Milenarismo No Brasil

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Journal of Contemporary Religion,Vol. 23, No. 3, October 2008, 269283

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil

ANDREW DAWSON

ABSTRACT This article explores a range of dynamics which inform the construction ofnew era religious identities of urban professionals in Brazil through their appropriation oftraditional millenarian themes most closely associated with the nations rural peasantry.

As part of this exploration, two lines of enquiry are followed. The first explores the

continuity between the traditional millenarian paradigm most closely associated withBrazils rural peasantry and the new era millenarianism articulated by members ofthe urban middle-classes. While not denying narrative similarities with traditionalmillenarian movements in Brazil, the second line of enquiry engages new eramillenarianism by regarding it as embodying a range of dynamics typical of the latemodern context within which its urban professional adherents are situated. While thedynamics of practical-symbolic crisis identified by the first line of enquiry are notdiscounted, the second line of enquiry regards new era millenarianism as primarilyexpressive of a number of reflexive preoccupations typical of late modern urban existence.

Introduction

What follows arises from fieldwork with new religious movements andorganisations in Brazil. In the course of this fieldwork it has become apparentthat millenarian themes and preoccupations traditionally associated withthe rural poor are alive and well among sections of Brazils not so poor,urban-industrial middle classes. This article explores some of the dynamicsinvolved in the construction of the new era religious identities of urbanprofessionals through their appropriation of traditional millenarian themesmost closely associated with the rural peasantry of Brazil. As part of this

exploration, two lines of enquiry will be followed: one of continuity, the otherof discontinuity. The first line of enquiry explores the continuity between thetraditional millenarianism most closely associated with Brazils rural peasantryand the new era millenarianism articulated by members of the urban middleclasses. Here, comparisons are drawn between the practical-symbolic crisessuffered by rural adherents of traditional millenarian forms and the existentialcrises experienced by urban professionals espousing new era millenarianism.Like traditional millenarianism before it, new era millenarianism is held toexpress subjective experiences of alienation from and disenchantment withprevailing societal structures. While not denying narrative similarities with

traditional millenarian movements in Brazil, the line of discontinuity engagesnew era millenarianism by regarding it as embodying a range of dynamics


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typical of the late modern context within which its urban professional adherentsare situated. While notions of alienation and disenchantment are not discounted,the second line of enquiry regards new era millenarianism as primarilyexpressive of a number of reflexive preoccupations typical of late modernurban existence. Prior to pursuing these lines of enquiry, however, it may

prove fruitful to contextualise new era millenarianism within the long andfertile tradition of millenarian thought and action in Brazil.

Millenarianisn in Brazil

Regarding millenarianism as a particular type of salvationism, Cohn arguesthat the millenarian paradigm can be identified through its characterisation ofsalvation as

(a) collective, in the sense that it is to be enjoyed by the faithful as a collectivity;(b) terrestrial, in the sense that it is to be realized on this earth and not in someother-worldly heaven; (c) imminent, in the sense that it is to come both soon andsuddenly; (d) total, in the sense that it is utterly to transform life on earth,so that the new dispensation will be no mere improvement on the present

but perfection itself; (e) miraculous, in the sense that it is to be accomplishedby, or with the help of, supernatural agencies. (13)

While not exclusively so, the form of salvation articulated by the millenarianparadigm in Brazil tends towards the messianic. As Negrao maintains,messianic millenarianism involves the belief in a saviour (God himself or hisemissary) whose anticipated arrival will put an end to the present iniquitous oroppressive order and establish a new era of virtue and justice (Revisitando

119). The history of messianic millenarianism in Brazil is fertile and Levinebelieves it likely that dozens or even hundreds of millenarian and messianicmovements sprang up and died of their own accord over the centuries (218).Indeed, such has been the prevalence of messianic millenarianism in Brazil thatDa Matta regards it as a fundamental part of Brazilian culture (5). As will beseen, the prevalence and persistence of millenarian imagery throughout thehistory of Brazil constitutes it as both a deep and well stocked symbolicreservoir from which successive generations have drawn.

