Religião e política: Assembleia de Deus na política partidária de Rondônia

Abstract

The thesis proposes, based on the theoretical focus of the Sociology of Religion, to study the Evangelical Church Assembly of God in Rondônia's party politics. To reach the proposed objective, the research used, in addition to the initial historical approach, the contribution of theorists such as Max Weber, Pierre Bourdieu and Antonio Gramsci. Weber developed the concept of domination, which is present in society in various social relationships, signifying the acceptance of power, which is the imposition of the will of a person or institution on individuals; Pierre Bourdieu explored the notion of symbolic power, which means the acceptance and subordination of individuals to someone else's power; Antonio Gramsci created the concept of hegemony, being the type of ideological domination of one social class over all others, which was reworked by Bourdieu in the notion of religious field (social space in which agents and institutions dispute the monopoly in meeting the spiritual needs of people and relations with the sacred). This theoretical framework makes it possible to understand how the pastoral decisions, practices and strategies historically developed by the Assembly of God institution in the religious environment are articulated and linked, from a certain historical moment, with the political-party field. Religious activities had political effects and consequences for the Assembly of God and other denominations. The relationship between politics and religion is a topic of interest to the Social Sciences and can be considered an important component to understand the movement of evangelical-pentecostal expansion, especially of the Assembly of God, in Rondônia and in Brazil. Due to the attitude of proselytism and political action, this denomination managed to multiply its social spaces in Brazilian society. Thus, the research deals with how the religious group, which was previously removed from party politics because it perceived it as something profane, changed its position and started to systematically organize its intervention in party politics