Faith in the Barrios: The Pentecostal Poor in Bogota

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Summary: I am the author of this book. I'd like to tell you about it!
Review: Pentecostalism is exploding all across Latin America. In just a few decades, the number of evangélico believers has grown from a few hundred to over 50 million. The personal transformation experienced through conversion to this faith is radical and all-encompassing. Such is the change that if the tremendous rate of conversion continues, the "fe evangélica" has the potential to greatly influence the course of all of Latin America in the next century. In a continent where at one time to be a Catholic was to legally exist, one in seven is now evangélico. WHY? Why is the movement so strong? Why does it elicit such zeal and devotion from the believers? Social scientists and scholars of religion have rushed to gather records and statistics, to carry out field work and publish theories that explain the movement's extraordinary success among the lower class of Latin America. By and large, however, the conclusions in these studies are based on the outsider's perspective. Researchers are forced to maintain a certain distance from the evangelicals, due to the believers' constant pressure to convert them and the sub-standard living conditions of Latin America's lower class that discourage "live-in" research. Therefore, a movement based on the passions of a individual's heart and soul has largely been described in macro-structural terms that are removed from the believers' personal devotion in their ongoing struggle to survive. Faith in the Barrios was written from the believers' perspective. In '95 and '96 I lived in a shantytown on the outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia, sharing the struggles of life with the residents of the shantytown. As a believer, I gained immediate and intimate access to the evangélicos' lives and was able to study the movement through the lens of their toilsome existence. Throughout the book, you will find the believers' own words, expressing their faith and its central role in their daily life. Although the book is academic, and not a simple narrative, it is clearly written and carefully organized. Esteemed scholars and high-school students alike will find it to be an unveiled, intimate portrayal of an extraordinary religious movement in a land of passion, violence, beauty, and strife. I encourage you to read it, and welcome your questions and comments! Rebecca Pierce Bomann