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Dissertation Information for R. Andrew Chesnut

NAME:
- R. Andrew Chesnut

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1995)

ADVISORS:
- E. Bradford Burns

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- James Lockhart
- Jeffrey A. Frieden

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Assembly of the anointed: Pentecostalism and the pathogens of poverty in an Amazonian city of Brazil, 1962-1993

Abstract: This dissertation examines the vertiginous growth of Pentecostalism in Latin America at its epicenter in Brazil. It specifically seeks to explain why this charismatic branch of Protestantism has proliferated among the poor of the urban periphery in the past three decades.

A year of field research in the Amazonian city of Belem, the cradle of Brazilian Pentecostalism, and Rio de Janeiro provided the data for this study. The primary sources of information include ninety life histories, observation-participation and ecclesiastical annals. While this study focuses primarily on the Assembly of God in Belem, the largest Pentecostal denomination in Latin America, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the Foursquare Gospel Church also figure prominently in the analysis of church growth.

Data analysis demonstrates that the dialectic between poverty-related illness and faith healing provides the key to comprehending the Pentecostal boom. In contrast to previous research, this dissertation concludes that the poor of Brazil's urban periphery are not converting to Pentecostalism as a result of military repression, anomie or poverty per se. Rather, it is illness arising from the experience of material deprivation that brings the impoverished residents of Belem to the temple doors in search of divine healing. Though the dissertation focuses on somatic illness as the key to understanding the appeal of Latin American Pentecostalism, the concept of illness is expanded beyond its physical basis to include the most common expressions of social affliction present on the urban periphery such as alcoholism and domestic discord.

This study also sheds new light on Pentecostal political behavior in Brazil. Annals of the Assembly of God in Belem reveal that the church was active in politics even before the military coup of 1964. My analysis of Pentecostal political conduct, unlike that of many contemporary researchers, portrays the church hierarchy engaged in the traditional clientelism that characterizes the Brazilian political landscape. Thus, this dissertation not only contributes to understanding the meteoric rise of Pentecostalism in Brazil and Latin America but also challenges the predominant thinking on Pentecostal politics.

MPACT Scores for R. Andrew Chesnut

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TA = 0
calculated 2009-01-25 10:44:43

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Students under R. Andrew Chesnut

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None