When He Speaks: Neo-Pentecostal Space Making in Costa Rica

Abstract

Sociologists of religion have identified the gradual transformation from “garage churches” to megachurches since the 1980s as consistent with the political impact of neo-Pentecostal groups in Latin America today. A challenge arises for architecture to address this spatial impact upon the city fabric. Through on-site visits to neo-Pentecostal churches and interviews held with their pastors in 2019, this article takes up the challenge with reference to two case studies in Costa Rica. Analyzing the church as part of a spatial network that fosters extensive links to urban and social life far beyond the scale of the building in which worship takes place, the aim of this study is twofold: spatially to contextualize neo-Pentecostalism in a Central-American country which is Catholic by constitution; and to explore understudied dimensions in architectural historiography, such as visions and voices, as sources informing space making and site decisions.