Max Weber's notion of the ethic of conviction and the Latin American Pentecostalism : The case of the International Ministerial Church of Jesus Christ (IDMJI) and the Political Movement MIRA in Colombia

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Bastidas Meneses, Luis Bernardo:
Max Weber's notion of the ethic of conviction and the Latin American Pentecostalism : The case of the International Ministerial Church of Jesus Christ (IDMJI) and the Political Movement MIRA in Colombia.
In: Culture and Religion. (22 November 2025) . - S. 1-27.
ISSN 1475-5629
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14755610.2025.2592542

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Abstract

‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism’ is one of the most renowned works in Sociology. However, more than a hundred years after the first publication, the central notion of the work (the ethic of conviction) remains a fruitful lens for understanding contemporary religious and political dynamics. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2011 and 2015 in one of the largest Pentecostal churches in Colombia, this article explores how this notion can help understand the political party membership of confessional-based political parties in Latin America. It argues that, under certain conditions, such as problematic circumstances that call into question religious dogma and the need to publicly demonstrate its moral validity, Pentecostalism can foster a flexible ethic that oscillates between responsibility and conviction, far from the rigid ethic of conviction described by Weber in the case of European Protestants.