Religion and politics in the first forty years of mennonite presence in Argentina
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61303/24525308.v4i7.98Keywords:
Mennonites, Argentina, politics, religious field, missionAbstract
This article presents an analysis of the first 40 years of Mennonite presence in Argentina, focusing on the Mennonite Church and exploring the relationships between local and global religious and political dynamics. Through anthropological analysis of an extensive documentary corpus, their attitudes, interests, and concerns, as well as their relationship with the surrounding society, are explored. Three main axes are identified: the self-perception of Mennonites as foreigners who must be cautious; the centrality of church-state separation that conducted to the distrust in secular political solutions; and opposition to Catholicism, seen as a distortion of Christianity. All of this leads to Mennonites in the studied period prioritizing social stability and freedom for their evangelical work. This analysis contributes to a greater understanding of the dynamics of “socioreligious heterodoxies” in Argentina.
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