Protestantism and Politics in Chile and Brazil

Society for Comparative Studies in Society and History

Protestantism and Politics in Chile and BrazilAuthor(s): Frederick C. TurnerSource: Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1970), pp. 213-229Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/177965 .

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Protestantism and Politics in Chile and Brazil Review Article by FREDERICK C. TURNER

University of Connecticut

Although Protestant missionaries in Latin America have written numerous accounts of their endeavors for over a hundred years, more systematic and theoretically oriented studies of Latin American Protestantism have begun to appear only in the 1960s. Sociologists have approached this subject in search of new data and insights for the field of religious sociology, and both Protestant and Catholic critics have evaluated Latin American Pro- testantism in a series of books and articles. While religious activists are naturally most interested in the programmatic implications of these studies, the studies raise far broader questions for social scientists concerned with the transfer of religious values or the insinuation of North American attitudes in foreign cultures. With fine conceptualization and execution, moreover, some of the studies will gain increasing scholarly attention because of their methodological flexibility and their clear portents for future research.

In one of the best of the recent works, Emilio Willems claims only that his book is 'exploratory' and 'tentative' in its evaluation of proselytical Protestantism in Chile and Brazil.l The theoretical implications of the study go well beyond its concentration on one religion and on two countries, however. In raising general and significant issues concerning the relationship between religion and social change, its scope and potential impact are far greater than those of the recent historical treatments of the same subjects by Ignacio Vergara, William R. Read, and J. B. A. Kessler, Jr.2 Only in studies of Catholicism and development or in the work of

1 Emilio Willems, Followers of the New Faith: Culture Change and the Rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1967), p. v.

2 . Vergara, El protestantismo en Chile (Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico, S.A., 1962); William R. Read, New Patterns of Church Growth in Brazil (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965); William R. Read, Victor M. Monterroso, and Harmon A. Johnson, Latin American Church Growth (Grand Rapids; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969); Jean Baptiste August Kessler, Jr., A Study of the Older Protestant Missions and Churches in Peru and Chile, With Special Reference to the Problems of Division, Nationalism and Native Ministry (Goes, Netherlands: Oosterbaan & Le Cointre, 1967). For a terse sum- mary of the historical growth and present status of Pentecostal Protestantism in Chile and Brazil, see Alan Walker, 'Where Pentecostalism Is Mushrooming', Christian Century, Vol. 85, No. 3 (January 17, 1968), 81-2.

213



214 FREDERICK C. TURNER

Christian Lalive d'Epinay, the Swiss sociologist who has been studying Chilean Pentecostalism, can an appropriate sounding board for Willems' ideas be found.

COMPARISONS IN APPROACH

Methodologically, what is especially impressive about the recent studies is their effective utilization of a variety of research techniques. Willems and Lalive in particular have shown a detailed mastery of the theoretical and secondary literature, used participant observer techniques in a series of contexts, and devised questionnaires and formal interview procedures with groups of various sizes and types. Rather than merely recapitulating Protestant history on the basis of written sources, they actively test theoretical propositions through both historical and contemporary data. They do not rely impressionistically upon random and casual interviews. Instead, they live in the communities which they study, as Christian Lalive did during a trying and exhausting period of participant observation in which he concluded that the religious ecstasies of the Pentecostals are very seldom simulated.3 Finally, much to the potential benefit of graduate students and junior faculty members in the social sciences who can not as yet command the extensive research funds of their senior colleagues, Willems and Lalive demonstrate what benefits can come from small surveys carried out along with other types of research. Their approach con- trasts the massive and prohibitively expensive surveys which carry so much

prestige among contemporary social scientists. Willems regularly uses historical data quite effectively to test and evalu-

ate theoretical propositions. Rather than being the product of an economic or societal determinist, his work shows fine balance and perspective. He recognizes, for example, that, in the adaptation of Protestantism to the environments of Chile and Brazil, some modifications may have been necessary while others may have 'just occurred'.4 In contrast to Willems'

approach, that of most other studies still resembles the descriptive orienta- tion of Kessler. Although Kessler's study is rich in historical detail and

replete with references and source material, it lacks the broad conceptualization of Willems or Lalive. Kessler presents the growth of Protestant de- nominations in day-to-day detail, but he restricts his more general con- siderations to the issues of schisms and divisive nationalism. Whereas Willems and Lalive show how the functions which Pentecostalism per- forms effectively limit it to the lower strata of society, Kessler simply describes the rejection of Pentecostalism by Chile's middle and upper classes as the 'weakness' of this movement.5

3 Christian Lalive d'Epinay, El refugio de las masas: Estudio sociologico del protestantismo chileno (Santiago: Editorial del Pacifico, 1968), pp. 18-20.

4 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, p. 103. 5 Kessler, A Study of the Older Protestant Missions and Churches in Peru and Chile, p. 352.



PROTESTANTISM AND POLITICS IN CHILE AND BRAZIL 215

In judging the impact of Protestantism, Willems uses a type of measure which has wide applicability in studies of historical sociology. He assesses the degree of change which Protestantism had to undergo in its adaptation to the social systems of Brazil and Chile, thereby trying to gauge whether Protestantism has been a strong enough force to affect life styles while remaining largely unchanged or whether it has been so weak as to become effective only after considerable modification. In other words, he uses degrees of change in Protestantism to measure the force and impact of Protestantism itself. The measure remains imprecise, since variables other than the force of Protestantism affect the type and degree of its modification. Particular elements of the recipient cultures may have greatly reduced its impact even if its own force was strong, so that the real test is between the force of Protestantism and a series of cultural variables whose comparative strength and role need to be better understood. Testing the impact of Protestantism by modifications in it remains only one way of approach- ing the subject, but, in combination with Willems' other lines of inquiry, it sets up the question in a way which naturally leads to fruitful comparisons and probes for other variables. This method of analyzing transformations in an ideology or institution which traverses national boundaries can be applied far more widely than it has been up to now, as in studying the foreign impact of Maoist doctrine, fidelismo, and numerous religions, or in studying an institution like the Swiss collegiate executive as it comes to a new national context like that of Uruguay.

