Evangelical Presence Research Articles

From the Ivory Tower to the Grass Roots: Ending Orthodox Oppression of Evangelicals, and Beginning Grassroots Fellowship

When considering the relationship between the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Evangelical Church, can we both celebrate progress towards unity, while acknowledging where growth must still occur? Dr. George Hancock-Stefan, who fled the oppressive communist regime of Yugoslavia with the rest of his Baptist family, now frequently returns to Eastern Europe to explore topics of modern theology. During these travels, he has recognized a concerning trend: the religious unity and interfaith fellowship celebrated in Western academia does not reach the Eastern European local level. This is primarily due to the fact that Orthodoxy is a top to bottom institution, and nothing happens at the local level unless approved by the top. This lack of religious unity and cooperation at the local level is also due to the fact that the Eastern Orthodox Church claims a national Christian monopoly and the presence of Evangelicals is considered an invasion. In this article, Dr. Hancock-Stefan unpacks the history of the spiritual revivals that took place in various Eastern Orthodox Churches in the 19th–20th centuries, as well as the policies established by the national patriarchs after the fall of communism that are now jeopardizing the relationship between Orthodox and Evangelicals. By addressing this friction with candor and Christian love, this article pleads for the Orthodox Church to relinquish its monopoly and hopes that both Orthodox and Evangelicals will start considering each other to be brothers and sisters in Christ.

Brazil and the old faces of the right

Jair Bolsonaro’s leadership in Brazil fits into the general modern trend towards a more conservative outlook in various parts of the world. This article attempts to explore the reasons for this shift and to discover the keys to understanding it. The article focuses on the dynamics of political processes in Brazil leading up to Jair Bolsonaro’s rise to power and unfolding in the country today. The central question to which the authors seek answer is: what actors and trends are behind this “turn to the right”? Political attitudes are largely driven by discourses of national identity and self-determination, which are reflected in the very nature of any human. The authors identify the anchoring categories of such identities (faith, labor, family) and trace, in historical perspective, the development of political actors and social groups that shape this breakdown into identity groups and predetermine the political dialogue in the state. The article notes the significant influence of the religious component, with it being reflected even in the presence of Evangelicals among top officials. The armed forces continue to provide political support and maintain their stability as guarantors of order. The decentralization of information through social media has intensified the public outreach, with a more heated debate or even a certain polarization of public opinion, although not necessarily having any effect on domestic or foreign policy decisions. The socio-economic axes on which national decisions are aligned are associated with a feeling of renewal, but in fact many factors point to a lasting conservative orientation.

Max Weber e a compreensão acadêmica do protestantismo brasileiro: um breve esboço

O presente artigo busca apresentar uma reflexão sobre a influência do pensamento weberiano na compreensão do denominado protestantismo histórico no Brasil. Weber esteve presente nas produções acadêmicas pioneiras sobre a temática que, foram elaboradas pelo sociólogo Cândido Procópio Ferreira de Camargo, pelo teólogo Rubem Azevedo Alves e pelo historiador Antônio Gouvêa Mendonça. Ao observar a produção desses autores, nota-se a validade das proposições do autor de A Ética Protestante e o Espírito do Capitalismo para a compreensão da presença dos evangélicos no país. Assim, entender os pressupostos analíticos weberianos, a relação entre o protestantismo e o sistema capitalista, como também a elaboração de tipos ideais, possibilita ao estudioso da temática uma melhor compreensão da presença evangélica na esfera religiosa nacional

