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Thank you for the comment (I would love to read your work and to see the Palmas thesis if you have a copy – my email is mli@teol.ku.dk).

It seems to me that you (Fre)i have not actually read my theis but only the short abstract that can be found on this page.

I certainly agee with that the social and economic changes in Chile have a strong impact on pentecostal religiosity in Chile and several chapters (especiallyr 6,7,8) are devoted to a quite thourough analysis of this impact.

I also agree that there is a tension (whether or not it is the main tension) between indigenous (traditional?) Pentecostalism and new religious movements, including missionary Pentecostalism.

In my thesis I make it clear (e.g. in chapter 1) that my research was only done in the indigenous churhces (and mostly in the very conservative Evangelical Pentecostal Church) and that these still count for the majority of Chilean Pentecostals. Hence my presentation of Pentecostalism in Chile may seem a little one-sided. Admittedly, for the sake of convenience I sometimes refer to Chilean Pentecostals as one group (e.g. in the abstract above), but my thesis does by no means ignore the diversity of Chilean Pentecostalism (see chapter 1 and 6).

I do on several occassions comment upon social mobilisation among Pentecostals and I make it clear that there is a generational gap between older first generation Pentecostals and younger second, third or fourth generation Pentecostals (see especially chapter 9, 11, 14 and 15). And I offer a few speculations about the future of Chilean Pentecostalism, as more members are pursuing higher education and feel less alienated from the “world” (see especially chapter 15).

It is rather difficult to be precise about the number of Pentecostals in Chile, as national census usually include all Evangelical Protestants in one category, a fact that I also comment upon on a few occassions in the thesis (see chapter 6,7 and . Besides, a variety of statistical material with very different information can be found. A census made in 2002 showed that 16 percent of the population in Chile are Evangelicals. It is estimated – but not really known for sure – that approximately 80 percent of all Chilean Evangelicals are Pentecostals. These numbers, however, include second or third or fourth Pentecostals/Evangelicals, many of whom are not active church goers . The same census from 2002 showed that only 50 percent of all Evangelicals defined themselves as practising (that is: participating in religious activities at least once a week), whereas 19 percent were nominal and 31 observant. That means that the percentage Chileans who are active, committed practising Pentecostals cannot be higher than 8 (and it is probably lower than that). And in my thesis I make it very clear that my research was only done among committed acitve Pentecostals in the indigenous churches, and I demonstrate how these differ from the overall Evangelical population in many aspects (see chapter 6 and , e.g. by being more conservative.
Besides, my claim that most Pentecostals belong to the lower socio economic sectors, is supported by substantial statistical evidence.
I by no means claim that my findings are representative for the 16 percent of all Chileans who belong to Evangelical churches, nor do I ignore social mobilisation or Pentecostal diversity. What I present is an analysis of cultural, ritual practice of active committed church members (most of whom do indeed belong to the lower socio-economic sectors) in some of the biggest indigenous Pentecostal churches in Chile.