Rey de Reyes – an Argentine Pentecostal megachurch’s history

Event Start Date: March 30, 2023 3:00 PM
Event End Date: March 30, 2023 5:00 PM

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Rey de Reyes – an Argentine Pentecostal megachurch’s history; local and global perspectives
Hans Geir Aasmundsen
March 30, 2023 | 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Grinter 404

Rey de Reyes (King of Kings) was founded by Claudio and Betty Freidzon in 1986, in the middle-class neighborhood of Belgrano, Buenos Aires in Argentina. Today the church has over thirty thousand members and is one of several Pentecostal (evangelicos) megachurches in the country. In this presentation we look at the way the church is organized and funded as well as how it is affiliated with local, regional (Americas) and global denominations and networks. Moreover, the very foundation of Rey de Reyes as well as its growth, organization and religious and social focus-areas, will be seen in a larger Argentinean context – without neglecting the Latin-American and global perspectives, particularly as far as the expansion of Evangelical (mainly Pentecostal) religion are concerned. 

Bio:

Hans Geir Aasmundsen received his Ph.D in Religious Studies at the Södertörn University, Stokholm, and is currently an associate professor at the University of Stavanger, Faculty of Sciences of Education and Humanities. Previous to that, he was an associate professor at the University of Bergen. His main research interest is the study of Pentecostalism in socio-cultural contexts, religion, narratives and communication and aspects of globalization, with a particular focus on Latin America and, more recently, on the transnational Lausanne Movement founded in 1974 by American preacher Billy Graham.