A HYBRID RELIGIOUS IDENTITY THE MESSIANICS AND THE “JUDAIZATION” OF LATIN AMERICAN EVANGELICALS

Abstract

This text aims to study a religious phenomenon which amalgamate beliefs, practices, symbols, and cultural elements of Jewish and Christian originan dispopularly knownas “messianism”, “Hebrewrootsmovement” or“messianic Judaism” in Latin America. They are different groups of Evangelical Christian origin —mainly Pentecostal—, which build a hybrid and dynamic religious identity apart from official Jewish and Christian institutions. This religiosity is not recognized neither in official nor inconfessional religious censussources. Nevertheless, adiscreditarisestowards them from both confessions because they do not recognize them as true bearers of their religious identity. Therefore, a hypotheticalproposal to study these groups is that due to the fact that Evangelical-Pentecostal groups find themselves in a situation of constant resignification and re-elaboration of their religious system, they opt for what they understand as “returning” to an apparent primordial state of their faith, which constitutes an absence of tension or a “safe” place where they can express their religiosity. We use an interdisciplinary methodology, presenting the phenomenon from a contemporary historical perspective, using methods of digital ethnography through the application of virtual surveys in different Latin American countries.