AFTER AZUSA STREET IDENTITY AND FUNCTION OF PENTECOSTALISMS IN THE PROCESSES OF SOCIAL CHANGE Principal hipotheses that explain

today the appearance, insertion, presence and Expansion of Pentecostalism in Latin American after Azusa Street Revival By Bernardo Campos Morante INTRODUCTION This present paper presents five sociological hipotheses concerning the identity and function of pentecostalisms in social processes. Space and style liminations do not permit me an evaluation in detail of these hipotheses. These are presented with the only purpose to initiate dialog. I THE SOCIOLOGICAL CONTEXT OF THE PRESENT DISCUSSION 1. The Religious Answer to social Problems The Theme of possible relationship between religion and society constitute one of the fundamental problems for social sciences, political science and for the science of religion. Starting from this main point of relationships it is possible to locate tendencies and schools of interpretation. Also an unfolding of various methods and theorotic frames of reference that explains the multiple and complex religious practices can be seen. found. In a topic that is so wide and complex, such as this one, of particular intest is the question of how Religion --in particular Popular of 1 Among them pentecostalisms are

Religions-- Grass Root contribute to social change. This has to do with, if in any given religion or particular way of doing religion, besides responding, as is natural, to the demands or religious interests of the population with "symbolic benefits of salvation", can also contribute to the effective response to the social needs and interests of the same population. This has to do with, for example, the "very real" necessities of the grass roots sectors of society. This does not have to do only with verifying the forms, directions and ambiguities of the religious answer to determined social problems, such as facilitating or impeding social change. But it also has to do with explaining, that along with the external conditions, that there are in the religious system in question, in its doctrines, in its practices, in its organization or thical standards, elements that may permit its orientation during a determined social moment, in a specific direction. Or it may permit, at least, to discern when and under what religiouscultural conditions the pouplar religion has to exercize its funtion as a witness, or one to contest or to protest (Desroche). This may not be successful at random because of its ambiguity 1 or the lack of definition in the socio-political field as all religion is recognized traditionally. The religious answer to social problems has to be, probably of a different order and of a different grade of efficiency. That depends on three basic factors: a) The external social conditions that favor it, b) The identity and function that the religious community assumes in the complex spectrum of the Religious Field 2 of which it is an integral part, 1 Paul Tillich (Philosopher and Protestant Theologian) has treated precisely and positively the ambiguity of religion. A formulation of its consecuences for the transformation of culture can be seen in his Teologa Sistemtica III: La Vida y El Espritu. La Historia y El Reino de Dios , Salamanca: Sgueme, 1984: 216. 2 In its theoretic aspect, the Religious Field is understood as "the space in which a group of actors and religious institutions produce, reproduce and distribute symbolic benefits of salvation". The dynamic of the Religious Field is due to the objetive demand 2

and c) The position and capacity of leading that it occupies, in the actual state of a hegemonic configuration (Gramasci) as is promoted by Roman Catholicism in Peru and Latin America. 2. The Complexity of the Peruvian Religious Field The configuration of the Peruvian Religious Field (PRF) can be illustrative in order to determine up to what point it is possible that the Pentecostalisms can be seen as part of a popular religion. In order to do that it is necessary to locate the diverse social actors thar conform the Peruvian Religious Field. The PRF is costituted, grosso modo by the following actors: a. Roman Catholicism in itis three currents: the Catholicism of Christianity (traditional and cultural), Catholicism of New Christianity (modernizing current and of Social Promotion) and the popular or grass root Catholicism. b. Historic Protestantism , weakly linked, in Peru, with the official Protestant Reform of the XVI Century in Europe. c. Denomational or Mission Protestantism , in direct

organizational and ideological relation with mission agencies of the pietistic tradicion fundamentally of North American origin. d. Pentecostalism with four basic tendencies: the pentecostalism of expansion internatonal, with strong influence fron North American fundamentalism; Pentecostalism with intermixture of national roots, in open differentiation with American fundamentalism; Neoof dispossessed by the clergy from the production and control fo those benefits: the laity. In this sense, the demand and the correpondent offer always respond to the interests of the class of the laity, interests that express themselves in the religious area by demands of legitimacy of compensation and of symbolic protest. (Brandao)

