Religion and the Everyday Life of Money in Brazil

A long tradition of social scientists has defended that in Brazil, money and social relations are in contradiction, partially as a result of Catholicism. This article shows how, on the contrary, money has always been present in Brazilian popular religion. This argument leads to a second point: Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal churches have been openly criticized for their ritual use of money. Social scientists have interpreted these practices as a foreign “money fetishism,” and these churches are often described as agents of Neo-Liberalism. I argue that Neo-Pentecostals in Brazil appropriate money not just for economic ends but also with the political project of Christianizing the country. In more general terms, the article introduces a different perspective both from the classical discourse on money as an agent of globalization and modernity on the one hand, and a more recent literature on the personalization of money and alternative currencies, on the other. In both of the discourses on modernity and personalization, nation-states are increasingly marginal. But the nation is still very much at the center of the Brazilian Neo-Pentecostal project.