Dinheiro Vivo

Money and Religion in Brazil

Bibliographic Data

ID2360738
AuthorsR Sansi (0000-0001-7084-9243, Goldsmiths College;, corresponding author), Roger Sansi Roca
Year2007
Volume27
Issue3
Pages319-339
Publication date2007-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCritique of Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-275X • E-ISSN: 1460-3721
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0308275x07080360
OpenAlexW2103820247
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited15

■ For decades, social scientists have seen money and religion in Brazil as two incompatible terms. In contrast, this article shows how money has always been present in Brazilian popular religion. This argument leads to a second point: a criticism of the interpretation of Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal churches as `money fetishists', religions of neoliberalism and globalization. Neo-Pentecostals in Brazil appropriate money not just for economic ends, but also with the political project of Christianizing the country. More generally, the article introduces a different perspective both from the classical discourse on money as an agent of globalization and modernity on the one hand, and a more recent literature on the personalization of money and alternative currencies, on the other. In both the discourses on modernity and personalization, nation-states are increasingly marginal. But the nation is still very much at the centre of the Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal project

Argument (complex analysis · Criticism · Economics · Economy · Globalization · Interpretation (philosophy · Modernity · Neoliberalism (international relations · Personalization · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society in Latin America · Religion and Society Interactions