Protestantism in Guatemala : : Living in the New Jerusalem / / Virginia Garrard-Burnett.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Garrard-Burnett, Virginia,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (264 p.)

Guatemala has undergone an unprecedented conversion to Protestantism since the 1970s, so that thirty percent of its people now belong to Protestant churches, more than in any other Latin American nation. To illuminate some of the causes of this phenomenon, Virginia Garrard-Burnett here offers the first history of Protestantism in a Latin American country, focusing specifically on the rise of Protestantism within the ethnic and political history of Guatemala. Garrard-Burnett finds that while Protestant missionaries were early valued for their medical clinics, schools, translation projects, and especially for the counterbalance they provided against Roman Catholicism, Protestantism itself attracted few converts in Guatemala until the 1960s. Since then, however, the militarization of the state, increasing public violence, and the "globalization" of Guatemalan national politics have undermined the traditional ties of kinship, custom, and belief that gave Guatemalans a sense of identity, and many are turning to Protestantism to recreate a sense of order, identity, and belonging.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. "Order, Progress, and Protestants" -- 2. "Better Than Gunships" -- 3. Ethnicity and Mission Work -- 4. Protestants and Politics -- 5. The Revolutionary Years -- 6. The Postrevolutionary Years -- 7. The Earthquake and the Culture Of Violence -- 8. The Protestant President -- Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index