Peru

Peru, which lies on the Pacific shores of South America, has an extensive religious history that can be divided into three periods: Inca, colonial, and national. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, the Incan Empire (Tawantinsuyu) spanned most of western South America. Inca religion was a state religion centered at the Temple of the Sun in Cuzco. As the Inca Empire expanded, new deities from conquered peoples were incorporated into the pantheon of gods and goddesses, while Incan religious beliefs and practices were implemented in conquered territories. The primary deity or creator god for the Inca is called Viracocha. The god's first offspring was the Sun; he created the moon, stars, earth, and human beings.

Although the Spaniards arrived in 1532, warfare against the Incan and neo-Incan empires, as well as civil war among the Spanish, delayed for roughly 40 years the spiritual conquest or Catholic conversion of the indigenous peoples of what the Spaniards called Peru. After the establishment of relative peace throughout the country in the 1570s, Catholic missionaries began to convert the indigenous population to Christianity. At first, these efforts were successful; however, by the 1600s, it became clear to church officials that many native Peruvians were not going to put aside their traditional beliefs and practices easily. In the 17th century, the Catholic Church pursued a number of anti-idolatry campaigns in an effort to destroy the indigenous religious traditions of the non-Spanish population.

The main targets of the Church were indigenous religious leaders who were considered to be direct competition to the missionary priests who desired to Christianize the natives. Although brutal and systematic, the Church and its extirpators were not completely successful in destroying the indigenous religions. Many indigenous Andean traditions are still in existence today. Sometimes these traditions are at odds with Christianity, and sometimes they are not. Throughout the colonial period, Spaniards relied on African slave labor. These slaves brought to Peru religious traditions from West Africa. Many of these traditions persist today in certain communities, though mixed with many Catholic elements.

With independence from Spain in 1821, Peru became a sovereign nation-state. The Catholic Church, staffed with Peruvian-born instead of Spanish-born clergy, maintained itself as the dominant religious institution of the territory. Al though in the past half-century various Protestant [Page 989]denominations have come to play a more active role in the religious lives of individual Peruvians, Catholicism remains the preferred religion of a majority of Peru's citizens.