Neopentecostalismo e questão social: a classe trabalhadora sob o conservadorismo e o anticomunismo

Abstract

The study of neopentecostalism and religious fundamentalism in Brazil constitutes a growing area of academic interest, especially due to its influence on contemporary politics. This religious phenomenon has its roots anchored in a context of need for a reaffirmation and legitimation of capitalism from a theological-spiritual point of view, influencing the ethos of the working class and, therefore, of the user population. Thus, this thesis critically analyzes neopentecostalism in Brazil and its interfaces with the so-called Social Question, with conservatism, and with anti-communism. Using historical-dialectical materialism, seeking to understand the mediations inherent in the historical process and its contradictions, the research methodology chosen was a bibliographic review based on a qualitative approach. Starting from an understanding of religion as a historically and socially determined mediation, this study explores the theoretical and methodological foundations of the profession, the critique of philosophical idealism, and the genesis of Christianity up to the formation of contemporary neoPentecostalism, highlighting the role of Prosperity Theology and Dominion Theology in the reconfiguration of subjectivities, values, and political practices in various instances of society. It demonstrates that these theologies are important operators of the superstructure legitimizing the capitalist mode of production, also acting in the moralization of poverty and the individualization of the social question, favoring the formation of conservative consensuses within the working class. The research also highlights the increasing insertion of evangelicalism into state structures and electoral and collective disputes, seeking to solidify political behaviors as well as their potential influence on the professional practice of Social Work and on the Ethical-Political Project of the profession. It is concluded that the neo-Pentecostal phenomenon, far from being a merely religious phenomenon, acts as a relevant social and political force in the struggle for hegemony, demanding from Social Work a critical reading of religion as a mediation of the Social Question and an ethical-political stance committed to human emancipation, however without resorting to the reproduction of stigmas and prejudices against any religious population