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Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The growth of Brazilian therapeutic communities points to a return to the asylum paradigm, with public funding for hospitalizations based on labor therapy and religious conversion. The relationship between these institutions and government sectors has expanded since 2013 in the state of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Given this scenario, we aimed to analyze, through this qualitative research, the role of religious therapeutic communities in the treatment of individuals with problematic drug use, focusing on the impact of the religious methods employed in these places. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 28 individuals who had been treated in these places. The interviews were held for six months and subsequently transcribed in full. The data were analyzed using the Discourse Analysis. The subjects’ statements widely differed: 13 reported that institutions had an essential role in their treatment and pointed out that religious methods helped them, while 15 argued that institutions were inefficient in their treatment and religious methods were ineffective. The study elucidated the need for inspection of these institutions and stirred a reflection concerning their suitability as publicly funded places to treat the drug user population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Converts form a growing portion of the Muslim community in São Paulo, Brazil. Often introduced to Islam through media representations, they turn to religion for a variety of reasons, including the desire to search for spiritual truth. This article will examine questions of identity that arise during the process of religious conversion, using data gathered from extensive fieldwork. Specifically, it will analyze how male converts view the place of Islam within the context of Brazilian society and how they reimagine concepts of personal identity through religious conversion. The study suggests that converts hold diverse points of view regarding the development of their spiritual identity, emphasizing both the challenges and benefits of being Muslim and practicing Islam in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Religião e Sociedade is the property of Instituto de Estudos da Religiao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Numerous books and articles have been written describing the culture and lifeways of Brazilian Pentecostals, a fast-growing religious group that is challenging and changing the face of the most Catholic country in the world. Oosterbaan aims to describe how religion uses the mediascape to create narratives that allow people to interpret their social environment and their place within it. [Extracted from the article]

The transition to democracy in Brazil has created a competitive religous environment which is causing religious shifting away from Catholicism. The Evangelical community, of which Pentecostalism is a subset, has been growing over the last few decades and is providing alternative structures for social and political expression previously denied to many. Pentecostal churches are building community networks and strengthening civil society in a way that is giving many of Brazil's marginalized access and legitimacy. The focus of this paper is to examine if Pentecostalism undermines or strengthens democratic consolidation in Brazil, and what role it has to play in power sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring the emergence of two cultural forms among the Pataxó Indians from Bahia, Brazil--their recent elaboration on bodily adornment practices and the "rescuing" of their native language--this article examines the relationship between cultural heritage formation and Pentecostal conversion. Dwellers of the World Heritage Site of the Discovery Coast and epitomized as the Discovery Indians throughout the late 1990s, the Pataxó have been concurrently converting to Pentecostalism at an ever steadier pace. To the extent that each of these dynamics yields divergent bodies, styles, and aesthetics, I focus on the material interstices between Indianness and Pentecostalism: their critical conflicts, negotiated borrowings, and constructive convergences. I argue that while churches have been all the more seeking to incorporate indigenous cultural forms into their liturgies and doctrinal frames through a project of disenchantment, an indelible source of tension persists, a "surplus" resisting symbolic closure--for one can never be fully sure whether underneath the veneer of things lay "harmless culture" or diabolical power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Estudos de Sociologia is the property of Universidade Estadual Paulista and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Brazil is experiencing an unprecedented religious dynamism. According to the IBGE national census of 2000 and 2010, the growth of evangelical churches and also the number of people who do not have any religious belonging are expressive. Traditionally, Protestantism strengthened its growth through the process of conversion. The literature review reveals the lack of studies on the subject. In order to fill this gap, the author searched texts both in French and English on the subject, which is also scarce. The review literature has established itself around the issue of religious conversion on the historical protestantism and social psychology of religion. The issue of religious conversion is complex and very relevant today, because it is linked to the resurgence of religion as a social mass phenomenon producing the contemporary religious revival of the great religious traditions. This is a common phenomenon in contemporary Brazil. This research analyzes the term conversion in historical protestantism and social psychology of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses several elements that allow understanding the conversion of "bandits" to Pentecostal Evangelical churches. The empirical material consisted basically of interviews with individuals who had "lived a life of crime" before converting to some Pentecostal denomination. The analysis is based on the idea of criminal subjection - meaning the social construction of the "bandit" as a subject. Criminal subjection is highlighted in the narratives of conversion. The study thus provides elements for understanding the construction of two identities that are strikingly present on the poor outskirts of Brazilian metropolitan areas and that constitute an important part of their daily reality: the "bandit" and the "believer". