Remarks on Christian leadership

JOAQUIN ALGRANTI,; BONNIN

Leipzig

Congreso; 29th Conferencia de la Society for the Sociology of Religion -ISSR-; 2007

In this study, we present some provisionary findings of a preliminary research on Christian leadership in Argentina. This work is based on individual research conducted by each author on Pentecostal Pastors and Catholic Bishops[1], empirical data collected in the last year and secondary sources cited in the bibliography. Consequently, the final conclusions should be interpreted as a heuristic model that must be discussed and confronted with new empirical data. Our main aim is to establish a typology of the leaders that nowadays guide the Christian social space. In order to do this, we will first present an overview of the twentieth century history of Christianity in Argentina from the point of view of the relationship between Catholicism and Pentecostal churches. Secondly, we will analyze, from a socio-cultural perspective, the positions occupied by current Christian leaders, with special focus on the degree of their churches’ institutionalization, their socio-cultural profile, the socioeconomic “target” group that they address and their popularity. Finally, we attempt to systemize the data collected into a typology of Catholic bishops and Pentecostal pastors in order to understand the social differences and similarities between them. [1] Both research projects are supported by the National Bureau of Scientific and Technological Investigations [Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas- CONICET] and developed into the Work Studies Center- Program of Economic Research upon Technology, Work and Employment [Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales- Programa de Investigaciones Económicas sobre Tecnología, Trabajo y Empleo- CEIL-PIETTE].