Pentecostalism in Brazil

P Pentecostalism in Brazil Leonardo Marcondes Alves EDUFU (University Press), Universidade Federal de Uberl^andia, Uberl^andia, MG, Brazil Keywords Pentecostalism in Brazil; Protestantism in Latin America; Pentecostalism and politics Definition Pentecostalism is a form of Christianity that has emerged from a series of religious revivals among Protestants in the Global North emphasizing the normality of spiritual experiences on everyday life. From its inception in the 1900s, it has acquired local identities throughout the world and Brazil has one of largest Pentecostal movement in Latin America, organized into different groupings, rooted in both foreign and national initiatives. The movement’s has been accompanied by social changes in Brazil, with increasingly political consequences. Introduction In one century, Pentecostalism in Brazil has established itself as a major demographic, social, and political force in the country, with more than 25 million members in 2010. Although this movement began with foreign missionaries and has never severed ties with its international connections, it is an autonomous national phenomenon. A variety of organizations with different membership sizes, each with its own history, body of beliefs and practices, as well as attitude regarding the world, has been distinctively Brazilian in various aspects. In common, Brazilian Pentecostalism expresses a firm belief in the interaction of the spiritual and worldly realms, a belief that has guided both personal matters and the politics in the country. Being a multifaceted phenomenon, it would be hard to cover all aspects of Pentecostalism Brazil in a short text; therefore, this entry introduces the history, demographics, and political characteristics of the movement in the country. History Scholars have divided the history of Pentecostalism into three waves (Freston 1995). The first wave, also termed “classical Pentecostalism,” is marked by the arrival of the first Pentecostal missionaries from North America and Europe in the early twentieth century (Léonard 2002). It was a marginal movement that soon attracted workingclass, rural migrants, and ethnic minorities. The typical denominations of this period were the Christian Congregation (Congregação Cristã) and the Assemblies of God (Assembleias de # Springer International Publishing AG 2017 H.P.P. Gooren (ed.), Encyclopedia of Latin American Religions, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-08956-0_217-1 2 Deus), founded in 1910 and 1911, respectively. At that time, the former had a strong Italian-Brazilian constituency, fruit of the mission of Louis Francescon (1866–1964) and other occasional Italian-American missionaries (Léonard 2002). On the other hand, the latter was served by nearly 30 Scandinavian missionaries and an increasingly body of pastors and members from the Northeast region of Brazil (Chestnut 1997; Alencar 2010). Since their inception, both groups were autonomous and the Brazilian Assembleias de Deus had only nominal ties to the American Assemblies of God (Hollenweger 1972). Classical Pentecostalism was apolitical and responded to the social and religious ostracism with a staunchly anti-Catholic rhetoric and rupture with the historic Protestant denominations. It was a small town movement that set roots in the capital cities of the states. The Congregação Cristã had success in the agricultural frontier areas in the South of Brazil while the Assembleias de Deus made inroads among the riverside dwellers of the Amazon basin and the migrants living in the coastal cities of the Northeast. The believers, as they were called, sported conservative attires and adhered to a strict code of conduct, which set them apart from the world. The second Pentecostal wave or deuteroPentecostalism coincides with the appearance of mass culture after the Second World War (Freston 1995). The country was increasingly leaving its rural economy to become an urban and industrial society. The population of cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro was growing overnight. Brasília, the new national capital, was under construction. Evangelists used tents and radio to spread the Pentecostal message, then more focused on miraculous healing than on an out-of-the-world lifestyle. The denominational fruits of this second wave were the Foursquare Gospel Church (Igreja do Evangelho Quadrangular), at those times known as the National Crusade for Evangelization, and dozens of national movements, of which the Brazil for Christ (Brasil para Cristo) and the God is Love (Deus é Amor) churches have reached countrywide success (Read 1967). These churches became polarized, while the Foursquare Gospel welcomed the amenities the modern world had to offer, the God is Pentecostalism in Brazil Love set a rigid standard of conduct that bans most of the vanities and the mundane amusement (Mariano 1999; Souza 1969). Around this time, Pentecostalism came to be visible to the Brazilian public. The third wave or neo-Pentecostalism coincides with the late years of the military regime in the 1970s. At this period, consumption power increased and a lower-middle-class became a larger and solid group. Thus, there was a strong emphasis in prosperity theology, the goal was to assure prosperity in this life and attain protection against the evil. The medium for the message were television and storefront temples opened seven days a week during the day and evening. The focus was spiritual warfare against demons that caused illness, poverty, and misfortunes in life (Mariano 1999). In their dramatic exorcism performances, many neo-Pentecostal preachers refer to the Afro-Brazilian and Kadercist Spiritualism entities as demons. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the related movements operating with the same methods, such as the International Church of the Grace of God and the World Church of the Power of God, are the representatives of this wave. At those churches, the clientele may walk in to receive spiritual services without having to dispense a lot of personal commitment to the institution. Thus, the bond among fellowcongregants tends to be minimum. Contrary to the shy political involvement of the previous Pentecostal waves, these churches are actively involved into politics, electing their own representative in several levels of legislature, and bargaining deals with the governments to push the church’s agenda (Freston 2008). Outside the three-wave scheme, other movements are noticeable throughout the history of Brazilian Pentecostalism. The first one is the renewal movement within established Protestant churches. This renewal movement, different than internal charismatic groups in the Roman Catholic Church, had difficulties to remain within the Protestant organization framework, which resulted into several independent denominations (Campos 1997). The renewal movement is as old as Pentecostalism in Brazil. In 1909, a Pentecostal revival broke out among Latvian Baptists in Santa Pentecostalism in Brazil Catarina state and the movement, though not welcomed by the Baptist leadership, expanded to other colonies in São Paulo and lasted through the 1930s when it was assimilated into other Pentecostal denominations (Ronis 1974). Another Baptist body, the Independent Baptist Convention, began in 1912 with Swedish missionaries supported by the Örebro Mission and have achieved a modest success without abandoning its Baptist identity. The contact with the Pentecostal message influenced a lay preacher from the Seventh Day Adventist Church, João Augusto da Silveira (1883–1960?), to establish the Promise Adventist Church around Recife in 1932 (Campos 1997). Around that time in São Paulo, Marcos Batista, a Baptist evangelist, started his National Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, conciliating Pentecostal and Baptist practices (Read 1967). Still in São Paulo, a revival among Methodist seminarians resulted in the Bible Revival Church in 1948. Those charismatic revivals were localized occurrences, but a major renewal movement would sweep the historic Protestant denominations from the 1950s forward, adopting some themes and methods from the second wave of Pentecostalism (Souza 1969; Campos 1997). This new movement led to the formation of the Evangelical Church of Cambuci (1955), the Evangelical Church of Pinheiros (1972), the Christian Presbyterian Church (1969), the Alliance of Congregationalist Churches (1967), and the Maranatha Christian Church (1968), all branching out from Reformed denominations. The Lutherans and the Anglicans have managed to keep most their Charismatics within their organization, except for some groups that left and formed the Independent Evangelical Pentecostal Church, the Alliance of Renewal Lutherans, and a smaller convergent of Anglican dioceses in the Northeast. Among the Methodists the same happened, with the formation of the Wesleyan Methodist Church (1967), the Renewal Methodist Church (1981), and the acceptance of the Pentecostal message by a small independent Orthodox Methodist Fraternity founded in 1934 that became Pentecostal in the 1980s. The Baptists had their share of splits due to the renewal movement. In 1966, the National Baptist Convention was 3 founded around the leadership of Eneas Tognini (1914–1915). Meanwhile in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, another Baptist minister, Magno Guanaes Simões founded the Work in Restoration, a synthesis of historic Protestant and diverse Pentecostal groups: from the Assembleias de Deus came both the practice to climb up hills for overnight prayers and the polity of independent networks of churches; from the Christian Congregation they share the ritual practices of head covering for women and greeting with the holy kiss; in common to the second wave Pentecostalism, the Work in Restoration emphasizes personal revelations and healing; from fundamentalist Protestants, they inherited a hermeneutics of the Bible even more literalistic than the first wave Pentecostals (Read 1967). The traditional first-wave classic Pentecostals had also their own transformation. The difficulty of the established leadership to cope with internal differences and external pressure gave rise to many splitter denominations. The first to break off from the Assembleias de Deus was the Church of Christ in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte state in 1932. The next relevant schism happened in 1986 when the Ministério Madureira became the National Convention of the Assemblies of God after being expelled from the General Convention of the Assemblies of God in Brazil (GCADB) (Freston 1995; Alencar 2010). The ministério structure – an episcopal polity without territorial constraints, in which a network of congregations are dependent financially and