Circuitos evangélicos do Nordeste: contexto geral e caso potiguar

Although the Brazilian Northeast Region is known as the most Catholic in Brazil, it has a large contingent of evangelicals, especially in urban centers along the coast. This article is written with the aim of contextualizing this evangelical presence in the Northeast Region, demonstrating that the plausibility of what happens in Natal city (RN) also happens in other cities in the region. For this, some data from the IBGE Census carried out in 2010 are initially analyzed, with a focus on the dynamics of urbanization in the Northeast Region. Afterwards, the evangelical circuit as a theoretical resource that can help in interpreting the data shall be presented. Finally, the resource to Rio Grande do Norte capital city is applied, mapping its circuit based on the results of qualitative researches. As you can see, the circuit of the Potiguar capital city is a case that can illustrate the dynamics that occur throughout the Northeast Region, and in the urban centres of Brazil as a whole. The dynamics in which the references of the evangelical faith are spread over several axes beyond them, although the churches remain important, which end up forming a space for the circulation of adherents, curious people and sympathisers among them.

Evangelical indigenous radio stations in Colombia: Between the promotion of social change and religious indoctrination

This article refutes dominant views that define evangelical indigenous media as intrinsic tools for religious indoctrination. The case of the Colombian Misak community shows that evangelical radio stations can contribute to community building. However, the degree of the positive or negative contribution of evangelical media depends on the dominance of evangelical presence at indigenous localities. The rapid expansion of indigenized evangelical groups via the provision of social services has radicalized Evangelicals against views different from their own. As a result, these evangelical media are progressively leaving their role as promoters of positive social change to become tools for religious indoctrination.

Which Party Represents My Group? The Group Foundations of Partisan Choice and Polarization

While groups have been central to thinking about partisan identity and choices, there has been surprisingly little attention paid to the role of perceptions of the group composition of the parties. We explore this critical linking information in the context of religious groups, some of the chief pivots around which the parties have been sorting. Using three national samples, we show that perceptions of the religious group composition of the parties are often biased—evangelicals overestimate the presence of evangelicals within the Republican Party and the irreligious within the Democratic Party. The key finding is that individuals are far more likely to identify with the party in which they believe their group is well represented—a finding which clarifies the role of party image shifts in constructing partisanship, the limits of the culture war motif, and the importance of social perception in shaping beliefs about party representation.

LAS IGLESIAS EVANGÉLICAS EN PANAMÁ

En 2016, surgieron en Panamá, señales de una mayor injerencia de las Iglesias Evangélicas en la política, especialmente en razón de su movilización en oposición al proyecto de ley 61 que promovía la educación sexual en centros educativos. Dicha movilización logró frenar el proyecto, y en los meses posteriores, diversos proyectos de políticas públicas orientados a la igualdad de género fueron igualmente frenados. En este contexto, esta investigación busca determinar si estamos frente a un nuevo actor político, y en caso tal, estudiar sus características. Para ello, hacemos un breve recuento histórico de la presencia de los evangélicos en Panamá y de sus tentativas anteriores de entrada a la política. A continuación, estudiamos la incorporación actual de los evangélicos a la política panameña. Finalmente, buscamos caracterizar este nuevo actor y determinar el significado del surgimiento del mismo para la democracia panameña.

O dia do “evangélico”: estratégias e disputas para a visibilidade pública de religiões evangélicas

O artigo investiga a atuação de um vereador, agente religioso vinculado à Assembleia de Deus e que atua junto à Câmara Municipal de Campo Mourão-PR, no intuito de problematizar a presença de evangélicos na política, por meio da instituição de marcos temporais comemorativos. Em especial, discute-se a proposição de um Projeto de Lei de autoria do referido vereador, que solicitou a criação e a inserção do “Dia do Evangélico” no calendário municipal. Compõem o corpus documental o Projeto de Lei 186/2013 e outros materiais coletados, como postagens e publicações nas redes sociais e em sites de notícia locais. Discutimos acerca da presença de evangélicos na política, crescente no Brasil sobretudo a partir da década de 1980, os quais vêm apresentando pautas legislativas e marcando a presença no espaço.

