Tongues of Fire

David Martin is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Honorary Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University. He has published numerous books including Tongues of Fire, Does Christianity Cause War? and A General Theory of Secularisation. He is generally regarded as one of the most influential sociologists of religion writing today.

• Anglo and latin: rival civilizations, alternative patterns The Methodist model: Anglo-American cultural production reproduced in Latin AmericaProfiles of evangelical advance in Latin AmericaBrazil: largest society and most dramatic instanceThe southern cone: Chile and the Argentine contrastedSmaller contrasting societiesEcuador, El Salvador, Guatemala and MexicoCaribbean comparisons: Jamaica and Trinidad; Puerto Rico and HaitiInstructive parallels: South Korea and South AfricaNew spiritual communications: healing and tongues; songs and storiesConversions: transformations and turning pointsProtestantism and economic culture: evidence reviewedThe body politic and the spirit: evidence reviewedThe argument summarized and extended