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Il s'agit d'une étude ethnographique réalisée dans une ville de l'état de Bahia (Brésil) ayant pour objectif le quotidien des femmes qui se convertissent à l'Église Universelle du Royaume de Dieu. L'étude de certains éléments du quotidien de ces femmes nous aide à comprendre comment l'identité religieuse se construit à mesure que, d'un côté, il y a une incorporation progressive et intense du discours religieux et, d'un autre côté, un recul des éléments et des interactions qui étaient reconnus comme étant normaux jusqu'au moment de la conversion. La construction d'une nouvelle identité religieuse, basée sur la condition de "femmes honnêtes et pures", implique la négation des anciennes interactions. La rue, le marché, la nourriture et les fêtes sont des éléments qui intègrent un ensemble varié d'interactions sociales et alimentaires chez les pentecôtistes brésiliens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conversion, identity and sense of belong, within modernity later and Brazilian religious Field, are themes are closely linked and as relevant in this context of relativity. This article seeks to present proposals for the best reference and discussions that may present in the modernity world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Religião e Sociedade is the property of Instituto de Estudos da Religiao and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the religious conversion of Brazilians to Islam in the São Paulo metropolitan area. Results revealed a refocusing of values and goals, including the severing of former lifestyles, the adoption of a new world vision, and the creation of a new identity through the return to traditional standards. Ethnic differences were also observed in the experiences of converts. Perhaps the key challenge for converts was to balance their membership in the Muslim community, and to promote its group oriented values, while simultaneously maintaining their individual identity. In sum, this article documents the process of religious conversion and the expansion of the Muslim community in São Paulo. It also reveals the difficulties related to conversion due to cultural and ethnic differences within the Muslim community of São Paulo that primarily consists of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of discussing the conversion to Islam in Brazil, this article analyses interviews with converts with no Islamic ancestry in five Brazilian cities. A few points are highlighted, first the comparison of conversion discourses with the publicity material handed out by the mosques, second the addressing of different ingredients which come up such as the influence of Black Islam from the USA and the presence of Islamic web sites, and thirdly the pointing out of the new religion as part of a prior journey of religious seeking. The strong presence of the new converts in the proselytising activities of Islam in Brazil is also brought out. Finally some hypotheses about the attraction exercised by Islam to these new Brazilian converts are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In suppressing Aristotelism from education, through the banishment of the Jesuits and the reform of public education, the Marquis of Pombal started the process of modernization in Brazil, during the second half of the 18th Century. The understanding of the problem of modernization in Brazil as a philosophical matter can be expressed in terms of a "principle change", that is: the assimilation of Cartesian cogito as the principle of modern philosophy assumes religious conversion as the principle of development of the Brazilian culture under Aristotelism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil, a country with a Catholic majority, has undergone an intense process of religious conversion. Today, three-quarters of the adult population are Catholic, while the remaining quarter is made up of followers of Evangelical churches, Afro-Brazilian religions, oriental religions and other denominations. Evangelical churches are comprised of, among others, Pentecostal churches brought in from other countries, and those recently created in Brazil, called Neo-Pentecostal churches. This article seeks to establish the dimension of different religious groups in terms of number of followers, and to provide a sociological profile of these different religious alternatives, suggesting interpretations that allow for an understanding of the dynamic of the Brazilian religious scene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazilian churches long for revival, but many are afraid of it because of the abuses. Brazilian Presbyterian churches were planted by American missionaries, so we ask our mother: Please, tell us about your revivals, so that we may learn something from it for today. North American Presbyterianism passed through the period of the "Great Awakening" (1739-1745). The Lord used godly men as reformed Theodore Freylinghuysen, Presbyterian William Tennent (and sons), Congregational Jonathan Edwards and Anglican George Whitefield to bring the churches to their knees, many converts into the fold and deep reformation of society. But tensions arose because of coldness and mockery of the "Old Side" traditionalists and of radicalism and farisaism of the "New Side" revivalists. Many churches split. The presbyterian schism lasted for 17 years (1741-1758). Reunion became possible under the pressure of common suffering during the Indian wars, but was possible because both sides were more humble. Traditionalists recognized that pastoral candidates do need a personal religious experience and that God had given many true conversions in the other churches. Revivalists confessed that their tongues had not always been baptized and that they needed more spiritual discernment. The apparent cause of the vigorous New Side growth was probably their great mission effort. The deepest cause of the "withering of the old branch" was probably the lack of discipline among their ministers. Today our churches may need a "Day of Renewal of the Covenant," praying with rev. Samuel Davies of the Hanover Presbytery (1750): "Almighty grace, my soul inspire, and touch my lips with heavenly fire!" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, F. S. Portela makes a critical evaluation of modern trends in ecclesiastical planning in Brazil, more specifically, of the Church Growth Movement. After stressing some of the positive contributions of the Movement to the churches in Brazil, Portela proceeds to show five main flaws in the theological assumptions behind the methodology developed by the main proponents of Church Growth today. Portela's main thesis is that the church is called to plan actions -- not results. In his view, the modern tendency of establishing numerical results (converts) within a fixed span of time reflects humanistic conceptions about conversion, which can be traced back to Charles G. Finney's pelagian views on conversion, and the methodology that he developed on this basis. Although a strong advocate of ecclesiastical planning and the growth of the Church, Portela feels that Brazilian churches have given in too easily, and without proper criticism, to the strategies advanced by Church Growth proponents. In the Appendix Portela provides a summary of a sermon on the growth of the church preached in 1867 by Rev. Ashbel G. Simonton, the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]