01/07/2026 09:00
- 12:20
HALL: Pola - A206b
Contact:
Aguirre F.
Chair:
Aguirre F.,
Muñoz W.
This panel brings together researchers from different countries in the Americas and Europe to discuss studies of religion in Latin America, its origins, history, current situation, and challenges. Around the middle of the 20th century, the discussion on development models for Latin America will face a continent where secularisation had barely been noticed, and where religion is identified as a catalyst for the socio-cultural processes associated with late capitalist modernisation. An early expression of this discussion was the meetings of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM) and liberation theology, where for the first time in history the cultural specificity of the Latin American Church was problematised. From the 1990s onwards, the social sciences took centre stage in the discussion and, at present, we could say that there is a reconfiguration of the field of religious studies in Latin America, involving other disciplines from the humanities, arts and heritage studies. Another topic of interest is the study of the influence of Latin American religious traditions abroad, through the processes of globalisation and contemporary migration, as well as the presence and impact of other non-Christian religious traditions in the region. In light of all this, topics such as popular religion, religion and migration, Latin American theology, religious disaffiliation, evangelical pluralism and the current state of indigenous worldviews become relevant. Finally, the panel will also focus on the epistemological challenges of the study of religion in Latin America and the nature of the interdisciplinary dialogue it convenes.
