Religiosity through literature in Cuba and Latin America

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 26 (ACN) La religión ante los desafíos del Siglo XXI and Estudios sociorreligiosos en Cuba y América Latina(Socio-religious studies in Cuba and Latin America), constitute a key contribution to the attempt to understand the complex religious phenomenon in Cuba and Latin America.

Produced by the Center for Psychological and Sociological Research (CIPS by its Spanish acronym), these texts were presented in the framework of the 32nd International Book Fair, with the aim of bringing the reader closer to topics that include religion, gender, multiculturalism, ethnic diversity, the media, among other terms related to religiosity in the 21st century.

The religious theme in literature is important, specifically when it comes to scientific literature, say, social or exact sciences, because it is not the same to know about religion from the religious point of view, than to know about religion from the cultural, said to the Cuban News Agency, Ms.C. Maykel Lavarreres Chavez, author and researcher attached to the Department of Socioreligious Studies of the CIPS.

To know about religion is not to know what a santero does, nor a bishop in the Catholic or Pentecostal church, but from the Cuban culture; for that reason it is necessary to know what is being done and researched about religion in Cuba, from the Department of Socio-Religious Studies that has been researching for more than 40 years.

Book Fair, he added, was an opportunity to broaden the religious spectrum and go directly to the public, besides reaching universities or research centers as usual; a space that allowed informing about Ediciones CIPS, the publishing house of the center, which will publish for the general population, thanks to the management made by the Subdirection of Information and Development of the center itself.

The book on religion in the face of the challenges of the 21st century is a compilation of the best works and papers presented at the ninth international meeting on socio-religious studies, which is held every three years and is now in its tenth edition.

Lavarreres Chavez also informed that the topics presented here were debated by different researchers from different parts of the world, mainly from Latin America, who contributed their ideas on the religious field outside Cuba, and having them is a merit for the department.

Among the topics that appear, he stated, stand out those of religion and gender, religion and politics, religion and education, religion and globalization, environment, marginality, religion, poverty and inequality and much more.