In a specific application of this approach, Willems concludes that Pro- testantism is a 'symbolic protest against the traditional social structure', a 'protest movement, not just in the narrow theological sense, but a movement against the religious monopoly of the Catholic Church and its traditional ally, the ruling class'.6 His proof is that the most popular sects are those whose norms and policies stand farthest removed from Roman Catholicism and from traditional patterns of social stratification. Baptists, who invoke the strongest principles of anti-Catholicism and the egalitarian participation of church members, show considerably higher memberships than more traditional Methodist and Presbyterian groups.7

The limitations as well as the implications of Willems' approach need to be kept in mind at this point, however. He has not demonstrated that Protestantism is a uniform protest movement; his interpretation of the Methodists and Presbyterians shows that some Protestant groups demonstrate marked affinities for traditionalism. As Eugene Nida indicates, Pentecostalism has expanded in Latin America partly because of its structural similarities to the traditional pattern of Latin American Catholi- cism. Each Pentecostal comes to take an active part in the movement, just as each member of a traditional, rural Catholic parish has such special

6 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, p. 154. 7 Ibid., pp. 154-9.



2I6 FREDERICK C. TURNER

duties as the clothing of saints, the working of Church lands, or the provi- sion of food for fiestas or for religious personnel.8 Lalive has gone farther to show that the Pentecostal community, far from being merely an egalitarian reaction against traditional stratification, is in another sense a re- creation of the secure, authoritarian relationships of the hacienda system. Pentecostalism 'reconstitutes the old, seigneurial society', as the pastor takes the place of the hacienda's patron, the man who protects, counsels, and seeks work for his people, the man who deserves trust and deference because of his special relationship to God.9

Moreover, even to the extent that Willems is right in interpreting Protestantism as a symbolic protest movement, Protestantism is only symbolic in its protest. In providing egalitarianism within a narrow religious community, Protestant sects effectively limit the tendencies of their members to support secular programs for greater social and political egalitarianism at the national level. The drawing off of protest sentiments into the sphere of religion limits the immediate concern of the Protestant converts for reform in the wider society. Despite growing interest in voting, the maintenance of their religious liberty, and the support of occasional Protestant candidates, Protestants remain very far behind Christian Demo- cratic activists in terms of their religious motivations for constructive political activity.

THE FUNCTIONS OF RELIGION

Rejection of political entanglements is only one cause for the dramatic rise of Pentecostalism.10 More fundamentally, Pentecostalism has been able to fulfill a range of social and psychological functions which have given it great appeal. Although different interpretations point to various aspects of the role of Pentecostalism, they reveal, when taken together, a clear if motley pattern of role and function.

The recent nature of Pentecostal expansion suggests a process of adaptation to changing circumstances. In carefully tracing Evangelical missions in Latin America during the nineteenth century, Tomas Goslin has stressed that the Evangelicals had a permanent if limited impact in all of the Latin American countries at that time.11 If this is so, then why should the massive numerical growth of Evangelical Protestantism have come only in the middle of the twentieth century? Even if we accept the contention that the Evangelicals needed to gain a missionary foothold in the nine-

8 Eugene A. Nida, 'The Indigenous Churches in Latin America', Practical Anthropology, Vol. 8, No. 3 (May-June, 1961), 100.

9 Lalive, El refugio de las masas, p. 71. 10 On the growth of Pentecostalism, see the useful graphs, tables, and references in Read,

New Patterns of Church Growth in Brazil, pp. 120, 176-7; and Lalive, El refugio de las masas, pp. 48-55.

11 Tomas S. Goslin, Los evangelicos en la America Latina: Siglo XIX, los comienzos (Buenos Aires: Editorial 'La Aurora', 1956), especially pp. 119-21.




teenth century from which to expand in the twentieth, it seems that the different social situations in the two time periods have importantly molded the differential growths of the Evangelical movements. The movements have grown among lower socio-economic groups but, although these groups certainly predominated in the nineteenth century, the nature of their poverty differed in ways which proved crucial for their acceptance of new religious doctrines. The poverty of Latin American lower groups in the twentieth century has come to encompass new characteristics of physical mobility, a frequent sense of rootlessness, and a rejection of older notions of the closed society which operated in terms of religious relationships as well as secular stratification. It is these different cultures of poverty that historians and religious sociologists need to analyze and compare.

Psychological explanations suggest that Pentecostalism now fulfills roles of personal reassurance which other religious beliefs have fulfilled in other contexts. Willems notes that, psychologically, individuals accept Pente- costalism to rid themselves of guilt feelings, to gain more apparent strength in an environment over which they have very little real control, and to rise above the commonplace poverty of everyday life through the thrill of religious excitement.12 Nida declares that the acceptance of Pente- costalism among the Latin American lower classes has been a 'recompense for having been so largely excluded from the upper brackets of Latin American society', as it has given converts a feeling of'personal fellowship' and a 'sense of belonging' in impersonal or alien social settings.13 At the base of Lalive's interpretation of Chilean Protestantism is the belief that the adoption of a new religious creed or ideology results from the ways in which the creed can deal with problems, needs, and tensions which have arisen from the people to whom it appeals.14

These psychological functions of religion are hardly unique to Latin American Protestantism. Their role is confirmed rather than invalidated by their reappearance in so many other religious contexts, including that of the rural Catholicism from which Willems tries so hard to distinguish urban Pentecostalism. If, as he assumes, 'Protestantism rewards ethical discipline by providing what the traditional society denies and the emerging industrial society promises,'15 then why do the identical functions of guilt and tension relief, environmental management, personal security, and religious excitement recur as the major individual benefits of rural Catholicism as well? From the societal standpoint of implying mobility rather than hierarchical acceptance, the appeals of Protestantism differ sharply from those of traditional Catholicism, but these religious ethics play very similar psychological roles in their adaptation to altered social settings.

