Templo é dinheiro: o uso do território pelas igrejas neopentecostais na cidade de Maceió, AL (1987-2018)

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how the neo-Pentecostal churches are expanding in the city of Maceió, considering that there is a proliferation of these organizations in important urban spaces. The temporal delimitation of the study is from 1987 to 2017, in which there was an increase in the number of churches in privileged places of the city, especially in the avenues Fernandes Lima (main way of the city) and Comendador Gustavo Paiva (access to the northern coast of Alagoas) , focuses of this work. In this sense, we have specified our study for this more recent movement of the Protestant religion, which has more insertion in the media and clear business strategies to reach its objectives, that is to say: increase of the number of faithful and political and economic relevance. This investigative interest leads us to think about the performance of religious leaders who prioritize a theology with elements that appeal to people living in urban areas: appeal to hope, financial success, a relationship of symbolic exchange and marketing. The general objective of this work is to analyze the uses of the territory by the neo-Pentecostal churches in Maceió, using the urban elements in the context of the city. Thus, the territory used will be studied as "synonymous with geographical space", as Santos and Silveira (2010, p.20) allows us to understand the functioning of the world of the present and its contradictions. The churches surveyed are: Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, World Church of the Power of God, International Church of God's Grace, Christian Community Peace and Life, Church a Home and Church Snowball Church, all with their state headquarters located on the avenues Fernandes Lima (Bairro Farol) and Gustavo Paiva (Neighborhood Mangabeiras). Such places have an urban importance because they are avenues that connect several districts of the city, besides being in them where there are several types of services, generating considerable movements of the population. The relevance of this work makes possible the understanding of all the dynamism of the actions in the territory by the neo-Pentecostal churches and the proliferation of churches in the city of Maceió. In this way, we will try to understand the reasons that lead them to settle in certain places of the city, identifying the strategies used by the churches to increase the number of faithful and relating the expansion of the religious movement with urbanization and the growth of fears and uncertainties . Thus, we use maps, charts and tables to highlight the issues raised in the attempt to reflect on life in the city of Maceió, seen as a place of deprivation and struggle and the relationship with the growth of movements that propose magic-religious outings for problems of capitalist society. All this discussion is oriented in the relation between the analytical categories proposed by Milton Santos to understand the space. In this sense, the churches always seek bigger places and remain in the privileged spaces of the city of Maceió, all these close to many commercial establishments like malls, supermarkets, restaurants, banks; and that's why they have been places with great circulation of people, with several bus stops, good quality roads and real estate potential. In order to do so, they purchase the millionaire land and / or rent commercial establishments, which had a crisis in sales and came to close. In addition, they maintain programs on local radio and television and encourage the election of religious parliamentarians, creating diverse and complex ways to ensure that their interpretations of what is necessary for human life can be disseminated with ease.