Dissenting Religion

Abstract

This chapter traces the trajectory of two major dissenting movements in Latin America and the Caribbean in the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries. The first is the transition of the Anglican Church in the Caribbean from a colonial church closely linked to England to a denomination that is now mainly attended by African-descendant people; this section also explores Anglicanism’s breakaway churches that promote African and black identity and empowerment. The second half of the article examines the rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America, with particular attention to dynamic and dissenting characteristics, most notably its plastic theology, organic approach to church planting and leadership, and its obverse relationships with Catholic Liberation Theology.