In terms of religious-cultural classification, Brazilian millenarianism may becategorised according to four types. The first type comprises wholly indigenous

millenarian movements such as those exemplified by the periodic, pre-conquestmigrations to the coast by Tupi-Guarani tribes in search of theLand Without Evil(Ribeiro 71). The second type involves a mixture of indigenous and Catholiccomponents in which the latter, backed by its cultural hegemony, undertakesthe lions share of the hermeneutical work. The santidades (holy ones) of theearly colonial period are a classic example, as are the assorted movementsamong the Baniwa, Canela, and Kraho peoples, which occurred in the latenineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Oros treatment of the Brotherhoodof the Holy Cross (Irmandade da Santa Cruz), which emerged in the state ofAmazonas in 1972, offers a more recent example.

The third type of Brazilian millenarianism is by far the most prevalent anddraws almost entirely upon Christian themes and practices as mediated bypopular forms of Portuguese and, latterly, Roman Catholicism. As Myscofskis

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treatment of the Luso-Brazilian messianic tradition indicates, PortugueseCatholicism was replete with millenarian themes and imagery, which passedinto the popular religious consciousness of the fledgling nation of Brazil(4376). Allowing for the fact that the greater number of popular Catholicmillenarian movements have been lost to history, the most famous recorded

examples are generally identified as the following: the movement led bySilvestre Jose dos Santos between 1817 and 1820, which founded the City ofEarthly Paradise in the Rodeador mountains in the north-eastern state ofPernambuco; the movement led by Joao Ferreira in the mid- to late 1830s,which established the Enchanted Kingdom of Vila-Bela at Pedra Bonita incentral Pernambuco; the turn of the century founding of the Holy City of

Juazeiro in the north-eastern state of Cearaby followers of the prophet CceroRomao Baptista (Padre Ccero); the movement led by Antonio Vicente MendesMaciel (the Counsellor), which existed between 1893 and 1897 and founded theHoly City of Canudos (known also as Belo Monte) in the north-eastern state

of Bahia; the Contestado movement of the early 1900s led initially by the healerand prophet Jose Mara in the contested border regions of the southern statesof Parana and Santa Catarina; the movement of Calderao established in themid-1930s in the north-eastern state of Ceara and headed by a succession ofsaints (beatos), the first of whom was Jose Lourenco (Levine 21825). Whilethe most famous examples of Catholic millenarianism in Brazil are drawn fromthe nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, similar movements have continuedto emerge from the mid-1900s onwards (e.g. Consorte; Negrao, Movimento;Queiroz 36364; Pessar).

The fourth type of Brazilian millenarianism comprises movements in whichpopular Catholicism represents just one among a number of religious-culturalcomponents. Perhaps the earliest example of this type is offered by the Muckersmovement which gathered impoverished settlers chiefly of German (andProtestant) origin and which emerged in the southern state of Rio Grande doSul in the late 1860s (Amado). By and large, however, movements of this typehave tended to arise in the mid- to latter part of the twentieth century and to existin predominantly urban contexts. This is no coincidence, as the ability to drawupon a range of religious-cultural resources enjoyed by these movements owesmuch to the forces unleashed by Brazils rapid and far-reaching post-warurban industrialisation. While popular Catholic elements make themselvesfelt to a greater or lesser extent across all of these movements, their practical

and discursive repertoires are just as likely, and increasingly so, to includecomponents drawn from Kardecist Spiritism (espiritismo), Afro-Brazilianreligion (e.g. Umbanda), European esoteric strands (e.g. Theosophy),indigenous religiosity (mediated through mixed-race cultures), new age beliefs(e.g. ufology), and assorted Asian and far-Eastern spiritualities and religioustraditions (e.g. Krishna Consciousness and Japanese new religions).1

The Universal Spiritualist Eclectic Fraternity (Fraternidade Ecletica EspiritualistaUniversal) and the Blue Butterflies (Borboletas Azuis) were among the first of thepost-war movements to be studied as working examples of modern Brazilianmillenarianism. The former was founded by the Venerable Master Yokaanam in

late-1940s Rio de Janeiro, while the latter was established in the 1970s by RoldaoMangueira in the north-eastern city of Campina Grande (Consorte and Negrao).Having relocated his group in 1955 from Rio de Janeiro to the planalto north-east

