Modernity, Postmodernity and the Transformation of the Religiosity of the Middle and Low Sectors in Latin America

Abstract

During the last decades Latin America has witnessed a profound transformation of its religious field. An important number of scholars have studied this transformative processes. Diverse theories have been applied in these studies. However, a great number of them have used modernisation theory to interpret the transformation of the Latin American religious fields, specially in what concerns the spectacular growth of Pentecostalism. A majority of authors have identified modernity with industrialisation, urbanisation and democratisation. These interpretations produced a number of controversies that have gone on without coming to a conclusion. The difficulty in reaching a point of agreement stems, according to this article, from an incomplete characterisation of modernity. As a solution, an effort is made to propose an alternative theory, taking Giddens’ conception of interpersonal relations in late modernity as a starting point. Consistent with this, it is shown how the Latin American religious field has been transformed in a way that allows people to establish a kind of relationship between god and his followers that resemble the prototypical interpersonal relationships fostered by late modernity. Conversions to Pentecostalism among the lower classes, as the adoption of New Age practices in middle classes; both imply the incorporation of the new kind of interpersonal relationships.