Description
Book SynopsisExamines Pentecostalism, media, society, and culture in the turbulent favelas of Brazil. Explores both the evolving role of religion in Latin America and the proliferation of religious ideas and practices in the postmodern world.
Trade Review“A detailed, sympathetic analysis of favela religion in relation to secular media. . . . Highly recommended.”
—S. D. Glazier Choice
“Marks an undoubted step forward in the interpretation of a phenomenon which remains abundantly described but continues to cry out for creative interpretation.”
—David Lehmann Journal of Latin American Studies
“Scholars and students from a variety of disciplines—including anthropology, communications studies, religious studies, and political science for example—will find something of use and interest within the pages of this book.”
—H. J. Francois Dengah II Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology
“Martijn Oosterbaan not only provides an ethnography of Brazilian Pentecostalism but also shows how this premodern faith enables survival amid the violence of the favelas that are the underside of Rio’s modernity. Transmitting the Spirit also depicts how an otherworldly Pentecostal piety traverses the sonic and electronic currents of the present late modern age. Spiritual power in the South American Pentecostal hemisphere resounds in this excellent book.”
—Amos Yong,coeditor of The Spirit of Praise: Music and Worship in Global Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity
“Martijn Oosterbaan brilliantly plunges us into the vivid and dynamic worlds of contemporary Pentecostalism and Brazilian favelas. Based on many years of close observation, his analysis shows not only why Pentecostalism is popular in Brazilian city life, but also how it has become a deeply embedded aspect of national popular culture.”
—Simon Coleman,coeditor of The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism
Table of ContentsContents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 The Manichean City: Socio-Spatial Segregation and Pentecostalism
2 Sonic Struggles: Sound, Religion, and Space in the Favelas
3 Mass Mediating Spiritual Battles: Pentecostalism and the Daily News
4 “Deliver This Favela”: Space, Violence, and Hypermediated Conversion
5 Spiritual Attunement: Pentecostalism and Listening
6 “Written by the Devil”: Suspicious Television
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
