New Era Millenarianism in Brazil

Abstract

This article explores a range of dynamics which inform the construction of new era religious identities of urban professionals in Brazil through their appropriation of traditional millenarian themes most closely associated with the nation's rural peasantry. As part of this exploration, two lines of enquiry are followed. The first explores the continuity between the traditional millenarian paradigm most closely associated with Brazil's rural peasantry and the new era millenarianism articulated by members of the urban middle-classes. While not denying narrative similarities with traditional millenarian movements in Brazil, the second line of enquiry engages new era millenarianism by regarding it as embodying a range of dynamics typical of the late modern context within which its urban professional adherents are situated. While the dynamics of practical-symbolic crisis identified by the first line of enquiry are not discounted, the second line of enquiry regards new era millenarianism as primarily expressive of a number of reflexive preoccupations typical of late modern urban existence.

Notes

NOTES

1. while the prevalence of millenarian discourse among the increasingly popular neo-Pentecostal denominations of Brazilian Protestantism should not go unmentioned, the extent to which these particular end-time motifs serve as a discursive resource for other movements and organisations is questionable.

2. Berger calls this process ‘marginal differentiation’, as any group employing it must be careful not to differentiate themselves so much as to place themselves outside the most profitable (and thereby standardised) band of organisational repertoires (147).