Pentecostalism,

closer

to

Catholicism

than

Evangelical

Protestantism; and the movements of divine healing which I will call Iso-Pentecosalisms for being in syntony with the Pentecostalism but which appears to be of another nature. e. So-called New Religious Movements (NERMS), among which we can distinguish basically: 1) Medium religions , such as Spiritism, and certain magical-religious practices related to aboriginal chamanism. 2) Messianic religions among which one needs to discern between those with a religious face and those with political face (such as the subversive groups), and 3) Esoteric religions with the scholastic and philosophical stamp of oriental and occidental origin. f. Aboriginal Religions In the space of Peruvian social formation one must ask, among other things: Who are the laity in the complex Peruvian Religious Field? What are the figures -in concrete terms- of the offer and demand of the symbolic benefits of salvation and in what political direction are the laity situated with respect to the social processes? All of these are questions that underline the analysis of the identity and function of the popular religions. 3. Importance of Locating the Pentecostalisms in the Complex Picture of the Laity In the complex and conflictive PRF, the study of pentecostalisms 4

occupies an important place for the following reasons: First, because in its actual state it constitutes "a religious instance in process of change" and, as such, it reflects very well the processes of social change of those we wish to refer to. In the case of Peru, pentecostalism has a trajectory of 86 years (to 2005) and that makes possible, at least, a deductive analysis in relation to the Protestant presence in Peru of some 153 years of existence, in the face of Catholicism which has more than 474 years in the country. 3 Second, because in various countries in Latin America,

pentecostalism has been converted into a socio-religious alternative, in the light of the breaking up of the established religious and politic order. Pentecostalism has meant the possible construction of a popular identity by means of religion. Through its laity constituency, pentecostalism has been, in many cases, the means of legitimation, compensation and symbolic protest of the popular subjetivity. It would be profitable, in this sense, to establish a comparison between pentecostal religion and Protesant and Catholic religion in regard to its functions and vocations, in a country that, in spite of new economic initiatives, is still marked by social injustice and by the lack of articulation of diverse social subjects in a national project that integrates the diversity of interests and is representative of the totality of its population. Third, because it is necessary to contribute to the knowledge of the complex PRF, now that we do not have scientific studies about the divesity of the religious groups that until now have been classified 3 Offially it counts its establishment in Peru from the First Concilio Limense (1531) CF. M. Marzal, La Transformacin Religiosa Peruana : PUCP, 1983: 57ss. 5

provisionally as "sects" or religious "dissidents" because of lack of other categories for refering to them with propiety. The few studies on the "missianisms" as a factor of change in society (as it is in the Peruvian case), are still in the descriptive an exploratory stage. Therefore it would be premature to formulate sociological about specific contribution of the messianic preexplanations

disposition of pentecostalism to social change. The few, but concrete, studies that have been made of pentecostalism in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Cental America permit, at least, theoretical and deductive approaches. A presentation of the principal interpretive hypotheses of

pentecostalism will put us on the road to examine the possibilities of pentecostalism functioning as the "organic intelect" of the popular organizations in process of change. On the other hand, it will help us maintain dialog with those who try to be intermediaries of a movement that wants to be something more than a simple social phenomenon , an object of scientific observation or a pastoral menace to other religious communities. II PRINCIPAL INTERPRETATIVE HYPOTESES OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PENTECOSTALISM AND SOCIETY A.Complexity of the Fundamental Sociological Question The fundamental problem that guides the sociological search is: How does pentecostalism favor or impede, as a popular religion, the desired social change for Development, given the socio-historic conditions of the country? 6

The simple formulation of the fundamental problem includes an ample gamut of questions that, even without being answered in detail, constitute the whole body of the subject. Given that this essay is of an exploratory nature, permit me to only formulate them. The first question, and perhaps, the most important, can be formed in these terms: What has been and what is the function of the pentecostal religion in the process of Peruvian social formation, since the period in which it was established in the country? 4 To answer it would suppose, in the first place, to differentiate by the historic route the function of the church already establised from the function that is assigned generally to a new religion or to a group of dissidents. It would suppose, in second place, to determine if pentecostalism, besides being in the condition of " dissident" of official Protestantism, implies, reflects or manifiests , also the condition of an alternative political dissidence for social change, by mediation of the symbolic forms of self-production or by "direct" participation in national political life. A question that is related to the general theory of religion and that underlies this first set of questions, ought to clarify the problem of if the pentecostal religion, as Otto Maduro 5 has indicated is a product of social conflicts: terrain relatively autonomous of social conflicts or 4 Pentecostalism is implanted in Peru since 1919 with the arrival of the Assemblies of God. From then on the majority of Pentecostal "denominations" area a dissidency or a derivative of this or a symbiotic product of the pentecostilization of some reformed Protestant churches that in Peru are identified imprecisely as "historic churches". 5 Otto Maduro Religin y Conflicto Social. Mxico. Ecumnicos-Centro de Relexin Teolgica. 1980. 7
Centro de Estudios

