Comments on the Text by Joanildo Burity: Challenges for Current Times

Abstract

Since the return to democracy, the Chilean evangelical world has undergone important changes, such as the reconsideration of its relationship with the military regime, increase in socioeconomic and educational levels, the consolidation of its status as a recognized actor in the country’s political and social life. These transformations determined the formation of evangelicals as “the cultural citizens,” who were fully aware of their demands, specific rights and the new political activism. At the same time, the Chilean religious field is undergoing a permanent diversification, deinstitutionalization and individualization process, giving rise to many non-traditional ways of expressing beliefs: intradenominational movements, Christian study centers, “Christians without religion.” These new forms of non-Catholic Christianity and their links to the population’s interests and needs show that their characteristics and identities go beyond the usual division of social actors into left and right, and require the creation of a wider conceptual apparatus.