Pragmatic Consumers and Practical Products: The Success of Pneumacentric Religion among Women in Latin America's New Religious Economy

Abstract

The development of a free-market religious economy in Latin America over the past half-century has resulted in a profileration of new spiritual enterprises. In the highly competitive popular religious marketplace where spiritual goods are produced, offered, and consumed by the region 's impoverished majority pneumacentric or spirit-centered groups have prospered like no others. Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and African diasporan faiths have been successful in their appeal to popular religious consumers to the point that they have cornered the market of faith among the disprivileged of the region. Since the great majority of Latin American religious consumers are women, any religious enterprise interested in growing must produce and market spiritual goods and services that meet the specific tastes and preferences of those who constitute the majority of the market. Thus, employing the theoretical tools of religious economy, this article analyzes the success of the three major pneumacentric enterprises among Latin American women of the popular classes.