Abstract
Bolivians received the tradition of Quakerism from a group of young adult Friends missionaries from the United States of America in 1919. Bolivia is a multicultural country because of the thirty-six Indigenous communities that make up seventy percent of the Bolivian population. Bolivian Quakerism has kept the roots of Quakerism practiced by early Friends since 1919, yet the influence of Indigenous traditions is also present: in the worship service format, in Bolivian Quakers’ theology, and in church work. Quakers in Bolivia are a Christ-centered, evangelical, and programmed faith community in South America. I was born in an Indigenous Quaker family. As a teenager, I encountered Jesus Christ in spirit and truth. The Lord has let me serve in ministry as a teacher, pastor, and leader since an early age. As a scholar and Quaker minister, I have traveled among Friends in different countries. To me, three main factors made Bolivian Quakerism the way it is now: the way it was welcomed by Indigenous Bolivians, how some of the Friends’ testimonies connected with Indigenous Bolivian cultural practices, and the fact that the Quaker missionaries had a much friendlier approach in presenting Christianity than the Catholicism of colonization brought by the Spaniard conquest. These three factors root Bolivian Quakerism in values similar to the earliest days of the Quaker movement: George Fox’s re-centering on the message of Jesus through the experience of Christ in the lives of individuals and communities. I will now explain these three factors in more detail and how they show a connection to the tradition of Friends while also being specific to Bolivia.
Recommended Citation
Mamani, Emma C.
(2024)
"Bolivian Indigenous Quakerism,"
Quaker Religious Thought: Vol. 142, Article 3.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/qrt/vol142/iss1/3