Tongues of Fire

Now available in paperback, Tongues of Fire deals with one of the most extraordinary developments in the world today - the rapid spread of Evangelical Protestantism in vast areas of the underdeveloped societies, notable Latin America. The growth of Evangelical Protestantism since the 1960's from its epicentre in the United States has been a religious and social phenomenon of extraordinary proportions.

David Martin, one of the world's leading authorities on the sociology of religion, examines this remarkable phenomenon, taking account of how the religious elements have affected and have been affected by the cultural and political conditions and the future of the Americas, but also by those concerned with the relation of religion and social change throughout the contemporary world.

Anglo and latin: rival civilizations, alternative patterns

The Methodist model: Anglo-American cultural production reproduced in Latin America

Profiles of evangelical advance in Latin America

Brazil: largest society and most dramatic instance

The southern cone: Chile and the Argentine contrasted

Smaller contrasting societies

Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico

Caribbean comparisons: Jamaica and Trinidad; Puerto Rico and Haiti

Instructive parallels: South Korea and South Africa

New spiritual communications: healing and tongues; songs and stories

Conversions: transformations and turning points

Protestantism and economic culture: evidence reviewed

The body politic and the spirit: evidence reviewed

The argument summarized and extended

David Martin is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Honorary Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University. He has published numerous books including Tongues of Fire, Does Christianity Cause War? and A General Theory of Secularisation. He is generally regarded as one of the most influential sociologists of religion writing today. Now available in paperback, Tongues of Fire deals with one of the most extraordinary developments in the world today - the rapid spread of Evangelical Protestantism in vast areas of the underdeveloped societies, notable Latin America. The growth of Evangelical Protestantism since the 1960's from its epicentre in the United States has been a religious and social phenomenon of extraordinary proportions.

David Martin, one of the world's leading authorities on the sociology of religion, examines this remarkable phenomenon, taking account of how the religious elements have affected and have been affected by the cultural and political conditions and the future of the Americas, but also by those concerned with the relation of religion and social change throughout the contemporary world.