Conference Papers & Current Trends

Conference: Transnational Religion in Contemporary Latin America and the United States

Held at the University of Texas, Austin, on January 26-27, 2006, this conference sought to interrogate how religion and globalization are intertwined within transnationalized societies, from the perspectives of both the "sending" and the "receiving" countries, and to explore how church affiliation and church institutions react to and against the twin elemental forces of transnationalism and globalization. The conference took as a point of departure the notion that religion is unusually well suited to transnationalism, since colonial Catholicism could be considered the first truly transnational entity in Latin America.

Below you will find the conference program as well as full-text versions of several of the papers presented at the conference.

Conference: Is God Brazilian? Christianity and New Religious Movements

The conference "Is God Brazilian? Christianity and New Religious Movements", took place at the University of Texas, February 17-18, 2005. The purpose of the conference was to provide U.S. and Brazilian scholars a forum in which to interrogate the rapid expansion of non-traditional forms of Christianity in Brazil that has taken place over recent decades.

The theoretical bases for the conference included 1) an exploration of Philip Jenkin's notion of a dynamic new, but highly conservative, "Southern Christianity," witnessed in contemporary Latin America and Africa; 2) a consideration of the theories of religious pluralism within the context of rational-choice theory, in terms of which religions are associated with which forms of individual and group social progress or mobility; and 3) an assessment of not only domestic religious syncretism and hybridity, but also the "glocalization" of recent global trends in religion, such as the adaptation of televangelism in Brazil, transformed into a global expansion of the new hybrid forms of broadcasting conducted by the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus in Brazil, Mozambique and elsewhere.

The conference was sponsored by the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies, the Brazil Center of LLILAS, and the Department of Religious Studies of the University of Texas.

    Conference Program



    The Religious Marketplace in Brazil

    Spirited Sisters: The Success of Pneumacentric Religion among Brazilian Women

    Andrew Chesnut - History, University of Houston

    State, Social Organization, and Politics: State and Social Forces Structuring Brazil's Religious Market

    Newt Gaskill - Political Science, Stephen F. Austin University

    Discussant: Paul Freston - Sociology, Calvin College



    The Mormon Church in Brazil

    History of the Mormon Church in Brazil

    Mark L. Gover - Brigham Young University

    The Mormon Church in Brazil's Contemporary Religious Market Place

    Joseph Straubhaar - Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin

    Rolf Straubhaar - Student, Brigham Young University

    Discussant: Seth Garfield - History, University of Texas at Austin



    Quantitative Perpectives of Protestant Christianity

    Adolescent Fertility and Religion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: The Role of Protestantism

    Joseph Potter, Sarah McKinnon, José Eustáquio Diniz Alves - Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin

    Religiosity and Perceptions of God Among Brazilian Students and Professionals

    Eliana Brigada

    Discussant: Robert Woodbury - Sociology, University of Texas at Austin



    Evangelical Media in Brazil

    Evangelical Media

    Joseph Straubhaar - Radio-TV-Film, University of Texas at Austin

    Igreja Universal and Media in Brazil

    Raul Reis - University of California, Long Beach

    Religious Media in Brazil: The Lutheran Experience on Radio and Television

    Nilo Figur - Concorida University

    Discussant: Rosental Alves, Journalism, University of Texas at Austin

Discussion: Rational Choice Theory

This section is a forum for discussion and deliberation about Professor Anthony Gill's theory of Rational Choice concerning religion in Latin America. Professor Gill is an assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington, Seattle.