an active factor in social conflicts; or if these three conditions interact. The second order of questions proceec from dialog between theology and the social sciences: What relation exists -or ought religious Utopias? In this order of things, another series of questions arise: Who are the subjects of social change and in what measure the people participate in its promotion and realization? which is the model of society to be carried out and substituted for the old order? Which is the condition of the actual order, their degree of precarity and the causes that justify a radical or progressive structural change? Which is the tendency of the actual political processes that favor or impede the attainment of a true and just change at the least social cost? Which are -if any such existthe ideal models upon which it is possible to construct a country? But the common denominator of the investigations of project of salvation, to exist- between and the the

socio-historical

project, on the horizon of the recreation of old and new

pentecostalism as a social phenomenon, has been that of understanding its significance and explaining its appearance, insertion, presence and phenomenal growth , in the midst of national and regional social processes in Latin America. 6 In that search social scientists have formulated diverse and significant hypotheses that pastors and theologians cannot ignore. I present in 6 David Stoll and David Martyn have been busy in the presentation of comprehensive visions of the pentecostal phenomenon in Europe and Latin America. For the continent see: D. Stoll, Se vuelve Amrica Latina Protestante? Las polticas de crecimiento evanglico (Trad. Mara del Camen Andrade) Ecuador: Abya-Yala, s/f (original en ingls de 1990). 8

what follows some of the most sagacious: B. SOCIOLOGICAL HYPOTHESES When one asks how the social scientist explain the growth and expansion of pentecostalism in Latin America, or simply WHAT IS PENTECOSTALISM? The answers that are formulated are the following: 1. ONE TYPE OF ANSWER FOR THE SOCIAL PHENOMENON Latin American Pentecostalism is formed as an answer to the social situation produced by the process of migration that took place with the beginning of the industrialization of Dependent Latin America. Well-known investigators such as Emilio Willems, Christian Lalive Depinay and Prcoro Ferreira Camargo, Bryan Wilson 7, among others, arrived at the conclusion that Pentecostalism responds to abrupt cultural and structural changes that result in migration, in the line of correcting the situation by the integration of its subjects in the urban scene. The expansion of pentecostalism -the same in this sense to that of spiritusm and Umbanda- is applied, according to Willems, in terms of its functional adaptation to a society and culture in process of change.8 Willems as well as Lalive start from the hypothesis that changes in the value system and in the traditional structure can create conditions favorable to the acceptance and spread of different 7 Emilio Willems, Followers of the New Faith , Tenn. Vanderbilt University Press, 1967, Christian Lalive D'Epinay, El Refugio de las masas , Chile: Pacfico, 1968 Id., Religion, dynamique sociale et dpendance, les mouvements protestants en Argentine etau Chile, Paris: Nouton, 1975, C.P.F. Camargo, Kardecismo e Umbanda. Sao Paulo: Pioneira, 1970, Bryan Wilson, Sociologa de las sectas religiosas, Madrid: Guadarrama, 1970. 8 E. Willems, op.cit., 208, Lalive, op.cit. 275. 9

Protestant creeds.

From this point of view, the penetration of

Protestantism is explained as only taking place after the weakening of the social ecclesiastical controls that, for three centuries, had been a religious monopoly in the monolithic societies of Latin America9. Pentecostalism represented, then as well as now, an alternative for the migrant, that, experiencing the anguishing effects in body and soul of the social disorganization and of the patterns of conduct that have been produced by the industrialization (social situation) looks for, by testing out, a group in which he can feel emotionally related and recognized personally. 10 In the same line, J. Pierre Bastian has pointed out that the great power of pentecostalism is linked to the message of a millenial type that is proclaimed and that its success lies in its capacity to create a political-religious counter-power on a local level. 11 In another sense one can affirm also that popular traditional Catholicism acted in some capacity as a circustantially ally in the face of the irruption and promotion of the spirit of modernism on the part of historic Protestantism and the neo-Catholic Christianity that was equally modernizing.12 In such an order, pentecostalism appears as a sacred and functional alternative that is important in the process of social change, where it competes equally -in spite of doctrinal differences- with spiritism, 9 Willems, op.cit., 180181. 10 ibidem. 11 J. Pierre Bastian, Breve Historia del Protestantismo en Amrica Latina ,
Mxico, CUPSA, 1986.

