The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the Reconfiguration of Religion

The article describes how the Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (IURD) has looked beyond the evangelical heritage for the choreography and scenography of its celebrations and its exorcisms. Old Testament prescriptions are adapted and venerated, while the fearsome spirits of the religicies de matriz africana are subjected to melodramatic procedures of vilification, manifestation and expulsion (Birman 1998 ;1996). The article questions whether the church can be said to practice ritual in the usual sense of the word (Sperber 1996 ; Bloch 2004). The rejection or circumvention by this and other Pentecostal churches and pastors of conventional boundaries between religion and secular spheres, notably politics, business, and the commercial media, raises questions as to whether the IURD and other neo-Pentecostal churches are entitled to the protections and exemptions usually accorded to religious institutions.