Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T13:04:51.910Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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

1 Kunter, Katharina and Schilling, Annegreth, eds., Globalisierung der Kirchen: Der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen und die Entdeckung der Dritten Welt in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2014 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kunter, Katharina, ‘Global reach and global agenda: the World Council of Churches’, in Stanley D. Brunn, ed., The changing world religion map: sacred places, identities, practices and politics, Dordrecht: Springer, 2015, pp. 2909–2923 Google Scholar.

2 Stransky, Tom, ‘World Council of Churches’, in Nicholas Lossky et al., eds., Dictionary of the ecumenical movement, Geneva: WCC Publications, 2002, pp. 1223–1231 Google Scholar.

3 World Council of Churches Archives (henceforth WCCA), 995.1.01, Eugene Carson Blake, interview in Athens, 1966.

4 Kunter and Schilling, Globalisierung der Kirchen, p. 347.

5 Marwick, Arthur, The sixties: cultural transformation in Britain, France, Italy and the United States, c. 1958–1974, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998 Google Scholar.

6 See the results of the research project on the globalization of the churches, particularly the WCC, in the 1960s and 1970s published in Kunter and Schilling, Globalisierung der Kirchen.

7 Katharina Kunter and Annegreth Schilling, ‘Der Christ fürchtet Den Umbruch nicht: Der Ökumenische Rat der Kirchen im Spannungsfeld von Dekolonisierung, Entwestlichung und Politisierung’, in Kunter and Schilling, Globalisierung der Kirchen, pp. 21–74.

8 Kunter and Schilling, Globalisierung der Kirchen, p. 339.

9 Abrecht, Paul, The churches and rapid social change, London: SCM Press, 1961 Google Scholar; de Vries, Egbert, Man in rapid social change , London: SCM Press, 1961; Karl-Heinz Dejung, Die ökumenische Bewegung im Entwicklungskonflikt 1910–1968, Stuttgart: Klett, 1973, pp. 216–289 Google Scholar.

10 Paul Abrecht, ‘The common Christian responsibility towards areas of rapid social change: progress report 1955–1958’, Geneva: WCC, 1958, quoted in Dejung, Die ökumenische Bewegung, p. 300.

11 Schilling, Revolution, pp. 73–91. In the framework of this article it is not possible to discuss the history of Protestantism in Latin America in depth, for which, see Bastian, Jean-Pierre, Historia del protestantismo en América Latina, Mexico City: Casa Unida de Publicaciones, 1990 Google Scholar.

12 World Council of Churches, Minutes and reports of the eighth meeting of the central committee of the World Council of Churches, Davos (Grison), Switzerland, 2–8 August 1955, Geneva: WCC, 1955, p. 105.

13 WCC, Evanston to New Delhi 1954–1961: report of the central committee to the third assembly of the World Council of Churches, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1961, p. 50.

14 Visser ’t Hooft, Willem A., The first assembly of the World Council of Churches: the official report, London: SCM Press, 1949 Google Scholar; Andrew Chandler, ‘The founding fathers and the new vision’, in Kunter and Schilling, Globalisierung der Kirchen, pp. 78ff.

15 Amsterdam Assembly, section III, no. 14, quoted from Kinnamon, Michael and Cope, Brian E., eds., The ecumenical movement: an anthology of key texts and voices, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1997, p. 283 Google Scholar.

16 ‘Report of Section III: social questions – the responsible society in a world perspective, second assembly of the WCC, Evanston, 1954’, quoted from Kinnamon and Cope, Ecumenical movement, pp. 282–7.

17 Kunter and Schilling, ‘Der Christ’, pp. 29–37.

18 Thomas, M. M., My ecumenical journey, Trivandrum: The Ecumenical Press, 1990, p. 252 Google Scholar, emphasis in original.

19 Lestringant, Frank, Jean de Léry, ou, l’invention du sauvage: essai sur l’histoire d’un voyage faict en la terre du Brésil (1578), Paris and Geneva: Champion and Slatkine, 1999 Google Scholar.

20 Martin Dreher, ‘Latin America’, in Religion Past and Present, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1877-5888_rpp_COM_12679 (consulted 2 March 2018).

21 Hans-Jürgen Prien, Das Christentum in Lateinamerika: Kirchengeschichte in Einzeldarstellungen IV/6, ed. Ulrich Gäbler and Johannes Schilling, Leipzig: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2007, p. 311; Bastian, Historia del protestantismo.

22 González, Ondina E. and González, Justo L., Christianity in Latin America: a history, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 184–205 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Míguez Bonino, José, Faces of Latin American Protestantism, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997 Google Scholar.

24 Stoll, David, Is Latin America turning Protestant? The politics of evangelical growth, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1991 Google Scholar; Hartch, Todd, The rebirth of Latin American Christianity, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

25 Millard, Edward C. and Guinness, Lucy E., South America: the neglected continent, New York: Fleming Revell Co., 1894 Google Scholar; Alexander Mackay, John, The other Spanish Christ: a study in the spiritual history of Spain and South America, London: Student Christian Movement Press, 1932 Google Scholar; Piedra, Arturo, Evangelización protestante en América Latina: análisis de las razones que justificaron y promovieron la expansión protestante 1830–1960, vol. 1, Quito: Consejo Latinoameriano de Iglesias, 2000, pp. 2–4 Google Scholar.

26 Koschorke, Klaus, ‘The World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh 1910 and the rise of national church movements in Asia and Africa’, in Klaus Koschorke, ed., Transkontinentale Beziehungen in der Geschichte des außereuropäischen Christentums, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz: 2002, pp. 203–217 Google Scholar; Piedra, Evangelización protestante, pp. 120–4.

27 Miguez Bonino, Faces of Latin American Protestantism, pp. 1–25; Costas, Orlando, Theology of the crossroads in contemporary Latin America, Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 1976 Google Scholar.

28 López, Mauricio, ‘The political dynamics of Latin American society today’, in Zachariah Keodirelang Matthews, ed., Responsible government in a revolutionary age, New York: Association Press, 1966, pp. 148–169 Google Scholar; Odell, Luis E., ‘The church and society explosion in Latin America’, Ecumenical Review, 37, 1985, pp. 34–39 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 The most famous novel of the ‘boom’ literature was Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad (One hundred years of solitude), Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, 1967.

30 Míguez Bonino, José, Doing theology in a revolutionary situation, Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1975 Google Scholar; Galeano, Eduardo, Las venas abiertas de America Latina, Montevideo: Universidad de la República, 1971 Google Scholar.

31 Schilling, Revolution, pp. 17–18.

32 Gutierrez, Gustavo, Theology of liberation, rev. edn, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988 Google Scholar (originally published as Teología de la liberación, 1971); Rowland, Christopher, ed., The Cambridge companion to liberation theology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 WCCA, 42.55.09, José Míguez Bonino, ‘The impact of Vatican Council on Latin American Roman Catholicism and Protestantism: presentation at the Latin American working party’, 11–12 June 1964, p. 1.

34 Apostolic constitution Humanae salutis (1961), English translation available at https://jakomonchak.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/humanae-salutis.pdf (consulted 19 September 2017).

35 Dussel, Enrique, A history of the Church in Latin America: colonialism to liberation (1492–1992), Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981 Google Scholar; Schilling, Revolution, p. 67.

36 Prien, Hans-Jürgen, Christianity in Latin America, Leiden: Brill, 2013, pp. 383, 543 Google Scholar.

37 Work Book for the Assembly Committees, prepared for the Third Assembly of the World Council of Churches, New Delhi, India, 18 November–6 December 1961, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1961, emphasis in original.

