declare to be Angola or Ijexá, for example, they are not alleging a genealogical pertinence: very few AfricanBrazilians are aware of their remote genealogy, conscious of the provenance of their remote ancestors. In addition to this fact, it is easy to verify that white people initiated in the Candomblé may declare themselves Jeje, Ijexá, etc., with obvious reference to African ethnic groups, and such a declaration coming from a white individual causes no scandal in the Candomblé community. When a member of Candomblé says he or she is Angola or Nagô, for instance, he or she is affirming his/her mystical affiliation to the African ancestors of the nation, that is, to the founders of the Candomblé temple where he or she was initiated, or rather to the African forefathers of its founders and to their divine patrons. Many adepts of the Ketu rite know that Ketu is the name of an ancient Yoruba kingdom; many adepts of the Ijexá rite know that Ijesha is the name of an Yoruba speaking people; but in general, they all are proud of the African origin of their cult. Some people say that they are Congo-Angola because the founders of the Candomblé they belong to came from Angola and from Congo. Others justify in the same way their identification as Jeje-Nagô arguing that both Jeje and Nagô priests have “planted the axé” of their terreiro, that is, produced the mystical foundations of their Candomblé’s first temple. A new Candomblé rite was created in Bahia probably in the nineteenth century by creoles who preferred to devote themselves to the cult of the Caboclos. The name Caboclo is a popular designation of Brazilian indigenous people, also applied to Brazilian mestizos. Long ago it was employed in some Candomblé communities by creoles as a selfdesignation in order to distinguish themselves from the African born still living in this country. The prototypical Caboclos worshipped in Candomblé (and in Umbanda) are idealized Amerindians, celebrated as rightful Lords/Owners of the Brazilian Land (“Donos da Terra”) and holy ancestors of the native Brazilian people, powerful spirits deserving of special veneration. The cult of the Caboclos is nowadays celebrated in Candomblé Candomblé temples of different nations, but the adepts of the Candomblé de Caboclo affirm that they have their own nation – not an African one, but the Brazilian nation. The imperative of adscription to some nation is a characteristic feature of Candomblé, although not at all a singular diacritic trait distinguishing this cult from all other African-Brazilian religions, since the Tambor de Mina, for instance, is also recognized as “culto de nação,” that is, as a cult founded in the religious tradition of the so-called Mina (Dahomean) nation. However, Candomblé includes a variety of nations and this is one of its most singular characteristics. A common name employed by Candomblé adepts to refer to the collectivity they form is Povo de Santo, meaning “the people who worship the saints” (that is, worshipers of the African gods, the Caboclos and other holy spirits). When asked to describe the nature of this collectivity, sometimes they explain it like so: “Povo de Santo means people of all the nations of the Candomblé.” In the colonial period of Brazilian history, the African slaves were classified in African nations in conformity to labels applied to them by the entrepreneurs of the trade and/or by the colonial authorities, often with little concern as to the slaves’ actual ethnic provenance and cultural stock. Bastide (1967) remarked that the organization of those nations corresponded to a deliberate policy of the colonial government in order to control the slaves, avoiding through separation the emergence of their class awareness and consequently their possible rebellion. On the other side, Bastide stressed the spontaneous association of black people in the shelter of such nations, where they could enjoy solidarity and some protection. Historians also verified that the so-called African nations in colonial Brazil were commonly labelled with names that did not correspond to African ethnic denominations, but in the new context such names could very well function as operational categories. In some instances, the generic label superimposed to a segment of the slave population did not suppress the ethnonyms of different groups comprehended under the same verbal umbrella: so the name Nagô, for example, given to an “African nation” in Brazil by the colonialist government could be (and actually 275 was) accepted by people from Ketu, Ijexá, and Oyo, since they all are Yoruba-speaking people, and the name Nagô has taken this general meaning in Brazil (Oliveira 1995). The ethnologist Nicolau Parès (2007) makes the same remark, adding that in Western Africa collective identities were as multifaceted as in the American black diaspora, and in some instances, the denominations employed by the traffickers of the slave trade were compatible with, or equivalent to, African ethnonyms. Parès also suggests to categorize as “metaethnic denominations” the labels employed by the European slavocrats to designate agglomerations of diverse ethnic groups. “Metaethnic denominations” and true ethnonyms can be found in the array of designations of the Candomblé’s nations. In Candomblé’s vocabulary, nation has a double meaning: two different references are variously combined in the semantic content of this name, as members of the povo de santo employ it in statements of self-identification. The liturgical reference is dominant, the implicit ethnic reference is sometimes attenuated. Almost 55 years ago, Costa Lima (1976) affirmed that the “political connotation” of the term nation (its ethnic meaning) was already effaced, and only its “theological” (scilicet liturgical) sense remained in the conscience of the povo de santo. He was right in the indication of a general tendency, but it is dangerous to generalize: it would be a mistake to underestimate the permanence of ethnocentric feelings under the religious mantle and to ignore the recurrent waves of revivalism that nourish the discourse of many Candomblé adepts, mainly in the oldest and most influential terreiros, rousing their constant celebration of the “African roots” of their sanctuaries. The hymns to Ketu in the religious communities self-designated as Ara Ketu (people of Ketu) in Brazilian towns, the glorification of Savé (Benin’s Save) by the Jeje Savalu, the continual praise of the Bantu traditions in Brazil’s Angola temples, etc., are clear expressions of the permanence of an ethnic sentiment in a significant number of terreiros. However, it is a matter of fact that in many Candomblé communities names like Ketu, Jeje, Angola, and other gentilic terms of the same class have lost their meaning and are used only to denote ritual paradigms. Moreover, the name Nagô, for instance, C 276 is employed in different ways in Candomblé communities of Salvador and in terreiros of the neighboring towns of the Recôncavo Baiano. Syncretism: Candomblé and Popular Catholicism Of course, African traditions are not the sole source to be considered in the study of the Candomblé’s constitution. Candomblé is a religion born in Brazilian society and important traits of its configuration were provided by different components of this South American cultural environment. Catholicism has been, for centuries, the official religion of Brazil, with a solid link to the State in the colonial and imperial periods. As soon as the African people brought to Brazil as slaves arrived, they had to be baptized and to acknowledge the authority of the Catholic Church. They did not resist the adoption of the new religion. Exclusiveness of religious definition was alien to their cultures. Later in their lives and in history, they often entered black Catholic brother- and sisterhoods and enjoyed the relative protection these associations could provide them. Systematically, they tried to preserve their own native religious beliefs and practices in parallel with their Catholic faith and often searched to combine both. Under the Catholic mantle, they maintained the worship of their gods and with this cryptic strategy, they often succeeded in their efforts to elude persecution. Popular Iberoamerican Catholicism has some characteristics which proved favorable to the assimilation by African people of some components of its ideological structure: 1. Common Catholics’ professed monotheism is actually contradicted by strong hierodoulia, that is, by the cult of a multiplicity of saints, comparable indeed to secondary but powerful gods. In parallel, in many African religious cosmologies the supreme status of a deus otiosus is recognized, but the real cult is addressed to powerful deities of inferior rank, much more accessible to humans’ prayers. 2. Popular Catholicism comprehends a rich mythology and the Catholic Church has Candomblé created an attractive ritual apparatus (much stronger in the past). The festive celebrations of the saints in the Catholic holidays were a welcome opportunity not only of some leisure for the black slaves but also for the development and framing of new rituals of their own. 3. Though unconfessed, syncretism has always contributed to the formation of the mythical thesaurus of Catholic religion; on the other hand, the experience of syncretism was common in African regions wherefrom legions of enslaved people originated. Besides this precedent, in the new environment the syncretic dialogue between different African religious cultures strongly increased. So the circumstances favored the acceptance, at least by the lower layers of the Brazilian society, of a new syncretism combining myths, rites, and beliefs of the popular Catholicism with myths, rites, and beliefs of the African slaves. In the second half of past century, revivalist trends and political influence of the Movimento Negro (African-Brazilian Civil Rights Movement) caused a reaction of leaders of the povo de santo against syncretism. Identification of orishas and Catholic saints was discredited and many Candomblé adepts have ceased do declare themselves Catholics. However, syncretic rites and beliefs are still very common. Candomblé as a Target of Political Repression The interaction of popular Catholicism with African religious traditions was an undeniable ingredient in the formation of Candomblé. However, the Catholic Church as an institution was very jealous of its spiritual and political power, intolerant towards any other religious faith, well armed to defend its mystical monopoly and did not hesitate to condemn the “superstitions” of the black people. Its clergy usually shared the strong racial and ethnocentric prejudices of the Portuguese and Brazilian elites. Candomblé, characterized as an indecent pagan cult, was promptly denounced as fetishism, witchcraft, Devil’s artifice. Syncretism Candomblé was seen as an evidence of the stupidity of the black people, supposedly unable to recognize the essential difference between the Catholic saints and the pagan gods. The vivid dances performed in the Candomblé ceremonies were deemed indecent. In Candomblé, the bodily language of dance is an important medium of expression of sacred realities, a vehicle of epiphanies. In the past, in Europe, the authorities of the Catholic Church often made serious efforts in order to proscribe the medieval custom of dancing in churches, and from thence became resistant to admit the compatibility of dance and true religious sentiment; the Catholic priests used to see dance as profane and sinful. Enthusiastic trance outside the Christian mystical tradition was generally interpreted as a manifestation of the Devil. Another aspect of the Candomblé religion has always been a matter of scandal for Christians in general: the performance of animal sacrifices dedicated to the African gods. It was considered a barbaric pagan custom, inspired by demons. In colonial times, calundu priests and priestess had been prey to the Holy Inquisition; in the imperial and republican eras of Brazil’s history, the preachers of the Catholic Church often instigated civil government’s persecution of the Candomblé communities, but other motives concurred to this effect. In a country poorly endowed with public health policies and resources, the ethnobotanic knowledge of vegetal medicines and the expertise in therapeutic rituals detained by the Candomblé priests usually attracted people to their sanctuaries, mainly in critical periods of epidemics. The popularity of Candomblé healers soon roused the indignation of medical authorities. Since the edition of the Brazilian Penal Code of 1850, curandeirismo and charlatanismo (quackery and charlatanry) were frequent charges backing the arrest of Candomblé’s religious leaders and even pogromlike campaigns against terreiros. Candomblé, Racism, Repression, and Religious Intolerance After the abolition of slavery in 1888, in the first decades of the republican era, the Brazilian elites 277 believed that the great number of black people in the country represented a serious handicap and considered their customs a regrettable sign of primitivism compromising Brazil’s intent to be recognized as a true modern Western (and white) nation. Not only the African-Brazilian religious rites but many other cultural manifestations of the colored people were object of prohibition and repression: musical rhythms and dances like the samba, the martial art of capoeira, etc., were forbidden. Political changes after the Second World War occasioned a partial reversal of this policy: the Brazilian Government and part of the national intelligentsia were then eager to affirm the nonexistence of racism in Brazil, alleging the population’s strong miscigenation, the absence of segregation laws and the invisibility of open racial conflicts as those common in the USA. Moreover, there was a desire to affirm the Brazilian cultural identity and many aspects of popular culture were valued as evidences of the national originality. Categorized as folklore, the African-Brazilian religions enjoyed more toleration and their “exoticism” was even appreciated as valuable, attractive to be explored by the tourism industry. But discrimination did not cease. Only in 1976, a Decree of the Governor of the State of Bahia suspended the obligation imposed to the Candomblé temples of applying for police permission to celebrate their public ceremonies. The Catholic Church is nowadays much more tolerant, but new churches created in the recent NeoPentecostal boom declared war against AfricanBrazilian religions, demonizing their deities, inciting fanatics and criminals to attack terreiros (Reinhardt 2007). Candomblé is still the target of violent religious intolerance. Ethnological Studies on Candomblé Candomblé was the first African-Brazilian religion to be systematically studied. Pioneer in this field was the physician Nina Rodrigues (1900), dedicated to forensic medical science. He believed in the racial inferiority of black people and interpreted Candomblé ecstatic rites as manifestations of psychiatric disturbances. However, C 278 he always opposed the police repression of this cult, which he thought preferable to submit to psychiatric vigilance. In spite of his prejudice, he was able to document important aspects of black people’s religious life in the Salvador of his times. True anthropological studies of the Candomblé began in the fourth decade of the twentieth century, defining a rich ethnological field of research. At the start, its main focus on one variety of Bahian Candomblé gave rise to simplifications. Today this limitation has been surpassed thanks to a relative abundance of ethnographic studies on other Candomblé rites in Brazil’s different regions. Caravanas Arcoiris Parès LN (2007) A formação do candomblé. Editora Unicamp, Campinas Prandi R (1994) Os candomblés de São Paulo. Hucitec/ Edusp, São Paulo Ramos A (1940) O negro brasileiro. Etnografia religiosa. Editora Nacional, São Paulo Reinhardt B (2007) Espelho ante espelho: a troca e a guerra entre o neopentecostalismo e os cultos Afro-Brasileiros em Salvador. Attar, São Paulo Reis JJ (1988) Magia jeje na Bahia: a invasão do calundu do Pasto de Cachoeira, 1785. Revista Brasileira de História 16:57–81 Serra O (1995) Águas do Rei. Vozes, Petrópolis Serra O (2004) Os olhos negros do Brasil. Edufba, Salvador Verger P (1970) Notes sur le culte des Orisa et des Vodun à Bahia, la Baie de Tous les Saints et à l’ancienne Côte des Esclaves en Afrique. Swets and Zeitlinger, Amsterdam Cross-References ▶ Pentecostalism in Brazil ▶ Roman Catholicism in Latin America Caravanas Arcoiris Renée de la Torre CIESAS Occidente, Jalisco, Mexico References Bastide R (1967) Les Amériques noires. Payot, Paris Carneiro E (1977) Candomblés da Bahia. Editora Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro Caroso C, Bacelar J (2006) Faces da tradição afrobrasileira. Religiosidade, sincretismo, anti-sincretismo, reafricanização, práticas terapêuticas e comida. Editora Pallas, Rio de Janeiro Costa Lima V (1976) O conceito de nação nos candomblés da Bahia. Afro-Ásia 12:65–90 Costa V et al (2016) Religiões negras no Brasil: da escravidão à pós-emancipação. Summus Editorial/ Selo Negro, São Paulo da Silveira R (2008) Nação africana no Brasil escravista. Afro-Ásia 38:245–301 de Castro YP (2001) Falares africanos na Bahia. Topbooks, Rio de Janeiro Goldman M (2004) Histórias, devires e fetiches das religiões Afro-Brasileiras. Análise Social XV 190:105–137 Matory JL (2005) Black Atlantic religion. Princeton University Press, Princeton Mott L (1994) O calundu Angola de Maria Pinta, Sabará, 1739. Revista do IAC 11:73–82 Nina Rodrigues R (1900) L’animisme fétichiste des nègres de Bahia. Métissage, degénerescence et crime. Atavisme psychique et paranoia. Reis Campos, Salvador Oliveira MIC (1995) Viver e morrer no meio dos seus. Revista da USP 28:174–196 Keywords New Age · Neomexicanism · Eco-villages · Hippies · Environmentalism · Rainbow Caravans Definition of Rainbow Caravans Rainbow Caravans is the name of a movement formed by cosmopolitan artists and intellectuals who have gone on different journeys to learn about different spiritual traditions and be initiated into them. They all share an environmental program in defense of Mother Earth and indigenous peoples. The leader of this movement is the Mexican Alberto Ruz Buenfil, a key agent in alliances between Mexicanism, nativism, alternative spiritualities, and ecologism (De la Torre 2015). Rainbow Tribes In Las Tribus de Arco Iris (Ruz Buenfil 1992), Alberto Ruz gives an account of his personal Caravanas Arcoiris history, especially of when he joined the Beat Generation in California, the postwar countercultural generation of the United States. This experience allowed him to weave alliances with artists and leaders of the hippie movement, the Chicano Movement, the Black Panther Party citizens rights movement of Afro-Americans, and the movement of Puerto Ricans in favor of independence, as well as university students and American indigenous chiefs. The Beat movement was also a platform from which he was able to get into experimenting with psychotropics in search of experiences that would alter their levels of consciousness (Ruz Buenfil 1992, p. 76). The development of the Rainbow Warriors arose as a new version of the young generation of the 1960s that had launched the cosmopolitan program of the spiritual seeker traveling the world in search of the teachings of the grand masters of the East (visiting monasteries in Tibet to learn the art of meditation and yoga), but now the roads to knowledge were broad enough to reach Native American reservations in the United States, where they discovered and appropriated the initiation ceremonies of the inipi steam bath and the Sun Dance of Lakota Sioux origin. 279 From this community, a number of pilgrimages set out to reopen the ancient spiritual centers in the main archaeological zones as part of a worldwide New Age movement, at that time led by José Argüelles, who is recognized as one of the main promoters of New Age and of linking it to the initiation movement of American Indian cultures. He was the joint author of the first, pioneering, book to give the New Age a basis, La conspiración de Acuario (coordinated by Ferguson 1981), and then wrote the best-selling book El factor maya, in which he revealed a legend proclaiming the Mayan prophecy of a change to a New Age due to take place, according to some astronomical interpretations, in December 2012. Members of the Rainbow Caravans were tireless promoters of the theories of Argüelles that inspired the idea of the synchronous movement of thirteen moons and were a key piece in the organization of rituals and New Age ceremonies practiced on archaeological sites, which were the ceremonial centers of pre-Hispanic civilizations (De la Torre and Gutiérrez Zúñiga 2015). Alter-Native Networks Huehuecóyotl: The First Eco-village in Mexico In 1982, members of the Rainbow Caravan founded Huehuecóyotl, an alternative lifestyle ecological community in the town of Tepoztlán, in the state of Morelos in the center of Mexico (Ruz Buenfil 1992). This community is one of the principal centers of utopian life, where different rituals have been celebrated linking hippy-ism, and the quest for shamanic experiences, to eastern disciplines, ecologism, New Age, Mexicanism, and nativist traditions. In the early 1980s (1983–1985), they took an active part in the movement against Laguna Verde, a political–environmental movement that opposed the installation of a nuclear plant, pointing out the environmental consequences and the dangers of such a policy. The Huehuecóyotl community is considered the Mecca of hippy-ism and New Age in Mexico, where members of the Rainbow Caravan, who have now adopted the identity of “Old Coyotes,” reside. Andrés King Cobos, another founder of Huehuecóyotl, describes the members of the eco-village; thus: We are much more than we can imagine. More than Rainbow Caravans; the Visions Council; Alternative Educators; Permaculturists; Therapists; Artists; Sun Dancers; Traditionalists; Professionals and Clowns (. . .) the community project brings together kindred ideas that are sustainable for a planetary future that is more decentralized and free. (King Cobos 2012, p. 10) Nevertheless, although it is not possible to describe the wealth of contributions made by its members, it is worth referring to the roles played by some of the group: Bea is a renowned adviser C 280 on consensus culture (Instituto Internacional de Facilitación y Cambio, the International Council of Facilitation and Change) who is hired by various organizations, institutions, and universities all over the world to give workshops on how to build consensus. As well as being a painter of the different varieties of maize (multicolored cobs), Toña is a defender of maize against transgenics. Giovani is the cofounder of the Network of American Eco-villages, Red de Ecoaldeas de América, and currently works for the Scottish Gaia Education organization. Lourdes created the first flower remedy company to be established in Mexico, called Nestinar México. Liora is the founder of the Gaia University which gives courses online for diplomas, masters, and postgraduate degrees in permaculture, eco-villages, and environmental technologies. Sandra coordinated the Project of a Primary School of Integrated Education and Ecology in Tepoztlán. Later, she founded the Chakaruna Cultural Association from which spiritual activities and events are organized, along with the study of American Indian shamanism and the running of spiritual pilgrimages to Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador (Comneno 2012, p. 109). Andrés is a theater director and practices the Aztec dance and the Lakota rites; and Alberto Ruz, as well as being in charge of a theater group and a tireless guide of the Rainbow Caravans, has been the promoter of eco-villages and eco-neighborhoods, but most of all has been a connector of networks and circuits to weave common projects where Neomexicanism mingles with other currents, summoning alternative leaders and traditional chieftains to the Vision Councils. In his own words, his work consists in: “providing support that will strengthen the “Alter-Native” Networks and the Visions Councils and the Callings (Llamadas) at bio-regional, national, continental and planetary levels” (Ruz Buenfil 2012, p. 30). Rainbow Journey in South America Since 1994, several members of the Rainbow tribes have undertaken the odyssey known as Rainbow Caravans, which set off from Mexico Caravanas Arcoiris to South America (as far as Patagonia in the Southern Cone) and visited various alternative communities and indigenous pueblos. As they went along, the Rainbow Caravans gave hundreds of conferences, theater performances, workshops, marches, Neo-native ceremonies, and artistic festivals focused on awakening consciousness: of ecology, the feminine, and a re-appreciation of indigenous people (Ruz Buenfil 2005). Cross-References ▶ Ecovillage ▶ Mancomunidad de la América India Solar ▶ Neomexicanism: Prehispanic Rituals Translated by New Age Matrix ▶ Red Path (Camino Rojo) ▶ Reginos Spiritual Movement and Neomexicanism References Comneno S (2012) Corrían los años ochenta em Huehuécoóyotl. In: Huehuéoyot: raíces al viento. 30 años de historia de una eco aldea. Servicios Gráficos de Morelos, Cuernavaca, pp 103–109 De la Torre R (2015) Los newagers: el efecto colibrí. Artífices de menús a la carta, tejedores de circuitos en la red y polinizadores de culturas híbridas. Revista Religiao y Sociedade 34(2):36–64 De la Torre R, Gutiérrez Zúñiga C (2015) Mismos pasos, nuevos caminos. Transnacionalización de la danza conchero azteca. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico (in press) Ferguson M (1981) The Aquarian conspiracy: personal and social transformation in the 1980s. Routledge & Kegan, Londres King Cobos A (2012) Introducción. In: Huehuecóyotl. Raíces al viento. 30 años de historia de una ecoaldea, Santo Domingo Ocotitlán, pp 7–13 Ruz Buenfil A (1992) Los guerreros del Arcoiris. Círculo Cuadrado, Mexico Ruz Buenfil A (2005) Hay tantos caminos (1996–2002). Caravana Arcoíris por la Paz, Río Negro Ruz Buenfil A (2012) De la Bauhaus situacionista Drakabygget en Suecia. In: Huehuecóyotl. Raíces al viento. 30 años de historia de una ecoaldea, Santo Domingo Ocotitlán, pp 17–30 Castaneda, Carlos Castaneda, Carlos Rodrigo Iamarino Caravita Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil Keywords New Age movement · Spirituality · Neoshamanism · Urban shamanism · Nagualism · Latin America Definition Carlos Castaneda, born on December 25, 1925, and died on April 27, 1998, was an anthropologist graduated from UCLA. After obtaining his PhD in 1973, he was rarely seen in public, becoming since then a shaman apprentice. Don Juan and Don Genaro were his two main mentors, and Castaneda’s main task consisted in “becoming a warrior” and transmitting their knowledges on. Both his birth and death dates remain to this time a mystery. Castaneda said he was born in 1935 in São Paulo, Brazil. A Time magazine article (Burton 1973) states that, according to the USA migration data, he was born in 1925 in Peru (that is the most accepted). Another article from the New York Times (Walters 1981) claims that he was born in 1915 in Peru. All this deliberate confusion might be in accordance to the teachings Castaneda has spread in his books: the need to erase and forget the own past. This fact has also increased the mystique about him. As an anthropologist, he wrote the trilogy that has launched him as an author, linked to the hippie and esoteric movements of the 1970s (Castaneda 1968, 1971, 1972). The third book in the trilogy is his PhD thesis at UCLA, called Sorcery: A Description of the World. At the beginning of his career, his interest was on studying peyote and the relationship Mexican and American indigenous peoples had with this cactus considered sacred by many groups. Following the reference of a university colleague, 281 Carlos met Don Juan, a Yaqui indigenous from the Sonora desert in Mexico. Don Juan then became Castaneda’s main guide on this experience. This meeting with Don Juan led him to a much broader universe than the one originally envisioned, in which the connection with hallucinogens substances – later they will be called entheogenic, meaning substances that are used for religious or spiritual purposes, a neologism from Greek that means “manifestation of the interior divine” – is just one part. During a 12-year relationship, Don Juan and Don Genaro (an indigenous friend of Don Juan), have dedicated themselves to teaching Castaneda how to live as a warrior: being impeccable; always alert, lucid, and conscious of all actions; abandoning the past, the personal history, and pride; and choosing the best paths, the paths “with a heart.” His first books were a success in a time when the countercultural movement was on the rise in the USA, as well as experiences with hallucinogenic substances. On the other hand, the anthropology world started doubting the facts narrated in his books, full of contradictory information and with a big number of mystical and fantastic claims. The Time magazine article, questioning his teachings, biography, and even the existence of Don Juan and Don Genaro, was the final straw for his decision: being out of public and social life in 1973, renouncing the academic environment, and becoming a shaman apprentice. Meanwhile, his books started to be read and translated into different languages. Don Juan’s teachings passed to Castaneda have quickly been spread among many movements inspired in the North-American countercultural movement. Grouped on the broad and agglutinating idea of New Age (Amaral 2000; Lewis and Melton 1992; Hanegraaff 1996), these movements and practices come from endless and different basis: eastern philosophies, esoteric Christianity, nineteenth-century occultism and esotericism, indigenous traditional knowledge, Carl Jung’s psychology, and even Fritjof Capra’s physics, highlighting his book “The Tao of Physics” (1975). New Age is seen as a big movement of spiritual nature, with practices and discourses questioning the modus operandi called “modern western C 282 culture.” The “movement” sympathizers evoke several authors: Capra, Bateson, Lovelock, and many other supporters of the “Gaia Theory.” Castaneda has a special relationship with the New Age movement as his teachings assemble many elements that were already on the agenda since the 1960s: hallucinogenic/entheogenic substances, “modern western culture” (or civilization, or science) disagreement, direct relation with ancestral indigenous knowledge, and new nondogmatic spiritual paths and world interpretation. In the 1990s, Castaneda reappeared to the public publicizing his new work called Tensegrity. Based on a series of movements (Magical Passes) that aim to channel and redistribute the internal energy of the body, Tensegrity is presented by Castaneda as a compiled of movements originated from his shamanism lineage, known as Nagualism, and from which he is a direct heir of Don Juan. Carlos had the mission of giving continuity to and disseminating these teachings (cf. Castaneda 1998). Intending to spread the ancestral and indigenous knowledge to western society, he became one of the biggest representatives of practices that are now called neoshamanism or urban shamanism. The criticism of his work concentrates on two points. First, what would be his right to disclose this information? Secondly, would it be ethically correct to disseminate (with a possible distortion) these knowledges with commercial purposes? The discussion remains open until today, especially in Mexico and the USA, where the term “plastic shamans” has been created as a pejorative-accusing category. Nevertheless, it is possible to find in Mexico (and in Latin America) many Tensegrity groups or Magical Passes study groups, among other teachings from Carlos Castaneda. It is possible to find many experts on his books, spread in many different groups of the New Age movement alternative communities, ecovillages, alternative therapy centers in urban areas, and study groups of eastern, agnostic, or Christian-Esoteric religions. When promoting the Magical Passes, Castaneda also started a Tensegrity practice group, and many of his closest followers changed their names and abandoned their “personal history.” After his death, some of these members disappeared and were just found in Catholic Action 2006 in Mexico, dead (alleged suicide) in a desert. Some remain missing until the present day. Cross-References ▶ Esotericism and New Age ▶ Neo-Shamanism ▶ New Age Spirituality ▶ Spiritualism and New Age ▶ Urban Shamanism References Amaral L (2000) Carnaval da alma – comunidade, essência e sincretismo na Nova Era. Editora Vozes, Petrópolis Burton S (1973) Don Juan and the sorcerer’s apprentice, Time Magazine. http://content.time.com/time/maga zine/article/0,9171,903890,00.html. Accessed 10 May 2016 Capra F (1975) The Tao of physics: an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism. Shambhala Publications, Boulder Castaneda C (1968) The teachings of Don Juan: a yaqui way of knowledge. University of California Press, California Castaneda C (1971) A separate reality: further conversations with Don Juan. Simon & Schuster, New York Castaneda C (1972) Journey to Ixtlan: the lessons of Don Juan. Simon & Schuster, New York Castaneda C (1998) Magical Passes: the practical wisdom of the shamans of ancient Mexico. Harper Perennial, New York Hanegraaff W (1996) New Age religion and western culture: esotericism in the mirror of secular thought. Brill, Leiden Lewis J, Melton JG (1992) Perspectives on the New Age. State University of New York Press, Albany Walters R (1981) Paperback talk. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/11/books/paperbacktalk.html. Accessed 10 May 2016 Catholic Action Ulf Borelius Gothenburg, Sweden Keywords Pius XI · Lay movement · University Students · Liberation Theology Catholic Action Definition Catholic Action was a global lay movement. As an official institution, it was born in the late 1920s and existed in two basic models. It was established in Latin America in the 1930s and 1940s. Here, among other things, it gave rise to liberation theology. After the Second Vatican Council, 1962–1965, Catholic Action’s influence decreased. The Organization Catholic Action was established as an official Catholic institution by Pope Pius XI (1922–1939), at a time when the church felt threatened by different currents of ideas and tendencies in the modern world, e.g., communism and secularism, and by various competing religious faith traditions, such as Protestantism and Islam (in Africa). Although the concept “Catholic Action” existed earlier, Pius XI gave it a new and specific meaning in 1927, when he defined it as “the participation of the laity in the apostolate of the Church’s Hierarchy” (Newman 1958: 38). In practice, this meant that Catholic Action was constituted of lay organizations that had a mandate from the hierarchy, to which they were subordinate, to participate in the church’s mission “to lead souls to God” (Congar 1985: 389) and promote a “Christian civilization” (Congar 1985: 389). One important aspect of Catholic Action’s activity was to prepare its militants, i.e., members, for this mission. For this reason, the militants were given a religious, moral, and intellectual formation (Borelius 2016). Another important aspect of Catholic Action’s activity was its social commitment. As a rule, however, this commitment was confined to studying and distributing the church’s social teaching, which had a special position within Catholic Action, as well as to inspiring, supporting, and directing the practical applications of this teaching. On the other hand, as lay people the militants’ vocation was to build the world and bring it into accordance with the principles of Christian life. Thus, as citizens, students, workers, etc., the 283 militants were encouraged to apply the church’s social teaching and put into practice the church’s principles of justice and love of neighbor in a temporal commitment (Borelius 2016). There were two basic models of Catholic Action, one of Italian and the other of FrancoBelgian origin, which in many countries existed in parallel: general and specialized Catholic Action. General Catholic Action essentially consisted of four branches: Catholic Action for Men, for Women, for Young Men, and for Young Women. Each branch was organized based on territory, the parish being the basic unit. However, they were also organized at the diocesan and national levels. Each branch, at every level, was governed by a board with a lay president and an ecclesiastical assistant (Borelius 2016). Specialized Catholic Action, on the other hand, was organized on the basis of different milieus. Thus, this model consisted of movements that formed militants from specific milieus, e.g., workers, professionals, and students. In their respective “mission field,” i.e., workplaces, university faculties, etc., the militants worked in small teams, a kind of base communities, and used a method known as “see-judge-act.” The specialized Catholic Action movements were governed by a board with a lay president and an ecclesiastical assistant at the diocesan and national levels. Examples of specialized Catholic Action movements are Catholic Action for Young Workers, for Professionals, and for University Students – the latter also known in Latin America as the Catholic Student Movement (Borelius 2016). In Latin America General Catholic Action was introduced in the region in the 1930s and specialized Catholic Action in the 1940s (Cleary 1992). Like elsewhere, the various branches and movements were organized at different levels within each nation. However, at least some movements, e.g., Catholic Action for University Students, were also coordinated at the regional and global levels. C 284 Moreover, an Inter-American secretariat of Catholic Action was established in Santiago de Chile in 1945 and, in the following years up to 1966, Catholic Action, i.e., organizations based on both models, met regularly every few years at the regional level (Dussel 1992; Pérez Méndez 2008; Junta Nacional de la Acción Católica del Perú 1957; Junta Central de la Acción Católica Mexicana 1960; Junta Central de la Acción Católica Argentina 1967). Up to the end of the 1960s, Catholic Action had an indirect religious and political impact in the region. For instance, several of the most renowned and influential bishops within CELAM in the 1960s had been affiliated with Catholic Action. Also, two of the most influential theologians at the Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops in Medellín (Colombia), August 26–September 6, 1968, Gilberto Giménez and Gustavo Gutiérrez, were Catholic Actionists (Borelius 2016; see also entries on ▶ Bogarín, Ramón and ▶ C^amara, Dom Hélder Pessoa (Bishop)). In addition, many lay people formed in Catholic Action got involved in politics and labor unions. Some even became political and intellectual leaders (Cleary 1992; Klaiber 1998). One of the most important movements within Catholic Action in Latin America was the Catholic Student Movement. Among other things, this movement gave rise to liberation theology. It arose in response to the interests and religious needs of, and as part of work toward change within, the Catholic Student Movement. This occurred at a time when the Movement, under the influence of the teachings of Vatican II and Popes John XXIII and Paul VI, was beginning to espouse the ideas of dialogue and pluralism, Catholic university students were radicalized, and the Movement’s commitment to development became a commitment to liberation from economic, political, and cultural dependency and underdevelopment. In August 1967, the ecclesiastical assistant to the Catholic Student Movement in Paraguay, Gilberto Giménez, was the first to use the term “teología de la liberación”/“theology of liberation,” which he defined as “a salvation theological approach to human liberation” (Giménez 1967: Catholic Action 31; Borelius 2016; see also entry on “▶ Giménez, Gilberto” for more information). Conclusion After the Second Vatican Council, the influence of Catholic Action decreased in Latin America, as well as in other parts of the world (Dussel 1992). One reason for this was that Catholic Action was partly replaced by new ecclesiastical movements. Cross-References ▶ Bogarín, Ramón ▶ C^amara, Dom Hélder Pessoa (Bishop) ▶ Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) ▶ CELAM ▶ Christian Base Communities (CEB) ▶ Giménez, Gilberto ▶ Gutiérrez, Gustavo ▶ Liberation Theology ▶ Medellin Conference (CELAM II) ▶ Vatican II References Borelius U (2016) Om befrielseteologins uppkomst i Latinamerika: En sociologisk analys av religiös förändring (On the Rise of Liberation Theology in Latin America: A Sociological Analysis of Religious Change). Artos Academic, Skellefteå Cleary EL (1992) Crisis and change: the Church in Latin America today. Orbis Books, Maryknoll Congar Y (1985) Lay people in the church: a study for a theology of the laity. Geofrey Chapman/Christian Classics, Inc, London/Westminster Dussel E (1992) The Church in populist regimes (1930–59). In: Dussel E (ed) The Church in Latin America, 1492–1992. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, pp 139–152 Giménez G (1967) Aclaraciones sobre el concepto de Subdesarrollo como fenómeno de dependencia. Pastoral Popular, Año XVII(102): 23–31 Junta Central de la Acción Católica Argentina (1967) I Congreso Latinoamericano para el apostolado de los laicos – VI Semana Interamericana de Acción Católica. Ediciones Junta Central, Buenos Aires Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) Junta Central de la Acción Católica Mexicana (1960) V Semana Interamericana de Acción Católica. Ediciones El Estudiante, S.A., Guadalajara Junta Nacional de la Acción Católica del Perú (1957) IV Semana Interamericana de Acción Católica. Atlántida, Uruguay, 21–28 Octubre 1956. Lima Klaiber J (1998) The Church, dictatorships, and democracy in Latin America. Orbis Books, Maryknoll Newman J (1958) What is catholic action? An introduction to the lay apostolate. The Newman Press, Westminster Pérez Méndez CA (2008) Pontificia Comisión para América Latina 50 Años, 1958–2008. Pontificia Comisión para América Latina. http://www.americalatina.va/con tent/americalatina/es/historia/documento-completo. html. Accessed 19 Dec 2017 Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) Andrea Althoff1 and Jakob Egeris Thorsen2 1 Gesellschaft der Europäischen Akademien e.V., Berlin, Germany 2 School of Culture and Society, Department of Theology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark Keywords Baptism in the Holy Spirit · Laity · Duquesne Weekend · New Evangelization · CELAM · Aparecida Conference · Pope Francis Definition The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) is a movement in the Roman Catholic Church. Four themes are of special significance. First, the emphasis on the Holy Spirit; second, the role of the laity in the life of the movement and the church; third, the openness to ecumenical activity; and fourth, the emphasis on evangelization. Introduction The Charismatic movement in the historic Protestant churches of the early 1960s and the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) prepared the ground for the CCR (Balmer 2004: 143). The 285 themes mentioned above (Holy Spirit, laity, and evangelization) emerged when the Vatican’s pronouncements recognized the importance of the Holy Spirit and charismatic gifts, “a stress that was championed in council sessions by the Belgian *Cardinal León-Joseph Suenens who was later to provide critical support for the charismatic movement” (Thigpen 2002: 460). Furthermore, the “recognition that the Spirit could bestow graces among the ‘separated brethren’ allowed for the possibility that Protestant Pentecostals might be able to contribute to the renewal of the Catholic Church” (Thigpen 2002: 460). Many accounts of the CCR state that the movement started in the United States, in the early months of 1967, among students and lay faculty at Duquesne University in Pittsburg, a Roman Catholic institution operated by the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Historian and priest Peter Hocken, however, identifies similar developments in Bogotá, Colombia, as an independent locality from Duquesne (Hocken 2002b: 498; Cleary 2011: 55). Charismatic splinter groups began even earlier, in 1962, including the Legion of Mary (Legio Mariae) in Kenya (Burgess 2002: xix). In the United States, at Duquesne, the immediate catalysts were two young theology instructors, Patrick Bourgeois and Ralph Keifer. Influenced by David Wilkersons’s The Cross and the Switchblade (1963) and John Sherrill’s They Speak with Other Tongues (1964), they wanted to experience the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Balmer 2004: 143; Thigpen 2002: 460) and sought out a charismatic prayer group in the area that was attended by Presbyterians. Soon they received the typical Pentecostal experience, including speaking in tongues. In mid-February 1967, they conducted a spiritual retreat which became known as the Duquesne Weekend, in the course of which approximately 30 students received Spirit Baptism (Thigpen 2002: 460; Balmer 2004: 143). From Duquesne, the movement soon spread to the University of Notre Dame and to Michigan State University. From April 7 to 9, 1967, about a hundred students from these three universities gathered on the Notre Dame campus for a weekend of prayer and reflection on their recent experiences. Before long, the movement had reached C 286 other Midwestern campuses from which it spread throughout the rest of the United States (Balmer 2004: 143; Thigpen 2002: 460–461). Important in this dynamic were the so-called covenant communities, or charismatic Catholic communities, particularly People of Praise in South Bend, Indiana, and the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The former was formed by Kevin Mathers Ranaghan, Dorothy Ranaghan, and Paul DeCelles; the latter by two early converts, Ralph Martin and Stephen B. Clark (Hocken 2002a: 473; Hocken 2002c: 861). Martin and the Word of God Community in Ann Arbor, and Francis Scott MacNutt, then a Dominican priest, would have a strong impact in Latin America (Strang 2002: 856; Cleary 2011: 10). The covenant communities played prominent roles in the leadership, expansion, and consolidation of the CCR in the United States and globally (Thigpen 2002: 460–461). Other factors that contributed to provide the CCR with rapid growth, visibility, unity, and a sense of identity were social networks of families and friends, small local prayer groups (often set up by families and friends), frequent large conferences, and Catholic media (Thigpen 2002: 461, 463; Cleary 2011: 10). At Notre Dame, for instance, the CCR has held annual conferences since 1967; by 1973, the conference was attended by 20,000 people (Balmer 2004: 143). As early as 1973, the CCR not only had become firmly rooted in the United States but had also extended – often through international conferences – into Canada, Latin America, Europe, and Asia (Balmer 2004: 143). Key Information In the United States, in 1970, the National Service Committee (NSC) was created to coordinate services such as the national conferences. In 1972, the NSC leaders founded an International Communications Office (ICO) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with Ralph Martin as director (Hocken 2002c: 861). In 1976, the ICO, at the invitation of Cardinal León-Joseph Suenens, moved to Brussels and in 1978 to Rome. In Brussels, the ICO changed its name to the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office. Suenens himself was an important figure in the Second Vatican Council and acted as patron and sponsor for the movement. He was also given a special mandate by the Vatican to oversee the movement internationally. Today the office is called the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services, or ICCRS (Cleary 2011: 12). In 1973, leaders from eight Latin American countries met in Bogotá, Colombia, and decided to establish a Latin American communication center, the Latin American Catholic Charismatic Encounter (Encuentro Carismático Católico Latinoamericano, ECCLA) (Thigpen 2002: 462). The meetings of ECCLA have been supplemented by the Latin American Catholic Charismatic Counsel (Consejo Carismático Católico Latinoamericano, CONCCLAT), founded in 1995 and made up of national coordinators and advisors from every country in Latin America. This development reflects the fuller institutionalization of the CCR and the growth of the movement in every Latin American country (Hocken 2002b: 513). The Expansion of the Movement in Latin America There is a strong connection between the development of the movement in the United States, its decline there, and the growth of the movement in Latin America. In the United States, the success of the movement started to dwindle in the 1980s, with many charismatics exiting the Catholic Church. Some of them joined Protestant groups or came to see themselves as “ex-charismatics” (Thigpen 2002: 461). A core of firm followers, however, continued in the movement, notably at the Word of God Community and at the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. Meanwhile, missionaries from the US working in Latin America and Latin Americans who had come in contact with the charismatic movement in the United States were building the groundwork for an international expansion of the movement in Latin America. In fact, Latin Americans would reignite the movement in the United States in the 1990s Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) and that trend continued in the following decade through the migration of practitioners of Catholic Charismatism from, especially, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Haiti, and Guatemala. Latin American missionaries would also come to evangelize Catholics in the United States, as itinerant preachers or as residents. Furthermore, returning US missionaries, such as Bishop Nicholas D’Antonio of New Orleans, breathed new life into the faltering movement in the United States (Cleary 2011: 11). Finally, in the 1980s and particularly by 1986, evangelism, in response to Pope John Paul II’s stress on the New Evangelization, was coming into focus as a primary task for the movement. This new focus was clear in the New Orleans conferences on evangelization of 1986 and 1987, organized by the North American Renewal Services Committee (Thigpen 2002: 461). Francis MacNutt, then a Midwestern-US Dominican friar, introduced the Catholic Charismatic movement in several Latin American countries. Notably he preached the *Life in the Spirit Seminars (LSS) – retreats to prepare people for receiving baptism in the Spirit – with a team of Catholics and Protestants, men and women. With these seminars, MacNutt started the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Bolivia and Peru (1970); the Dominican Republic (1971); Guatemala, Mexico, and Costa Rica (1972); and Colombia and Chile (1972) (Cleary 2011: 30, 36). MacNutt later left the Dominican order, married and in 1980 created, together with his wife Judith MacNutt, the ecumenical Christian Healing Ministries in Clearwater, Florida. In 1987, at the invitation of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida, they moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and expanded Christian Healing Ministries into a healing center for prayer ministry and teaching (CHM 2015). For many years, the CCR was accepted within the Roman Catholic Church but not strongly supported by the bishops in Latin America. The Bishop’s Conference of Panama was the first to accept the CCR in 1975; the powerful Brazilian Bishops Conference was the last in 1994. While the CCR in Brazil was very successful among the laity, its clergy was (more than in any other 287 country) attached to the movement of liberation theology and hence hostile to the CCR’s theological and pastoral focus on personal sanctification and religious experience (Cleary 2007: 168). In the 1990s, however, the advance of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Latin America persuaded many bishops that the only effective Catholic response against Protestant Pentecostalism would be a spiritual renewal and encouragement of the CCR (Hocken 2002b: 513). Many observers regard the simultaneous rise of the CCR and Protestant Pentecostal churches in the region as part of the same general pentecostalization of religion in Latin America (Chesnut 2003; Gooren 2012). Undoubtedly, the CCR in Latin America is the fastest growing movement in the Catholic Church. With estimates of some 73 million adherents in the year 2000, Latin America leads all Catholic regions of the world in this trend. Furthermore, the numbers in this sector of Catholicism are greater than the 40 million or so Latin American Protestants, most of them Pentecostal (Cleary 2011: 1). Western scholars, until the late 1990s, focused almost exclusively on the theologically influential, but numerically insignificant, movement of liberation theology and the church’s competitors (Protestant Pentecostalism and neoPentecostalism), completely overlooking the CCR (Althoff 2014: 41–42). In Edward L. Cleary’s words, the CCR became the “invisible giant” which no one studied, although it was 10–20 times bigger than the Christian Base Communities movement (Cleary 2007). In his last book from 2011, Edward L. Cleary, O.P. analyzed the presence of the Renewal in Latin America, using data made available by Barrett and Johnson (2001). He distinguished three categories. First, he ranked countries by the number of Charismatic Catholics (in millions); the five leading countries being Brazil with 33.7, followed by Colombia with 11.3, Mexico with 9.2, Argentina with 4.7, and Venezuela with 3.1. His second table ranked countries by the percentage of Catholics who were Charismatic; the first five countries being Colombia (28%), Brazil (22%), Puerto Rico (18%), Argentina (14%), and Chile (14%). The third table ranked countries by C 288 the percentage of priests who were Charismatic; the first five countries being Dominican Republic (23%), Brazil (11%), Guatemala (11%), Nicaragua (10%), and Argentina (9%) (Cleary 2011: 27–29). Statistical figures have to be treated with caution, however. According to the 2006 survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the percentage of Catholic Charismatic worshippers among the Catholic population was 62% in Guatemala, 57% in Brazil, and 26% in Chile (Pew Forum 2006). The striking discrepancies can best be explained by the fact that the numbers cited in Barrett and Johnson were based on a census of participants in Charismatic prayer groups organized under the CCR umbrella, whereas the Pew Forum numbers were based on Catholic respondents who engaged in Charismatic worship practices (speaking in tongues, prayer of healing, ecstatic conversion experiences, etc.). Furthermore, group attendance (if there was any) was not necessarily linked to the CCR (Thorsen 2015: 41). There are two separate movements with different emphases and priorities that are attempting to revitalize the church, particularly in Latin America. First, there is the branch consisting of groups who focus on liberation theology, Christian base communities, and political activism. These groups believe that structural inequalities must be changed along with the human heart. On the other side are the Charismatic renewal groups, covenant communities, and politically neutral groups, who believe that societal improvement is dependent on personal conversion and that discussions of changing social structures are secondary (Cleary 2011: 146). Studies by anthropologists of CCR groups and Christian Base Communities (CEBs) in Brazil nevertheless have indicated that, for participants on the ground, the same type and degree of personal and communal empowerment is achieved no matter whether the prayer group is from the CCR or linked to the CEB movement. Likewise, there seems to be a blurring of lines between the two, where many CEBs take over worship practices founded in the CCR (de Theije 1998, 1999; Mariz and de Theije 2008). Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) Doctrinal Characteristics and Popular Practices The Holy Spirit and its spiritual gifts, such as healing, are clearly emphasized among the beliefs and practices of Catholic Charismatics. Other characteristics include evangelization, personal conversion, a focus on Jesus, praise, love of the Bible, a re-enchanted world view, (often) spiritual warfare, and eschatological expectation (Cleary 2011: 5). In contrast to Protestant Pentecostals, Catholic Charismatics place less emphasis on speaking in tongues, do not share Pentecostals’ world-denying Holiness origins, typically belong to the middle and lower classes (although many are members of the upper class or the cultural elite) and have expressive lifestyles (such as in their musical preferences). Paul Freston also notes that Catholic Charismatics, to a higher degree than other converts, retain their basic identities, with lifestyles frowned on by classic Pentecostals and older Evangelicals with stricter forms of Christianity (quoted in Cleary 2011: 6). As in the case of Pentecostals, there has been a discussion about how to characterize the practices and spirituality of Catholic Charismatics and how to understand their success. Anthropologists studying the movement in Colombia and Brazil have characterized it as a recourse to a premodern worldview, which has a special appeal to adherents because it re-invigorates popular religious, shamanistic, and ecstatic practices within a Catholic framework (Várguez 1998, 2007, 2008; Ospina Martínez 2006). Others have argued that it is the remodeling of the re-enchanted worldview along modern functional lines and the acquisition of the spiritual skills to navigate in it. This, in combination with the possibility of moral restoration from destructive vices (alcoholism, gambling, spousal infidelity) has enabled the CCR to grow as explosively as it has (Thorsen 2012). In particular, the central role attributed to (physical and psychological/emotional) healing in the CCR in Latin America cannot be overemphasized (Chesnut 2003: 45; Cleary 2011: 32, 47; Gooren 2012: 201, 202, 204; Thorsen 2015: 51). Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) Ecclesial Influence After almost 50 years of presence, the CCR has gained a substantial influence on the institutional church in Latin America since 2000. Observers have analyzed the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007 and noted that, although the final document does not mention the CCR by name, the language and the pastoral priorities launched therein are markedly influenced by the Charismatic movement (Arntz 2008: 56; Libanio 2008: 44; Suess 2008; Thorsen 2015: 161). Examples are the implementation of a “Great Continental Mission” and the declaration of the Church to be “in permanent mission” (CELAM 2007). The stated goal is to transform all baptized Catholics into “disciples and missionaries” through a “personal encounter with Jesus Christ,” the latter explained, as “a profound and intense religious experience . . . that leads to a personal conversion and to a thorough change of life” (CELAM 2007: 226). Throughout the document, there is a strong focus on conversion, religious experience (for instance, as an “encounter with Jesus”), the Holy Spirit, mission, and other terms that play a key role in the CCR (Thorsen 2015: 160). The election of Pope Francis in 2013 has also given the CCR a strong anchoring in the Vatican. On various occasions, Pope Francis has strongly supported the movement. He was the first pope to attend a CCR mega-event in a soccer stadium in Rome in June 2014, where he engaged in Charismatic style worship and strongly endorsed the lay preaching and missionary outreach. Unlike many Charismatics in Latin America, Pope Francis combines the Charismatic Revival with a firm focus on social justice, and he does not miss any opportunity to remind the CCR of the “horizontal” dimensions of the faith (Thorsen 2015: 221). References Althoff A (2014) Divided by faith and ethnicity: religious pluralism and the problem of race in Guatemala. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 289 Arntz N (2008) Einführung in Aufbau und Inhalt des Schlussdokuments der 5. Generalversammlung des Episkopats von Lateinamerika und der Karibik. Z Mission Relig 92(1–2):48–67 Balmer RH (2004) Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. Baylor University Press, Waco Barrett, D & Co. (2001) World Christian Trends, AD 30AD 2200: Interpreting the Annual Christian Megacensus. Pasadena, California: William Carey Library Burgess SM (2002) Introduction. In: Burgess SM, Van der Maas EM (eds) The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, pp xvii–xxiii CELAM (2007) Final document of the Fifth General Conference of Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean. Latin American Conference of Bishops. http://celam. org/aparecida%20/Ingles.pdf. Accessed 15 Mar 2016 Chesnut RA (2003) Competitive spirits: Latin America’s new religious economy. Oxford University Press, New York CHM (2015) Organization history. http://www.christian healingmin.org/index.php?option=com_content&view= category&id=140&Itemid=352. Accessed 12 Apr 2016 Cleary EL (2007) The Catholic Charismatic Renewal: revitalization movements and conversion. In: Steigenga T, Cleary EL (eds) Conversion of a continent. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, pp 153–173 Cleary EL (2011) The rise of Charismatic Catholicism in Latin America. University Press of Florida, Gainesville de Theije MEM (1998) Charismatic renewal and base communities: the religious participation of women in a Brazilian parish. In: Boudewijnse B, Droogers A, Kamsteeg F (eds) More than opium. An anthropological approach to Latin American and Caribbean Pentecostal praxis. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, pp 225–248 de Theije MEM (1999) CEBs and Catholic Charismatics in Brazil. In: Smith C, Prokopy J (eds) American religion in motion. Routledge, New York, pp 111–124 Gooren H (2012) The Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America. Pneuma J Soc Pentecostal Stud 34(2):185–207 Hocken PD (2002a) Charismatic communities. In: Burgess SM, Van der Maas EM (eds) The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, pp 473–476 Hocken PD (2002b) Charismatic movement. In: Burgess SM, Van der Maas EM (eds) The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, pp 477–519 Hocken PD (2002c) Martin, Ralph. In: Burgess SM, Van der Maas EM (eds) The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, pp 861–862 Libanio JB (2008) Conferencia de Aparecida. Documento final. Rev Iberoam Teología 4:23–46 Mariz CL, de Theije MEM (2008) Localizing and globalizing processes in Brazilian Catholicism: comparing inculturation in liberationist and charismatic Catholic cultures. Lat Am Res Rev 43(1):33–54 C 290 Ospina Martínez MA (2006) Satanás se “desregula”: sobre la paradoja del fundamentalismo moderno en la Renovación Carismática Católica. Universitas Humaníst 61:135–163 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (2006) Spirit and power: a 10-country survey of Pentecostals. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Washington, DC Strang S (2002) MacNutt, Francis Scott. In: Burgess SM, Van der Maas EM (eds) The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, pp 855–856 Suess P (2008) Die missionarische Synthese nach Aparecida. Z Mission Relig 92(1–2):68–83 Thigpen TP (2002) Catholic Charismatic Renewal. In: Burgess SM, Van der Maas EM (eds) The new international dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, pp 460–467 Thorsen JE (2012) Challenged by pluralism: Catholic expansion into magic and prophetism – the new roles of the Catholic Church in Latin America. Iberoam Nord J Lat Am Caribb Stud 47(1–2):35–68 Thorsen JE (2015) Charismatic practice and Catholic parish life – the incipient pentecostalization of the church in Guatemala and Latin America. Brill, Leiden Várguez L (1998) De la fe al delirio. Manifestaciones religiosas en una colonia popular de Mérida. Mitológicas 13:33–49 Várguez L (2007) Los Sacerdotes del Movimiento de Renovación Carismática en el Espíritu Santo. ¿Brujos, Magos o Hechiceros Profesionales? Cienc Soc Relig 4(4):55–85 Várguez L (2008) Constructing and reconstructing the boundaries of tradition and modernity. The Catholic Church and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the Holy Spirit. Convergencia Rev Cienc Soc 46:175–204 CELAM Alejandro Crosthwaite, O. P. Angelicum, Rome, Italy Keywords CELAM · Rio de Janeiro · Medellín · Puebla · Santo Domingo · Aparecida · Liberation theology · Preferential option for the poor · Structural sin · Ecclesial base communities · To see · To judge · To act Definition The Conferencia Episcopal Latinoamericana (CELAM) – Latin American Bishops’ CELAM Conference – established in 1955, represents 22 national Roman Catholic bishops’ conferences in the Western Hemisphere. Its aim is to coordinate the work of the Catholic Church in Latin America and the Caribbean; adapt to its contexts the reforms of the Second Vatican Council; promote creative strategies for spreading the Catholic faith; and support innovative approaches to social, political, economic, and cultural challenges. CELAM’s General Assemblies in Medellin, Colombia (1968); Puebla, Mexico (1979); Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1992); and Aparecida, Brazil (2007), resulted, despite severe internal and external disputes, in affirming the church’s “preferential option for the poor,” the concept of “structural sin,” the pastoral importance of “ecclesial base communities,” and the theological/pastoral method “to see, to judge, to act,” all elements which are associated with liberation theology. Introduction According to its statutes and its 2011–2015 Global Plan, the main objective of CELAM is always the same: the evangelization of the American continent and the coordination and promotion of collaboration between the different episcopal conferences in the area for the sake of the “great continental mission” (CELAM 1970 art. 4.8; CELAM 2012 nn. 1–2, Aparecida n. 5). In its General Assemblies, the church in Latin America and the Caribbean questions itself and its mission among the people of the territory, and it expresses concern on how to move towards new horizons in its evangelizing mission based on an analysis of the current reality of the people of the Western Hemisphere (CELAM 2012 nn. 5–6). The promotion of Latin American and Caribbean integration, as an expression of a society based on social justice and solidarity, is also part of the evangelizing mission of the church in the region (Santo Domingo n. 206; Aparecida nn. 82, 521). In order to establish this dialogue and interact with different views of society, a new model of ecclesial action needs to be updated at each General Assembly or conference (Aparecida n. 371). CELAM The Second Vatican Council (11 October 1962–December 1965) had a major impact on CELAM. One of the objectives of CELAM after the Council was to adapt to its contexts the reforms of Vatican II. The Council opened the doors of the church to the modern world, to an effort to get in touch with earthly realities. In his 1962 radio message, before the opening of the council, Pope John XXIII (1958–1963) already indicated a desired transformation in the approach of the church towards those earthy realities, “To the developing countries the church presents itself as it is and how it wants to be, as the church of all, particularly as the church of the poor” (John XXIII 1963, p. 682). His concept of the “church of the poor” opened a debate that the General Assembly of Medellin expanded 6 years later, with an approach centered on the Latin American reality (Casadont 2005). The ambiguous language of Vatican II took a stronger and more direct tone in Medellin: as a need of the church to stand in solidarity with the dispossessed of Latin American countries (Casadont 2005). During the post-Medellin period of intense theological debate, the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez published “Liberation Theology: Perspectives” (1971), a key text in the study of the movement of liberation theology and one that would have an influence on CELAM itself. In the following decades, two unreconciled theologies would manifest themselves in the CELAM documents: “first, a traditional and conservative Christology and ecclesiology, and secondly, a theology that emerged in the middle of the issues and situations that are of interest to liberation approaches, namely those related to the life of the poor” (Pikaza and Silanes 1992). From an historical perspective, one can argue that in the meeting of CELAM in Medellin, liberation theology made its debut, Puebla was its watermark, and Santo Domingo its Waterloo; Aparecida was to a certain extent the separating of liberation theology’s wheat from its chaff (Crosthwaite 2008, p. 256). It can be claimed that the introduction and adoption of key elements of liberation theology in the final documents of the CELAM conferences is a major contribution for and from the Latin American 291 church to the universal church (Pikaza and Silanes 1992). With CELAM headquartered in Bogotá, Colombia, departments, publications, and training centers were established throughout the continent. Research centers and intellectual networking became common among the different pastoral agents throughout the Americas (Bunge and Escalante 2001). CELAM Throughout the decades the institutions of CELAM have always tried to be an agency of and for the bishops, without trying to set up a kind of superstructure over the national episcopal conferences, establishing in its statutory structure, in its collegial and collaborative dynamics, and in its programs the greatest responsibility and participation of the Latin American episcopal conferences and individual bishops. In this sense, the XIII Ordinary Assembly of CELAM, held in Costa Rica in May 1971, was very important in that it established that the episcopal conferences should be represented at the CELAM not only by respective delegates chosen for that role but also by their Presidents (CELAM 1971). This spirit of responsibility and participation was expressed in its statutes, in its ordinary and extraordinary assemblies, in its episcopal commissions that govern its departments and sections, in its regular coordination meetings, and in its periodic regional meetings of bishops (Southern Cone, Andean, Mexico-Central America, Caribbean) (Carriquiry 2006, p. 24). CELAM has promoted, with greater or lesser success, an ecclesial renewal throughout the continent by spreading the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, contextualizing its understanding and application, and guiding its modes of inculturation, which have helped to shape the identity of the church in Latin America (Restrepo 1995, p. 33). It has strengthened the ties to the different Popes and the Holy See. It has mostly been attentive and faithful to the papal Magisterium, although sometimes in conflict with local C 292 theologies. It has promoted and sustained affective and effective communion with successive pontiffs. At the same time CELAM has avoided the temptation and the risk of being seen as a sort of halfway between Rome and the local churches, something like a “mini-Vatican” (Carriquiry 2006, p. 4). It has helped develop in the episcopal conferences and in the local churches a strengthened Latin American consciousness, valuing the history, tradition, culture, and Catholic piety of its peoples (Santo Domingo nn. 10, 1165). It has been the agenda of CELAM to be a sign, channel, and supporter of the unity of Latin American peoples, emphasizing their religious and cultural roots to make more informed, profound and native intellectual currents, and political and economic forms of integration, and moving them away from partial and limited approaches. In addition, CELAM has effectively contributed to bridging the gap between Brazil and Latin American countries, uniting the two faces of Latin America – the Luso-American and Hispanic– as it continues to work on greater integration of the Caribbean (Carriquiry 2006, p. 7). CELAM has strengthened the Latin American Magisterium by organizing and animating the General Conference of Latin American Bishops, conducting meetings and developing, deepening, and proposing criteria for discernment on a range of doctrinal, theological, and pastoral issues. It has done so mostly by providing timely and important collaboration to the discernment of the papal Magisterium on important issues and by helping to revive and incorporate more vigorously in the local church’s Magisterium relevant aspects of Catholic tradition. It has known how to combat the “good battles” for the deposit of faith against strong secularizing and ideological trends that risked confusing, eroding, and instrumentalizing the Catholic heritage of Latin American peoples. It has done so while at the same time keeping upfront social justice issues that affect the region and the liberative contributions of the region’s theologians; a balance not always successfully achieved and many a time to the detriment of the latter (Carriquiry 2006, p. 12). CELAM It has performed an intense and widespread work of formation of pastoral agents, beginning with the bishops themselves (not only through the above mentioned collegial dynamics but also through numerous courses both at the continental and regional level). This work has been extensive and fruitful also for countless priests, religious, and laity, thanks to its meetings and publications, various training programs, and especially through its systematic and varied educational work undertaken by the Theological and Pastoral Institute of Latin America over the past 60 years (Carriquiry 2006, p. 13). Clearly, the achievements and fruits of 60 years of CELAM history have had phases of greater growth and maturity and others that are less intense and lacking tangible results. History of CELAM In the 1950s Latin America and Caribbean, the laity, despite its grave lack of catechesis and leadership training, gradually played a more active role in the church through Catholic Action – which was a form of sharing in the apostolate of the clergy in which lay people gathered together to proclaim the Gospel to all peoples and social, political, economic, and cultural realities, in accordance with the needs of the Catholic Church in each time and place and under its direct supervision. This reality convinced the church leadership about the need that the clergy be better prepared to meet this active laity and the need of a renewed evangelization and catechesis of the continent. Pope Pius XII (1939–1958) made a strong appeal at the time to European bishops to send missionary priests to the Catholic churches in the Western Hemisphere, especially as the influence of the Pentecostal and Evangelical churches grew in the region (Fidei Docum nn. 5, 61). At the same time, a presence of Marxist thinkers trying to occupy a position in the intellectual environment of the continent manifested itself especially in the universities and politics of the region (Valenzuela 2007). The Rio de Janeiro General Assembly (1955) urged in its Final Document the training CELAM of pastoral agents, not just priests and religious but especially prepared lay people to help in the mission of the church (nn. 42–45). This was to be especially done through Catholic Action. Catholic Action was to support the dissemination of the Bible as the basis for faith formation, encouraging popular Bible editions, its reading, and its study through Bible courses. Also popular catechisms were to complete the training of the members of Catholic Action (n. 72). The Rio de Janeiro Conference created CELAM as an organization that would follow up on all these tasks (n. 97). In the 1960s, the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean were generally more open to dialogue with the modern world, as was the whole church after the Second Vatican Council, which gathered bishops from all over the world to promote the development of the Catholic faith, heighten the moral standards of the laity, adapt ecclesiastical discipline to the needs and methods of modern times, and reach a better relations with other Christians, especially from the East, and other world religions. During the same period, the United Nations began proposing “production” as a solution for economic and material poverty. However, the bishops during this decade gradually extended the notion of poverty to include poverty concerning human values. After the Council many pastors and committed lay people opted for a sociopolitical commitment needed to implement the Council’s recommendations. At the same time, a decline in practice was experienced throughout the region as Marxist parties were experiencing growth and were emboldened to attack religion as “the opium of the people” especially among the intellectual elites and workers (Saranyana 2002, p. 283). The ecclesial changes of the Vatican II were implemented in a distinctive Latin American and the Caribbean way, as formulated by the bishops and by many theologians in the region during the Medellín Conference (1968). This perspective included a historical and dynamic view of the world, the affirmation of embarking a process of a so-called “integral liberation,” the “preferential option for the poor,” and the understanding of the poor as subjects and protagonists of evangelization, and more attention to a theological analysis 293 of the contemporary world (nn. 5, 4, 1–18, 13). It was the Medellin Conference that specifically established as a constitutive part of the mission of CELAM that “the particular command of the Lord to ‘evangelize the poor’ should lead [the church] to a distribution of resources and apostolic personnel that effectively gives preference to the poorest and neediest sectors and those segregated for any cause” (n. 9). In light of the Second Vatican Council also the doctrine of the Kingdom of God begins to develop and take hold in the continent: “We do not confuse earthly progress with the Kingdom of Christ”; however, the first, “as much as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society, is of vital concern to the Kingdom of God” (Gaudium et Spes n. 45, Medellin n. 5). Thus, besides its evangelizing mission, CELAM undertakes to promote “true development, which is the movement, for each one and for all, from less human to more humane conditions. . .” (n. 6). Additionally, there were efforts to renew the liturgy in order to adapt it to the particular cultural context of the continent (n. 15). In the 1970s, a global recession seriously affected the economy of Latin America that promoted the dissemination and propagation of Marxist ideas. These ideologies affected groups of committed laity, priests, and religious who even entered the political and social spheres, in other words, they used “politics to pursue theological objectives”(Saranyana 2002, p. 32). Many opted for socialism, Marxism, and even guerrilla warfare as the only means to achieve the liberation of the people. In this context, the so-called “Theology of Revolution” appeared emphasizing these more radical aspects of liberation as the gap between those who have everything and those who have nothing increased at the time as well as the dependence of poor countries on the super powers (Saranyana 2002, pp. 118–119, 347–48). The bishops gathered at the Puebla General Conference (1979) stated very clearly that it was impossible for a Christian to neglect social justice and the integral liberation of the human person without curtailing an integral part of the Gospel, while at the same time rejecting a radicalized theology of liberation (n. 475–76; 355). As a C 294 consequence of the Puebla Conference, the laity was pressed even more into active service with more obligations and rights in the church. The bishops would stress their universal missionary vocation given to them through baptism (n. 7). In the eyes of the bishops, popular religiosity, in need of purification, guidance, and commitment, was appreciated as an effective means of evangelization (n. 109). The theology of the Kingdom of God was consolidated as an ideal that summarizes the mission of Jesus Christ and that proclaims the truth about Christ, about humanity, and the church (nn. 193, 194, 237). In the 1980s, the church in the continent had a better pastoral organization of the bishops. The ecclesial base communities had expanded and consolidated their mission. There was an increase of lay, religious, and priestly vocations. At Santo Domingo (1992) the bishops likewise recognized the mark of sin in the hemisphere: civil revolutions, terrorism, drug wars and addiction, extreme poverty, oppression and social injustice, and dysfunctional and corrupt political systems to name a few (Valenzuela 2007). Within the context of the 500 years of the presence of the Catholic Church in the Western Hemisphere, Pope John Paul II and the Santo Domingo Conference called for a new evangelization, integral human promotion, and a Christian culture that responded to the continent’s many challenges. Santo Domingo makes an accounting of the human resources that are available to evangelize the region, and the recipients of the Gospel message are very seriously taken into account. It is noted that human promotion and the defense of human rights are an integral part of the new evangelization called for Pope John Paul II (n. 33; Tertio Millennium Adveniente n. 59). For the first time, greater importance is given to ecological questions (n. 169). The bishops emphasize the urgency of the call to fraternal solidarity and are very much concerned about the phenomenon of human mobility from the farm to the city, from the South to the North (n. 85, 187). During the 1990s, the process of globalization accelerated. Globalization in the Americas has become associated with neoliberal policies in general and drawn into the broader debate over the CELAM expanding role of the free market, constraints upon the state, and US influence on the region. South American countries signed the Mercosur free trade agreement (1991), and the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed between Canada, USA, and Mexico (1994). The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and the US Treasury Department, set 10 specific economic policy prescriptions (Washington Consensus) as a “standard” reform package for crisiswracked developing countries in the late 1980s and 1990s. Several Latin American countries, led by socialist or a left wing governments, began campaigning for (and to some degree adopted) policies contrary to the Washington Consensus, most of which entered the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas in the 2000s (Williamson 1989). Following the trajectory established by previous conferences, Aparecida (2007) was a conference that, besides recovering the theological/ pastoral method “to see, to judge, to act” (abandoned involuntarily at Santo Domingo), reassumed the pastoral importance of “ecclesial base communities” and the “preferential option for the poor” and urged the church to become aware of itself and its role in an increasingly pluralist continent and globalized world (nn. 19, 99, 391–98, 479). Faced with the emergence of individual subjectivity, an eclectic and diffuse religious experience, the irruption of free alternatives, a mercantilist globalization, and a new global consciousness, new faces of the poor as “surplus and disposable,” urbanization, migrations, etc., Aparecida proposes a new evangelization of the continent in a Pastoral Plan that should guide the church’s pastoral action in Latin America and the Caribbean at the beginning of the third millennium (nn. 479, 65, 287, 497). Conclusion For 60 years, CELAM has provided an important service to connect, promote, and sustain the effective collegiality and pastoral collaboration of the bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, thereby overcoming a legacy of poor communication between them and cultural, political, social, Chile and ecclesiastical boundaries. It has encouraged and aided the establishment of the episcopal conferences in the various countries of the continent. It has supported their mutual internal communication and collaboration, in addition to communication and collaboration with the Holy See. Despite internal and external conflicts, as well as the presence of two theologies in its discussions, documents, and praxis, CELAM has given Catholicism in the hemisphere a valuable assistance, especially through its General Assemblies, to elicit a more conscious and active participation of clergy, religious, and laity, in the church’s mission at the continental and universal level of evangelization of the whole person. References Bunge AW, Escalante LF (2001) El Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (C.E.L.A.M.) y sus Estatutos. Encuentro, Madrid Carriquiry G (2006) En camino hacia la V Conferencia de la Iglesia Latinoamericana. Memoria de los 50 años del CELAM. Editorial Claretiana, Buenos Aires Casadont S (2005) Dos Caminos Ante la Pobreza: Los Padres Gabriel y Néstor en la Novela Nicodemus. Proyecto Ensayo Hispánico, Athens CELAM (1955) 1ra. Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano (Rio de Janeiro). CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (1968) 2da. Conferencia General del Espiscopado Latinoamericano (Medellin). CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (1970) Estatutos del CELAM. CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (1971) XIII Asamblea General del Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano. CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (1979) 3ra. Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano (Puebla). CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (1992) 4ta. Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano (Santo Domingo). CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (2007) 5ta. Conferencia General del Episcopado Latinoamericano (Aparecida). CELAM, Bogotà CELAM (2012) Plan Global y Programas 2011–2015. CELAM, Bogotà Crosthwaite A (2008) Aparecida: Catholicism in Latin American & Caribbean at the crossroads. Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, Washington, DC Gutierrez G (1971) Teología de la Liberación. Perspectivas. Sigueme, Salamanca John Paul II (1995) Apostolic letter Tertio Millennium Adveniente. AAS 87. Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, Vatican City, pp 5–76 John XXIII (1963) Radio message to all the Christian faithful one month before the opening of the Second 295 Vatican Ecumenical Council. AAS 54. Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, Vatican City, pp 679–685 Pikaza X, Silanes N (1992) Diccionario Teológico. El Dios Cristiano, Salamanca Pius XII (1957) Encyclical letter Fidei Donum. AAS 49. Typis Polyglottis Vaticanis, Vatican City, pp 225–249 Restrepo JD (1995) CELAM, 40 años sirviendo e Integrando. Datos para una historia. Colección Autores 10, CELAM, Bogotá Saranyana JI (2002) Teología en América Latina. Vol. 3: El siglo de las teologías latinoamericanistas (1899–2001). Iberoamericana Vervuert, Madrid Valenzuela H (2007) Reseña Histórica de las Conferencias del CELAM, Bogotà, Colombia Williamson J (1989) Latin American Readjustment: how much has happened. Institute for International Economics, Washington, DC Chile Hannah Stewart-Gambino Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA Keywords Chile · Catholic · Protestant · Pentecostal · Latter-day Saints Definition Historically, Chile shares many similarities with the other Latin American countries, yet it is also recognized for its exceptional democratic stability and institutional strength. This entry highlights the distinctive aspects of Chilean political and social history that shape the country’s religious field. Colonial Period Chile’s early colonial experience was defined in large part by the region’s relatively weak colonial apparatus located far from the centers of Spanish control. The initial Spanish conquest of Chile was led by Pedro de Valdivia and a small force of approximately two hundred men. Valdivia, who was granted permission by the Crown to lay claim to the lands taken from the indigenous population, C 296 faced strong indigenous resistance, particularly from the Mapuche who waged the prolonged Arauco War. The indigenous people maintained control of the southern parts of Chile until well into the latter 1800s. Given their relatively small numbers, the Chilean conquerors needed a system for providing an indigenous workforce. The Latin American encomienda system forced the indigenous to provide labor in return for conversion and instruction in the Catholic faith; however, the Chilean system was never as strong as in other areas, in part because indigenous laborers could escape to indigenous-controlled lands south of the BioBio River. By the early 1600s, the number of indigenous people in the original encomiendas had dwindled to a relatively small number, and Catholic penetration beyond the Spanish and criollo descendents of Spanish was slow and anemic. Buying African slaves was not a viable colonial strategy in Chile; therefore, African religious elements are virtually absent in the Chilean colonial religious landscape. By the middle of the seventeenth century, the Spanish and the criollo class were resigned to the fact that Chile was not the home of rich silver or gold deposits, settling into agricultural production in the rich Central Valley. The persistent insufficiency of labor resulted in a new labor class formation – the inquilino class – made up of those indigenous whose survival necessitated working on colonial lands, those who were captured during the almost-constant military conflicts in the south, and mixed offspring. As in the rest of Spanish America, the Catholic Church’s role was intertwined with the goals of military conquest in search of riches. Against this backdrop, tension between the earthly aspirations of the conquest and regard for the rights of the indigenous arose. As elsewhere, the Franciscan and Dominican orders advocated for the inherent rights of converted indigenous against Spanish abuses. Joining the denunciation of abuses after their arrival in 1592, the Jesuits nonetheless made little progress in strengthening adherence to the laws to protect the Native Americans. The church in Chile never had sufficient personnel to adequately attend to the religious needs of non-elites, and Chile religious instruction for the masses was largely aimed at inculcating obedience and submission. Nor was Catholic piety widespread among the Spanish and criollo class. Many indigenous religious practices also were simply absorbed into a syncretic popular religiosity. Early Republic The 1833 Republican constitution granted to the Catholic Church virtually unchallenged control over the full range of institutions encompassing an individual’s social life. Lasting until 1925, the constitution placed the Chilean Roman Catholic Church in arguably one of the strongest legal positions in nineteenth century Latin America. By the mid-1800s, however, the conflicts associated with state building led to bitter conflicts between contrasting visions of the proper role and authority of the state. The Liberal, Radical, and National Parties were viewed as anti-clerical due to their advocacy of state (vs. church) control over such institutions as schools and courts. The Chilean Conservative Party, as in other countries, became identified as the clerical party, or the party whose platforms included defense of the rights, prerogatives, and authority of the Catholic Church in civil society. The influence of Catholicism can best be seen in education. For early Republic leaders, the state was analogous to a family, with men as “fathers” in politics and commerce and “mothers” as moral tutors in the private domain. The 1833 Constitution laid the legal foundation for the Chilean state’s commitment to public (primarily male) education, originally including churchcontrolled religious instruction. Secondary and university training were designed to provide elite males with the skills and perspectives necessary for national and professional leadership; primary schooling for males was designed to inculcate the values of discipline and obedience necessary for preserving class hierarchy. Private schools for girls during the early Republic were almost exclusively associated with liberal elite families who were interested in secular, not religious, instruction. National legislation in 1848 consolidated Chile state control of public education, resulting in a sharp expansion of secular male education. Feeling under threat, the church became the most vocal proponent of freedom of education and began building Catholic schools to compete. Girls’ education also expanded, but under the leadership of a French female religious order. Nineteenth century education was built on the foundation of female domesticity entrusted with civilizing public (and increasingly secular) males. The Chilean legislative battles over the so-called religious question (church vs. state control over birth, marriage, burial, education, and the like) did not result in a deep and politically-defining religious divide in Chile. The bulk of the pro-state legislation occurred during the 1871–1886 Liberal governments, keeping devotion to the Catholic Church and commitment to Catholic identity salient for many Chileans. Yet, Conservatives by this time had abandoned strategies of armed resistance or civil war, and all of the battles between the church and the state in this period were fought within the relatively stable constitutional regime characterized by elite bargaining. Differences between Conservatives and Liberals also were complicated by the struggle between the Congress (representing differing local and regional interests) and the Presidency. Shared interest in asserting congressional power created an incentive for charting short-term alliances across religious differences. Similar to Britain, Conservatives’ inability to dislodge Liberal control of the state by violent or electoral means resulted in their support for extending suffrage in the hopes of augmenting their electoral base through control of the still-largely agricultural work force. The Conservatives conceded the anticlericals’ major goals of winning the battles associated with the “religious question,” and in return the church maintained key privileges, including formal establishment in the constitution, control over Catholic schools, state subsidies, and retention of church lands. A brief civil war in 1891 shifted power to the Congress. Although religious differences lingered during the period leading up to the new constitution in 1925, the clashes over nonreligious issues such as monetary policy and social reform created 297 newly fluid alliances defined by two poles: (1) the Conservative Party allied with portions of the Liberal Party and Liberal Democratic Party and (2) a Liberal Alliance, which was the name applied to any alliance including the Radicals and more doctrinaire Liberals. This period is distinguished by short-term political alliances, heightened electoral competition, and a general inability of any party or coalition to effectively govern in the face of obstructionist policies. Because the Chilean Conservative Party’s platform increasingly contained positions identified with class-based elite interests, the importance of the party’s traditionally pro-clerical identity was diluted. By the time of the separation of church and state in 1925, the “religious question” had largely been solved and political elites had turned their attention to class-based battles in the so-called social question. According to contemporary observers, the political and personal relevance of religious identification (still largely Catholic) had markedly declined by the turn of the twentieth century. According to J. Lloyd Mecham (1934: 267), “there is to be noted in the entire country a marked religious evolution. It is not that the people are separating from the Church, for at least three quarters of the population continue to be sincere Catholics. Nor is it due to hostility of Protestantism. The free thinkers do not constitute an organized nucleus against the Church. It is simple tolerance and religious indifference.” Catholicism and the Modern Chilean State: 1925–1964 Chilean religion after 1925 is best understood in the context of a rapidly changing social and political landscape that shaped the public and private religious domains. The separation of church and state in 1925 severed the Catholic hierarchy’s remaining formal tie to the state, and the breakdown of the traditional oligarchic regime gave rise to the rapid incorporation of new classes associated with expanded economic growth in mining, agriculture, and industry. Unlike most Latin American countries of this period, Chile’s C 298 political system transformed into a Europeanstyle party landscape of class-based parties – a formal alliance between the Conservative and Liberal parties on the right, an anti-church Radical party in the center, and a largely Marxist Left with both Communist and Socialist parties. Not only did Chile enjoy one of the longest and strongest democratic traditions in the region, but its political party system was perhaps the most highly developed. From the 1930s to 1973, democratic competition depended largely on the parties’ ability to recruit new members and establish ties with new social groups. The Chilean party system in which elites focused on maintaining and deepening clientelistic ties to their constituencies resulted in an extraordinarily high degree of party penetration into all areas of social life. The rise of new middle and working classes and the anti-church and Marxist parties that represented them further undermined the Catholic Church’s relevance in Chilean politics and society. The twentieth century Catholic Church had to devise a strategy for maintaining its influence in national society far earlier than many other Latin American Catholic Churches that could continue to rely on their relationships to conservative parties or authoritarian regimes. As early as the turn of the twentieth century, some within the Church and the Conservative Party warned that “the workers already no longer accept the ideas of resignation as a moral principle nor of natural economic order” (Stewart-Gambino 1992: 32). Inspired by the principles of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, some young priests and laity began to work in working class neighborhoods to foster Catholic mutual aid groups. In 1919, the church founded Catholic Social Action with the express purpose of providing a Catholic alternative to anarchist and Marxist organizations. Indeed, some church officials saw in Rerum Novarum the basis for a real social renovation of Chilean society led by the Catholic Church. For the majority in the hierarchy, however, the primary purpose was to provide an alternative to Marxist organizations that had far deeper ties to working and middle classes. Catholic Action, founded in 1931, signaled a more profound shift. In response to political Chile instability and the increasingly powerful Marxist Left, the hierarchy sought to elevate the church above the fortunes of partisan politics and detach the church’s religious mission from the worldly platforms of any particular party. In keeping with Pope Pius X’s vision for Catholic Action worldwide, Santiago Archbishop Crescente Errazuriz prohibited the clergy from recruiting members to the Conservative Party or holding any positions within the party. The archbishop’s position reflected his view that the church must stake out an independent moral authority for all of Chilean society and reassert its authority over the clergy. The church’s relationship with the Conservative Party came to a head in 1934 when the bishops took up the issues of the growing distance between the Conservative Party and Chilean society and the growing popularity of both Marxism and fascism. The papal nuncio, Hector Felici, argued in favor of a new Catholic party because the Conservative Party’s class-based positions could not attract the poor and middle classes. Others worried that a new Catholic party could split the Catholic vote and deliver elections to the Marxist left. In the end, the bishops agreed to exhort the Conservative Party to improve their image by issuing policy statements designed to appeal to the lower and middle classes. Privately, they agreed to push Conservatives to hew more closely to Catholic Social Doctrine regarding the rights and interests of the poor, while intensifying instruction to Catholics regarding their “civic duty in the Chilean context” – a way to covertly support Conservative Party without publicly endorsing the party. This strategy of formally rising above politics – minimizing the risk of tying the church’s interests too closely to the fortunes of a party, while also depending on the Conservatives to protect church interests in the political arena – remained largely intact until the late 1950s. At the same time, however, many faithful officials (and some church officials) continued to argue that the country needed a Catholicism more responsive to the needs of the working and middle classes and aligned with Vatican social doctrine. The tension came to a head in the 1938 presidential election in which the Conservative Party candidate was viewed as particularly insensitive to Chile the plight of the masses. The youth wing of the Catholic Church formed a politically neutral faction called the Falange, formally establishing the Falange Nacional Party after the election of the first Radical coalition (1938–1944). Yet, for Conservative elites and many in the church, the threat of anti-church, fascist, and especially Marxist parties raised the specter of persecution of Catholic interests and education. Several Chilean pastoral letters during this period are noteworthy for their sensational tone, warning of a wide range of inflammatory consequences. For traditionalists, these threats meant that Catholics must vote for Conservatives. But for others like Bishops Jose Maria Caro and Manuel Larraín, who had supported the Conservative Party in their younger years, the threat of the ideological right and left led to an increasingly open sympathy for the Falange Nacional’s ideals of Catholic leadership among the rapidly growing working and middle classes. Watching Chilean events unfold from the European context, the Vatican sided with the Falange Nacional and named Bishop Caro as the new Archbishop, a man deeply concerned for the poor, committed to political neutrality, and determined to modernize church social programs. The church divide can be seen in its contrasting urban and rural approaches. In urban areas where the Conservative party could not stop leftist mobilization, the church initiated organizations to compete for working and middle class solidarity. However, social Catholics did not meet with similar success in the countryside, where the landowners’ control continued to prevent more than sporadic leftist mobilization. Rural Catholic programs more consistent with Catholic social doctrine, it was reasoned, presented a double risk: the possibility of creating a wedge between peasants and owners that could be manipulated by the Marxist left, and the possibility of undercutting Conservative electoral support that would weaken the party’s ability to protect the church’s national interests in education, social policy, and preferential treatment of clergy. In spite of widespread recognition of landowner abuses, the hierarchy proved reluctant to initiate Catholic programs that challenged the rural status quo. 299 By the late 1950s, the spectrum of threats to the church had widened. In spite of a 1948 law outlawing the Communist and Socialist parties, the electoral strength of the Marxist left strengthened, and the Conservative Party’s strength waned with the decline of the agricultural share of the economy. The Falange Nacional, which joined forces with several smaller parties to become the Christian Democratic Party (PDC) in 1956, became the major center-right political party. After Archbishop Caro’s death in 1958, the Conservative party and the PDC lobbied Rome for ideologically distinct successors. The Vatican postponed the decision in an attempt to avoid a rupture between Chilean Catholics, finally appointing a third candidate, Bishop Raúl Silva Henríquez. Although originally viewed as a victory for the right, Archbishop Silva Henríquez drew on the advice and support of the church’s reformist faction, including Bishop Larraín. Between 1958 and 1964, roughly half of the Chilean bishops died or retired, allowing Silva Henríquez to place his stamp on the church early in his tenure as archbishop, then cardinal (1962). Moreover, the creation of the Chilean national bishops’ conference in the 1950s and the institutionalization of the Latin American bishops’ conference (CELAM) lent organizational structure through which Silva Henríquez influenced the Chilean hierarchy. Silva Henríquez led the Chilean church away from its historical reliance on Conservatives toward an emphasis on social reform. Church reformists were reinforced by the 1958 election of Pope John XXIII, who convened Vatican II (1962–1965). Chilean bishops, often cited by other bishops for their well-prepared and progressive input, were particularly visible members of the non-European representatives. Although rejecting Marxism, John XXIII’s 1961 encyclical Mater et Magistra encouraged state economic intervention in the pursuit of justice and workers’ rights. The Vatican also called for a rapid influx of foreign Catholic personnel and resources to Latin America in response to the Cuban Revolution, which allowed the Chilean church to more adequately staff poor rural and urban parishes as well as create new social and pastoral projects. Increased material resources did C 300 not cause greater reformism within the hierarchy, but they did weaken the church’s dependence on wealthy elites. Increasing partisan polarization through the late 1960s continued to affect Chilean Catholicism. Right-wing organizations such as Tradition, Family, and Fatherland (TFP), the Gremialist Movement, and Opus Dei gained support among conservatives, religious traditionalists, upper and middle class students, and business leaders. Church reformists supported a range of Catholic youth organizations like Young Catholic Workers (JOC), Young Catholic Rural Workers (JAC), and the Young Catholic student movement (JEC). The Catholic Action Worker Movement (MOAC) attracted reformist adults. Leftist groups both inside and out of the church such as Popular Unitary Action Movement (MAPU), Christians for Socialism, the Group of 80 (and later 200), and Iglesia Joven pushed the hierarchy to take more radical positions on behalf of the poor. Yet, in spite of the tumultuous political situation, the institutional church largely succeeded in maintaining its position “above politics.” The significance of post-1930s church’s formal withdrawal from partisan politics (in spite of clear partisan sympathies) is threefold. New political and social associations competing for the urban working and middles classes forced some into increasingly progressive theological and policy stances. The church’s own organizations targeted at these classes thus legitimated popular interests and participation in national debates. Finally, unlike in a number of other Latin American countries where religion continued to set the stage for partisan battles, social and class issues largely defined the Chilean political agenda. Although the stance “above politics” increased the Church’s moral authority, the political development in twentieth-century Chile also resulted in a process of secularization more common to Europe than the rest of Latin America. Dictatorship (1973–1989) Chile’s history of stable democracy and civilian control of the military came to a violent Chile end in the 1973 coup. Most Chileans expected the military to restore order and return to their barracks, yet the military’s post-coup behavior demonstrated its more radical intent to restructure Chilean economy, politics, and society. In addition to the widespread human rights abuses, the military enacted neoliberal policies that caused severe economic dislocation for millions of Chileans. Between 1973 and 1983, the church under the leadership of Cardinal Silva Henríquez served as virtually the only channel through which opposition to the Pinochet regime could be voiced. By the late 1970s, church leaders began issuing stronger and more pointed public criticisms of the regime’s human rights violations and its social and economic policies. Scores of new church or church-affiliated organizations facilitated working class social, political, and economic struggles against the regime. In Santiago, Cardinal Silva Henríquez founded the Academic of Christian Humanism and the Vicariate of Solidarity, both dedicated to the protection of human rights, and the ecumenical Committee of Cooperation for Peace in Chile. At the grassroots, much of the initial organization was defensive in nature, such as ollas comunes (community kitchens), community self-help groups, and activist base Christian communities (CEBs). By 1985, the church unequivocally supported the opposition to the military dictatorship. The price of church leadership, however, was a perceived politicization. The church strengthened its relationship with the left, particularly among the urban poor, but it lost authority among the wealthy and political right. Chilean elites, the business class, and cultural conservatives embraced rightwing Catholic organizations such as Opus Dei, the Mexican Legionnaires for Christ, and Schoenstatt. These organizations are culturally conservative, politically anti-leftist, and theologically Papist and Marian. They share a return to a pre-Vatican II focus on the traditional sacramental life of the parish. Private, elite schools and universities run by these organizations inculcate conservative Catholic doctrines that allow elites to shield their children from alternative Catholic viewpoints. Chile Equally importantly, these organizations – particularly Opus Dei – share a theological understanding of business and wealth creation as an important religious lay vocation. Rooted in the idea of God-given stewardship over the earth, business is seen as a means of benefitting others, making the business person an instrument of God and business activity a path to salvation. This Catholic theology is entirely consistent with capitalism, allowing elites to view their roles as serving the church’s preferential option for the poor better than the leftist movements of the latter twentieth century. Chilean political and civil leaders began to reemerge from under the church’s protection after the start of mass pro-democracy protests in 1983, culminating in a negotiated return to democracy in 1989. With the return to democracy, the church began to retreat to its historical position above politics in order to repair its relationship with Catholic elites. Bishops who may have disagreed about political issues seemed united in the desire to refocus on the sacraments, traditional charity, and issues of personal morality in order to better compete with the appeals of Pentecostalism and secularization. Many on the left who had developed meaningful relationships with Catholicism (often for the first time) felt abandoned by a new generation of younger, more traditionalist priests. Others, particularly elites, welcomed the return to tradition. The church’s moral authority gained during the dictatorship coupled with elites’ Catholic conservatism help explain Chile’s post-dictatorship policy debates pertaining to the family, sexuality, and education. Leftist and feminist organizations that had strengthened their mobilization capabilities during the dictatorship pushed for policies to address gender and social inequalities. But the church’s strong opposition to divorce, abortion (which was illegal under any circumstances including threats to the life of the mother), sex education, and greater reproductive and sexual rights repeatedly thwarted these efforts. Chile was one of the last countries in the world to legalize divorce when a bill was finally passed in 2004. Similar to other countries, a very public priest sexual abuse scandal rocked the Chilean 301 church in 2018, which may weaken the church’s legislative influence in the future. Non-Catholic Religious Landscape Modern Chile is noteworthy for a higher degree of religious pluralism than most of its regional counterparts. Twentieth century Catholic religious tolerance allowed space for non-Catholic alternatives to take root and grow. Persecution of nonCatholic worshipers was not acute in part because the Catholic political tensions between Conservatives and Christian Democrats reflected differing strategies for defending church prerogatives. Scarcity of religious personnel, either domestic or foreign, also provided ample ground for nonCatholic religious organizations to flourish. By far the most important non-Catholic alternative – both in terms of total numbers of adherents and also the visibility of their religious worship – is Pentecostalism. Unlike other Latin American countries, the preponderance of Pentecostal pastors have been Chilean-born rather than foreigners or missionaries. In fact, Latin American Pentecostalism arguably was born in Chile. Throughout the colonial period and the nineteenth century, the only nonCatholics in Chile were associated with foreigners and immigrants. At the turn of the twentieth century, the largest non-Catholic faith in Chile was Methodism, the Protestant church out of which Chilean Pentecostalism was born. Willis C. Hoover, a US physician, took the rectorship of a Methodist high school in southern Chile in 1889. By 1902, he was pastor of the largest Chilean Methodist Episcopal Church in Valparaiso, Chile’s major shipping port with one of the largest Protestant populations in the country. Hoover, well-known for his evangelization efforts, used both traditional Methodist and popular recruitment strategies to win converts. After his wife received a copy of The Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire from Minnie H. Abrams (her friend and the author) which described the 1905 Pentecostal experience in India, Hoover began to encourage the pursuit of similar experiences. Soon, some members became prominent for C 302 prophesies, and out of these experiences flowered more widespread Pentecostal experiences. Hoover’s teachings were rejected by the Methodist church in 1910, and his congregations broke away and established the National Methodist church, which later became the Iglesia Metodista Pentecostal. Invited to lead them, Hoover became their pastor a year later. The Pentecostal community split in the 1930s when Hoover’s followers founded the Evangelical Pentecostal Church. Another split occurred in 1946 when Bishop Enrique Chavez established the Methodist Pentecostal Church in Curico, and yet another resulted in the Pentecostal Mission Church in 1952. The latter two joined the World Council of Churches and are associated with greater ecumenism and social activism. These splits established two important features of the Chilean Pentecostal landscape – a firmly established Chilean tradition of Pentecostal leadership and the tendency for schisms to break away as new, charismatic leaders emerge. Later, missionaries from churches such as the Seventhday Adventists and Assemblies of God chose Chile as important evangelical grounds for recruitment, and these communities also grew in similar Chilean terrain. Pentecostalism grew steadily after the 1940s, particularly in rural areas where the Catholic Church was associated with landowners and in urban poor neighborhoods. Seeking to capitalize on their growth to gain political recognition and win benefits from the state, some Pentecostals became leaders in rural labor unions and neighborhood associations. By 1960, Pentecostals accounted for approximately 10% of the Chilean population, and many Pentecostal pastors were well-respected leaders of their flocks. Today, Pentecostalism accounts for approximately 80% of the Protestant population. The attractions to Pentecostalism can be numerous: embodied, ecstatic experience of the direct and unmediated connection to the Holy Spirit, prizing of pastors’ charismatic and oratory gifts and a de-emphasis on written doctrine or orthodoxy, religious hunger of populations left largely untended by a personnel-strapped Catholic Church, and the availability of the lived Chile experience of the Holy Spirit regardless of class or heritage. The classical Pentecostal worldview is divided between God and the devil, good and evil, and the experience of an often-radical break with one’s life before personal conversion often fosters a missionary zeal. During the pre-coup politicization when the Catholic Church openly supported the center right and opposed Allende, Pentecostals began to swing toward Allende and the left. This also was a period of rapid growth in Protestantism. Yet as relations between the junta and the Catholic bishops deteriorated, Pinochet turned toward Protestant, including Pentecostal, churches to support his regime. In return, the bishop of the Methodist Pentecostal Church invited Pinochet to the inauguration of its new Jotabeche “cathedral,” organizing a large gathering of believers to show support for the junta. By 1975, the Methodist Pentecostal Church had taken over the Catholic Church’s traditional role of hosting the annual religious service attended by the president and other political and military leaders. The visible and controversial relationship between the Pinochet regime and some high-profile Pentecostal leaders led many critics to condemn Pentecostals as either rightwing or opportunistic, contradicting the socioeconomic interests of the majority of Pentecostals. In fact, these leaders did not necessarily represent the views of Pentecostal faithful. The contemporary Chilean religious terrain also includes other non-Catholic Churches with large memberships. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) experienced substantial missionary success in Chile between the late 1950s and the 1990s. Hundreds of LDS chapels were constructed, including a temple constructed in Santiago in 1983 and another in Concepción in 2009. Growth rates were particularly high during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1989), averaging a growth rate of approximately 12,000 converts per year. Notably, the LDS joined some Pentecostal leaders in vocally supporting the Pinochet regime; one prominent LDS leader declared Pinochet “one of the great leaders of Latin America” in 1977. After re-democratization, the LDS association with Chinese Buddhism the dictatorship and its identity as a US-based church hurt its standing in the popular consciousness. Although estimates of LDS membership vary, it is clear that membership has dwindled, and the LDS leadership is focused on retaining, rather than gaining, members. Conclusion The contemporary Chilean religious landscape has been characterized as a pluralist religious marketplace in which various Catholic and Protestant Churches compete for adherence. Chile remains a predominately Christian, if no longer overwhelmingly Catholic, country. The percentage of Catholics in the Chilean population has dwindled over the twentieth century, from 96% of the population in 1910 to 76% in 1970 to 64% in 2014. The percentage of self-identified Protestants is approximately 17%. Another 16% self-report as unaffiliated, with only 3% identifying as affiliated with a faith tradition that is neither Catholic nor Protestant. Chilean religious fervor and commitment has been relatively weaker than in many other Latin American countries since the latter nineteenth century. Twentieth century observers long pointed out that while the majority self-identify as Catholics, active observance has always been lower than in many other countries. Chilean Pentecostals also are less likely to report high levels of religious observance than their Latin American sisters and brothers. At the same time, both Catholics and Protestants tend to be drawn to charismatic religious experiences. The Chilean Protestant population is one of the most “pentecostalized” in Latin America. Moreover, approximately one quarter of all Catholics is charismatic Catholics. Yet, in spite of the relatively weaker salience of religion in Chileans’ observance, conservative religious values – both Catholic and Pentecostal – weigh heavily in the political sphere. Chile, in spite of very active and vocal women’s and indigenous rights organizations, remains a relatively culturally and religiously conservative – if not highly religiously observant – country. 303 References Aguilar M (2004) A social history of the Catholic Church in Chile, vol 1. The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston Andes S (2014) The Vatican and Catholic activism in Mexico and Chile: the politics of transnational Catholicism, 1920–1940. Oxford University Press, Oxford Drogus CA, Stewart-Gambino H (2005) Activist faith: grassroots women in democratic Brazil and Chile. Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park Fleet M, Smith B (2015) The Catholic Church and democracy in Chile and Peru. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame Hagopian F (ed) (2009) Religious pluralism, democracy, and the Catholic Church in Latin America. University Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame Hatch T (2014) The rebirth of Latin American Christianity. Oxford University Press, Oxford Ivereigh A (ed) (2000) The politics of religion in an age of revival: studies in nineteenth century Europe and Latin America. Institute of Latin American Studies, London Lindhardt M (2012) Power in powerlessness: a study of Pentecostal life worlds in urban Chile. Brill, Boston Lindhardt M (ed) (2016) New ways of being Pentecostal in Latin America. Lexington Books, Lanham Mecham JL (1934) Church and state in Latin America: a history of politico-ecclesiastical relations. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill Smith B (1982) The church and politics in Chile: challenges to modern Catholicism. Princeton University Press, Princeton Stewart-Gambino H (1992) Church and politics in the Chilean countryside. Westview Press, Boulder Stuven AM (2014) La Religión en la Esfera Pública Chilena: Laicidad o Secularización? Ediciones Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago Chinese Buddhism Rafael Shoji1 and Hugo Córdova Quero2,3 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Religião, Pontifical University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil 2 CERAL, Pontifical University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil 3 Starr King School, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USA Keywords Ch’an · Pure Land Buddhism · Migration connection · Brazil · Argentina · Peru C 304 Definition Chinese Buddhism is a fast-growing religious movement in Latin America. One important aspect of this growth is the presence of Chinese immigrants in literally every country in the continent, a feature that dates back to the first part of the sixteenth century. On the other hand, the conversion rate of Westerners to Buddhism has increased since the second half of the twentieth century. Heirs of more than 2,000 years of influence in China, the Chinese Buddhist organizations in Latin America thrive not only in their religious practices but also in their cultural influence amidst the continent’s societies. Introduction “Chinese Buddhism” includes different philosophies, religious practices, and cultural values of diverse organizations whose commonality is to follow the teachings of the Buddha. Placing this diversity under the umbrella term “Chinese Buddhism” risks to simplify and erode the richness and particularities of many key figures and schools of Buddhism that developed in China. However, as a whole, Chinese Buddhism could be taken as a movement in which cultural, ethnic, and geographical elements constitute points of cohesion beyond the religious grounds. The purpose of this entry is not so much to trace the history of these organizations in China, but of a movement spread throughout Latin America hand in hand with migration processes. Key Information Chinese Communities: Immigration, Ethnicity, and Economy Buddhism reached China in the first century CE during the Han Dynasty due to the missionary efforts of Dharmaguptaka Indian monks who traveled along the Silk Road. From them, Chinese Buddhism adopted Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikṣus (monks) and bhikṣuṇī s (nuns). The role of Chinese Buddhism Chinese Buddhism in the global history of Buddhism is noteworthy, especially through the translation of religious writings from Sanskrit (Wright 1971). Chinese Buddhism developed further works in China which help to spread Buddhism across East Asia. Buddhist ideas and practices have shaped Chinese culture in a wide variety of areas, including art, politics, literature, philosophy, medicine, and material culture (Kieschnick 2003). Given this background, it is not surprising that Chinese immigrants to Latin America would carry their religious affiliations with them. The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Latin America during the colonial period via the Philippines, also a Spanish colony, as early as 1565 (Kent 2003). The port of Acapulco in the Viceroyalty of New Spain saw the arrival of 60,000 Chinese sailors, slaves, servants, carpenters, caulkers, blacksmiths, sawyers, and rope factory workers (Dubs and Doughty 1942; Slack Jr 2010). Since that moment, Chinese migration began its flow and exponential growth into every single country in Latin America. For example, by 1613, the Lima census ordered by the Viceroy of Peru registered already the presence of Chinese immigrants, and a few years later, the culíes (coolies) laborers were present in Cuban sugarcane plantations (Yun 2008). By 1806, Chinese immigrants have also arrived to the Caribbean (Hu-DeHart and López 2008). Around 200 men disembarked in Trinidad and Tobago (Lai 2007), and by 1810 about 400 tea laborers arrived in Rio de Janeiro (Chandler 1998; Lesser 2000). In 1914 the first Chinese immigrants arrived in Argentina. The major Chinese immigrant communities in Latin America are currently those in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, and Argentina (Pan 2006). The integration of Chinese immigrants in to Latin American societies was not easy. Some countries such as Brazil only received large contingents of immigrants after the 1890 decree that overthrew the prohibition of African and Asian immigrants in the country as part of a continental movement against Asian immigrants (Lee 2007). During the Cold War, the fear of the “communist threat” also placed under suspicion any Chinese immigrant in the continent (Alba 1961). Lastly, another factor is that of racial discrimination, Chinese Buddhism especially in Euro-oriented societies such as Argentina, in which African, Asian, and other Latin American immigrants suffer the consequences of ingrained xenophobia and racism. In terms of economic activities, the Chinese communities in Latin America are very diverse. According to the place of origin, immigrants from three geographic regions can be grouped into two sectors by working activities in Brazil: the group from Shanghai, dedicated to industry and foreign trade, and the group from Taiwan and Kuangtung, mainly dedicated to restaurant business (Shoji 2002). In Argentina, the basic economic activity is supermarkets, known as “Chinese supermarkets,” that currently account for more than 6,000 supermarkets in the country (Castiglioni 2008). Evolution of Chinese Buddhism in Latin America One aspect that Chinese communities have introduced in Latin America is Chinese Buddhism. There are ever-growing communities in Latin America whose followers are not of Chinese descent. These followers not only value the teachings of the Buddha passed down by Chinese masters but also relate to Chinese cultures and philosophies. One of these aspects is the emphasis on healthy food. This has been the result of two combined factors. On the one hand, the openness of Buddhist communities to non-Chinese descendants and, on the other hand, Latin Americans who abandoned their religious traditions, especially Roman Catholicism, which have found in Buddhism a source for meaning-making and spiritual purpose. Drawing from Martin Baumann’s work on the spread of Buddhism worldwide (2001), the spread of Chinese Buddhism in Latin America can also be divided into three phases: The first phase comprises the small communities of first-wave immigrants who gathered to practice the Buddhist rituals well into the 1960s (Baumann 2001). These communities were characterized by being mostly extended families or close friends who share ethnic, cultural, and linguistic ties. As language is a primarily vehicle for mutual communication, the fact 305 that different forms of Chinese were the language spoken, the limits of these communities excluded those who did not have the same linguistic competence, that is, who belonged to a different form of Chinese language, to participate in the ceremonies. The prominent element of cohesion of these communities during this phase was, in fact, their ethnolinguistic ties. The second phase encompasses the missionary efforts of Chinese Buddhist masters touring different countries in Latin America to spread the dharma from the 1960s up to the late 1980s (Baumann 2001). This phase characterizes the immigrant community establishment in a given society. Masters would rely on them as the first contact point, and from there, they would officially establish temples, monasteries, or sanghas. This phase also required that the immigrant communities adapted linguistically to the society in which they were inserted (Hirschman 2004). This key element would guarantee not only the formal mechanisms of establishment of temples, monasteries, or sanghas but also the continuation of the communities in bringing in the second and third generations of Chinese immigrants who may have begun to lose the linguistic connection with the first generation. The prominent feature of this phase was the mechanism of ethnic (re)signification. The third phase involves the process of globalization of Chinese Buddhism in following the growing global trend (Baumann 2001). During this phase, already established temples, monasteries, and changes began to receive an influx of Latin American converts whose primary contact may have been while traveling abroad in the USA, Europe, and of course China. The characteristic of these new converts is their upper-middle- or upper-class status which allowed them to not only travel abroad but also to guarantee the elements to maintain their adherence to Buddhism, i.e., expensive organic food, mostly imported, payment for travel and lodge into Buddhist retreats, and access to the neighborhoods where the temples, monasteries, and sanghas are located. Buddhism may C 306 not be a religion widely extended among low classes in many Latin American societies. This phase also connected international organizations with local Chinese communities. Adaptation of Chinese Buddhism to Latin American Contexts Another aspect of the adaptation of Chinese Buddhism to the different societies in Latin America is related to the way that religious practices are (re) shaped in connection with local cultures. For example, meditation is a key characteristic of Chinese Buddhism. Although there are different concepts and cultural associations, most Latin Americans become interested in meditation through the label “Zen,” a Japanese word already common in both Portuguese and Spanish. Zen is seen by non-Chinese Latin Americans as an alternative or as a spiritual practice with a philosophy of life. It is only within the Buddhist organizations that the distinction between Chinese, Japanese, and Korean Buddhism is revealed and that many converts learn that the equivalent to Zen in Chinese is Ch’an. However, in daily life, many individuals would simply use the term Zen. This reveals a degree of ambiguity that can be understood as an adaptation strategy, taking advantage of the international discourse on Zen, which penetrated mainly among the intellectual and uppermiddle class in Latin America (Shoji 2002). Schools of Pure Land – in Chinese known as Ching-t’u – are based on the devotion and recitation of sutras. Although meditation is more associated with monastic practice, in Chinese temples we find elements of the schools in the Pure Land, Ch’an, and Tien’tai, both historically and in current practices. However, in the case of practices related to the Pure Land, several reasons point to its confinement within the immigrant communities. While the practice of Ch’an is based in silent meditation and conversations about the dharma, the rites of the Pure Land are very associated with the chanting of sutras and worshipping the typically Asian images (Ching 1993). As the language and the images are unknown to Latin Americans, these practices remain naturally related to the ethnic aspect and the symbolic worldview identified with its own Asian aesthetic, very different Chinese Buddhism from traditional Latin American devotional imagery, mainly related to Roman Catholic saints and advocations of the Virgin Mary. However, for some schools of Chinese Buddhism, through a secularized vision of the Pure Land and its application in social welfare, they intentionally seek the integration of the Chinese community in Latin American societies. This variation in the adaptation of Chinese Buddhism to the different contexts in the continent has resulted in the conversion of thousands of non-Chinese Latin Americans (Shoji 2002). In terms of organizations, although the Chinese communities have become ethnically and culturally diverse, religious groups seek to fulfill an integrating role in building a unique identity in the diaspora. Considering the Chinese case, it could be said that a group with a global structure already offers patterns of reinterpretation Buddhism according to Western concepts. Similar to the Korean and Japanese New Buddhist Movements, globalized organizations within Chinese Buddhism have sought a less ethnically oriented organization, especially in the training of monks or dharma masters (Shoji 2002). Therefore, Chinese temples, monasteries, and sanghas, whether a local initiative or the fruit of more global organizations, become sites of intercultural ways of living the principles and teaching of Buddhism in Latin American societies that are increasingly multiethnic, multicultural, pluri-religious, and linguistically diverse. This represents a new turn in the development of Buddhism as a religion in the West (Chandler 2002). Regional Differences in Chinese Buddhism in Latin America While the immigrant communities vary in size and history in every country in the continent, economic, demographic, and geographical factors also influence the degree of spread of Chinese Buddhism in Latin America. The major difference in geographical terms is the substantial predominance of Brazilian organizations in comparison with the rest of the Latin American countries. For example, throughout South America there are 230,000 self-declared Buddhists, who attend ceremonies in more than Chinese New Religions 300 temples, sanghas, dojos, centers, and monasteries. Of that total, 50 % of the Buddhist institutions and 47 % of South American Buddhists reside in Brazil (Usarski 2015). This correlates with demographic terms, as the total population of Brazil – about 191 millions – almost equals the total population of the rest of the countries in Latin America (Shoji 2002). A similar situation can be identified in Spanish-speaking North and Central America, where the major organizations and selfdeclared Buddhist reside in Mexico. Again, the population of Mexico – 123 million – triples the population of all Central American countries combined. Given that situation, Chinese Buddhism is numerically and organizationally more developed in Mexico and Brazil than in other countries, although closely followed by Argentina and Peru. However, Brazil is by far the place in which Chinese Buddhism has thrived the most (Shoji 2002; Usarski 2015). References Alba V (1961) The Chinese in Latin America. China Q 5:53–61 Baumann M (2001) Global Buddhism: developmental periods, regional histories, and a new analytical perspective. J Glob Buddhism 2:1–43 Castiglioni C (2008) Una aproximación al mundo del supermercadismo chino. Paper presented at the fifth sociology meeting and first Latin American meeting of social sciences, National University of La Plata, Buenos Aires, 10–12 Dec Chandler S (1998) Chinese Buddhism in America identity and practice. In: Prebish C, Tanaka KK (eds) The faces of Buddhism in America. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 13–30 Chandler S (2002) Globalizing Chinese culture, localizing Buddhist teachings: the internationalization of foguanshan. J Glob Buddhism 3:46–78 Ching J (1993) Chinese religions. MacMillan Press, London Dubs HE, Doughty PL (1942) Chinese in Mexico City in 1635. Far East Q 1:387–389 Hirschman C (2004) The role of religion in the origins and adaptations of immigrant groups. Int Migr Rev 38:1206–1233 Hu-DeHart E, López K (2008) Asian diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean: an historical overview. Afro-Hisp Rev 27:9–21 Kent RB (2003) A diaspora of Chinese settlement in Latin America and the Caribbean. In: Ma LJC, Cartire C (eds) The Chinese diaspora: space, place, mobility, and identity. Roman and Littlefield, Lanham, pp 117–138 307 Kieschnick J (2003) The impact of Buddhism on Chinese material culture. Princeton University Press, Princeton Lai WL (2007) The Chinese in Trinidad & Tobago: mobility, modernity and assimilation during and after colonialism. In: Tan CB (ed) Chinese transnational networks. Routledge, London, pp 191–210 Lee E (2007) The “yellow peril” and Asian exclusion in the Americas. Pac Hist Rev 76:537–562 Lesser J (2000) A Negociação da Identidade Nacional: Imigrantes, Minorias e a Luta pela Etnicidade no Brasil. Editora da UNESP, São Paulo Pan L (ed) (2006) Encyclopedia of the Chinese overseas. Chinese Heritage Centre, Singapore Shoji R (2002) Estratégias de adaptação do Budismo chinês: brasileiros e chineses na Fo Guang Shan. In: Usarski F (ed) O Budismo no Brasil. Editora Lorosae, São Paulo, pp 127–148 Slack ER Jr (2010) Signifying New Spain: Cathay’s influence on Colonial Mexico Via de Nao de China. In: Lai WL, Tan CB (eds) The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brill, Leiden, pp 7–31 Usarski F (2015) Buddhism in South America: an overview with reference to the South American Context. In: Ministry of Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs (ed) 2600 Years of Sambuddhatva: global journey of awakening. Government of Sri Lanka, Colombo, pp 527–540 Wright AF (1971) Buddhism in Chinese history. Stanford University Press, Stanford Yun L (2008) The coolie speaks: Chinese indentured laborers and African slaves in Cuba. Temple University Press, Philadelphia Chinese New Religions Matheus Oliva da Costa Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Religião, Pontifical University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Keywords Three Teachings · Redemptive societies · Tiandao · Falun Gong · Master Qinghai Definition Chinese new religions can be seen as any institutionalized religious tradition that has created a new form and/or a new sense of context based on traditional religions found in China. By traditional religions of China, we refer mainly to C 308 Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism as well as the Chinese synthesis of them, the 三 教 Sanjiao or Three Teachings. Here we have in mind religions born since the nineteenth century in Chinese culture from this great repertoire mentioned above, and especially those who arrived in Latin America (LA). Introduction According to the scheme presented by Irons (2006b), there are two possibilities for the origin of new religions in China: (1) by force of external cultural influences (Buddhism, Christianity, ethnic religions, etc.) or (2) by borrowing and synthesis of existing cultural systems, usually with creative leaders. Thus, the creation of new religions in China has the hallmark of the processes of adaptation of new elements and synthesis of different symbolic systems. An interesting example of adaptation would be the Daoist order Quanzhen 全真 (Complete Reality), which emulated the Buddhist monastic system but giving original contours to this cultural borrowing. An example of synthesis is the notion of 三 教 Sanjiao, Three Teachings, which refers to interpretation and practice of the “essence” of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. This idea is present both in popular environments and in the writings of scholars of imperial times, especially during the past millennium in China. To Irons (2006b), the originality of the Chinese new religions is in three aspects: (1) In Chinese history, the power struggle between a centralizing tendency – through bureaucratic control – and other more local trend – due to the need to adapt to local cultures – is common. (2) The second aspect can be called textualization, in other words, the strong importance of writing for the legitimacy and spread of these texts to society, even for the illiterate population. (3) The third aspect would be the division among the most popular and other official expressions, although porous division. About the later characteristic, an example is the strong presence of messages and religious practices – or religious origin – by Chinese social actors, without the need of explicit Chinese New Religions institutionalization. On the other hand, there were institutionalized groups, either on their own demand or because of the requirement of the government. According to Poceski (2009), the three traditions of greater social force in China for several centuries are Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, and Chinese Popular Religion may also be added as a fourth force. But beyond that classic description of Chinese cultural-religious market, there is a diversity of religious offers: Islam, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Christianity, ethnic traditions, etc. As can be noted, the Chinese culturalreligious environment has always had a rich repertoire, and religions often used this comprehensive arsenal. When one of them stood out in a practical format and interpretations of the most socially accepted teachings, or even for messianic and eschatological expressions, then appeared the new religions. Many new religions existing today were created during the period of the Qing 清 (1644–1912), with roots in 明 Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). Officially, governments and more orthodox scholars saw these groups as heterodox “sects” who could potentially threaten the empire. This stance echoes today, such as the existence of a list of “evil/heterodox cults” (“邪教 xiejiao”) published by the current government of communist China, which seeks to criminalize religious groups deemed “threatening.” It is important to realize this tension between new religions and governments to understand many aspects of Chinese culture in general and the ethos of these new movements specifically. This type of treatment may be a possible explanation for the tendency to secrecy, discrete social attitudes, or constantly changing names. And what are the main features of these new religions? First, then are quite common to be hybrid groups of four traditional teachings. Most new groups have Christian influences, reflecting the current interest in Christianity in countries with most of the Chinese population, but whose roots can be found about fifteen hundred years of spread of this tradition in China. As for their worldview, they venerate two popular deities mainly: 无生老母 Wusheng Laomu, Mother Chinese New Religions Ancestral not born, and often 弥勒佛 Mile Fo or Buddha Maitreya, the Buddha of the future. They often present eschatological ideas of a near end or a change of Era, a notion that has ancient roots in Chinese culture, as in that notion of the Buddha of the future, being strengthened with the spread of Christianity. Usually they disclose and practice vegetarianism. In particular, the so-called Chinese savationist religions or redemptive society are characterized as being lay religious associations linked to commercial elites with philanthropic practices; having social engagement for the spiritual and material improvement of society, including Christianity and Islam, along the Three Teachings; and approaching of the model of Christian “church” (which became paradigmatic in the twentieth century in China). They may also include spirit-writing practices, 气功 qigong systems or meditations. Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these groups quickly spread quantitatively, as their symbolic capital was already well known by the Chinese people, and showed in addition a mixed novelty of the fact that they are highly motivated communities (Palmer et al. 2011). At different levels, the traditions discussed here fit this typology. After the Chinese Civil War (1945–1949) and the Communist victory, many of these new groups were persecuted or simply viewed as illegal or dangerous by the communist Chinese government. This caused them to migrate to other countries, especially to Taiwan, where they could practice these religions more freely (Lu et al. 2008). They also traveled to the South Asian and even non-Asian countries like Brazil, the USA, or Australia. From there, these religions have spread around the world and some of them have succeeded to reach every continent, as Falun Dafa. Three Chinese New Religions That Arrived in Latin America Knowing that the Chinese new religions are unknown to many, including researchers from Latin America, North America, and Europe, we will arrange this subtopic with a brief characterization of the groups found. After the explanation of 309 each of the three new religions, we will point each country where they are in LA. In the end, there will be a framework which organizes the information by region and number of groups found. For Irons (2006b), the Chinese new religious groups with the greatest potential to achieve new conversions are Falun Gong, the Yiguan dao, and new Buddhist groups. All of these are present in Latin America. Other groups were also observed, as the followers of the master Qing Hai. As Chinese Buddhism will be subject of another entry in this encyclopedia, we chose to focus on the three new groups mentioned. As can be noticed, we have omitted the new versions of Chinese Christianity, as well as expressions which are not institutionalized of Chinese spiritual news, as popularized uses of feng shui. Thus, we focused our study on new institutionalized Chinese religions that we found in LA. We will start by 一贯道 Yiguan dao (Consistent Way) also called 天道 Tiandao (Way of Heaven). This group can be seen as a dissident branch of one of the first Chinese salvationist religions, the 先天 道 Xiantian Dao (Way of Heaven Original), dating back to the Ming dynasty. The Tiandao was small until the 1930s, when it became the largest group of all new religions in China. After being persecuted and banned in communist China, its main leaders moved to Taiwan, where its headquarter is, and it is currently the third religious organization with more followers. Especially since the 1990s, it has been spread to all continents (Irons 2006a; Lu et al. 2008; Palmer et al. 2011). Basically the Tiandao offers to its members a common set of rituals, vegetarian way of life, and a new world view based on its own synthesis of the Three Teachings, plus the influence of Christianism and Islam, also having their own masters, own books, and interpretations of classic books of the five traditions on which it is based (Lu 2005). In Brazil, where it is called Ten Tao or “o Tao” (“the Tao”), there is a strong network of communities, formed by Brazilians and Taiwanese who call themselves “irmãos do Tao” (“brothers of Tao”). Untill we know, there are groups in the cities of São Paulo, Praia Grande, Mogi das Cruzes, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Uberaba, Sao Luis, Maceio, Alto Paraíso, Curitiba and C 310 Goiania, totaling eleven groups, but it is possible to have more than one in the same city, or even in others cities. Usually, most of these groups gather for their religious activities in the home of the older members, who are mostly Taiwanese. However, there are also explicit temples, as in São Paulo capital. According to Fat (2009), there are Tiandao missionaries also in the capital of Suriname since 1997, north of South America. Now, we will talk about groups that, despite also being Salvationists, focus on more body practices like meditation and qigong. About the followers or disciples of the master 清海 Qinghai (Ching Hai), or The Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association, it is important that there are few studies about this group. We will only do a brief description, starting with the profile of its leader. Hue Dang Trinh was born in Vietnam in 1950, daughter of a Chinese father and a Vietnamese mother, both naturalists. In her childhood, they gave her a Christian education, while her grandmother taught her about Buddhism, and she also read Daoist authors such as Laozi. As a teenager, she moved to Europe, where she went to study and participated in the Red Cross and was married to a German doctor for 2 years. She met a Buddhist monk in Germany whom she followed for 3 years. Then she lived in India where she became a disciple of Thakar Singh (1929–2005), a yogi with international expression. He was a well-known leader of the Sant Mat (teaching of the Saints), Hindu tradition of bhakti yoga (devotion) of mystical trend that mainly practiced singing and meditation. In 1984, she went to Taiwan where she became a Buddhist monk, ordained by a said monk Jin Xing, when she began to use the name Qinghai 清海 (Ching Hai, “Pure Ocean”). Over time, a network of her disciples was being created in Taiwan, but also with Asian immigrants in the USA. The 1980s marked the beginning of her career as leader of this international movement, with the founding of Immeasurable Light Meditation Center in Taiwan in 1986 and public lectures since 1988. Her followers consider themselves disciples and meditation mates. It is an international religious movement, with a website and TV channel as disclosure. They have a strongly inclusive trend, trying to be supra-religious and transnational. Their Chinese New Religions foundations are a hybrid of Christianity, European New Age and Chinese Buddhism. They believe in an eschatology referring to the “Golden Age” that would have been predicted by Nostradamus. And the master Qinghai aims to prepare the sentient beings to this transition by (1) vegetarianism and (2) meditation “method Quanyin” (观音法门 Guanyin Famen). There is need for an initiation to join the group, the only prerequisite being to be lacto-vegetarian. After beginning, it is necessary to do daily meditation of the “Quanyin method,” remain vegetarian or vegan, and follow the five precepts (of Buddhism). Their groups have created vegetarian restaurants all around the world, including Latin America. According to Irons (2006b), the two countries with more followers are Taiwan and the USA, and they are spreading mainly throughout Southeast Asia. In mainland China also there are followers, but they are on the list of “heterodox cults.” We know there are 26 groups of practitioners in Latin America: six in Brazil (two in Recife, one each in Belém, Goi^ania, Pernambuco, and Sao Paulo), four in Peru, three in Chile, two in Mexico, and one each in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The third and final group to discuss is the 法轮 大法 Falun Dafa (Dharma Wheel Great Dharma) or 法轮功 Falun Gong (Dharma wheel practice), perhaps the best known young Chinese religion. This group was born in the so-called boom of qigong of the post-Mao period. Its main offer is the practice of its qigong system and readings from the works of 李洪志 Li Hongzhi, its founder. They have as motto the cultivation of Truth, Goodness, and Tolerance. This new religion mix cosmological notions and indoor cultivation practices of Buddhist and Daoist sources, with strong appeal to an individual spiritual development and salvation of mankind. The idea of purification is central, in body and in the cleaning understanding of spiritual energy or karma. His followers see Li as the savior of humanity and believe that the world goes through cycles of destruction, causing this religion to be a redemptive society (Porter 2003; Ownby 2008). Li began teaching in 1992 in China and 1995 internationally. Its practitioners outside China are Chinese or Chinese descent in most cases, but there Chinese Religions 311 Chinese New Religions, Table 1 Chinese new religions in Latin America Chinese new religions in Latin America (Total estimated groups = 108) Central America and Caribbean South America Total = 85 Total = 23 Master 清海 Qing hai = 19 Master 清海 Qing hai (QH) = 7 法轮大法 Falun Dafa = 54 法轮大法 Falun Dafa (FLDF) = 15 天道 Tiandao (TD) = 12 FLDF groups QH groups FLDF groups QH groups Argentina = 1 Belize = 1 Costa Rica = 1 Argentina = 12 Brazil = 6 Guatemala = 1 El Salvador = 1 Bolivia = 1 Chile = 3 Mexico = 10 Honduras = 1 Brazil = 26 Colombia = 1 Panama = 1 México = 2 Chile = 7 Ecuador = 1 Dominican Republic = 2 Nicaragua = 1 Colombia = 2 Paraguay = 1 Panama = 1 Ecuador = 1 Peru = 4 Peru = 3 Uruguay = 1 Venezuela = 2 Venezuela = 1 are also many non-Chinese practitioners (Ownby 2008), including Latin Americans. According to Ownby (2003), members of the Falun Gong in mainland China are not viewed – nor see themselves – as loyal to a religious organization but as practitioners of a spiritual practice. There are officially 69 groups of practices in LA: 26 of them are concentrated in Brazil (the largest number of Portuguese-speaking countries in the world), with strong expressions in Argentina, Mexico, and Chile, relying on the few groups in Belize, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela (Table 1). C TD groups Brazil (11 cities) Suriname (1 city) Lu Y (2005) Chinese traditional sects in modern society: a case study of Yiguan Dao. Thesis of doctorate in Applied Social Studies, City University of Hong Kong Lu Y, Johnson B, Stark R (2008) Deregulation and the religious market in Taiwan: a research note. Sociol Q 49:139–153 Ownby D (2003) The Falun Gong in the new world. Eur J East Asian Stud 2(2):303–320 Ownby D (2008) Falun Gong and the future of China. Oxford University Press, Oxford Palmer D, Katz P, Wang C (2011) Introduction: redemptive societies in cultural and historical context. J Chin Theatre Ritual and Folk/Minsu Quyi 173:1–12 Poceski M (2009) Introducing Chinese religions. Routledge, London/New York Porter N (2003) Falun Gong in the United States: an ethnographic study. Thesis for MA in Anthropology, University of South Florida Cross-References ▶ Chinese Buddhism ▶ Chinese Religions ▶ Eastern Religions in Latin American Literature ▶ Taoism and New Age References Fat PBTS (2009) Chinese new migrants in Suriname: the inevitability of ethnic performing. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam Irons E (2006a) Yiguandao (Tian Dao). In: Partridge C (ed) Enciclopédia das Novas Religiões: novos movimentos religiosos, seitas e espiritualidades alternativas. Editorial Verbo, Lisboa, p 238, 245–246 Irons E (2006b) Novas religiões Chinesas. In: Partridge C (ed) Enciclopédia das Novas Religiões: novos movimentos religiosos, seitas e espiritualidades alternativas. Editorial Verbo, Lisboa, pp 239–244 Chinese Religions Matheus Oliva da Costa Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Religião, Pontifical University of São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Keywords Chinese traditional religions · Confucianism · Daoism · Oracles · Popular religion Definition For Latin America (LA) we include in this cultural region South America, Central America, and the 312 Caribbean; for China, it is necessary to consider Chinese cultural plurality. Despite the predominance of the Han culture, there are dozens of ethnic groups in the current Chinese territory – including Taiwan and Hong Kong – that are present among the Chinese around the world. We understand that religions and religiosity are cultural expressions, so the various Chinese religions are all expressions of the religiosity of people who originally came from China. We will focus on their traditional religious expressions, which were born in China and have ethnic links. Introduction The Chinese presence in LA goes back to the sixteenth century, having gone through various migratory waves. Understanding that religion and concrete religions are cultural expressions, we can say that the various Chinese religions accompanied them when they arrived in LA. As we will see, despite a great variety of Chinese religions on this continent, such as Daoism, Buddhism or Tiandao, what is most noticeable are the subtle expressions of Chinese popular religiosity, such as festivals and popular iconography. The first records of Chinese groups in these regions show that immigration took place in the Manila-Acapulco connection, mediated by mariners from Spain and the Philippines, using the current region of Mexico as their port since 1565 (Look Lai 2010). That first connection was isolated, although it lasted for almost two centuries. Later, in the nineteenth century, new Chinese groups arrived on the continent and constituted the first wave of modern Chinese diasporas. It consisted mostly of adult men looking for work (huagong/coolies) from regions in South China such as Guangzhou (Canton), and many of them were probably of Hakka ethnicity. This first wave arrived at the Trinidad and Tobago Islands in the Caribbean in 1806 (Look Lai 1998). Small waves of migration took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, it was only after the end of the Chinese Chinese Religions civil war (1945-1949) and the Chinese communist revolution in 1949 that the number of Chinese migrants to Latin American countries increased. Coming mainly from Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1960s and 1970s, for political and economic reasons they came from mainland China a few years later; this latest Chinese diaspora was concentrated mainly in Brazil, Cuba, and Peru. The number of Chinese migrants is not exact. We averaged them from the total numbers of the Chinese and their descendants in the following regions: (1) South America, with an average of 1,840,892 Chinese, most of them in Brazil and Peru; (2) Central America, with approximately 310,762, with an emphasis on Costa Rica, Mexico, and Nicaragua; (3) Caribbean countries, with some 149,588, about two-thirds of them in Cuba. Thus, an overall presence of Chinese and their direct descendants in Latin America would be 2,301,242 in the 33 countries surveyed. We look for religions and religiosity that have ethnic links, and for the presence of Confucian, Daoist, and Chinese folk traditions. This is an overview of informal religious institutions and Chinese religiosity. Of the 33 countries surveyed, we classified them into three levels of Chinese religions in LA. In the lowest level (14) were Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bolivia, Dominica, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and Granadinhas. In the mid-level (11) were Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela, and the highest level (8) was composed of Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, the Dominican Republic, and Suriname. Chinese Religiosity in the Caribbean There have been Chinese people in the Caribbean islands since the first half of the nineteenth century. According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), less than 0.1 % considered themselves “Chinese Universalist.” In Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, Chinese Religions there is a “Plaza Confucius” in Chinatown, where a statue of this icon of Chinese culture stands next to a phoenix and a dragon. There are also other cultural-religious Chinese iconographies, such as the deity Guan Yin, revered by Buddhists, Daoists, and other Chinese who don’t belong to a specific religion. The “Fundación Flor para Todos” has also sponsored, with local support, typical Chinese celebrations such as The Lunar New Year. During these celebrations, the dances of the lion and the dragon are performed, and many other activities take place. These dances portray and legitimize Chinese magical-religious worldviews. In Jamaica there has been a “Chinese Benevolent Association” since 1891. Initially, many elements of popular Chinese religion were found there, such as an altar with Guan Yu (Guan Gong). But over the years the Sino-Jamaicans were converted to the Christian groups and left the cultural-religious practices aside (Shibata 2006). Other practices can be observed today, such as the Ancestors’ Day celebration (Qingming Jie), which has the support of the association. These rites are probably motivated by the Chinese cultural notion of filial piety, rooted in such a way that even adhering to other religions, the Chinese still tend to cultivate them. Scherer (2001) says that since the last years of the twentieth century, there has been an attempt by the Cuban government, and the Chinese Cubans themselves, to create a Sino-Cuban ethnic identity. One of the main reasons for creating this “Chineseness” is that it can bring in tourism, because, among other things, there is a Chinatown in Havana. There they celebrate festivals, such as the Lunar New Year, there are activities of the associations, and they even celebrate the World Taiji and Qigong Day. This ethnic identity is based on traditions such as identification with Confucian values, e.g., filial piety and respect for ancestors. For Scherer (2001), it is a decontextualized Confucianism, expressed as a self-orientalization; they distinguish themselves from a supposed “Western” culture, adhering to supposedly “Eastern” values. Among the values that are called on to justify ethnicity, many religious elements may eventually be included. The Sino-Cubans have begun to 313 worship a new “saint” – the Sanfacón. Representing a deified hero from China, Sanfacón would be a Sino-Cuban “saint” once it would be reinterpreted in a unique way in this Caribbean country. In popular religious culture in Cuba, Sanfacón came to be associated with Santa Barbara (a Catholic saint) and Shango (a Santeria Orisha), demonstrating its SinoCuban specificity. There are cultural processes in motion in Cuba, in which the Chinese and Cuban cultures have been hybridized in interesting ways. Chinese Religiosity in Central America Since 1565 the Chinese have had contacts with Mexico, but it was only from the mid-nineteenth century that there were significant waves of Chinese immigration to Central America, specifically from 1845 to Honduras. All countries of this sub-region have a Chinese presence, with the highest concentration of religious elements in Belize, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Panama. According to ARDA, less than 0.1 % of them are “Confucianists,” and approximately 0.1 % are “Chinese Universalists.” Belize holds popular celebrations, such as the Lunar New Year. Guatemala counts on spaces of Chinese colonies where the festivals of the Lunar New Year take place, as well as the moon festival, a “Day of Confucius,” and the “Anniversary of the Revolution of October 10, 1911.” In Costa Rica there is a greater variety of Chinese religiosity, with about five Chinese cultural centers, in which they also teach traditional practices such as the dance of the dragon and lion. There is a “Templo Tao de la Nube Blanca,” in which physical practices such as qigong, taiji quan, and other forms of wushu are taught. And, more explicitly, since 1999 there is the Association of Taoist Tai Chi in Costa Rica, which is affiliated with the Internaional Taoist Tai Chi Society, based in Canada under the leadership of the Master Moy Lin-Shin (Wide-Giles). This master proclaims himself as an heir of “internal practices” of Daoism, as meditation, qigong, liuhe bafa, xingyi quan and taiji quan. C 314 Mexico the national census reported just under 100 Daoists (INEGI 2005). There is also a Chinatown, where festivals such as the Lunar New Year are celebrated, and cultural-religious elements as the lion dance are performed. As in Costa Rica, in Mexico there is an Association of Taoist Tai Chi, which states on its Web site that one of its goals is to uphold the Daoist values of helping and serving others. We found nine instructors of the Healing Tao System, linked to Mantak Chia, who teaches Daoist traditions such as qigong and internal alchemy (neidan); the latter is one of the leading exponents of American Daoism (Siegler 2012), which has characteristics of a hybridization of Daoism with a New Age spirituality attitude. More recently (2014), the Asociación de Taoísmo de México, founded by Quanzhen monk Chengyang Tian, can be seen. Today this monk lives in Spain and has disciples in Brazil as well. Chinese Religiosity in South America In South America, the first record of Chinese groups was in 1812 in Brazil. But it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that the flow of Chinese immigrants was more significant (Piza 2013). According to ARDA, fewer than 0.1 % of Chinese Universalists and Confucianists were counted in these countries. There were groups of the self-named “Practical Daoism” of Healing Tao of Mantak Chia – two in Chile and two in Argentina. These countries and others may eventually hold such Chinese cultural-religious celebrations as the Lunar New Year. We find the most striking Chinatowns and associations in Colombia and Venezuela (Fleischer 2012). There are, according to the Healing Tao’s Web site, Daoist internal alchemy trainers (neidan) in Bogotá. Regarding Chinese religions in Suriname, Fat (2009) raises several points. The Gasan ritual of the Hakka people is one of the cultural-religious elements of Chinese most found in Suriname. This rite is a cleansing and remembrance held for deceased relatives and is performed during the Qingming Festival. But the latter one is more common among the Chinese overseas (such as in Chinese Religions Jamaica). In Suriname there are also culturalreligious celebrations carried out by all the Chinese and their descendants – such as the Moon Festival, the Lunar New Year, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the homemade altars that are made for the ancestors and the Guan Gong Temple. There are priests from the Maoshan Daoist tradition who are known in Paramaribo due to conducting oracular consultations, talismans, and magical protections. Since the nineteenth century there has been a large Chinese migration from South China to Peru. There is a famous Chinatown in Lima, with a significant number of religious elements (Chuhue Huaman and Locau 2012), and there have also been a great number of Chinese associations since the late nineteenth century. We find various traditional Chinese religious elements: oracular consultations with a Daoist priest; altars to the Guan Gong (called “San Acón” by the Peruvians), images and spaces dedicated to the “immortals”; a site specifically constructed according to Feng Shui guidelines; the lion and dragon dances, and much more. Since the nineteenth century, Chinese immigrants to Peru have brought with them an entire cultural complex that includes religious elements. Judging by the texts of Peruvian groups part of the Peruvian population has interacted with all this Chinese cultural offer. In Brazil we also find a wide variety of Chinese religiosity and some Chinese traditional religions. In 1990 the Daoist Society of Brazil in the city of Rio de Janeiro was officially founded, under the leadership of Wu Jyh Cherng (Wu Zhi Cheng in pinyin, 1958–2004), and there are a Daoist temple and center for Daoist activities. Later, in 2002, Cheng also founded another temple of the Daoist Society of Brazil in São Paulo. These groups are institutionally linked to the Zhengyi Dao tradition (Way of Orthodox Unity) and the tradition of the Taiwan Taoist Association (Murray and Miller 2013). Here many traditional Chinese techniques are practiced, all taught by Brazilians. In 2007 Brazil’s Taoist Association was also founded by a couple of Brazilian monks of the Longmen Order (Dragon Gate) of the Quanzhen Dao tradition (Way of Complete Perfection) of Daoism in Chinese Religions Goiania. As in Mexico, this group has the monk Chengyang Tian as its master of lineage. This tradition of Daoism emphasizes the physical and mental practice of internal cultivation. Noteworthy also are the various groups linked to Liu Pai Lin (pinyin: Liu Bailing, 1907–2000) in Brazil; he arrived in 1975 from Taiwan, and was known primarily for teaching taiji quan. He claimed to belong to several Daoist lineages, including Longmen, Jinshan, and Kunlun, but he and his followers are laymen. For several years Liu Pai Lin taught various practices related to Daoism, founded groups such as the Tai Chi Pai Lin Association, and left several legacies like that in Brazil and Argentina, among other countries. His teachings focused on the physical techniques of cultivation of health, Chinese medicine, and the study of a few selected texts. His followers often declared themselves to be practitioners of a Daoist “spirituality/philosophy” (Bizerril 2007). There were two other organizations that practiced some Daoist techniques, without, however, considering themselves religiously committed Daoists: the “Great Triad” was founded by Eduardo de Souza, and the “InterTao” – connected with the Healing Tao – was led by Ely Britto; according to the group’s Web site, there are 13 practicing groups in Brazil. Chinese folk religion also exists in Brazil. On the micro level, several home altars dedicated to ancestors or deities can be seen in the homes of Chinese immigrants, in Chinese stores, or places that teach Chinese traditions such as martial arts. Often Chinese immigrants – and Brazilian admirers – use personal amulets for necklaces, usually with bodhisattvas, but also Daoist symbols of popular deities. In São Paulo there is a popular Chinese temple founded by Taiwanese immigrants that fulfills an ethnic demand. There are also two pavilions (temples) containing their names, associated with Buddhism and Daoism respectively: Baxi guanyin si (Guanyin Temple of Brazil), and Ji Huagong (Chinese Temple of [Divine] Relief). The temple has no official priests of any tradition, and is open to free worship for every visitor. There is oracle practice by qiantong 315 methods (Kau Cim, Chi Chi Sticks or Oracle of Guan yin) or the jiaobei method. Cross-References ▶ Chinese Buddhism ▶ Korean Religions References Bizerril J (2007) Retorno à raiz: tradição e experiência de uma linhagem taoísta no Brasil. Attar, São Paulo Chuhue Huaman R, Locau EE (2012) Uma vista ao Barrio Chino de Lima. In: Chuhue R, Li JN, Coello A (eds) La inmigración china al Peru: Arqueologia, História y Sociedad. Editora Universitária Universidad Ricardo Palma/Instituto Confucio, Lima, pp 429–450 Fat PBTS (2009) Chinese new migrants in suriname: the inevitability of ethnic performing. Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam Fleischer F (2012) La diáspora china: un acercamiento a la migración china en Colombia. Rev Estud Soc Bogotá 42:71–79 Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografia e Informática INEGI (2005) Diversidad Religiosa en México. INEGI, México Look Lai W (1998) The Chinese in the West Indies: a documentary history, 1806–1995. University of the West Indies Press, Trinidad Look Lai W (2010) Introduction: the Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean. In: Look Lai W, CheeBeng T (eds) The Chinese in Latin America and the Caribbean. Brill, Leiden, pp 1–3 Murray D, Miller J (2013) The Daoist Society of Brazil and the Globalization of Orthodox Unity Daoism. J Daoist Stud 6:93–114 Piza D (2013) Os chineses no Brasil e as diásporas chinesas. In: Pinheiro-Machado R (ed) China, passado e presente: um guia para compreender a sociedade chinesa. Artes e Ofícios, Porto Alegre, pp 197–200 Scherer F (2001) Sanfancón: orientalism, self-orientalization and “Chinese religion” in Cuba. In: Taylor P (ed) Nation dance: religion, identity, and cultural difference in the Caribbean. Indiana University Press, Indianapolis, pp 153–170 Shibata Y (2006) Searching for a Niche, creolizing religious tradition: negotiation and reconstruction of ethnicity among Chinese in Jamaica. In: Pratap Kumar P (ed) Religious pluralism in the Diaspora. Brill, Leiden/Boston, pp 51–72 Siegler E (2012) Daoism beyond modernity: the “Healing Tao” as postmodern movement. In: Palmer David A, Liu X (eds) Daoism in the twentieth century: between eternity and modernity. University of California Press, Berkeley, pp 274–292 C 316 Christian Base Communities (CEB) Kjell Nordstokke Diakonhjemmet University College, Oslo, Norway Christian Base Communities (CEB) The movement of CEBs was at its height in the 1980s when it numbered up to 150,000, half of them in the Brazil. At that time, they had become a matter of dispute within the Catholic Church, and they have since then decreased, both in numbers and in importance, although its “way of being church” continues to mark church life in the continent, both among Catholics and Protestants (Cook 1985; Cavendish 1994). Keywords Catholic Church · Social movements · Theology of liberation · CELAM · Vatican II Definition CEB, comunidad(e) eclesial de base, is a small grass root Catholic community that congregates and mobilizes lay people, mainly from lower social classes, to celebrate their faith and to engage socially and politically. It also refers to a movement that spread all over Latin America since the 1960s, and many CEBs became the ecclesial platform for the theology of liberation. Introduction CEB is a group of lay people that regularly comes together, most often in the number of 20–50. They often meet several times a week, led by lay leaders elected by the group. Normally, they will follow the manual for the Sunday worship printed in the parochial center; they will read a Bible text and dedicate much time to reflection on its meaning in their everyday situation. Some CEBs will also distribute the Eucharist, if the bishop has authorized a layperson for that task. In that case, they will bring bread already consecrated by a priest. In their meetings, they also will discuss relevant issues, such as school, health, and participation in social movements. For many participants, the CEB is their primary Christian community where they come together with people of their own background and neighborhood. Attending the parochial church would in some cases require travel time and money and often imply a feeling of being an outsider. Main Developments The first CEBs appeared in Brazil, where the church leadership, differently than elsewhere in Latin America, actively supported its development. The National Brazilian Conference of Bishops (CNBB) took a leading role in this process; in 1962, it presented an emergency plan, aiming at evangelization, catechesis, and social action, and proposed the establishment of base communities. This was followed up with the publication of two study books, in 1967 and 1968, thus providing theological and practical guidelines for the implementation of the plan. Two main concerns motived the CNBB to take this position. On the one hand, the church leadership recognized that the traditional parochial structure, combined with a dramatic shortage of priests, was about to alienate large sections of the population from the church, in particular those living in the outskirts of the big cities where the Pentecostal churches were growing rapidly. They therefore proposed the CEB as a new church model that should take into consideration the faith and experiences of ordinary people (Boff 1985, 1986). On the other hand, the bishops were alarmed by the social and political situation, especially in the poverty stricken northeastern Brazil, and they feared that communism could gain further ground. The archbishop in Natal, Eugênio Sales, had in 1958 established a program that used radio for popular education, and the listeners were encouraged to organize “radiophonic schools” with the purpose of reflecting and implementing what they had heard. Later, this developed into a movement called MEB (Movimento de Educação de Base), Christian Base Communities (CEB) with thousands of groups spread over the whole region. Paulo Freire, becoming one of its leaders, modeled its methodology and political consciousness. With the military coup d’état in 1964, the MEB was brutally dismantled; most of the groups however continued to exist in the form of CEB (Teixeira 1988; Barreiro 1979). The fact that the development of CEB is rooted in both internal ecclesial and external sociopolitical factors is shown by its name, comunidade eclesial de base. Comunidade refers to the local community; it contains both a territorial and a social element of belonging and acting together. It should therefore not be limited to its religious character; its first reference is rather the communal life, either in a small village (povoado) in rural districts or neighborhood (bairro) in urban areas. Eclesial expresses its belonging to the church. In the dispute over the CEBs, the understanding of this term turned out to be controversial. While the theologians of liberations, and, in particular, Leonardo Boff, advocated a view that granted the CEB ecclesial identity, being church in the full meaning of the word, the representatives of the official leadership interpreted eclesial functionally, as a part of the ordinary parochial structure. The understanding of base is also disputed. Most likely, the term simply came from the MEB where it had a clear social connotation, not only grass root in ordinary sense but with a clear focus on the marginalized and impoverished at the bottom of society. When translated by basic, which points at the role as smallest element in a structure, this aspect can be ignored, which would support a more functionalistic understanding of CEB (Lib^anio 1979). The proactive stance of the CNBB regarding the creation of CEBs must also be seen in the perspective of Vatican II and its quest for renewal in the church, for instance, voiced in its Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity. Pope John XXIII had in 1961 sent a letter to the Latin-American bishops urging them to take initiatives in that direction; the convocation of the second CELAM conference in Medellin (Colombia) in 1968 maintained the same concern: renewal as response to contextual challenges in light of the Vatican Council. At that time, only the church leadership in Brazil could 317 report on experiences with CEBs; nevertheless, the final document from the Medellin conference acknowledges their significance, stating that they are “the first and fundamental ecclesial nucleus” and “the initial cell of the ecclesial structures” (MD 15:10). Although the Medellin document did not elaborate on the ecclesiological understanding of the CEB, progressive sections of the Catholic Church received it as a legitimization of the movement that idealized the CEB as a new way of being church. The movement now spread all over the continent and in particular in Central America where it soon came under attack for – in some cases – supporting revolutionary movements. In a context of oppression and violation of human rights, many CEBs were persecuted and had their leaders killed. In addition, they quite often ended up in a conflict with the church leadership that disapproved of their political militancy, fearing Marxist influence. Their pretension of being a church of the people (iglesia popular, iglesia del pueblo) was strongly rejected by the hierarchy stating that there is only one church, claiming that the CEBs were promoting schisms in the church (Nordstokke 1996, pp. 149–157). The papal encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi that Paul VI issued in 1974 addressed the controversy about the CEBs. A full paragraph (# 58) deals with the question, starting with the observation that they differ greatly from one place to another, in some regions they develop “within the Church, having solidarity with her life, being nourished by her teaching and united with her pastors.” In these cases, their role and contributions are praised, also for their “struggle for justice, brotherly aid to the poor, human advancement.” But in other places, they “come together in a spirit of bitter criticism of the Church, which they are quick to stigmatize as ‘institutional’ and to which they set themselves up in opposition as charismatic communities, free from structures and inspired only by the Gospel. (. . .) their main inspiration very quickly becomes ideological, and it rarely happens that they do not quickly fall victim to some political option or current of thought, and then to a system, even a party, with all the attendant risks of becoming its instrument.” C 318 The encyclical does not say which regions and what concrete examples of CEBs it has in mind; much is left to the reader when it comes to the interpretation of its statements. The LatinAmerican church leadership, especially those that belonged to the conservative group, welcomed the encyclical and used it to impose measures that envisaged stronger control of the CEBs. With the election of John Paul II as pope in 1978, the number of conservative bishops increased substantially. Since 1972, conservative bishops held the leadership of CELAM, which had consequences for the official understanding of CEB. In 1977, when preparing for the third general conference to take place in Puebla (Mexico) two years later, the CELAM secretariat sent a document for consultation in which the CEBs were described as under influence partly of secular Protestant theology, partly of Marxist ideology, with the result that pious practice is neglected. After heavy protests, CELAM withdrew the document (Lernoux 1979). The Puebla document itself is more balanced and seeks to be in line with the directions given in Evangelii Nuntiandi. It affirms the role of the CEB within the parochial structure of the church, focusing on spiritual and catechetical tasks, while downplaying its social and political role, adding clear warnings against “problems” of the “people’s church,” or of “parallel magisteria” (Prien 1981, pp. 82–111). While Medellin viewed the CEB as “the initial cell of church structures,” the later CELAM documents consciously give it far less importance and list CEB among other groups and movements within the church. The document from the latest CELAM Assembly, held in Aparecida (Brazil) 2007, contains only brief direct reference to CEBs, equalizing them with other small groups (pequeñas comunidades) within the church. While the document recognizes the CEBs as a sign of vitality of the local church, it also reiterates the order of operating within the official teaching and structure of the church (# 178–180). In many ways, the Catholic Church in Brazil opted for a more positive approach to the CEBs of her sister churches on the continent. CNBB not only actively contributed to the establishment of Christian Base Communities (CEB) CEBs, it also accompanied its development. In 1975, when representatives from CEBs for the first time met at a national meeting in Vitória, bishops and theologians participated. The theme, A church born from the people by God’s Spirit, was not considered controversial nor the name given to the meeting, encontro intereclesial – a meeting among churches. Since then, such meetings are organized regularly, the 13th was held in 2014 in Juazeiro do Norte, in the northeastern state Ceará, under the theme Justice and prophecy in service of life. On this occasion, Pope Francis sent a message to the participants with his blessings, stating that the CEBs are renewing the church, thanks to “their new evangelizing ardor and a new capacity of dialogue with the world.” This was the first time that a Pope greeted such a meeting, and it remains open whether this can be interpreted as a more positive attitude from the Vatican. These developments indicate a transformation of the CEBs from the 1980s and until today. They have largely adapted to the orientation of the bishops and assumed the role of loyal renewal within the church and promoting societal concerns that are in line with the social teaching of the official church (Theije and Mariz 2008). Interpretation As indicated above, the theologians of liberation strongly supported the CEBs and interpreted them as a new way of being church. Their point of departure was the fact that most Latin Americans are poor and believers, which led to the conviction that the church must reflect the faith, the experiences, and the struggle of the poor. In their view, the issue was not to reform the church to work for the poor but, far more radical, to construct a new way of being church: a church of the poor. Gustavo Gutiérrez based this on an analysis of the power of the poor in history, emphasizing their ability to change reality (Gutiérrez 1983). Jon Sobrino described this as the resurrection of the true church and proposed an ecclesiology that considered the poor as a privileged theological Christian Base Communities (CEB) source (lugar teológico) (Sobrino 1981). In Leonardo Boff’s view, the emergence of the CEBs meant an ecclesiogenesis, a new birth of the church (Boff 1986). The different expressions unite in the view that the CEBs represent a fundamental breach with the institutional church. This breach encompasses more dimensions, in the first place an epistemological, in the sense that the reality of the poor is the starting point for any reflection on the church; closely related to this is a sociology that opts for church models that are democratically structured and committed to social engagement. In addition, this position contains ecclesiological options, as, for instance, the understanding of the church as a gathering of people, more than being an institution, and in giving more importance to the right church practice (orthopraxis) than to the observation of right doctrines (orthodoxy). Influence The CEBs were at their height in the 1970s and 1980s. In Brazil only, they counted up to 80,000 communities involving as many as two million persons (Nordstokke 1996, pp. 114–115). They impacted not only the church but also the society and probably were instrumental in promoting democratic values and practices (Cavendish 1994). When democratic elected governments replaced military regimes, the political context changed. Social movements and political parties engaged persons that earlier had been active in the CEBs; many also became frustrated because of the measures of discipline imposed by church authorities. That was the case in Brazil when CEBs openly supported the workers party (Partido dos Trabalhadores). Some claim therefore that the CEBs have outplayed their role. It is therefore noteworthy that the CNBB Assembly in 2013 proposed to revitalize the CEBs, expressing faith in the model they represent but at same time clearly stating that the role they had during the military dictatorship is different from the one they are expected to have today. CEBs represent a rich variety of expressions; their concrete role and position in church and 319 in society differ from one context to another. Without any doubt, they have strongly influenced church life, not only in Latin America but also outside the continent. They have inspired both Catholics and representatives of other denominations to imitate some of the features that characterize their way of being church. This is expressed in the inclusive structure that ensures that everyone is recognized as a subject, with distinct gifts for the well-being of all. This empowering ability of the CEB is also in practice when reading and interpreting biblical texts. The aim is that all shall participate in the search for links between the biblical narratives and the stories about themselves, in a manner that will affirm their dignity as individuals and community, and mobilize for action. This hermeneutics of the poor has inspired theologians all over the continent, among them Ernesto Cardenal in Nicaragua, José Severino Croatto in Argentina, and Carlos Mesters in Brazil, and contributed to a renewal of the study of the Bible, including at academic level. Last, but not the least, CEBs have further developed the method of see-judge-act that has empowered them, at the start, to undertake a critical analysis of their reality, then, second, judge what they have seen in the light of Bible and language of faith, and third, identify concrete action in the pursuit of liberation. References Barreiro A (1979) Basic Ecclesial communities in Latin America. Int Rev Mission 68:235–242 Boff L (1985) Church, charism and power: liberation theology and the institutional church. Crossroad, New York (Igreja: carisma e poder. Vozes, Petrópolis 1981) Boff L (1986) Ecclesiogenesis: the base communities reinvent the church. Orbis Books, Maryknoll (Eclesiogenese, As Comunidades Eclesiais de Base reinventam a Igreja. Vozes, Petrópolis 1977) Cavendish JC (1994) Christian base communities and the building of democracy: Brazil and Chile. Sociol Relig 55(2):179–195 Cook G (1985) The expectation of the poor. Latin American basic ecclesial communities in protestant perspective. Orbis Books, Maryknoll de Theije M, Mariz CL (2008) Localizing and globalizing processes in Brazilian Catholicism. Lat Am Res Rev 43(1):33–54 C 320 Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil Gutiérrez G (1983) The power of the poor in history. Orbis Books, Maryknoll (La fuerza histórica de los pobres, CEP, Lima 1979) Lernoux P (1979) The long path to Puebla. In: Eagleson J, Scharper P (eds) Puebla and beyond. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, pp 3–27 Lib^anio FB (1979). A Community with a new image. In: International Review of Mission. 68(271):242–265 Nordstokke K (1996) Council and context in Leonardo Boff’s ecclesiology. The Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston Prien H-J (1981) Lateinamerika: Gesellschaft – Kirche – Theologie, vol II. Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen Sobrino J (1981) Resurreicción de la verdadera Iglesia: Los pobres, lugar teológico de la eclesiologia. Santander ed. Sal Terrae. Teixeira F (1988) A gênese das CEB’s no Brasil. Ed. Paulinas, São Paulo Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil Rubia R. Valente Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, Baruch College – City University of New York (CUNY), New York, NY, USA Introduction The Christian Congregation in Brazil (CCB) is the oldest and second-largest Pentecostal church in Brazil. Established in 1910 through the missionary work of an Italian American missionary named *Louis Francescon, the church has grown significantly over the last century expanding to all Latin American countries, as well as Europe, North America, Asia, and Africa (73 countries total; Congregação Cristã no Brasil 2016). According to the 2010 Brazilian census, the church had 2,289,634 members (IBGE 2010) and approximately 20,000 congregations spread across Brazil. The vast majority of members are concentrated in São Paulo, Paraná, and Minas Gerais. CCB beliefs are set forth in the 12 *Articles of Faith which include the belief in the whole Bible as the infallible word of God and belief in the Trinity, water baptism, and speaking in tongues as a sign of baptism of the Holy Spirit. The church is classified by scholars as a classical Pentecostal church. American Roots Keywords Christian Congregation · Classical Pentecostalism · Louis Francescon · Brazil Definition The Christian Congregation in Brazil (CCB) is the oldest, second-largest Pentecostal church in Brazil and the largest Pentecostal church in the state of São Paulo. Part of the first Pentecostalism wave in the country, the church is defined by scholars as a classical Pentecostal church sui generis and sectarian with little susceptibility to external influences. Members are referred to as “crentes” meaning “believers” as opposed to “evangélicos” or evangelicals. The national (and international) headquarters of the church is at Brás, São Paulo. The church is apolitical and does not use media for proselyting, and all ministerial and appointed positions are unpaid. Louis Francescon was an elder at the First Presbyterian Church in Chicago (Prima Chiesa Presbiteriana Italiana di Chicago) when he felt that baptism required full water immersion (as opposed to aspersion). He was baptized by water immersion and left the Presbyterian Church with a group of members who adhered to this belief, giving start to a small religious Italian community in Chicago that would later be called “Assemblea Cristiana Italiana di Chicago” (Toppi 2007). A few years later, in 1907, he witnessed the Pentecostal movement at the Baptist Church of Chicago at 943 W. North Mission (Araújo 2007), where Pastor William Durham preached about the baptism with the Holy Spirit. When Francescon stepped into that church for the first time, God told him, “This is my work” (Francescon 2002). Francescon, his wife, and members of the Italian group he led started to attend this mission and were Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil baptized with the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues. Francescon dedicated himself to spreading the message of Pentecostalism among Italians and on September 15, 1907, was invited to preach at the Tuscan Church. After he exhorted the church to seek the baptism with the Holy Spirit, a great manifestation and revival occurred, marking the start of the Pentecostal Italian Movement in Chicago and the inception of the Unorganized Italian Christian Churches of North America in Chicago (CCNA 1977). Start in Brazil In 1910, Francescon traveled to Brazil and established the First Pentecostal Church among the Italian communities in the states of Paraná and São Paulo. Francescon performed the first water baptism in the city of Antonio da Platina in the state of Paraná on April 20, 1910, baptizing 11 people. In São Paulo, he was invited to preach at the Presbyterian Church at Brás and caused a schism among members. In addition to the members of the Presbyterian Church, a few Baptists, Catholics, and Methodists also accepted his message in São Paulo, and a total of 20 people were converted and baptized, “some being healed, others being baptized with the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Francescon 2002). Felipe Pavan and Ernesto Finotti were soon ordained as the groups’ first elders. The church flourished among Italian colonies in Brazil, especially in the southeast regions of São Paulo and Paraná, and the services were conducted in Italian until 1938. For many years the church did not have an official name, some referred to them as “o povo do Glória” (the people that glorify), and the church was informally called “Assemblea Christiana” or “Congregazione Cristiana.” Around 1921 the church started to be called “Congregação Christã,” but it was only in 1936 that the church adopted officially the name Congregação Cristã do Brasil, later changing it to Congregação Cristã no Brasil. Francescon maintained frequent contact with the members in Brazil. Between 1910 and 321 1948, he traveled to Brazil ten times, staying for more than a year on most trips (Francescon 2002). At the time of his death on September 7, 1964, he was the senior elder of the Christian Congregation Church in Chicago. In 1980, Miguel Spina and Vittorio Angare, who were senior elders of CCB, visited the United States at the invitation of Miguel’s nephew, Joel Spina, and participated in the assembly that established the Christian Congregation in the United States through the unification of three churches: the Buffalo Christian Congregation, the Italian Christian Assembly of Alhambra, and the Christian Congregation in the United States in Chicago. These churches all had roots in the “Unorganized Italian Christian Churches of North America,” which Francescon helped establish in 1927 (CCNA 1977). CCB has expanded to countries in all continents as a result of the missionary work of many Brazilian members. This expansion created an international fellowship of congregations sharing the same faith, doctrine, and liturgy. The CCB headquarters is located at Brás in São Paulo, Brazil, and oversees the ministry of all Christian Congregations, in Brazil and abroad. Organization, Ministry, and Other Positions The Christian Congregation follows an organizational model of kinship and patriarchy (Nelson 1992). Leadership is ranked by seniority rather than charisma or competence, and all ministerial roles are unpaid. At the very top of the organization hierarchy is the “president elder” who oversees the church and presides over the Annual Assembly at Brás, São Paulo. The presidency only ends in case of physical or mental debilitation; otherwise, it is a ministry for life. The current president elder is Claudio Marçola. The president elder is chosen from the “council of elders,” a group of about ten elders who are the oldest and/or most influential elders in the church. All decisions (e.g., the ordination of new ministers) and teachings come from the council of elders. They are not only in charge of the C 322 Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil congregation in Brazil but also of congregations abroad and preside over the general meetings and assemblies in other countries. These meetings are not open to members; only the ministerial body (elders, deacons, and cooperators) can attend. Below the “council of elders” are the regional elders, who are in charge of different regions of the country and typically oversee all ministers within their region and the local elders of individual congregations. Elders are ordained by the imposition of hands during a special service. Under the elders, there are the deacons, who oversee the work or “piety.” The same patriarchal structure applies to the deacons; leadership is ranked by seniority; the oldest deacons are the most respected, and younger deacons assist them in their ministry. There are also the “sisters of piety,” who are women of good testimony that are chosen to help the deacons. The functions of the sisters of piety include visiting members of the church (particularly the poor), praying to receive revelation of any financial need among church members, and making recommendations to the deacons based on these revelations. Below the elders and deacons are the local cooperators who preside over services. Each congregation has a local cooperator and a youth cooperator. Youth cooperator is not a ministerial position but an appointed position given to the member who presides over the young peoples’ services. A prerequisite to become an elder or deacon, besides having a good testimony, is being baptized with the Holy Spirit, i.e., speaking in tongues. The ministry in the CCB does not have any theological training; some do not even have a bachelors’ degree. They all have different professional careers outside of the church, and everything they do in their ministry is unpaid and volunteered. Yet there is a great congregational respect for what they preach or say, because members believe they are guided by the Holy Spirit. The hierarchical system of organization strictly centralized at Brás still reflects the Italian communal kinship traditions. This organizational structure has contributed to maintaining the church intact to religious, cultural, and social changes that have impacted most Pentecostal churches in Brazil. Other volunteer (i.e., unpaid) church positions include: Orchestra conductors: The directors of the church’s orchestra are trained musicians who are appointed to oversee the musical performance during the services, coordinate and direct the music school, and preside over musical rehearsals (both local and regional). Regional conductors oversee local conductors. The CCB orchestra was instituted by Francescon in 1932 with the goal of helping the members sing hymns. The orchestra is composed by modern symphony orchestra instruments ranging from the violin to the tuba, but no percussion instruments are allowed. Musicians: Members who qualified to play in the orchestra during the services. Any member with a “good testimony” who desires to play an instrument can go to the music school for free at their local church. In order to become an official musician, however, there are several steps to take, and the person needs to have an advanced skill level and be baptized. Organists: Women are only allowed to play the organ and do not have music classes provided for them at the church. Since there is only one organ per congregation, only a single organist can play per service, while male musicians can play every service in their chosen instrument. In a typical service, the orchestra may have between 50 and 100 male musicians but only 1 female organist. Examiner: An older organist with very high musical skills that oversees other organists and examines organist candidates during the official tests. Administrators: According to the church’s bylaws, the administration is constituted by a president, treasurer, secretary, their respective vices, and a fiscal council as well as volunteers. Each region has an administration that oversees it. The administrators are elected by the elders every 3 years and the fiscal council annually and confirmed during the annual Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil general meeting. Reinstatement is allowed. Although the statute does not prohibit it, there are no women occupying administrative positions. Ushers: Each church has at least one male and one female usher. Larger churches can have several ushers. Their role is to greet everyone who arrives for the services and provide any help they might need, including providing hymnbooks, Bibles, or veils. The male usher also takes requests for prayers which are later given in a piece of paper to the presiding minister before the supplication prayer. Young people’s helpers: Single, young, baptized members of the church who prepare and organize the children and young people’s recitals (recitation of Biblical passages) during the young people’s services. They also take care of the children and young people during the young people’s service. Liturgy The services at the CCB are similar in structure, order, and spontaneous manifestations. The members believe that everything done during the service is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, including the preaching of the Scriptures, which is not prepared beforehand but revealed at the time of the “Word.” A typical service starts with the orchestra tuning and playing a hymn by itself. Then, a minister, either a cooperator or an elder, gets up in front of a pulpit and opens the service. Three hymns are spontaneously called by members, and the whole church sings the hymns in unison, while the orchestra plays along. This is followed by a spontaneous supplication prayer (up to three prayers can be made during this time) raised by anyone who feels in their heart to pray out loud. After the prayer, another hymn is sung, and then it is time for the testimonies – anyone who feels like it can get up in front of the church and testify telling a work, or a miracle, or a delivery that happened in their lives, or to pay a vow. Then, another hymn is sung, and it is time for the preaching of the Word. The presiding brother 323 will typically “wait for the Word,” asking other members of the ministry if they have the Word while the church remains in communion. Any minister who feels inspired to have the Word will read the revealed passage of the Scriptures and preach from it. The Word is not prepared in advance and is believed to be guided by the Holy Spirit. After the Word, there is a spontaneous closing prayer, and once it is over, the whole church stands up, and a final hymn is sung. The service ends when the presiding brother says, “May the Peace of God, his Holy Word, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit abide in our hearts forever.” The whole church answers in unison, “Amén,” and the service is over. The orchestra plays the verse of a hymn by itself, while members greet each other with a Holy kiss (men kiss men, women kiss women; mixed genders only shake hands) and start making their way out of the church. Both prayers are made while kneeling down. Men and women seat separately during the service, and all women use a white veil. All congregation buildings look exactly the same inside and outside. The building is very plain, without decorations, and simply contains a pulpit and wooden benches (in larger churches, a baptismal tank will be located in front of the church behind the pulpit). The only embellishment is the saying, “Em Nome do Senhor Jesus,” (In the name of the Lord Jesus) written in large letters up in the wall behind the pulpit. The hymnal titled, “Hinos de Louvores e Suplicas a Deus,” includes many known Christian hymns, but with altered lyrics. Some hymns have been composed by church members, most notably by the examiner Anna Spina Finotti. The hymnbook has had five versions. The first version, the Libro di Inni e Salmi Spirituali, and the second version Nuovo Libro di Inni e Salmi Spirituali were in Italian (they were the same hymnbooks used in the Italian Pentecostal churches in Chicago). The latest version, which came out in 2013, contains 480 hymns. The previous hymnbook (version 4), which was used for more than four decades, had 450 hymns. The hymnbook contains special hymns for baptism services, Holy Supper, and funerals and 50 hymns for C 324 Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil young people’s services, plus 6 choruses. The hymnbooks (as well as Bibles) are sold in the church without making any profit. believe that the church itself is the grace of God (Valente 2015b). It is only recently that some in the ministry have started to preach that the grace is actually Jesus Christ and that people from other churches will also be saved. Baptism Baptism services are very similar to conventional worship services, with the exception that there are no testimonies and after the Word the baptism is performed. Once the elder is in the baptismal tank, which is typically in front of the church, hymns are sung, and anyone “feeling” the calling of God can get up and be baptized. A prayer with imposition of hands will be made for the first person who goes in to be baptized, and everyone is baptized “in the name of the Lord Jesus, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” At the end of the service, the number of people that were baptized is announced, and the Article of Faith number 9 which states, “We believe it is necessary to abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication, as decreed by the Holy Spirit in the general assembly held in Jerusalem (Acts 15:28-29;16:4;21:25),” is read admonishing the newly baptized souls to avoid idolatry, food with blood or from strangled animals, and fornication. Only those who are 12 years or older are allowed to be baptized. An exception is made only if a child has already received the baptism of the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues. Also, unmarried couples that live together are advised to get married before getting baptized. The CCB does not recognize the baptism of other Christian churches, even if by immersion, except in the United States. Therefore, anyone who wishes to become a member must be rebaptized. The CCB does not have communion with any other Christian or Pentecostal churches. This seclusion is partially due to the belief that CCB is the only “true” church. During testimonies and preaching, it is common to hear that “God revealed his grace” or members saying that they thank God for calling them “to this grace.” In fact, many members simply refer to CCB as “the grace,” and the majority of members Holy Supper The Holy Supper service is conducted annually, and members participate in the service at their home congregation. During this service, the death and suffering of Jesus Christ is remembered. The service is similar to regular services, with a few exceptions. The liberty for testimony is only given to those who feel that they need to ask the church for “forgiveness” before partaking of the Holy Supper. Reasons can vary but typically involve having left the church for a while or going to another church (this liberty remains open until the end of the service). Only hymns designated for the Holy Supper are called, and both prayers are made by the ministry. After the Word, the ministry, typically elders, pray for the bread and for the wine that the church will partake, and from that moment on, the bread is a symbolic representation of the body of Jesus and the wine of his blood. Then, members go to the front of the congregation where they kneel and wait for one elder to come distributing a piece of bread, followed by another elder who provides a sip of wine. In the end, any leftovers of bread or wine are buried by the elders. A controversial practice during the Holy Supper is that everyone will drink from the same wine cup. Although the elder who is in charge of the wine rotates the cup as he distributes it and cleans the edge with a cloth, the whole church will drink from the same chalice. In Brazil, because of the large number of members, the Holy Supper is given annually and members can only partake of it once every year due to logistics. Thus, even if members attend another church service while a Holy Supper is being held, they do not participate again. Some members’ belief that this rule emerges from the fact that the Passover was celebrated annually and therefore the Holy Supper should Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil be done annually, but in reality, in Brazil it is just a matter of logistics. In churches abroad, members are asked to partake of the Holy Supper in their home congregation, but if they are present by any reason during the Holy Supper in another congregation, they will take part in it. 325 This is quite unprecedented given the church’s traditional and long-standing opposition to Bible study and theological education. Customs and Teachings C Young People’s Services The young people’s service is presided by the youth cooperator. This service is exclusive for children and unmarried young adults. They have complete liberty to call hymns, testify, recite, and pray (which they are not allowed to do in regular services). During the supplication prayer, the children recite the “Our Father” prayer with the assistance of the helpers. Before the testimonies, there are the recitals – children and unmarried young adults get up in groups (by age), and each recites one verse of a Biblical chapter. After the recitals, the children and young people can testify. The Word is directed to the young people and children, and even the majority of members in the orchestra are also young people. These services are traditionally held on Sunday mornings, with some exceptions. Recently, in a surprising turn of events, Bible School was reestablished for children under 12. This service is conducted in parallel to the official regular services and presided over by a sister. The members in this position are typically well educated and actually work as teachers or in some cases as professors. The Bible School service is opened in the name of the Lord Jesus; the children sing, pray, testify, and recite. The sister who is presiding reads a predetermined Biblical passage and then explains and preaches a lesson from that passage. Then the children get together in groups and conduct activities related to the Biblical passage that was read (this includes drawing, painting, assembling puzzles, etc.). The Bible School service is not available in all congregations due to lack of physical space; it is currently being held only in large congregations. The predetermined Biblical passage and the whole curriculum and syllabus that the sister must follow were determined and approved by the council of elders. The Christian Congregation differs from other Pentecostal churches in several aspects. The church has kept itself aside from religious, cultural, and social dynamics, which has influenced most religious groups in Brazil. As a result the CCB attest a Pentecostalism sui generis and sectarian, with little susceptibility to external influences (Foerster 2006; Mariano 1999; Nelson 1989; Valente 2015b). This is displayed by the church’s rigid and conservative morality, dress code, isolationism from other churches, opposition to the use of mass media and modern communications, and strict teachings discouraging members from owning and watching TV, going to movie theaters, going to swimming pools or the beach, drinking alcohol, dancing, gambling, and dressing like “the world.” The church’s teachings state that clothing must be conservative and not revealing or provocative in any way. Women can only wear skirts and dresses, while men are taught not to wear shorts or sleeveless shirts. In addition, women are prohibited to cut or dye their hair, wear makeup or jewelry, and paint their nails. Men are supposed to shave their beards daily. This dressing code varies from region to region. Lately, especially in large urban areas, middle- and upperclass sisters can be found using pants, cutting their hair, and using makeup and jewelry, despite teachings being preached against these practices. The church is also completely apolitical. The ministry is not allowed to be involved in politics, and members are admonished to avoid involvement in politics and even in civil protests. The church does not endorse any political candidates or political party and when political candidates attend the service (sometimes even presidential candidates), they are not allowed to speak. The church has never used the media for proselytizing, nor does it have an official 326 Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil website. The church’s website (http://www. congregacaocristanobrasil.org.br/) is simply a disclaimer that CCB does not use the Internet or media and does not authorize anyone to do so in its name. The Role of Women in the CCB When the church started in 1910, women held several positions of leadership, including ministerial positions of deaconesses, cooperators, youth cooperators, Sunday school teachers, musicians, and orchestra conductors (Valente 2015a). Women were never ordained elders; although in principle there was equality, men always monopolized priestly functions in the CCB and were always at the top of the church hierarchy. Today, women in the CCB cannot hold any ministerial or leadership position in the church and cannot make any autonomous decisions. The female participation in the CCB service is limited to calling hymns, praying, and testifying. The remaining positions held by women in the CCB are as cleaners, cooks, tailors, young people’s helpers, organists, examiners, and ushers. The assistants to the deacons, the sisters of piety, have no decision abilities and must receive the approval of the deacons, who can confirm or deny their request, to take care of the financial need of poor church members (by providing food or money to a family or an individual in need). Although some may claim that they have the same ministry as the deacons, this is clearly not the case; otherwise they would be called deaconess. In addition, if the sisters of piety were truly equal in ministry as the deacons, they would not only be able to make autonomous decisions and be ordained but also preach (which deacons are allowed to do) and open prayers in front of cooperators, youth cooperators, music conductors, male musicians, and any male members of the church during informal meetings or home visits. Instead, if there is no adult male member present, but only an unbaptized boy, he will be asked to open the prayer instead of the sisters of piety. One of the most controversial issues involving the role of women in the CCB today is the exclusion of women from the church’s orchestra. Women were official musicians until around 1950, when they were barred from the orchestra without any explanation from the ministry. The problem emerges because in the vast majority of Christian Congregations abroad, women were never barred from playing and have continued to become official church musicians, playing any instrument of their choosing (except in France, Paraguay, and Japan that follow Brazil). When visiting Brazil, female official musicians are not allowed to play, while official male musicians are allowed to play in any congregation around the world. Hence, a double standard in recognizing the validation of an official examination of the church’s musicians is in place. The officialization of a female musician is void outside the country in which she was officialized. This is one of the major departures and rupture in homogeneity among the Christian Congregations around the world. In every other aspect (liturgy, doctrine, customs, teachings, practices, etc.), the church is virtually the same everywhere around the world (Valente 2015b). When the Bible School services were reinstated, some believed that the sister appointed to lead these services would once again hold the title of young people’s cooperator or children’s cooperator, which is what they are in practice. Instead, they have been referred to as “teachers” or “children helpers.” In addition, to dilute any perception of leadership or equality to the male young peoples’ cooperator, instead of having one single sister in charge of the Bible School service per congregation, several were raised to this position (at least four per congregation). And, contrary to the liberty given to the young people’s cooperators to be guided by the Holy Spirit and preach what is revealed, they have to follow a predetermined syllabus and have very little room to actually preach or teach what they feel is necessary by the Holy Spirit. Recent Trends Recent studies have shown that the unwillingness of CCB’s ministry to accommodate to Church of Perfect Liberty cultural conditions in a global modernizing context has contributed to schisms and to a significant decline in membership (Valente 2015b). Many have left, including elders who disagree with the council of elders’ practices and outdated teachings. From 2000 to 2010 the CCB lost 200,000 members, while other traditional Pentecostal churches’ memberships continued to grow. The church also experienced an unprecedented number of schisms, including the Congregação Cristã Apostólica (2001), Associação de Membros da Congregação Cristã no Brasil (2004), Igreja Congregação Cristã (2005), Congregação Cristã Ministério Jandira (2010), and Congregação Cristã Ministério Bragança (2011). After Claudio Marçola became the president elder, there have been small signs of changes. The establishment of the Bible School services, for example, was a surprising development given the church’s historical opposition to Bible study and theological education. Time will tell whether Marçola will embrace modernizing trends and revive the church or will continue to hold on to outdated traditions and resist changes that are generating schisms and contributing to the church’s decline. Cross-References ▶ Articles of Faith, Twelve ▶ Francescon, Louis ▶ Pentecostalism: Waves in Brazil References CCNA (Christian Church of North America) (1977) General council, CCoNA, Fiftieth anniversary: Christian Church of North America 1927–1977 Congregação Cristã no Brasil (2016) Estatísticas. «Relatório Anual de N 80 Edição 2016–2017 das Casas de Oração da Congregação Cristã no Brasil e No Exterior e que estejam ligadas a mesma Fé e Doutrina. Relatório 80 De Araújo I (2007) Dicionário do Movimento Pentecostal. CPAD, Rio de Janeiro Foerster N (2006) Poder e Politica na Congregação Cristã no Brasil: Um Pentecostalismo na Contramao. Ciencias Sociais e Religião 8(8):121–138 327 Francescon L (2002) Histórico da Obra de Deus, Revelada pelo Espírito Santo no Século Passado – 1952, 1ª ed. Augusto, São Paulo. 64 páginas IBGE Brazilian Census (2010) População Residente, Por sexo e situação do Domicilio, Segundo religiao – Brasil Census. Available at https:// biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/periodicos/94/cd_ 2010_religiao_deficiencia.pdf. Accessed 30 Apr 2018 Mariano R (1999) Neopentecostais: Sociologia do novo Pentecostalismo no Brasil. Loyola, São Paulo Nelson R (1989) Organization-Environment Isomorphism, Rejection, and Substitution in Brazilian Protestantism. Organizational Studies 10.2:207–24. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/017084068901000205 Nelson R (1992) Organizational homogeneity, growth and conflict in Brazilian Protestantism. In: Swatos W (ed) Twentieth century world religious movements in neo-Weberian perspective. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston, pp 231–246 Toppi F (2007) Luigi Francescon: Antesignano del risveglio pentecostale evangelico italiano (Assemblee di Dio in Italia [adi]-Media) Valente R (2015a) From inception to present: the diminishing role of women in the Congregação Cristã no Brasil. Pneuma 37:41–62 Valente R (2015b) Institutional explanations for the decline of the Christian congregation. PentecoStudies 14(1):72–96 Church of Perfect Liberty Masanobu Yamada Department of International Studies, Tenri University, Tenri, Nara, Japan Keywords Hito-no-Michi Kyōdan · PL 21 Precepts (PL Shoseikun Nijuichikajo) · Ontakekyo Tokumitsu Grand Church · Shingon Sect of Japanese Buddhism · Transfer (ofurikae) · Sacred trees (himorogi) · Oyashikiri (a salvific ritual worship) · Teaching (mioshie) · Guidance (mishirase) · Distortion (kokoro guse) · Explanation (kaisetsu) · Headquarters (Daihoncho) · The Brazil Head Office (Brazil Honcho) Definition The Church of Perfect Liberty traces the origin of its teachings to Ontakekyo Tokumitsu Grand C 328 Church, which was established in 1912. Changing its name various times, the Church adopted the current one in 1974. The core doctrinal principle is encapsulated in the PL 21 Precepts, which is considered to be the “constitution” of the religious tradition. The first precept states that “life is art,” which compares human life to a work of art. In this view, the goal of human life is to cultivate the meaning of life by drawing forth individuals’ full potential in the course of their lives. Introduction The Church of Perfect Liberty is known for the practice of flexible and innovative adjustment of its religious teachings and practices based on the instructions from the successive “Spiritual Heads” (Oshieoya). This is exemplified by the fact that the religious group has repeatedly changed its name – namely, Hito-no-Michi Kyōdan in 1931, PL Kyōdan in 1946, and Perfect Liberty in 1972 – before adopting the current one in 1974. The core doctrinal principle is encapsulated in the PL 21 Precepts (PL Shoseikun Nijuichikajo), which is considered to be the “constitution” of the religious tradition. The first precept states that “life is art,” which compares human life to a work of art. In this view, the goal of human life is to cultivate the meaning of life by drawing forth individuals’ full potential in the course of their lives. The Church of Perfect Liberty defines its teaching as a way to enable the free expression of the self and thus places an emphasis on “expression” as the free manifestation of the self (Kawashima 1995). Through this practice, the religious group aims to attain the “great peace,” a world prevailed by everlasting peace. Origin of the Teaching The Church of Perfect Liberty traces the origin of its teachings to Ontakekyo Tokumitsu Grand Church, which was established by Tokumitsu Kanada in 1912. Formerly a mountain ascetic (shugengyoja) in the Shingon Sect of Japanese Buddhism, Kanada primarily attracted urban Church of Perfect Liberty middle-class people with his practical teachings centered on cultivation of the self in everyday settings. His teaching featured the assurance of worldly benefits as brought about by Kanada’s spiritual power as well as the family–state system centered on the Japanese emperor. The doctrinal system is prescribed in the Precept, which provides a short itemized guideline on how to live everyday lives. [This precept was called the Eighteen Divine Precepts (Shinkun Juhachi Kajo) in Ontakekyo Tokumitsu Grand Church.] The teaching of PL follows that of Tokumitsu Grand Church, including the practice of “transfer” (ofurikae), a ritual in which the Spiritual Head takes on the suffering of the members; “instruction” (oshirase), a notion which encourages members to embrace misfortunes or calamities as divine warnings against the distortion in people’s characters and behaviors; and “understanding” (gorikai), in which the Spiritual Head provides guidance for members’ troubles or sufferings through divine intuition. In the Church of Perfect Liberty, these teachings translate into the PL Precepts, “transfer” (ofurikae), “guidance” (mishirase), and “teaching” (mioshie). Tokuharu Miki, who was a disciple of Tokumitsu Kanada, left his position as an instructor at Tokumitsu Grand Church in 1918 after Kanada reorganized the church into Shinto Tokumitsu Grand Church. In 1925, Miki established Ontakekyo Tokumitsu Grand Church, which would later be renamed Fusokyo Hito-noMichi Tokumitsu Grand Church and then Hitono-Michi Kyōdan in 1931. The Church of Perfect Liberty added three precepts to Tokumitsu Grand Church’s Eighteen Precepts for the following reasons. After leaving Tokumitsu Grand Church, Miki enshrined “sacred trees” (himorogi) based on Kanada’s words, “Enshrine sacred trees after my passing and someone will appear to reveal three more divine precepts to complete the teaching of Tokumitsukyo.” Then Miki himself received divine revelation and went on to organize another religious group with an understanding that he was to complete the teaching as the successor of Kanada. The precept was called the 21 Precepts for the Conduct of Life (Jinkun Nijuichikajo) during the time of Church of Perfect Liberty Hito-no-Michi Kyōdan and was renamed the PL 21 Precepts (PL Shoseikun Nijuichikajo) after WWII, which effected in radical changes in the expression of the religious thoughts as well as in rituals and symbols. At present, the Church of Perfect Liberty has unique religious teachings and practices. It performs a salvific ritual worship called oyashikiri; it teaches that sufferings in everyday lives are “guidance” (mishirase) that reflects the distortion (kokoro guse) in the expression of the self; and it provides “explanation” (kaisetsu) to individual members based on the “teaching” (mioshie) from the Spiritual Head. Organizational Structure and the System of Propagation According to Shukyo Nenkan (The Yearbook of Religion) published in 2014, the Church of Perfect Liberty claimed the membership of some 922,000, with 584 instructors and 250 mission facilities. In August 1998, the religious group claimed some 600,000 members, with 2,897 instructors including assistant instructors and 356 missionary facilities in Brazil. These numbers suggest the importance of the development of the religious group in Brazil. The Church of Perfect Liberty’s membership system is organized in terms of vertical relationship of guidance, but it is not as strict as the spiritual parent–child relationship as seen in Tenrikyo. In Japan, the organization consists of “headquarters” (Daihoncho), “dioceses” (kyoku), “blocks,” “churches” (kyokai), “chapters” (shibu), and “mission stations” (fukyosho). An instructor is dispatched to each church to serve as the “head of the church” (kyokaicho). Each church forms a block in each prefecture, and two or three blocks in turn form a diocese. The head of a diocese or a block is also dispatched from the headquarters. As for chapters, mission stations, and large groups, lay members are appointed as the heads. Each part of the organization can be upgraded or downgraded; for example, a chapter may be upgraded to a church when the registered membership exceeds 300 households. 