12 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, pp. 125, 138. 13 Eugene A. Nida, 'The Relationship of Social Structure to the Problem of Evangelism in

Latin America', Practical Anthropology, Vol. 5, No. 3 (May-June, 1958), 101, 116. 14 Lalive, El reftgio de las masas, p. 268. 15 Willems, Followers of the News Faith, p. 14.



2I8 FREDERICK C. TURNER

Another reason for Pentecostal success has been its approach to authority. Pentecostalism enjoys the simultaneous appeals of authoritarianism and communalism, as it gives unquestioned authority to individual pastors and yet assumes the special equality of all those whom God has 'called' to be part of the movement.16 Such a combination of apparent contradictions is not in fact unusual, since men have long idealized a kind of service which is perfect freedom. Traditional Catholicism in Latin America has reinforced the authority of the patron and yet assumed his equality with others before God, while the doctrines of German or Italian fascism supposed that the authority of the supreme leader embodied the real will and needs of the people. Pentecostalism has gained strength by freshly drawing upon the notion of obedience leading to freedom.

Particular patterns of organization have also affected the rise of Pente- costalism. Kessler finds that its tremendous growth in Chile and Brazil has resulted from its authoritarian forms of organization and its rejection of foreign control. Authoritarian organization has encouraged apprentice- ship training for the ministry and limited the right to interpret divine

guidance to a small and responsible group, while the absence of foreign control has given the Pentecostals a more native and attractive appear- ance.17 A related interpretation of the extraordinary growth of Pente- costalism stresses its uses of lay men and women, its tendency to turn all believers into evangelists rather than to interpret religious beliefs as a

private concern and leave evangelization to professional ministers.18 More narrowly, this explanation looks to the effective promotion of

specific local leaders.19 Individual religious activists feel that they have received special 'gifts' and powers, and, with missionary zeal, such activists have gone out to build large followings. Mario Lindstrom typically established a Pentecostal sect of over 30,000 members when, as a teacher in the Methodist Seminary in Sao Paulo, he felt that the Holy Spirit de- scended upon him and gave him special powers to heal the sick.20

Catholic commentaries have tied the rise of Pentecostalism to a positive spiritual receptivity and to a negative desire for wealth. Besides noting Pentecostalism's special appeal for the lower classes, Father Prudencio Damboriena points to 'the immense richness of spirituality which the Chilean people have', alleging that Pentecostalism has not grown so rapidly in most other Latin American countries because their citizens lack this special 'spirituality' of the Chileans.21 More negatively, Catholics

16 Lalive, El refugio de las masas, pp. 100, 127-8. 17 Kessler, A Study of the Older Protestant Missions and Churches in Peru and Chile, pp.

327-8. 18 Walker, 'Where Pentecostalism Is Mushrooming', 81. 19 'Brazil: The Church in Process of Renewal', Pro Mundi Vita, No. 24 (1968), 29. 20 Read, New Patterns of Church Growth in Brazil, p. 162. 21 Prudencio Damboriena, 'El protestantismo en Chile', Mensaje, Vol. 6, No. 59 (junio,

1957), 150.




gently criticize the materialistic basis for Brazilian Protestantism, adducing the fact that Protestant literature in Brazil 'is very often a straight transla- tion from the North American, and the tendency of this literature is to make evangelical conversion parallel with material success: an attractive tendency in a developing country'.22 Whether or not one's values make him admire materialism and mobility, many writers still feel assured of the connection between their attractiveness and the rise of Protestantism.

In this context, Willems' fundamental proposition of a 'functional relationship between the dissemination of Protestantism and sociocultural change'23 is not particularly profound. To buttress this proposition, Willems points to Protestantism's particular appeal to groups whose upward mobility depends on industrial innovation, the historic correlation between numbers of conversions and the rate of social change, and the large Protestant congregations found in developing urban areas, with numerous conversions also among more independent peasant groups and uprooted frontier populations. This argument does not need to imply that social mobility is a prime motive for Pentecostal growth. Noting the Chilean Pentecostals' personal aid to one another but their rejection of the Catholic approach of building schools and hospitals, Father Damboriena rightly asserted in 1957 that their adopted religion does not produce great material enrichment or dramatic rises on the social scale.24 The major problem with Willems' perspective thus lies not so much in its data, approach, or implications, as in the extreme generality of its central finding. A high correlation between religious change and change in the secular order is hardly surpris- ing, and future research should develop a far higher level of specificity in the individual variables and their particular patterns of interaction.

