Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America

Evangelicals and Politics in Asia, Africa and Latin America
Paul Freston | 2001-04-02 00:00:00 | Cambridge University Press | 360 | Politics
Paul Freston's book is a pioneering comparative study of the political aspects of the new mass evangelical Protestantism of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia. The book examines twenty-seven countries from the three major continents of the Third World, burrowing deep into the specificities of each country's religious and political fields. The conclusion looks at the implications of evangelical politics for democracy, nationalism and globalization. This unique account of the politics of global evangelicalism will be of interest across disciplines and in many different parts of the world.
Reviews
Freston gives a dramatic overview of popular Christian movements across the world's southern continents. He describes people little-known in the North, but who are making enormous differences in shaping the future of Christianity. These include activists for democracy, female church leaders in Shanghai, prophet-founders of African "new religions", and preachers of the worldwide Pentacostalist movement. Many of these leaders have unique versions of the Christian message. Some are reactionaries for Christian theocracy. Many blend ancient beliefs with a passion for justice. In Brazil, Freston shows a rising evangelical movement coming up the middle between the old camps of conservatives and progressives. One preacher he cites calls for a "spiritual warfare" against evil spirits, for the sake of compassion toward the poor:



"Demons must be expelled from social life in the name of the vote, justice, organization, and democracy, by the power of the name of Jesus. ... We desire Brazil free from spiritual oppression such as hunger, misery, unemployment, inflation, corruption, organized crime ... No demons can stand against our faith." (p.39-40)



As Freston shows, the political implications of these movements will be important.



-author of Correcting Jesus



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