Info on Reason to Believe

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The University of California Press is pleased to announce the publication
of:

Reason to Believe: Cultural Agency in Latin American Evangelicalism

David Smilde is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Georgia. He is co-author, with Margarita López Maya and Keta Stephany, of Protesta y cultura en Venezuela: Los Marcos de acción colectiva en 1999

http://go.ucpress.edu/Smilde

"David Smilde has given us the most sophisticated
and rigorous ethnography of Evangelicalism in
the Americas, north or south. And he uses that
ethnography to generate a persuasive theory of
'cultural agency.' His analysis moves from the
particular to the general, and from the concrete
to the abstract, with unusual facility."-Jeff
Goodwin, New York University


Evangelical Protestantism has arguably become the
fastest-growing religion in South America, if not
the world. For converts, it emphasizes
self-discipline and provides a network of
communal support, which together have helped many
overcome substance abuse, avoid crime and
violence, and resolve relationship problems. But
can people simply decide to believe in a religion
because of the benefits it reportedly delivers?
Based on extensive fieldwork among Pentecostal
men in Caracas, Venezuela, this rich urban
ethnography seeks an explanation for the
explosion of Evangelical Protestantism,
unraveling the cultural and personal dynamics of
Evangelical conversion to show how and why these
men make the choice to convert, and how they come
to have faith in a new system of beliefs and
practices.

Full information about the book, including the
table of contents, is available online:
http://go.ucpress.edu/Smilde

Lolita Guevarra
Electronic Marketing Coordinator
University of California Press
(Omission)