Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science

自20世纪50年代末以来，拉丁美洲教会在神学和牧民组织方面发生了根本性的变化。解放神学和基层教会(CEBS)等创新往往使教会在社会中扮演的政治角色重新焕发活力。此外，在几个威权政权中，天主教会是反对的唯一来源。然而，这种变化在整个拉丁美洲并不是统一的。在20世纪60年代和70年代，几个国家的主教支持威权统治。这篇博士论文研究调查了宗教竞争(天主教徒和非天主教徒之间)在决定国家教会等级制度是支持还是反对独裁统治方面的作用。这名学生研究新教教派在一些国家日益增多的存在是否迫使教区采取与军方镇压颠覆性组织的目标背道而驰的成员保留策略。此外，对教会和军事政权之间的冲突进行了评估，内容是教会获得国家庇护的机会在本世纪初是否减少了。学生将结合智利的历史研究和实地研究(与教会领袖的访谈)来研究这一主题。

Since the Late 1950s, the Latin American Church has undergone radical changes in terms of theology and pastoral organization. Innovations such as liberation theology and comunidades eclesiales de base (CEBs) have tended to reinvigorate the political role the Church plays in society. Moreover, in several authoritarian regimes, the Catholic Church as been the sole source of opposition. Nevertheless, this change has not been uniform across Latin America. Several national episcopates supported authoritarian rule in the 1960s and 1970s. This doctoral dissertation research investigation examines the role of religious competition (between Catholics and non-Catholics) in determining whether the national Church hierarchy endorses or opposes dictatorial rule. The dissertation student investigates whether increasing presence of Protestant sects in some countries has forced the episcopate to adopt membership-retention strategies that are antithetical to the military's goal of suppressing subversive organizations. Furthermore, conflict between the Church and military regime is assessed concerning whether Church access to state patronage was reduced during the early part of the century. The student will combine historical research with field research (interviews with church leaders) in Chile to examine this topic.