City of God: Christian Citizenship in Postwar Guatemala (Volume 7) (The Anthropology of Christianity)

Kevin Lewis O’Neill investigates this relationship through the lens of neo-Pentecostal Christianity in Guatemala City, Guatemala in his well-written book . According to an interview conducted on May 12, 2010 with “Religion Dispatches”, O’Neill states that he wrote the book for those seriously interested in the political effects of Pentecostal Christianity . He successfully writes an interesting ethnography that speaks to this topic, which is helpful for Christians and non-Christians alike who are curious about the religious and national identities. Coming out of a gruesome and painfully long civil war, O’Neill selects an interesting place for his research. For decades, Guatemalan society suffered from mass-killings reaching genocidal proportions, random disappearances, and military-based conflict. This context does not naturally breed national pride, but rather broken pieces of a society that needs repair. With just about a decade between his research and the end of the civil war, O’Neill laments about the inactive citizenship, low voter participation, and slow civil society in Guatemala. Through high-quality ethnographic material, O’Neill analyzes how, instead, citizenship is constructed through Christianity in Guatemala. His data was collected from “prominent neo-Pentecostal mega-church [El Shaddai Church in Guatemala City], and of the faithful who work tirelessly to carve out for themselves (and their nation) what it means to live a good Christian life in a complicated world” (page 3). He conducted interviews and discussions with members of El Shaddai Church and many others while attending services and living in the city. Rather than through outright national activities, O’Neill makes a key observation through his data and analysis about the Christian construction of citizenship. Postwar neo-Pentecostal Guatemalans create and practice citizenship in a unique way that is just as active as voting or campaigning. He defines citizenship through three dimensions: political status, cultural identity, and a governing rationality. Neo-Pentecostals sense a responsibility, or a “moral weight”, toward Guatemala and its destiny through their own personal actions. O’Neill argues that individual Christian practices like prayer, fasting, and intersession shift the moral responsibility of the nation’s faults upon the roughly 14 million citizens as individuals rather than upon the history of gruesome civil war or the failing structures of the nation. He further argues that this “Christian citizenship” provides Guatemalans with a sense of meaning and purpose towards the country but reduces the outlets for actively participating in its advancement such as political involvement and campaigning previously mentioned. Thus, while the individual moral weight upon neo-Pentecostal Christians is beneficial for a sense of belonging and pride in citizens, it also means that these same people do not participate in “real politics”. As marked in the preface and the conclusion, O’Neill expresses this point through the ethnographic finding that “Christian citizens in Guatemala are more likely to pray for Guatemala than pay their taxes; they tend to speak in tongues for the soul of the nation rather than vote in general elections; and they more often than not organize prayer campaigns to fight crime rather than organize their communities against the same threat” (page 201). O’Neill successfully analyzes the importance of individual piety for neo-Pentecostals in the development and expression of Guatemalan citizenship through examples of military metaphors in spiritual warfare, group accountability, the production of good fatherhood, Christian charity, and the emphasis on the nations. To structure his analysis, O’Neill heavily relies on the framework of governmentality by Michel Foucault: they way that societies are governed. Primarily, O’Neill focuses on the “techniques of the self” or “policing the soul” in analyzing the actions that neo-Pentecostal Christians perform to produce good citizenship. He argues that his interlocutors use punishing and accountability techniques to practice “good citizen” thoughts, which in turn produce good behavior, which produce a good society, which results in a good and successful nation. In this framework, O’Neill shows how governing the individual is the way of advancing Guatemala. Through intriguing ethnographic data, O’Neill successfully supports his claim that individuals bear the moral responsibility for Guatemala’s success. His ethnography is full of examples from the church, people, country, and organizations to buffer his thesis. He even expands his argument at the end of the book by drawing in examples and comparisons with a Chicago church. All the while, the book is an enjoyable read suitable for academics, religious laypeople, and anyone with an interest in the topic or the country.Moreover, the ethnography raises many questions for Christians globally that are important considerations; how Christianity and nationality interact, who we reach out to, and where we serve are just a few of the many questions raised by the non-Christian author for any Christian audience. Furthermore, this book raises possibilities and ideas for those interested in postwar rebuilding and conflict resolution because O’Neill highlights the journey of one group as they seek reconciliation with their country. From this, scholars and others can observe techniques people use to adapt back into normalcy or how they make sense of their country after such turmoil. In a book about Christian citizenship, O’Neill could have benefited from including Roman Catholic voices or comparison among the analysis. In the preface, he states the importance of the Catholic presence in Guatemala, and although he interviewed them, there was little to no mention of the group throughout the rest of the book. In his quest for Guatemalan Christian citizenship, he only observes a small section for the answer and neglects the ideas of a prominent group. This could have enriched his analysis and conclusions. In conclusion, City of God is an intriguing and well-developed argument about the role that Pentecostalism plays in shaping national citizenship, particularly in postwar Guatemala. Aside from the ways that Kevin Lewis O’Neill could have furthered his argument, he thoroughly explores a specific aspect of religion and nationalism in a way that is readable and enjoyable for many audiences with his detailed story-telling and acute understanding of supporting claims with examples from ethnographic data collection. Anyone interested in global Christianity, Guatemala, post conflict rebuilding, anthropology of religion, or Christianity and nationalism must read this ethnography.