Deconstructing automatisms: Milicia practices and neopentescostal formations in Rio de Janeiro

The 2012 elections for governor in Rio de Janeiro gather special attention from national and international media analysts. The city politics was under scrutiny with the mega events hosted Brazil, like the Summer Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup. In this sense, the strategies of the candidates for the organization of the city - mainly for public safety issues - were dissected and analysed for months leading up to the election day.In this context, as the disputes were being centralized in the candidates best placed in the pools, Luis Carlos Pezão (PMDB) and Marcelo Crivela (PRB), talks about the supposed contenders’ governance mechanisms began to be galvanized. In the mainstream narrative, the first one would gather support, along other segments, from the “milícias”, parastatal organizations that uses extortion of some communities to gather control of entire neighbourhoods. The ‘milícias’ would be one of the greatest contemporary security issues of Rio, accused of violent actions and recurrent cases of murders and violence. In turn, Crivela would be mainly supported by the neo-Pentecostal religious groups (The Guardian, 2012; O Globo, 2012). This binary narrative, reinforced by accusations from both politicians in televised debates, strengthened the discourse of an ‘ militia assault’ against the State, building the image that evangelical sectors could serve as an opposition movement to these groups. Both would operate on a complete and antagonic mechanism of governance and social organization.The objective of this paper is to critically deconstruct these two premises. First, through a genealogical analysis of milícias groups in Rio de Janeiro, we will establish a reflection that these agents never behaved as "parallel states", as often described. Far from "invading the State,"such actors establish enmeshment processes with government sectors, redefining practices and legitimacy in a complex system - involving elections and political support. We support this discourse with the concept of "parastatal" (Amar, 2014) to better represent these agents, believing that these considerations sophisticates the analysis, moving away from the narrative that the State, an isolated and sealed actor, would - and could - be attacked by external agents.The second objective is to demonstrate that the relationship between neo-Pentecostal communities and milicia groups in Rio de Janeiro is also more complex than the speech presented at the elections. Through qualitative analysis of polling data in areas controlled by the armed groups - but with strong evangelical presence – we seek to relativize the discussions that these two actors would intrinsically and automatically possess antagonistic models of social organization. The data collection rearticulates these relationships and propose a different mechanism of explanation – dissimilar from the "zero sum game" between these two elements.This specific deconstruction of the binary narratives galvanize the complexification of the milicias and the evangelical groups, demonstrating that a less absolute interpretation sheds light to a new framework of practices. We believe that these arguments promotes a potent reflection on the processes of power and legitimacy of violence in Rio de Janeiro, reinforcing how these actors can function on multiple and overlapping movements.

DECONSTRUCTING AUTOMATISMS: MILICIA PRACTICES AND NEOPENTESCOSTAL FORMATIONS IN RIO DE JANEIRO

The 2012 elections for governor in Rio de Janeiro gather special attention from national and international media analysts. The city politics was under scrutiny with the mega events hosted Brazil, like the Summer Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup. In this sense, the strategies of the candidates for the organization of the city - mainly for public safety issues - were dissected and analysed for months leading up to the election day.In this context, as the disputes were being centralized in the candidates best placed in the pools, Luis Carlos Pezão (PMDB) and Marcelo Crivela (PRB), talks about the supposed contenders’ governance mechanisms began to be galvanized. In the mainstream narrative, the first one would gather support, along other segments, from the “milícias”, parastatal organizations that uses extortion of some communities to gather control of entire neighbourhoods. The ‘milícias’ would be one of the greatest contemporary security issues of Rio, accused of violent actions and recurrent cases of murders and violence. In turn, Crivela would be mainly supported by the neo-Pentecostal religious groups (The Guardian, 2012; O Globo, 2012). This binary narrative, reinforced by accusations from both politicians in televised debates, strengthened the discourse of an ‘ militia assault’ against the State, building the image that evangelical sectors could serve as an opposition movement to these groups. Both would operate on a complete and antagonic mechanism of governance and social organization.The objective of this paper is to critically deconstruct these two premises. First, through a genealogical analysis of milícias groups in Rio de Janeiro, we will establish a reflection that these agents never behaved as "parallel states", as often described. Far from "invading the State,"such actors establish enmeshment processes with government sectors, redefining practices and legitimacy in a complex system - involving elections and political support. We support this discourse with the concept of "parastatal" (Amar, 2014) to better represent these agents, believing that these considerations sophisticates the analysis, moving away from the narrative that the State, an isolated and sealed actor, would - and could - be attacked by external agents.The second objective is to demonstrate that the relationship between neo-Pentecostal communities and milicia groups in Rio de Janeiro is also more complex than the speech presented at the elections. Through qualitative analysis of polling data in areas controlled by the armed groups - but with strong evangelical presence – we seek to relativize the discussions that these two actors would intrinsically and automatically possess antagonistic models of social organization. The data collection rearticulates these relationships and propose a different mechanism of explanation – dissimilar from the "zero sum game" between these two elements.This specific deconstruction of the binary narratives galvanize the complexification of the milicias and the evangelical groups, demonstrating that a less absolute interpretation sheds light to a new framework of practices. We believe that these arguments promotes a potent reflection on the processes of power and legitimacy of violence in Rio de Janeiro, reinforcing how these actors can function on multiple and overlapping movements.