PROTESTANTISM AND SOCIAL CHANGE

In the opinion of Christian Lalive, the greatest difference between his interpretation of Pentecostalism and that of Willems is that, whereas Willems sees Pentecostalism essentially as an ethic of transition and a means of moving from tradition to modernity, Lalive sees Pentecostalism as giving new force to traditional values and ideas.25 This explanation, while nicely summing up the comparative perspectives of the two viewpoints, does not really indicate contradictory positions. Lalive sees less change in secular behavior arising from the new faith than does Willems, but the difference is one of degree rather than of kind. Willems stresses social

22 'Brazil: The Church in Process of Renewal', Pro Mundi Vita, 28. 23 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, p. 248. 24 Damboriena, 'El protestantismo en Chile', 150-1. The Pentecostals have established a

series of regular rural schools in addition to their Sunday school programs, but the extent of their programs in regular education has by no means matched those of the Catholics or the historical churches. See Ignacio Vergara T., 'Avance de los "Evangelicos" en Chile', Mensaje, Vol. 3, No. 41 (agosto, 1955).

25 Interview with Christian Lalive d'Epinay, in Santiago, Chile, August 2, 1968.




mobility, whereas Lalive stresses religious orientations. It remains possible to move toward certain aspects of modernity through forceful acceptance of certain parts of a traditional ethic.

The different contexts of the work of Willems and Lalive naturally affect their perceptions and orientations. Willems approaches the subject after years of concentration on Brazil, while the bulk of Lalive's work was origin- ally in Chile. As in the cases of most researchers, the different national contexts for original research have affected the shadings of underlying assumptions and perceptions for, as Willems readily admits, Chilean Pro- testants have received considerably less 'social recognition' than their Brazilian counterparts.26 Another reason for Willems' greater emphasis upon the connection between Protestantism and upward mobility is the fact that, whereas Lalive has concentrated his work on the Pentecostals alone, Willems treats both the historical Protestant churches and the Pente- costals. Upward mobility, through, for example, the educational institu- tions of the historical churches, has been far greater among their members than among the Pentecostals. Opportunities for increased mobility created favorable attitudes even in Brazilians who were not religiously converted, as in the cases of Protestant secondary schools which graduated productive and protective alumni even though they largely failed as instruments of evangelization.27

Both Lalive and Willems reject the application of a Weberian connection between Pentecostalism and the growth of capitalist activity.28 As Willems points out, the role of government in the economic development of Chile and Brazil negates the conditions which Weber felt to be necessary for the original rise of capitalism, and most Pentecostals remain far from the social positions which would make industrial entrepreneurship possible. Looking at the religious ethic rather than at the economic environment or social position of the Pentecostals, Lalive emphasizes that the sign of salvation for Chilean Pentecostals is moral regeneration rather than material success. Since the type of personal advancement which Pente- costalism encourages does not automatically lead to increased savings, it will not necessarily produce an increase in national wealth and development. Pentecostals' attitudes leave them far removed from the prototypes of Joseph Schumpeter's heroic entrepreneur and Everett Hagen's anxious innovator.29

One area in which Pentecostals remain unquestionably 'traditional' is their rejection of ecumenism. Lalive gained hard data on this issue from

26 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, p. 62. 27 Ibid., p. 105. 28 See ibid., p. 15; and Lalive, El refugio de las masas, pp. 181-94. 29 See Joseph A. Schumpeter, The Theory of Economic Development, Redvers Opie, trans.

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934); and Everett E. Hagen, On the Theory of Social Change: How Economic Growth Begins (Homewood: Dorsey Press, 1962), especially pp. 141-3, 150-2.




questionnaire answers which he received from 58 Pentecostal pastors, 24 other Protestant pastors, and 35 students at the Evangelical Faculty of Theology in Buenos Aires. He asked them whether the members of other religious groups could be saved and whether those groups at present formed part of the worldwide 'body of Christ', classifying two positive replies to these questions as an 'ecumenical' answer and two negative replies as an 'anathema' answer. The Pentecostal pastors consistently ranked lower in ecumenical answers than the other two groups, although the degree of their disagreement varied widely according to the denomina- tion being evaluated. All three groups largely agreed that Methodists, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals could be saved and formed part of the body of Christ, and they contrastingly gave anathema or mixed answers in regard to Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. In regard to Catholics, however, 71 per cent of the Pentecostals but only 21 per cent of the other pastors and 9 per cent of the students gave anathema answers.30 Such rejection of contemporary trends toward ecumenism does indeed make the Pentecostals seem to be traditionalists, but only in regard to one aspect of their faith.

In appraising the 'anathema' reaction of the Pentecostal pastors toward Roman Catholics, one needs to keep in mind the recentness of the contemporary emphasis on ecumenicalism by the Catholics themselves. The Pentecostal attitude looks particularly 'traditional' when compared with Catholic statements after the second Vatican Council, but the Pentecostals now reveal attitudes generally espoused among leading Catholics as well until the decade of the 1960s. In 1956, for example, a Chilean Jesuit noted the sharp rise of Pentecostalism and the fact that the Chilean census of 1952 had shown 89.5 per cent of the population to be Catholic and 4.2 per cent of the population to be Protestant. Discussing the meaning of the statistics, he then concluded that 'God wants them to open our eyes to the dangerous advance of Protestantism and to stimulate us to seek the causes which produce it and the remedies which must be applied'.31

In a contrasting reaction against traditionalism, the rise of Protestantism indicates that lower strata in Brazilian and Chilean society have never assimilated the cultural values of dominant elite groups. This fact raises the question of whether the acceptance of Protestant appeals may be either an act of protest against elite values or one means of rising toward the socio-economic status of the elite. Willems lays stress on the protest explanation, assuming that one function of Pentecostalism which makes it so popular is its emphasis on equality and its rejection of hierarchical, Catholic society.32 What this explanation passes over, however, is that

30 Christian Lalive d'Epinay, 'L'esprit et le champ oecumeniques des pasteurs sud-ameri- cains', Social Compass, Vol. 14, No. 5-6 (1967), 430-1.