12 Jos Miguez Bonino, "Historia Latinoamericana. Costa Rica, DEI, 1985. 10

Misin",

Races

de

la

Teologa

fulfilling the role of integration and of adaptation to the urban scene. Lalive has pointed out, also, that pentecostalism represents a continuity and a discontinuity of the traditional societies of a manorial type, in the which the style of the hacienda is reproduced.13 It presents to the popular masses the faith in a God of love, the certainty of salvation, the security of the community and the participation in common responsibilities to perform. offers them humanity that socierty has denied them. If the people assume Pentecostalism, it is because, in its quality as an ideology, it is an answer to its problems and immediate needs. This is because the forms of expression of the pentecostal creed as well as its organization and institutions are inspired and in direct proportion to the socio-cultural plans proposed by the global society. By achieving the translation of its ideology and cultural system that accompanies it to the social and cultural language of the people, pentecostalism has succeeded in converting itself in an essential element in society, a refuge of the masses. The exiological differences in the interpretations of Lalive and With this it

Willems appear when we ask "in what does pentecostalism happen to be effective for the masses?" We can diagram the answers in this way:

13 Christian Lalive D'Epinay, Religin dynamique... 1973. 11

THE PENTECOSTALISM IS According to LALIVE Substitute Society with social participation Makes possible: a. Articulates its radical negation of the world (social strike in the religious community which substitutes the civic society. b. Becomes an actual paralyzer of the proletariate masses looking for liberation. Therefore Pentecostalism: c. Need a transformation of its conscience in order to transform its transcendental apocaliptism in revolutionary action and that, as we know, only is possible with change from outside, from the same social practices. According to WILLEMS Compensatory society with social and economic benefits not received Makes possible: a. To be affirmed as a subject, as a person (participatory society) in compensation for the benefits not received. b. Is a potential agent of history.

Therefore Pentecostalism: c. Ougth to wait for changes in the liberal-democratic sense that would favor its participation in the society. In other words, if Pentecostalism gets to be recognized as a social actor in a society in transition.

12

2. "THE RELIGION OF THE OPPRESSED CLASSES" Pentecostalism that is the religion of the band of the poor of society, of the oppressed classes, is explained in the dynamic of social relations in the manner of capitalist production that imprints its seal of its condition as a class and an ideology. Francisco Cartaxo Rolim 14 has manifested that pentecostalism,

principally that of the Protestant form, at the same time that it is concerned about the sacred, is not politically neutral, and is not immune to the forces of the relations between classes. As a subalternate class, pentecostalism is the product of the influence of the ideology of the dominant class. moves between accommodation and As a religion of the poor, it submission and between

questioning and protest and has active participation in social mobilization (although this last is not always present permanently, in contrast with the religious practices that it maintains). Religion is, according to Rolim, determined by the social class relations. This does not have to do with determinism, nevertheless, given that the "pentecostal religion" is relatively autonomous. The question is, in his opinion, to verify to what point the social conditions diminish or annul the religious specificity of pentecostalism, given that "to point out and absolute autonomy is to create a greater problem than that which points to relative autonomy". 15 An explanation of pentecostalism that does not pay attention, at the same time and in dialectic manner, the role of class and the role of religious agents, is theoretically impossible. According to Max Weber, 14 Francisco Cartaxo Rolim, Pentecostais no Brasil: Uma interpretacao Scio-Religiosa. Petrpolis: Vozes, 1985 15 Ibidem. 11 13

Rolim points out that the "acceptance of a salvation creed -as does pentecostalism- stems, not from the beliefs in themselves, but rather from the concrete social conditions in which its followers are found." From that point of view, the basis of pentecostal growth is in its adequateness to the religious proposal to the interests of the interlocutors and not in reverse: "Without response to the announced, however true it may be, no creed can germinate and grow". 16 Rolim says precisely: "the determination of the pentecostal religion does not come from its internal religious center, but rather from the social conditioner, in relation with its root, base, foundation of the religious interests, but that it not only exists in our society. She is part of it., inserted as one of its components" 17 as as such is conditioned by it. Therefore it is easy to understand how the condition of "poor bands" and "popular hordes" of the pentecostals comes specifically from the type of social relationships according to the manner of capitalist production of those that form a part but only as workers without salary and that do not produce. This is this way, according to Rolim, because in the manner of capitalist production, the only productive worker is the one who directly produces profit. In the great majority of "those who accept pentecostalism, if on the one hand belong to the working world, and in this live in dependence as employees, on the other hand, they do not register in the fundamental sector" 18, placing themselves, rather, as unproductive subalternate classes. In the ideological aspect, pentecostalism forms part of the dynamic that imposes itself in the relationship dominant/dominated. The social 16 Ibid.12 17 Loc. cit. 18 Ibid. 172. 14

