Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions

This encyclopedia provides an overview of the main religions of Latin America and the Caribbean, both its centralized transnational expressions and its local variants and schisms. These main religions include (but are not limited to) the major expressions of Christianity (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Pentecostalism, Mormonism, and Jehovah’s Witnesses), indigenous religions (Native American, Maya religion), syncretic Christianity (including Afro-Brazilian religions like Umbanda and Candomblé and Afro-Caribbean religions like Vodun and Santería), other world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam), transnational New Religious Movements (Scientology, Unification Church, Hare Krishna, New Age, etc.), and new local religions (Brazil’s Igreja Universal, La Luz del Mundo from Mexico, etc.).

Henri Gooren is a Dutch cultural anthropologist working especially on conversion and Pentecostalism, Protestantism, Mormonism, and Roman Catholicism in Latin America. His main books are Rich among the Poor (1999) and Religious Disaffiliation and Conversion: Tracing Patterns of Change in Faith Practices (2010). Gooren conducted Templeton-sponsored research on the Pentecostalization of religion and society in Paraguay and Chile in 2010-12. He published 20 chapters in books and 17 articles in journals, such as Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Exchange, Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, PentecoStudies, and Dialogue. Gooren is affiliated with Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.