O poder da fé, o milagre do poder: mediadores evangélicos e deslocamento de fronteiras sociais

A partir de dois estudos de caso analisarei neste artigo a articulação de duas tendências do universo evangélico pentecostal: a da vida apartada do mundo e aquela centrada no milagre e no protagonismo divino. A articulação entre elas forma um conjunto, cuja integração variada constitui na atualidade a presença evangélica na esfera pública. Enquanto conjunto, as igrejas evangélicas reconstruíram as fronteiras do religioso, para "dentro" e para "fora". Para "dentro" redefiniram magia e religião deslocando o encantamento do mundo, convencionalmente mantido como mágico, através do catolicismo, para o interior da religião como milagre. Para "fora" os evangélicos adotaram em suas práticas e discursos uma forma de sacralização dos seus agentes e dos seus instrumentos. A aura divina passou a habitar os muitos domínios sociais que, por sua vez, passaram a fornecer a matéria-prima necessária para forjar o protagonismo dos seus pastores.

Virtually global: online evangelical cartography

Taking as a point of departure the Pentecostal use of digital world maps, this article argues that Pentecostal movements should be understood as part and parcel of contemporary convergence culture. A reading of the remediations of the Brazilian Pentecostal church - the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) - demonstrates that the simulacrum of global evangelical presence as put forward by the IURD is supported by the interplay between the desire for immediacy and the experience of hypermediacy, but also by the close resemblance between common expectations of new media and the prophetic drive towards a global community of Christians.

Cholera, Christ, and Jackson: The Epidemic of 1832 and the Origins of Christian Politics in Antebellum America

