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The Missionary Urge


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Questions | Bibliography

Chapter Reference: Neocolonialism; Reaction

U.S. Protestants have been among the world's great missionaries. In the nineteenth century, the main U.S. missionaries were well-established Protestant denominations, such as the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Especially prominent as missionaries in the twentieth century were representatives of newer varieties of Christian faith that emerged in the United States itself, such as Mormonism and Pentacostalism, both of which have had a special relationship to Latin America in their theology and history. The results are clear in the tremendous growth of non-Catholic varieties of Christian belief. Change has not always come without conflict. During the Cold War, U.S. missionaries and their Protestant congregations were politically oriented toward the right, contrasting with the left-oriented Catholic currents known as liberation theology. A paper on U.S. missionaries could find interesting sources in the rich English-language travel literature of the 1800s. Many were written by clergy, and most give a vivid sense of how Latin America looked through U.S. Protestant ideas. In addition, many U.S. students may find untapped sources of information in records kept by their own churches. Oral histories taken from those who have done mission work in Latin America constitute another possible primary source available to students.

Questions for Analysis and Further Reflection:

  1. How did the motivations of U.S. missionaries of the 1800s differ from those seeking to promote newer brands of Christianity in the twentieth century?


  2. Despite efforts by the Catholic Church to combat the spread of Protestantism in Latin America, Protestant strains are attracting more followers every day. What do the new religions offer them that Catholicism doesn't?


  3. Since the encounter, religion has gone hand in hand with colonization, in many cases justifying horrendous behavior of those who preached moral superiority. What justifications do U.S. missionaries offer for taking their messages to Latin America, and what are the political leanings of their particular shade of Protestantism?

Bibliography: (Titles with ** are good starting places.)

Chesnut, R. Andrew. Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of
           Poverty. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1997.


Chesnut offers a perspective on the connections between the rise of Protestantism and the poor in Brazil, looking particularly at the factors that motivate people to adopt the new belief system.

Cleary, Edward L. and Hannah W. Stewart-Gambino, eds. Power, Politics, and Pentecostals in
           Latin America.
Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997.

This collection of essays presents a broad picture of the roots Pentecostal groups are planting across Latin America.

Garrard-Burnett, Virginia, and David Stoll, eds. Rethinking Protestantism in Latin America.
           Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993.

** Martin, David. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Oxford:
           Basil Blackwell, 1990.

Martin's accessible study provides a general overview of the spread of Protestantism in Latin America, with examples from Brazil, the Southern Cone, Central America, and the Caribbean.

Miller, Daniel R., ed. Coming of Age: Protestantism in Contemporary Latin America. Lanham,
           MD: University Press of America, 1994.

Smith, Christian, and Joshua Prokopy, eds. Latin American Religion in Motion. New York:
           Routledge, 1999.

** Stoll, David. Is Latin America Turning Protestant?: The Politics of Evangelical Growth.
           Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

Stoll provides a readable analysis of the spread of evangelical Protestantism in Latin America, emphasizing the mounting challenges faced by the Catholic Church and the influence of U.S. strains of evangelical Christianity.


Other Resources:
Religion
Neo-African Religions
The Virgin of Guadalupe