Stephen Offutt is Associate Professor of Development Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary. He is the author of New Centers of Global Evangelicalism in Latin America and Africa.
In El Salvador, the country with highest murder rate on the planet, criminal gangs and evangelicals, mostly pentecostals, are the two most influential groups in towns and cities across the violence-plagued nation. This book, on the complex relations between the MS-13 and 18th Street gangs on one hand and evangelical communities on the other, is the most nuanced and insightful study to date on the topic. It belongs on the top shelf of readers interested in global Christianity, gang violence, and Latin American studies. * R. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint * Like street gangs, religious traditions have always adapted to changing surroundings. Stephen Offutt's fascinating account of the overlapping social worlds of gangs and churches in El Salvador sheds light on the dynamic relationships between evangelicals and violence on Central America's urban margins. A must read for anyone interested in the place of lived religion in the Global South. * Robert Brenneman, author of Homies and Hermanos: God and the Gangs in Central America *