EFEITOS DA RELIGIÃO NOS PROCESSOS DE ESTRATIFICAÇÃO E MOBILIDADE SOCIAL: UM ESTUDO DE CASO NA IGREJA UNIVERSAL DO REINO DE DEUS

Abstract

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD as a portuguese acronym) is the greatest Brazilian religious phenomenon that emerged in the second half of the 20th century. Born in a small room that used to host a funeral home, it became a transnational power in a few years, present in more than 100 countries and with more than 1.8 million members in Brazil. The expansion of the church is due to the presence of a charismatic leadership, efficient administrative structure, aggressive and successful strategy of attracting financial resources and excellent use of the media. The present work turns its attention to the IURD and tries to understand if its liturgical environment, anchored in a theological proposal that promises fullness in earthly life, is capable of stimulating the social mobility of its members. To that end, the dissertation addresses the beginning of Pentecostalism in Brazil until the birth of what Freston calls the third Pentecostal wave, or neopentecostalism, whose star is the organization headed by Edir Macedo. And it also examines the Brazilian social and political environment in the genesis of the church, and for this it uses the investigative work of Miriam Leitão on the corrosion provoked by the inflationary process in the social fabric. Chapter 2 deals with the theoretical underpinnings that underpin the work - from Max Weber and Karl Marx, we choose researchers who re-read them and help us understand the concepts of stratification and social mobility, and religious transit. Chapter 3 presents the case study defined from four categories of analysis: Religious Mobility, Individual Mobility, Social Mobility and Social Transformation. The categories direct the interviews conducted with one hundred members of the Congressional Meetings for Success at the Universal Central Temple of the Kingdom of God in Vitória. The data of the questionnaire are analyzed with reference to the theoretical basis.