A preferential option for the spirit: The Catholic charismatic renewal in Latin America's new religious economy

Latin American Politics and Society, Spring 2003 by Chesnut, R Andrew

Another major facet of the free market economy is the privatization of religion. Religion in monopolistic economies constructs a common Weltanschauung that binds society together and gives ultimate meaning to social life (Berger 1969, 134). In marked contrast, religions of the competitive market provide meaning to, and address the spiritual concerns of, not society in general but individuals. Thus religion operates predominantly in the private sphere, often far removed from its locus in the public arena of monopolistic economies. It follows, then, that the most successful firms in a free market economy will tailor their production and marketing of religious goods to the exigencies of private life (Berger 1969, 147).

Again, the Latin American market offers a clear example of privatization. In addition to their common element of pneumacentrism (centrality of the Spirit or spirits), the prosperous Pentecostals, Charismatics, and African diasporan groups share a strong emphasis on faith that addresses matters, particularly afflictions, of private life. Almost in diametrical opposition, the anemic CEBs have tended to give privilege of place to matters of public life, such as working to construct more just Latin American societies. As Burdick demonstrated in his study of CEBs on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, the small ecclesial groups often do not provide opportunities for members to discuss individual afflictions, such as alcohol abuse, domestic discord, and illness. Particularly in the popular Latin American religious marketplace, the relegation of such private concerns to the margins practically guarantees that an organization will fail to attract substantial numbers of adherents.

The final salient characteristic of the unregulated religious economy is its vibrancy. Challenging decades of accepted sociological theory, Stark has convincingly demonstrated that pluralistic religious economies are more dynamic than monopolistic ones. A comparison of Latin American and North American religious economies confirms Stark's thesis. Until the emergence of the free market in faith in the 1950s, Latin Americans regularly participated in church life at one-third the rate that North Americans did. If Latin America currently appears to be experiencing a religious renaissance, it is because institutional religious participation has greatly increased across the board. Of course, there are still winners and losers in a competitive economy, but even the former religious monopoly has witnessed a recent surge in participation. Thus the theoretical tools of religious economy allow for better comprehension of the rapid rise of the CCR.

PENTECOSTAL CATHOLICS

Although the CCR manifests diverse local and national characteristics, it is generally a Catholic lay movement that seeks to revitalize the church through the power of the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. That both U.S. and Latin American Charismatics initially called themselves Pentecostal Catholics is revealing. Catholic Charismatics share the same ecstatic spirituality with Protestant Pentecostals. Like Pentecostals, Catholic Charismatics are pneumacentrists; that is, the Holy Spirit occupies center stage in believers' religious praxis.