Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy

Abstract

Andrew Chesnut’s Competitive Spirits is an ambitious book that draws upon an impressive array of research on religion in Latin America. Ranging in focus from Brazil to Mexico and many places in between, Chesnut develops a unifying argument that can help us make sense of Latin America’s celebrated religious complexity. He employs a set of economic metaphors to analyze the historical shift from Catholic monopoly to free and competitive religious marketplaces in Latin America. Chesnut maintains that this shift was a positive development, primarily because such competitive markets better meet the desires and preferences of religious consumers.Addressing the full range of religious developments in contemporary Latin America would be difficult to accomplish under one cover. Accordingly, Competitive Spirits focuses on the “pneumacentric religions” — those whose practice is centered on contact with spirits — that have seen the most robust growth in contemporary Latin America. Specifically, Chesnut examines the growing popularity of Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR), and African diasporic religions. Chesnut maintains that these religions are better attuned to consumer desires and preferences than their alternatives (such as Catholic Base Communities and mainstream Protestantism), which have seen significantly less growth or have even declined during the same period.In addition to providing direct contact with spirits, the pneumacentric religions place a central emphasis on curing. It is no coincidence, Chesnut maintains, that these religions have seen striking growth among the poor, who not only suffer a higher incidence of illness but also have limited access to other forms of medical treatment. Moreover, each of the specific religions deals fairly well with the other “pathogens of poverty” — alcoholism and martial strife. Pentecostalism, for example, offers those with alcohol problems the opportunity to embrace a new way of life based on abstinence. Furthermore, Candomblé provides women with a means of dealing with infidelity in the form of spiritual weapons against romantic rivals.Advertising is the key to success in any competitive market. Accordingly, both the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (a large neo-Pentecostal denomination) and the CCR control major radio and television networks in Brazil. Moreover, both have grown largely through the efforts of enthusiastic lay “salespeople” actively engaged in proselytizing. African diasporic religions, on the other hand, do not advertise. Chesnut argues that religions such as Candomblé recruit mainly through kinship networks and offer more personalized, one-on-one consultations than Pentecostal churches and CCR groups. Moreover, because of its “amorality,” Chesnut claims that Candomblé attracts people who are marginalized because of their sexual orientation or involvement with illegal economic activities. Unlike Pentecostalism, Candomblé does not require that adepts adhere to a strict ethical code or embrace a new way of life.Most of the consumers in the Latin American religious market are women, and Chesnut argues that pneumacentrism “fulfills the particular needs and desires of women from the popular classes” (p. 130). According to Chesnut, pneumacentric religions provide women with experiences of bliss that compensate for abuse or lack or sexual gratification in their relationships with earthly men. Moreover, each religion offers its own distinctive product to women: Pentecostalism offers the experience of conversion, which is something particularly attractive for stigmatized groups such as poor women; the CCR offers Mary as a symbol of maternal strength in the face of adversity; and the African diasporic religions provide a largely matriarchal organization based on the model of kinship relations.One of the strongest aspects of Competitive Spirits is its clear and focused argument. At the same time, however, the book suffers from a reliance on a somewhat oversimplified and reductionist economic model. Chesnut often overemphasizes the role of consumer demand in religious growth, for example. With respect to Brazil, he largely neglects the fact that in a country dominated by patron-client politics, any enterprise — religious or otherwise — succeeds or fails partly to the extent that it gains the support of powerful political and economic patrons.A related problem is that Chesnut casts consumer desires and preferences as prime movers in his model without addressing the questionable assumptions that this entails. He seems to suggest that consumer desires and preferences are constants and that what has varied in the past has been the freedom with which religious entrepreneurs have been able to respond to that demand. Chesnut does not examine how desires and preferences change over time — namely, in response to changing religious discourses and practices. Considering the rich literature on the social constitution of desire, it is curious that he takes desires and preferences as givens. My main reservation about this generally impressive book, however, is not that the author did not examine every issue from every angle, but that he rarely stepped back to address the shortcomings of his own economic metaphors thoroughly.