DESCRIPTION: This course reviews the literature relating to evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa. It explores the primary features of evangelicalism in these regions, including the role of international networks and U.S.-based actors, indigenous denominations and megachurches, and the theological and social agendas that evangelical leaders in these regions pursue.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: As a result of successful completion of this course, students will
* recognize the transnational networks that connect evangelicalism globally;
* grasp similarities and differences between evangelicals in Africa and Latin America;
* interact with sociological explanations for evangelicalism's recent global growth; and
* understand the American evangelical community's relationship to evangelicals in these two regions.

RELEVANCE FOR MINISTRY: Ministry is now carried out in a globalized society; understanding co-religionists in other parts of the globe will be critical for Christian leaders in the next generation. This course should broaden the students' worldview and better prepare them to create Christian, transnational connections.

COURSE FORMAT: This is a two-week intensive, meeting daily for four-hour sessions. Beginning with a lecture orienting the class to the literature, the lecture will be followed by significant discussion time intended, in part, to draw out personal experiences of class members from or familiar with these regions, and to synthesize these on-the-ground impressions of evangelicalism with the existing literature.

REQUIRED READING:

Bediako, Kwame. "Christian Witness in the Public Sphere: Some Lessons and Residual Challenges from the Recent Political History of Ghana." In The Changing Face of Christianity: Africa, the West, and the World, ed. L. Sanneh and J. A. Carpenter. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Freston, Paul. Evangelicals in Politics in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001 (selected chapters).

Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: the Coming of Global Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002 (selected chapters).

Martin, David. Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish. Oxford: Blackwell, 2002 (selected chaps.).

Padilla, C. René. "Evangelical Theology in a Latin American Context." 2006. Available at http://www.integral-mission.org/PDF_files/Evangelical_Theology_in_LA_context.pdf

Course Reader (including articles by E. Brusco, H. R. Ebaugh, M. Noll, D. Robert, L. Sanneh, C. Smith).

Brouwer, Steve, Paul Gifford, and Susan D. Rose. Exporting the American Gospel: Global Christian Fundamentalism. Routledge, 1996.

Jenkins, Philip. The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Levitt, Peggy. "Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging: The Institutional Character of Transnational Religious Life." Sociology of Religion 65, no. 1 (2004): 1-18.

Mariz, Cecila. Coping with Poverty : Pentecostals and Christian Base Communities in Brazil. Temple University Press, 1994.

Martin, D. Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. Basil Blackwell, 1990.

Meyer, Birgit. "Commodities and the Power of Prayer: Pentecostalist Attitudes Towards Consumption in Contemporary Ghana." Development and Change 29 (1998): 751-76.

Wuthnow, Robert, and Stephen Offutt. "Transnational Religious Connections." Forthcoming.