For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD.Passover traditionalNo one knew where it came from. Epidemiological thought in the United States had been conditioned by experience with yellow fever, and the black vomit seemed obviously non-contagious. As was the case with yellow fever, so it was with cholera: there could never be found any pattern within the cases that would support a contagionist argument. struck down its victims in the street, and they would be dead by nightfall. Symptoms were multiform and terrifying: muscular cramps, spasmodic vomiting, fever, a constant stream of rice-water diarrhea. was known, alternately, as Asiatic cholera, pestilential cholera, spasmodic cholera, and the blue pest. In 1832, in the days before germ theory, it was an affliction without cause or logic. The only comfort, perhaps, was that It is the intemperate and vicious, especially the vicious poor, who have most to fear from it, and it is among them the greatest panic prevails. Visiting destruction where it wished, a plague on the filthy and unregenerate, cholera seemed nothing less than the finger of God.1The United States, if unready for such a visitation medically, was more than prepared religiously. The cholera made landfall barely a year after Charles Finney closed his Rochester revivals, and in the same Burned-Over District where his New Measures had flourished. At such a time and in such a place, cholera was ideally situated to become understood as a religious event-and from there, to enter politics.The antebellum cohabitation between religion and politics has received considerable scholarly attention in recent years; interpretations have shifted from a paradigm of early republican religion as a kind of decaying, reactionary Puritanism to an understanding of republican religion as a vibrant Christianity galvanized by frenetic competition, where radical ideas of liberty merged with Arminian impulse and Calvinist tradition to create Christianities that embraced egalitarianism, popular culture, and the needs of everyday people.2Also reflecting the needs of the people, of course, were the nascent political parties of Jacksonian America, and scholars have not missed the opportunity to draw parallels between the religious and political geographies of the age. Evangelical ethos, organization, and belief are often cited as elements that predisposed evangelicals to enter the political realm, most convincingly in Richard J. Carwardine's Evangelicals and Politics in Antebellum America. For many scholars, the confluence between political ideology and Christian theology in the nineteenth century explains the presence of evangelicals in party politics. is, in Richard R. John's parlance, a plausible alliance. The mentalite and organization of evangelicals, according to this historiographical thread, virtually guaranteed that evangelicals would enter politics. Yet such an assumption becomes teleological when applied to evangelical entry in the developing party system; arguing that evangelicals became Whigs because Whiggery was more evangelical does not explain why Whiggery was more evangelical. Moreover, the history of the Second Party System was full of improbable alliances: Jackson and Calhoun, Seward and the Anti-Renters, Tippecanoe and Tyler, too. The component groups of a party affect its character and development. Benevolence and internal improvements may have possessed an ideological consonance; so did nullification and strict construction, but they could not coexist in the Democracy in 1833. Rather than assuming an inevitable polarity between evangelicalism and Jacksonianism-or the inevitability of evangelicals in politics-we need to examine the political exigencies that bred ideological proximities. When did evangelicals realize they needed the Whigs-or when did the Whigs realize they needed the evangelicals? …

Religious “Threat” in Contemporary Presidential Elections

Recent presidential elections have drawn attention to the role religion plays in shaping how Americans vote and highlighted the political relevance of white evangelical Christians, an important group within the Republicans’ base of supporters. Evangelicals see themselves as in tension with a secular society, which affects their political behavior. Drawing on the venerable racial threat literature, I show evidence that evangelicals respond to “religious threat.” The more secularists in their community, the more likely white evangelical Christians were to vote for Republican presidential candidates in 2000 and 1996. These results hold for two distinct ways of identifying white evangelicals, using community data at different levels of aggregation. However, secularists do not appear to respond to the presence of evangelicals in their environment.

The Word in the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading in America, 1789-1880 (review)

The Word the World: Evangelical Writing, Publishing, and Reading America, 1789-1880. By Candy Gunther Brown. (Chapel Hill: University North Carolina Press, 2004. Pp. xiv, 336. Illustrations. Cloth, $59.95; paper, $19.95.)An insightful study the emergence a print culture among U.S. evangelicals, Candy Gunther Brown's work argues that nineteenth-century evangelical Christians created a textual community around the Bible, pamphlets, religious novels, memoirs godly persons, tracts, and hymns. These various printed media were designed to assist the converted a purer exercise the Christian faith while asserting a more tangible evangelical presence the world. The Holy Spirit, evangelicals believed, would transform the hearts and minds the unconverted as they encountered these texts. An underlying tension between the sacred and profane underlay this emerging print culture. The business selling and the confusion about what genres literature were appropriate for religious people drove an ongoing debate among evangelical leaders about remaining in the without becoming of the (John 17:15-17). In time, an evolving (80) evangelical works gained acceptance among the faithful. This canon did not supplant, but was based upon, the Bible, and printed works other than the Bible were considered appropriate if they emphasized and illustrated key biblical precepts. In short, the new genres served to reinforce, not replace, the traditional word the Bible.Brown traces this emerging print culture eight chapters, showing how evangelicals sought to ensure that they were transforming an unregenerate world rather than being tainted by its secular substance. The first four chapters define and chart the progress and challenges wrought by evangelical print media. For example, evangelical print culture emerged during the age American Romanticism. Evangelical writers appealed to emotion but were careful to distinguish their appeal from the heterodox religious opinions articulated by New England transcendentalists. The revealed word the Scriptures and the intercession the Holy Spirit were the key agencies for evangelicals their concept the Priesthood the Believer. Evangelical publishers and writers struggled to focus on their distinct religious mission even as their products sold to both denominational and secular audiences. Increasingly, evangelical publishers made use literary fiction, but they explicitly defined their efforts as illustrating gospel truths hypothetical scenes attached to real life, not as appeals to base and sensual instincts. What was appropriate reading and what was morally tempting secular literature became more and more difficult to discern this era multiplying evangelical genres. A class arbiters emerged the religious press, refereeing matter for its suitableness promoting spiritual growth or conversion.The final four chapters show, among other things, the attempt by evangelicals to assert their denominational proclivities while affirming a true church all believers. Herein lies the most contentious part the book, and Brown succeeds part making this fine point. Students the religious press have often noted how contentious it was, even on the basic mechanics salvation. Was baptism a sign conversion or necessary to effect conversion? What was the proper mode baptism? And, course, did the Bible countenance slavery? Given that churches waged theological battle with one another over doctrine arid intersectional missionary societies broke fellowship over appointing slaveholders as missionaries, her point seems, on first reading, wide the mark. …

THE WITNESS AND INFLUENCE OF PENTECOSTAL CHRISTIANS IN LATIN AMERICA

Introduction I have been asked to describe the calling and witness of Pentecostal Christians in the communities of Latin America with an eye to their influence on the understandings of mainline churches. I do not know exactly why I was invited to do so, since I am not a Pentecostal myself. And I do not know why I have accepted, except that I have co-journeyed with Pentecostal Christians in Latin America for nearly thirty years. Much of the turmoil that shaped the life and witness of the Pentecostal movement in Central America has shaped me and the evangelical and mainline churches and agencies with which I have been most involved. Together with Pentecostals, and separately, we have been reading the same Bible and, together and separately, we have been immersed in the struggles of the poor. So I will speak as one whose personal journey has been influenced by the power, joy, difficulties and hopes of Pentecostal Christians and also as one who, coming from a mainline church, can identify some points of challenge and influence. I would like to start by pointing to Pentecostalism's most remarkable feature, namely its growth and increasing visibility, and relate these elements to the question of the identity of Pentecostal Christians in Latin America. Growth, visibility and identity No one who knows anything at all about Latin America can ignore the significance of Pentecostalism as a major movement in the transformation of the region's socio-religious reality. Expressions such as eruption, explosion, and spectacular are commonly used when describing the growth and increasing visibility of this movement. Pentecostals are everywhere present, and palpably so. Their churches can be found in remote villages of the countryside and at a short distance from Roman Catholic cathedrals and other impressive churches of all denominations in the mega cities. The boundaries of an average Catholic parish in the main cities of countries like Venezuela, Chile, Brazil and Guatemala may contain as many as sixteen Pentecostal churches, not counting other Pentecostal centres for gatherings of people, such as house churches for worship, and enormous tents for healing and evangelistic services. A study undertaken by the Institute for Religious Studies (ISER, Brazil) on the growth of churches in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro affirms this dynamic trend. It shows that in the period 1990-1992, 710 new churches (an average of five per week) were established in that immense city. And although Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian churches were part of this expansion, the highest growth by far had taken place among the Pentecostals. Today, several Brazilian Pentecostal denominations - among them the Assemblies of God, the Brazil for Christ Church, and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God - have more than a million members each, with the Assemblies of God claiming a membership of eight million. Another case in point is Guatemala where, in the 1930s, Pentecostals were a token group. By 1982 (the centennial of evangelical presence in that country), Pentecostals were growing more rapidly than the historical denominations. Eight years later, with the emergence of the so-called Neo-Pentecostals, the two groupings together accounted for two-thirds of the total evangelical community of more than two million (20% of the population). Similarly high increases were registered in the same period in the neighbouring countries. It must be remembered that in the 1980s, the governments and the military forces of these countries were deeply entangled in civil wars and were almost entirely at the will of their powerful northern neighbour. For the civilian population, the insecurity, suffering and destruction were enormous. The religious scenario was equally tense and conflictive. The role of the media, polarization inside the Christian communities, schisms in existing Pentecostal denominations, and a wave of new missionaries whose sole concern was mass evangelism, were all elements of that dynamic scenario during the decade. …

EVANGELICAL PRESENCE AT THE SALVADOR CONFERENCE – A PERSPECTIVE FROM LATIN AMERICA

Called to One Hope: Gospel in Diverse Cultures is a potentially divisive theme for evangelicals. What is the nature of the Christian hope and the essential content of the gospel, and do gospel and culture have equal weight on the scales of evangelization? Remembering the fallout after the World Council of Churches' (WCC) Canberra assembly (1991), we wondered what would be the contribution and reaction to the Salvador conference. Any discussion of the role of evangelicals at the eleventh Conference on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME), in Salvador, Brazil (November-December 1996), should begin with a terminological clarification. What do we mean by evangelicals? As Marlin VanElderen points out, The word `evangelical' has no precise agreed-upon definition. There are a large number of people within the WCC member churches and organizations who consider themselves evangelical. identification of Protestant and evangelical are virtually synonymous in some languages and traditions (including in Spanish and Portuguese). More than one-fourth of the WCC member churches have the word `evangelical' in their name. Discussion of WCC relations with evangelicals, however, generally refers to contacts with independent groups who emphasize the authority of the Bible, the need for an individual experience of conversion, the call to a personal life of growth in holiness and a passion for the evangelization of the world by calling individuals to faith in Jesus Christ.(1) Having said this, it must be recognized that the movement covers a wide spectrum of people and organizations for whom the above core definition may be the be all and end all of their Christian commitment and those for whom it is the point of departure for various levels of involvement in the world. evangelicals who attended the Salvador CWME would represent various shadings of the latter. Evangelical presence at the Salvador conference Evangelicals, in all of the senses defined above, have always been present and involved in WCC mission conferences. Salvador conference was no exception. A sustained effort was made to include evangelicals in the conference preparatory process and during the conference, at every level. Evangelical advisors contributed their perspectives at meetings of the Conference Planning Committee (CPC), where concerns were already well represented.(2) Along with evangelicals from local WCC member churches, the National Host Committee (NHC) in Brazil made it a point to include two and pentecostal representatives. conference participants included delegated observers from several agencies, mission societies and nonmember churches.(3) They joined evangelicals who were nominated by WCC member churches as official representatives. A number of evangelicals also came to Salvador as accredited visitors. historical context presence of evangelicals at the Salvador conference needs to be considered in its long-term historical context, as well as in its immediate setting, Latin America and Brazil. Mexico City (1963) was the first world missionary conference to be held after the International Missionary Council was integrated into the WCC (at New Delhi, 1961). It was also the first conference to be held in Latin America. It made hardly a ripple in the region. Protestants were a small minority in most of Latin America. Among the majority of churches and mission agencies in Latin America, anticommunism was the watchword and ecumenism was still a pejorative word. Three decades later, a sea change has taken place. Today, numerically strong and theologically more mature, churches in Latin America are facing the same issues that the WCC seeks to confront -- massive impoverishment, violence, injustice, unfettered capitalism. Yet the responses of historical churches and of evangelicals to these challenges are both similar and yet different. …