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Salvation through Christ or Marx: Religion in Revolutionary Cuba

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Margaret E. Crahan*
Affiliation:
Woodstock Theological Center, Georgetown University, Washington, D. C. 20057

Extract

Unlike churches in the rest of Latin America, those in Cuba did not embark at the outset of the 1960s on a period of liberalization and innovation in theology, pastoral forms, lay participation and political strategies. Rather, the coming to power in 1959 of a revolutionary government and the initiation of substantial societal restructuring reinforced conservatism within the churches. Strong challenges to the legitimacy of the government by the churches from 1959 through 1961 were not effective due largely to institutional limitations and their identification as bulwarks of prerevolutionary structures. Hence, in spite of a marked increase in participation and contributions, the churches' counterrevolutionary stance had limited impact. Contributing to this was the exodus of many religious activists to the United States and Spain, and a turning in upon themselves by the churches which came to serve as refuges from change.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 1979

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