The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity

By 2025, Latin America's population of observant Christians will be the largest in the world. Nonetheless, studies examining the exponential growth of global Christianity tend to overlook this region, focusing instead on Africa and Asia. Research on Christianity in Latin America provides a core point of departure for understanding the growth and development of Christianity in the "Global South."In The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity an interdisciplinary contingent of scholars examines Latin American Christianity in all of its manifestations from the colonial to the contemporary period. The essays here provide an accessible background to understanding Christianity in Latin America. Spanning the era from indigenous and African-descendant people's conversion to and transformation of Catholicism during the colonial period through the advent of Liberation Theology in the 1960s and conversion to Pentecostalism and Charismatic Catholicism, The Oxford Handbook of Latin American Christianity is the most complete introduction to the history and trajectory of this important area of modern Christianity.

List of ContributorsIntroductionSusan Fitzpatrick-Behrens, Virginia Garrard, and David T. OriqueSection I: Christianity Comes to the New World1. Making of Colonial ChristianityJohn F. Schwaller2. Time and Christianity in Early Latin AmericaMatthew O'Hara3. Tridentine Theology and its Contact with the New WorldDavid M. Lantigua4. The Sacred Art of Counter-Conquest: Material Christianity in Latin AmericaJennifer Scheper Hughes5. Indigenous Christianities: Commensuration, (De)Colonization, and Cultural Production in Latin AmericaAndrew Orta6. (Un)Making Christianity: The African Diaspora in Slavery and FreedomRachel Sarah O'Toole7. Millenarian MovementsCarole A. Myscofski8. The Course of Catholic History in Latin AmericaFernando CervantesSection II: The Church Militant: Catholic Political Activism9. Liberation Theology: History and TrendsPhillip Berryman10. Catholicism, Revolution, and Counter-Revolution in Twentieth-Century Latin AmericaStephen J. C. Andes11. Bishops, Priests, and CELAMErika Helgen12. Activist Christians, the Human Rights Movement and Democratization in Latin AmericaNick Rowell13. Prophetic Martyrdom in Modern Latin AmericaEdward T. Brett14. The Ambivalence of Catholic Politics in Latin America: Ideology, Interests, and InstitutionsAmy Edmonds15. Rights, Religion, and Violence at Mexico's BordersChristine KovicSection III: A Transnational Spirit: Missionaries and Charism16. Pentecostalism and Neopentecostalism in Latin America: Two Case StudiesVirginia Garrard and Justin M. Doran17. Conversion Processes and Social Networks in Latin AmericaHenri Gooren18. A New Pentecost: Conversion in the CaribbeanLuis N. Rivera-Pag?n19. Protestant Innovative Evangelizing to Oral Cultures in GuatemalaRachel M. McCleary20. Liberation Theology's Spiritual Legacy for the Latin American ChurchHarold Segura21. Preferential Option for the Spirit: The Catholic Charismatic RenewalBrenda Carranza22. Alternative Christianities: Mormons, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah's WitnessesRonald Lawson, Kenneth Xydias, Ryan T. Cragun23. Mainline Protestantism in Latin AmericaJoel Morales CruzSection IV: Contemporary Christianity in Latin America24. Christianity and Ecology in Latin AmericaLois Ann Lorentzen25. Mary, Mother of Jesus: Consolatrice of the AmericasJeanette Rodriguez26. Marshalling the Faithful: Popular Religiosity and Institutional Life in Modernizing MexicoEdward Wright-R?os27. Catholic Laity in the Latin American ChurchRobert S. Pelton, C.S.C.Complete BibliographyIndex