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such as the \u2018Toronto Blessing\u2019 occurred before in Argentina, Brazil, Ghana or Nigeria, but without the capacity to globalize the experience. While pointing out the pros and cons of the Charismatic\u2019s o Neo-Charismatic\u2019s (Protestant and Catholic) he affirms that \u2018one can also recognise its sociological limitations (e.g. to reverse secularization in the West, or to prevent the erosion of Catholic allegiance in Latin America) (Freston, 2006). In other words there is an urgency to know from within who the Pentecostals or Neo-Pentecostals are and what social role they play in the context of society in general. Burdick affirms about Brazilian Pentecostalism that it is not necessarily a conservative, pro status quo group that erodes the collective identity or debilitates the impulse for social action because they are a more progressive force than they are credited for (1993: 2-14, 16).\u000AFor Martin Pentecostalism is an autonomous movement, a popular manifestation of Latin American Protestantism, capable of combining external influence and radical local adaptation, as well as the very old and the very modern (1990: 282). Bastian on the contrary, says that Pentecostalism does not represent social reform, but rather an adjustment of popular religion (1993: 35, 55). Cleary says that \u2018Contrary to a common Latin America stereotype, Pentecostalism is not a North American invasion. It did not begin with a pervasive outside missionary effort, not are major group sustained by personnel or money from the United States or Europe\u2019 (1998: 4). In order words, for him, Pentecostalism is profoundly Protestant and latinoamericanized religion. Garrard Burnett in her studies on religious changes in Guatemalan Protestantism shows the close relationship between the theory of Max Weber over modernization, economic rationality and Protestantism, and the values such as trustworthiness, frugality, honesty and being practical within Pentecostalism. Other Evangelicals at the beginning did not feel that this was a viable movement (1998: 132).\u000AFor the NPCs, salvation is not reduced to spiritual aspects or to life after death. The here and now and how to participate in the world are part of their vision and practice. This form of understanding the world has left behind the old dualism of conservative\u000A14\u000A


































































































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