administratively from a mother church – of the Brazilian Assembleias de Deus allows both to diffuse the denomination, as well as to breed newer independent groups (Freston 1995). Recently, many prominent ministérios left the CGADB, such as the middle-class-oriented Bethesda, the historic ministérios of Santos, São Cristóvão, and Penha, the latter led by the politically influential pastor Silas Malafaia. An ongoing tension between the two largest ministérios, the Belezinho in São Paulo and the Belém in Pará state, foretells a possible significant schism. The ministério polity has helped to plant daughter churches in the Southern cone countries and among the Brazilian diaspora in Europe, Japan, and North America, 4 but with little or any collaboration with the local Assemblies of God organization. Newer revelations, disagreement on church politics, and recent social transformations of the country might have been the causes for founding newer independent congregations and networks. The theology of these smaller groups range from neo-Charismatic Comunidades Cristã (out of which the Reborn in Christ Church has emerged) to post-Pentecostal house churches. The independent forms of Pentecostalism has the ability to adapt to a specific public, like the Bola de Neve Church, which caters to middle-class youth; or the LGBT-oriented City of Refuge Church. The internet provides a channel to gather like-minded believers and transcend the limitations of the neighborhood, though most of independent Pentecostal congregations tend to serve local communities (Janikian 2006). More details on the larger Pentecostal denominations can be found on their respective entries on this encyclopedia. For this reason, this entry has provided a comprehensive overview of the Pentecostal history in Brazil as well as covered the smaller independent Pentecostal denominations, which has more than doubled between the 2000 and 2010 censuses. Demographic and Political Trends Pentecostalism and Pentecostal-like movements have recognizable demographic weight in Brazil since they outnumbered the historic nonPentecostal Protestants. Even though in the past decades the growth of Pentecostals has been steady, there are internal dynamics worth noticing that show that this increase does not equal to the increase of the established Pentecostal denominations. As shown in Table 1, from the 2000 Census to 2010, Pentecostals went from nearly 18 to 25 million adherents – a significant growth for a decade, but below to the membership claimed by many church leaders. Likewise, the major institutional Pentecostal organizations seem to have trouble keeping their flock throughout these past years. One of the largest groups, the many independent Pentecostalism in Brazil denominations and ministérios (of which many of them share little in common but the name) lumped together under the designation of Assembleias de Deus had an overall increase, but this period also had many splits. The Brazilian census researchers do not distinguish among the different ministérios, making hard to estimate the size of the GCADB, the organization affiliated with the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. But the second-largest Pentecostal denomination may shed light on what extent the classic Pentecostal groups have diminished. The Christian Congregation in Brazil lost about 200 thousand members in the past decade, even though its yearly directory has reported more than one million newer baptized members within the same period (Valente 2015). The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God shared about the same number of membership loss, owing perhaps to the competition of the International Church of the Grace of God and the World Church of the Power of God, which employ the same modus operandi and serve the same clientele. Other second-wave Pentecostals had a small, but consistent growth. The most remarkable trend in the period of 2000–2010 is the increase of smaller Pentecostal denominations, independent churches, and unaffiliated believers. One of these growing denominations is the Maranatha Christian Church. Overall, according to these figures, in the past decade Brazil did turn into the stronghold for larger Pentecostal denominations, but a cradle for religious pluralism. The expansion of Pentecostalism in Brazil has been interpreted in a variety of ways, with theories ranging from modernization (Willems 1967; Souza 1969), enthusiastic church growth perspectives (Read 1967), rational choice approaches (Mariano 1999; Campos 1997), and anthropological critiques of those perspectives (Droogers 1998; Chestnut 1997). Beyond demographic aspects and motivations for adhering to the movement, Brazilian Pentecostalism still demands a comprehensive interpretation on its political behavior. Since the Constitutional Assembly election in 1986, the Pentecostals have been a constant force in the Brazilian legislatures (Freston 2008), forging alliance, which resulted in the election of Pentecostalism in Brazil 5 Pentecostalism in Brazil, Table 1 The dimension of the Pentecostal movement in Brazil Religion/denominations Roman Catholics Historic Protestants Pentecostals Assembleias de Deus (various denominations) Christian Congregation in Brazil Brazil for Christ Evangelical Pentecostal Church Foursquare Gospel Church Universal Church of the Kingdom of God House of Blessing God is Love Pentecostal Church Maranatha