329 In Brazil, the entire country is defined as a diocese, under which exist blocks, churches, “branch offices” (shisho), and “mission centers” (shucchosho). The Brazilian branch of the Church of Perfect Liberty has a unique suborganization called the “house of oyashikiri” (casa de oyashikiri), which serves as part of the training system for lay members. The system of propagation is based on a centralized organization model with the Spiritual Head placed on the top. This indicates that the propagation is promoted as an endeavor of the entire organization, which comes in contrast with Tenrikyo, whose propagation is conducted on the initiative of each individual member. An example is seen in the way the propagation began in Brazil. In March 1957, Ryozo Azuma arrived at the Port of Santos and began to propagate the teaching while working as a chef at a hotel in São Paulo. He then contacted people who had already been members of the Church of Perfect Liberty before coming to Brazil and started to organize meetings. As early as October that year, the first full-time instructor was dispatched from PL’s headquarters (Daihoncho). The Church of Perfect Liberty promoted the propagation in other areas of the country on the initiative of the Brazil Head Office (Brazil Honcho). The missionaries’ efforts to gain converts through salvation work in a new land may be compared to the counterparts of a multinational corporation aiming to develop a new market. In fact, the Church of Perfect Liberty refers to propagation in a new land as “pioneering missionary work” and has increased its membership in Brazil through the efforts of those brave missionaries. The Church of Perfect Liberty has a hierarchical organizational structure akin to that of Tenrikyo, but its management system is completely different. In the Church of Perfect Liberty, the organization is structured in such a way that each level of the organization is subordinate to a higher level. Instructors who are trained at PL’s headquarters or the Brazil Head Office are dispatched to respective regions to recruit new members as well as to provide guidance to already existing members. The religious group thus functions as one unified organization C 330 with, for example, a head of a church being like a branch manager sent from the head office of a company. On the other hand, Tenrikyo’s organizational structure can be described as a collection of churches that are privately managed by ministers, which can pose obstacles in promoting organizational activities compared to the Church of Perfect Liberty. For instance, Tenrikyo’s different grand churches dispatched missionaries to Brazil in postwar periods and established their respective missionary facilities, but some of the missionaries had to work to make their livelihood before embarking on missionary work. It must be pointed out that Tenrikyo’s propagation is not undertaken by the organization as a whole. Where it concerns the leaders’ charisma, missionaries and ministers in Tenrikyo are expected to be charismatic leaders who can bring about salvation, which can at times lead to the dispersal of charisma within the organization. On the contrary, the charismatic power is centralized in the Spiritual Head in the Church of Perfect Liberty. Although the instructor of each church serves as a mediator between the Spiritual Head and members by, for example, providing the teaching (mioshie) upon request, he or she cannot be the one who brings about salvation. Seen in this light, the instruction for the members and the system of propagation is engendered by the organizational structure and the charismatic power that are centralized in the Spiritual Head. Training of Leaders Due to the increasing number of churches, branch offices, and mission stations, the Church of Perfect Liberty in Brazil was faced with a need to increase the number of instructors and assistant instructors. As a temporary measure to address this issue, the religious organization conducted an intensive 5-day training course in 1977 to train full-time assistant instructors and “divine sisters” (young women who support educational activities). To advance this development further, the Church of Perfect Liberty hosted a special training course toward the end of that year and Church of Perfect Liberty produced a total of nine new male instructors (two Japanese Brazilians and seven non-Japanese Brazilians). In March 1978, the religious group launched an academy for instructors, and nine members enrolled in the program as the first class. At first, these instructors were sent to the “frontline” of missionary activity after attending 6 months of training in the academy. The last Japanese instructor intended for the propagation was sent to Brazil in December 1978, and since then, Brazilian-trained instructors have been taking charge of missionary work and providing guidance to members. The eighth class of the academy graduated in 1985, and by that year, a total of 73 students had been enrolled in the academy, with 44 of them serving as instructors. The ninth class attended a 6-year-long educational program in the academy, and from the tenth class, new students were enrolled every other year. The average training period in the academy is about 1½ years, but it is becoming increasingly longer in recent years. The academy does not have a standardized curriculum as that of a formal school, with the training program being adapted depending on the size of the class. Training in doctrine and administrative work constitutes the primary subjects in the training program, but at the same time, there is an emphasis on internship in the South America Holy Land as well as at a church. To enter the academy in Brazil, one needs to have attended a training course and have a recommendation from a minister, whereas in Japan, one also needs to be a college graduate in addition to the abovementioned qualifications. Another difference is that in Japan more time is devoted to the training in the headquarters than at a church. As mentioned earlier, the Church of Perfect Liberty is known for its flexibility to change the doctrine and rituals to suit the need of the time. This flexibility is indeed identified in the training system of instructors in Brazil. In 1998, four young students were enrolled in the fourteenth class of the academy and as interns engaged in providing guidance to members. By December 2000, a total of 119 students have graduated from the academy in Brazil, with 89 of them (74.8 %) being nonethnic Japanese as well as Church of Perfect Liberty 46 % of them actively serving as instructors. At the same time, some instructors in Japan have visited Brazil to attend the training program for 1 year, which attests to how the development of the religious group in Brazil is revitalizing the activities of its counterpart in Japan. Propagation in Brazil It can be said that the overseas missionary work of the Church of Perfect Liberty began with Brazil. As mentioned earlier, Brazilian members account for a large portion of the entire membership of the religious organization, which reflects the importance of Brazil as the hub for expanding the missionary frontlines. The Church of Perfect Liberty has established the South America Holy Land after purchasing 1,560 ha of land in 1965 in Arujá, which is located between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The South America Holy Land serves not only as the center for the propagation in South America but also as the hub for the propagation in Europe (particularly in Portugal). The South America Holy Land is thus considered to be the “center for world mission.” In 1957, Masuichi Tomio was dispatched from PL’s headquarters to organize missionary activities. Tomio conducted missionary work in Japanese immigrant colonies in the inland area of São Paulo State such as Paulista and Noroeste. Ryozo Azuma, on the other hand, conducted missionary work in São Paulo and opened the Brazil Head Office in an apartment on Liberdade Street in December 1957. Azuma moved the office to a house in Jabaquara on February 6, 1958, which marks the day of the group’s official founding in Brazil. To address the difficulty he encountered in his propagation efforts in the inner São Paulo State, Tomio decided to invite members from Japan as immigrants. In 1958, the first wave of farming immigrants (9 families, 40 members) arrived at the Port of Santos, and the migration of members continued until the third wave. Soon after the first wave of migrants arrived, Hisahiko Ono was sent from the PL’s headquarters to succeed Tomio as the second master teacher and has played an 331 important role in expanding the Church of Perfect Liberty in Brazil. When the second Spiritual Head visited Brazil in 1960, over a thousand people are said to have participated in the convention. The third master teacher was sent to Brazil in July of the same year, and two more instructors arrived in the next year. This led to the establishment of missionary facilities in the suburb of São Paulo. In 1963, which marked the fifth anniversary of the beginning of Church of Perfect Liberty in Brazil, the propagation efforts were further accelerated. The religious group organized the first-ever pilgrimage tour to Japan by boat and plane, which attracted a total of 32 participants. In 1964, the group purchased land and buildings in Liberdade with donations from Brazilian members and moved the South America Headquarters from Jabaquara to the newly purchased land. Toward the end of the year, the group built a seven-story building, which would later be used as the Brazil Head Office and São Paulo Central Church. It was during this time that the second master teacher Ono began the propagation among non-Japanese Brazilians. At the completion ceremony of the new Brazil Head Office, the Spiritual Head delivered a message that “world propagation begins with Brazil,” which indicated the importance of PL’s propagation in Brazil. Toward the end of the 1960s, Azuma engaged in missionary work in Argentina and Paraguay and gained some 1,000 new converts. Meanwhile, the wave of propagation has expanded to Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. Under the slogan “oyashikiri propagation,” the Church of Perfect Liberty in Brazil held training courses for select assistant instructors. The number of non-Japanese Brazilian members increased through the experiences of salvation brought about by missionary efforts. In 1967, the number of new members reached 500 on a monthly basis. The tenth anniversary of PL in Brazil was held in April of the same year, attracting 17,000 participants. As of 1969, there were over 100 non-Japanese assistant instructors, and the group began its propagation in Rio de Janeiro State. About 30,000 members are said to have attended the first Founder’s Festival in Brazil held at the South America Holy Land in 1973. C 332 In the year following his appointment as the head of the Brazil diocese in 1976, Nobuhiro Chiba began to further develop the propagation activities. He systematized public relations activities and emphasized the practice of the teachings in everyday lives in addition to the conventional oyashikiri propagation. Chiba also showed a fervent desire to learn Portuguese and embarked on a translation project, beginning with the writings of the second Spiritual Head. Moreover, he established the academy in Brazil for the training of Brazilian instructors (including secondgeneration Japanese Brazilians) as well as established the association for assistant instructors to promote propagation by lay members. As a result, 7 churches and 18 chapters were established in 1977 in such areas as Recife. The sixth Founder’s Festival was held at the South America Holy Land in May 1978 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Church in Brazil, attracting well over 100,000 participants. By the end of the 1970s, PL in Brazil claimed about 300,000 members, with 200 mission facilities, 100 instructors, and 2,000 assistant instructors. PL’s activities may not be as visible as those of Messi^anica (Sekai Kyusei Kyo) or Seichō no Ie, but its organizational efforts of propagation are quite noteworthy. From Brazil to the World One intriguing aspect of the Church of Perfect Liberty is that Brazil serves as an important location for its world propagation. Brazilian members and Japanese missionaries have played roles in laying the foundation for propagation in neighboring countries as well as in Canada, Portugal, and Spain. As mentioned earlier, Ryozo Azuma went to Argentina and Paraguay in the late 1960s and attracted some 1,000 new members. In 1968, he was dispatched to Posadas, a city near the border between the two countries, and his active missionary work has led to the establishment of Spanish-speaking diocese head office in Buenos Aires in Argentina in 1981. In as early as 1970, a leader was dispatched from Japan to Brazil to oversee the missionary work in South America. Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Brazil The same leader became in charge of both North and South America in 1984, which shows the centrality of Brazil in PL’s overseas propagation. In Peru, a Japanese instructor with a command of the English language was dispatched from Japan and engaged in missionary work among Japanese immigrants. Japanese instructors who had been involved in propagation in Argentina were subsequently sent to Peru for spreading the teaching among non-Japanese people. PL’s propagation in Canada also began with Brazil. In the early 1960s, Brazilian converts went to Ottawa as migrant workers and recruited other Brazilian migrants living in the city. The membership grew in such cities as Toronto and Vancouver. Likewise, the missionary efforts in Portugal started when Brazilian pensioners went to Porto for missionary work and established a missionary base in Lisbon. Also, Spanish members who had converted to PL in Argentina spread the teachings in Spain. Cross-References ▶ Tenrikyo References Kawashima M (1995) PL shoseikun nyumon: Jinsei wo geijutsu suru tame no nijuichikajo [Introduction to the PL precepts: twenty-one precepts for making an art of your life]. Geijutsu Seikatsusha, Osaka Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Brazil Chas. H. Barfoot Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA Keywords Brazil · Foursquare · Pentecostalism · Evangelicalism · Aimee Semple McPherson · Harold Williams · Raymond Boatright · Hollywood · Healing · Women Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Brazil Definition Aimee Semple McPherson’s model for American Pentecostalism, the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel (IEQ), was easily transferable to Brazil. The IEQ model worked well in the United States and Brazil because both countries were experiencing urbanization and industrialization. Additionally, the IEQ relaxed earlier behavioral taboos especially directed at women. Like the American version, the IEQ effectively used mass media and popular culture to reach middleclass believers. In 2016, the IEQ (Brazil) had 12,913 “churches and meeting places,” 47,000 “workers,” and a “membership” of about 3,100,000 (Foursquare 2016). Introduction Brazil is the world’s fifth most populated country; it contains the world’s third largest city (São Paulo) and is second only to the United States in providing a homeland for Christians. Colonized by Portugal in the sixteenth century, Brazil has more Roman Catholics than any other country in the world, roughly 200 million – 60% of the population. Ever since the last century Brazil has had a changing religious landscape. Catholic membership has been dropping, while an increasing number of Brazilians belong to Protestant churches – largely Evangélical churches. In 1900, the Evangélicos or Crentes (believers) made up 1% of the population. By 2016, Evangélicos represented 24.7% of the population (Foursquare 2016). If such trends continue, it has been speculated that Catholicism could become a minority religion by 2025. Most importantly, over half of the Evangélicos are Pentecostals, some 26 million people (Pewforum 2013). Brazilian Pentecostalism experienced three major waves (Freston 1995) which can be loosely defined as the Personal, the Public, and the Postmodern Prosperity era. The Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular (IEQ) was born in the second wave in the early 1950s signifying both the end of four decades of classical Pentecostalism and the arrival of a new, modern form of the movement. For 333 comparative purposes, the AD (Assemblies of God) represents the first wave and the IURD (the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God) the final Post-modern Prosperity movement. The Personal and the Assembleia de Deus (AD) Within 5 years of the Los Angeles Azusa Street Revival of 1906 “. . . [Pentecostalism] arrived in Brazil via third-class steamer” (Chesnut 1997). Two Swedish Baptist immigrants to America, Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, recent converts to Pentecostalism in Chicago under the ministry of William Durham, received a prophecy which took them by steamship in 1910 from New York City to the Amazon and Belem in Northern Brazil. After ex-communication from their Baptist fellowship, the two fledging missionaries and their 18 followers first called their church the Apostolic Faith Mission in keeping with the Los Angeles Azusa Street influence. When the church was fully organized in 1918, it became part of the growing “Assembléia de Deus” (Chesnut 1997). The AD began ordaining Brazilian pastors in 1921 and transferred leadership to Brazilians early in 1930. The total number of Pentecostals in Brazil reached 40,000 by 1930, which included 13,000 members of the AD (Pewforum 2006). The AD slowly won members by an emphasis on healing. “Early twentieth-century Belém was an incubator of disease” (Chesnut 1997). Like two country doctors, Berg and Vingren made their rounds of endless house calls gaining converts one at a time by anointing the afflicted with oil and then praying over their patients by the laying on of hands. The AD was incapable of large-scale growth due to the fact that it “. . .recruited new members almost exclusively through pre-existing family and neighborhood networks” (Chesnut 1997). The Personal wave of Brazilian Pentecostalism was unable to expand due to its harsh overbearing treatment of women, its failure to adapt to modernity, and a rigid polity that hindered the rise of younger “pastorpreneurs” (Klaver 2015). C 334 Despite outnumbering men by a ratio of two to one, women were singled out disproportionately for failure to measure up to the severe standards of holiness conduct imposed by Swedish standards of sanctification. “Almost 90% of all disciplinary action [which included expulsion] during the 1930s and 1940s was directed at female members of the AD.” The major offense committed by Assembleiana women was trimming their waistlength hair, a requirement based upon a literal reading of 1 Corinthians 11:15 (Chesnut 1997). The AD’s polity likewise was rooted in the past, born in the countryside and ill-suited to modernity. The system of church government was “oligarchical grouped in lineages around caudilho-type pastores-presidentes” (Freston 1995). Such pastores-presidentes often ruled for 20–30 years by a closed patriarchal gerontocracy. Out of touch with modern urban Brazil, the model of Personal Pentecostalism eventually led to schisms by upwardly mobile groups. According to Rodney Stark, the New Religious Movements will succeed only if “they maintain a medium level of tension with their surrounding environment [and] are strict, but not too strict” (Stark 1996). A medium level of tension helps explain the appeal and success of the Public phase and the birth of the IEQ. Since the foundress of the Foursquare Gospel was a woman, Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944), and a woman who bobbed her hair in the 1920s, the denomination has always had a strong feminine appeal. The church has many more members in Brazil than in the United States and significantly “. . .35% of pastors are women. No historical church in Brazil. . .comes near this figure” (Freston 1995). Pentecostalism, itself, represents a feminine approach to religion, more poetic-narrative than rhetorical-argumentative (Jenkins 2006). The Public and the Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular (IEQ) November 15 has a double significance for the Brazilian branch of the IEQ. Brazilians celebrate the Proclamação da República (the Proclamation of the Republic) every year on November 15 and Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Brazil on that national holiday in 1951, a quarter of a century after its founding, the IEQ sent their first missionary to Brazil, Harold Edwin Williams. Of the three waves of Brazilian Pentecostalism, the IEQ “is the only one that is really of American origin” (Freston 1995). “In every sense,” noted David Martin in his appraisal of Aimee Semple McPherson’s ministry, “Pentecostalism raises people up. . .through a combination of miracle, magic and razzmatazz, not untouched (as in the case of Sister Aimee) by scandal” (Martin 2012). It could be argued that the IEQ, as a uniquely American denomination, was created by scandal and its Brazilian counterpart constructed with razzmatazz. On January 1, 1923, Aimee Semple McPherson opened the doors to her 5300 seat mega-church in Los Angeles, California. Angelus Temple was situated a block away from Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, and the surrounding area had once been home to movie studios such as the Bison Company which averaged a movie a day, Walt Disney where Mickey Mouse was created, and Mack Sennett’s studio where Charlie Chaplin, the king of comedy, reigned. In time Aimee would be well known among the movie colony and have personal contacts with many of them including Jane Harlow and Marilyn Monroe. Marrying the Canadian evangelist who converted her, Sister Aimee’s ministry began modestly as a missionary’s wife in China. Both she and her husband, Robert Semple, received their spiritual apprenticeships under the guidance of William Durham in Chicago who had also served as a father in the faith to Berg and Vingren. Robert and Aimee were both ordained by Durham on January 2, 1909 – Aimee being all of 18 years of age. By the time she opened Angelus Temple, 14 years later, Aimee was twice married with two children and her own stage mother. A young perceptive reporter with a small Los Angeles newspaper interviewed Aimee at the opening of her temple. Don Ryan would later become a novelist and an actor and continue to write as an industryinsider for Hollywood magazines. Ryan early on saw Aimee as an actress and her church like a theater. “If Aimee Semple McPherson had not chosen to be a revivalist, she could have been a Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Brazil queen of musical comedy. She has magnetism such as few women since Cleopatra have possessed. . .The building is much like a theater. It has numerous foyers. The seats are opera chairs. . ..” In terms of her ministry Ryan rightly observed: “The cause is interdenominational in spirit, evangelical in message, and international in project” (Ryan 1923). Since the press had dubbed her “the female Billy Sunday,” Aimee decided to make Sunday’s converts her own. While in Baltimore at the Lyric theater in late 1919, Aimee decided the time was right to “fish for whales” – the Evangelical Protestant Mainline. McPherson struck a “middle-ofthe-road” ministry avoiding the formalism of the mainline churches and the fanaticism of the Pentecostal missions. Less than a year before the opening of Angelus Temple while holding a tent meeting in Oakland, California, Aimee envisioned “a perfect gospel, the Foursquare Gospel: Salvation, Baptism with the Holy Ghost, Healing and the Second Coming of Christ” (Barfoot 2011). By substituting the word Evangelical for Pentecostal Aimee broadened her ministry by garnering middle-class support. The opening of Angelus Temple created “a continuous revival.” On February 6, 1923, the Echo Park Evangelistic Missionary Training Institute was established. Soon students, many of them women, were pitching khaki tents like soldiers and opening branch churches of the IEQ in the surrounding suburbs of Southern California. At the height of her ministry on May 18, 1926, Aimee disappeared. She had drowned her mother claimed. Missing for five Sundays, Aimee returned to Los Angeles claiming she had been kidnapped. Aimee’s arch ministerial rival and a fundamentalist cried foul so long and loud that a court trial ensued, at the time the longest in California history. The state sought to prove that the only kidnapping had been Aimee’s heart, and she had run away with her radio operator to a cottage in Carmel. It was a compelling case that was suddenly dropped with rumors afloat that Aimee had purchased her freedom. Aimee’s daughter, Roberta, later admitted to family members that Aimee had indeed been with her lover and had not been kidnapped (Santacroce 2013). Aimee 335 was never the same after her disappearance and neither was her ministry. In 1927 despite her earlier interdenominational intentions, Aimee created yet another Pentecostal denomination, the IEQ. Aimee’s greatest gift to her church was making ministers and missionaries – especially missionaries. An actor in Western movies, Harold Williams (1913–2002), experienced the charisma of Aimee, converted to Pentecostalism and became a missionary. Williams set the template for future Pentecostal leaders in his adopted country. A professor of the Sociology of Religion in São Paulo observed: “Pentecostalism trains communicators, emcees, and pastor/actors who lead services as stage-produced spectacles” (Campos 1996). Pentecostal showmanship also reminded Brazilians of their original shamans. If scandal created the IEQ, the razzmatazz of circus tents brought it to Brazil. Williams founded the IEQ in the city of São João da Boa Vista, in the state of São Paulo, on November 15, 1951. Williams was born in Hollywood, baptized by Aimee Semple McPherson, and studied under her for the ministry. A year after her death, he was sent by the IEQ to Bolivia and later to Brazil in 1950. Like Aimee, he avoided the word Pentecostal in his church’s name, substituting the word Evangelical instead. Despite his efforts, only one small church had been established by the time he returned home to Los Angeles on furlough. Back in California, Williams witnessed the rise of two evangelists, Billy Graham and Oral Roberts. Like Aimee, they too had started preaching in tents. Attending a Billy Graham tent meeting, Harold remembered that Brazilians loved circuses, and the idea was born to bring back a tent. The IEQ’s mission board was hesitant realizing they could go into three other countries for the cost of returning Williams to Brazil with a tent (Van Cleave 1992). Six years later in 1956, the Los Angeles Times noted that the IEQ had “27 canvas cathedrals” in Brazil (Times 1956). From 1952 to 1954, Williams and another IEQ missionary, Raymond Boatright, led the largest revivals that Brazil had experienced. Called Cruzada (the National Evangelization Crusade) it began in the city of São Paulo and was C 336 interdenominational. Subsequently, “much of the first. . .leadership [of the IEQ] consisted of former members of the Methodist and Independent Presbyterian Churches” (Freston 1995). Raymond “Slim” Boatright (1914–1980), a former singing cowboy and a song leader for Aimee Semple McPherson, became famous for playing “rockabilly” on his electric guitar. Williams may have been the visionary but Boatright’s contributions have been overlooked. In the United States, Boatright was called the “Papa” of Brazilian Pentecostalism, responsible for five million converts and preaching to 100,000 people nightly (Kokomo 1978). In 1955, Cruzada was officially brought into the IEQ. The Brazilian branch of the IEQ was controlled by denominational headquarters in Los Angeles until 1987. In the early 1960s, Williams fell out of favor with the IEQ for embracing the “Latter Rain” movement and was replaced in 1962 by another Latin American supervisor (Van Cleve 1992). Boatright also left the IEQ. In the 1970s, Boatwright and his wife, Ruby, were the pastors of an independent Pentecostal church, several miles away from Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, and were unwittingly featured in the movie, Marjoe (Times 1972). The Post-modern Prosperity Movement of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) “From Modesty to Ostentation” is how The Economist in 2016 summarized the three waves of Brazilian Pentecostalism (The Economist 2016). In many ways, the IURD picked up where the IEQ left off including more scandal and razzmatazz. Edir Macedo, the Brazilian founder and bishop for life, was also converted by a Canadian Pentecostal Evangelist. Like the IEQ, the IURD’s polity is episcopal. And it seems implausible that the IURD could exist without the earlier blueprint of the IEQ. The most telling difference is the treatment of women. None are bishops and most obreiros “unpaid church laborers” are elderly women: “. . .easily identifiable by their prescribed garments: a dark colored skirt below the knee, a matching four buttoned dress shirt with a rounded Church of the Foursquare Gospel in Brazil collar, and plain dark shoes” (Doran 2013). Macedo is more of a Pat Robertson than a McPherson; he is the billionaire owner of the Rádio & Televisão Record, a media conglomerate that controls the country’s second largest television network. And much like A. A. Allen, Macedo preaches a prosperity gospel, which links faith to financial success, and frequently performs exorcisms. Thirty-seven years from his humble beginnings in a funeral parlor, Macedo opened his Templo de Salomão in São Paulo on July 31, 2014. Present for the opening of the temple was none other than the country’s President, Dilma Rousseff. More than 20, 000 people flock to the Temple every day to take part in its services and behold its 300 million dollar splendor. Built over 4 years, it is a replica of Solomon’s temple – only four times larger with seating for 10,000 worshippers. More importantly, it is a symbol of the power and permanence of Pentecostalism in Brazil (Antunes 2014). Conclusion According to one Brazilian scholar, “Pentecostalism has not manifested signs of aging or illness. . .Pentecostalism will. . . increase its power in the religious sphere and become a major player in politics” (Campos 1996). The emergence of Brazilian LGBT-inclusive Pentecostal churches, likewise, is a religious phenomenon that is flourishing in very few other places in global Christianity (Street 2013). Pentecostalism is now much larger in Brazil than in the United States. Presently the AD is seven times larger in Brazil than the United States. And the IEQ is 11 times larger in Brazil than the country of its origin. From 2000 to 2010, the AD grew by 46.8%. The IEQ and the IURD each increased by 37.12% and 28.37%, respectively (Madambashi 2012). In the religious free marketplace of Brazil, the IEQ finds itself somewhere in the middle between the AD and the IURD. Religious switching is commonplace in Brazil and is the main factor of the overall growth in Protestantism (Pewforum 2013). The IEQ arrived in Brazil with something new: cowboy actors, circus Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) tents, and country music infused with rhythm and blues. Perhaps the IEQ’s long legacy of charismatic female faith healers can provide an attractive option and secure its unique legacy in Brazil the way it did with Aimee Semple McPherson in the United States. Cross-References ▶ Assemblies of God in Latin America ▶ Macedo, Edir B. ▶ McPherson, Aimee Semple ▶ Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Iglesia Universal Del Reino de Dios References Andersen DKL (2012) The rise of Pentecostalism in Brazil: an empirical study of reasons for growth. https://brage. bibsys.no/.../Master%20Thesis%20_The%20Rise%20of %20Pentecostalism. Accessed 17 Mar 2017 Antunes A (2014) God has a new home: a $300 million mega temple in Sao Paulo. Forbes. www.forbes.com/ . . ./god-has-a-new-home-a-300-million-mega-templein-sao-paulo/. Accessed 15 Mar 2017 Barfoot C (2011) Aimee Semple McPherson and the making of modern Pentecostalism. Equinox, London Foursquare Missions (2016) The Foursquare Church. Brazil. www.foursquaremissions.org/donate/country/bra zil/. Accessed 16 Mar 2017 Campos LS (1996) Chapter 3. Why historic churches are declining and Pentecostal churches are growing in Brazil. In: In the power of the spirit. www.religion-online. org/showchapter.asp?title=374&C=1358. Accessed 20 Mar 2017 Canvas Cathedrals (1956) ProQuest historical newspapers: Los Angeles times. http://login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/ login?url=http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu. edu/docview/166985837?accountid=4485. Accessed 3 May 2017 Chesnut A (1997) Born again in Brazil. Rutgers, New Brunswick Dart J (1972) Brimstone Gospel according to ‘Marjoe.’ ProQuest historical newspapers: Los Angeles Times. http:// login.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/login?url=http://search. proquest.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/157197998 ?accountid=4485. Accessed 30 Apr 2017 Doran J (2013) Demon-haunted worlds: enchantment, disenchantment, and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/ 2152/26589. Accessed 17 Mar 2017 Freston P (1995) Pentecostalism in Brazil: a brief history. Religion 25:119–133 337 Pewforum (2006) Historical overview of Pentecostalism in Brazil. www.pewforum.org/2006/10/05/historicalAccessed overview-of-pentecostalism-in-brazil/. 25 Mar 2017 Jenkins P (2006) The new faces of Christianity. New York, Oxford Klaver M (2015) Pentecostal Pastorpreneurs and the global circulation of authoritative aesthetic styles. Cult Relig 16:146–159 Madambashi A (2012) Protestant churches in Brazil experience mixed growth, decline; huge increase for Pentecostals. In: The christian post. www.christianpost.com/ news/protestant-churches-in-brazil. Accessed 17 Feb 2018 Martin D (2012) The first lady of Pentecostalism. The Times Literary Supplement. www.the-tls.co.uk/arti cles/public/the-first-lady-of-pentecostalism/. Accessed 24 Apr 2017 Kokomo Tribune (1978) Miracle revival. https://www. Accessed newspapers.com/newspage/2740524/. 30 Apr 2017 Pewforum (2013) New report details Brazil’s changing religious landscape. www.pewforum.org/2013/07/18/ Accessed brazils-changing-religious-landscape/. 14 Apr 2017 The Economist (2016) Pentecostalism in Brazil: from modesty to ostentation. www.economist.com/. . ./21688878how-waves-migrants-bring-waves-religious-chang. Accessed 21 Apr 2017 Ryan D (1923) Los Angeles Record in Barfoot (2011), 395–396 Santacroce A (2013) Interview by C. Barfoot. In author’s possession. Tempe Stark R (1996) Why religious movements succeed or fail: a revised general model. J Contemp Relig 11: 133–146 Street N (2013) LGBT-inclusive Pentecostal churches growing in Brazil. PRI The World and GlobalPost. https://www. pri.org/stories/2013.../lgbt-inclusive-pentecostal-churchesgrowing-brazil. Accessed 16 Apr 2017 Van Cleave N (1992) The vine and the branches. International church of the Foursquare Gospel. The Church, Los Angeles Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) Andréa Gomes Santiago Tomita Faculdade Messianica, São Paulo, SP, Brazil Keywords New Japanese religion · Mokichi Okada · Johrei · Sacred grounds C 338 Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) Definition Considered a new Japanese religion (NJR, or shin-shukyo, in Japanese), the Church of World Messianity (CWM) was founded in 1935 in Tokyo, Japan, by Mokichi Okada (whose religious name is Meishu-sama, 1882–1955). The main purpose of CWM is to create paradise on Earth – a world of true health, prosperity, and peace. For this goal, CWM’s members practice a three-pillar program of Johrei, nature farming, and art in their daily lives. These practices are considered parts of an innovative methodology that brings spiritual and physical benefits (Theology of the Three Columns of Salvation). Introduction Church of World Messianity (CWM) was founded in 1935, a period of global economic depression and a growing expansionary militarism in Japan, and its main purpose is to build paradise on Earth – a world free from disease, poverty, and conflict. Founder Meishu-sama received a divine revelation about the transition from the Age of Night to the Age of Day and he taught the method of Johrei (purification of the spirit) – a practice that played an important role in the diffusion of the religion during its initial period. One of the many goals of the movement is the attainment of true health. For this goal, members practice Johrei, nature farming, and appreciate beauty through nature and art. These practices are considered parts of an innovative methodology that brings spiritual and physical benefits (Theology of the Three Columns of Salvation). It is believed that the spirit lives on after death and that its condition will depend on the spiritual level it inhabits: Higher, Intermediate, or Lower Plane. In the services, two Japanese prayers are chanted: the Amatsu-Norito prayer, a prayer of ancient origin with some modifications made by Meishu-sama; and Zengen-Sanji, a prayer written by the founder himself. Currently, the official liturgy of Igreja Messianica Mundial do Brasil (2015) consists of only the Amatsu-Norito prayer Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō), Fig. 1 Meishu-sama: founder of Church of World Messianity followed by the Messianic prayer in Portuguese (Fig. 1). It is important to note that the founder Meishusama did not limit himself exclusively to religious and spiritual matters. He carried out projects in the fields of architecture, art, and agriculture, among others. In order to create prototypes of his worldview, Meishu-sama built the Sacred Grounds of Hakone, Atami, and Kyoto, in Japan. After the founder’s death in 1955, several disagreements generated internal ruptures in the CWM. Meishu-sama’s wife, Yoshi Okada (Nidaisama or second Spiritual Leader), took over the leadership of the church until her death, in 1962. The Spiritual Leaders (Kyoshu-sama) successively take responsibility for the doctrine of the religion. Kyoshu-sama, in Japanese, means “guardian of teachings” (Fig. 2). The primary sources of the CWM consist of a wide range of writings by the founder Meishusama (called “Teachings” or “Divine Writings”) published in the organization’s magazines and newspapers (Staemmler 2009). They were originally written in Japanese and then translated into Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) 339 Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō), Fig. 2 Zuiunkyo Sacred Ground in Japan: Crystal Hall and Azalea Hill, in Atami city C other languages, depending on the local needs of the countries in which the religion was expanding. According to the records, in 1953, for the first time, Meishu-sama assigned Rev. Kiyoko Higuchi to spread the religion in Hawaii and the USA. Besides her missionary work, Rev. Higuchi collaborated directly with the second Spiritual Leader in the translation of Meishu-sama’s teachings into English, which later formed the basis for the translation of teachings into other languages (Higuchi 1994). Nowadays, there is no centralized division of translation in the headquarters of the Mother Church in Japan. Generally, the doctrinal and administrative duties are responsibilities of the national churches, under the guidance of their presidents, who are directly linked to the headquarters through the International Department. In CWM Izunome Kyodan, this department is located in Atami city. Besides, each country has its Johrei Center which is a place where local people gather to receive Johrei and talk about their physical or personal difficulties such as family and relationship problems. They offer communication space for many people and some centers have natural food shops and offer Sangetsu flower arrangement classes. Some Johrei centers also have a circle of child-raising mothers, a communication circle for men or elderly people, and/or a voluntary circle for protecting the environment. Overview of the Headquarters in Japan and Oversea Churches In Japan, there is the Mother Church, comprised of three sister Churches: Izunome Kyodan, Tōhō no Hikari, and Su no Hikari. The Mother Church is constituted by the Spiritual Leader (YondaiSama – Fourth Spiritual Leader) and the worldwide president. Each sister Church has its own board and president. Each of the churches abroad has its own legal organization, and the composition of the board follows the local laws and rules of procedures. According to Sapio (2014), in Japan CMW takes the 10th spot among 20 largest NJRs coming after Happy Science (1st), Reiyukai (5th), Tenrikyo (7th), Perfect Liberty (8th), and before Sukyo Mahikari (11th), Seicho-no-Ie (13th), or Konkokyo (16th). In CMW of Japan, there are 835,756 members and 510 religious branches. North America has Johrei Centers in Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Tucson, and Hawaii. There are several other centers in the USA, as well as in Toronto and Vancouver, Canada, with approximately 2,700 members in total. There are Johrei Centers in Lima, the capital of Peru, which 340 Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) branches of the church. For example, there was Katsumi Yamamoto among others. Only in 1962, the headquarters sent the first group of professional ministers to do the missionary work (Tomita 2014). Tetsuo Watanabe was one of these ministers specially trained to do missionary work abroad. At first, he was designated to spread the teachings in Sao Paulo, but soon after his arrival he was sent to Rio de Janeiro instead, where he was a kind of pioneer missionary. Over there, he formed thousands of members and missionaries, who later expanded the Church to other parts of Brazil and even to other countries. Gradually, a local and more systematized formation of religious ministers was established, which led to the success of the transplantation of the religion in Brazil. About CWM in Brazil Number of sympathizers: 2,500,000 Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō), Fig. 3 Channeling of Johrei: the main practice of CWM’s members has about 4,000 members, and the centers in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, has 1,400 members. In addition, there are also members in Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Mexico (Sekai Kyusei Kyo 2008) (Fig. 3). The Messianic Religion in Brazil During the postwar period, CWM experienced a tremendous expansion. However, after the founder’s death in 1955, there was a series of internal ruptures (Gonçalves 2003). In Brazil, CWM was introduced in 1954 by a young female immigrant – Teruko Satō – who left her homeland by her own, as a missionary. In 1955, Nobuhiko Shoda and Minoru Nakahashi, ministers of the Church, left Japan with the same purpose. After that, there were also other ministers who came to Brazil sent by different Number of members (December 2014): 484,603 Number of Johrei Centers: 505 Number of Training Centers: 55 (Data for January 2015) Besides CWM, other religious institutions also spread Meishu-sama’s teachings in Brazil. For example: Seimei-kyo, Tenseishinbikai, Shinji Shumei Kai, Templo Luz do Oriente, Comunidade Messi^anica Universal, MOA International, and Arte do Johrei. For this reason, further investigation is necessary in order to verify the total number of messianic followers of Meishu-sama in general, not limited to just affiliated members of one of the above institutions. After about 60 years in Brazil, CWM represents one of the most visible NJRs. In its course of religious and cultural integration, CWM in Brazil decided to create different institutions that compose a larger and complex organization concerned about multiple aspects of human experience not limited to religion exclusively. Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō), Fig. 4 Guarapiranga Sacred Grounds – prototype of paradise on Earth in Brazil According to Staemmler (2011, p. 179), despite CWM (and NJRs in general) playing an important social function, their members face some difficulties as well. For example, members could get excessively involved with the religious activities of their communities, and spend lots of time, energy, and money – which could be considered positive or negative, depending on the perspective of the member or sympathizer. Also, when group orientations are preferred, they could lack space for individual decisions due to peer pressure from frequent meetings with closer followers (Fig. 4). Religious and Cultural Integration in Brazil Since 2000, CWM of Brazil established the Johrei Center system. Johrei Center is a place where 341 anyone, regardless of his or her religious belief, can experience Johrei at no charge. The Training Centers were also established, where courses about the messianic religion and the three columns of salvation are held. According to Tomita (2014), with regard to the religious and cultural integration of CWM in Brazil, it is possible to divide its history in five main stages: (1) Pioneer and multifaceted diffusion (1954–1964); (2) Legal institution of the headquarters and expanding fronts within national territory (1964–1975); (3) Diversification of activities (1976–1984); (4) Construction and inauguration of the Guarapiranga Sacred Grounds/postconstruction (1985–2000); and (5) Implementation of the Johrei Center system and centralization under Kyoshu-Sama’s guidance (fourth Spiritual Leader) (from 2000 up until now). In 1971, Fundação Messi^anica was founded with the purpose of developing cultural, artistic, and social welfare activities. Its name was altered to Mokiti Okada Foundation (MOF) in 1981. It is a nonprofit organization under private law of Federal Public Utility. With its operations nationwide, MOF develops projects aimed to establish a harmonious and progressive society. In 1994, CWM of Brazil created Korin farming, a Brazilian enterprise based on the philosophy of the natural farming method created by Mokichi Okada. It prioritizes the perfect balance between the preservation and the use of natural resources. In 1995, the Guarapiranga Sacred Grounds was inaugurated, in São Paulo. In 2008, approved by the Ministry of Education, the Messianic School was founded, becoming the only institution of religious higher education of the world that started with messianic theological studies. Church of World Messianity in Latin America Both in Argentina and Peru, the expansion of the Church increased rapidly until 1985. In Argentina, it reached 10,000 members, and in Peru, 6,000. However, an internal conflict in CWM of C 342 Japan affected tremendously the churches of both countries from 1984 on. Especially in Argentina, the internal split of the church in the 1980s was dramatic. The group Toho no Hikari has lost 8,000 members, and the group Izunome had to start the diffusion activities from zero. Peru was also very affected, as they lost 4,500 members. The expansion in other countries of the region, such as Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela, started after the split of the Church. Because of this, members were not affected. Only in Mexico and Uruguay, the group Toho no Hikari has been already legally established with the name Church of World Messianity. In Argentina and Peru, the presence of the Japanese colony, which is respected and well known in both countries, gave credibility to the activities of the Church, although nowadays there are few members of Japanese ancestry. The constant practice of Johrei was the most important factor for the diffusion in Latin America. Activities of Ikebana Sangetsu Academy and natural farming are also held. From now on, in order to enhance the expansion of the Church, the formation of human elements will be most important, according to CWM’s leadership in Latin America. Here is some information about the reality of CWM in each country. Argentina The expansion of the CWM in Argentina started with Reverend Noboru Kanbe in 1966. Today, CWM in Argentina has its headquarters in Buenos Aires and 3 Johrei Centers: Buenos Aires, Moron, and Rio Cuarto. Bolivia The activities started in 1987 with Reverend Jorge Uyema. Today, their headquarters is located in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and there are 3 Johrei Centers: La Paz, Cochabamba, and Beni. Chile Expansion in Chile started in 1986 with Minister Peixoto Ribeiro da Silva. The legal entity Instituto Luz de Oriente was established, not as a religious institution because of Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyūsei Kyō) government restrictions. Today, they have their own headquarters and 3 Johrei Centers: in Estacion Central, in Santiago, and in Puerto Montt. Costa Rica The diffusion started in the 1980s by Mr. Rosalino Jose Galli and his wife, Adelaide. In 2007, Minister Miguel Iano Andrade was designated as the minister-in-charge in Costa Rica, and in 2009 the name of the institution was changed to Izunome Association of Costa Rica. Today, besides the headquarters in San Jose, there are 2 Johrei Centers in Cartago and Liberia. Colombia Minister Taniguchi started the missionary work in 1986. The Church of World Messianity of Colombia was officially established in 1998. Today, the responsible person is Minister Maria Yenny Sanchez and their headquarters is in Bogota. Mexico The diffusion started in 1986. After several years of strict control by the government, in September of 2014, the Izunome Church of World Messianity of Mexico was finally established as a religious institution with Minister Marlena Montano as the president. Their headquarters is in Mexico City. Peru The expansion started in 1974 with Reverend Yoshihei Yasue. Today, the Church has its own headquarters and 3 Johrei Centers: Chiclayo, Huancavelica, and Trujillo. Uruguay Activities started around 1984. Now, Minister Gabriela Ludoc is in charge. In December of 2007, the Mokichi Okada Civil Association was constituted. Their headquarters is in Montevideo. Venezuela The diffusion was started by Mrs. Maria Baraguera. She then became a Minister and is the president of the Church of World Messianity of Venezuela – which was established in 2003 – up until now. In 2014, their headquarters was in Caracas. There are no Johrei Centers, but there are Ikebana Sangetsu and natural farming activities. Cofradías For further information about CWM in Latin America, see http://www.izunomeonline.org References Gonçalves HR (2003) O Fascínio do Johrei: um Estudo sobre a Religião Messi^ a nica no Brasil (The fascination of Johrei: a study about the Messianic Religion in Brazil) – Doctorial thesis in Social Sciences – Pontifícia Universidade Católica of São Paulo. PUC, São Paulo Higuchi K (1994) The light of Johrei. Johrei Fellowship, Torrance Igreja Messianica Mundial do Brasil. http://www. messianica.org.br/. Acessed in 20 Mar 2015 Sapio (2014) Investigative Report Nihon no Shukyo: Seiji to Kane. [Religiões do Japão: Política e Dinheiro. Relatório Investigativo]. Shogakukan, Chiyoda Sekai Kyusei Kyo (2008) Resource document. Beyond Borders and Nations: North, Middle, South America. http://www.izunome.jp/en/border/nsa/. Accessed in 22 Feb 2015 Staemmler B (2009) Chinkon Kishin: mediated spirit possession in Japanese new religions. LIT Verlag, Berlin Staemmler B, Dehn U (eds) (2011) Establishing the revolutionary: an introduction to new religions in Japan. LIT Verlag, Berlin Tomita AGS (2014) Religiões Japonesas e a Igreja Messi^anica no Brasil: Integração Religiosa e Cultural. (Japanese religions and the Church of World Messianity in Brazil: religious and cultural integration). Fonte Editorial, São Paulo Cofradías Allen Christenson Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA Keywords Cofradía · Guachibal · Cargo Definition A voluntary association of lay worshippers dedicated to the care and veneration of a particular Roman Catholic saint’s image and associated ritual paraphernalia. 