Toward A Pentecostal Hermeneutics of Social Engagement? Testing the Waters in El Salvador and Guatemala

• In Event: Invited Session - The study of Religion in Latin America: New Realities, New Approaches

Abstract

Central American Pentecostals have tended to rigorously eschew social engagement in the broader communities outside their own churches, instead viewing evangelization as the sine qua non for individual and social improvement. But as Central American Pentecostalism matures and the years pass since the end of these nations’ armed conflicts (where religion and violence were closely conflated) these attitudes are gradually changing. The two case studies studied here illustrate how new concepts of citizenship and new ways to make citizenship effective are being created,
A Salvadoran church-related NGO, ENLACE, has challenged local pastors and congregations to reach out beyond their own congregations in the search for community engagement. ENLACE’s work is especially useful in highlighting the negative attitudes that many pastors hold toward social action, which they consider to be “worldly” or even “communist.” also Kevin Lewis O’Neill’s recent , City of God: Christian Citizenship in Guatemala (2009), examined one of Guatemala’s large neo-Pentecostal mega-churches, El Shaddai, urges church members (men in particular) toward leadership training and toward a very specific type of civic engagement through prayer. This paper expands on O’Neill’s work and adds nuance to demonstrate on how (some) contemporary Guatemalan Christians conceptualize civic engagement through leadership building (capitación) for pastors and ordinary lay people. This paper will utilize study materials from a socially-conscious Pentecostal organization in Guatemala City called Centro Esdras, which offers a diploma-awarding program called “Cristianos y la vida pública.” The two case studies shed light on how these small groups are attempting to establish a new hermeneutics that allow Pentecostal to think of social engagement and community involvement beyond the walls of their churches, and the challenges that they face.

Author

• Virginia Garrard-Burnett, University of Texas/Austin