The explosion of the Evangelical movement in Latin America beginning in the last half of the 20th century has changed the face of a continent. Many men have redefined themselves through a religious conversion to Evangelicalism, which challenges notions of machismo. This book explores why they would choose to do so. While they abandon drinking, promiscuity, domestic violence, and aggression, Evangelical converts maintain a strict set of gender roles, which they perceived as a divine mandate. This dramatic change is made possible through the device of an Evangelical Worldview, experienced and lived as cosmic narrative that obligates a Christian masculinity.
Evangelicalism makes use of gendered stories that appeal to cosmic justifications for Christian manhood and womanhood. In a poverty-stricken, violent, unstable environment, many Salvadoran men reject their own masculinity in favor of this new, spiritually transformed ideal.
