Protestants: similarities and differences between Colombian and Italian

subcultures
Isabella Sofía Quiroz Chamorro

Italy is known as a very important place for the catholic religion so, are Protestants an
important part of Italian Culture too? Nowadays, subcultures are a very important part of how
society works and it's necessary to understand how other people think and express
themselves. In this essay I will be talking about the similarities and differences between
Protestants in Italy and Colombia.

Taking into account the Lewis model Colombia is a multicultural country while Italy is a linear
active culture. The major similarities are the necessity of expressing what they think and a
good amount of affection. On the contrary, Italians are more organized and centered in their
activities than Colombians. Religion is also an important part of the culture of any country.
Since the beginning of humanity, people have been looking for something to believe in and a
reason for everything. As time passed, these religions led to different divisions and points of
view. In Europe, Christianism is the most professed with 41% of the European population
being catholic, protestants make a 9% and other christian groups as the 4%.

Just as any other country, Italy and Colombia have subcultures, which are ramifications of
the culture itself. The term “subculture” is used to talk about a group that exists inside of a
principal subculture that creates its own norms and shares behaviors, beliefs and ideals.
Some examples of subcultures are: BDSM, hippies, goths, bikers, skinheads, and
hip-hopers. The concept of subcultures was developed in sociology and cultural studies.

Religions in Italy do not vary a lot, since the most extended religion in this country is
catholicism. This can be because of the residence of the Pope, the most important person in
catholic church, in the city of Rome, which is also Italy’s capital city and having been a major
center for Christian pilgrimage since the Roman Empire, Rome is commonly regarded as the
"home" of the Catholic Church, since it is where Saint Peter settled, ministered, served as
bishop, and died.

Christianity is well known because of its ramifications, being protestants one of them.
protestant subculture appears in Germany around 1517 with the ideals of Martin Luther, who
refused to follow some rules that were imposed by the Catholic church. After that,
protestantism spread around the world and it's considered a very important subculture when
talking about religion. According to Tom Faulkner “Protestantism is the religious tradition of
Western Christianity that rejects the authority of the pope of Rome”.

In Italy, christianity is professed by a great majority of the population, but Protestants

conform to only 0.6%. Protestantism arrived to Italy in the 1520s and it collapsed quickly at
the beginning of the 17th century. On the other hand, 70.9% of the population professes the
christians faith and 17.9% are part of the protestant division. Protestant church arrived in
Colombia in 1856, coinciding with the arrival of the reverend Henry Pratt.

The differences in protestant subculture depends on which denomination the person

is.There are many denominations in this subculture such as: Adventist, anglicans, baptist,
Calvinist, Lutheran, Methodists and Pentecostal.The main difference between them is how each
denomination recognize the manifestation of God, for example, Anglicans believe that there is
only one God, but He has three forms: God the father, God the son and the holy spirit;
meanwhile pentecostals also recognize three forms of God’s manifestation but focus on the Holy
ghost form. There are a lot of similarities such as the bible being the sacred book, the
concept of “grace” as an opportunity to be saved not because of the actions we do but
because of the will of God. These similarities are not shared only between Italian and
Colombian protestants but among all the protestant churches and communities.

Finally, Religions are a very important part of every culture no matter how distant a country is
for another. Also, it is interesting to see how different points of view and different ideals leads
to create subcultures even inside the religions. Protestantism is a religious subculture based
on the image of God, based on the teachings from the bible and how his Son, Jesus Christ,
saved humanity by his sacrifice. Even though Italy and Colombia have different cultures, this
subculture shares a great number of similarities, but also have other subdivisions.

References:
Faulkner, T. (2015). Protestantism. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/protestantism

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, April 14). Subculture. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.
Retrieved 14:05, May 25, 2022, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Subculture&oldid=1082758549

Wikipedia contributors. (2022, May 24). Catholic Church in Italy. In Wikipedia, The Free
Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:44, May 25, 2022, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Catholic_Church_in_Italy&oldid=1089616007