Religious Pluralisation and Social Change in Colombia
While Colombia has traditionally been dominated by a conservative Catholic culture, its religious milieu has gone through a rapid transformation characterised by the growth of many new religious organisations. This study will aim to more deeply understand the causes of this transformation and its effects in other social fields, notably in the political and cultural field. A large multitude of questions have shaped the research: Which causes have contributed and driven this religious pluralisation and which factors —political, economic demographic or cultural— are associated with it? How has this religious pluralisation manifested itself in rural, urban and indigenous contexts? What has been the impact of the religious pluralisation in the cultural and political fields?The present thesis will outline the ways in which the processes of secularisation and modernisation on Columbian society are the principle causes of this religious pluralisation and how this pluralisation involves different cultural affinities and forms of cultural inertia. Furthermore, most of the believers who abandon the Catholic Church integrate themselves within similar or related religious movements preferring above all the Pentecostal movement. Moreover, this pluralisation leads to an increased promotion of religious entrepreneurs of an independent and charismatic nature. The best performing religious leaders identify in their accumulated religious reputation a form of capital profitable in other social fields, particularly the political field. Consequently, religious pluralism has opened the doors of political power of new social actors.