38 José Antonio Ruíz, ‘Cristianismo y Sociedad: un instrumento de ISAL’, Cristianismo y Sociedad, 20, 17, 1982, pp. 11–25.

39 Iglesia y Sociedad en América Latina, Social justice and the Latin churches: church and society in Latin America, trans. Jorge Lara-Braud, Richmond, VA: John Knox Press, 1969. This is an edited summary of the discussions and reports presented at the second Latin American Conference on Church and Society in El Tabo, Chile (1966).

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.

41 WCCA, 428.12.02.1/13, John Sinclair, ‘Report on Latin America church and society consultation (ISAL), 11–17 December 1967, Piriápolis, Uruguay, 22 December 1967’, p. 1.

42 Bhabha, Homi K., ‘The third space’, in Jonathan Rutherford, ed., Identity, community, culture and difference, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990, pp. 207–221 Google Scholar.

43 Schreiter, Robert, Constructing local theologies, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985 Google Scholar.

44 WCC, ‘World Conference on Church and Society: Christians in the technical and social revolutions of our time, Geneva, 12–26 July 1966’, official report with a description of the conference by M. M. Thomas and Paul Abrecht, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1967.

45 Kunter and Schilling, ‘Der Christ’, pp. 37–48, esp. p. 39; Schilling, Revolution, pp. 133–4.

46 Harvey Cox, ‘Geneva ’66: the Latin Americans’ challenge’, Carta Latinoamericana, 2, 10, 1966, p. 1.

47 Simon de Dardel, ‘Le retour des prophètes’, La vie protestante, 22 July 1966, p. 1.

48 Santiago-Vendrell, Angel D., Contextual theology and revolutionary transformation in Latin America: the missiology of M. Richard Shaull, Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2010 Google Scholar; Galasso Faria, Eduardo, ‘Richard Shaull (1919–2002)’, in Rudolf von Sinner, Elias Wolff, and Carlos Gilberto Bock, eds., Vidas ecumênicas (Ecumenical lives), São Leopoldo: Sinodal, 2006, pp. 97–116 Google Scholar; Schilling, Annegreth, ‘Lateinamerikanische Existenz in ökumenischer Begegnung: Richard Shaull und Rubem Alves als reformierte Wegbereiter der Befreiungstheologie’, in Marco Hofheinz, Georg Plasger, and Annegreth Schilling, eds., Verbindlich werden: reformierte Existenz in ökumenischer Begegnung. Festschrift für Michael Weinrich zum 65. Geburtstag, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchner Verlag, 2015, pp. 319–331 Google Scholar.

49 WCCA, 24.2.012, Egbert de Vries to Paul Abrecht, 6 December 1955, p. 1.

50 WCCA, 24.2.012, Richard Shaull, ‘The church and the problems of a responsible society in Latin America’, 1954, pp. 19–20.

51 Richard Shaull, ‘The revolutionary challenge to church and theology’, speech at the World Conference on Church and Society, Geneva, 1966, quoted from Kinnamon and Cope, Ecumenical movement, p. 302.

52 Ibid., p. 303.

53 Bola Ige, ‘The political dynamics of the newly awakened peoples’, in M. M. Thomas and Paul Abrecht, ‘The structure and work of the conference’, in WCC, ‘World conference on church and society’, pp. 17–18; Kunter and Schilling, ‘Der Christ’, pp. 42–4.

54 Thomas, My ecumenical journey, pp. 278–9.

55 Rendtorff, Trutz and Eduard Tödt, Heinz, Theologie der Revolution: Analysen und Materialien, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1969 Google Scholar; Feil, Ernst and Weth, Rudolf, eds., Diskussion zur ‘Theologie der Revolution’, Munich: Kaiser, 1969 Google Scholar; Christian Widmann, Alexander, Wandel mit Gewalt? Der deutsche Protestantismus und die politisch motivierte Gewaltanwendung in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 Laine, Antti, Ecumenical attack against racism: the anti-racist programme of the World Council of Churches, 1968–1974, Helsinki: Luther-Agricola-Society, 2015 Google Scholar; Gill, David, ‘Violence and non-violence: resuming the debate’, Ecumenical Review, 32, 1980, pp. 25–28 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

57 Willem Visser ’t Hooft, ‘Opening address’, quoted from Thomas and Abrecht, ‘Structure and work of the conference’, p. 13.

