Definition
The religious landscape in the Dominican Republic has changed significantly over the past 50 years. As elsewhere in Latin America, the once dominant Roman Catholic Church is consistently losing ground to evangelicalism. The Pentecostal Movement, which began in the United States in the early twentieth century, has been a driving force in this ongoing confrontation between Catholicism and other forms of Christianity. Accounting for up to 90% of “all Protestant growth, [Pentecostal Christianity constitutes] the most popular version of Protestantism in Latin America” (Thornton 2016). Within Evangelicalism, Pentecostal spirituality is unmatched in its contributions to Dominican society where it shapes both social and moral life (Escher 2009). Other Christian and non-Christian traditions are also present in the Dominican Republic, including African-derived religions such as the Dominican vudú and some Asian religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
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Buteau, E. (2018). Dominican Republic. In: Gooren, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_347-1
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