Chesnut, R. Andrew
Catholic Studies
Andrew Chesnut is an internationally recognized expert on Latin American religious history and Catholicism. In 2008, he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Bishop Walter Sullivan Chair in Catholic Studies in Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of World Studies.
Chesnut received his Ph.D. degree in Latin American History from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1995. In 1997, he joined the history department of the University of Houston, where he remained until coming to VCU.
Chesnut has written three books: “Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and Pathogens of Poverty,” which traced the rapid rise of Pentecostalism in Brazil following the disestablishment of the Catholic Church; “Competitive Spirits: Latin America’s New Religious Economy,” which examined the religious groups that have prospered most in the region’s pluralist landscape; and “Devoted to Death: ‘Santa Muerte,’ The Skeleton Saint,” which analyzed the rising popularity of this folk saint in both Mexico and the United States.
Expertise
Religion in Latin America; Catholicism; Catholic Studies; Santa Muerte