Eleventh International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

Religious denominations are always in constant movement and evolution. In my country, Colombia, Pentecostalism, as part of Protestantism, arrived in the twentieth century before the disapproving gaze of the most conservative sectors of the religion, and this did not have official political recognition until the rewriting of a new Political Constitution in 1991. At present, 13% of the world population believing in Jesus as messiah affiliates as Protestant -many of them Pentecostals-; and in Colombia, 10% of its total population also subscribe to this form of Christianity. Linking Pentescostalism with consumption for many may sound blasphemous, in large part, because listening to the latter one has several preconceptions. These range from considering that consuming is a synonym for a large number of irrational people availing themselves of acquiring services or objects, to believing that consumption is a social epiphenomenon resulting from multiple individual behaviors. The study is the result of a project presented for the Master of Social Studies of Consumption of the Central University of Bogotá, Colombia. The work sought to understand how exchange processes are put into dialogue in the sacred place that do not invalidate the sacredness of the place, but, by making the site an organic part of it, construct, configure, and solidify concepts such as identity, social relationships, and spiritual experience.