Historical and Ideological Lineages of Dissenting Protestantism in Latin America

Latin America is a region where traditional dissenting institutions and denominations have a relatively small footprint, and yet the ideas of dissenting Protestantism play an important, and expanding, role on the religious landscape. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Latin America has transitioned from a region with a de jure Catholic monopoly to one marked by religious pluralism and the disestablishment of religion. In the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, this transition has been especially marked by the rapid growth of Pentecostalism. This chapter analyses the role of dissenting Protestantism during these two centuries of transition and demonstrates how ideas and missionaries from historical dissenting churches combined with local influences to create a unique version of dissent among Latin American Protestants and Pentecostals.

Pentecostals and Charismatics in America

This chapter traces Pentecostal and related congregations, churches, denominations, and organizations that stem from the beginning of the twentieth century. They identify with activities at Pentecost described in Acts 2 and in the exercise of charisms in 1 Corinthians 12–14. Each of them highlights is the significance of a personal encounter with the Holy Spirit leading to a transformed life. These often interrelated organizations and movements have brought great vitality to the Church worldwide for over one hundred years, and together, they constitute as much as 25 per cent of the world’s Christians. This form of spirituality is unique over the past 500 years, since it may be found in virtually every historic Christian family/tradition, and in most churches of the twenty-first century.

‘Crying for Help and Reformation’

With a focus on Arabic-speaking Protestants in Ottoman Syria (present day Lebanon and Syria) in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this chapter explains how Syrian Evangelical Church members who shared the same Reformed theological tradition came to define themselves as either Congregationalists or Presbyterians. Contrary to the accounts of Presbyterian missionaries who operated the American Syria Mission after 1870, the church schism in Beirut and subsequent denominational divisions were not merely the result of internal Syrian Protestant squabbling, self-interested troublemaking, or a preference for congregationalism. Rather, the church controversies and anti-missionary critiques that emerged during this period were part of a wider Protestant dissenting tradition.

Localization and Indigenization of Christianity in the Pacific

This chapter explores the mission of nonconformist and dissenting missionaries throughout the Pacific Islands, including the Philippine Islands. A wide variety of Christian denominations have taken root in the Pacific, as well as a great number of examples of localization and indigenization of Christianity, particularly emerging from the wake of dissenting missionary efforts. So, we ask several questions. What kinds of dissenting mission have there been, especially in the Colonial Era, and now in the post-colonial Era? In what ways have the Pacific Islands and Filipino peoples, as agents in their own right, cooperated, resisted, and indigenized and localized the gospel and the church? Finally, what can we learn from these Protestant/dissenting mission histories that contributes to our overall project in this encyclopaedia; that of analysing and explaining the historical, theological, and missiological dynamics of mission from a particular perspective?

Free Church Traditions in Twentieth-Century Europe

This chapter focuses on the Free Church traditions, the heirs of earlier dissenting movements, in Europe in the twentieth century. This century posed major challenges to Free Church believers. The chapter explores five main areas: evangelistic witness, church and state relations, theology and spirituality, issues of identity, and social and global involvements. The chapter shows that while some Free Church denominations saw numerical decline, others—particularly Pentecostals—grew. It explores how some Free Churches have been reluctant to get involved in wider political issues, while others have been deeply engaged; how in theology and spirituality European Free Church scholars have made a contribution; how Free Churches have related in different ways to ecumenical endeavour; and how they have been involved in social ministry. Finally, although Europe has become a missionary-receiving part of the world, this chapter suggests that global mission has remained an essential part of European Free Church identity.

The Twentieth-Century Black Church

Religious dissent within the Black Church focuses on defending the Christian gospel against the alliance of Christianity and the race order of white supremacy marks the contribution of the Black Church to the wider dissenting tradition. It engages in the religious delegitimation of the dominant racial order. While the White Church in the United States has historically replicated the dominant racial order of African American subordination, the religious dissent of the Black Church has resisted and subverted the dominant racial order in a way in which grace pre-empts race in the functional ecclesiology of the Black Church with Christian egalitarianism affirming the equality of the races, envisioning a church where grace structures ecclesial life rather than racism.

Dissent as Mainline

This chapter examines how shifts in ideas, culture, and politics reconfigured dissenter Protestantism in twentieth-century North America. The first of these shifts, the rise of modernist ideas, divided dissenter Protestants into strict biblicists and more intellectually inclusive ‘liberals,’ which set mainline denominations on a path to theological pluralism and institutional stagnation. The second, the rise of consumer capitalism, pulled these two Protestant streams away from a shared social vision of ‘Christian civilization’ and toward consumer individualism in the forms of therapeutic, prosperity-driven theologies and consumer models of outreach. The third, the expansion of the liberal pluralist state, threatened American Protestantism’s privileged cultural status, set mainline advocates of pluralism against evangelical defenders of ‘Christian America,’ and restructured the ways dissenter Protestants engaged society. By the close of the twentieth century, these changes had propelled the demographic and cultural assent of evangelical organizations over older Protestant denominations, making them the new ‘mainline.’

Protestant Dissenting Traditions in Asia in the Twentieth Century

Protestant Christianities in Asia today are Asian, but they also carry markers of piety, resilience, and social sensibility which reflect dissenting traditions. While acknowledging the fundamental importance of Asian agency, elements of Protestant Dissent can be identified among the multiple ideas, traditions, personalities, social phenomena, and historical events which have contributed to the formation of Asian Christianity. Denominational names often signify connection with a dissenting Christian identity. A dissenting heritage is often associated with education, an emphasis on bible -reading and translation, an openness to women and lay-leadership in positions of authority, and a cautious attitude towards relationships with governments. Links are also found in stories about pioneer personalities. However, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, British Methodist, and some Baptist churches who joined in national union schemes in India, China, the Philippines, and Thailand, have generally had their memory, and sometimes their polity, subsumed under the shared vision of a new national church.

Dissenting Religion

This chapter traces the trajectory of two major dissenting movements in Latin America and the Caribbean in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. The first is the transition of the Anglican Church in the Caribbean from a colonial church closely linked to England to a denomination that is now mainly attended by African-descendant people; this section also explores Anglicanism’s breakaway churches that promote African and black identity and empowerment. The second half of the article examines the rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America, with particular attention to dynamic and dissenting characteristics, most notably its plastic theology, organic approach to church planting and leadership, and its obverse relationships with Catholic Liberation Theology.

Dissent by Default

Religious dissent has taken different forms throughout history. This chapter considers the case of England in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It describes sociological trends in Christian affiliation, belief, and practice, and suggests that decreasing numbers of people conform to the traditions and teachings of the established Church of England or any other Protestant denomination. Widespread cultural norms and values have resulted in a drift away from the Church and belief is understood in subjective terms, particularly among young people. Given the overall lack of personal religious engagement in England, the chapter suggests that active dissent rests with the minorities who stand against a prevailing attitude of religious indifference to take Christianity seriously; either seriously enough to live their lives by it or seriously enough to stand against it. Active young Christians and the ‘new Atheists’ are cases in point.