relationships of production assign basically and fundamentally to the pentecostals the title of a dominated class. Now that they are registered in the class system, in reciprocal relationships, it is not possible to understad them apart from reference to the dominant. In other words, in reference to the relationship between domination/subordination." This situation of dominance appears in the ideology under two aspects: affirmation of the dominant class and its imposition of its dominion over the subalternative classes. With that, several distinct mechanisms invade, including those of a religious nature, a vision of the lay and secular society in such a manner to obtain assent and conformity to the rest of the classes. In this vision, the dominant class imposes its interests, not frontally nor directly, but as representing the interests of the totality of society. In such a way, the reference to the sacred, once it is concretized in words, rites, gestures, and attitudes, is mediated by the relationship of domination, inscribed in cultural and ideological levels. The pentecostal Ideology is taken as a space where it is surprising to see the amount of submission to the dominant as well as confrontation of the same. The consequence is clear. When the Pentecostal exalts the power of God, presenting him as the remedy for the present immediately felt evils, and receives an avalanche of initiates, it transfers for the transsocial and for the a-historic as a aspiration for liberation latent in the poor masses, covering for them the possibility that they might become autonomous by social practices. On the contrary, when the dominated -individual believers or in groups- begin to perceive that scarcities, 15

poverty, the present evils that come from the social order that creates privileges and inequeality, this puts him without doubt, in confrontation with the dominant lay and secular ideology. For this reason, and definitely -according to this interpretation- it is the social practices that are the road that lead to a reformulation of the religious ideology of the dominated. Only thus can the power of God not eliminate the autonomy nor the initiative of social practices, but rather demand an active presence in history as a transformer of the society. A product of his sociological investigation of Brasilian pentecostalism, Rolim states that pentecostal protest in Brazil is not only symbolic, but also effective and real, in a variety of ways, including political. 19 He is convinced, on the other hand, that to explain pentecostalism starting with the process of urbanization and migration and even from the concept of social diorder, is to see pentecostalism from autside towerd the inside and to leave in silence the religious production and religious interests pointed out by Weber. That would be "to speak in an arbitrary way and without theoretic justifications, in accommodation to the system and in legitimatizing the social order".

3."A RESPONSE TO THE AFFLICTION AND SUFFERING OF SOCIETY" Pentecostalism, as well as Umband in Brazil, is a response to the afflictions and sufferings of the society and its application to it represents a means for political and economic strategies to be related to the social experiences previously different of those members that are affiliated.

19 Ibid 13 16

Peter Henry Fry and Gary Nigel Howe 20 try to go a bit farther than the approximations of Willems, Lalive, Camargo and Others. They think that to state that pentecostalism responds to the classic dichotomies of the relationships, masses elect such as folk/urban, some order/social disorder, and other marginalization/integration, is not sufficient nor does it explain why indistinctly pentecostalism Umbanda. "We prefer to see the affilation of persons to religious Our argument is

associations, they say, as a social strategy that some people adopt for specific reasons that still have not been revealed. that urbanization and industrialization affect the way in which whichever individual, be he migrant or not, relates to society and vice versa. The changes brought by industrialization and urbanization are principally changes in the form and contenct of the social network of an individual."21 All the migrants do not arrive necessarily poorly equipped to confront the way of urban living. Besides, rural immigrants are not totally ignorant with respect to the problems of the city when they arrive. They easily follow networks of kinship. Thus, certainly, "pentecostalism provides and ideological and

organizational structure that is more conducive to the generation of confidence between co-religionists. In this way, (if) pentecostalisms is not, it at least provides an institutional base for the exercise of power and authority that are denied in the wider society 22 and at the same time it serves the role of an extended family for those who need one.

20 Peter Henry Fry and Gary Nigel Howe, "Duas Respostas afiliacao: Umbanda e Pentecostalismo", Debate e Critica Nro. 6 (Julho) 1975: 75-94. 21 Ibid. 85 22 Ibid. 87 17

In Weberian terms, Fry and Howe point out that pentecostalism is close to being more like typical ideal "bureaucratic rational" while Umbanda is closer to the typical "Charismatic" ideal.23 In this sense "the pentecostal churches could be more attractive, in terms of ideas, for those who might have had some "bureaucratic", impersonal social relationships, and that might find the way to order their social life satisfactorily and conveniently. attractive for those As well, Umbanda could be more whose daily life is structured on the basis of

experience of the "bureaucratic" way of ordering social relationships and that find that system inconvenient. 24 Now, neither global society nor religious societies are homogenous. Therefore they offer a complex field of possibilities (offers) for a group so complex who are oriented socially in diverse forms (demands). This fact makes it impossible to predict the orientations of the people in a given religious association. But "in a time in which the man in the street is denied whatever political expression, this results in the major importance of the fact that such persons are attracted to associations with religious ideology" (Gramsci). It is certain that the election of one or another religious association depends even more in the effectiveness of the symbols of the group as much as the political and economic recompenses that the followers hope to derive from their energies; but, we ought not forget -Fry and Howe point out- that there are socio-economic aspects that enter into play in the religious affilation. The fact is that to become a member of a group, whichever it may be, "involves certain losses in terms of other opportunities, but also there are certain benefits offered ("bendiciones") in the form of relationship and social interchange with other members: There is progressive dialectics between what is perceived as pleasing to God 23 Ibid. 88 24 Ibid. 91 18

