The Kingdom At Hand : Religion and Politics in Highland Bolivia.

This dissertation represents an inquiry into political, theological, and symbolic parameters of religious innovation in highland Bolivia. A major dimension of the investigation is an analysis of liberation theology, which is interpreted as a shift from liturgical discourse characteristic of popular Catholicism, to evangelical discourse, or the application of central Christian texts to contemporary social conditions. A detailed examination is made of interactions between clergy and laity, both historically and in contemporary society. Economic, political, and symbolic elements of rural village life are analyzed to elucidate the impact of church policies on social relations between mestizo towndwellers and Indian peasants. Key theological features of liberation theology are also discussed as they have influenced new programs of social and ecclesiastical transformation. Finally, the importance of these reforms for ritual activity is investigated, along with the response of fiesta participants to changing church involvement in traditional festivals. Throughout the dissertation, emphasis is given to the content of religious innovation, the way in which it takes place, and the idiom in which it is framed. Several problematic issues are identified as emerging from the social policies and theological orientation of liberation theology. These include: the paradox between encouraging cultural heterogeneity while permitting only limited religious heterodoxy; the difficulty of reconciling theological and political imperatives arising from sacramental reform; and the place of ritual and popular religious expression within the new programs currently being implemented by the church. Particular attention is given to sacramental reform, such as selective baptism, and ritual reform, exemplified by the withdrawal of church sanction from patronal fiestas. The former is interpreted as an attempt by the church to interject religion into what had become a primarily secular relationship, while the latter illustrates the removal of ecclesiastical participation from traditional religious events.PhDCultural anthropologyUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/160191/1/8422296.pd