Pentecôtisme et «néo-pentecôtisme» au Brésil / Pentecostalism and «Neo-Pentecostalism » in Brazil

摘要

The Universal Church of the Reign of God (IURD), which has lately been increasing its membership from half a million to three and a half millions, and is said to own temples in no less than 50 countries, has been the centre of a lasting controversy in Brasil during the second semester of 1995. Repudiated by other Pentecostal and Evangelical denominations, this autonomous church born in Brasil in 1977, has been depicted as totally different from classical Pentecostalism of which the Assembly of God is a representative part. This text tries to go against what has falsely been put up as obvious facts carried by this controversy. On one hand, the distinction between "Neo-Pentecostalism" and "classical Pentecostalism" is in fact a polysemical distinction, and on the other hand it doesn't refer to radically different phenomena. As matter of fact, a general evolution is taking place on the whole of Brazilian Pentecostalism. Some churches or church sectors are a lot advanced in this evolution than others. Although the Universal Church uses a specific "narrative machine" which both brings about and explains its successful expansion, some of these "narrative machine" discursive mecanisms are spreading to other churches (including "classical Pentecostal" churches). This contagion is helped by a new public/private relation which reveals itself through the Pentecostal'sentering into politics, "assistancialist" programs as well as television and the cultural industry.