The Fundamental Unity of the Conservative and Revolutionary Tendencies in Venezuelan Evangelicalism: The Case of Conjugal Relations

Abstract

Social scientists generally analyse the coexistence of patriarchal and egalitarian tendencies within evangelical Protestantism as a case of assimilation of one tendency to a religion essentially characterized by the other, or as anad hocconstruction of strategic actors. Here the work of Ernst Troeltsch is used to theorize the fundamental unity of the ‘conservative and revolutionary tendencies’ within Christian social thought. Interviews conducted with Venezuelan evangelicals regarding conjugal relations show, through direct questioning, their understanding of authority and equality; and through a series of hypothetical situations, when an evangelical woman will submit to patriarchy and when she will assert her religious equality.