31 Humberto Mufioz R., 'Situaci6n del protestantismo en Chile', Mensaje, Vol. 5, No. 49 (junio, 1956), 167, 169.

32 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, pp. 247-9.




Latin American Catholicism has also come to preach doctrines of equality. Catholic leaders now espouse not merely the heavenly equality which was formerly used to justify hierarchical stratification on earth, but also the new doctrines of social and political equality emphasized since the 1930s by Rafael Caldera, Eduardo Frei, their priestly mentors, and lay associates. The egalitarianism of Pentecostalism may be one attraction for lower socio-economic groups, but they did not have to go to Pentecostalism to find an egalitarian ethic.

The alternative hypothesis, that individual acceptance of Protestantism has been more a means of upward mobility than of lower-class protest, gains some support in Willems' finding that converts in turn reject their new religion when doing so becomes necessary in order to rise still farther in secular society.33 This finding corroborates those of other social scientists on the tendency for Latin Americans to ape rather than reject upper-class values and life styles. Claudio Veliz has similarly found that the upper-class orientations of the urban middle class radically differentiate its real role from general expectations of middle-class values and influence established on the basis of North American and European experience.34

Some of Willems' other assumptions and substantive findings should be questioned for each of the national contexts with which he deals. In Chile, at the end of the Christian Democratic regime of Eduardo Frei, there remains little justification for Willems' statement that Chilean Protestants 'still seem to feel that they are defending themselves against a powerful alliance between conservative parties and the Catholic church'. The tenets and force of Christian Democracy cast substantial doubt upon Willems' contemporary approval for a 1937 statement by a Protestant missionary that Catholicism is 'by nature anti-democratic'.35 In Brazil, the persistent and present interventions of the Brazilian military make Willems' assumption of 'gradual democratization of the political process' in twentieth- century Chile and Brazil36 far more acceptable in the former case than in the latter. For both countries, Willems' hypothetical determinants of 'democratization' need to be made explicit. Given the complexities of Latin American politics, 'democratization' does not automatically flow from gently increasing rates of literacy, or greater electoral participation, or the rise of new interest groups.

At the same time, additional formulations of quantitative materials could also clarify the data from which Willems develops his major theses. In presenting data on the geographic distribution of Chilean Pente- costalism, he repeatedly points to the absolute growth of Pentecostalism in the urban centers of Santiago, Valparaiso, and Concepci6n, rather than

33 Ibid., p. 252. 34 Claudio Veliz, ed., Obstacles to Change in Latin America (London: Oxford University

Press, 1965), pp. 1-8. 35 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, pp. 236, 252. 36 Ibid., p. 220.




giving figures on the specific relationship between the growth of Pente- costalism and the growth of the overall population of these centers in absolute and relative terms. When he points out that, between 1920 and 1960, the proportion of Chilean Protestants in the city of Santiago rose from 13.4 per cent to 26 per cent, it would be helpful to add, as he fails to do, that the proportion of Santiago's population to the total Chilean population in 1960 was also just over 26 per cent.37 The population- related differences in the geographic distribution of Chilean Protestantism appear only in a table which Willems adapted from those in an article by Lalive and then tucked away at the end of his book. This table, which com- pares the percentages of Protestants in the populations of the Chilean provinces, incidates a proportion of 14.9 per cent for the province of Arauco as compared to only 4.4 per cent for the province of Santiago.38 Willems develops careful and challenging hypotheses from his data on geographic distribution, but the data itself would have considerably more force if he presented it more fully in a wider comparative context.

When viewed in the larger context of Latin America as a whole, the social effects of Pentecostal movements vary widely. The movements adapt to the needs and local conditions of groups in very different locations and situations. An Otomi Indian group in Mexico has derived an ethic of personal responsibility and economic development from their conversion to Pente- costalism, for example, while a group of Tobas Indians in Argentina rejects such responsibility and appears to have accepted Pentecostalism so that all members of the group could enjoy the religious ecstasy of communion with divine and ancestral spirits which had formerly been reserved only for medicine men.39 While Pentecostalism has played varying roles in different types of communities, its highly differentiated rates of growth in different Latin American countries suggest that certain types of roles are particularly appropriate for it.

Pentecostalism in Chile, where the movement has grown at an unprece- dented pace,40 has not increased because of any overt concern for social or political reform. In the quietly critical example of Ignacio Vergara, when a Pentecostal woman in Chile develops a severe pain in her foot, she

37 Ibid., pp. 86-93. 38 Table XVIa, in ibid., p. 272. See also Cristian Lalive d'Epinay, 'La expansi6n protestante

en Chile', Cristianismo y Sociedad, Anio 3-4, No. 9-10 (1965-66), especially pp. 33, 35, 40-3. Willems follows a practice of citation which could prove confusing to persons unfamiliar with the authors in question. He refers to Christian Lalive d'Epinay and Isidoro Vasquez de Acufia as 'd'Epinay' and 'Acufia' in his notes. To obtain the full citation, however, readers must look under 'Lalive' and 'Vasquez', rather than under 'd'Epinay' or 'Acufia', because no bibliographic references appear to the parts of the names given in the references in the text. Proofreaders have also let Willems down, allowing such errors to slip through as the mis- spelling of 'Chiloe' in the title of Vasquez de Acufia's book.

