Religion in Brazil

The image of the various religions of Brazil.

Brazil is a religiously diverse country, with a tendency towards tolerance and acceptance of different religions. The Brazilian population is mostly Catholic due to the cultural heritage of the Portuguese, and various migratory currents throughout history. On the African side, they obtained religious customs from Afro-Brazilian peoples. At the end of the 19th century, spiritualism began to be spread in Brazil, which today is the country with the largest number of spiritualists in the world. In recent decades, the Protestant religion has grown a lot, thus being a fairly significant part of the population. Judaism has 86,825 faithful, 0.05% of the population. The number of people who say they do not have a religion in 2000 was 7.4%; group second only to Catholics and Protestants.

Many practitioners of Afro-Brazilian religions, as well as some spiritualists, also call themselves Catholic and follow rites of the Catholic Church. Similarly, many spiritualists claim to be Christians despite not accepting some important aspects of traditional Christianity. This type of social tolerance with syncretism is a peculiar historical framework of the various religions in the country.

For 2017, the Latinobarometro confirmed that 54 percent of Brazilians were Catholic, 27 percent evangelical, 14 percent none, atheist or agnostic, and 5 percent followers of other religions. For 2018, the new survey from Latinobarómetro showed that 58.1% of Brazilians were Catholic, 25.3% Evangelical, 10.0% none, atheist or agnostic, 1.3% practicing Afro-American cults, and 4.2% followers of other religions.

Christianity

Catholics

The main religion of Brazil since the 16th century has been Christianity, predominantly the Catholic Church. This was introduced by missionaries who accompanied the Portuguese explorers and colonizers in Brazilian lands. Brazil is considered the largest country with Catholics in the world, with 64.6% of its population declared Catholic, according to the 2010 national census.

Some popular traditions of Catholicism in Brazil include pilgrimages to Our Lady of Aparecida, in the place where the Virgin made her appearance, in the city of Aparecida do Norte, located 168 km from the capital of São Paulo, and ended up turning the Patroness of Brazil. Another festival worth mentioning is the Feast of the Divine in Central Brazil.

As the 20th century passed, a perceptible decline in the traditions of various religions was noticeable. A visible reflection of this is the large number of so-called non-practicing Catholics who often disagree with the moral doctrine of the Church when they do not support trends in the contemporary world, such as moral relativism and sexual promiscuity. In the 2000 IBGE census, 40% of those who said they were Catholics also said they were non-practicing. It is estimated that only 25% of the Brazilian population frequently attend mass.

In Brazilian Catholic doctrine there are 2 main aspects:

• The traditionalist: more conservative and defender of Catholic Charismatic Orthodoxy and Renovation: the most recent and vigorous movement.
• Theology of liberation: that since the 1970s has formed a kind of left ecclesiastical.

Evangelical Protestants

With the arrival of the royal family of Portugal in Brazil and the opening of the doors to friendly nations, through the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, English merchants established the Church of England in 1811. Then there was the implantation of other immigrant churches: the Germans brought Lutheranism in 1824, North American immigrants brought the Baptist Church and Methodism, in 1896 the first Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded. Later, missionaries founded the Presbyterian Church and the Congregational Church, which are now part of religious life in the country.

Around 1910 Pentecostalism arrived in Brazil, with the appearance of the Christian Congregation in Brazil and the Assemblies of God in Brazil. Starting in 1950, large sectors of Pentecostalism experienced an extraordinary numerical growth, but with a strong influence from movements that emphasized supposed "miracle cures" and that generated great denominational schisms, organizing new organizations such as: The Evangelical Pentecostal Church "or Brazil for Christ". Other churches also arose at this time, which, despite maintaining many doctrines and characteristics typical of historical Protestantism, were profoundly transformed by Pentecostalism, such as the "Renewed Presbyterian Church",

There is also the "Arvore da Vida Ranch" in Sumaré São Paulo where International and Interdenominational Christian Conferences are held where the messages are delivered by Dong Yu Lan.

The 1970s saw the birth of the so-called "neo-pentecostal movement," with new churches and movements emphasizing doctrines unknown to Western Christianity, such as "the prosperity doctrine" and the "strong prayer to the Holy Spirit", widely persecuted groups such as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, founded by Edir Macedo, made their first appearances, with promises of miraculous cures, prosperity, testimonies and life changes, attracted a large part of the Brazilian people. Today it is the Brazilian church that grows the most in the world.

During the 80s churches and neo-Pentecostal movements continued to be born, but this time focused specifically on the middle and upper class, with more liberal customs and with less emphasis on supernatural manifestations. Among them we can mention the "Iglesia Renacer en Cristo" and the "Evangelical Church of Christ Lives".

A good part of the Christian denominations of Protestant origin in Brazil are relatively free of religious syncretism, and in the last decades their memberships have grown greatly, becoming currently the second largest religious group (when considered together), however, their enormous internal differences relativize their influence. Some scholars believe that the expansion of these groups is related to the increase in North American cultural influence in Brazil and others, more daring, dare to propose that it would be in the presence of a "secret conspiracy" of the United States government, which, following the guidelines of the so-called Santa Fe Documents, tries to "weaken nationalism" religiously based in Brazil and other Latin American countries, so that there is no "opposition to US imperialism" in the region.

However, the great popularity of Brazilian Protestantism belongs more to autochthonous Pentecostal groups, or to neo-Pentecostal communities such as the"Universal Church of the Kingdom of God" Or the "World Church of the Power of God," created by a former bishop of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The largest Protestant denominations in Brazil are: the "Brazilian Assemblies of God", the "Christian Congregation in Brazil", Baptist churches, Lutheran churches, Pentecostal churches, Neo Pentecostals and Presbyterian churches.

Protestants, evangelicals and non-Catholics in general, are concentrated above all from Minas Gerais to the south of the country. Large neo-Pentecostal centers are located in Londrina and the largest cities, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Irreligion

Until the recent past, Brazil was characterized by having an absolutely religious population, but recent surveys show that 11% of the population declare themselves atheists, agnostics or have no religion, and 2-3% opt for not answer. Among the entire religious spectrum, only Catholics and Evangelicals outperform those who declare themselves not religious.