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Considering the challenges posed by populism and religiously motivated political engagement to liberal democracies, the present study sets out to examine, specifically, the role played by Pentecostal actors in the conflictive rearrangement of the democratic game in Brazil and worldwide. The engagement of Pentecostals in Brazil's 2018 general election represented a milestone in that regard and constitutes, thus, the main focus of the present investigation. Given the novelty and nature of both phenomena in question, viz. Pentecostal political engagement and the crisis of democracy, the analysis is carried out, methodologically, from a descriptive, theoretical vantage point, rather than a normative one. To that purpose, the study builds on Manow's recent work on the current crisis of democracy so as to shed new light on this issue and engages with scholarly studies of Pentecostal political engagement in Brazil and Nigeria alike, where similar developments may be observed, thereby placing this predicament in a global perspective. The role played by Pentecostals can best be described as ambivalent, as, on the one hand, they contributed largely to democratizing contemporary democracies and, on the other, they played a significant part in undermining the very foundations of liberal democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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"Fundamentalism" is a movement or a current of thought, which preaches strict and literal obedience to a set of fundamental principles. It can be present in the economy, politics, education and other instances of human life. However, it is in religion that fundamentalism is best known and discussed. Throughout history, religious fundamentalism has gone through different phases of expression enabling new conceptual and structural analysis. In recent years, the theme has resurfaced in Latin America where some governments' policies are based on fundamentalist ideas. There is a dangerous connection between religious and political fundamentalisms. This article aims to critically evaluate this relationship and its social consequences. The text is divided into four parts: 1) distinction between "conservatism" and "fundamentalism"; 2) an overview of the phases of expression of Christian Protestant fundamentalismo; 3) the Bible as the basis of The Fundamentals: a Testimony to the Truth; 4) Brazilian-style fundamentalism from Protestantism of mission and Pentecostalism. The propositional aspects are suggested all along this reflection and, mainly in the final part, as notes to rethink the theological formation of religious leaders in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proliferation of sects has made in Brazil and Latin America a space for a renewal of religious foundations. Despite the secularity of modern democracy, much of society retains a marked religious symbolism. With the advancement of neo-Pentecostalism, the speeches of populist parties and groups managed to raise awareness in important sectors of society. These fundamentalist movements bring religion closes to politics and economics. Not infrequently, this staggering fundamentalism takes on a belligerent character. On de one hand, the text conducts a speculative-philosophical analysis around the pathological effects of this discourse and, on the other it tries to highlight the proposal for a healthy coexistence. It is not a question of conceptualizing, but of highlighting how the effects of a step-by-step fundamentalism generate social anomalies. Therefore, in addition to the diagnosis, the study points out the alternative of a philosophy of life. In this sense, the notion of representative democracy offers healthy skyline to reconnect coexistence in a pluralistic world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text aims to rethink the relationship between Brazilian feminisms and the state. Dialogue and continuous tensions are grounded in the feminist agenda that not only presupposes a cultural revolution regarding subjectivities, but that also exacts a notable reform or political revolution. On the one hand, while addressing violence against women is gaining ground, on the other, education for gender equality and the legalization of abortion suffers what has been called “backlash". There is a clash between neoconservatives movements that seek to imposed their moral viewpoint on the whole society and feminist movements that defend the ethics of individual autonomy, plurality and social rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work has been done with the support of CAPES - Brazil and proposes a reflection on the teens lived in a pentecostal fundamentalist context as parameters the Gaucho, adopting Church Assembly of God - Ministry restoration and the Conservative Baptist Church, having as specific goal that is be conceptualize the teenager in those churches that arise in a Brazilian religious scenario, pluralist and post-modern Brazilian but that evoke a belonging to the pentecostal movement classic started in country a century ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian evangelical youth was, in 1970's overflowed with a big variety of fundamentalistic versions of eschatology. That's why this theme came to occupy a secondary place between the others theological themes in Brazilian evangelical Theology. The introduction of a non disjointed version of eschatology, as Georg Eldon Ladd's, for instance, make possible the diffusion of IMT (Integral Mission Theology), demonstrating how Missiology is inseparable from eschatology. After that, fundamentalistic versions lost their popularity, but kept their presence in churches. Prosperity Theology brought a complete individualistic notion of eschatology. So, we have in one side a eschatology built on a non disjointed notion of time and reality, and in another, the fundamentalistic and privatized version. The clash of these two tendencies expresses the continuous tension between dualism and integrality in the History of Christianity. In the New Testament, the images of the tent (John 1.14, Acts 18.1-3) and of the curtain (Mathews 27.45-52) are useful to understand the logic of "live-between" in opposition with the closeness of the sacred in the haram. These two ways of dwell, following the thought of the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, exemplify those two tendencies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the hypothesis that ideas and values of religious fundamentalism are transmitted within the systems of education run by fundamentalists religious groups is transmitted, the author draws attention to the largest Protestant education network in Brazil maintained by the Adventist Church. The analysis Adventist publications referring to education demonstrates that the central objective of education is to convert the pupils to Adventism. The curriculum is designed according to the doctrines of the Church, reflecting the concept of a so-called faith teaching integration through which Natural and Human Science issues are approached from an Adventist perspective. At the same time, the curriculum rejects ideas related to secular humanism or pos-modernism. Hence, one can conclude that this fundamentalist system of education transmits a highly biased vision that is in conflict with an educational approach committed to a pluralist worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rochelle Jones provides an overview of the Feminist Dialogue held prior to the World Social Forum in Brazil, January 2005. The article concludes with an interview with Lydia Alpizar, Theme Manager for Feminist Movements and Organisations with the Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWlD), giving insight into the Feminist Dialogue process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]