New Religious Movements and Brazilian Global Modernity

Dawson, Andrew (2017) New Religious Movements and Brazilian Global Modernity. In: Religion, Migration and Mobility. Routledge, London, pp. 129-150. ISBN 9781138924192

Abstract

Referencing the transnational migratory flows most closely associated with globalizing modernity, this chapter treats the origins and development of New Religious Movements in Brazil. Two principal questions are addressed: first, where do the NRMs populating the religious landscape of Brazil come from? And, second, why are there so many NRMs currently in existence? By way of answering these questions, the chapter opens by delineating the kind of NRMs present in Brazil and then addresses the question of origins by using concrete examples to identify and engage the most important originary dynamics responsible for the arrival and formation of NRMs. The chapter then engages the question of proliferation by examining various structural processes which combine to catalyze the aforementioned originary dynamics in a manner which engenders the contemporary burgeoning of NRMs across Brazilian society. A concluding section explicates the most important socio-cultural implications associated with the contemporary proliferation of NRMs.