39 Nida, 'The Indigenous Churches in Latin America', 98-102. 40 In his comparative study of Protestantism in Latin America, Father Damboriena points

out that Pentecostalism has expanded most rapidly in Chile. See Prudencio Damboriena, El protestantismo en America Latina (2 vols.; Bogota: FERES, 1962, 1963), Vol. 2, p. 246.




typically interprets it as a sign from God reproving her use of sheer stockings.41 One reason Pentecostalism has not grown even more perva- sively in Chile and other Latin American countries is that it forces men to give up the extramarital sexual relations which are a traditional source of pride and prestige. Pentecostals also prohibit gambling, drinking, dancing, smoking, and even attendance at movies and the use of cos- metics.42 These norms of Pentecostalism deal with the issues of individual purity rather than with the wider spectrum of political issues and relationships. As Beatriz Muniz de Souza notes of Pentecostals in Sao Paulo, Brazil, their stress on personal salvation leads to an effective if unplanned 'conservatism' in terms of accepting the existing status quo for society as a whole.43 It is in this sense that Lalive also concludes that Pentecostalism is a force for order rather than progress, a defense of the status quo rather than a promoter of change.44

Chilean Pentecostals have de-emphasized political reform, not only in relation to the freistas or Christian Democrats but even in relation to other Protestant groups. This fact comes out strongly in the questionnaire data which Lalive received from the Pentecostal pastors, the Protestant

pastors, and the students at the Evangelical Faculty of Theology. Only 8 per cent of the students and 42 per cent of the Protestant pastors felt that a pastor should never discuss elections in his sermon, while 83 per cent of the Pentecostals felt that he should never do so. Although 79 per cent of the Pentecostals said that a pastor should never discuss social problems in his sermons, only 27 per cent of the other Protestant pastors and 14 per cent of the students said that he should never do so. Some 80 per cent of the Pentecostals declared that a pastor should not defend labor unions, as

compared to only 35 per cent of the other pastors and 8 per cent of the students, while 44 per cent of the Pentecostals, 4 per cent of the other

pastors, and none of the students went to the extreme of declaring that a

pastor should refrain from 'collaborating on problems of general interest'.45 This stance of the Chilean Pentecostals has profound implications for

the present programs of other religious organizations because, implicit behind the progressive movements sweeping Christian groups in so many countries, has been the belief that their churches could adapt and thrive in the modern world only by championing broad programs of reform. The massive growth of the Pentecostal movement and its rejection of

religious concern for trade unions, social problems, and the 'general interest' disproves this assumption, at least in relation to lower socio-

41 Vergara, El protestantismo en Chile, p. 127. For more direct criticism of Chilean Pente- costalism's exclusive concern with moralistic purity, see ibid., pp. 238-43.

42 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, pp. 45-6, 170. 43 Beatriz Muniz de Souza, 'Aspectos do protestantismo pentecostal em Sao Paulo', in

Waldo A. Cesar, and others, Protestantismo e imperialismo na America Latina (Petr6polis: Edit6ra Vozes, 1968), p. 110.

44 Lalive, El refugio de las masas, p. 180. 45 Ibid., pp. 91-2.




economic groups. Chilean Pentecostals have accepted their new faith because it fits their personal needs rather than because of its relationship to the alleged needs of their class or of society as a whole. For religious activists like the organizers of Catholic trade unions, this experience questions how much their activity will really strengthen the Church as opposed to the trade union movement per se. The new ethic of progressive Catholicism may still be necessary to hold the loyalty and active support of some members of middle- and upper-class groups, and members of these groups have indeed come to lead the Christian Democratic movement in Latin America. For the lower groups whom progressive Catholicism is designed to help, however, the psychological functionality of new religious norms may have far more importance than the official Christian Demo- cratic emphasis on politics, trade unionism, or 'social reform'.

Insistence upon Pentecostalism's apolitical stance also provides a counterweight to earlier interpretations of Protestant political tendencies. Writing in 1950, Emile Leonard noted the 'proletarianization' of Brazilian Protestantism but went on to emphasize the conservative political tendencies which Brazilian Protestants had nevertheless acquired. He supposed that 'Brazilian Protestantism, whether rural or intellectual, tends, like all Protestantisms, toward a bourgeois mentality', and on this basis he explained the opposition of Brazilian Protestants to the doctrines and political forms of socialism and communism.46 While cooperation between political conservatives and Protestants has been very much in evidence in Brazil since the military coup of 1964, the Leonard interpretation misses the real point of the connection between politics, Protestantism, and the proletariat. Protestantism has risen sharply among the proletariat, but it has done so for social and psychological reasons rather than from political causation. Its effects have shaped values and attitudes, but not primarily in ways which have a direct bearing on political norms and relationships.

Some Pentecostals have come to declare the need for major concern with contemporary problems. At a recent Evangelical conference in Chile, a speaker strongly urged fellow Pentecostals to live down their stereotyped image of opposition to drinking, dancing, and 'mixing in the world'. He advocated instead that they confront worldly problems with 'a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other'. On the same program, a professor at the Evangelical Faculty of Theology sharply criticized middle- class self-satisfaction in Latin America and proposed that a 'new Christian conscience' should back massive efforts in reform for the lower classes.47

46 Emile-G. Leonard, O protestantismo brasileiro: Estudo de eclesiologia e historia social, Linneu de Camargo Schiitzer, trans. (Sao Paulo: Associa~ao de Seminarios Teol6gicos Evangelicos, n.d.), pp. 335-7.

47 Carlos Pape, 'Los evangelicos somos asi', Mensaie, Vol. 16, No. 156 (enero-febrero. 1967), 36-7.

H




These appeals mark a clear break with Pentecostal tradition but, so far at least, they represent the challenges of individual spokesmen rather than a new direction for the movement as a whole.