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of Braslia, Yokaanam announced that the third millennium would be usheredin by way of the calamitous effects of an asteroid, which would crash into theAtlantic ocean and raise sea levels to catastrophic proportions. Initially forecastto occur in 1979/80, this global catastrophe was later put back to 1990, at whichpoint the appearance of a second sun and the outbreak of a third world war

would herald the impending calamity (Negrao, Movimento 57, 96). In thesame vein, Mangueira prophesied that in the month of May, 1980, there will

be a great deluge as in the time of Noah and there will be 120 days of rain afterwhich no stone will remain upon another (Consorte and Negrao 328, 341).Although the Eclectic City (Cidade Ecletica) founded on the planalto byYokaanams community remains as a collection of disparate dwellings andartisan outlets, neither of these movements exists today as a functioningreligious unit.

New Era Religiosity

Although yet to have their millenarian characteristics subjected to detailedscrutiny in their own right, contemporary organisations, such as the Religionof God (Religiao de Deus) with its headquarters in Braslia, the ChristianSpiritualist Order (Ordem Espiritualista Crista) of the Dawn Valley, theGnostic Church of Brazil (Igreja Gnostica do Brasil) based in the southern cityof Curitiba, and the ayahuasca religions of Santo Daime and the VegetableUnion (Uniao do Vegetal), make explicit use of a range of millenarian themescommon to more traditional forms of Brazilian chiliasm. Located at various

points across the spectrum of new era religiosity in Brazil, each of theseorganisations articulates a millenarian scenario in which, relative to the groupat hand, the current era is or is soon to be beset by global ecological disaster,warfare, civil unrest, moral degeneracy, rampant materialism, escalating crimeand violence, and natural calamities of drought, famine, and earthquake. Forexample, according to Master Joaquim Jose de Andrade Neto, leader of theCampinas based Vegetable Union (Centro Espiritual Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal),humanity is currently living through one of the most crucial moments of itshistory. Characterised by moral corruption, family disintegration, andgrowing prostitution, for example, the present transitional era is beset by

seismic shocks, floods, nuclear accidents, incurable illnesses, and other globaldisasters. Surrounded by evidence of its own disobedience, however,humankind appears not to understand or does not wish to understand that itis fatally making its way towards its own destruction (Milanez 129). Similarsentiments are expressed by the First Master Sun Tumuchy Mario Sassi of theChristian Spiritualist Order of the Dawn Valley. According to Sassi, the currentcivilizational cycle . . . is about to end and the world will pass through greattransformations which are already evident to those with common sense (4). Inthe same vein, Josede Paiva Netto, successor to the founder of the Religion ofGod, Alziro Zarur (19141977), argues that, because of humankinds separation

from God, people are marching towards death in the forthcoming and lastArmageddon of this cycle . . . these final times of deep changes for the World(Netto 28).

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Building upon the prophecies of the Venerable Master Samael Aun Weor(19171977), the Gnostic Church of Brazil claims that the world will betransformed by a forthcoming final catastrophehere in the year of 2043.Akin to other new era groups espousing millenarian scenarios, the GnosticChurch of Brazil maintains that its organisation and members will not only

survive the impending disaster, but also form the basis of a renewed humanrace. According to the organisations leaders, extraterrestrial beings fromthe Pleiades will support those deemed worthy enough to have survivedthe catastrophe of 2043 by communicating valuable scientific and culturalinformation which will aid in the reconstruction. These aliens will alsocontribute genetically to humankinds regeneration and move survivors tosafer places, either on earth or other planets. Within 50 to 100 years of thepredicted catastrophe taking place, it is argued, extraterrestrial interventionand a transformed humanity will have given rise to a new religion, a newpolitical system, a new economic system, a new Science, and a new

Philosophy. Everything will be new. Within this Age of Gold,no individual dies of hunger, no one is denied the universal right to study, toperfect oneself, to work, to health, to longevity, comfort, freedom of movement,housing, and to enjoy the benefits of mineral, vegetable, and animal resources.Everything is portioned out to all in abundance, with justice and equality. Thereare no armies, police or prisons . . . but the one and only law of consciousuniversal love. (Course in New Gnosis, IX. 3 qtd in A. Dawson, New Era103)

