This research examines the role of Protestant churches in the lives of Quechua peasants of two small and isolated villages in the province of Huanta during the armed struggle between the Communist Party of Peru (Sendero Luminoso) and the Peruvian army from 1980 to 2000. My research brings new insights regarding the response of small Quechua villages to the armed struggle. During those two decades, Sendero Luminoso meted out violence in Quechua villages, and Peru’s government responded by sending army to confront terror with terror. The thesis inquires into the rationale behind the actions of Quechua Protestant peasants, and how these peasants used their own religious concepts to craft two different responses to the violence. These Quechua villages, as many others did not have the support of the government or the Catholic church, and the Protestant churches from the cities failed to reach out to their small rural churches. In the midst of the violence, thousands of Quechua peasants lost their lives, and most of the local Quechua Protestant churches were the only institutions that remained standing during the armed struggle.
