Origins of adventists in Bucaramanga, Colombia 1928-1946. conversion and habits of holiness

Abstract

Abstract

The Seventh-Day Adventist Church  (SDA) was one of the religious organizations that helped break Catholic Hegemony in the Colombian religious field during the first half of the 20^th  century. The purpose of this article is to identify which were the conversion and discipline strategies of its membership from 1928 to 1946, which allowed the organization of the IASD in Bucaramanga and what consequences it produced in its implantation, growth and stabilization process. Theoretically and methodologically the authors are based mainly on the proposal of research on the sociology of religion carried out by Weber and Houtart, who consider religious organizations closely linked to society, in a dialectical relationship. For this purpose, three aspects are analyzed: first, the context that facilitated the insertion of the SDA in Bucaramanga. Second, its conversion strategies. And third, the dynamics of  growth and separation, based on its baptismal documents. In addition, it is hypothesized that the religious life of the Adventists must have been confirmed by a conversion that involved  habits of holiness and discipline. This ethical pragmatism would have generated a group of people with a conservative position that allowed the stabilization of the organization. The investigation is based on sources consulted in the physical and digital archives of the SDA, in memoirs and interviews with their converts.