and to the spirits, and what is felt as being immediately of advantage for the man".25 For Fry and Howe, in each one of the cases, pentecostalism or Umbanda, equally, the socio-economic aspects are those that determine, in general, one or another religious affiliation. Therefore they believe that we ought to ask both congregations what are the benefits received by its members, what is the cost of enjoying those benefits and finally, what kind of person would feel attracted by this particular social contract. One appropriate answer to the question planted by Fry an Howe, would undoubtedly rest in a theological reconceptualizacion of the concept "economy" in terms of offer and demand and in anthropoligical differenciation of its followers of whatever religion, once these have been acquired. But it must be verified is this suggestion so that does not fall into economic reductionism of the relationship between the individuals and the religions and that it is always the economic motivations that produce conversions and followers. 4."THE CONSTRUCTION OF A POPULAR SUBJETIVITY: SOCIAL SELFPRODUCTION" Considering the beliefs, the discourses and the religious practices as a "religious world" and as a type of product in the world of culture -which supposes a process and determinated relationship of production in that religious world- pentecostalism is interpreted as a form in which important sector of the popular classes (urban subproletariate, rural farmers who are or aren't proletariate, and the Indian sections) recuperate for themselves or appropriate for themselves the means of production of the "religious world", repel - and assuming at the same time25 Ibid. 84 19

the socio-cultural, liberal mediation of bourgeois origin. This is the interpretation that Juan Sepulveda sums up for Chile 26, starting with the theoretic proposal of Otto Maduro, Burdieu and Lalive D'Elnay, with reference to a type of home-grown pentecostalism that is the product of the re-creation of Methodism in the same religious field in Chile. Such a home-grown pentecostalism is different, from the strain of pentecostalism of foreign "mission" origin that arrives later in Chile. In contrast with popular Catholicism and in direct relation with a kind of mastery as an official process of "religious cultivation", pentecostalism appears as being produced directly and legitimately from a valid discourse and religious practice and establishing a clear element of rupture in the middle of the existing religious continuity. Pentecostalism, in the space of the Chilean society, operates as a kind of socialization or polarization of mastery and of the means of production of the "religious world". Sepulveda and in this he distances from various sociological type interpretations- points out that "this capacity of pentecostalism has its origin not so much in external factors of a social nature, nor in theology, but in the specific religious structure of pentecostalism", that is to say, in the capacity or religious intest to produce its own religious world. Distinguishing with F.C. Rolim 27 two planes of actions and religious rites in pentecostalism, some contitute formal rite, such as Baptism and Communion, and the other by public services, private services of prayer, preaching in public squares and healing services -in which 26 Juan Seplveda, "Pentecostalismo y Religiosidad Popular". Pastoral Popular
Vol. XXXII - 1981, Nro. 1: 16-25.

27 F.C. Rolim, "Pentecostisme et Societ au Brsil", in Social Compass 26, Nro. 2-3 (1979); 345-372, quoted by Juan Sepulveda, op. cit. 19. 20

normally the clear social division of religious work takes place between the qualified agents who produce the rite (the pastors) and the simple comsumers of the rite (the laymen, the people)- Sepulveda concludes: "The pentecostal religious structure has this characteristic trait: the believer is a direct producer of the benefits of his religious world marked by the belief and the force of the spirit. producer of the pentecostal religious world". In this sense Sepulveda emphasizes: a) The believers are, at the religious structural level, the direct producers of the religious world: that is what defines them as pentecostals; b) The position that they occupy in this structure is characterized by the relationship of property and possession of the means of religious production (beliefs, sentiments, words, gestures); c) There is no more social division of religious work, as a result; d) There is no more social division between manual and intellectual work, that is, the difference between those who plan and those who execute the preaching, the prayers and the positions. Thus the dichotomy between specialized agents and simple believers, between the ignorant and the learned between those who exercise power and those who are governed, between the planners and the executers disappears. This interpretation has been retaken and explainded recently by Samuel Palma and Hugo Villela , aldo Chileans, in the frame of reference of an investigationon "Popular subjectivity, the religion of popular sectors: the Pentecostal field" until 1987 28 28 Samuel Palma and Hugo Villela, " El pentecostalismo: La relaigin pupular del protestantismo latinoamericano. Algunos elementos para entender la dinmica de las iglesias pentecostales en Amrica Latina ", Santiago, Chile, Mimeo, 1989, 15pp. Cf. 21 The important thing is not to be a presbyter, pastor or deacon, but to be the direct