Although devoid of extra terrestrials, the discursive repertoire of the new religionof Santo Daime is well stocked with millenarian imagery. The hymnals (hinarios)of Raimundo Irineu Serra (18921971) and Sebastiao Mota de Melo (19201990),

Santo Daimes two most important figures, are replete with millenarian imageryin which the daimista community and its members are situated in the midst ofthe cosmic battle between good and evil. As Imperial Chief and General,respectively, Master Irineu and Padrinho Sebastiao command battalions ofuniformed soldiers (fardados) regimented according to sex, age, and maritalstatus. Both Irineu Serra and Mota de Melo founded communities which theyregarded as foreshadowing the earthly Jerusalem to be established subsequentto the cosmic battle being decisively won by the forces of good (Cemin; Couto).Usually in the form of catastrophic ecological meltdown, talk of impendingglobal disaster is commonplace among Santo Daime members. Drawingupon popular religious imagery, members are prone to making direct parallels

between the shelter afforded by Noahs Ark at the time of the biblical floodand the safe haven to be offered by ruraldaimista communities when impendingenvironmental calamities ensue.

Millenarianism and Rural Peasantry

Discursively speaking, the imagery employed by new era millenarian repertoiresshares a lot with the third and historically most prevalent type of Brazilianmillenarianism mentioned above. A phenomenon principally of the rural poor,

traditional millenarian repertoires emerged on the back of a long-standingsystemic marginalisation from prevailing structures of social-economic powerand political representation. Resulting from a mixture of geographical,



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historical, and social-cultural dynamics, the rural peasantry was disenfranchisedon account of its social status and isolated by its dependence upon theland-owning elite (Monteiro 1314). Both literally and figuratively, the ruralpeasantry lived on the periphery of things. In addition to experiencingsystemic marginalisation from prevailing structures of power and

representation, the rural peasantry also suffered from a deep-seated strategicimpotence. This was characterised by an ideational and practical inability toconceptualise and implement strategies of social transformation. Indicative ofthe practical implications of systemic marginalisation, the strategic impotencewas also fed by dominant symbolic representations of prevailing socialstructures as God-given hierarchies not to be messed with (Otten 287). A directcorrelate of the heavenly order, traditional society was imbued with a fixitywhich allowed for change only in a cyclical (seasonal) and thereby closedsense. Enlightenment notions of linear (open) progress through incrementalsocial transformation were alien to traditional rural society. Together, systemic

marginalisation and strategic impotence fed a worldview in which prevailingstructures of power and representation were regarded by the rural peasantryas neither belonging to them nor open to change. Consequently, if socialtransformation were to occur, it would have to occur through an agency otherthan theirs and by means external to the system. On both counts, socialtransformation would be dramatic, not simply in effect, but also in the mannerof its arrival.

Although opinion differs as to the causal mechanisms involved, treatments oftraditional millenarianism in Brazil agree that some form ofcrise de conscienceactsas a trigger of millenarian activity. The most popular causes of the crises whichtrigger traditional millenarian outbreaks are identified as the ingression ofmodernising capitalist dynamics within rural society and the inward expansionof centralised state systems already established among the bulk of the Brazilianpopulation living in urban centres along the coast (e.g. Della Cava; J. Martins;Oliveira; Otten). Alternative readings place causal emphasis upon dynamicsinternal to the religious field (e.g. Myscofski) or the breakdown of establishedkinship structures (Queiroz). Whether social-cultural, political-economic orreligious in nature, the crises which trigger millenarian activity do so becausethey have an impact upon both practical mechanisms of support and symbolicstructures of signification. Practically speaking, for example, the transition fromlanded tenant to wage labourer brought on by the introduction of capitalist

means of production quickly erode established modes of social-economicreproduction (e.g. mutirao and compadrio) which serve to ameliorate thehardships of rural life. In the same vein, and undermined by the rapid erosionof established means of social-economic reproduction, traditional meaningstructures which likewise mitigate hardship, but also act as ideological cementare quickly exhausted as symbolic resources for making sense of just what isgoing on. Crises of practical-symbolic reproduction thereby provide fertileground into which the seeds of already existing millenarian traditions can besown as the negation of a negation. Driven by practical-symbolic crisis and theresulting longing for change, systemic marginalisation and strategic impotence

combine to produce a worldview which holds that prevailing structuresmust end before things can change for the better and that this end will comeby means both external to the system and other than collective agitation.

