O TESTEMUNHO RELIGIOSO NA MÍDIA DIGITAL: UM ESTUDO DA IGREJA UNIVERSAL DO REINO DE DEUS

Abstract

This research investigates a common genre in religious discourse of Christian tradition, and the implications of its migration to digital media, taking as corpus the testimonies of the faithful of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God posted on www.eucreioemmilagres.com.br website. The first part discusses the emergence and development of Universal. It also investigates the basis of its theological discourse and the conducive social moment this speech met to be accepted. Finally, it is observed how the religious witness is a fundamental genre to maintain plausibility of theological discourse of UCKG, and the question arises about the implications of this kind of migration to digital media, and the possible objectives of the Universal as it makes use of this genre. Searching for answers to this question, the second part proposes a methodological theoretical framework based on French School of Discourse Analysis, appropriating the theoretical assumptions of the Scenes of Enunciation in Dominique Maingueneau. Some peculiar characteristics of digital media and its mediation between the enunciator and enunciatee are investigated. Being the media text the result of a collective making, this part concludes with a methodological proposal for apprehension of meaning that includes such texts. In the third part, the methodological assumptions are applied to the body of evidence that Universal keeps on its website. We conclude that the purpose of the genre is to arouse an empathic identification in enunciatee, making him to identify his present in the past of the witness, designing his future incorporating the lifestyle that embodies the guarantor. To achieve its goal, the speech uses different sceneries, appropriating scenes validated in the social imaginary. We highlight two of them: therapist consultation and family visit. The purpose of these sceneries is making the enunciatee to receive speech not as a religious witness, but rather as a family visit or a conversation at the consulting office.