Both interpretations explain the Chilean social process as one of progressive closing of the possibilities of ascension and social mobility of the people; a process that places it in a situation of "popular frustration", of psycho-social deterioration where the loss of assertiveness is an expression of impotence, of the deteriorization of identities and of the loss of affective references. In such a context, the "religious setting" (sic) is placed as a viable road even if it does not lead to social ascension, but permits, at least, the recuperation of identities and affection. In the midst of that "crisis of subjetivity" of the "common people", Catholicism shows itself deficient before the demand for a religious setting. This is because: a) Catholicism has been associated historically with the political power. b) By the erudite character of Catholic religious personnel (priests, nuns, lay agents) that are placed at a distance in respect to the way of living the sacred on the part of sectors of the population such as rural farmer and urban dwellers, and c) By the formality of the structures that house the Catholic Churches in the way they constitute a community. The Catholic religion appears thus as religion imposed and as a proposal of religion that is foreign to popular interests. Facing this kind of vacancy of affective support of the identity of the people, pentecostalism offers two exits:

Manuel Canales-Samuel Palma-Hugo Villela, En Tierra Extraa II. Para una Sociologa de la Religiosidad Popular Protestante , Chile: Amerindia, 1991.

22

1) The "exit to the world" in order to construct another world that is not a mere "refuge" as Lalive wanted to see. 2) The exit from one Sacred area (the Catholic) in order to produce another sacred space, pentecostalism . In this way, pentecostalism offers to the popular sectors the possibility of constructing the world. But this "world" is not a "refuge" in the sense that lalive said "as a place for idealized reconstruction of an order of extinction" (the traditional society in the scheme of the hacienda). On the contrary, it is the "support in the form of possible social identity in a world of precarious identitites". And it represents -through a process of transformation that begins with new social practices- a possibility of returning (return) to the daily world of the poor, a kind of reencounter with his own identity in the same experience as the street preaching, for example. There is possibility of reconstructing his home returning from work and for lack of the same. In other words, pentecostalism represents also the change of level of the symbolic Universes of the sacred. It is the change from the "Catholic sacred" for the "pentecostal sacred" that tells of the search for a direct relationship with the sacred, eliminating, removing and displacing, the erudite mediation (priest) or competetive (the saints), for an affirmation of a "classist mediation" (the grass roots pastor). This means that on the one side, the creative invention of his own religious universe with the elements of a "given religion". This has to do with, then, a bricolage, of the re-creation of the traditional religion in to a new religion. This difficult and creative process explains, at least in part, the difficulty of pentecostalism to reach an important level of "organicity" 23

in time. Thus it has a tendency to fragment and to produce schisms. Such facts and processes belong to the people even though they do not enjoy in its totality the levels worthy of employment. They are in midst of the process of cultural production and work that affirms the popular identity, the read to constructing a new society.

5.

A RELIGIOUS CONQUEST

SATISFACTION AFTER THE SHOCK OF THE

Pentecostalisms -in the way that first Catholicism, then the Protestantisms, Then socialist ideas and populisms have gone, among others- form a search for religious satisfaction produced in the Amerindian people afeter the bitter root of the violation of its mythical-symbolic substratus during the Conquest and Spanish colonization and later on by colonialisms.29 The Indian people of Indoamerica were raped during the Conquest and military-missionary colonization in the most fundamental of its socialcultural structure. That is to say in its mythical-religious substratus, given that the center of its social and economic organization rested in its religious structure. The religious structure was the basis for the social organization. In the moment of being violated and raped socially, culturally, economically, politically and religiously with the instruments of the sacred, there was registered and kept in the collective subconscience 29 See my article, "Religin y Liberacin del pueblo ", Lima: CEPS, 1969, 19pp. 24

of the Latin American people later on the testimony of the type of aggression to which they were submitted earlier. Then in general, the victims of a vilation changed, but kept in their subconscience the traumatic memory of the aggression. Their frustrations, their complexes, their deformed conduct, their mania, their fears, etc., are not other than a reflexion of the subconscience to the critical point in which they were affected. On the social level, many festivity days which are Andean rituals are nothing but grotesque reproductions of aggressions, shocks, tragedies, violatons and former sufferings to which they were submitted, even though these are remote and relatively distant. In this way, the process of the colonizer and the Hispanic Christianizer had favored gradually the formation of these traces of collective subconscience and this would take preferably a religious form, translating in a pathos of intensified religious life, the context from which the people: a. Would re-produce by means of folklore the original action of the Conquest and the colonization. b. Would maintain in its ancestral mythical tales the figure of a white man who would come from the sea, of a king who would return, (vision of the defeated) c. Would dramatize ritually its protest with regional symbolic actions even though they were not always well expressed politically (liturgical fatalism) d.Would tend, finally, to deflect the attention from its real needs (alienation). Thus, then, the atrophy of the social, stating with the violence suffered in the religious symbolic substratus of the Amerindio people 30 by the 30 Name used to designate the Indian people of South America. 25