343 Introduction Soon after the Spanish Conquest of the New World, mendicant friars and ecclesiastical authorities encouraged the establishment of cofradías (“confraternities”) throughout the colonial provinces of Latin America. These are voluntary associations of lay worshippers charged with administering the veneration of particular saints in order to foster Christian devotion among newly baptized indigenous people and to facilitate the collection of tithes and offerings. The earliest cofradías were established in the sixteenth century in the principal regions under Spanish control, primarily New Spain (centered in Mexico and the Guatemalan highlands) and the Andean region of South America. The focus of each cofradía is an image of its patron saint displayed on a lavishly decorated altar with associated ritual paraphernalia (Fig. 1). Most cofradías also have a mutual aid component, promising its members financial support for burial as well as masses for the dead. Key Information Following their introduction in the New World, cofradías soon became widely popular, particularly in indigenous communities. It was not uncommon in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries for the entire adult population of a town to belong to one or more of them. In late medieval Europe, cofradías were customarily supported by a religious order and had a meeting place and chapel within its church or monastery complex. In the New World, however, cofradías were mostly established in or near the private home of its highest ranking member, generally a lay person with no direct ties to the clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. Membership generally consists of both men and women of varied social rank and profession who assume all costs and responsibility for processions and the care of the saints’ images in their charge, particularly celebrations conducted on their saint’s day on the liturgical calendar (Fig. 2). Each cofradía is organized with a hierarchy of ranked offices, or cargos, held for 1 year as a C 344 Cofradías Cofradías, Fig. 1 Interior of Cofradía San Juan Bautista, Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala voluntary service. Service generally begins at the bottom of the system, with obligations that require little more than running errands and procuring materials for the saints’ festivals. Having labored successfully in these menial positions, individuals could rise through the ranks over their lifetime, accruing increased authority and influence in the community. The highest position within each cofradía is that of the alcalde (“mayor, leader”) who owns the cofradía house and directs its activities. In the centuries after the Conquest, the opportunities for indigenous lords to advance within the Spanish political hierarchy lessened, and real positions of ecclesiastical authority were mostly unavailable to them. The cofradía system offered an alternative religious organization independent of direct control by the Roman Catholic Church (Macleod 1983, 192; Farriss 1984, 336–338; Hanks 2010, 78–79). The lavish care and adornment of the saints became an expression of the importance of the indigenous officials in whose houses they resided. As Matthew Restall writes with regard to cofradías in the Maya region, “the more extravagant the image and its celebration..., the better the projection of cah [indigenous community] pride and importance” (Restall 1997, 153). Possession of these images represented a measure of social currency and prestige that enhanced the owner’s position, since the saints represented divine authority (Vega 1999, 138, 147). As a result, the leadership of the cofradías often paralleled political and social influence in the community as well. Although a financial burden, cofradías became essential as a way to assert a measure of indigenous control over public religious ceremonies. In many indigenous communities, cofradías also allowed native populations to perpetuate some Pre-Columbian ritual practices free from clerical interference by Roman Catholic authorities (Jones 1994, 76). The Título Pedro Velasco records that prior to the Spanish Conquest, the highland Maya of Guatemala conducted ceremonies in special houses in which their rulers danced in honor of the gods: “Each of the lineages had a house to hear the word and to administer judgment. There the Cofradías 345 wrote a number of songs which were intended to accompany a dance reenacting the Nativity of Christ performed by the Aztecs of Central Mexico: And because I saw that all of their songs were dedicated to their gods, I composed a very solemn song concerning the law of God and of Faith, ...and also I gave them liberty to paint on their robes in which they danced, for thus they were accustomed to do; thus in keeping with the dances and the songs that they once sang, they now clothed themselves with joy. (García Icazbalceta 1889–92, II, 231–232, translation by author) Fr. Domingo de Vico did much the same thing in the highlands of Guatemala, composing Christian hymns in several K’iche’an languages to be used as a substitute for ceremonial Maya dance performances: He [Vico] wrote poetic songs for each town, many stanzas and verses in which he wrote all the life of Christ our Lord, of the apostles, and of many saints of the Church. These were principally intended for those charged with the festivals dedicated to the saints of the Church, so that the Indians would sing them in their fiestas and dances and others would hear them and learn. (Bossúz 1990, 201, translation by author) Cofradías, Fig. 2 Procession of San Francisco, Day of the Dead, Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala lords danced the Junajpu C’oy and the Wukub Cak’ix, the Awata Tun, and the Jolom Tun” (Carmack and Mondloch 1989, 178, translation by author). Fr. Gerónimo de Mendieta wrote that “one of the principal things that existed in this land [Central Mexico] were the songs and dances to solemnize the festivals of their demons, whom they honored as gods, as well as to rejoice and find solace. The house of each principal lord thus had a chapel for singers and a place for dances. The great dances were held in the plazas or in the house patios of the great lords, for all had large plazas” (Mendieta 1993, 140, translation by author). Recognizing the importance of these ancient rituals to the indigenous population, some early missionaries attempted to introduce Christian hymns and dramas honoring Christian deities and saints as a substitute for the older pagan dances in order to speed the process of conversion. Sometime before 1530, Fr. Pedro de Gante In the early colonial period, the highland Maya dedicated private houses called guachibales (wachib’al, a term used to refer to both the place where sacred images were kept and to the images themselves) for the veneration of Christian saints where such songs and dances were performed, much as they had done in the houses of the lords prior to the Spanish Conquest. Fr. Francisco Antonio Fuentes y Guzmán wrote that few communities in the Guatemalan highlands lacked guachibales in the seventeenth century, within which the Maya placed images of saints that they owned themselves, surrounding them with flowers and continually offering incense and other precious things (de Fuentes y Guzmán 1932–33, I, 331–32). Over time the myths and attributes associated with the ancient Maya gods came to be conflated with those of the saints kept within the guachibales. Fuentes y Guzmán lamented that although the Maya acknowledged the Christian saints during their ceremonies, they continued nevertheless to honor their Pre-Columbian gods as well: C 346 They celebrate today the festivities of the saints called Guachibales; dancing around with the tenacity which we shall see, adorned with the same regalia which they used in that deluded time [before the Conquest].... They dance singing the praises of the saint which they celebrate, but in the prohibited dances they sing the histories and deeds of their ancestors and false gods. (Ibid., I, 77, 216–217, translation by author) Fr. Francisco Ximénez wrote that many highland Maya preferred their own ancient songs and dances to those composed for them by the early Catholic missionaries and continued to perform them in secret: Although the ancient Fathers gave to them certain histories of the Saints in their language that they may sing them to the accompaniment of the drum in place of those they sang in the days of their heathenism, nevertheless, I understand that these they sing in public where their priest may hear them; yet in secret they carry out very lovely memories of their heathenism. (Ximénez 1926, 93, translation by author) Ruth Bunzel suggested that the process of conflating Pre-Columbian deities with Christian saints may have been related to the way in which native Maya rulers understood the ritual of baptism soon after the Spanish Conquest (Bunzel 1952, 264–268). As part of the baptismal ceremony, Maya lords were christened with the names of saints as a token of their acceptance of Christianity. Those who remained loyal to the Spanish Crown and paid their regular tribute obligations were generally allowed to remain in office as caciques, administering the affairs of their communities in much the same way as they had prior to the Conquest. The lords themselves had not changed, but they now received an additional name with powerful religious associations adopted from the Christian conquerors. In the same way, indigenous people christened their ancient gods with the names of saints without altering in a significant way their essential natures. Spanish attempts to harmonize Pre-Columbian practices with Christian concepts and ceremonialism made the new Christian doctrines more readily understandable, but they also fostered syncretism with the old indigenous gods. As a result, the practice was soon abandoned by the Spanish authorities. Nevertheless, as Bunzel Cofradías noted, the precedent was set and continued to foster comparisons and identifications between the two theologies to the point where they came to “live together in unlegitimized union” until the present time (Bunzel 1952, 269). Perhaps to counter the popularity of the private guachibales, Spanish authorities encouraged the establishment of Spanish-inspired cofradías. It was hoped that these cofradías would facilitate integration of indigenous people into the Church and provide a more efficient mechanism for collecting tithes and offerings (Carlsen 1997, 93). Whatever its original intention, because of its independence from ecclesiastical oversight, the cofradía system soon developed into a means of preserving core elements of traditional worship that indigenous people considered vital. Spanish authorities became alarmed at the proliferation of unsupervised cofradías among the native populations of Latin America. An order issued by the Audiencia of Guatemala dated March 20, 1637, attempted to suppress non-sanctioned cofradías as they were quickly becoming a serious threat to ecclesiastical authority in the region: In view of the growing number of cofradías in the Indian towns and of the excesses committed during dances and feasts celebrated during the day of the patron saint, it is ordered in the confines of the Audiencia. . . that all cofradías not authorized by the bishops be suppressed. . . for the offenses which are made against God our Lord with drunkenness and feasts which are celebrated the day and night of the fiesta when it is customary for many drunken Indians to gather together in the house of the Indian mayordomo of the cofradía,. . . where with dances and fiestas they recall their antiquity and idolatry in scandalous form which devalues their devotion before the images. (Orellana 1984, 213–214) Cofradías, in addition to being religious sodalities, also provided financial support to both their local economies and to the Church. Efforts to suppress the activities of the cofradías ultimately failed in most indigenous communities, partly due to the threat of financial retaliation if cofradía privileges were not conceded. Pedro Cortés y Larraz wrote that by 1770, the cofradía system in the Guatemalan highlands was so powerful that the Roman Catholic authorities in the area feared to curtail their activities lest the people there Cofradías 347 Cofradías, Fig. 3 Ceremonial meal, Cofradía San Antonio, Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala C withhold financial support for the clergy or even renounce Christianity altogether (Cortés y Larraz 1958, II, 162–163). Much of the traditional ceremonial life in indigenous Latin American communities still takes place in the cofradías. Although these are ostensibly Roman Catholic organizations, in many areas of the New World, their administration is wholly indigenous and independent of the Church’s control. Indeed many of the ceremonies conducted in indigenous cofradía houses continue to retain significant elements of ancient traditions that run counter to European notions of Christian orthodoxy. Although the principal responsibility of the cofradía centers on the feast day of its titular saint, members meet together often throughout the year to pray, eat ceremonial meals, conduct business, clean and renew the decorations of the cofradía house, and care for the saints. This includes changing their clothing periodically and providing them with offerings of flowers, candles, and incense. Thus, there is nearly constant activity in the form of planning meetings, the procurement of supplies, and participation in major ceremonies throughout the year. In the more popular cofradías, visitors come to pray and give offerings to the saints in a nearconstant stream every day of the year. These must be provided with access to sacred objects used in their prayers and sometimes gifts as a token of gratitude for their devotion. In return, visitors are expected to give offerings to the saints to help with the expenses of the cofradía and often bring their own gifts of food and drink to share with cofradía members and other supplicants (Fig. 3). As E. Michael Mendelson writes, “the cofradía is a small universe with exquisite rules of courtesy which prevail from the moment a man enters the cofradía house until he emerges” (Mendelson 1957, 133). References Bossúz EM (1990) Un Manuscrito K’ekchi’ del Siglo XVI. Ediciones Comisión Interuniversitaria Guatemalteca de Conmemoración del V Centenario del Descrubrimiento de América, Guatemala Bunzel RL (1952) Chichicastenango, American ethnological society, Pub. XXII. University of Washington Press, Seattle Carlsen RS (1997) The war for the heart and soul of a highland Maya town. The University of Texas Press, Austin Carmack RM, Mondloch JL (1989) Título de Yax, y otros documentos quichés de Totonicapán, Guatemala. Centro de Estudios Mayas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México Cortés y Larraz P (1958) Descripción Geográfico-Moral de la Diócesis de Goathemala, 2 vols. Biblioteca de la Sociedad de Geografía e Historia de Guatemala, Guatemala City de Fuentes y Guzmán F (1932–33) Recordación Florida, 3 vols. Biblioteca Goathemala, Guatemala 348 de Mendieta FG (1993) Historia Eclesiástica Indiana. Editorial Porrua, México de Sahagún FB (1956) Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, 4 vols. Editorial Porrua, México Durán FD (1880) Historia de las Indias de Nueva-España y Islas de Tierra Firme, 2 vols. Escalante, México Farriss NM (1984) Maya society under colonial rule: the collective enterprise of survival. Princeton University Press, Princeton García Icazbalceta J (1889–92) Nueva colección de documentos para la historia de México, 5 vols. Andrade y Morales, Mexico Hanks WF (2010) Converting words: Maya in the age of the cross. University of California Press, Berkeley Jones OL Jr (1994) Guatemala in the Spanish colonial period. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman MacLeod MJ (1983) Ethnic relations and Indian Society in the Province of Guatemala ca. 1620-ca. 1800. In: MacLeod MJ, Wasserstrom R (eds) Spaniards and Indians in Southeastern Mesoamerica: essays on the history of ethnic relations. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln Mendelson EM (1957) Religion and world-view in a Guatemalan Village, Microfilm collection of manuscripts on middle American cultural anthropology, vol 52. University of Chicago Library, Chicago Orellana SL (1984) The Tzutujil Mayas: continuity and change, 1250–1630. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman Restall M (1997) The Maya world: Yucatec culture and society, 1550–1850. Stanford University Press, Stanford Vega W (1999) Cofradías en el Perú Colonial: Una aproximación bibliográfica. Dialogos (1):137–152 Ximénez FF (1926) Las historias del origen de los indios de esta Provincia de Guatemala. San Salvador Colombia Sandra M. Rios Oyola L’Institut de Sciences politiques Louvain-Europe (ISPOLE), Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Keywords Catholic church · Pentecostalism · Protestantism · Liberation theology Definition Colombia is 1.142 million km2 big and has 48.65 million inhabitants. While a majority is Catholic Colombia (79%), there are many types of Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal churches (13%) and an increasing number of non-affiliated people (6%). The presence of other religions, new religious movements, and nonreligious people is comparatively smaller at 2% (Pew Research Center 2014). There are also diverse forms of religious practices that reflect the indigenous and African heritage in Colombia. Judaism has been present in the country since colonial times and Islam entered the country in the nineteenth century. Catholic and evangelical churches have an important influence in the political life of the country, particularly in the aftermath of the peace process signed in 2016. Introduction The power of the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church transformed the demography and religious landscape of the land that became known as Colombia. At the time of the conquest, the encomienda was established in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, which later became Colombia, as a way to grant land and Indians to Spanish colonizers. This institution was justified under the goal of the conversion of Indians to Christianity. However, this institution facilitated the mistreatment and exploitation of indigenous people. Torture, execution, and abuse of indigenous people were common and justified as a form to deter indigenous idolatry. Nevertheless, theological debates and alternative views over the treatment of the Indians also took place during this period. For example, the Dominicans Antonio de Montesinos and Bartolome de Las Casas denied the justice of the oppression of Indians, saying they must be persuaded of the Gospel and not coerced. However, the subordinate situation of the indigenous people did not improve after the independence of Colombia; their resguardos, reservations previously guaranteed to them by the Spanish, were disputed by the state “who considered [the indigenous people] savages who still had to be brought to civilization. This task was entrusted to the Catholic Church” (MayburyLewis 1999: 905). Such exploitation of Colombia indigenous people continued through the twentieth century, particularly in the rubber plantations of the Amazon region. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the church, and particularly female religious orders, achieved control over an important amount of land, functioned as banks and oversaw education. Religious orders such as the Augustinians, Dominicans, and Franciscans were firmly established in the country. By the nineteenth century, there were an important number of criollo priests who in turn had an important role in the development of the independence movement in 1810. Some joined the armed struggle for independence and others encouraged the transmission of ideas related to democracy and citizenship. Bidegain (2007) wrote that they also were influential in the disintegration of the colonial empire. Their actions, together with Enlightenmentinfluenced reforms, the expulsion of the Jesuits (1767) and high taxes, stirred sentiment for independence. Bidegain (2007: 35) noted that church leaders “animated and offered religious justification for political participation and the search for freedom within New Grenada.” Protestantism arrived in Colombia in the 1820s, with foreign populations as the main target of their evangelization. The aftermath of independence was followed by a series of civil wars that marked the creation of the nation-state in the nineteenth century. As in other countries of Latin America, the first part of the nineteenth century was led by the struggle between Conservatives and Liberals. They expressed opposing political and economic agendas as well as pro- and anticlerical feelings. Liberal reforms (1848–1886) sought to reduce the political and economic influence of the Catholic Church. The Liberal government encouraged the presence of Protestant missions. The reaction of the Catholic hierarchy was to support the Conservative project (González 2006). The 1886 Constitution declared “God as the supreme source of all authority,” Catholicism was recognized as the national religion, and a Concordat between Colombia and the Holy See was signed in 1887. At a cultural level, the Virgen of Chiquinquirá and the Divino Niño helped build Colombian national identity, 349 similar to what happened in other countries of Latin America, such as the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico and the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Ecuador (Garrard-Burnett et al. 2016: 6). Plata Quezada (2005) argued that the “intransigent” church was a trend in the Colombian Catholic Church, unwilling to compromise with liberal ideas and defending conservative values and the status quo even through the armed action and a coalition with the traditional political elite. In this context, several priests preached that liberalism was a sin and urged the faithful to eliminate liberalism. The struggle for power between liberal and conservative parties reached such a moment in the mid-twentieth century that a series of episodic conflicts turned into a massive civil war known as La Violencia (1946–1953). The assassination of the liberal candidate Jorge Eliecer Gaitán triggered La Violencia, which left 200,000 victims dead. During this period, the church supported conservative actors involved in acts of extreme violence, and they were themselves targeted by liberal guerrillas. Similarly, Protestants were considered a threat to the religious identity of the country and also suspected of being communists. Protestant public worship was prohibited during the 1940s, as was private Protestant worship in “Catholic missionary territories.” Protestants were also a target of violence during the La Violencia (Abel 2004). Liberation Theology: Camilo Torres and The Golconda Group The civil war ended through the National Front agreement (1958–1974), in which conservative and liberal parties alternated their place in power every other period. Although this solution helped to alleviate the effects of the violence, it ignored alternative political voices, particularly from the left, which turned to armed violence as the only means of changing the system. In the 1960s, the Cuban revolution and Marxism influenced multiple guerrilla groups in the country motivated by feelings of exclusion, inequality, and the chronic ill distribution of land. Some of the groups established were the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia Ejército del C 350 Pueblo-FARC-EP), the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN), the Popular Army of Liberation (Ejército de Liberación Popular – EPL), the 19 April Movement (Movimiento 19 de Abril – M-19), and their dissident groups. In 1965, during the rise of these subversive movements in a weak state, the Congress approved laws that allowed legitimate self-defense of their citizens. These laws were only suspended in 1989. These laws opened the gate for the birth of organized paramilitary forces, extremist right-wing armed groups. These groups continued to act until their demobilization in 2005 and later transformed into new paramilitary groups. The 1960s was rich in theological transformation within the Catholic Church. From the moment it began in 1962, the Second Vatican Council inspired important transformation throughout the Latin American continent. Subsequent Latin American bishops’ meetings, especially Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979), and Santo Domingo (1992), emphasized the necessity of promoting justice and the rights of the human person while responding to liberation theology. This new way of reflecting on the Gospel sought to “see, judge, and act” on the real conditions of poverty. However, the shift in the church, particularly the implications of opting for the poor, was not accepted by all sectors of the Catholic Church (Bidegain 2004). The Catholic Church in Colombia was polarized, with revolutionary priests such as Camilo Torres on one side (Levine 2012: 171–176) and the Golconda group and other very conservative ecclesial leaders who supported the authority of the government on the other. Camilo Torres (1929–1966) was a Colombian priest who had studied sociology in Louvain. He worked with Francois Houtart and was influenced by Jacques Maritain and Teilhard de Chardin. Torres co-founded the department of sociology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia together with Orlando Fals Borda, a member of the Presbyterian Church who was part of the group La Rosca, together with the Presbyterians Gonzalo Castillo and Augusto Libreros. Camilo Torres joined the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) in 1966 and was Colombia killed in combat 40 days later; his death provided a religious justification to the revolutionary enterprise of the ELN and influenced other guerrillas that were considered strongly atheist. Similarly, Camilo Torres’ death “was an important factor in shaping the agenda of the famous 1968 Medellín Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM)” (Broderick 1977). Camilo Torres influenced priests, nuns, seminarians, and lay people to embrace a vision of revolutionary Christianity and join the ELN. Schirmer (2013: 70) wrote that the ELN represented a “critical amalgam of both revolutionary ideology and religious fervor – without being part of any political party or church.” The Golconda Group was created in 1968 in the context of the Vatican II and the heated discussions surrounding the social doctrine of the church and the death of Camilo Torres. The group was constituted by 53 priests and produced a document that called for the commitment to diverse ways of revolutionary action against imperialism and bourgeois neocolonialism (Dussel 1981). The group was harassed both by the government and sectors of the church hierarchy and was virtually eradicated. Other very conservative ecclesial leaders supported the authority of the government, such as Archbishop Pedro Rubiano Saenz, president of Colombia’s Episcopal Conference who supported the armed action against the guerrillas, claiming that the government should “put the house in order” (Wirpsa 1997 quoted by Brusco 2009: 250). In the following decades, some sectors of the church, particularly those working with indigenous, AfroColombian and peasant communities, became agents of social transformation through the creation and mentoring of Basic Ecclesial Communities. Consecrated religious women actively participated in the preferential option for the poor, working with poor communities in the support of autonomous development initiatives. During the 1960s, accelerated modernization and urbanization weakened traditional relationships in rural areas, which influenced the acceptance of Pentecostal churches (Beltrán 2013). Pentecostal churches were predominantly located in rural areas and among groups that had recently Colombia migrated to the cities. In the 1980s, Pentecostal churches consolidated among urban groups, including the educated middle-class sectors of society. This transition has been studied in terms of the creation of neo-Pentecostal churches, many of them reproducing a mega-church infrastructure, using mass media in their evangelization practices, and promoting prosperity theology (Beltrán 2013). The 1991 Constitution: A New Age for Religious Freedom In 1991, a new constitution declared the country as a secular state, which allowed individual and collective religious freedoms. The new constitution also recognized the country as multiethnic and granted the recognition of autonomous ethnic territories. Scholars highlighted the new constitution as the rupture of the church’s religious monopoly in Colombia, where “nearly threequarters of current Protestants were raised Catholic, and 84 percent say they were baptized as Catholics” (Pew Research Center 2014). The Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL in Spanish) brought together Christian communities from different denominations and aimed to have a presence at the constitutional assembly, thus facilitating the participation of Christian groups in politics. Pentecostalism and Neo-Pentecostalism in Colombia In the 1930s, the presence of Pentecostal churches increased due to the work of transnational churches mainly coming from the United States, such as the Assemblies of God and the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. Their religious practices involved the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, including glossolalia, faith healing, and prophecy, among other miracles. These churches encouraged the creation of closely knit communities with a strong leadership by their pastor. They regarded renunciation of worldly practices as an imperative for their own salvation, which usually meant a lack of political participation and little sociopolitical impact. In the 1950s and 1960s, many of these churches expanded under the leadership of Colombian pastors, and 351 some of them gained independence from their American partners. The use of mass media in the 1970s, particularly radio and later television, allowed a rapid expansion of the Pentecostal message and the growing of the numbers of their membership. They grew faster in marginal and poor areas of big cities; however, by the 1980s, there was a transformation toward a form of Pentecostalism that rapidly adapted to a new socioeconomic message directed toward wealth. Theologically, the eschatology of the imminent return of Jesus Christ shifted into the belief that “the Kingdom of God is already here,” which explains why most of these churches no longer promote a rejection of this world. These churches are known as neoPentecostal churches, and they value entrepreneurship and economic success as evidence of spiritual prosperity. They are traditional and conservative regarding politics; they support mainstream political parties and reject leftist political agendas. Healing miracles and prophecies continue to be practiced routinely, but in addition prosperity miracles turn “seeds” or economic donations into economic prosperity for the believers (Rios Oyola 2010). There are several Pentecostal and neoPentecostal mega-churches in Colombia. Beltrán (2013) listed the Misión Carismática Internacional, Centro Misionero Bethesda, Iglesia Casa Sobre la Roca, Avivamiento Centro para las Naciones, and Iglesia de Dios Ministerial de Jesucristo Internacional as some of the most salient in the national religious landscape. In addition to the large number of the congregants, these mega-churches encourage a strong loyalty to their leaders, which is often used for political gains. For many believers, voting is a form of serving God and achieving promises of mobility inside the church hierarchy. In the 1990s, political parties with a Pentecostal base thrived until 2006, when the rules for the creation of political parties changed, making the existence of parties dependent upon the number of their membership (at minimum 2% of the electorate). Between 2009 and 2010, 10% of the Senate was constituted by Pentecostal leaders (Beltrán and Quiroga 2017). In the 2010s, Misión C 352 Carismática Internacional maintained support for Uribe’s party and had representatives in the congress. The Movimiento Independiente de Renovación Absoluta (MIRA) is one of the longer-running independent political parties with a Pentecostal base; however, like other political parties, its political influence outside their religious circle has diminished in the last years. The Role of the Churches in Peace and Conflict The armed conflict in Colombia has been one of the longest in the world, starting in the mid1960s until the signing of the peace agreement between the FARC and President Juan Manuel Santos’ government in 2016. Multiple armed groups were involved, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP), the National Liberation Army (ELN), previously demobilized paramilitary groups, and official security forces with their own extensive record of human rights violations. The conflict happened throughout the country, but rural areas of Colombia with primarily peasant, Afro-Colombian, and indigenous populations were disproportionately affected by it. From 1958 until 2012, Colombians suffered 16,340 targeted killings, 1,982 separate massacres that left 11,751 victims dead, and 25,007 people that were forcefully disappeared. From 1985 until 2012, 5,712,506 people were forcefully displaced (CMH 2013). In the 1980s, President Betancour engaged in peace dialogues with the guerrillas, but this was not supported by the Catholic hierarchy under the leadership of Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo. Pope John Paul II visited in 1986 and called for episcopal engagement to peace in Colombia. As a result, the Bishops’ Conference created the Commission for Life, Justice, and Peace. The promotion of peacebuilding and the defense of human rights took place through coordinated efforts by civil society and the state. Similarly, there is a long tradition of peace initiatives carried by civil society at the grassroots. There have been at least 30,000 documented peace initiatives in Colombia (Esquivia and Gerlach 2009: 295). The church has been the single largest organizational contributor to peace actions from below and within the peace Colombia projects over the past 30 years (Lederach 2010: 30). Some of the organizations in charge of peacebuilding projects include the Catholic Peacebuilding Network (CPN), Catholic Relief Services, and the Colombian bishops’ Secretariado Nacional de Pastoral Social/Caritas Colombiana (SNPS). These institutions create spaces of dialogue, promote the empowering of victims and social leaders, and document past and current human rights violations. Among the religiously inspired organizations are lay organizations, notably led by women, who put pressure on social transformation from within and from below, seeking to exert pressure from below and pressure from within those projects. Religious actors and social leaders received threats and were harmed because of their work. There have been several violent attacks against members of the church, such as the murder of 63 members of the clergy, including an archbishop and a bishop, between 1984 and 2005 (Arias and González 2006). The Catholic Church has had a significant part in the initial stages of the peace talks and the negotiation of the reintegration of the paramilitaries, in dialogues with the FARC guerrillas and the ELN. The church supported the peaceful solution to the conflict rather than a military victory, in particular humanitarian interchange and social justice as a condition for peace. The Catholic Church believes that the redistribution of land to peasants is a crucial element for the achievement of peace, one of the main points of the peace agreement between the FARC and the government in 2016. The Catholic Church has helped victims and conducted research on the conflict (Lederach 2010: 43). The most important Catholic think tank in the country is the Jesuit Center for Investigation and Popular Education (Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular, CINEP), which has engaged in research on the social and political reality of the conflict since the 1970s. The National Conference of Religious created the Commission for Justice and Peace in the early 1980s. In addition, the Catholic Church has created a database on forced displacement (Sistema de Información sobre el Desplazamiento Forzado Colombia por la Violencia, RUT). The Catholic Church developed an ecumenical effort to support the documentation and memorialization of human rights violations. It also produced a program on the recovery of historical memory called Testimony, Truth, and Reconciliation (Testimonio, Verdad y Reconciliación – TEVERE) in addition to hundreds of initiatives of memorialization and denunciation of human rights violations at a local level (Henao 2009: 179). In many cases across the country, the local Catholic Church filled the gap left by the limited and inefficient response of the government (Tate 2015). Some religious communities, such as the Jesuits in Magdalena and the Claretians in the Pacific Coast, developed important research projects on the conflict, with several aimed toward development and peacebuilding at grassroots level. Their support of grassroots communities’ civil resistance to armed actors through the development of communitarian projects helped address some of the social consequences of the conflict. For example, in the 1970s, Catholic religious communities had a key role in the support and creation of ethnic organizations, particularly in the lowlands of the Pacific coast, where a majority of Afro-Colombians and indigenous populations reside (Rios Oyola 2015). They were influenced by liberation theology and supported the defense of land, human rights, and sustainable development. Dioceses on the Pacific Coast have led the public demand for the protection of human rights of Afro-Colombian and indigenous people. In this context, liberation theology helped bridge the promotion of ethnic and cultural to human rights by creating a narrative that links social inequality as one of the main consequences and causes of the conflict that need to be addressed. The church supports demands for the recognition of the autonomy of the indigenous and AfroColombian communities, including respect for their territory as a means of alleviating poverty and promoting social justice. This led to the defense of human rights of the communities at the center of the conflict (Rios Oyola 2015). During the 1990s, dioceses reacted to the increasing presence of armed actors while continuing the work of strengthening ethnic 353 organizations, since the conflict demanded humanitarian support for victims. In 2014, 13% of Colombians identified as Pentecostals (Pew Research Center 2014). Evangelical churches have also actively engaged in working for peace in the last decades. For instance, the Evangelical Council of Colombia (CEDECOL) created a national network called the Commission of Restoration, Life, and Peace. This commission is comprised of five regional commissions operating in 155 municipalities and involving 3,500 people (Esquivia and Gerlach 2009: 299). Several Protestant organizations contribute to peacebuilding, such as Justapaz, the Colombian Mennonite Ministry for Justice, Peace and Nonviolent Action, and the recently founded Sembrandopaz (Planting Peace), a regional interdenominational organization that works with displaced communities in the process of returning to their land and seeking reparations. Pentecostal churches have been a key player in the resocialization of forcefully displaced peasant communities to the cities (Bomann 2011). Additionally, there has been a shift from the old apolitical tendency that had dominated Pentecostals in Colombia toward a stronger political participation, although this participation is heterogenous. Although Protestant leaders (Mennonites, Lutherans, and Presbyterians) did not support the opposition to the peace process, a considerable portion of the evangelical churches did. 2016 Peace Agreement The FARC guerrillas and the government signed the peace agreement in 2016 after 4 years of negotiations in Havana, Cuba. The ELN guerrillas started peace negotiations with the government in 2015; in February 2017, these moved to Quito, Ecuador. The continuing actions of other armed actors exacerbated violence in the country and more than 200 social leaders have been murdered since the signing of the peace agreement. The final peace agreement included items on rural development, political participation for the opposition, reforms to drug policy, and a truth commission. The negotiators agreed to international involvement in the form of a political mission of the C 354 United Nations, made up of observers from CELAC member countries (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). The international community has played an important part in the verification and monitoring of the agreement, the bilateral and final ceasefire, the end of the hostilities, and the laying down of arms. One of the measures to legitimize the negotiations was the implementation of a plebiscite, which was conducted on 2 October 2016 and lost by a very small margin. Some 50.2% of voters rejected the agreement compared to 49.8% who voted for it. An updated version of the agreement sought to address most of the concerns expressed by the opposition. After the outcome of the plebiscite, President Juan Manuel Santos was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in peace negotiations with the FARC. The new agreement was subject to ratification by the parliament instead of holding a new plebiscite. A majority of the Congress and the lower house voted in favor of the new agreement. The peace process faces opposition by ex-president and current senator Álvaro Uribe as well as by ex-senator and current President Iván Duque (2018–2022), who was elected as Santos’ successor. The role of Catholic and evangelical churches in the peace plebiscite campaign reflects the polarization of the country. Some sectors of the Catholic Church support the peace plebiscite, while its official voice maintained a neutral position. At a local level, many dioceses supported the peace process, particularly in regions that had been affected by the violence. Many evangelical churches mobilized their members against the peace agreements, fearing that the peace process would benefit LGBTI rights, abortion, and communist values. Furthermore, following previous alliances between Uribe’s political support and some evangelical churches, many conducted an active campaign against the peace process. Some pastors preached that signing the peace agreement meant “handing the country to the devil.” Their message hinted at distrust in the government and in the FARC’s political participation. Colombia The peace agreement proposed a differential attention to the LGBTI population and women, in response to their particularly vulnerable condition in the conflict. It sought to promote their political participation in the post-conflict society, but its language of gender-based rights became an issue of contention among many Colombians, particularly among evangelicals (Krystalli and Theidon 2016). This was a concern also voiced by ultraconservative politicians and conservative Catholics, such as the ex-General Inspector Alejandro Ordoñez, who criticized the presence of an alleged “gender ideology” in the peace agreements. In response to this criticism, the updated agreement clarified the scope of its gendered approach while remaining faithful to the principle of equality, which was received with satisfaction by LGBTI groups. Contemporary Presence of Indigenous Religions and World Religions in Colombia Indigenous Religions In pre-Columbian times, indigenous societies included nomadic tribes and one of the largest civilizations of the Americas, the Muisca or Chibcha. According to The Colombian Department of Statistics (2005) the indigenous population in the country is 3.3% of the population. This includes 87 indigenous cultures with their own cosmovision and religious practices. There are recent reports of indigenous groups expelling Pentecostal and Jehovah’s Witnesses preachers from their territories, as in the case of the Wiwa people, while others, such as the Paez and Guambiano people, have converted to Protestant and Pentecostal churches. Afro-Colombian Religious Practices According to the 2005 census, 10.6% of the population were Afro-Colombians. Since the 1990s, the government has recognized AfroColombian communities as ethnic autonomous organizations and granted them collective rights over their land, particularly over the lowlands Colombia of the Pacific coast. In this context, AfroColombian religious practices have survived in continuous communication with Catholic traditions. Such religious practices can be observed in funerary rituals that preserve and contain songs, movements, and dance that transmit memories from slavery times and have African roots. The Raizals are an Afro-Caribbean people, making up 0.07% of the Colombian population from the Caribbean Islands of San Andrés, Providencia, and Santa Catalina. Their language is Creole, and they are part of the Baptist Church, a denomination they encountered through British slave owners and settlers on the islands. Judaism Jewish people have been present in the region since colonial times, thought largely assimilated as conversos. Many were persecuted by the seventeenth-century Spanish Inquisition in Cartagena de las Indias. In the nineteenth century, Sephardic Jews migrated to the Caribbean coast, and during the first part of the twentieth century, many Ashkenazi Jews settled in Barranquilla, Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali. There are close to 6,000 Jewish people in Colombia. Islam There are records of Muslims present in the country since the colonial times, but no Muslim communities existed until the second half of the nineteenth century. Although there is no specific survey of the Muslim population in Colombia, it was estimated at 12,000 people in 2010. There is a small but constant rate of conversions and international immigration that may have increased the original estimate to 15,000 or 20,000 Muslims. Most are Sunni (80%) and the rest are mainly Shiite. Most reside in Bogotá, Maicao, and Buenaventura. Their ethnicity is primarily Lebanese, Palestinian, and Syrian. In Buenaventura, the Muslim population is mainly African-descended. They adopted the Nation of Islam in the 1960s but by the 1990s had adopted Shia Islam (Castellanos 2010). 355 East Asian Religions East Asian religions are not strongly present in Colombia, where Buddhism accounts for some 0.2% of the population. There are 47 Buddhist institutions in the country, primarily Tibetan Buddhist (23), Mahayana Buddhist (21), related to the international Nichiren Buddhist movement Soka Gakkai (12), Japanese Zen Buddhism (8), and Theravada Buddhism (2) (see “▶ Buddhism in Colombia” by F. Usarski and R. Shoji, this volume). Afro-Cuban Religions Afro-Cuban religions have been present in the country in a more visible manner since the 1970s. Some Afro-Cuban-inspired religious practices include Espiritismo cruzado, ochaifá, palo monte, and others. They are mainly practiced in Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín (Ramírez 2016). Secularism in Colombia See “▶ Agnosticism, Atheism, and People Without Religion in Colombia” by W. M. Beltrán, this volume. Conclusion The prolonged conflict and violence in Colombia have permeated the cultural values of citizens, creating feelings of fear and distrust in society. Religion has helped to exacerbate and sometimes to manage those feelings. The intransigent Catholic Church created divisions in the country, particularly in the civil wars of the nineteenth and twentieth century. Yet religion has also contributed to building bridges of reconciliation and peacebuilding, particularly at the local level. The evangelical churches were not completely apolitical. They have suffered persecution and actively struggled for their right to freedom of religion before the 1991 constitution and have supported a variety of political agendas. The presence of other religions, combined with increasing numbers of the religiously unaffiliated, suggests a continuing transformation of the religious landscape in Colombia. C 356 References Abel C (2004) Misiones Protestantes En Un Estado Católico: Colombia En Los Años Cuarenta Y Cincuenta. Análisis Político 50:3–19 Arias R, González F (2006) Búsqueda de La Paz Y Defensa Del ‘orden Cristiano’: El Episcopado Ante Los Grandes Debates de Colombia (1998–2005). In: Leal Buitrago F (ed) En La Encrucijada: Colombia En El Siglo XXI. Editorial Norma, Bogotá Beltrán WM (2013) Pluralización Religiosa Y Cambio Social En Colombia. Teológica Xaveriana 63(175):57–85 Beltrán WM, Quiroga JD (2017) Pentecostalismo y política electoral en Colombia (1991–2014). Colombia Internacional 91:187–212. https://doi.org/10.7440/ colombiaint91.2017.06 Bidegain AM (ed) (2004) Historia del Cristianismo en Colombia: Corrientes Y Diversidad. Taurus, Bogotá Bidegain AM (2007) The catholic church’s role in the disintegration of the Spanish colonial empire. The case of the viceroyalty of New Granada. Social Sciences and Missions 20(1):10–36. https://doi.org/ 10.1163/187489407783120975 Bomann RP (2011) The salve of divine healing: essential rituals for survival among working-class Pentecostals in Bogotá, Colombia. In: Brown CG (ed) Global pentecostal and charismatic healing. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 187–204 Broderick WJ (1977) Camilo Torres: el cura guerrillero. Grijalbo, Barcelona Brusco E (2009) Colombia: past persecution, present tension. In: Sigmund PE (ed) Religious freedom and evangelization in Latin America: the challenge of religious pluralism. Wipf and Stock Publishers, Eugene, pp 235–253 Castellanos D (2010) Islam en Colombia: Entre la Asimilación y la Exclusión. Working paper, Florida International University Project, Islam in Latin America CMH, Centro de Memoria Histórica (2013) Basta Ya! Memorias de Guerra Y Dignidad. Imprenta Nacional, Bogotá Colombian Department of Statistics (2005) Censo General 2005 [General Census 2005]. www.dane.gove.co/ Dussel E (1981) A history of the Church in Latin America: colonialism to liberation (1492–1979) (trans: Neely A). Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Esquivia R, Gerlach B (2009) The local community as a creative space for transformation: the view from Montes de María. In: Bouvier V (ed) Colombia: building peace in a time of war. United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC Garrard-Burnett V, Freston P, Dove SC (2016) Introduction to the Cambridge history of religions in Latin America. In: Garrard-Burnett V, Freston P, Dove SC (eds) The Cambridge history of religions in Latin Colombia America. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 1–22 González F (2006) Partidos, guerras e Iglesia en la construcción del Estado-Nación en Colombia (1830–1900). La Carreta, Medellín Henao H (2009) The Colombian church and peacebuilding. In: Bouvier V (ed) Colombia: building peace in a time of war. United States Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, pp 173–190 Krystalli R, Theidon K (2016) Here’s how attention to gender affected Colombia’s peace process. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/10/09/heres-howattention-to-gender-affected-colombias-peace-process/ . Accessed 9 Oct 2016 Lederach JP (2010) The long journey back to humanity: catholic peacebuilding with armed actors. In: Schreiter RJ, Scott Appleby R (eds) Peacebuilding: catholic theology, ethics, and praxis. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, pp 23–55 Levine DH (2012) Politics, religion, and Society in Latin America. Religion in politics and society. Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder Maybury-Lewis D (1999) Lowland peoples of the twentieth century. In: Salomon F, Schwartz SB (eds) The Cambridge history of the native peoples of the Americas. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 872–948 Oyola SMR (2015) Religion, social memory, and conflict: the massacre of Bojayá in Colombia, Palgrave studies in compromise after conflict. Palgrave Macmillan, New York Pew Research Center (2014) Religion in Latin America: widespread change in a historically catholic region. http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/religion-inlatin-america/. Accessed 1 July 2018 Plata Quezada, Elvis W (2005) Del catolicismo Ilustrado al Catolicismo intransigente. In: Bidegain AM (ed) Historia del Cristianismo en Colombia. Corrientes y diversidad. Taurus, Bogotá, pp 181–221 Rios Oyola, Sandra Milena (2010) La Construcción Retórica Del Milagro : Análisis Del Discurso Religioso Neopentecostal. In: Tejeiro C (ed) Pentecostalismo En Colombia. Bogotá: Universidad Nacional de Colombia Ramírez LCC (2016) Entre Usuarios Y Creyentes: Itinerarios Bogotanos Dentro De Las Religiones Afrocubanas. Mitológicas XXXI:21–39 Schirmer, Jennifer (2013) In Search of Grace Religion and the ELN. In: Nordquist K-A (ed) Gods and Arms: On Religion and Armed Conflict, 69–94. Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers Tate W (2015) Violencia Y Atención Pastoral En Putumayo, Colombia. In: Wilde A (ed) Las Iglesias Ante La Violencia En América Latina: Los Derechos Humanos En El Pasado Y El Presente, Primera edición en español. FLACSO México/Center for Latin American & Latino Studies, American University, México, D.F./Washington, DC, pp 351–380 Complementary and Alternative Medicines Complementary and Alternative Medicines Rodrigo Toniol Anthropology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil Keywords Alternative therapies · Regulation · State · Public health systems Key Information The gradual identification of subjects and groups promoting New Age ideals with the term “Complementary and Alternative Medicines” (CAMs) is related to (a) the professionalization of holistic therapies and (b) the public and official recognition from nation states and international governmental organizations of the validity of using so-called alternative therapies to promote health. In the New Age context, Complementary and Alternative Medicine refers to the processes of regulating, officially recognizing, and bureaucratizing numerous therapies and practices that became popular in the West primarily in the wake of the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 1970s. In Latin America, the use and public availability of these therapies acquired official recognition especially in the mid-1990s. Though no consensus exists, the definition of Complementary and Alternative Medicine usually converges on two characteristics. The first, very often explicit, involves definition in negative. This applies, for example, to the description of CAM provided by the British Medical Association: “forms of treatment which are not widely used by the conventional healthcare professions, and the skills of which are not taught as part of the undergraduate curriculum of conventional medical and paramedical healthcare courses” (Leckridge 2004). Similarly, the United States National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine uses the term to designate “a diverse group of medical and health-care systems, practices, and products 357 that may not yet be incorporated into conventional medicine.” Along the same lines, the World Health Organization declares: “The term complementary and alternative medicine is used in some countries to refer to a broad set of health care practices that are not part of the country’s own tradition and are not integrated into the dominant health care system” (Zhang 2000, p. 1). The second characteristic implied in the definitions of the term, this time less explicit, is the political potential of the principle of “complementarity.” This is a notion capable of indicating the differences between CAMs and modern Western medicine without making the association between them incommensurable. To some extent it was the language of “complementarity” that enabled New Age holistic therapists to “convert” into “health professionals” and esoteric alternative therapies to transform into official procedures available via public health systems. The close connection made between Complementary and Alternative Medicine and New Age philosophies is just one of the dimensions, therefore, of a wider phenomenon involving the “officialization” of alternative therapies, which also involves mediating elements such as the production of scientific research on these therapeutic practices, the creation of an academic publishing market dedicated to the theme, and the provision of courses on alternative therapies as part of the regular university training of doctors and nurses. The relevance of the term Complementary and Alternative Medicine to the phenomenon in question can be clearly observed in its constant appearance in the process that eventually led to alternative therapies being recognized by the World Health Organization. This recognition from WHO in turn lent support to the formulation of national laws and programs for promoting health that foregrounded CAMs. In 1978, the International Conference on Primary Health Care, held in Alma-Ata in the former Soviet Union, issued the first official recommendations on the formulation of national policies and regulations for using traditional remedies of proven effectiveness, as well as exploring the possibilities for incorporating traditional knowledge holders in primary health-care C 358 activities by providing them with the necessary background training (Brasil 2009, p. 17). This was one of the first documents produced by an international governmental organization to recognize the validity of non-Western medical practices. Also in 1978, WHO created the traditional medicine program with the aim of promoting the inclusion of Traditional and Complementary/Alternative Medicine in national health-care systems. The distinction between traditional medicine and complementary medicine is important since, in Latin American countries, the former is used to refer to the non-Western medical systems of local native populations, while the latter indicates nonmainstream exogenous medical practices. In the context of the WHO program, the difference in the terms was maintained, but the resolutions connected to them were always associated. In countries like Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Brazil, the recognition of traditional medicines assured indigenous populations the right to use their own health knowledge and practices in combination with biomedical treatment, even in hospital and outpatient facilities maintained by the state. However, these policies are limited to ethnic minorities and thus do not involve making these therapies universally available. In Brazil, However, the actions centered on promoting the benefits of Complementary and Alternative Medicines led to a public health policy unique in Latin America. In 2006, the Brazilian Ministry of Health instituted the National Policy for Integrative and Complementary Practices (PNPIC). The aim of this policy was to ensure and promote public and universal access through the National Health System (SUS) to traditional Chinese medicine, homeopathy, phytotherapy, thermalism (spa hydrotherapy), and anthroposophic medicine. In addition to the cited therapies, other practices such as Reiki, chromotherapy, radiesthesia, parapsychology, and flower remedies have been incorporated in the routines of Brazilian health centers and hospitals. As a result of demands made by national health conferences and WHO guidelines, the PNPIC stimulated the formulation of other state and municipal policies designed to promote therapies in tune with principles such as holism, energy, and harmonization (Toniol 2014). Complementary and Alternative Medicines Far from being an exception, the National Policy for Integrative and Complementary Practices is indicative of a wide-ranging process of recognizing some of the alternative therapies associated with the New Age movement. Their ready availability through public health services has, however had an impact on how the movement has become configured in Latin America. For example, holistic therapists, who were previously trained through talks and short experiences, have turned en masse to courses designed that meet the requirements set by the Ministry of Health and qualify them to work in the SUS. In Latin America, the transformation of alternative therapies into Complementary and Alternative Medicines can be described as a process sliding away from the New Age references – that is, a process in which the references to the Age of Aquarius start to be rejected by holistic therapists as they become more interested in “occupying” the official health systems. Cross-References ▶ Alternative Therapies ▶ Leaving the New Age ▶ New Age and Health ▶ Professionalizing in the New Age ▶ Science and New Age References Brasil (2009) Relatório do 1 Seminário Internacional de Práticas Integrativas e Complementares em Saúde – PNPIC, 2009. Ministério da Saúde. Resource document. http://bvsms.saude.gov.br/bvs/publicacoes/ seminario_praticas_integrativas_complementares_ saude.pdf Leckridge B (2004) The future of complementary and alternative medicine – models of integration. J Altern Complement Med 10(2):413–416 Toniol R (2014) Integralidade, holismo e responsabilidade: etnografia da promoção de terapias alternativas/ complementares no SUS. In: Ferreira J, Fleischer S (eds) Etnografias em serviços de saúde. Garamond, Rio de Janeiro, pp 153–178 Zhang X (2000) General guidelines for methodologies on research and evaluation of traditional medicine. World Health Organization, Geneva Conscienciology and Projectiology Comunidades ecclesiales de base ▶ Christian Base Communities (CEB) Congregação Cristã no Brasil ▶ Christian Congregation in Brazil, Congregação Cristã no Brasil 359 thus characterized as an emerging form of New Age Spiritism (D’Andrea 2000). Likewise, in available scholarship, Projectiology has been identified as a case of “New Age indigenization” crystallized in a “new organization that merges New Age themes with Brazilian versions of psychological development” (Heelas and Amaral 1994). Its founder Waldo Vieira has been profiled as a “Spiritist intellectual” who broke ranks with Spiritism to develop independent OBE research (Hess 1987). Development and Key Characteristics Conscienciology and Projectiology Anthony D’Andrea Center for Latin American Studies, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Keywords Projectiology · Spiritism · Science · Parapsychology · Waldo Vieira · Brazil Conscientiology At the intersection of Spiritism, science, and New Age individualism in Brazil, Conscientiology emerged in the 1990s self-fashioned as “the study of consciousness by means of a holistic, holosomatic, multidimensional, bioenergetic, projective, self-conscious and cosmoethic approach” (Vieira 1994). Along with Projectiology, the older sister from which Conscientiology directly derives, both disciplines carry out an update of Brazilian Spiritism, but one that displaces traditional mediumship for an individualized focus on out-of-body experience (OBE, also known as conscious or astral projection). Within broader transformations in Brazilian religion and culture, they embraced therapy discourses sustaining an instrumental culture of self-empowerment prevalent among segments of the urban New Age in Latin America. Along with Projectiology, Conscientiology can be Historically, physician and psychic Waldo Vieira had been gradually breaking away from the “Movimento Espírita,” which launched him as a national celebrity alongside Chico Xavier. In 1986, Vieira independently published Projectiology: Overview of Out-of-Body Experiences (in Portuguese), a treaty proposing a “science for the study of the phenomenon of consciousness and energies beyond the boundaries of the physical body” (Vieira 1986). This marked an ideological rupture with Kardecists’ preference for mediumship as key ritual practice for accessing the spiritual world. Following successful seminars in uptown Rio de Janeiro, he and close associates founded the International Institute of Projectiology in 1988. Soon, he would formally introduce Conscientiology by means of the publication of 700 Experiments of Conscientiology in 1994. In this process, he rapidly reframed Projectiology from a “sub-discipline of parapsychology” (1986) to the “practical application of Conscientiology” (Vieira 1994). While currently depicted as “neo-sciences of consciousness,” Conscientiology has gained traction over Projectiology, due to Vieira’s emphasis on a prescriptive morality of spiritual development, much beyond the scope of empirical parapsychological research. The community of Projectiologists (currently self-fashioned as Conscientiologists) grew into a formal network of regional branches and spin-off associations operating across several countries. In 2002, Vieira and a few hundred followers moved C 360 to the newly founded Center of Higher Studies of Conscientiology (in Portuguese), a compound located in the suburbs of Iguassu Falls, borderland town between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. According to internal reports, over 700 teachers, 1,500 volunteers, and 12,000 students are annually involved with either “neo-science” globally. They are mostly white, college-educated, and urban middle-class people interested in developing personal, psychic, and spiritual abilities. Not only do they study psychic phenomena but they also seek to induce them voluntarily. The ability to leave the body (“projectability”) is deemed a potent instrument of self-discovery in the spiritual world. By dutifully practicing “bio-energetic” exercises (body-centric visualization and sensitization practices), they seek to increase psychic perceptions. They claim that psychic abilities are a universal human condition, although estimating that only 1 % of humanity recalls their OBE. As such, the main goal of the organization, as envisaged by Vieira, is to increase the quantity and quality of spiritual awareness. If “projectability” is the practical category of Projectiology, “conscious evolution” stands out as its fundamental goal. Vieira’s focus on the latter denotes a preference for “Conscientiology.” Valuing a highly autonomous self-centric spirituality, the Conscientiological utopia, as professed by Vieira, is a hypothetical situation of full-time awareness both inside and outside the body. Yet, in day-to-day life, such belief amounts to significant peer pressure on the Conscientiologist, who must continually monitor and forge a conduct that prioritizes one’s spiritual development “as fast as possible.” Often in a disciplinarian and rationalistic fashion, this iron-cage-like attitude is expressed in a variety of native tools, such as the “conscienciograma,” a questionnaire for quantitatively measuring one’s own spiritual evolution (Vieira 1996). Paradoxically, despite the dogmatic nature of Vieira’s latter teachings, Conscientiologists overly reject references to “religion.” They emulate mannerisms that are stereotypical of laboratorial science and emphasize psychology and other mainstream sciences, while deriding these as “limited” due to their materialism. In Conscienciology and Projectiology public events, they evoke the empiricist maxim: “don’t believe in anything we say, have your own experiences.” Empirical experience is a core value in Conscientiology, as it is in the New Age movement more generally. Nonetheless, the fact is that most Conscientiologists remain largely dependent on Vieira’s undisputed authority about the supernatural, defining much of the life across this community. The Future of Conscientiology In the twenty-first century, Conscientiology slowly grows in the hands of mostly Brazilian teachers. Vieira’s persistence in expanding a dogmatic terminology seems to have largely hampered its popularization. Along with a growing cadre of “dissidents” who leave the organization, the future growth of Conscientiology in Brazil is uncertain, as Vieira, born in 1932, passed away in July 2015. Internationally, while missing the pervasive ideological support of the Brazilian spiritual culture that legitimized Conscientiology in that country, around the world, the “neo-science” appeals to a niche contingent of Brazilian expatriates and native residents undergoing psychic experiences (D’Andrea 2013). References D’Andrea A (2000) O Self Perfeito e a nova era: iIndividualismo e reflexividade em religiosidades PósTradicionais. Ed. Loyola, São Paulo D’Andrea A (2013) The niche globalization of a Brazilian parascience: projectiology, its cosmology and Internationalization. In: Rocha C, Vazquez M (eds) The diaspora of Brazilian religions, vol 339–362. Brill, Leiden/ Boston Heelas P, Amaral L (1994) Notes on the “Nova Era”: Rio de Janeiro and Environs. Religion 24:173–180 Hess D (1987) Spiritism and science in Brazil: an anthropological interpretation of religion and ideology. