Page 26 - tesis
P. 26

movements nor the Protestant sects have any connections with religious reform and even less with political and social reform. They represent instead strategies of adaptation and resistance, fashioned by the lower strata of Latin American societies, which reinforce the autonomy of the authoritarian and corporativist popular religious culture\u2019 (1993: 55). He underscores that, \u2018the popular and millenarianist Protestant movements seem to be the tools for a project of restoration rather than of religious and social reform\u2019 (1993:57).\u000ADroogers affirms that is not possible interpret Pentecostalism only from one perspective. That is why he adopts an eclectical approach to understand [specially] the paradoxes of Pentecostalism in Latin America (1998:25-31). Others scholars are analyzing Pentecostal phenomena from a less pessimistic view point. For example, V\u00E1zquez says that one must avoid falling into the trap of understanding the rise and development of Pentecostalism as the product of a social pathology or an anomaly as Lalive D\u2019Epinay and Willems affirmed in their early studies of Protestantism (1998: 242). Wilson points out that although to some observers features of NPCs have seemed to be merely garish imitations of North American charismatic style and right-wing politics, \u2018members of these groups, often activists with the means and the desire to engage in public life, have strong sense of civic responsibility and support schools, social service programs, and inevitable political activities\u2019 (1998: 146).\u000AFreston affirms that the Charismatic movement of the 1960s is often explained in terms of the West developing \u2018as a reaction to the bureaucratization of church life and the numerical decline of the churches; as a experimental affirmation of Christian spirituality of urban modernity marked by social and geographical mobility\u2019 (Freston, 2006). However he also notes that \u2018other authors have stressed that charismatic Christianity is a global culture characterized not by unilateral diffusion from the West but by parallel developments and complex flows\u2019. He underscores: \u2018While American influence was undoubtedly great (especially through popular books), the global charismatic movement is not an American \u2018product\u2019 (Freston, 2006). In the light of this affirmation, he comments these phenomena\u000A13\u000A


































































































   24   25   26   27   28