Offutt
Biographic Data
| ID | 41356 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Offutt |
| FAMILY NAME | Offutt |
| SIGNATURE | OFFUTT |
| AFFILIATIONS | Asbury Theological Seminary |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4800-6837 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 44 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Entangled
ow are the two most ubiquitous community-based organizations in poor Salvadoran neighborhoods—gangs and evangelical churches—connected? Most studies concur with the Brenneman/Wolseth thesis, which states that evangelical churches uniquely provide people with a pathway out of gangs. This article argues that such dynamics are a relatively small subset of a broad range of interactions between evangelicals and gangs. Data from the Religion, Global Po…
Evangelicals and Governance in the Global South
In this essay I ask: how do evangelicals in the Global South engage on issues relating to conflict, security, and basic human rights? I discuss who evangelicals are in the Global South and then present cases of two evangelical churches: one affluent and one impoverished. I argue that social location matters: affluent churches can participate in democratic discourse; impoverished actors must often navigate the perils wrought by state failure. In b…
Power in Powerlessness
In this empirically and theoretically rich book, Martin Lindhardt shows how the everyday practices of Pentecostals help marginalized Chileans create new identities, gain a sense of control over their lives, and develop new and meaningful interpretations of their social reality.Lindhardt's subjects are direct descendants of the first Pentecostal church in Latin America, the Methodist Pentecostal Church (MPC), founded in 1909. Lindhardt studied the…
The Gift Economy of Direct Transnational Civic Action
How does religion help facilitate civic action in transnational contexts characterized by material inequality and spatial separation? Short-term mission (STM) travel, a popular activity among U.S. religious groups, exemplifies a recently emerged form of transnational civic action characterized by face-to-face, decentralized, pragmatic activity. Our research analyzes how participants in STM-based relationships manage inequality while pursuing an i…
Religion, Poverty, and Development
This article serves two purposes. First, it introduces the forum that follows in this issue on religion and development. Second, it serves as a review of the small but quickly growing literature on how religion interacts with efforts by (often religious) people and organizations to ameliorate poverty worldwide. We address the need to define both 'religion' and 'development' with clarity and precision. We also call for further research in this are…
New Centers of Global Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa
This book shows that new centers of Christianity have taken root in the global south. Although these communities were previously poor and marginalized, Stephen Offutt illustrates that they are now socioeconomically diverse, internationally well connected, and socially engaged. Offutt argues that local and global religious social forces, as opposed to other social, economic, or political forces, are primarily responsible for these changes
Multiple Modernities
This article contributes to the emerging multiple modernities thesis and its treatment of world religions. Using a cross-continent comparison of evangelical Pentecostalism, it argues that religion can have cross-cutting implications for modernity’s extension in the Global South. The social patterns and networks of national evangelical Pentecostal communities in different contexts vary, allowing them to help modernizing societies pursue unique goa…
Global Poverty and Evangelical Action
American evangelicals are actively engaged in the international political economy. Relief and development organizations hold a prominent place in the evangelical landscape. Their considerable and growing size is made possible in part by the financial contributions of individual evangelicals. Evangelical congregations are connected to the relief and development sector through official institutional linkages, international partnerships, and the inc…
The Role of Short-Term Mission Teams in the New Centers of Global Christianity
Drawing on ethnographic and interview data collected in El Salvador and South Africa over a four-year period, this article uses a social constructionist approach to describe two types of interaction between short-term mission teams and their hosts. First, hosts encounter the flow of teams as foreign social products. Once they internalize this new part of their social reality, hosts seek to recruit and control teams. They also mimic the practice o…
The Transnational Location of Two Leading Evangelical Churches in the Global South
Religion remains critically important in the Global South even as globalization intensifies. As international political and economic structures evolve, transnational religions shift societal locations within countries. These shifts cause changes within religions themselves, altering patterns of interaction that may in turn have political and economic consequences. By examining Iglesia Josue in El Salvador and Rhema Bible Church in South Africa, t…
Communities of the Converted
Transnational Religious Connections
Globalization, defined as the increasing flow of people, information, goods, services, and other resources across national boundaries, is altering social contexts in ways that influence religious practices. Increasingly, religion is not only instantiated in local communities and national societies, but is also linked with networks that span societal borders. Immigration is the most studied example. However, other flows of people and resources nee…
Transnational Religious Connections
Globalization, defined as the increasing flow of people, information, goods, services, and other resources across national boundaries, is altering social contexts in ways that influence religious practices. Increasingly, religion is not only instantiated in local communities and national societies, but is also linked with networks that span societal borders. Immigration is the most studied example. However, other flows of people and resources nee…
The Role of Short-Term Mission Teams in the New Centers of Global Christianity
Drawing on ethnographic and interview data collected in El Salvador and South Africa over a four-year period, this article uses a social constructionist approach to describe two types of interaction between short-term mission teams and their hosts. First, hosts encounter the flow of teams as foreign social products. Once they internalize this new part of their social reality, hosts seek to recruit and control teams. They also mimic the practice o…
Multiple Modernities
This article contributes to the emerging multiple modernities thesis and its treatment of world religions. Using a cross-continent comparison of evangelical Pentecostalism, it argues that religion can have cross-cutting implications for modernity’s extension in the Global South. The social patterns and networks of national evangelical Pentecostal communities in different contexts vary, allowing them to help modernizing societies pursue unique goa…