58 Thomas and Abrecht, ‘Structure and work of the conference’, pp. 41–2.

59 Schilling, Revolution, pp. 159–88.

60 WCCA, 4201.5.1.1, ‘An introduction to SODEPAX’, p. 1.

61 Julio de Santa Ana, Good news to the poor: the challenge of the poor in the history of the church, trans. Helen Whittle, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1977.

62 WCCA, 4201.2.9/12, WCC, ‘Press information: international economists to participate in World Council/Roman Catholic Conference’, 26 March 1968.

63 Committee on Society, Development and Peace, World development: the challenge to the churches: the conference on world cooperation for development, Beirut, Lebanon, 21–27 April, 1968: the official report, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1968.

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.

65 WCCA, 4202.053, ‘Criticisms of the Beirut report’, p. 3.

66 Julio de Santa Ana, ‘Christians, churches and development’, ISAL-Abstracts, 1, 6, 1969, p. 7 (originally published as Santa Ana, ‘Los cristianos, las iglesias y el desarollo’, Cristianismo y Sociedad, 7, 21, 1969, pp. 51–69).

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.

70 Gutierrez, Theology of liberation; Alves, Rubem, A theology of human hope, Washington, DC, and Cleveland, OH: Corpus Books, 1969 Google Scholar.

71 Gustavo Gutiérrez, ‘The meaning of development (notes on a theology of liberation)’, in Committee on Society, Development and Peace, In search of a theology of development: papers from a consultation on theology and development held by SODEPAX in Cartigny, Switzerland, November 1969, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1969, p. 122.

72 Rubem Alves, ‘Theology and the liberation of man’, in Committee on Society, Development and Peace, In search of a theology, p. 88.

73 Ibid., p. 83.

74 Philip Land, ‘Sociological observations on Cartigny’, in Committee on Society, Development and Peace, In search of a theology, p. 57.

75 Charles Elliott, ‘An esoteric critique of Cartigny’, in Committee on Society, Development and Peace, In search of a theology, pp. 12–25.

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.

80 Santa Ana, ‘Die Armen nicht romantisieren’, Junge Kirche, 60, 9, 1999, p. 503.

81 Schilling, Revolution, pp. 241–2.

82 Harper, Charles, O acompanhamento: ecumenical action for human rights in Latin America 1970–1990, Geneva: WCC Publications, 2006 Google Scholar.

83 Freire, Paulo, Pedagogy of the oppressed (1968), New York: Herder and Herder, 1970 Google Scholar.

84 WCCA, 992.1.1/14, ‘Transcript of Paulo Freire’s speech to the consultation at Cartigny’, 28 October 1974, p. 4.

85 Castro, Emilio, Amidst revolution, Belfast: Christian Journals, 1975 Google Scholar; Castro, Emilio, ‘Mission today’, Missiology, 2, 1974, pp. 359–367 Google Scholar.

86 Commission on the Churches’ Participation in Development, To break the chains of oppression: results of an ecumenical study process on domination and dependence, Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1975.

87 Ibid., p. 53.

88 Ibid., p. 64.

89 Ibid.

90 Míguez Bonino, Doing theology.

91 WCC, Nairobi report: fifth assembly of the World Council of Churches, Nairobi, 23 November–10 December 1975, London: Catholic Truth Society, 1975 Google Scholar.

92 Bhabha, Homi, Location of culture, New York: Routledge, 1994 Google Scholar; Schilling, Revolution, pp. 20, 252–75.