Banca de DEFESA: JOSÉ LEANDRO FERNANDES DOS SANTOS CORREIA

SPATIAL PRACTICES, RELIGION AND POWER: A GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL ACTION OF 

NEOPENTECOSTAL DENOMINATIONS IN BRAZIL (1988-2022)

Brazilian Patrimonial State, Spatial strategies, Neo-Pentecostal churches, Politics.

Neo-Pentecostal churches represent a religious phenomenon that has been structured in Brazil since the 1970s. The general objective of this research was to analyze the different spatial diffusion strategies of these religious institutions with a focus on analyzing their political actions, considering that their power is demonstrated through the election of several parliamentarians who are religious actors (bishops, pastors) and whose strategy is expansion, control and territorial management. To this end, data were considered that explain the logic of growth of the churches researched through the electoral process, control of political parties and the allocation of public resources for the creation and maintenance of religious enterprises. Among the results achieved, it was possible to demonstrate that the three largest religious organizations researched in this thesis (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, World Church of the Power of God and International Church of the Grace of God) compose in their spatial practices an ordered set of strategic mechanisms which reinforce the political relevance of these organizations in the context of the Brazilian State. Thus, from the time frame we are dealing with, that is, the year 1988, with the publication of the Brazilian Constitution, until 2022, such religious organizations launch ideological positions on the political agenda that are not sustainable given their insertion in the system of political relations. Furthermore, it was proven that, within the patrimonial and pragmatic logic of the so-called coalition presidentialism, neo-Pentecostal churches participated in all federal governments from the period 1988-2022. With this, the thesis of this research was confirmed that the spatial strategy in the expansion of neo-Pentecostal churches is a function of the search for more social projection and power, as well as their institutional performance with discourses and practices that do not fit into ideological definitions, but
they adapt to governments of different ideological hues, proposing political bargains and fitting into the political game characteristic of the so-called Brazilian Patrimonialist State.