THE FUTURE OF RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS

Analysis of contemporary religious movements in Latin America naturally leads to the twin issues of how those movements will develop in the future and what the most strategic ways of studying their development will be. In one important area, the relationship of class structure and attitudes to religious activities which comes out so clearly in the work of Willems and Lalive emphasizes the need for more research which involves the empirical study of Latin American social classes. Willems rightly challenges stereotyped views of Latin American society, pointing out that the Protestant ethic is not so alien as is usually assumed, especially for the rural middle class. The standard interpretations of a North American value system which stresses hard work and a South American value system which stresses leisure in fact reflect the persuasions of the middle class in the United States and the upper class in Latin America which have set up the appearances of generalized ethics for each society.48 Actually, social ethics in both North and South America depend upon the particular classes and groups under consideration. In comparison to class studies in the United States and Europe, the empirical study of class attitudes and relationships in Latin America remains virgin territory.

Another area of research remains that of religion and the sociology of the family. In raising this issue, some initial analyses have assumed that family stability and closely knit family relationships have traditionally characterized Brazil, and that Pentecostal values reinforce such family patterns and therefore aid the rise of Pentecostalism itself.49 Closer historical analysis, however, might well reveal that family stability has varied with social class. Divorce rates have been low in the Catholic countries of Latin America, but separations, mistresses, and the masculine keeping of two households have been common. The work of Oscar Lewis in Mexico indicates the illusory nature of family stability among lower- class urban residents.50 Besides coping with new trends toward family disintegration, Pentecostalism may alleviate pressures for disintegration which have long existed among marginal groups. A need exists here for both historical and contemporary studies of the interrelationship among religious values, family patterns, and the trends of urbanization and inter- regional migration of workers which seem to impair family stability.

48 Willems, Followers of the New Faith, pp. 47-8, 247. 49 Read, New Patterns of Church Growth in Brazil, pp. 212-13. In contrast, see Willems,

Followers of the New Faith, pp. 169-73. 50 Oscar Lewis, Five Families: Mexican Case Studies in the Culture of Poverty (New York:

Basic Books, 1959); and Oscar Lewis, The Children of Sdnchez: Autobiography of a Mexican Family (London: Penguin Books, 1964).




Recent studies contain seminal material on Catholicism as well as Protestantism. Kessler asserts, for instance, that the tolerant and progressive nature of Chilean Catholicism has arisen from Chile's geographic isolation, the absence of trade routes for her to defend from Protestant nations, the 'good-naturedness' of the Chilean people, and the lack of confrontation with powerful Indian religions.51 In going on to seek more detailed and substantive answers to the crucial question of why Chilean Catholicism has become more progressive than that of the other Latin American countries, comparative research will undoubtedly consider other issues as well. Other variables include the poverty of the Chilean Church as compared to those of Mexico or Colombia, the interplay between religious values and such secular norms as Chilean nonviolence and respect for the law, and even the impact of individuals, as in Jacques Maritain's personal influence on Eduardo Frei. Although students of Catholicism may extend and test the data and hypotheses of Kessler, Lalive, or Willems, they will find bases for sound judgments on Catholicism in these works which deal largely with other religious groups.

A particularly significant research area is that of Protestantism and politics; here the issues of values and attitudes, voting behavior, and political alliances stand out for further study. In the 1964 presidential election, Chilean Pentecostals deserted their traditional Radical Party affiliations to vote for Eduardo Frei and the Christian Democrats.52 The numbers in which they did so, and their range of motives for doing so, remain unclear, however. Studies need to ask to what extent their new affinity with the Christian Democrats results from the nonsectarian appeals of the freistas, from partisan assurances given to particular Protestant leaders, or from broad Pentecostal acceptance of the freista campaign images of a single choice between Communists and the Christian Democrats. Has alignment with the Christian Democrats altered the basically nonpolitical stance of the Pentecostals, and will this alignment survive in the election of 1970 and afterwards? The sharp growth of Protestantism in a country of only eight million people makes these questions especially important in the context of Chilean politics.

In turn, what do the various analyses of Protestant growth imply for the future growth of religious movements? Activists optimistically project past growth rates to suggest that, if the rates of growth should continue, the Brazilian population will be almost 20 per cent Pentecostal by the year 2000.53 This type of projection looks from a missionary rather than a sociological perspective, assuming that all men are waiting for the 'mes- sage' rather than that certain forms of religion play particular roles for

51 Kessler, A Study of the Older Protestant Missions and Churches in Peru and Chile, p. 13. 52 John B. Housley, 'Protestants and Christian Democracy in Chile', Christian Century,

Vol. 85, No. 13 (March 27, 1968), 389. 53 Read, New Patterns of Church Growth in Brazil, pp. 176-9.




individuals and social groups. In fact, the sociological analyses of Willems and Lalive indicate that the potential reservoir of Pentecostal converts is restricted rather than unlimited. The new faith appeals particularly to low socio-economic groups, and even members of these groups may reject it if their status changes. Other faiths will undoubtedly continue to compete in making their messages more genuinely relevant to the lives of Latin American citizens.

