In life we have to be grateful to those who help us and give, for example,

financial support for our achievements and prosperity. That is why I dedicate
this book to Dionízio Nascimento Neto, a researcher of social democracy and
kardecism who has invested in the creation of my publishing stamp.
Augustine said,

Inter urine e feces nascimur: ‘we are born in the middle of piss and shit.

Paul Goodman
PREFACE

This book outlines an approximation, never exhaustive, about phenomena of

religious sociability.

The themes are varied. But the author seeks, without knowing whether he is
happy about it, hence the idea of 'hesitation', to approach these themes in the
field of the science of religion, emphasizing this approximation within the
canons of the sociology of religion. When he investigates the quantitative and
demographic aspects of the religious phenomenon and within the canons of the
anthropology of the religion, when it investigates the qualitative and more
metaphysical aspects of the religious phenomenon.

In this book the following topics will be addressed:

A) the process of metropolization suffered by Pentecostalism in the face of

modernity. In this essay, the author uses concepts of urban sociology, which
reveals an interdisciplinary study;

B) an essay that discusses the dogmas of African art. This study draws on
previous knowledge of the author with interdisciplinary knowledge from the so-
called 'african studies' to concepts of philosophy of art ;

C) an essay that discusses the return of the sacred in postmodernity. This study
discusses whether there is more reverence or less reverence in the so-called
'post-modernity'. If there was a disenchantment of the world as understood by
Weberian phraseology or if there is a resurrection of the world.

D) an essay that discusses the concept of biblical 'providentialism'. The text

understands that the notion of 'providence' in the context of Judeo-Christian
culture can only be understood if we assume how we view the world and our
theological and / or sacral relationship with it: whether theist, deist, atheistic,
agnostic etc.

E) an essay that discusses Catholicism in Brazilian territory after the publication

of the 2010 CENSUS of religions by I.B.G.E. The study reveals the Catholic
demographic decline, the growth of the evangelical demographic segment and a
third demographic segment that continues to grow in the Brazilian territory,
namely: the so-called 'no religion'.
F) an essay discusses whether there is a 'Spiritist paradigm'. And it seeks to
clarify, if this paradigm exists, what it consists of and what elements are
constituted this religious or sacral paradigm.

G) an essay discusses the notion of 'the spirituality of the universe without

author'. And it seeks to see the implications of the understanding of the universe
and / or world to use a category of Greek metaphysics without the probable
"signature of God" as presupposed in the Newtonian scheme. Which he sees in
the universe as a kind of sandbox and stones that repel each other
mathematically. Unlike the teleological universe of Aristotle. In a world
conceived like this: how to face the task of Immanentize the world, that t can no
longer be transcended?

H) An essay discusses whether West African Yoruba culture is heterocentric and

heterosexist. The study makes assumptions, but not exhaustive, about a possible
disqualification of homosexual men, lesbians, transvestites, transgenders and
queers in this ethnolinguistic territory from cultural clues and vestiges in
oracular artifacts of this culture like the game of Opele Ifá, Merilidogun.

Charles Odevan Xavier, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. 2017.

PENTECOSTALISM, METROPOLIZATION AND MODERNITY

"The massive presence of religion in the city, an apparent contradiction, shows

how the range of possibilities of meaning is today: the city no longer needs god,
but for those whom the city itself deserts and forsakes, all kinds of gods And rite
can be widely found. Each cult is joined by another cult, until all forms of
combination capable of responding to creativity (...) which the city, in all
spheres, encourages, rewards and feeds from "

Reginaldo Prandi

This essay is not devotional but critical. For that I base myself on the work of the
theorists: Francisco Jean Carlos da Silva, Ricardo Mariano, Ronaldo de Almeida
and João Décio Passos.

Pentecostalism came about with the occurrence of "speaking in tongues" in

Topeka between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries or in Los Angeles in
1906. Divine healing, baptism of the Holy Spirit, doctrine of pre-millennialism
and the call of "speaking in tongues" Were the main marks of this movement,
the latter being a distinctive mark for the ardent promotion of its doctrines.

Those who accept Topeka as the founding moment of the modern Pentecostal
movement point to Charles Fox Parham as its founder. It was he who for the first
time elaborated a theological definition of Pentecostalism that underlined the
link between "Speaking in Tongues" and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
"Speaking in Tongues" would be the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy
Spirit.

Pentecostalism officially settled in Brazil through the Churches: Christian

Congregation of Brazil and Assembly of God. The first one settled in Brazilian
soil, in 1910, in the district of Brás, São Paulo. The second in 1911, in Belém,
Pará. These churches were brought from the United States by the Italian Luís
Francescon and the Swedes Daniel Berg and Gunnar Vingren, who established
their doctrines here. But, how has this religious movement in Brazil? And what is
the relationship of this, let's say, 'religious sociality' with the growing process of
metropolization experienced in Brazil?

The growth of Pentecostalism in several places in Brazil has shown that this
movement presents clear distinctions of a doctrinal order. However, it seems
that in general the hard core of founding Pentecostalism remained unchanged
until the late 1950s and early 1960s, when a second wave appeared on the
scene, constituting a movement of charismatic renewal. Then a third wave
started in the 1980s, which is known as the current church renewal.

According to Mariano, "based on the discussion of recent typologies, the

classification of Pentecostalism has three aspects: classical Pentecostalism,
deuteropentecostalism and neo-Pentecostalism."

And what characterizes classical Pentecostalism? Classical Pentecostalism is a

term adopted to convey the idea of antiquity or historical pioneering of this
movement. Thus, the Christian Congregation in Brazil and the Assembly of God
can receive this nomenclature. The practices of classical Pentecostalism are
characterized by emphasizing the gift of tongues, belief in the imminent return
of Christ, paradise salvation, and the behavior of radical sectarianism and
asceticism of rejection of the outside world. In addition, its adherents were of
less favored classes, rejected by the historical protestants and persecuted by the
Catholic Church.

What about Deutero-Pentecostalism? Deuteropentecostalism is the second

phase of Brazilian Pentecostalism, begun in the late 1950s and early 1960s,
characterized by the inclusion of independent charismatic churches that accept
the gifts of the Holy Spirit as valid for the present day, Are churches that remain
in their denominations, such as: Foursquare Church (1951), Brazil for Christ
(1955) and God is Love (1962).