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Between context and conflict: the ‘boom’ of Latin American Protestantism in the ecumenical movement (1955–75)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2018

Annegreth Schilling
Annegreth Schilling*
Affiliation:
Friedberger Landstrasse 76, 60316 Frankfurt am Main, Germany E-mail: annegreth.schilling@gmail.com
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Abstract

The article looks at the entanglement of the international ecumenical movement and Latin American Protestantism in the ‘long 1960s’. It investigates the influence and significance of Latin American liberation theology for the churches and theology around the world. During this period, it was particularly the World Council of Churches (WCC), a worldwide fellowship of Christian churches, which strengthened the efforts of churches from the ‘Third World’ to identify their own theological issues and questions. In this way, the WCC strongly supported Latin American Protestant church leaders and theologians in giving specific attention to their own context. The article argues that the ‘boom’ of Latin American Protestantism within the WCC in the 1960s and early 1970s brought into the global ecumenical movement both new theological concepts, such as revolution and liberation, and individuals exiled from Latin America. Yet this contextual and emancipatory approach revealed at the same time fundamental differences and conflicts between churches of the North and South.

Keywords

contextualityglobalizationLatin Americaliberation theologyWorld Council of Churches
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , July 2018 , pp. 274 - 293
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

*

This article presents major results from my research on the boom of Latin American Protestantism in the 1960s and 1970s, drawing on my doctoral thesis, published as Annegreth Schilling, Revolution, Exil und Befreiung: Der Boom des lateinamerikanischen Protestantismus in der internationalen Ökumene in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016. I am grateful for the various responses to the present article, particularly the many useful comments at the ENIUGH Congress in Paris 2014, as well as the clear and thoughtful recommendations by the anonymous reviewers.

References

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40 See the thematic volume on ISAL in Teología y cultura, 8, 13, 2011; Julio de Santa Ana, El aporte de iglesia y sociedad en América Latina (ISAL), http://trilce.com.uy/pdf/forjando04.pdf (consulted 2 March 2018); Dejung, Die ökumenische Bewegung, pp. 296–321; Schilling, Revolution, pp. 91–112.

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64 Schilling, Revolution, pp. 161–91. For the German reception of the Beirut conference, see Kässmann, Margot, Die eucharistische Vision: Armut und Reichtum als Anfrage an die Einheit der Kirche in der Diskussion des Ökumenischen Rates, Munich: Kaiser, 1992, pp. 114–117 Google Scholar; Stierle, Wolfram, Chancen einer ökumenischen Wirtschaftsethik: Kirche und Ökonomie vor den Herausforderungen der Globalisierung, Frankfurt am Main: Lembeck, 2001, pp. 292–339 Google Scholar.

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67 Ibid.

68 WCCA, 4202.053, ‘Criticisms of the Beirut report’, p. 2.

69 Committee on Society, Development and Peace, The challenges of development: a sequel to the Beirut conference of 21–27 April 1968 at Montreal, 9–12 May 1969, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1969, section II: new definition of development.

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73 Ibid., p. 83.

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76 WCCA, 4202.049, ‘Opening remarks of Dr Eugene Carson Blake at the annual meeting of the Committee on Society, Development and Peace at the Ecumenical Institute Bossey’, n.d., p. 7.

77 WCCA, 4201.5.1, ‘Ecumenism in crisis: report from IDOC’, 6 March 1972, p. 6.

78 Tom Stransky, ‘SODEPAX’, in Lossky et al., Dictionary of the ecumenical movement, pp. 1055–4; Philip Land, ‘SODEPAX: an ecumenical dialogue’, Ecumenical Review, 37, 1985, pp. 40–6.

79 Schilling, Revolution, pp. 191–244.

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87 Ibid., p. 53.

88 Ibid., p. 64.

89 Ibid.

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