Prosperity Gospel Latinos and Their American Dream (UNC Press 2020)
Available at the University of North Carolina Press, Bookshop, Barnes and Nobles, Amazon, or your local bookstore.
Hailed by Publisher’s Weekly as an “evocative debut” and “well-reasoned work.” In this immersive ethnography, Tony Tian-Ren Lin explores the reasons that Latin American immigrants across the United States are increasingly drawn to Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, a strand of Protestantism gaining popularity around the world. Lin contends that Latinos embrace Prosperity Gospel, which teaches that believers may achieve both divine salvation and worldly success, because it helps them account for the contradictions of their lives as immigrants. Weaving together his informants’ firsthand accounts of their religious experiences and everyday lives, Lin offers poignant insight into how they see their faith transforming them both as individuals and as communities.
The theology fuses salvation with material goods so that as these immigrants pursue spiritual rewards they are also, perhaps paradoxically, striving for the American dream. After all, Lin observes, prosperity is the gospel of the American dream. In this way, while becoming better Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals they are also adopting traditional white American norms. Yet this is not a typical story of smooth assimilation as most of these immigrants must deal with the immensity of the broader cultural and political resistance to their actually becoming Americans. Rather, Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism gives Latinos the logic and understanding of themselves as those who belong in this country yet remain perpetual outsiders.
“That Lin is himself an immigrant—born in Taiwan, raised in Argentina, now living in the US—lends depth and nuance to his description of the Latinx experience. . . . Recommended.”—CHOICE Reviews
“[An] evocative debut. . . . Lin’s well-reasoned work makes a strong case that the Prosperity Gospel provides a way for immigrants to survive, remain liberated, and pursue their American dream.”—Publishers Weekly
“An important contribution to our understanding of the prominence of prosperity theology in American culture.”—Journal of the American Academy of Religion
“Exceptionally clear in both prose and argumentation. . . . [A] valuable contribution to the sociology of American Christianity.”—American Religion
“Lin’s compelling book creates a complex narrative that encourages readers to take a nuanced, while still critical, look at prosperity gospel Pentecostalism.”—Christian Century
“With scholars of modern Christianity increasingly interested in migration, transnational linkages, and global Pentecostalism, Lin’s book represents a well-timed and inventive endeavor.”—Reading Religion
Edited Book
Culturas escolares y proceso de formacion en valores: La socializacion de las Adolescencias en la Argentina urbana (edited with Ianina Tuñón. Noveduc Press, 2022)
Una investigacion de las culturas escolares argentinas a partir de estudio de cinco casos de escuelas secundarias laicas estatal, catolica, evangélica judía humanista y musulmana.
La función socializadora de la escuela es entendida como aquella que prepara a los ciudadanos para la vida en sociedad, es una función que implica el reconocimiento y valoración del pluralismo. La escuela puede ser entendida también como la institución donde culmina la maduración social de los niños y jóvenes dentro de la cual se pueden identificar diferentes procesos de socialización, en su forma y características. En este marco conceptual se ubica la investigación de las culturas escolares argentinas que conforma la presente obra a partir de un estudio de cinco casos: una escuela secundaria laica estatal y cuatro escuelas con diferentes orientaciones religiosas: católica, evangélica, judía humanista y musulmana. En la investigación se abordaron, entre otros, los siguientes aspectos: Los procesos de formación moral en el espacio escolar. Los modos en que se lleva adelante la formación ciudadana en las clases, la educación moral y cívica que transmite la escuela. Los vínculos entre lo moral y lo religioso, y lo moral y lo legal. Las formas de disciplina que desarrolla la escuela. Las presiones culturales externas.
Tony Tian-Ren Lin 