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University Vieira W (1986) Projeciologia: Panorama das Experiências da Consciência Fora do Corpo Humano. Author’s publication, Rio de Janeiro Vieira W (1994) 700 experimentos da conscienciologia. Instituto Internacional de Projeciologia, Rio de Janeiro Vieira W (1996) Conscienciograma. IIPC, Rio de Janeiro Conversion to Islam in Latin America Conversion to Islam in Latin America Şaban Taniyici Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey Keywords Islam · Muslims · Religious conversion · Latin America · Sufism Definition Conversion to Islam in Latin America refers to all religious conversions to Islam in the Americas since these countries are culturally connected to each other. Until recently, Islam could be seen as a religion of immigrants in most Latin American countries. This entry covers how increasing conversions are likely to transform Islam into a religion of Latin American. Conversion to Islam in Latin America Conversion to Islam has been a growing phenomenon across Latin American in the last two decades (Karam 2013). Converts are now more visible in Muslim communities in major cities of the region. In the United States, some estimates of Latina/Latino converts reach nearly 200,000 (Martínez-Vázquez 2010; Chitwood 2016). In Bogota, Colombia, approximately half of 1000 Muslims are Colombian converts (Sarrazin and Rincon 2015). Similarly, in Mexico, there are equal number of Mexican converts and Muslims of foreign origin (Garvin 2005), and some studies estimate that converts now constitute more than 80 % of attendance in some mosques (de Maria y Campos 2015). In Argentina, Muslims of nonArab origin constitute half of the membership in some Muslim organizations, and the number of converts is significantly higher in Sufi groups (Montenegro 2015). The proportion of converts in the Sunni Muslim community of Rio de Janeiro increased from 50% in 2000 to 85% in 2009, 361 converts constituting majority of members in Rio, Salvador, and Recife (Pinto 2015). There are also communities which focused only on the revival of religion among the descendants of Muslim immigrants and are not engaged in any conversion activities. In Latin America, there are several ways through which converts come into contact with Muslims and Islam. Most conversions take place in urban settings where there is a higher probability of interaction. However, there are also small communities of converts living in rural areas such as the Murabitun in Mexico. The Murabitun is a worldwide religious movement originated in Europe and laining a small following in Chiapas through missionary activity (see “Murabitun World Movement”). Until the late 1980s, Muslim communities had only charitable organizations, while the construction of mosques since then made Islamic culture more available in the region. Financial support from some countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran was crucial for the emergence of a number of mosques (Mariz and Freston 2016). Conversions mainly take place in the communities that create arenas of interaction and channels of dialogue with non-Muslims (Pinto 2015). Kinship ties are also important for conversion. Converts who embrace Islam encourage the conversion of parents, siblings, and others (de Maria y Campos 2015). The Internet is where many converts initially encounter Islam through Islamic websites or social media. After conversion, the Internet is also a space of socialization and engaging in dissemination (Oliveria 2006; de Maria y Campos 2015). Many Latin American and Caribbean Muslims converted after September 11, 2001. Despite negative stereotyping in the media, Islam and Muslims received some positive attention such as via the soap opera O’Clone (Pinto 2015). There is also 9/11 effect, which resulted in a general rise in interest in Islam in the region. Many converts state that they started to learn more information about Islam and realized that Islam was not a religion of Arabs only. The socioeconomic backgrounds of converts differ significantly. In general, there are more women converts than men. An exception is C 362 Cuba where converts are mainly young males. Cuban converts have diverse socioeconomic and educational profiles. There are doctors, architects, engineers, artists, workers, and students (Mesa Delmonte 2015). In Brazil, nearly all converts come from the mid- to lower echelons of the urban middle class of teachers, students, public servants, and small businessmen. Those from upper classes constitute a minority (Pinto 2015). In one of Sao Paulo’s poorer neighborhoods in Brazil, activists of the Black Movement, some of whom are linked to hip hop music, convert to Islam in search of racial equality (Pinto 2015; Oliveria and Mariz 2006). In Mexico, most women who convert to Islam are young urban professionals with modest backgrounds. Conversion to Islam in Latin American countries has occurred against a background of the crisis of Catholic Church in the region. In several countries, the Catholic Church lost adherents to other religions or other Christian denominations. Until the 1960s, 90 % of Latin America’s population was Catholic, whereas only 69% of adults in the region define themselves as Catholic today. In nearly every country, the Catholic Church has lost adherents from religious conversions (Pew Research Center 2014). There is also a leftoriented resistance culture exemplified in the tradition of liberation theology to dominant western ideologies such as neoliberalism in Latin American countries. Therefore, conversion allows new Muslims in the countries such as Mexico and Colombia to step outside of local ideologies and to resist dominant culture (de Maria y Campos 2015; Sarrazin and Rincon 2015). Their new faith allows Muslim converts to cross physical and cultural boundaries providing them with access to new communities both at home and abroad and making them transnational subjects. Although converts come from all backgrounds and have many reasons for conversion, people of color in Latin America and the Caribbean are especially attracted to Islam because of portrayals of African-American Islam and AfricanAmerican Muslims (Karam 2013). At the same time, however, recent Latin American and Caribbean converts also discover and identify with the older histories of Andalusian or African Muslims. Conversion to Islam in Latin America For example, in Puerto Rico, some Muslims define themselves as both Muslim and Puerto Rican through the history of association between hip hop music and African-American Muslims (Ramadan-Santiago 2015). Many converts were attracted by what they saw as the egalitarian message of Islam, viewing it as a theology of liberation. To be Muslim in Mexico is also seen as a way of being part of a cosmopolitan, or global, milieu (de Maria y Campos 2015; Pinto 2015). Some studies suggest that converts are more akin to New Age groups and almost entirely have a tolerant attitude (Oliveria and Mariz 2006). In Latin America, Sufism also serves as an important pathway to conversion. Sufi groups are active in several countries. In Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Sufi communities are almost completely Brazilian converts who have contact with Sufi groups outside Brazil. However, recent conversions mostly take place in non-Sufi environments in Brazil (Pinto 2015). In Mexico, on the other hand, many new Muslims are involved in Sufi orders such as the Jerrahi order (Forsvik 2014). In Latin America, recent converts are frequently the most active in missionary activities (Karam 2013; Mariz and Freston 2016). This interest in the dissemination of their religion is interpreted as an attempt to create a community of believers that will support the converts’ life as new Muslims (Oliveria and Mariz 2006). In countries such as Brazil and Colombia, new converts are starting to autonomously organize themselves to spread Islam in their countries. There are also cultural differences between Latin American and Caribbean converts who identify with the Andalusian or African Muslim past and Arab and South Asian originated Muslims in the region (Karam 2013). Some converts in Rio and Sao Paulo regard themselves as better Muslims in terms of Islamic knowledge (Pinto 2015). For example, in some mosques the Friday sermon is carried out in Portuguese. In Sao Paulo, Brazilian converts have a born Muslim as imam in their mosque (Pinto 2015). In Latin America, converts try to build communities and organizations using local resources such as community support and international and technological means such as the Internet. They build online Conversion to Islam in Mexico networks to initiate da’wah. One of these organizations based mostly on local resources is the IslaminSpanish initiative. Recently, this group of Latino converts succeeded in opening Centro Islamico in Houston, and they are engaged in culturally focused da’wah activities around the region as well as the United States (Chitwood 2017). One of the interesting aspects of Latin American conversions is the identity-building process after the conversion by which converts create a historical consciousness. This aspect of returning to Ladino, or Moorish, roots distinguishes Latin American conversions from others in Western countries except for perhaps Spain. In Latin America, converts are increasingly forming a larger share of Muslim communities. As new Muslims, they are more active in community building and missionary activities and have multiple identities, which allow them to cross the traditional boundaries. Cross-References ▶ Conversion to Islam in Mexico ▶ Islam in Brazil ▶ Islam in Mexico ▶ Sufism in Mexico References Chitwood K (2016) American Islam: the study of American Islam from demographic & ethnographic perspectives, yearbook of international religious demography: 2016. Brill Publishing, Leiden Chitwood K (2017) The study of Islam and Muslim communities in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Americas: the state of the field. Int J Latin Am Relig 1:57–76 de Maria y Campos, CP (2015) Guests of Islam: conversion and the institutionalization of Islam in Mexico. In: Narbona MML, Karam JT, Pinto PGHR (eds) Crescent of another horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino USA. University of Texas Press, Austin, pp 144–189 Forsvik, S (2014). Fight is an inside path: a minor field study of how members of Nur Ashki Jerrahi sufi order perceive religious freedom in Mexico. Bachelor Thesis, School of Historical and Contemporary Studies, Södertörn University 363 Karam JT (2013) Muslim histories in Latin America and the Caribbean. In: AB MC, Hibbard SW, Saud L (eds) An introduction to Islam in the 21st century. Malden, MA: Willey-Blackwell Mariz C, Freston R (2016) Islam in Latin America. In: Garrard-Burnett V, Freston P, Dove S (eds) The Cambridge history of religions in Latin America. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 709–713 Martínez-Vázquez HA (2010) Latina/o Y Musulman: the construction of Latina/o identity among Latina/o Muslims in the United States. Pickwick Publications, Eugene Mesa Delmonte L (2015) Cubans searching for a new faith in a new context. In: Narbona MML, Karam JT, Pinto PGHR (eds) Crescent of another horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino USA. University of Texas Press, Austin, pp 190–205 Montenegro S (2015) Institutionalizing Islam in Argentina: comparing community and identity configurations. In: Narbona MML, Karam JT, Pinto PGHR (eds) Crescent of another horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino USA. University of Texas Press, Austin, pp 86–106 Peres de Oliveira V, Mariz CL (2006) Conversion to Islam in contemporary Brazil. Exchange 35:102–115 Peres de Oliveira V (2006) Religião e Sociedade. Rio de Janeiro 26(1):83–114 Pew Research Center (2014) Religion in Latin America: widespread change in a historically Catholic region Pinto PG. (2015). Conversion, Revivalism, and Tradition: The Religious Dynamics of Muslim Communities in Brazil. In: Narbona, Karam and Pinto (eds) Crescent of Another Horizon: Islam in Latin America, the Caribbean and Latino USA. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp 107–144 Ramadan-Santiago O (2015) Insha’Allah/Ojala, yes yes Y’all: Puerto Ricans (re) examining and (re)imagining their identities through Islam and hip hop. In: Khan A (ed) Islam and the Americas. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, pp 115–141 Sarrazin JP, Rincon L (2015) La Conversion al islam como estrategia de cambio y differnciacion en la modernidad. Revista de Estudios Sociales, Num. 51, pp 132–145 Conversion to Islam in Mexico Arely Medina El Colegio de Jalisco, Jalisco, Mexico Keywords Conversion · Identity · Information technology · Proselytism · Hybridity C 364 Introduction Islam in Mexico has surged as a phenomenon characterized by various stages, but of these two large periods can be distinguished. The first is marked by the migration of Arab pioneers, of which there is little record of how these Muslims lived in Mexican lands. A second block is marked by transnationalism and cultural globalization. The first block is related to the arrival of Moors and Muslim slaves in the period of conquest and is extended by the arrival of Arab Muslim immigrants until approximately the 1980s (Cobos 2008). In this stage, it is imagined that the Moors hid their faith through false conversion to Catholicism. This conversion included a change of name and the absence of an Islamic education as well as communities or groups of prayer. After la Reforma, between 1833 and 1980, there came the immigration of Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Iraqis, Egyptians, and Turks, not all of whom were Muslim but who were managing to integrate to the society through marrying Catholics. The second block can be considered as part of the process of transnationalization and cultural globalization. This ranges from 1980 to the present and is characterized by the establishment of embassies and with them Muslims that make up the diplomatic body, the establishment of aljamas – Muslim quarters (Cobos 2008)-and the construction of the first mosques in Torreón by some of the immigrants. The beginning and consolidation of Muslim communities in Mexico City, Morelos, and Chiapas came from international proselytizing and with that re-Islamization and conversions. But also the growth of small groups in the interior of the Mexican republic came as a result of various matrices that are part of the transnationalization of Islam. This entry offers a brief panorama of how Islamic identity in Mexico has been defined through conversion. It will show that the identity of converts resists being seen and interpreted in any sole manner and especially under clichés about the Muslim world. Rather, they are best defined by sometimes fuzzy and hybrid elements due to the local circumstances in which they operate. Conversion to Islam in Mexico Conversion and Muslim Identity in Mexico Conversion is, “[. . .] a transformation of one’s self concurrent with a transformation of one’s basic meaning system” (McGuire 1992). It is a process of adaptation to the new system of reference, in this case pertaining to religion, and of a new vision of who one is and what place one occupies in the world and in each social category. This leads to the alteration of perception between self and other. Identity plays a crucial role here, if this is understand as, “[. . .] the subjective point of view of the social partners about their unity and symbolic borders, with respect to their relative persistence over time; and their location around the world, i.e., in social space” (Giménez 1993). The Islamic religious system provides to the convert an interpretive mark of their reality, their place in the world, and demarcates boundaries. And while Islam may be presented and interpreted in different ways depending on where it operates, it can be considered as a unique culture with different zones or worlds contained in it (Zeraoui 2010), i.e., ways of living Islam. This interpretation situates the analysis of conversions and processes of identity in a theoretical framework that addresses both the macro level as well as the microsocial. It starts from the idea that conversion to Islam is not only a rite of passage, it is a state of being or the perception of self and other. But it is also a whole learning process, adaptation and reconfiguration of identity and thus also behavior in various social areas. In Islam, the rite of passage that makes one a Muslim implies the recitation of the testimony of faith, known as shahada, with which the convert accepts that there is only one God and that Muhammad is his messenger, and this is done in front of at least a pair of Muslim witnesses. This is said in Arabic: Ash hadu an la Ilalaha il-la Allah, wa Ash hadu an-na Muhammad Rasulullah and followed by the idiom which the convert can understand. Thus, in the case of Mexicans the shahada is recited in two languages: Arabic and Spanish. Conversion to Islam in Mexico To give the testimony in front of two witnesses, from the viewpoint of the process of conversion, does not imply the substantive change of conversion, but only the exteriorization of desire and to be accepted in a community or group. The conversion starts before and after the shahada. There is a preparation before the conversion, an apprehension of a system of belief, initiated for diverse reasons, but that lead him/her to question his/her religious affiliation, values, and even immediate social system. The testimony of faith, or shahada, refers to the acceptance of a new creed, as an intermediate point in conversion. After this continues the process of apprehending and reformulating their identity. Conversions to Islam in Mexico still require more investigation; nevertheless, there can be some structural elements delineated that permit understanding the process of identity construction among Muslim converts in Mexico. Amidst these elements, there can be distinguished those that pertain to the macro level and the micro. The second block that characterizes the presence of Islam in Mexico permits the understanding that the processes of globalization and transnationalization have made channels of information and approaches to Islam. Various mediums of communication, cultural industries, diverse types of migration and immigration, and proselytization have served as doors to Islam in Mexico. The different Muslim communities in Mexico have been taking root with different local tints, according to what the social scene permits. This can be seen with Indian and Islamic community in southern Mexico; small groups trying to organize settings, although secular, within a predominantly Catholic milieu; communities organized under the Mexican flag that impart dawah or proselytizing. But above all, with new Muslims who mediate their religious identity between the community and society, including the family that usually is not Muslim. Decrypting the empirical framework of conversions requires the development of types of Muslim identity; in them the 365 consideration of criteria that have to do with religious contact, socialization, and projection of their identity. Under these criteria converts show different ways to solve and model a Muslim identity. Several of the Mexican converts in different communities and groups have assumed Islamic identity to such a degree that they achieve socialization in different social spheres being identified as Muslims by wearing the veil, preparing spaces for prayer, with characters and exhibitors of Islam in various public spaces. Others achieved this only within the community in certain social conditions, including their family. These are generators of Islamic identities in dissimulation. Conclusion The way that converts resolve their Muslim identity has nothing to do with a single type of being Muslim. Converts have found different solutions to be Muslim in a distant social space prepared to practice Islam in their context; for example, they do not have services, jobs, or interaction spaces that would be typical of an Islamic environment. It is they who have been given the task of constructing that environment and in any case adapt or circumvent it. Converts must mediate between living as Muslims and living in a sometimes challenging environment for religious tolerance that is little adaptable to the requirements that the Islamic system dictates. So conversion and identity can be viewed as processes that are created and recreated according to the sociocultural system in which they occur, which is achieved along the lines of the adaptation of individual Muslims’ interests and desires. References Cañas Cuevas S (2006) Koliyal Allah Tsotsunkotik “Gracias a Allah que somos más fuertes” Identidades étnicas y relaciones de género entre los indígenas sunníes en San Cristóbal de las Casas. CIESAS, Chiapas, Tesis de maestría C 366 Cobos Alfaro F 2008 Los musulmanes de México en la Umma. Revista Diario de Campo. Conaculta-INAH, México, enero-febrero, núm. 96, pp. 10–22 Giménez G (1993) Cambios de identidad y cambios de profesión religiosa. In: Bonfil Batalla G (ed) Nuevas identidades culturales en México. CONACULTA, México Hernández González C (2009) El islam en la Ciudad de México: La orden Halveti Yerrahi y su ritual de iniciación a partir de los años ochenta del siglo XX. Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, México, Tesis de licenciatura en etnohistoria Lara Klarh M El islam en Chiapas? El EZLN y el Movimiento Mundial Murabitun. www. revistaacademica.com/TIV/C05.pdf. junio 2010 Medina A (2014) Islam en Guadalajara. Identidad y relocalización. El Colegio de Jalisco, Zapopan McGuire MB (1992) Religion: the social context. Wadsworth, Belmont Mishima O, Elena M (eds) (1997) Destino México. Un estudio de las migraciones asiáticas a México, siglos XIX y XX. El Colegio de México- Centro de Estudios de Asia y África, México Taboada H (2004) La sombra del Islam en la Conquista de América. UNAM- FCE, México Uribe Giménez Y El Islam en la Laguna. Una tradicional minoría religiosa. El Siglo de Torreón, Coahuila www. elsiglodetorreon.com.mx. 20 de mayo 2010 Zeraoui Z (2010) Islam: religión y Estado. In: Zeraoui Z (ed) El islam en América Latina. Limusa-Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México Core Energetics Thais Silva Faculdade de Educação Física – UnB, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil Keywords Body psychotherapy · Whole person · Spiritual self Definition Core Energetics is a systematic and therapeutic work that focuses on healing and personal growth by consciously integrating the mind, the body, the emotions, the will, and the spirit into a unit known as the Whole Person. When compared to more traditional therapeutic Core Energetics works that are oriented to healing, either from a medical or psychological perspective, Core Energetics’ uniqueness is to integrate in its knowledge database the understanding of the body energetic systems and the spiritual nature of human beings. Core Energetics was created by John Pierrakos, who was born in Greece on 8 February 1921. When he was 18 years old he moved to the USA, where he became a physician and, later on, Wilhelm Reich’s patient and student (Pierrakos 1997). Pierrakos was the cocreator of Bioenergetics with Alexander Lowen and developed Core Energetics by integrating Bioenergetics with the studies from Eva Pierrakos; who is known for compiling the spiritual knowledge named Pathwork. Today, Core Energetics has several training centers all over the world – USA, Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, England, Germany, and Argentina. The body is an important focus of this work as a means for both diagnosis and treatment. As diagnosis, the body reveals the subject's dynamics whether conscious or unconscious. In the body is sculpted one’s frozen story: the relationship with parents, heredity, environment, and culture. The interrelations between those elements create the way the individual acts muscularly, emotionally, and mentally. As a means for treatment, the body is phenomenic and a means for producing culture. By engaging with Core Energetics’ embodied practices, the person can free the tensions that limit their physical body, self-expression, and emotional experience. The result is a shift in their fixed worldview and the adoption of new behaviors. Core Energetics works with energy and consciousness in addition to the physical body. The energy in the body is mobilized through several practices such as breathing, gentle movements, cathartic exercises, touch, and expression of feelings. The energetic activation leads to increased consciousness and self-awareness: a stronger connection with the individual truth and with the inner positive and negative intentions. This perspective is supported by the understanding that people are born with the capacity Core Energetics for beauty, creativity, connection, and love; this is the Essence or Higher Self. However, in the socialization process, children are punished, violated, humiliated because of their spontaneous and emotional responses that are not tolerated by society. This situation fosters states of disconnection with the true Essence. That disconnection is the Lower Self, and this promotes anger, hate, fear, and terror. As a consequence of experiencing rejection from the world, the affect is repressed and blocked; and the individual develops a Mask in order to deal with the social dynamics. The Mask is a defensive response to the repressed positive and negative emotions. Children become adults that act and react primarily from their defenses, hence mostly disconnected from the truth and beauty of their Essence. Mask, Lower Self, and Higher Self form the map of consciousness in the Core Energetics' therapeutic process, and it is important that the individuals know in which stage of the selftransformation process they are. Core Energetics aims at connecting the person with their Essence, unblocking the negativity from the Lower Self, and making the expression of the Mask more flexible. This approach is aligned with the individual’s true values and offers relief, relaxation, and deeper connection with the Essence; referred to authors as the values of the spirit (Pierrakos 1987; Lowen 1990, 1995). According to Pierrakos (1987, p. 210) “the work aims beyond the illness towards the unique and precious being whom nature intends to functions from the core.” The therapeutic process includes four stages: (1) penetrating the Mask, (2) liberating the Lower Self and finding the Essence, (3) centering in the Higher Self, and (4) finding the life task. By reaching the last stage, the subject has already experienced their inner truth and innate beauty; hence, they become more responsible for their own life journey. The Essence, as expressed by Pierrakos (1987, p. 280) “both express and is the spirituality of human beings.” Thus, Core Energetics goes beyond conventional therapy by centering the 367 person in their Higher Self. Pierrakos proposes that “what we have is no longer therapy but a unified and holistic process that connects the mind, the emotions, the body, and the spiritual self into a unified whole which expresses the total reality of the person” (Pierrakos 1987, p. 280). Core Energetics sees the neurosis as stages to be integrated so the subject can learn to connect to their Spiritual Self. “This approach is true spirituality, grounded in everyday reality” (Pierrakos 1987, p. 284). In the same fashion, Campbell (1997) places the experience of contacting God not as something external to the subject but as a possibility to be lived as a sacred moment and the body being the authentic temple for experiencing God. According to Pierrakos (1987), the unifying and creative principle, the Essence, within the subject is known as God. “Many venerate it as God. I venerate it as the god who is every human being” (Pierrakos 1987, p. 226). Core Energetics, as a psychospiritual approach, helps the person to find God within and then develop healthier ways of being in the world. Cross-References ▶ Alternative Therapies ▶ Body and Soul ▶ Energy ▶ Floral Therapy and Body/Emotional Awareness ▶ Religious Individualization ▶ Religions of the Self References Campbell C (1997) A orientalização do Ocidente: reflexões sobre uma nova teodicéia para um novo milênio. Relig Soc 18:5–22 Lowen A (1990) The spirituality of the body: bioenergetics for grace and harmony. MacMillan, New York Lowen A (1995) Joy: the surrender to the body and of life. Penguin Books, Arkana Pierrakos J (1987) Core energetics: developing the capacity to love and heal. LifeRhythm, Mendocino Pierrakos J (1997) Eros, love and sexuality. LifeRhythm, Mendocino C 368 Costa Rica Henri Gooren Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work and Criminal Justice, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA Keywords Catholic Charismatic Renewal · Costa Rica · Pentecostalism · Protestantism · Roman Catholicism Definition Costa Rica is located in Central America between Nicaragua and Panama. It has a 2017 population of almost 5 million (CIA 2018) and a land area of 51,100 square kilometers: 1.5 times the size of Belgium or a bit smaller than the state of West Virginia. The Catholic Church entered as part of Spanish colonialism, but the Catholic population percentage has gone down from 92% in the 1970s to 63–76% in 2007–2017. Protestant, Mormon, and Jehovah’s Witness membership growth was especially high in the 1970s and 1980s. Introduction Religion constitutes an important factor in Costa Rica culture and society, but population percentages of the main religions vary considerably depending on the source. A reliable 2007 survey from the University of Costa Rica reported 70.5% Catholic, 13.8% Protestant, 11.3% no religion, and 4.3% other religions (Wikipedia 2018). For 2009, Mandryk (2010: 281) reported 73.3% Catholic, 17.1% Protestant (including 9.6% Pentecostal), 2.4% Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, 3.0% other religions, and 4.2% no religion. For 2012, Holland (2015: 364) gave 63.4% Catholic, 23.0% Protestant, 10.0% no religion, and 3.6% other religions. By contrast, the CIA Factbook (2018) listed 76.3% Catholic, Costa Rica 14.4% Protestant, 4.8% other religions, 3.2% no religion, and 1.3% Jehovah’s Witnesses for 2017. Despite its small size, Costa Rica has an extraordinary range in biodiversity, landscapes, and climates, including two mountain ranges, rain forests, white and black beaches, pristine lakes and rivers, and 14 volcanoes (including five active ones). Two-thirds of its population lives in the Central Valley, where the capital San José is located. Following the brief civil war of 1948, Costa Rica abolished its army in 1949 and now has a 93% literacy rate. Its life expectancy is among the highest in Latin America, thanks to efficient government spending to ensure people’s access to clean water, vaccinations, adequate nutrition, and health care. Costa Rica’s post1948 history of peace, political stability, democratic government, and a modest welfare state made it popular among investors and tourists alike (Biesanz et al. 1999). The roots of Costa Rican uniqueness go back to Spanish colonialism. Spanish conquistadores described the Pacific Area as the “rich coast,” after receiving generous amounts of gold from Native Americans in the early sixteenth century (Biesanz et al. 1999: 16). However, Costa Rica’s small Native American populations did not allow the development of a feudal economy such as in Guatemala or Nicaragua. A small, self-reliant population of independent subsistence farmers living in Costa Rica had to learn to work out their differences peacefully (Biesanz et al. 1999: 17–19). After gaining independence from Spain in October 1821, Costa Rican landholding elites ruled the country and took advantage of economic opportunities, increasing coffee exports to the United Kingdom after 1843. Coffee soon totally dominated the economy, and the coffee-growing elite dominated politics until the rise of the US banana plantations after 1900. The United Fruit Company exploited vast plantations on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and provided most banana exports until 1917, when local Costa Rican producers overtook them (Biesanz et al. 1999: 44–45). The Costa Rican welfare state started with President Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia Costa Rica (1940–44). He instituted health insurance, minimum wages, an 8-hour work day, and a 6-day work week and also legalized labor unions (Biesanz et al. 1999: 29). However, the 1948 elections between Calderón and Ulate suffered from irregularities. Ulate did win by a small margin, but the calderonista-dominated National Congress voted to annul the elections. This led independent coffee grower José “Pepe” Figueres and his allies, including the United States, to declare war on the government. After 6 weeks of fighting and over 2,000 deaths, Figueres was victorious, the army was abolished in 1949, and new elections were organized that specified 4-year terms and limited reelection. Figueres founded the National Liberation Party (PLN) in 1951, which governed Costa Rica for most of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s (Biesanz et al. 1999: 30–34). In 1983, the more conservative Social Christian Unity Party (PUSC) was founded and governed in the 1990s, 1998, and 2002. After 2002, various new parties emerged, and election outcomes became hard to predict. Roman Catholicism The Roman Catholic Church entered the Costa Rica area as part of the Spanish colonization process. However, the Catholic Church in Costa Rica was part of the diocese of León, in Nicaragua, from 1534 to 1850. The first Catholic church building was constructed in Nicoya in 1544. Only in 1850 did Costa Rica become an independent diocese with a bishop based in San José, the capital since 1823. The archdiocese of San José was created in 1929. A concordat with the Vatican in 1852 made Roman Catholicism the official state religion and gave the state jurisdiction over church properties. However, British-educated President Próspero Fernández Oreamuno (1882–1885) withdrew the concordat, expelled the Jesuits, secularized cemeteries, and legalized divorce. When Bishop Thiel protested, he was promptly exiled too (Biesanz et al. 1999: 231). The heart of the Catholic devotional tradition in Costa Rica is the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de 369 los Ángeles (Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels) in the former colonial capital: Cartago. The original building from 1675 was destroyed in the devastating 1910 earthquake; the current building dates from 1939. The church has a statue of a Black Madonna known as La Negrita, with great healing powers. The sick come to touch her statue in hope of a miracle from La Negrita; her shrine contains hundreds of little metal legs, arms, and other limbs from grateful healed pilgrims. Legend claims that the statue was found by a Native American girl in 1635. The rock where she found it is now revered as a sacred relic; many pilgrims touch it in reverence. The basilica is dedicated to this Virgen de los Ángeles (Virgin of the Angels), who became Costa Rica’s official patron saint in 1926. Her day is August 2; the night before, thousands of Costa Ricans engage in a 28 km (18 miles) pilgrimage walking east from downtown San José along Avenida Segunda (Second Avenue) all the way to the basilica in Cartago (Biesanz et al. 1999: 241; the author observed them walking here in 1990). The institutional presence of the Roman Catholic Church in Costa Rica remained weak for centuries, because of a lack of economic resources (due to a small and overwhelmingly poor population), a shortage of priests, and an influx of foreign clergy from monastic orders after World War II. The 1949 Constitution reaffirmed Roman Catholicism as the official state religion and stipulated state funding to maintain the church and its leaders (Holland 2015: 365). Pope John Paul II visited Costa Rica in 1983, expressing support for the strong democracy in Costa Rica. Over half a million people gathered at La Sabana Park in San José to welcome him and hear his speech. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal The Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) started in the United States and Colombia in 1967 and arrived in Costa Rica in 1971 (Gooren 2012: 189). Stressing a personal relationship with Christ, a strict moral code, and an empowerment based on experiencing the Holy Spirit, the CCR gradually gained more popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. C 370 In the 1990s, a Pentecostal-Charismatic renewal movement spread rapidly among various older Protestant churches but also in the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Charismatic Renewal had 208,000 participants in 2010, representing about 5% of Catholics but close to 30% of committed Catholics (Gooren 2012: 189). The Costa Rican bishops’ conference mostly supported the Catholic Charismatic Renewal since the 1970s to keep Catholics from converting to Protestantism. Still, the population percentage of Catholics has crept down from 92% in 1970 to 80% in 1990, 74% in 2000, and between 63% and 76% for 2007–2017 (Barrett et al. 2001; Mandryk 2010; Holland 2015). Mainline Protestantism Compared to the other Central American countries, Protestantism has experienced less membership growth in Costa Rica. The first mainline Protestant missionaries arrived at the Caribbean Coast in 1887 and in San José’s Central Valley in 1891: the Central American Mission from Dallas, Texas, in the United States. Anglicans arrived from the United Kingdom in 1896, the US Seventh-day Adventists in 1903, the Salvation Army in 1907, the Methodist Church in 1917, and the important Latin American Mission (LAM) in 1921. The LAM organized the foundation of the Latin American Biblical Seminary in 1924, the Bible Clinic in 1929, and the Association of Costa Rican Biblical Churches in 1945. Southern Baptists arrived in 1944, Northern Baptists in 1946, Quakers in 1951 (settling in the Monteverde Cloud Forest where they are still concentrated), US Lutherans in 1960, Mennonites in 1961, and Nazarenes in 1963 (Nelson 1983: 270–298; Holland 2015: 369). The first interdenominational organization was already founded in 1950: the Alianza Evangélica Costarricense (Costa Rican Evangelical Alliance; see Nelson 1983: 306). Based on the churches’ self-reported membership for 2009 (Mandryk 2010: 281), the ten biggest non-Catholic churches in Costa Rica were the US-origin Assemblies of God (99,300), the Costa Rica Seventh-day Adventists (56,000), the Church of God (Cleveland TN, 28,300), the Latter-day Saints (25,374 baptized Mormons), the Jehovah’s Witnesses (24,300), the Association of Costa Rican Biblical Churches (12,250), the Foursquare Gospel Church (11,800), the Methodist Church (10,500), the Pentecostal Holiness Church (PHC) (9,160), and the Evangelical Association of Central America (5,400). Note that there are four Pentecostal churches ranked in this top ten: the Assemblies of God, Church of God, Foursquare Gospel, and Pentecostal Holiness Church. Pentecostalism and Neo-Pentecostalism Pentecostalism was relatively late in establishing congregations in Costa Rica. Two Pentecostal Holiness Church missionaries from the United States did briefly visit Costa Rica in 1918 and 1926. Another PHC missionary stayed in Cartago from 1930 to 1938 but was ultimately unsuccessful in starting a congregation (Nelson 1983: 270). Two missionaries of the Church of God (one from Indiana and one from Tennessee) entered in 1939, followed by the US Assemblies of God in 1944, the Puerto Rican Pentecostal Church of God in 1946, and the (US) Foursquare Gospel Church in 1954. The 1970s witnessed the arrival of the Church of God of Prophecy (1970), the Pentecostal Church of God (1970), the Rose of Sharon Church (1976, from Guatemala), and the United Pentecostal Church (1976). Since the 1980s, various Pentecostal churches have arrived from Brazil. Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal churches, characterized by an emphasis on faith healing and prosperity, started using old cinemas. The health and wealth gospel of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the God Is Love Church proved attractive to some of the poorer segments of the Costa Rican population (Barrett et al. 2001; Holland 2015). Costa Rica experienced the highest Protestant and Pentecostal membership growth in the 1970s and 1980s. Depending on the source, Protestants and Pentecostals made up 14–17% of the Costa Rican population in 2007–2017 (Mandryk 2010; CIA 2018; Wikipedia 2018). Costa Rica Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses The first Jamaican Jehovah’s Witnesses arrived on the Caribbean Coast in 1907, and the Watchtower Society was active in Costa Rica’s Central Valley by 1917. Jehovah’s Witnesses were moderately successful in Costa Rica, with almost 30,000 average publishers by 2016 (Stewart 2019). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent its first representatives to Costa Rica in 1946, but the first branch opened in 1950 and the Mormon mission in 1952. Latter-day Saints experienced strong membership growth in the 1980s and 1990s. Mormons reported 47,474 baptized members in 2017, but the activity rate was only 20–30% (Cumorah 2018; Martinich 2019). Other World Religions and Transnational New Religious Movements Other main world religions with a presence in Costa Rica are Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism. All of these arrived with different groups of immigrants. The Jews arrived from Eastern Europe in the 1920s and 1930s; the first synagogue opened in San José in 1933: Shaarei Zion. Buddhism and Hinduism arrived with Korean and Indian immigrants in the 1970s and 1990s, respectively. None of these world religions recruit members beyond their own ethnic group (Biesanz et al. 1999: 249). The most recent expression of the globalization process was the arrival of various transnational new religious movements in Costa Rica since the 1980s. These included Brazilian and other spiritualists, Baha’i (Iran), the Unification Church (South Korea), Afro-Brazilian religions, Hare Krishna, and Soka Gakkai (Japan). Their membership was modest (Melton and Baumann 2002; Wikipedia 2018). Cross-References ▶ Buddhism in Argentina ▶ Buddhism in Brazil 371 ▶ Buddhism in Central America ▶ Buddhism in Chile ▶ Buddhism in Colombia ▶ Buddhism in Cuba ▶ Buddhism in Mexico ▶ Buddhism in Peru ▶ Buddhism in Uruguay ▶ Buddhism in Venezuela ▶ Catholic Action ▶ Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR) ▶ Islam ▶ Jehovah’s Witnesses in Costa rica ▶ Jews and Judaism in the Caribbean ▶ Mormonism in Costa Rica ▶ Pentecostalism in Costa Rica ▶ Roman Catholicism in Latin America ▶ Soka Gakkai ▶ Unification Church, Moonies References Barrett DB, Kurian GT, Johnson TM (2001) World Christian encyclopedia: second edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford Biesanz MH, Biesanz R, Biesanz KZ (1999) The Ticos: culture and social change in Costa Rica. Lynne Rienner, Boulder Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (2018) The World Factbook: Costa Rica [Online]. https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cs.html. Accessed 15 June 2018 Cumorah (2018) Costa Rica. International Resources for Latter-days Saints [Online]. http://www.cumorah. com/index.php?target=view_country_reports&story_ id=177. Accessed 15 June 2018 Gooren H (2012) The Catholic charismatic renewal in Latin America. Pneuma J Soc Pentecostal Stud 34(2):185–207 Holland CL (2015) Costa Rica. In: Riggs A (ed) Worldmark encyclopedia of religious practices [Second Edition]: volume 2, Countries Afghanistan to Ghana. Thomson Gale, Detroit, pp 364–370 Mandryk J (2010) Operation world: 7th edition. Biblical Publishing, Colorado Springs Martinich M (2019) Mormons in Costa Rica. In: Gooren H (ed) Encyclopedia of Latin American religions. Springer, Heidelberg Melton JG, Baumann M (eds) (2002) Religions of the world: A comprehensive encyclopedia of beliefs and practices, volume 2, Countries A-J. ABC-CLIO, Santa Barbara, pp 323–324 Nelson W (1983) Historia del protestantismo en Costa Rica. Publicaciones IINDEF, San José C 372 Stewart DG (2019) Jehovah’s witnesses in Costa Rica. In: Gooren H (ed) Encyclopedia of Latin American religions. Springer, Heidelberg Wikipedia (2018) Religion in Costa Rica [Online]. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Costa_Rica. Accessed 15 June 2018 Cristero Rebellion Daisy Ocampo University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA Keywords Cristeros · Agraristas · Calles Laws · Clerical presence · Canonization · Vatican Cristero Rebellion Regional Character The Cristero Revolt was distinctively concentrated in the central western region of Mexico including the states of Colima, Jalisco, Michoacán, Zacatecas, and Guanajuato and to a lesser extent states in the south such as Puebla, Oaxaca, and Yucatan. A higher clerical presence characterized these regions, creating unique social conditions in which church property drove the local economy and anchored local cultural affairs. The Calles Laws ruptured the intricately woven cultural fabric binding the Catholic Church to rural communities, often indigenous ones. Less clericalized communities existed on the margins of the church’s radar and were less identified with the reemerging Mexican Catholicism of the Cristero Rebellion (Butler 2004). Definition Grassroots Warfare The Cristero Rebellion was a widespread popular rebellion emerging in the wake of postrevolutionary Mexico during the years of 1926–1929. As conflict between the Catholic Church and the national government of Mexico came to crisis, the grassroots rebellion was a response of lay Catholics to the suspension of the celebration of Catholic Mass by the Mexican church in reaction to the repressive anticlerical measures imposed by President Plutarco Elias Calles. In 1926, the Calles Laws implemented several articles of the 1917 Constitution (including articles 3, 24, 27, and 130). Fueled by fervent antiCatholic rhetoric, the Calles Laws suppressed the civil liberties of Catholic clerics, dismantled a large percentage of church property for implementation of agrarian reforms, and sought to nationalize education by secularizing public schools. Catholic education and iconography were banned and religious defiance was subject to governmental scrutiny and punishment. Armed resistance to these reforms emerged among local rural populations. State efforts to suppress the Cristeros institutionalized religious persecution, resulting in a death toll of about 90,000 people during the course of La Cristiada (Meyer 2013). Cristero actions targeted both the federal troops of the Calles government and agraristas, rural militia form of communities that sympathized with postrevolutionary ambitions. Another interest included a redefinition of local powers from church authorities to local leadership. Cristero tactics consisted of direct combat and reliance on the assistance of local households to supply food, shelter, and logistical information. When supplies were limited, Cristeros resorted to raids of local towns, trains, and ranches for food, ammunition, and spies. Several women brigades were also formed; the most prominent of these was named St. Joan of Arc. These “Cristeras” participated equally in the rebellion alongside their male counterparts (Vaca 1998). Women not only participated in battle, they also crossed the US-Mexico border to secure ammunition. Federal troops, partially supported by the United States, utilized public, violent displays as a form of deterrence: the bodies of executed Cristeros were displayed along train tracks, and churches were vandalized and local priests shot during anticlerical raids. Although the conflict was defined along a divide between church and State, the role of actual clerics in the rebellion was minimal. An overwhelming Cristero Rebellion number of priests abandoned their parish in response to the Vatican’s insistence that the Catholic Church not associate with an armed struggle. Fewer than 50 Mexican priests participated in the active battle. The majority of Cristero soldiers were lay Catholics (Butler 2004). Indigenous people throughout the central western region participated actively on both sides of the conflict: as both Cristeros and Agraristas. Indigenous women joined Cristero efforts through the St. Joan of Arc Brigade. A brigade of indigenous Wixaritari (Huichol) formed under the leadership of a man named Juan Batista and was active across Zacatecas, Jalisco, Durango, and Nayarit (Liffman 2011). At the same time, many members of Wixaritari, Mazahua, Purepecha, and Yaqui indigenous communities were in favor of the agrarian reforms implemented under the Calles Laws and fought against Cristeros with the goal of overthrowing Catholic authorities to reestablish indigenous leadership. These indigenous communities were looking to shift the dynamics of local property rights, religious observances, and political power. In the case of rural Mazahua communities where no priests were permanently assigned, Catholicism was poorly institutionalized often reinforcing stronger ancestral ties to the land (Purnell 1999). Indigenous communities with a stronger clericalized Catholic presence often correlated with a higher concentration of Cristero violence (Butler 2004). Outcomes and Consequences The Cristero War ended around 1929 when US Ambassador Dwight Morrow intervened to negotiate a truce. Many of the constitutional articles that prompted the rebellion remained intact, although future Mexican presidents were less interested in enforcing them. The Catholic Church was nevertheless stripped of a significant degree of political, religious, and economic power. Countless families lost their head of household (both male and female) in the rebellion, creating economic instability leading to emigration and exile. As a result, a Cristero refuge community formed in the United States, especially in the 373 Southern California region. The Vatican’s diplomatic relationship with the Mexican State remained strained for decades. The articles most hostile to the Catholic Church have subsequently been removed from the Constitution. C Catholic Church Canonization of Cristeros The Cristero Rebellion remained an unhealed wound for the Catholic Church: this was a conflict promoted by clergy who flouted Vatican authority. Seven decades later, in an attempt to reconcile with the rebellion, Pope John Paul II canonized a total of 25 Cristero martyrs including 22 priest and three lay Cristeros. Each of these was identified as participating nonviolently in the conflict. The canonization of these priests was an effort to shape public memory of the Cristero Rebellion. It also marked a critical moment in the history of the Catholic Church in which its authority in the public sphere of Mexican society was significantly diminished. Public Memory For several decades following the Cristero Rebellion, the National General Archive did not grant access to their documents. The Catholic Church, equally, did not allow access to important correspondence to and from the Vatican, participating military troops did not grant interviews, and high government officials – before releasing any sensitive information during interviews – preferred to revoke their rights to do the interview altogether making it very difficult for scholarship to be produced. Limited information was available and a silence emerged within Mexican public memory. At its onset, the Cristero Rebellion was seen as nothing more than a mere quandary of peasant Catholic fanatics rallied by a few rural priests to protest the Constitution; many people believed the Rebellion was too insignificant and undeserving of its own study. Recent historians have taken interest to create new historical accounts of the Rebellion. Today, the Cristero Rebellion is largely 374 memorialized through the Catholic Church as a time period of Catholic persecution by the Mexican state. References Butler M (2004) Popular piety and political identity in Mexico’s Cristero Rebellion: Michoacán, 1927–1929. Oxford University Press, Oxford Liffman P (2011) Huichol Territory and the Mexican Nation. University of Arizona, Tucson Meyer J (2013) La Cristiada: the Mexican people’s war for religious liberty. Square One, New York Purnell J (1999) Popular movements and state formation in revolutionary Mexico: the agraristas and cristeros of Michoacán. Duke University, Durham Vaca A (1998) Los Silencios de la Historia: Las Cristeras. Colegio de Jalisco, Guadalajara Cuba Ondina A. Cortes St. Thomas University, Miami, FL, USA Cuba Many more identified with the Catholic religion but still participated in other religious groups or practiced some form of African religion, mainly Santería. Evangelical Protestants were estimated at 5% (Holland 2013), and the numbers have grown since the government ended its stance of official atheism in 1992. Since that time, restrictions on religious practice have eased and people of faith have been permitted to be members of the Communist Party. Increasing positive engagement between government leaders and religious groups has favored a proliferation of religious expressions (Perera and Pérez Cruz 2009). As a result, the religious composition of the Cuban population is much more complex and diverse than ever before. The history of religion in Cuba can be divided in four periods: Catholicism during colonial times (1492–1898), Christian pluralism during US interventions and republican governments (1898–1959), church-state tension under official atheism (1959–1992), and religious tolerance and resurgence (1992–present). Keywords Catholicism · Protestantism · Islam · Judaism · Santería · Jehovah’s witnesses · Mormons · Revolution Definition Religion in Cuba includes the exploration of faith expressions beginning with the native inhabitants of the island, the development of Catholicism under the Spanish, and the arrival of multiple religious groups in post-colonial times. From the colonial period to the contemporary moment, African-descended people and their cultural expressions have contributed religious understandings and practices in significant ways to Cuban religion in general. Introduction Cuba had a population of 11.39 million in 2017. More than half (60.2%) were baptized Catholics. Pre-Columbian Era The first inhabitants of the island came from North America and the Gulf of Mexico as far back as 8000 BCE. Successive waves of migration came from Central America, Venezuela, and the Antilles (Hunt 2016). Bartolomé de Las Casas distinguished three different aboriginal cultures, which he called Guanahatebey, Siboney, and Taína (Marrero 1972). The most developed of these groups were the taínos, part of the arahuacos or Arawaks. They practiced a form of animist religion that included a cult of the ancestors. They were polytheistic and their gods were called zemi (Portuondo Zúñiga 2011). When Christianity was introduced, the indigenous people largely embraced the faith, often bringing their own understanding from their former practices. In particular, Atabex or Atabey, the Mother of God in their religion was identified with Mary, the mother of Jesus (Portuondo Zúñiga 2011). Many anthropologists have also highlighted the indigenous Cuba influence on Cuban Catholic life and practice (Ortiz 2008). The first authorization of the King of Spain to bring slaves from Africa took place as early as 1513, but the slave trade reached its peak in the nineteenth century during the boom of the sugar industry. It ended only by royal decree in 1886. As a result of this, memories of Africa, including religious practices and understandings, are perhaps more fresh and complex in Cuba than anywhere else in the Americas. The Catholic Church in Cuba From the Colonial Period to 1959 As elsewhere in the Americas, Christianity took root in Cuba through the colonization process, which for the Spanish monarchy had the twofold aim of extending the territories of the crown and spreading the Catholic faith. