DIRECTORY / ENCYCLOPEDIA

OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN

LATIN AMERICA AND

THE CARIBBEAN

Building on its expertise in compiling national and city-wide directories of the Protestant Movement in the USA, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, PROLADES has now undertaken the task of creating a computer database and directory of the headquarters address and other basic information about all religious groups in every country of Latin America and the Caribbean. This new database is called RITA:  Religion In The Americas.

This project is being conducted in association with Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Directory of the Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR), located in Santa Barbara, California. It is part of a multi-volume study, Religions of the World:  A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, that is being compiled by Melton and an international consoritum of scholars under the coordination of the ISAR. Dr. Melton is the author/compiler of several dozen books and articles on religion, including the Directory of Religious Bodies in the United States (1997) and the Encyclopedia of American Religions (5th edition, 1996).   The first edition of Religions of the World:  A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices is scheduled for release in May 2002 in three volumes (Santa Barbara, CA:  ABC-Clio Publishers).

Inquires regarding the general project should be addressed as follows:

OVERVIEW OF THE DATABASE

Entries in the Directory consist of the name, address, telephone and other contact information (FAX, e-mail and Internet), and a brief descriptive statement on each group or organization. If the organization has its international headquarters in another county that address is also given. Entries are arranged alphabetically section by section beginning with the interfaith groups. The various major religious communities are listed alphabetically except that the dominant religious grouping in each country is listed first (thus in Canada, Christianity follows the Interfaith listings, while in Israel, Judaism will be first).

RELIGION IN THE AMERICAS DATABASE PROJECT:   RITA

In 1990, PROLADES began to compile a computer database of all religious groups in the Los Angeles 5-Country region of Southern California as part of A Study of Ethnic and Religious Diversity in Los Angeles.  (see GLAMA). This study was coordinated by Clifton L. Holland at our offices on the campus of the William Carey International University in Pasadena, adjacent to the U.S. Center for World Mission.  Over a dozen organizations participated with us in the fieldwork and data entry process, under the supervision of the PROLADES staff, from early 1990 to mid-1993.  The results of the study, including the computer database, reports and computer-generated color maps, were shared with over 30 organizations in the Los Angeles area and permanently housed at the Bressee Institute for Urban Studies.  For information about this study, go to:  www.ideaministries.com

One of the main challenges we faced early in our study was to identify and classify each religious group according to the major traditions of the world's religions.  To help us with this process, we chose to adopt a sistem of classification of religious groups based on Dr. Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions, and to create a computer search code for each major religious Tradition, Family and Sub-Family (grouped according to belief system, heritage and lifestyle). When completed the database included about 12,500 local religious groups (churches, temples, mosques, etc.), all but 400 of which had been classified by Holland and his colleagues.   

During 1993, we conducted a study of all Hispanic Protestant Churches in the USA and compiled a database of about 6,500 congregations, which were also classified according to our new typology of the Protestant Movement that was largely based on Melton's categories.  For information about this study, go to:  HISPANIC USA

At our international offices in San Jose, Costa Rica, we also began the process of classifying all of the religious groups in our other databases, which included all the countries of Central America, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico. Then we began to create a computer database of all religious groups in every country of the Americas (about 48 countries, plus Spain and Portugal).

Today, together with the preparation of a searchable computer database with directory listings for all religious groups in each county of Latin America and the Caribbean, PROLADES is also compiling profiles of "new religious movements" (NRMs) that have their international headquarters address in these countries. The profiles will be produced in English, Spanish and hopefully Portuguese, and will be designed to complement the major articles on primary religious groups that are contained in Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions (EAR). As funds are available, we hope to produce the functional equivalent of the entire EAR in an electronic format in Spanish and Portuguese. A preliminary report on the contents of the RITA database is now available:  latam.htm

SAMPLE RITA DIRECTORY INFORMATION:

• Argentina Religion Directory & Country Profile (.pdf)
• Sample RITA Database by Countries (.xls) - sorted by country, classification code and name of group in Spanish, but no address information is given; this information is for members only.

Inquires regarding the RITA DATABASE should be sent to the address: