Global Pentecostalism, Politics and Culture in the context of Latin America and Argentina
Lecture by Dr. Hans Geir Aasmundsen, UiB Global
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Main content
In Argentina, Protestantism was a religion in the margins of society during the colonial period. During the 19th century various "pockets" of Protestant denominations were established, as churches for merchants and immigrants from North-West Europe. Still, Catholicism prevailed as the dominant religion also throughout most of the 20th century, until a new form of Protestantism, Pentecostalism had a breakthrough in the early 1980s. Today more than 10 per cent of the population are evangelicos, and a more heterogenous religio-cultural landscape surfaces. The Pentecostal revival coincided with a socio-political transformation of Argentinean society. After half a century of dictatorships and Perónism, democracy was restored, and structural changes paved the way for an autonomisation of the political, economic, scientific and religious spheres. In this presentation, Aasmundsen examines the religious sphere and historical trajectories of the role and position of religions in Argentina, with a particular focus on how Pentecostals relate to society at large, and the political and judicial spheres in particular.
Hans Geir Aasmundsen, Dr. Study of Religion (2014), University of Sødertørn, is currently a researcher at UiB Global, University of Bergen, Norway. He has published on the socio-political aspects of global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism. Latest publications include the environment, mission and human rights as well as Holistic Mission.