Christian Church New Life Church Renewal churches (undetermined denominations) Christian Communities Other Pentecostal churches Protestant churches (undetermined denominations)a Without institutional affiliationa Unaffiliated Protestant/Evangelicals Unaffiliated Pentecostals Other Protestants/Evangelicalsa Without religion Census 2000 124,980,132 6,939,765 17,617,307 8,418,140 2,489,113 175,618 1,318,805 2,101,887 128,676 774,830 277,342 92,315 – – 1,840,581 – 1,046,487 710,227 336,259 581,383 12,492,403 2010 123,280,172 7,686,827 25,370,484 12,314,410 2,289,634 196,665 1,808,389 1,873,243 125,550 845,383 356,021 90,568 23,461 180,130 5,267,029 9,218,129 – – 5,267,029 – 15,335,510 Sources: Table by the author, based on IBGE 2000 Census and 2010 Census Unaffiliated and other undetermined Protestants were classed together in 2010 Census a the controversial Assembleia de Deus member Eduardo Cunha as the president of the Deputies’ Chamber in the 2014–2018 legislature. A way to look upon the recent role of Pentecostals on the Brazilian political scenario is the thesis proposed by Hoffnagel (1980). According to her, Pentecostalism represents the reactionary forces that consolidate the hierarchical social structures and inequalities in Brazil. With time, the Pentecostal leaders replace the large plantation owners in a patron-client relationship with their congregations. Such pastors set their own agenda and enter into political alliance with political groups whose interest may be in conflict with the poor and working-classes. The 2014 election for the National Congress seems to vindicate this thesis. Although the Pentecostals formed a bulk of 88 seats in the Evangelical Caucus at the Deputies’ Chamber, they have joined forces with the plantation owners as well as with the military and the armament lobbies. The Pentecostals deputies and senators are regarded as one the most absent and corruption-involved groups in the National Congress (Gnotícias 2012). Nevertheless, the pro-family (which means anti-gay or abortion rights) discourse is the flagship of the Evangelical Caucus, which represents only a portion of the country’s Pentecostal denominations, mostly the Assembleias de Deus and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Finally, this sketch of the complex political aspect of the Pentecostals in Brazil demonstrates a coherent force that contrasts even the movement’s inherent diversity. To understand Brazilian Pentecostal history, from being out of the world to seeking to dominate the world, shows that this movement has been able to transform itself, which makes the task to interpret its dynamics a lively investigative endeavor. 6 Cross-References ▶ Assembleias de Deus ▶ Brazil for Christ Evangelical Pentecostal Church ▶ Christian Congregation in Brazil ▶ God Is Love Pentecostal Church ▶ Igreja Cristã Maranata ▶ Protestantism in Brazil References Alencar GF (2010) Assembleias de Deus: origem, implantação e milit^ancia (1911–1946). Arte Editorial, São Paulo Campos L (1997) Teatro, templo e mercado: organização e marketing de um empreendimento neopentecostal. Vozes/Umesp, Petrópolis/São Paulo Chestnut (1997) Born again in Brazil: the Pentecostal boom and the pathogens of poverty. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick/London Droogers A (1998) Paradoxical views on a paradoxical religion: models for the explanation of Pentecostal expansion in Brazil and Chile. In: Boudewijnse B, Droogers A, Kamsteeg F (eds) More than opium: an anthropological approach to Latin American and Caribbean Pentecostal praxis. Scarecrow Press, Lanham Freston P (1995) Pentecostalism in Brazil: a brief history. Religion 25:119–133 Freston P (2008) Evangelical Christianity and democracy in Latin America. Oxford University Press, New York Gnotícias (2012) Jornalista afirma que bancada evangélica é a “mais ausente, inexpressiva e processada” do Pentecostalism in Brazil Congresso Nacional. http://noticias.gospelmais.com. br/jornalista-bancada-evangelica-ausenteinexpressiva-congresso-36657.html. Accessed 27 Apr 2016 Hoffnagel JC (1980) Pentecostalism: a revolutionary or conservative movement? Glazier 1980:111–123 Hollenweger WJ (1972) The Pentecostals. Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis IBGE. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Census 2000. http://www.ibge.gov.br/. Accessed 27 Apr 2016 IBGE. Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Census 2010. http://www.ibge.gov.br/. Accessed 27 Apr 2016 Janikian M (2006) Marketing e Religião: O Papel do Marketing na origem, expansão e consolidação da Igreja Apostólica Renascer em Cristo. Master’s thesis in religious science, Universidade Metodista de São Paulo Léonard É-G (2002) O protestantismo brasileiro. ASTE, São Paulo Mariano R (1999) Neopentecostais: sociologia do novo pentecostalismo no Brasil. Loyola, São Paulo Read W (1967) Fermento religioso nas massas do Brasil. Imprensa Metodista, São Bernardo do Campo Ronis O (1974) Uma epopeia de fé: A história dos batistas letos no Brasil. Casa Publicadora Batista, Rio de Janeiro Souza BM (1969) A experiência da salvação: pentecostais em São Paulo. Duas Cidades, São Paulo Valente R (2015) Institutional explanations for the decline of the Congregação Cristã no Brasil. PentecoStudies 14(1):72–96 Willems E (1967) The followers of the new faith, culture, change and the rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville