What are the crucial factors that may cause people to become religiously active at a certain point of their lives? I give an overview of key analytic elements of the conventional approaches to conversion: Lofland and Stark's (1965) social networks model; (spoiled) identity and religious seekership; socialization; religious markets; recruitment; cultural factors; and convert role monitoring and mastering. Subsequent sections present a critique of the conventional approaches, with their biases and emphasis on the crisis factor, and a synthesis of their best elements in the conversion career approach (currently in development). The latter distinguishes five levels of religious participation: preaffiliation, affiliation, conversion, confession, and disaffiliation. These levels are, in turn, influenced by personality factors, social factors, institutional factors, cultural factors, and contingency factors. The conversion careers approach offers directions for future research by distinguishing five levels of religious participation, systematically listing the factors in religious participation, avoiding "crisis determinism," developing a conceptualization of the individual with active and passive elements, being gender sensitive, and including a life-cycle approach to avoid the "adolescent bias" of earlier literature.
Pentecostalization is the combination of Pentecostal growth, Pentecostal influence on other religions, and Pentecostal impact on the rest of society. Increased competition with other religions (the Catholic Charismatic Renewal and mainstream Protestantism) forces these to adopt Pentecostal elements. Pentecostal elements (like conversion discourses, speaking in tongues, and faith healing) gradually spread in the mass media, affect non-religious groups in civil society and even the religiously unaffiliated, show up in political campaigns, affect economic behavior and entrepreneurship, and impact gender relations. Main research questions: To what extent is there a Pentecostalization of religion and society happening in Latin American countries, what forms is this taking, how are Pentecostal churches affected by the Pentecostalization process, and how could this lead to a new theoretical framework? The new theoretical framework of Pentecostalization links various previous approaches, theories, and unconnected country studies. Using ethnographic research, semi-structured interviews, and surveys, Pentecostal and non-Pentecostal churches and organizations will be analyzed in Chile and Paraguay. Chile has the oldest and strongest Pentecostal churches of Latin America, whereas Pentecostal growth only recently started in Paraguay, providing a clear contrast in the level of Pentecostalization.
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