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, evangelization was carried out primarily by religious communities and a poorly educated Spanish secular clergy. Religious communities set up hospitals and educational institutions. Bishops preferred to live in Havana, which was established as the capital of the colony in 1607 and more favored geographically and financially (Suárez Polcari 2003). The ecclesiastical census of 1689 shows the vitality of the church at that time, reporting 225 diocesan priests, 205 religious men, and 100 religious women (CRECED 1996, #14). Most diocesan clergy was native but most of the religious (both women and men) tended to be from Spain. In 1789, the island was divided between newly-established Diocese of San Cristóbal de la Habana and the Archdiocese of Santiago de Cuba. During this time, the church in Cuba continued to be closely related to the Spanish territories of Louisiana, Florida, and even part of what is today South Carolina. The proportion of native clergy continued to increase, replacing the Spanish missionaries (ENEC #32). In the second half of the eighteenth century, there were 700 priests in Cuba, and Havana alone had 33 churches (CRECED 1996, #20). 375 During the first decades of the nineteenth century, a sense of Cuban identity and the desire for independence arose among the educated classes. Catholic Church leaders played a significant role in the development of a national identity through leaders like Father José Agustín Caballero and especially Father Felix Varela (Suárez Polcari 2003). The patronato regio, whereby colonial Spain provided the equivalent of the tithe to the church and infrastructural support in return for the power to name local bishops and authorize the work of the religious orders, produced a generally prosperous church and a relatively flourishing faith at the time. However, by the early nineteenth century, Spain lost its colonies in the continental Americas and the possibility of independence in its remaining Caribbean colonies were a clear threat to continued Spanish rule there as well. As a result, Spain exercised its power over naming bishops and funding the Catholic Church so as to ensure loyalty to the colonial regime (Suárez Polcari 2003). A decline of native clergy followed, bringing in its wake a new wave of Spanish priests who often lacked both zeal and resources to carry out pastoral work. There were notable exceptions, particularly the renowned bishop-missionary of Santiago de Cuba, Saint Anthony Mary Claret, who led the Archdiocese from 1850 to 1857 (Lebroc and Bermejo 1992). In general, the Catholic Church in Cuba was in a state of pastoral and financial abandonment, dependent on the Spanish government for its livelihood. The Spanish government in turn saw the church more in instrumental than religious terms and its condition was not comparable to that of earlier centuries. After three years of military occupation by the United States (1898–1901), Cuba’s republican experience began with the election of the first President, Tomás Estrada Palma (Sweig 2009). North American presence and influence continued in a variety of ways, however, especially through the Platt Amendment, which was effective until 1934 and gave the United States an unlimited legal right to intervene in Cuban political life. During the first generation of independence, leadership of the Catholic Church remained pro- C 376 Spanish and stayed on the margins of national life. New developments occurred, however, in the wake of national independence and the US occupation. Within the first 10 years, new dioceses were created, named now by the Pope rather than Spain, and the new bishops were therefore Cuban. By the mid-twentieth century, the Cuban Catholic Church had once again come to play a vigorous and constructive role in the life of the nation. In 1960, self-identified Catholics constituted some 72.5% of the total population. At the same time, the Catholic Church in Cuba remained among the weakest in Latin America in terms of attendance (Crahan 1985). Popular commitment to Catholicism was instead expressed by devotional practices within families, and institutional installed capacity outside the major cities remained weak. At the same time, the Catholic Church in Cuba was among the most advanced in Latin America in terms of progressive social thought and concern for the poor. At this level of Catholic life and leadership, there was a great deal of commitment for social change and democratization during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s. On January 1, 1959, as a result of several years of armed struggle, the dictator fled the country. The revolution triumphed under the leadership of Fidel Castro and others, many of whom soon disappeared from the political scene for various reasons or took up secondary positions as the personal control of Fidel Castro came to dominate. Over the following decades, the Catholic Church and religion in general went through three major periods in Cuba, each marking a different sort of relationship with the Cuban state: confrontation, silence, and resurgence. Institutional Confrontation The Cuban revolution began with the full support of the Catholic Church (Montenegro González 2010), most especially its younger members organized through the Federation of Catholic Action, the University Catholic Group, and other lay movements and groups with a strong social commitment. However, relations changed dramatically as the socialist, Marxist, and Leninist Cuba character of the revolution was revealed. The Catholic bishops stated forcefully that Christianity was incompatible with atheistic communism (Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Cuba 1960). Above all, actions against human rights and freedom of religion became the primary issue for the Catholic Church (Super 2003). Religious groups and church activities became progressively more limited. On September 17, 1961, Bishop Boza Masvidal and 131 priests were expelled and exiled to Spain (Clark 1985). The Cuban Government banned processions and all other religious activities outside church buildings on the claim that these religious expressions were actually anti-government demonstrations (Crahan 1999: 95). Of the 800 Catholic priests who had been in Cuba before 1959, approximately 600 went in exile during the tumultuous first years of the revolution. The effect on Catholic religious orders, notably religious women, was even more severe: only 200 out of approximately 2,000 Catholic sisters remained in the country after the first years of the revolution (ENEC 1987: 25). The political, economic, and social changes triggered a mass emigration that deprived the church of Cuba of much of its lay leadership and committed laity for decades to come. The Church of Silence After this period of confrontation, the Catholic Church in Cuba, now much diminished and even dismantled, began a quiet phase of internal consolidation. Catholics focused on silent witness, on giving a good and faithful example in their studies, work, and lives in general. They visited the sick and the elderly and cared for fellow believers, supporting and serving the community. With the church reduced to silence and atheism officially imposed by the state in the 1976 Constitution, many Cubans came to see religion as a thing of the past. In 1965, the UMAP (Military Units to Aid Production) were created. These were military-like labor camps to which virtually all young active Catholics, including seminarians, were sent, along with homosexuals, malcontents, and other political undesirables (Pedraza 2007). These quasi-concentration camps lasted until 1968. Cuba It was in this setting that developments within the global Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) were received. Efforts were made to implement the Council insofar as possible. However, given the large number of Catholics who went into exile, forced or self-imposed, as well as the active repression the church experienced at all levels, adult education and the catechesis of children declined precipitously. A Church in Resurgence A process of accelerated revitalization began in the second half of the 1980s. The publication Fidel and Religion, a book-length interview with the Dominican Frei Betto of Brazil, helped remove people’s fear of the topic of religion (Pedraza 2007). By 1982, national commissions and diocesan organizations began to work together with the rest of the church in a process called the Cuban Ecclesial Reflection (REC) as a preparation for the 1986 Cuban National Ecclesial Encounter (ENEC). The starting point for ENEC was a clear-eyed reading of the situation of the church in Cuba. The ENEC catalyzed a dialogical vision of the relationship of the church with the reality of Cuba and its mission within it. The ENEC was followed by a series of initiatives that brought the Catholic Church back into the streets and the public square. Twenty years later, a pilgrimage was organized across the Island with the image of Our Lady of Charity. The overwhelming popular response was a sign that Cubans had lost all fear of expressing their religious beliefs. In part, this change followed on the 1992 amending of the Constitution with Article 42 that prohibited discrimination on the basis of religious beliefs, even allowing Christians to belong to the Communist Party. From this point on, Cuba was defined as a secular rather than an atheist state. Since 1985, Cuba opened the Office of Religious Affairs (Oficina de Atención para los Asuntos Religiosos), which is assigned to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. It regulates Church-State relationships and represents the State in all religious functions. 377 The visit of Pope John Paul II in 1998 was a major catalyst in favor of religious freedom. The papal events overflowed with people who wanted to hear the voice of the pope, whether or not they were believers. People began to increasingly come to churches and church activities. Its first result was a notable increase in the number of people, both young people and adults, who came asking for baptism. This also marked a transformation of Catholic life as new members joined from the wider society. While interested in being part of the faith, they often had a weaker doctrinal preparation and perhaps commitment than those who had been members during the times of struggle. In 2015, Pope Francis visited Cuba after serving as a key mediator in the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States. The visit made the church very visible in Cuba. All the ceremonies were transmitted through state run TV channels with local priests as commentators. The rapprochement between the United States and Cuba has opened paths of communication and exchange between Cubans on the island and those outside. From the standpoint of reconciliation, La Virgen de la Caridad, “symbol of Cubanicity” (Portuando Zúñiga 2011), plays a particularly important role. Devotion to this symbol since its origins has united the Catholic Cuban people. Challenges The most serious problem currently facing the church in Cuba is the temporary and permanent emigration of its leaders, parishioners, and people in general. There is an exodus of native priests, leaving pastoral work in the hands of foreign clergy. The church in Cuba has 11 ecclesiastical circumscriptions and 304 parishes. There are 361priests and 656 religious, the majority of these being religious women (USCCB.org). While about 60% of the population is baptized Catholic, only 2% attend Sunday mass (Plan Pastoral 2014–2020). Many lay people who stayed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s are now leaving because of their children and grandchildren who want to emigrate or have already done so. Since C 378 restoration of relations between Cuba and the United States, emigration increased, most entering through South America (Venezuela or Ecuador) or through Central America and then crossing into Mexico to reach the US border. This was based on the expectation that the laws granting Cubans political asylum would change. Afro-Cuban Religions Since early colonial times African slaves were brought to Cuba to work in family homes, mines, plantations, and sugar mills. They brought with them their rich cultural traditions, including their religious beliefs. After the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) destroyed the largest sugarproducing economy in the world, Cuba became the world’s leader in the industry. Some estimate that close to a million slaves were brought here between 1790 and 1876 to respond to the demands of the sugar production (Murray 1971). Four major groups of people were brought from Africa. Each had their own particular religious tradition or cult, which they called a regla or rule (Cabrera 2000). The system of cabildos, whereby African slaves were grouped according to ethnicity and allowed to preserve their language and culture, favored the preservation of African religions (Murrell 2010). The Kongo were the largest ethnic group that arrived. They belonged to the Bantu culture of people living in the region of today’s Angola and the Congolese coast, and they followed the Regla de Palo Monte, which takes its name from the tree branches used by their practitioners. The Kongo have three recognized subgroups: Briyumba, Kimbisa, and Mayombe. The latter is the most widespread in Cuba, especially in Matanzas and Las Villas (Gonzalez Maldonado 2010). The center of the Palo Monte ritual is a cauldron (nganga) full of natural objects and often human remains (skull or bone), which are all understood to contain power. With the power obtained from the nganga, the palero aims to control the spirits to make them do good or bad. Such practices are typically seen as witchcraft or black magic by outsiders. Cuba From former Dahomey (Benin), Togo, and eastern Ghana came the Fon-Ewe people. They practiced the Regla Arará, which is very secret and strict. This may explain why it did not spread as much as the others. Many Africans also came from what is now southeastern Nigeria. They were members of the Caribalí tribes. Regla Abakuá or Caribalí is very mysterious and restricted to men. Members of the Secret Society of Abakuá are often called ñáñigos referring to their form of dance. They believe that the sacred drums embody their principal deity, Ekue. They are associated with dock workers and their first society was founded in the town of Regla in 1836, near the Havana docks (Gonzalez Maldonado 2010). The most influential source of African-derived religious understanding and practice in Cuba is that of the Yorubas who came from southwestern Nigeria. They formed the second largest group that arrived in Cuba. They practice the Regla de Ocha or Lucumí, which has come to be known as Santería or “way of the saints,” given the association of Catholic saints with divine forces that were part of the Yoruba cosmology (de la Torre 2004). Devotees have often understood Yoruba cosmology in parallel with Catholic religious understanding. Catholic belief in a supreme being echoed Yoruba belief in Olodumare, the Supreme Being. Yoruba people saw many statues of saints in Catholic churches, reminding them of their orishas, intermediate beings endowed with ashé – power or grace – to act on behalf of Olodumare. Over time, a blending of Catholic and Yoruba understanding took place in a way that was greater than in the other Africanoriginated religious traditions. To this day, many santeros do not see a contradiction between worshipping in a Catholic church and practicing Santería. The high priests of Santería are called babalawos and they are the only ones who can perform divination or Ifá. Santería developed the most in the western part of the island, in Matanzas and Havana (Barnet 2001), where many sugar plantations were located. During the 1930s, Santería became widespread throughout the island and with the Cuban diaspora that began after 1959 it reached the United States and other Cuba countries. It is impossible to estimate the number of santeros on the island, since there are no records and many devotees identify as Catholics. They have received a strong backing from the Cuban government, often far more than specifically Christian groups. Local tourist information often presents this tradition as the official religion of Cuba and Santería folklore is promoted among tourists. Commercialization is also evident through the proliferation of botánicas or stores (in Cuba, but mostly in the United States) that sell materials needed for rituals, from herbs and candles to necklaces, clothing, and animals for sacrifices. Their rapid growth may be related to the sociopolitical situation of Cuba (Perera and Pérez Cruz 2009). Given the suppression of the public expression of organized religion, the search for God within popular culture came to be channeled through popular religiosity and syncretic practices, such as Santería and spiritism (the practice of communication with the dead). Since their rituals are for the most part private and secretive, they escaped government control. These forms of religiosity are very attractive – and less threatening to the state – precisely because they make no overarching moral demands but rather offer magical elements and provide a sense of tranquility or security even while they create fears and anxieties. In the last few years, efforts have been made to institutionalize Santería and to legalize some of its practices (such as animal sacrifices). These initiatives have mostly come from Cuban exiles. Protestant Churches in Cuba and Other Religious Groups During the 1800s, a number of Cuban immigrants to the United States converted to Protestantism and then returned to Cuba to develop various Protestant churches despite the prohibition of the colonial government. At the same time, the relationship between the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church during this time favored the growth of Protestantism among Cubans who opposed colonial domination. Many early 379 missionaries became leaders in the struggle for independence against Spain such as Pedro Duarte Agustín Santa Rosa, Joaquín de Palma (Baptist), Luis Ayestarán y Moliner (Episcopalian), Evaristo Collazo (Presbyterian), and Manuel Deulofeu (Methodist). In 1868, exiled Cubans under the leadership of Joaquin de Palma founded the Cuban Church of Santiago at St. James Episcopal Church in New York (de la Paz 2001:15–16). It was an outreach post to minister to exiles and to promote support for the efforts of independence. De Palma later became Baptist and established the American Bible Society in Cuba in 1882 (Holland 2013). Episcopal leader Juan Bautista Baez successfully ministered to exiled communities of Cubans in Key West and Tampa. Edward Keeney, also Episcopalian, was sent in 1871 to Havana to serve English-speaking expatriates. Keeney founded the first Protestant cemetery in Cuba. Nonetheless, the first Protestant church on Cuban soil was not established until 1883 by Rev. Alberto J. Diaz, under the Episcopal Bishop of Florida. This historic church, Iglesia Getsemani in Havana, later became a Baptist church (Holland 2013). The establishment of Presbyterian congregations in Cuba is attributed to Evaristo Collazo and his wife Magdalena. In 1890, they invited the Presbyterian Church in the United States to support their work in Havana. Collazo was later ordained and worked in different towns in Santa Clara until he joined the struggle for Cuba’s independence next to renowned patriot José Martí. Collazo was the only member of the Protestant clergy to participate in the war. The War of Independence, also known as the Spanish-American War, ended in 1898. In the ensuing American occupation in Cuba and after, Protestant churches flourished as a result of the US political and economic presence (Ramos 2002). The Constitution adopted in 1901 was based on the US Constitution and hence granted freedom of religion (Article 26). Methodism first arrived in Cuba in 1883 when Cubans who migrated to Florida returned home with their newfound faith. In 1898, the Methodist Episcopal Church established the Key West C 380 Missionary District under Bishop Warren Aiken Candler, who appointed personnel to serve in Cuba (Holland 2013). Candler College was founded in Havana a year later by missionaries of the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodists established schools, chapels, and clinics in Havana, Matanzas, Cienfuegos, Santiago, Manzanillo, Cárdenas, and Caibarién (Pérez 1992). The first Baptist church was founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1898. The Southern Baptist Convention of the United States sent Rev. José Regino del Rosario O’Halloran to begin a ministry there. Later, it was agreed that the Northern Baptist Convention would assist the eastern provinces of Camagüey and Oriente, while Southern Baptists would take responsibility for spreading Baptist churches over the rest of the island. The American Friends Mission began in Holguin in 1898 and the Mennonite Church was established in 1954.The Disciples of Christ established missions in Havana and Matanzas as far back as 1899. In 1900, The Presbyterian Church opened the first non-Catholic school for women. Even though Episcopalians arrived in 1899, the official founding of the Episcopal Church in Cuba did not take place until 1901, with the establishment of the Missionary District of Cuba under the authority of the Bishop of Puerto Rico, James van Buren (de la Paz 2001: 41). Episcopalians were concentrated in Matanzas and Santiago de Cuba (Pérez 1992). The first Convention of Evangelical Churches took place in 1902. It was organized to coordinate the outpour of missionary efforts and resolve conflicts among different denominations (Pérez 1992). Initially, most missionaries and church leaders were from the United States. The foundation of an ecumenical theological seminary in the early 1900s helped educate Cubans to take on leadership roles. Lutherans did not arrive in Cuba until 1907, during the second US military intervention and occupation of the island (1906–1909). Their evangelical activity focused on the Isle of Pines, a small island south of Havana (Pérez 1992). They also worked among immigrants from the Cayman Islands. Cuba Seventh-day Adventists arrived in Santa Clara in 1913 (Pérez 1992), and in 2017 they had some 313 churches throughout the island (www. adventistassantaclara.info). The Salvation Army began its mission serving Jamaican immigrants in 1918 (Holland 2013). Pentecostalism took root around 1930 (www. ecured.cu). Since that time, Pentecostal growth has far superseded any other Christian tradition implanted since the US occupation. More than half of all evangelical churches in Cuba today have a Pentecostal orientation (www.ecured.cu). The Methodist, Presbyterian, and Episcopal Churches founded the Evangelical Seminary at Matanzas, Cuba, on October 1, 1946. This remains the only ecumenical seminary in Cuba (www.globalministries.org). By the 1950s, the number of Protestant Cubans reached 400,000 and Protestant chapels outnumbered Catholic churches (Pérez 1992). During the first decades of the Cuban Revolution, these churches diminished greatly due to mass migration and the loss of institutional educational and health centers through government decree. When the United States broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba in 1961, many local churches chose to become autonomous as communication and exchange visits became extremely difficult. Those that relied on foreign funds and support were most affected. A strong emphasis on Cubanization and distancing from American sources became the order of the day. Some religious groups were especially criticized and repressed, such as the Adventists, Bando de Gedeon, Pentecostals, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. In 1966, the Episcopal Church in Cuba became an autonomous diocese within the Anglican Communion. The first Cuban bishop was José Agustín González (1967–1982). The church has experienced instability and was under guidance of interim bishops who often lived outside the island. The Episcopal Church of Cuba met a few months after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States (on December 17, 2014) and decided to return formally to the Episcopal Church. During the 1990s, all religious groups experienced an awakening and witnessed a proliferation Cuba 381 of religious life that has made Cuban religion “more heterogeneous, plural, and complex” than ever (Pérez Cruz et al. 2013: 26). Charismatic worship within the historic Protestant churches has become much more common, especially among Methodists and Baptists. New groups, which call themselves “churches, movements, and ministries” (Pérez Cruz et al. 2013: 26) continue to spring up throughout the island. According to government sources, there were 52 Protestant and Evangelical denominations registered in the National Registry of Associations in 2017 (ecured.cu). About half operated in Havana, but increasing numbers were being established in the countryside. Close to 900 churches and 2,000 houses of worship were authorized to serve the Cuban people in 2017 (ecured.cu). These numbers seem extremely small compared to statistics provided by church groups. For example, the two Cuban Baptist Conventions reported 7,000 churches, 1,346 missions, and 4,901 houses of prayer or cell churches (Denman 2013). Methodists claimed more than 42,000 members and a worshipping community of 65,000 (Wright 2015). The Cuban Council of Churches is the main ecumenical organization of Cuba with 27 full member churches, 12 ecumenical organizations, and other members in 2016. It was founded in 1941 and currently has strong governmental backing. This in turn has led to criticism from other religious groups who do not want to be associated with the political system. work camps or placed in jail. Today they are assigned some type of civic duty in lieu of military service. Witnesses hold their meetings in private houses: there are no Kingdom Halls. Since 1998, they have been operating a print shop for their publications. Witnesses claim about 96,000 active missionaries or “publishers” (Watchtower online) and 1,400 congregations. Other Religious Groups Judaism in Cuba Jehovah’s Witnesses The Jehovah’s Witnesses arrived in Cuba in 1910. They are not part of the state-sanctioned Council of Churches nor have they requested official recognition by the government. In the early days of the Cuban Revolution, they were persecuted for refusing to participate in military service and other mandatory “patriotic” activities (such as singing the national anthem, wearing school uniforms, etc.). Witnesses were banned in 1974 and their halls closed (Calzon 1976). Many were sent to After independence, many Jews in Cuba were businessmen coming from the United States. During the 1920s, many Jews settled in Cuba as a result of the American Quota Acts that restricted immigration from Eastern Europe and Mediterranean countries (Bejarano 2002). Most saw Cuba as a point of transition to enter the United States, but many stayed. A large group of Jews came from Germany, Poland, and other Eastern Europe countries. These were Yiddish speaking Ashkenazic Jews, which Cubans called polacos. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) In 2004, Mormons were welcomed in Cuba by government officials, although in 2017 they were not an officially registered religion yet. The growing number of Mormon members, more than 100, called for the creation of a second branch in 2014. In 2014, there were no Latter-day Saints serving as missionaries proselytizing in the streets as in other countries (Fletcher Stack 2014). New Religious Movements During the 1990s, many new churches and religious movements emerged as Cubans lived through the worst economic crisis the country had ever experienced. Most of these groups were closely associated with international centers in other countries and within the exile community. The most popular included a number that originated in Miami: Creciendo en Gracia (Growing in Faith) and Alfa y Omega. Movimiento Apostólico Fuego y Dinámica (Apostolic Movement Fire and Dynamic) emerged in Camaguey in 2003 (Pérez Cruz et al. 2013). C 382 Large numbers of Sephardic Jews, who had lived in Turkey since the Inquisition, sought to escape Muslim persecution in the 1923-established Republic of Turkey by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Sephardic Jews dispersed throughout the island and often intermarried with Christians. Still others from the Ottoman influenced lands were themselves Christians of one kind or another, but all were called turcos. Most were successful merchants and popular peddlers (Bejarano 2002). At the time of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, there were some 15,000 Jews on the island and five synagogues in Havana (Behar 2007a). However, thousands left for the United States and other Latin American countries in exile. A small community of Conservative and Orthodox Jews nonetheless remained. The Reform movement became extinct when the last Reformed rabbi left for the United States (cajm.org). Cuba’s Jewish revival began in the mid-1990s, when Cuban Jewish youngsters became interested in exploring their heritage (Kaplan 2000). The pre-revolutionary Jewish community in Cuba was largely immigrants, with very few converts. The postrevolutionary Jewish community in Cuba, however, has many converts. There are no rabbis in Cuba (Jacobs 2008), but rabbis from Latin American countries periodically visit the island to teach and perform weddings, circumcisions, and other ceremonies. Lay people celebrate Jewish initiations ceremonies bat mitzvahs and bar mitzvahs (Whitefield 2015). There are about 1,500 Jews living in different cities across the country, in Cienfuegos, Caibarién, Santa Clara, Sancti Spiritus, Manzanillo, Campechuela, Santiago de Cuba, and Guantánamo (Comunidad Judia website 2016). However, the majority of Jews live in Havana. Many continue to nurture their faith, reading Torahs brought 80 years ago from Poland and Turkey (Behar 2007b). Islam in Cuba Pew (2009) reported 9,000 Muslims in Cuba or 0.1% of the population. More recent data reported Cuba 10,000 members (Lahrichi 2016). Islam was introduced in Cuba in the 1970s and 1980s by Muslim students from Chad, Niger, Pakistan, and Rwanda who came to the island to study in the Latin American School of Medicine. Close to a thousand students from Pakistan were given scholarships to study in Cuba after an earthquake hit their country in 2005. However, the vast majority of today’s Cuban Muslims are converts, not descendants from Arabs. At the request of Turkey, the Cuban government granted permission for construction of a mosque in Old Havana, though it later stopped the project. In the meantime, Cuban Muslims pray in a remodeled historic building-turned mosque next to an Islamic museum known as the Arab House. Saudi Arabia has paid for the remodeling and requested permission to build a mosque, according to some sources (Safak 2015). The prayer room was inaugurated in June 2015. Sunni Muslims pray there, while a group of Shiites meet in Lawton, another Havana neighborhood (Sánchez 2016). References Catholic Church Clark J (1985) Religious Repression in Cuba. University of Miami Press, Miami Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Cuba (1960) Circular Colectiva del Episcopado Cubano, agosto 7, 1960. En La Voz de la Iglesia en Cuba. 100 Documentos Episcopales. Mexico, D.F.: Obra Nacional de la Buena Prensa Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Cuba (2014) Plan Pastoral de la Iglesia Católica en Cuba. 2014–2020 Crahan ME (1985) Cuba: religion and revolutionary institutionalization. J Lat Am Stud 17(2):319–340. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/156825. Accessed: 20 Dec 2012 Crahan ME (1999) Cuba. In: Sigmund P (ed) Religious freedom and evangelization in Latin America. The challenge of religious pluralism. Orbis, Maryknoll, pp 87–112 CRECED (1996) Comunidades de Reflexión Eclesial Cubana en la Diáspora: Final Document. Graphic Ideas Corporation, Miami Encuentro Nacional Eclesial Cubano (ENEC). Documento Final (1987) Tipografía Don Bosco, Roma Hunt N (2016) History of Cuban Nation from colonial days to the present. http://www.cubahistory.org/en/spanishsettlement/slavery-and-rebellion-in-cuba.html. Accessed 15 May 2016 Cuba Lebroc MR and Bermejo J cmf. (1992) San Antonio Maria Claret Arzobispo Misionero de Cuba. Madrid: Misioneros Hijos del Ido. Corazon de Maria, Orinoco Artes Graficas, Madrid Marrero L (1972) Cuba: Economía y Sociedad. Editorial San Juan, San Juan Montenegro González A (2010) Historia de la Iglesia en Cuba (1977–1994). Anu Hist Iglesia 19:293–338 Ortiz F (2008) La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Historia y Etnografía. Imprenta Federico Engels, La Habana Pedraza S (2007) Political disaffection in cuba’s revolution and exodus. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Perera AC, Pérez Cruz O (2009) Crisis social y reavivamiento religioso. Una Mirada desde lo sociocultural. Cuicuilco 16(46):136–157 Pérez Cruz O et al (2013) Nuevos Movimientos Religiosos en Cuba. Centro de Investigaciones Psicológicas y Sociológicas, La Habana Portuondo Zúñiga O (2011) La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre. Símbolo de Cubanía. Santiago de Cuba, Editorial Oriente Suárez Polcari R (2003) Historia de la Iglesia Católica en Cuba, vol I. Ed. Universal, Miami Super J (2003) Interpretations of Church and State in Cuba, 1959–1961. Cathol Hist Rev 89(3):511. World Scholar: Latin America & the Caribbean. http://proxy. stu.edu:2377/tinyurl/5. Accessed 25 Feb 2013 Sweig J (2009) Cuba: what everyone needs to know. Oxford University Press, Oxford Afro-Cuban Religions Barnet M (2001) Afro-Cuban religions. Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton Cabrera L (2000 [1954]) El Monte. Ed. Universal, Miami De La Torre MA (2004) Santería: The beliefs and rituals of a growing religion in America. William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co., Grand Rapids Gonzalez Maldonado M (2010) Creole African traditions. In: Edmonds EB, Gonzalez Maldonado M (eds) Caribbean religious history: an introduction. New York University Press, New York Murray DR (1971) Statistics of the slave trade to Cuba, 1790–1867. J Lat Am Stud 3(2):131–149. http://www. latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/Cuba-slave-trade.pdf. Accessed 2 July 2016 Murrell NS (2010) Afro-Caribbean Religions: an introduction to their historical, cultural, and sacred traditions. Temple University Press, Philadelphia 383 Fletcher Stack P (2014) Will Mormon mission calls soon say Havana? The Salt Lake Tribune, 18 Dec 2014. http://www.sltrib.com/lifestyle/faith/1962188155/will-mormon-mission-calls-soon-say. Accessed 11 June 2016 Holland C (2013) A chronology of protestant beginnings: Cuba. http://www.prolades.com/historical/cuba-chron. pdf. Accessed 1 Aug 2016 de la Paz JR (2001) La Historia de la Iglesia Episcopal de Cuba.http://anglicanhistory.org/wi/cuba/de_la_paz_ historia2001.pdf. Accessed 11 June 2016 Pérez LA (1992) Protestant missionaries in Cuba: archival records, manuscript collections, and research prospects. Lat Am Res Rev 27(1):105–120 Ramos MA (2002) Religion and religiosity in Cuba: past, present and future. Trinity College, Washington, DC Wright E (2015) Cuba’s vibrant, growing methodist church new outlook magazine. May/June 2015. http://www. umcmission.org/Find-Resources/New-World-OutlookMagazine/New-World-Outlook-Archives/2015/May/ June/0616cubasvibrantchurch. Accessed 20 May 2016 Judaism Behar R (2007a) An island called home: returning to Jewish Cuba. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10216869 Behar R (2007b) Cuba’s Jews, the people of a solitary star. J Int Inst 15(1), Fall 2007. http://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/ jii/4750978.0015.103/%2D%2Dcuba-s-jews-peopleof-a-solitary-star?rgn=main;view=fulltext. Accessed 29 June 2016 Bejarano M (2002) Sephardic Jews in Cuba. Judaism 51:96–108 Comunidad Judia website. Pinar del Rio, Camaguey, Holguin, Isla de la Juventud, Matanzas. http://www. jewishcuba.org/hatikva/comunidad.html. Accessed 17 Oct 2018 Jacobs P (2008) Find Judaism Reborn in Cuba. Jewish Advocate. Retrieved from http://proxy.stu.edu:2048/ login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 205119493?accountid=14129. Accessed 30 June 2016 Kaplan DE (2000) A Jewish Renaissance in Castro’s Cuba. Judaism 49:218–236 Whitefield M (2015) For Cuba’s Jews, a rekindling of faith on the island. The Miami Herald. 13 Sept 2015. http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/ world/americas/cuba/article35116920.html. Accessed 30 June 2016 Protestantism Calzon F (1976) Jehovah witnesses in Cuba: Report. http:// worldview.carnegiecouncil.org/archive/worldview/ 1976/12/2785.html/_res/id=sa_File1/v19_i012_a004. pdf. Accessed 21 July 2016 Denman B (2013) Southern Baptists to expand Cuba outreach. Daily Commercial. 5 Oct 2013. http://www. dailycommercial.com/lifestyles/article_75c49b7deff2-5bf9-b7fb-a001a2f81dc6.html. Accessed 31 July 2016 Islam Lahrichi K (2016) Islam thrives in communist Cuba. USA Today. July 2 2016. http://www.usatoday.com/story/ news/world/2016/07/01/cuba-islam-religion/ 86564292/ Pew Research Center (2009) http://www.pewforum.org/ files/2009/10/Muslimpopulation.pdf Safak Y (2015) Local muslim Cubans get first prayer room. July 11 2015. http://www.yenisafak.com/en/world/ C 384 local-muslim-cubans-get-first-prayer-room-2188586. Accessed 20 June 2016 Sánchez Y (2016) Ramadan a la Cubana.14ymedio. Junio 14 2016. http://www.14ymedio.com/sociedad/ Accessed Ramadan-cubana_0_2016998281.html. 20 June 2016 Cultural Industry Vanina Papalini Center for Investigation and Study of Culture and Society, National Council for Scientific and Technical Research, Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina Keywords Cultural industries · Mass media · Electronic churches · Exhibition of intimacy · Therapeutic culture · Spiritualization Definition The expansion of Christian religions such as the Pentecostal, Adventist, and Baptist churches in Latin America has profited not only mass media but also a vertically integrated network of cultural industries, to facilitate the propagation of faith. Belief and adhesion become partially independent from presence. This modality of communicating religion through mass media has enabled the introduction of the universe of New Age beliefs. The New Age cultivates its relationship with cultural industries; given that it lacks structural, institutional devices for its propagation, the extension of its beliefs is carried out through a generic dissemination movement that the media amplifies. Introduction Religions have used, since ancient times, different technical methods to disseminate themselves. In the Western world, the printing press could be considered one of the oldest. These media have served to propagate faith, as an extension of Cultural Industry missionary work, and to consolidate adhesion to religious beliefs. With the emergence of mass media, this divulgation takes on an impersonal appearance. Although the relation with an anonymous parish does not replace the liturgy and the rituals that make up a religious community, mass media allow the message to have a broader reception, including programs with commercial content, and reach those who do not participate in rites in person. The relation between the media and religions is well known in Latin America. The expansion of the Pentecostal, Adventist, and Baptist churches had interaction with the media as one of its keys, through radio and TV programs, as well as its own music production and publishing. This strategy has been key to their expansion, so much so that they have been given the name “electronic churches.” Not only mass media but also a complete and vertically integrated network of cultural industries, which range from audiovisual production to retail stores, facilitate the propagation of faith. Belief and adhesion become partially independent of presence, to the extreme of proposing healings from television or radio programs to their audiences, ignoring the electronic medium. This antecedent of taking advantage of a communication device, which mediates between collective and individual religious experiences, cultivates religious intimacy, allows for uncoupling faith from territorial confessional practices, and tends to create globalized networks of believers. At the same time, religious identity results from a personal construction liberated from institutional regulations and disperses spatially, which does not imply participating in communities (Reyna Ruiz 2012, pp. 54–57). As Reyna Ruiz says, “The religious universe constructed by the media allows for the displacement of the sacred space toward the intimacy of individuals and gives rise to a very personal elaboration of one’s world of meaning” (2012, p. 56). The conformation of religious communities in the form of networks or groups linked by a communication device adapts itself to the form that the medium demands: they are constituted as audiences. Worship of the direct relation with divinity, the unnecessariness of the institution, and eclectic, Cultural Industry personalized, and delocalized credos are elements that are better expressed in the New Age than in any other religion (Torre and Gutiérrez Zúñiga 2013). The modality of communicating religion through mass media has facilitated the introduction of the universe of New Age beliefs. Almost naturally, the landscape of social representations is transforming: the culture of the 1990s reveals processes of respiritualization, growth in the importance of emotions, and interest in wellbeing understood holistically. Toward the end of the twentieth century, the social discourses in circulation show the double path experienced by the cultural paradigm: on the one hand a turn toward subjectivity (Arfuch 2002), on the other hand the re-enchanting of narratives. The return of the self, which in media formats manifests itself as a proliferation of first-person stories and a prominent presence of narratives from everyday life, amalgamates with a new cultural period dedicated to the subjective dimension with special interest in personal expression and everyday life. In cultural industries, new products, genres, and formats appear, such as talk shows and reality shows; the sale of self-help books increases, and segments and columns with specialists aimed at explaining emotions and making interpersonal relationships understandable are introduced. On the other hand, a cultural process of re-enchantment of the world becomes visible: a narrative of transcendence in spiritualist language is consolidated, the production of fantastic tales is renewed, and these gain importance in public preference. Both processes, which assume the existence of an invisible, immaterial dimension with interference in the outcome of events, manifest themselves in the production of cultural industries, both fiction and nonfiction. So, for example, programs with interviews with relevant personalities report “conversions,” while hosts, announcers, and journalists recreate themselves as spiritual advisers and guides. The back-and-forth and interaction between the field of religion and communication devices become more frequent, at the same time as the use of notions such as harmony, well-being, and energy is naturalized. Psychological and metaphysical justifications nourish arguments in debates. 385 The discursive transformations observed indicate a change in sensibilities, in collective worries, and in ways of understanding the world, which are reflected in the makeup of common sense. The renovation of formats, themes, and beliefs in cultural production is echoed in sociocultural transformations in the making: the action of cultural industries both externalizes and feeds back into these changes. Cultural goods possess a symbolic efficacy that influences the lifestyles, beliefs, and social representations of a culture or community. But at the same time, they are merchandise that circulates according to market laws. Knowing the taste and needs of the public and responding to their expectations so that production is disseminated and commercialized assumes that cultural industries act like radars alert to the inclinations of their consumers. Authenticity and the Exhibition of Intimacy In the 1990s, a new paradigm shift is observed in the social discourses in circulation that reinforces the enthronement of the individual. The proliferation of first-person stories and the prominent presence of narratives of everyday life, the insistent use of the testimonial resource, and the elevation to public space of the biographies of personalities with no outstanding attributes express a social sensibility inclined to instances of rapid identification and emotional mobilization. There is a common root shared by biographical and intimate media genres and the culture inspired by the New Age: both cases are about the expression of the self in its authenticity, showing its emotions and revaluing everyday narratives. It is the language of experience. In significant materials and, more than anything, in the language of the media, a personal stamp is the necessary counterweight to the serialized grammars of production. The appearance of common people, instead of personalities trained in the world of the spectacle, brings back human flesh and blood to the standardized genres and formats of mass media. Personal accounts, interviews, confessions, calls from the audience, or C 386 instant messages transmitted publicly online fulfill the classic slogan of giving roots to events, making the story more concrete, and bringing the protagonist closer. Thanks to this means of personification, the receiver feels individually reflected in the other’s experience. The situations described tend to produce compassion, empathy, and strong effects of truth. Personal spiritual experience enters into this narrative style and in this way is able to distance itself from the spectacularization effect typical of large religious events. The modality of media representation collaborates in the creation of affinities and adhesions. The “realistic” image typical of the media creates “effects of truth” (Verón 1998), is moving, and triggers identification processes with a strong emotional investment. Subjectivity is introduced to the public stage by the display of personal and domestic problems on talk shows, as well as by the transparency of life itself in reality shows and the display of intimacy in conversational formats. Even cinema and the arts speak of a turn toward the interior, a meticulous scrutinization of subjectivity, biography, and personal affective history. In this discursive context, the preachings of a singular and “made-to-measure” religiosity converge spontaneously with the sensibility promoted by cultural industries. Emotional and Spiritual Therapies on the Media Stage The practices and explanations aimed at achieving psychophysical well-being and better quality of life are on the cultural industries’ agenda. Traditional columns of specialists and experts on the radio, in magazines, in newspapers, and on television incorporate subjective issues: emotions and interpersonal relationships, well-being, psychological ills, health understood holistically, couples, and communication, among other issues. The presence of psychologists becomes frequent in mass media. For its part, the publishing industry registers successful sales of self-help books, with exponential growth in the publication of new titles and new editions of older titles. Cultural Industry This ostensible incorporation of psychological and therapeutic themes in cultural space reinforces the presence of what is called “therapeutic culture” (Illouz 2008) or “psy culture” (Rose 1989). In terms of the system of mass media, this phenomenon refers to the extension and vulgarization of knowledge, techniques, and resources of subjective support that are immediately available in society and that are accessed without the intervention of experts. Therapeutic culture is based on popularized notions from distinct types of psychology and neuroscience, as well as from a wide variety of alternative and complementary therapies, traditional medicine, and New Age beliefs and thought that are aimed at taking care of oneself (Papalini 2013). Even scientific information used in publicity strategies forms part of this tendency. Cultural industries, the media, and the network of circulation of information on the web strengthen the extension of therapeutic culture: in any magazine or newspaper insert there appear tests that allow for a simple selfdiagnosis and an outline of personality profiles; numerous articles or periodical programs deal with social phobias and panic attacks; on radio and television testimonies and examples of people who have recovered from obesity proliferate; interviews by a mobile team of journalists at the scene of an accident express their feelings, more than their opinions, regarding the event, and the possibility of trauma is analyzed by an expert on the ground. The Chilean Maria del Pilar Sordo Martinez, the Argentine Jorge Bucay, the Puerto Rican Alessandra Rampolla, the Mexican Estela Duran Mena, and the Venezuelans Vladimir and Maria Mercedes Gessen are some of the well-known specialists, commentators, and hosts that move in the spaces of cultural industry and Latin American web videos. The majority of these experts are inclined to a holistic consideration of the subject but without adhering to a defined religion or credo. There are also presences directly linked to religion, indebted to the style of the “electronic churches” of the 1970s and 1980s. The program “Escola de Amor” (School of Love) of the Cultural Industry Universal Church, transmitted on R7 TV, Brazil, or the columns of Armando Alducin Fletcher, of Mexico, are examples of this relationship between churches and the media. In the majority of these cases, the task of dissemination is complemented by personal interaction and the distribution of pamphlets, as well as web pages with links to the varied religious cultural production. The New Age reaches the media using a different rhetoric, aimed less at the dissemination of precepts. Its exposition is more surreptitious; it filters into the stories of personalities of the cultural industry. Given that its accent is on personal experience, the testimonial story is the most appropriate mode of transmission and wellknown personalities the best representatives. Acting as guests in traditional media spaces, they tell of their conversions, their life changes, linked to growing spirituality. Two simultaneous movements are observed: media personalities who turn to spiritual deepening, converting themselves into guides and advisers, or the opposite, spiritual leaders who have moved from the religious world to media spaces. The New Age cultivates its relationship with cultural industries; given that it lacks structural institutional devices for its propagation, the extension of its beliefs is carried out through a generic dissemination movement that the media amplifies. The connections of the New Age with artists can be even more direct: in continuity with its counterculture origins, it has a strong reception in the world of art, where esotericism also abounds. The Venezuelan Conny Mendez (Juana Maria de la Concepcion Mendez Guzman) or the Argentine Ludovica Squirru Dari combine art and spirituality, although in both cases their involvement in religiosity and the lifestyle they lead distance them from the stage. Integrated Symbolic Merchandise In their function as global merchandise, symbolic goods produced by cultural industries have adopted the rules of the traditional serial production modality, or variants that allow for greater diversification of the product, attending to the 387 needs of different market segments. The way in which each cultural product takes advantage of the creative nucleus – arguments and characters, fundamentally – is varied and intense. Once its success is verified, it is utilized in numerous support materials: calendars, videos, movies, books, merchandise, web pages, e-books, video games, and audio books are produced. Following the same logic, the niches that products are aimed at diversify equally: adolescents, families, executives, etc. In the case of Latin American countries, the interweaving of cultural industries and consumer logics is less developed and of smaller scale, especially with reference to the production of goods. In contrast, there is a back-and-forth between the religious and the therapeutic media space and the editorial market: the same person hosts a television program, writes books, directs a magazine, and gives seminars, conferences, or workshops for a public that is generally confined within national borders. Their possibility for expansion, depending on nationality, can reach the Latin American community residing in the United States or Spain. Although there are exceptional cases, like Paulo Coelho, very rarely do these personalities become transnational successes. Latin American Novels The production of spiritually oriented literature by Latin American authors is elevated and occupies a notable spot in the rankings of best sellers in each country. In addition to typical selfhelp books, there are others that fit in a similar narrative space, texts that, in the form of allegorical novels, evoke values that collaborate in facing problems. These books are read in search of guidance and inspiration. Paulo Coelho fits in this segment, especially the best seller The Alchemist (Coelho 1988/1990). A little bit closer to science fiction and in a style reminiscent of The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the series Ami, Child of the Stars (1986), by the Chilean Enrique Barrios, provides direction in New Age inspired values to a child and teen audience. He has also written books for C 388 adults, such as El Libro de Dios Amor (The Book of the God of Love), initially titled Mensaje Acuariano (The Aquarian Message) (1991). This kind of hybrid literature shows the generalization of New Age notions, which expand and circulate widely in the discourses of Latin American cultural industries. Cross-References ▶ Complementary and Alternative Medicines ▶ Energy ▶ New Age Consumption ▶ New Age-ification ▶ New Age Imagery ▶ New Age Rituals ▶ New Age Spirituality ▶ Psychology and the New Age ▶ Science and New Age ▶ Self-Help Cultural Industry References Arfuch L (2002) El espacio biográfico. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Buenos Aires Barrios E (1986) Ami, el niño de las estrellas. Ediciones Acuarianas, Santiago Barrios E (1991) Mensaje Acuariano. Errepar, Buenos Aires Coelho P (1988/1990) O alquimista. Editora Rocco, Rio de Janeiro De la Torre R, Gutiérrez Zúñiga C (2013) Introducción. In: De la Torre R, Gutiérrez Zúñiga C, Juárez Huet N (coord.) Variaciones y apropiaciones latinoamericanas del New Age, 1st edn. Publicaciones de la Casa Chata, México, pp 13–21 Illouz E (2008) Saving the modern soul. University of California Press, Berkeley/Los Angeles Papalini V (2013) Recetas para sobrevivir a las exigencias del capitalismo (o de cómo la autoayuda se volvió parte de nuestro sentido común). Nueva Sociedad 245:163–177 Reyna Ruiz AM (2012) Las frecuencias de Dios: programas con contenido religioso en la radio del Valle de México. Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Unidad Xochimilco, México Rose N (1989) Governing the soul. Free Association Books, London Verón E (1998) La semiosis social. Gedisa, Barcelona