Religion, Poverty, and Development
This article serves two purposes. First, it introduces the forum that follows in this issue on religion and development. Second, it serves as a review of the small but quickly growing literature on how religion interacts with efforts by (often religious) people and organizations to ameliorate poverty worldwide. We address the need to define both 'religion' and 'development' with clarity and precision. We also call for further research in this are…
The Gift Economy of Direct Transnational Civic Action
How does religion help facilitate civic action in transnational contexts characterized by material inequality and spatial separation? Short-term mission (STM) travel, a popular activity among U.S. religious groups, exemplifies a recently emerged form of transnational civic action characterized by face-to-face, decentralized, pragmatic activity. Our research analyzes how participants in STM-based relationships manage inequality while pursuing an i…
Evangelicals and Governance in the Global South
In this essay I ask: how do evangelicals in the Global South engage on issues relating to conflict, security, and basic human rights? I discuss who evangelicals are in the Global South and then present cases of two evangelical churches: one affluent and one impoverished. I argue that social location matters: affluent churches can participate in democratic discourse; impoverished actors must often navigate the perils wrought by state failure. In b…
Transnational Religious Connections
Globalization, defined as the increasing flow of people, information, goods, services, and other resources across national boundaries, is altering social contexts in ways that influence religious practices. Increasingly, religion is not only instantiated in local communities and national societies, but is also linked with networks that span societal borders. Immigration is the most studied example. However, other flows of people and resources nee…
Communities of the Converted
The Transnational Location of Two Leading Evangelical Churches in the Global South
Religion remains critically important in the Global South even as globalization intensifies. As international political and economic structures evolve, transnational religions shift societal locations within countries. These shifts cause changes within religions themselves, altering patterns of interaction that may in turn have political and economic consequences. By examining Iglesia Josue in El Salvador and Rhema Bible Church in South Africa, t…
The Role of Short-Term Mission Teams in the New Centers of Global Christianity
Drawing on ethnographic and interview data collected in El Salvador and South Africa over a four-year period, this article uses a social constructionist approach to describe two types of interaction between short-term mission teams and their hosts. First, hosts encounter the flow of teams as foreign social products. Once they internalize this new part of their social reality, hosts seek to recruit and control teams. They also mimic the practice o…
Global Poverty and Evangelical Action
American evangelicals are actively engaged in the international political economy. Relief and development organizations hold a prominent place in the evangelical landscape. Their considerable and growing size is made possible in part by the financial contributions of individual evangelicals. Evangelical congregations are connected to the relief and development sector through official institutional linkages, international partnerships, and the inc…
Multiple Modernities
This article contributes to the emerging multiple modernities thesis and its treatment of world religions. Using a cross-continent comparison of evangelical Pentecostalism, it argues that religion can have cross-cutting implications for modernity’s extension in the Global South. The social patterns and networks of national evangelical Pentecostal communities in different contexts vary, allowing them to help modernizing societies pursue unique goa…
New Centers of Global Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa
This book shows that new centers of Christianity have taken root in the global south. Although these communities were previously poor and marginalized, Stephen Offutt illustrates that they are now socioeconomically diverse, internationally well connected, and socially engaged. Offutt argues that local and global religious social forces, as opposed to other social, economic, or political forces, are primarily responsible for these changes
Religion, Poverty, and Development
This article serves two purposes. First, it introduces the forum that follows in this issue on religion and development. Second, it serves as a review of the small but quickly growing literature on how religion interacts with efforts by (often religious) people and organizations to ameliorate poverty worldwide. We address the need to define both 'religion' and 'development' with clarity and precision. We also call for further research in this are…
Power in Powerlessness
In this empirically and theoretically rich book, Martin Lindhardt shows how the everyday practices of Pentecostals help marginalized Chileans create new identities, gain a sense of control over their lives, and develop new and meaningful interpretations of their social reality.Lindhardt's subjects are direct descendants of the first Pentecostal church in Latin America, the Methodist Pentecostal Church (MPC), founded in 1909. Lindhardt studied the…
The Gift Economy of Direct Transnational Civic Action
How does religion help facilitate civic action in transnational contexts characterized by material inequality and spatial separation? Short-term mission (STM) travel, a popular activity among U.S. religious groups, exemplifies a recently emerged form of transnational civic action characterized by face-to-face, decentralized, pragmatic activity. Our research analyzes how participants in STM-based relationships manage inequality while pursuing an i…
Entangled
ow are the two most ubiquitous community-based organizations in poor Salvadoran neighborhoods—gangs and evangelical churches—connected? Most studies concur with the Brenneman/Wolseth thesis, which states that evangelical churches uniquely provide people with a pathway out of gangs. This article argues that such dynamics are a relatively small subset of a broad range of interactions between evangelicals and gangs. Data from the Religion, Global Po…
Evangelicals and Governance in the Global South
In this essay I ask: how do evangelicals in the Global South engage on issues relating to conflict, security, and basic human rights? I discuss who evangelicals are in the Global South and then present cases of two evangelical churches: one affluent and one impoverished. I argue that social location matters: affluent churches can participate in democratic discourse; impoverished actors must often navigate the perils wrought by state failure. In b…
Sociology (12 works) · Political science (10 works) · Religion, Society, and Development (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (5 works) · History (4 works) · Philosophy (4 works) · Politics (4 works)