Abstract
Since the beginning of the colonial era, Christian imagery has dominated hegemonic discourse in El Salvador. Initially, images of Christ as the suffering servant and Biblical promises of the afterlife allowed the Catholic Church to facilitate the domination of the majority of the population by an agricultural oligarchy. The meanings associated with these symbols mirrored an unequal social structure. By the twentieth century, the structure itself reached its breaking point and the symbols acquired new meanings. Initially through Liberation Theology, and then through the device of another symbol, the Martyr, Christ spoke of the need to reformulate an unjust society by dividing its resources equitably. During and following the Civil War, however, a new group of believers emerged. Evangelical Christianity eschews physical symbols. Physical images (sculptures, pictures, even images on a candle) are forbidden. Use of Christ images by the Catholic Church is regarded as an abomination. Evangelicals de-legitimize the old symbols, and create new symbolic language to create an “authentic” divinity. Repentant Catholics must “wash themselves in the blood of the lamb,” or submit themselves before “the Lion of the tribe of Judah.” Christ also becomes the symbolic actor in life narratives, so that events are told and retold in ways in which Christ himself becomes an active player in the story. Both the rejection of images and the adoption of symbolic narratives create social distinctions between Evangelicalism and Catholicism.
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Santos, J.L. (2014). Symbols that Speak: Christ and His Word in El Salvador. In: Moeschberger, S., Phillips DeZalia, R. (eds) Symbols that Bind, Symbols that Divide. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05464-3_5
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