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Lived Religion and Lived Citizenship in Latin America's Zones of Crisis: Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 September 2022

Jeffrey W. Rubin ,
David Smilde  and
Benjamin Junge
Jeffrey W. Rubin
Affiliation:
Boston University
David Smilde
Affiliation:
Tulane University
Benjamin Junge
Affiliation:
State University of New York, New Paltz
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Abstract

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In this introduction we present the concepts of “lived religion” and “lived citizenship” as tools for understanding the ways in which religious and political meanings and practices are constituted in social movements and locations of poverty and exclusion in Latin America. We first develop the idea of “zones of crisis” as a context in which struggles for rights, recognition, and survival are enacted. We then challenge reified distinctions between the secular and the religious, emphasizing religion's embodiment and emplacement in daily life and politics. Reviewing the empirical findings of the articles in this special issue, we discuss the multiple imbrications of religion and citizenship with regard to democratic politics, geographies of conflict, and safe spaces, as well as selfhood, identity, and agency. In a postsecular world, interrogating religion, secularity, and politics together enables us better to understand the complex construction of democratic citizenship and the dynamism of Latin America's multiple modernities.

Resumen

Resumen

En esta introducción presentamos los conceptos de la religión vivida y la ciudadanía vivida como herramientas para entender las maneras en las cuales las prácticas y significados religiosos y políticos están constituidos en los movimientos sociales y en las zonas de pobreza y exclusión en América Latina. Primero desarrollamos la idea de las zonas de crisis como contextos en los cuales toman lugar las luchas por derechos, reconocimiento y sobrevivencia. Luego cuestionamos las distinciones cosificadas entre lo secular y lo religioso, enfatizando el carácter encarnado y situado de la religión en la vida diaria y política. Reseñando los hallazgos empíricos de los artículos de este número especial de LARR, discutimos las múltiples imbricaciones de la religión y la ciudadanía con respecto a los espacios seguros, la política democrática, geografías de conflicto, la identidad y la capacidad de acción. En un mundo possecular, interrogando juntos lo religioso, lo secular y lo político nos ubica para entender la compleja construcción de la ciudadanía democrática y el dinamismo de las múltiples modernidades latinoamericanas.

Type
Part 1: Social Movements and Participatory Democracy
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 49 , Issue S1: Special Issue: Lived Religion and Lived Citizenship in Latin America's Zones of Crisis , 2014 , pp. 7 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

The authors are grateful to Courtney Bender, José Antonio Lucero, Richard Wood, the LARR editors, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this introduction. Over the course of the broader project from which this special issue grew, we have benefitted from conversations with Latin Americanist colleagues John Burdick, Marisol de la Cadena, Amanda Hornhardt, David López, Marisol López, Betsy Olson, Conny Roggeband, Dylon Robbins, Rafael Sanchez, Fernando Seffner, and Pamela Voekel. We are grateful as well for critical dialogues from religious studies and social movement scholars working in other world areas, including Nancy Ammerman, Sherine Hafez, Robert Hefner, David Kyuman Kim, Paul Lichterman, Anthony Petro, and Robert Weller.

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