Historian R. Andrew Chesnut ’86 studies changes in Latin American religious tradITION

By | HELEN CORDES

How do you choose your religious faith? That’s the question R. Andrew Chesnut ’86 explored in Brazil and other Latin American countries, where in recent years the populace has steadily shucked traditional Catholicism to embrace Protestant Pentecostalism, charismatic Catholicism, and African diaspora faiths such as Santería.

What Chesnut learned fueled his conviction that our faith choices reflect a “spiritual economy”—that religious consumers pick the most attractive product best marketed to gain their time and money. Latin Americans, he discovered, were most interested in faiths that offered direct communication with a spirit and emphasized faith healing for pressing health and relationship problems.
Chesnut has outlined his findings in two books, Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy (Oxford University Press, 2003) and Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty (Rutgers University Press, 1997).

Now he’s turning his research spotlight on the longtime spiritual star of Latin America, the Virgin of Guadalupe. He’ll be teaching and writing a book on the subject while serving in his new post as Bishop Walter F. Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Why write about the Virgin? She has long held top status in the Latin American religious landscape, and is “definitely the most important manifestation of the Virgin Mary in the world,” says Chesnut, who goes by Andy. Some 20 million pilgrims from all over the globe flock to her shrine in Mexico City each year, and the Virgin’s image has been employed for a whole range of causes. “She’s seen as a champion of the poor and downtrodden,” he explains, prominent in posters for causes ranging from the revolutionary Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico, to the U.S. farm-worker and Chicano movements. But the Virgin was also used by Spanish conquistadors to frighten and subjugate the Indians during Spain’s colonization efforts. “She’s complex,” says Chesnut.

His scholarly interest in Latin America took root during his Macalester years, turbocharged by courses with now retired professors Emily Rosenberg (history) and Leland Guyer (Hispanic and Latin American studies). Guyer sensed even then that Chesnut would pursue academia: “Andy just absorbed knowledge, and was such an enthusiastic presence,” he says.

A semester-long stay in Bogota with a Colombian family was “absolutely pivotal,” says Chesnut, lending real-life heft to Mac classroom discussions. The Bogota program was part of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs; Macalester is one of 20 liberal arts colleges offering HECUA as a travel-based tool for social justice. When Chesnut returned from Colombia, informal mentoring from anthropology professor Jack Weatherford added to his intellectual understanding of Latin America.

Following graduation, Chesnut won a Fulbright grant that took him to Brazil to probe Pentecostalism’s rise. He then earned a PhD in Latin American history from UCLA and taught at the University of Houston for a decade before moving to Virginia. Over the years, he has also added a family— wife Fabiola, a bilingual elementary schoolteacher, 12-year-old Vanessa, and 9-year-old Nicholas.

The shifting Latin American religious winds are mainly positive, Chesnut believes. “It’s part of a trend toward pluralism,” he says. “Gone are the days when if you were born Catholic, you stayed Catholic. Now Latin Americans have almost as many choices as we do in the United States.” He notes that Americans are following similar paths, with a recent Pew Research Center survey finding that nearly half of all Americans have left the faith in which they were raised.

Has the rise in Pentecostal-type religions sparked a right-wing shift in Latin American politics as the rise of religious fundamentalism has done in the United States? Chesnut doesn’t believe there’s been a significant effect, noting that even in areas where followers have achieved political power, “politics as usual” prevails. The hope that the liberation theology goals of some Latin American Catholics would result in more social equity is dim, with little remaining of that ’70s-era movement, Chesnut notes.

As is true in U.S. faiths, Latin American religious trends have been largely driven by women. In the dominant spiritual practices that Chesnut charts, women constitute two-thirds or more of membership. Women are the organizational backbone of both the Pentecostal and Catholic charismatic churches (although only men can be leaders), and are encouraged to head local practices in the African diasporan traditions.

What’s ahead in the Latin American religious landscape remains to be seen, but what’s certain is that Chesnut’s work—fomented in his Mac past—is providing plenty of provocative grist that’s sure to affect religious institutional policy as well as his students’ spiritual paths. Says Chesnut, “It’ll be interesting to see how spiritual institutions will market themselves and how consumers will respond."

HELEN CORDES is a Texas freelancer who has written for Mother Jones, The Nation, and other national magazines.

PHOTOGRAPH BY Thomas Kojcsich / VCU Creative Services