Classical Pentecostalism in Brazil

adaptation and preservation of principles

Abstract

The universalization of a religion in new contexts brings with it the differentiation between adaptation and preservation of principles, which depend on political, economic, social and cultural conditions. According to Clifford Geertz, whose concepts serve as a theoretical contribution in this article, the universalization of a religion preserves central doctrinal aspects regardless of the context, but it adapts in different ways in different directions, including contradictory and ambiguous ones. Thus, this article, an excerpt from a doctoral dissertation, seeks to understand the classic Brazilian Pentecostalism of the Assembly of God, which is more than a hundred years old, on the basis of the axis of doctrine and its flexibility in the cultural environment still marked by poverty.