A01=David Smilde
Author_David Smilde
benefits of religion
caracas
Category=QRMB36
Category=QRMB39
christian converts
christianity
conflict resolution
cultural agency
cultural history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
ethnographers
evangelical conversion
evangelical protestantism
evangelicalism
faith and religion
fieldwork
latin american history
latin american studies
nonfiction
overcoming substance abuse
pentecostal men
religious communities
religious historians
self discipline
south america
urban ethnography
venezuela
world religions
Product details
- ISBN 9780520249431
- Weight: 408g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 02 Jul 2007
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Evangelical Protestantism has arguably become the fastest-growing religion in South America, if not the world. For converts, it emphasizes self-discipline and provides a network of communal support, which together have helped many overcome substance abuse, avoid crime and violence, and resolve relationship problems. But can people simply decide to believe in a religion because of the benefits it reportedly delivers? Based on extensive fieldwork among Pentecostal men in Caracas, Venezuela, this rich urban ethnography seeks an explanation for the explosion of Evangelical Protestantism, unraveling the cultural and personal dynamics of Evangelical conversion to show how and why these men make the choice to convert, and how they come to have faith in a new system of beliefs and practices.
David Smilde is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia. He is co-author, with Margarita Lopez Maya and Keta Stephany, of Protesta y cultura en Venezuela: Los Marcos de accion colectiva en 1999.