Along with such contemporary religious spokesmen as Ivan Illich, Lalive believes that the Christian churches would emerge stronger after an end to religious formalism and some of the present practices which super- ficially seem to strengthen them. The full separation of church and state and limitations on the automatic inculcation of religious values would force Christians, he believes, to prove the essential validity and ecumenical inclusiveness of their doctrines.54 The striking decline of religion in Scandinavia substantiates his conclusions, even if that decline has resulted from social trends as well as religious formalism. Lalive recognizes, as do Catholic sociologists like Fathers Fran;ois Houtart and Emile Pin,5s that religious disbelief has grown sharply and that masses of citizens have effectively abandoned the Christian churches. Even if religious disbelief becomes still more pervasive in the future, however, the sort of functions which religion plays in the lives of Brazilian and Chilean Pentecostals suggests that religion will be modified rather than disappear. It will continue for some time to adapt to men's psychological needs, and perhaps still to their social needs as well, just as it has done throughout history. If so, then a normative corollary of recent studies implies that, instead of merely modifying the relationships of religious groups to governments or to each other, men should structure those relationships in ways which allow religion to fulfill psychological and moral functions for individuals without remaining embroiled in politics or denominational conflicts.

As the Evangelicals recognize, the 'dechristianization' of Latin America has replaced the integrated, 'sacred' society of the colonial period with the increasingly pluralistic norms of contemporary, secular society. The process has encompassed generalized enthusiasm for change, new patterns of motivation, and a proliferation of interest groups, customs, and religious beliefs.56 It remains an open question, however, as to whether or not these

54 Lalive, El refugio de las masas, p. 226. Pointing out that Protestant pastors work easily under regimes of the 'far right' like that of Francois Duvalier in Haiti, but that the pastors cannot relate to 'really revolutionary' regimes like that of Fidel Castro in Cuba, Lalive advocates that Evangelicals in Latin America give up their 'reactionary role' and accept a more 'radical' position. Christian Lalive d'Epinay, 'La Iglesia Evangelica y la revoluci6n latinoamericana', Cristianismo y Sociedad, Afio 6, Nos. 16, 17 (diciembre, 1968), 21-2, 29-30.

55 Francois Houtart and l~mile Pin, The Church and the Latin American Revolution, Gilbert Barth, trans. (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1965); and Emile Pin, Elementos para una sociologia del catolicismo latinoamericano (Bogota: FERES, 1963).

56 Jose Miguez Bonino, Poldmica, didlogo y misidn: Catolicismo romano y protestantismo en la America Latina (n.p.: Centro de Estudios Cristianos del Rio de la Plata de la Federaci6n de




changes foretell further increases in religious pluralism, or merely a general continuance of the limited, nominal patterns of religious belief which underlie the religious attitudes of so many Latin Americans. The expansion of Pentecostalism demonstrates that religious fervor can indeed over- take masses of citizens in contemporary Latin America. Nevertheless, the future expansion of Pentecostalism is circumscribed through the limited groups for which it has primary appeal and through the competition of Christian Democratic and Marxist ideologies. What analysis of Latin American Protestantism demonstrates most clearly is that its rise relates directly to the psychological and social functions which it can perform. Its future growth and effects, like those of the past, should depend on the ways in which it can perform these or other functions.

Iglesias Evangelicas del Uruguay y de la Federaci6n Argentina de Iglesias Evangelicas, 1966), pp. 26-31.

Money and Credit in Early Industrial- ization: Some Methodological Problems in Comparative Analyses Review by JACOB M. PRICE

The University of Michigan

Rondo Cameron, Olga Crisp, Hugh T. Patrick and Richard Tilly, Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization. A study in comparative economic history (New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967). Pp. xv + 349.

We are indebted to Rondo Cameron and his collaborators for an interest- ing and really new book that marks a significant innovation in comparative economic history. Of all branches of that discipline, the study of banking has been particularly particularistic. Histories of individual central, public and private banks abound; historical studies of banking systems are much rarer, though great progress has been made in recent work on the nineteenth century. Cross-national or international studies of banking systems are virtually non-existent. Rare efforts in this direction have eschewed systematic comparison. For example, thirty-five years ago, J. G. Van Dillen published a collaborative History of the principal public banks (The Hague, 1934), an international survey which students then and since have found extremely useful; it was, however, unmarked by any systematic comparative element in plan or execution.


changes foretell further increases in religious pluralism, or merely a general continuance of the limited, nominal patterns of religious belief which underlie the religious attitudes of so many Latin Americans. The expansion of Pentecostalism demonstrates that religious fervor can indeed over- take masses of citizens in contemporary Latin America. Nevertheless, the future expansion of Pentecostalism is circumscribed through the limited groups for which it has primary appeal and through the competition of Christian Democratic and Marxist ideologies. What analysis of Latin American Protestantism demonstrates most clearly is that its rise relates directly to the psychological and social functions which it can perform. Its future growth and effects, like those of the past, should depend on the ways in which it can perform these or other functions.

Iglesias Evangelicas del Uruguay y de la Federaci6n Argentina de Iglesias Evangelicas, 1966), pp. 26-31.

Money and Credit in Early Industrial- ization: Some Methodological Problems in Comparative Analyses Review by JACOB M. PRICE

The University of Michigan

Rondo Cameron, Olga Crisp, Hugh T. Patrick and Richard Tilly, Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization. A study in comparative economic history (New York, London and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1967). Pp. xv + 349.

We are indebted to Rondo Cameron and his collaborators for an interest- ing and really new book that marks a significant innovation in comparative economic history. Of all branches of that discipline, the study of banking has been particularly particularistic. Histories of individual central, public and private banks abound; historical studies of banking systems are much rarer, though great progress has been made in recent work on the nineteenth century. Cross-national or international studies of banking systems are virtually non-existent. Rare efforts in this direction have eschewed systematic comparison. For example, thirty-five years ago, J. G. Van Dillen published a collaborative History of the principal public banks (The Hague, 1934), an international survey which students then and since have found extremely useful; it was, however, unmarked by any systematic comparative element in plan or execution.



Documents

Protestantism and Politics in Chile and Brazil