The NN’s souls-cult: a case study of catholicism and popular religion in Colombia

This article analyzes the cult of the souls in Purgatory in Puerto Berrío, Colombia, and its relationship with the Catholic Church. Through empirical evidence, it identifies three characteristics of this cult, namely, its relative independence from the Catholic Church, its heterogeneity and its util...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik
Authors: Bastidas Meneses, Luis Bernardo (Author) ; Kaden, Tom 1984- (Author) ; Schnettler, Bernt 1967- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften 2021
In: Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik
Further subjects:B Popular Catholicism
B popular religion
B Religion in Latin America
B Death rituals
B Religious Change
Online Access: Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:This article analyzes the cult of the souls in Purgatory in Puerto Berrío, Colombia, and its relationship with the Catholic Church. Through empirical evidence, it identifies three characteristics of this cult, namely, its relative independence from the Catholic Church, its heterogeneity and its utilitarian character, and compares them with other cases of Latin American popular Catholicism. The particularities of the cult enable an analysis of how popular religion, rather than generating a conflict with the Catholic Church, maintains an ambiguous relationship with it. The case shows that popular religion not only incorporates the symbolic structure of the Catholic Church to legitimize itself, but also that the church tolerates it, contributing to the peaceful coexistence of the popular and the institutionalized. Consequently, this leads believers, instead of adhering to a supposed binary opposition, to shift between popular and institutionalized religion.
ISSN:2510-1226
Contains:Enthalten in: Zeitschrift für Religion, Gesellschaft und Politik
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s41682-021-00075-z