“The New Faces of Neoliberal Christianity in Latin America” Book Roundtable

New Faces poster
The Institute for Historical Studies in Department of History at The University of Texas at Austin
invites you to:
 
“The New Faces of Neoliberal Christianity in Latin America”
 
A Book Roundtable inspired by 
New Faces of God in Latin America: Emerging Forms of Vernacular Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2020)
By Dr. Virginia Garrard
Thu. Jan. 27, 5-6:30pm (Central)
 
In New Faces of God in Latin America, Professor Virginia Garrard poses two questions: What are the “New Faces of God” in Latin America? In what way are these new manifestations of “vernacular” Christianity any different from previous ones?
 
Professor Garrard identifies various decentralized, bottom-up religious movements that, unlike previous movements, are controlled by local ministries whose ethnicity and backgrounds reflect that of the majority of the population: Indian, Black, Women. These movements reflect the actual racial, ethnic composition of local societies  much better than did traditional forms of colonial Christian religion, usually in the hands of European, Creole elites or USA missionaries.
 
In one sense these movements are deeply anticolonial. Studies of these new forms of religion in Africa and Asia cast these movements as peculiarly rooted in the “Global South.”
 
Like previous manifestations of  grass-roots, democratic theological experimentation and decentralization in the US, these spiritual movements rely on individual interpretations of the Old Testament and Pentecostal, demonological  interpretations of the Act of the Apostles. These movements seek self-help and material success. They also seek to cut ties between individuals and traditional forms of communal, theological, or bureaucratic authority. These vernaculars movements  are fast growing. They now represent a quarter of the population of Latin American. 
 
Inspired on Garrard’s new book, our panelists will explore the connections between these new religious movements and globalization-neoliberalism. They will probe whether the rise and global spread of these forms of right-wing-conservative-cum-anticolonial Christianity represent a challenge to prevailing theories of colonialism, modernity, and secularization.
Featuring:
 
Dr. Paola Canova (discussant)
Associate Professor of Anthropology and 
Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS)
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Virginia Garrard (author)
Professor, Department of History, and 
Faculty Affiliate, Department of Religious Studies, and Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS)
The University of Texas at Austin
 
Dr. Jennifer Scheper Hughes (discussant)
Professor, Department of History
University of California, Riverside
 
Dr. Karina Kosicki Bellotti (discussant)
Professor, Department of History
Federal University of Paraná (Brazil)
 
Event will take place virtually via Zoom Webinar. Please register to receive the access link at:
 
LISTEN to a podcast preview, “The New Faces of God in Latin America,” on Not Even Past:
Event details: https://bit.ly/3xhSi9O
About the book: https://bit.ly/3GQAyWV
Queries/Contact: cmeador@austin.utexas.edu

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