“BUILD A PIECE OF HEAVEN ON EARTH”: MESSIANIC PERSPECTIVES ON THE PENTECOSTALS' PARTICIPATION IN BRAZILIAN POLITICS

Abstract

This article analyses the relationship between eschatological beliefs and political practices in Brazilian Pentecostalism. It also seeks to demonstrate the presence of messianic elements in the discourses of Brazilian Pentecostal leaders. The starting point of the article is a meeting between eleven Brazilian Pentecostal leaders and the Brazilian president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, on June 5, 2020. The event was reported by the media and broadcast live. Throughout the text, we analysed several speeches and prayers made during the meeting and tried to demonstrate how they conveyed those Pentecostal leaders' messianic self-consciousness. We also sought to explore the transformations that took place in the relations between eschatological beliefs and the political practices of Brazilian Pentecostalism and how such transformations must be understood in the light of the theological, political and social factors that have affected Pentecostals in Brazil.