O CONSUMO PELA FÉ E O DIREITO DO CONSUMIDOR: UMA ANÁLISE SOBRE A MERCANTILIZAÇÃO DA FÉ E A VULNERABILIDADE DO FIEL-CONSUMIDOR

Abstract

This work points out the commercialization of the sacredness based, initially, on a historical process analysis, which aims to present, based on the Sociology of Religion, how religious institutions started the process of commercializing the religion symbolic goods. To explain this process, it´s highlighted the perception of the religious phenomenon in a centrally form, making a link with the development aspects, especially, on how the main foundations between the sacred and the market are established. Furthermore, this introductory analysis will demonstrate how consumption ruled by faith will become significant in modern society, in such a way that the own construction of the consumption logic, based on religious marketing, will promote the creation of a religious consumption industry. Moreover, in order to understand how this industry achieved an enabling environment, an analysis of religious freedom itself is also carried out, considering that, as a constitutionally guaranteed right, it favored the spread of different religions in Brazilian territory. After presenting this panorama, the analysis of the market aspects and the question inherent to the Consumer Protection Code is reached, taking into account that the referred legal norm contributes favorably to the protection of the loyal-consumer, in face of their vulnerability against the religious supplier. Regarding the organization of this work, it was arranged in three chapters, which dialogue with each other. At the first one, the issue of commodification of the sacred is addressed, describing the symbolic religion goods. In turn, the second chapter presents the construction of religious freedom and its triggers to the market enlargement in the religious sphere. Finally, in the third and last chapter, the importance of the legal regulation of the religious consumption relationship is established, through the main nuances of the consumer and religious suppliers. Furthermore, in order to achieve the intended propose, a bibliographic and documentary research was chosen, mapping the main categories analyzed. All that path, that establishes an interdisciplinary relationship between the religious phenomenon and the legal issues, will demonstrate the importance of the applicability of consumerist legislation to establish the balance of this religious consumption relationship.