Lived Citizenship and Lived Religion in Latin America’s Zones of Crisis

• In Event: Invited Session - The study of Religion in Latin America: New Realities, New Approaches

Abstract

In this article we present the concepts of “lived religion” and “lived citizenship” as tools for understanding the ways in which religious and political meanings and practices are constituted in social movements and locations of poverty and exclusion in Latin America. We first develop the idea of “zones of crisis” as the context in which struggles for rights, recognition, and survival are enacted. We then challenge reified distinctions between secular and religious, emphasizing religion’s embodiment and emplacement in daily life and politics. Reviewing the empirical findings of the articles in this special issue, we discuss the multiple imbrications of religion and citizenship with regard to democratic politics, geographies of conflict, and safe spaces, as well as selfhood, identity and agency. In a “post-secular” world, interrogating religion, secularity, and politics together enables us better to understand the complex construction of democratic citizenship and the dynamism of Latin America’s multiple modernities.

Authors

• David A Smilde, Tulane University

• Jeffrey W Rubin, Boston University

• Benjamin Junge, State University of New York/New Paltz