Middle Class Pentecostalism in Argentina: Inappropriate Spirits

326 Pages·2016·3.37 MB·English

by  Jens Köhrsen

Middle Class Pentecostalism in Argentina
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Religion in the Americas Series
General Editors
Henri Gooren (Oakland University, Rochester, mi, usa)
Steven Engler (Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada)
Cristina Rocha (University of Western Sydney)
VOLUME 15
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/ream
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Middle Class Pentecostalism
in Argentina
Inappropriate Spirits
By
Jens Koehrsen
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported (cc-by-nc 3.0) License, which permits any
non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author(s) and source are credited.
Published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
The research for this book is based on a doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Bielefeld and the
Écoles Des Hautes Études En Sciences Sociales.
Cover Illustration: Church service at the Assembly Of Christ, in Buenos Aires City on 19 April 2009. The church
band is playing worship songs. Photograph by Jens Köhrsen. Reproduced with kind permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Koehrsen, Jens, author.
Title: Middle class pentecostalism in Argentina : inappropriate spirits / by
Jens Koehrsen.
Description: Boston : Brill, 2016. | Series: Religion in the Americas series,
ISSN 1542-1279 ; VOLUME 15 | Includes bibliographical references and
index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided
by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015049706 (print) | LCCN 2015046856 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004310148 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004298453 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Pentecostalism--Argentina. | Middle class--Argentina.
Classification: LCC BR1644.5.A7 (print) | LCC BR1644.5.A7 K64 2016 (ebook) |
DDC 278.2/08308622--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049706
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
issn 1542-1279
isbn 978-90-04-29845-3 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-31014-8 (e-book)
Copyright 2016 by Jens Koehrsen.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei
Publishing.
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To Marcia
∵
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Contents
Acknowledgements xi
List of Figures and Tables xiv
List of Acronyms xv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Class and Religion: A Rather Understudied Topic 3
1.2 L atin American Pentecostalism: Towards a Middle Class
Movement? 7
1.3 The Structure of the Study 20
2 Religious Boundary Work and Class Representations – A Theoretical
Framework to Study Middle Class Pentecostalism 22
2.1 Bourdieu’s Sociology as a General Framework for Grasping Class in
Religion 24
2.2 Everyday Boundary Work 30
2.3 Middle Class Representations 33
2.4 Relating Boundary Work and Class Representations to the Social
Space 38
2.5 Towards Religious Non-conformance 40
2.6 Boundary Work as a Way of Dealing with Non-Conformance 43
2.7 Summary 45
3 Exploring Middle Class Pentecostalism in Argentina – Methodological
Considerations 47
3.1 Methodical Remarks: Controlling the Quality of Qualitative
Research 48
3.2 A Threefold Approach 50
3.3 Remaining Limitations of the Study 55
3.4 Summary 56
4 Social Class, Symbolic Boundaries, and Religion in Argentina 57
4.1 A Brief Overview of Argentina’s Socio-Religious History 57
4.2 Argentina’s Middle Class: Objective and Symbolic Boundaries 70
4.3 Argentina’s Religious Field 81
4.4 Summary 92
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viii Contents
5 Pentecostalism in Tension 94
5.1 Argentinean Pentecostalism between Diversity,
Unity and Stigmatization 94
5.2 The Social Stratification of the Pentecostal Movement 107
5.3 From Conformance to Deviation: Experiencing
Inappropriateness 114
5.4 Summary 118
6 Becoming a Middle Class Pentecostal: Biographies,
Backgrounds, and Beliefs 119
6.1 Religious Belief and Practice among Middle
Class Interviewees 120
6.2 Social Positions and Class Backgrounds of Interviewees 121
6.3 Religious Backgrounds and Trajectories 127
6.4 Explaining Middle Class Conversions to Pentecostalism 133
6.5 Summary 137
7 Symbolic Boundary Work in Pentecostalism: Two Pentecostal
Churches 138
7.1 A Lower Class Church in a Middle Class Neighborhood:
God Is Love 139
7.2 A Case Study of a Middle Class Pentecostal Church:
The Assembly of Christ in Villa Devoto 158
7.3 Comparing the Social Composition and Religious Styles of
gil and ac 177
7.4 Summary 181
8 Crafting a More Appropriate Pentecostalism: Five Symbolic
Boundaries 183
8.1 Legitimacy and Power: “Legitimate” Boundaries 184
8.2 Excellence and Order: Structural and Organizational
Boundaries 192
8.3 Intellectual Refinement: Educational Boundaries 201
8.4 Moderating the Spirits: Expressive Boundaries 210
8.5 Authenticity, Respectfulness and Selflessness: Moral
Boundaries 227
8.6 Summary 239
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Contents ix
9 The Evolution and Implications of Boundary Work 242
9.1 The Evolution of an Appropriate Pentecostalism 242
9.2 The Inappropriate Other 249
9.3 Summary 260
10 Conclusion 262
Bibliography 269
Index 307
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