Universal Church and its “medias”: a critical analysis about religion, media and secularism

Abstract

This article discusses the reconfiguration of Brazilian secularism, marked by Pentecostal evangelical activism in the public sphere and the consequent decline of the hegemony of the Catholic Church in the country. From a critical review of the literature about religion, media and secularism, we consider Universal Church of the Kingdom of God's (IURD) greatest center, Solomon’s Temple, as the privileged object of this analysis. Observing the media visibility of some scenes and narratives about the Solomon’s Temple, we sustain that the incorporation of new media into the IURD's religious repertoire has transformed the practices of religious mediation in the country. Our objective is to demonstrate that the publicity dynamics of aesthetic formation— inspired by a mythical conception of Israel and materialized in a diversity of objects, such as buildings, ceremonies, gestures, performances and symbols, by Pentecostal churches— became an important factor for the emergence of Pentecostalism as a public religion.