Spanish Conquerors, had created the conditions and the psycho-social conditioning for the future generations as a kind of collective religious anxiety. In such conditions, the Amerindio people had remained, as was determined by its social personality, by its religious condition. For this reason, this people tried out, permanently and in different directions, situations that would permit it to calm its anxiety and its religious needs. One of these ways was, in turn, the same Catholicism of Christianity, the Protestantism, the Populisms, the socialistic ideas and also the pentcostalisms and other new and old religious movements. They represent for the people, alternatives for religious satisfaction, more than alternatives for change, interchange or expresion of its own frustrated historical-social projects. For that reason the actual "rapture with" or intensification of popular religious experiences -closer to the religious dissidents of symbolic protest (such as the political messianisms) that to the Catholic of the New Christianity, would not be more than a sign of the popular experience, an alternative among others, of the search of roads for liberation of its condition as an oppressed people". 31 E-mail: relep21@yahoo.com URL: www.pentecostalidad.org
BIBLIOGRAPHY BASTIAN, Jean-Pierre, Breve Historia del Protestantismo en Amrica Latina , Mxico, CUPSA, 1986 31 In order to continue the discussion of the postpentecostalism see my article THE POST PENTECOSTALISM: Renovation of the Leadership and Hermeneutic of the Spirit in Cyberjournal for Pentecostal Charismatic Research (http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj13/bernado.html)

26

CAMPOS, Bernardo, "Religin y Liberacin del pueblo", Lima: CEPS, 1969, 19pp. CAMPOS, Bernardo, THE POST PENTECOSTALISM: Renovation of the Leadership and Hermeneutic of the Spirit in Cyberjournal for Pentecostal Charismatic Research (http://www.pctii.org/cyberj/cyberj13/bernado.html) CANALES, Manuel - PALMA, Samuel - VILLELA, Hugo, En Tierra Extraa II. Para una Sociologa de la Religiosidad Popular Protestante , Chile: Amerindia, 1991. CARTAXO ROLIM, Francisco, Pentecostais no Brasil: Uma interpretacao Scio-Religiosa. Petrpolis: Vozes, 1985 CARTAXO ROLIM, Francisco, "Pentecostisme et Societ au Brsil", in Social Compass 26, Nro. 2-3 (1979); 345-372, quoted by Juan Sepulveda, op. cit. 19. FERREIRA CAMARGO, Prcoro, Kardecismo e Umbanda. Sao Paulo: Pioneira, 1970 HENRY FRY, Peter and NIGEL HOWE, Gary, "Duas Respostas afiliacao: Umband e Pentecostalismo", Debate e Critica. Nro. 6 (Hulho) 1975: 75-94. LALIVE D'EPINAY, Christian, El Refugio de las masas , Chile: Pacfico, 1968 LALIVE D'EPINAY, Christian, Religion, dynamique sociale et dpendance, les mouvements protestants en Argentine etau Chile , Paris: Nouton, 1973, C.P.F. MARZAL, Manuel, La Transformacin Religiosa Peruana : PUCP, 1983: 57ss. MADURO, Otto, y Conflicto Social. Mxico. Centro de Estudios EcumnicosCentro de Relexin Teolgica. 1980. MIGUEZ BONINO, Jos, "Historia Latinoamericana. Costa Rica, DEI, 1985. y Misin", Races de la Teologa

STOLL, David, Se vuelve Amrica Latina Protestante? Las polticas de crecimiento evanglico (Trad. Mara del Camen Andrade) Ecuador: Abya-Yala, 1990 (Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth. USA: The University of California Press, 1990) SEPLVEDA, Juan, "Pentecostalismo y Religiosidad Popular". Pastoral Popular Vol. XXXII - 1981, Nro. 1: 16-25. TILLICH, Paul, Teologa Sistemtica III: La Vida y El Espritu . La Historia y El Reino de Dios, Salamanca: Sgueme, 1984: 216. PALMA, Samuel and VILLELA, Hugo, "El pentecostalismo: La relaigin pupular del protestantismo latinoamericano. Algunos elementos para entender la dinmica de las iglesias pentecostales en Amrica Latina ", Santiago, Chile, Mimeo, 1989, 15pp. WILLEMS, Emilio, Followers of the New Faith , Tenn. Press, 1967 1970. Vanderbilt University

WILSON, Bryan, Sociologa de las sectas religiosas , Madrid: Guadarrama,

27