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Although not the only possible response, thedeus ex machinamodel furnished bythe millenarian paradigm squares the significatory circle in that it providesa much desired social transformation when both systemic marginalisation andstrategic impotence dictate such a state of affairs to be an otherwise practical andsymbolic impossibility.

Millenarian Views among New Era Urban Professionals

In contrast to the groups within which millenarian perspectives havetraditionally emerged, new era urban professionals espousing millenarianviews cannot be said to be suffering under the same conditions of systemicmarginalisation and strategic impotence. In social-economic terms, for example,and allowing for the usual variations between specific groups and organisations,new era participants are generally members of Brazils urban-industrial middleclasses, which makes them preponderantly white, relatively well-educated,

and usually employed in the professional field and its ancillary sectors(Bandeira; A. Dawson, Gnostic Church). In the same vein, new era urbanprofessionals have at their disposal an established stock of knowledgepopulated by liberal views of historical progress and social development.Although Brazil undoubtedly suffered a democratic deficit during its years ofmilitary dictatorship (19641982), its political structures of representation are nomore attenuated today than they are in many other liberal democracies across theglobe. Whence then the attachment of new era urban professionals to millenarianthemes and imagery traditionally associated with the rural peasantry? Pursuingthe investigative line of continuity noted above, a number of comparisons might

be drawn between the context of rural poverty which has historically given riseto traditional millenarianism in Brazil and the middle-class, urban-industrialcontext within which new era articulations of millenarian motifs occur.

Line of Continuity

Firstly, whereas it cannot be said that the majority of new era participants sufferunder the same conditions of systemic marginalisation as those among whommillenarianism has traditionally thrived, it might be argued that their status asurban professionals in contemporary Brazil nevertheless engenders a kind of

systemic insecurity, created, among other things, by a decreasing standard ofliving and a steady decline in both physical and occupational security. Muchhas been written about the manner in and the extent to which contemporaryurban-industrial society generates both material and psychological insecurityfor its members. Giddens, for example, identifies anxiety, disorientation,and insecurity as integral components of subjective experience in latemodern society (Consequences153; Modernity 181; Living 89), just as Bourdieuhighlights the generalized subjective insecurity experienced by those subject toneo-liberal policies of casualization and flexploitation (826). In the samevein, Beck and Beck-Gernsheim identify endemic insecurity and biographical

uncertainties as now perennial features of contemporary existence (34); whileBauman talks of the awesome and distressing insecurity and precariteengendered by late modern capitalism (Community 418, 11348; Liquid Life 313).



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Of course, the life of the average urban professional is by no means asdifficult or precarious as that of the poor majority in Brazil. Subjectiveexperience is, however, very rarely a relative state of affairs. Nevertheless,consecutive decades of stagflation (1980s), neo-liberal reform (1990s), and fiscalredistribution (2000s) have eroded once secure professional comfort zones at a

time when enhanced global awareness and late capitalist ideologies have actuallyincreased urban middle-class expectations (ODougherty; Quadros; Pochmannet al.). Combined with the erosion of social-economic conditions, the shortfall

between expectation and reality serves only to exacerbate the conditions ofuncertainty, disorientation, anxiety, and distress identified by the likes ofBauman, Beck, Bourdieu, and Giddens. As with the systemic marginalisationsuffered by the rural poor, the systemic insecurity experienced by growingsections of Brazils urban middle classes discourages change for the better

being expected of current social structures. As such, change for the better willcome from beyond the prevailing system.

Secondly, while it cannot be said that the majority of new era adherentsexperience the same strategic impotence as those for whom millenarianism hastraditionally been a response, it may be argued that, for some at least, there existsa kind of strategic indifference to established representative structuresand processes of collective agitation. The cause (or admixture of causes) ofsuch indifference will clearly differ from person to person. For Beck andBeck-Gernsheim, the urban-industrial processes of individualisation areresponsible for the progressive subpoliticization of civil society and asubjectivity of political privatism, which manifest themselves in a growingdisregard for political processes of representation and collective mechanisms ofagitation (27, 38). Along the same lines, Castells blames the contemporaryindifference to collective processes of representation and action uponmodernitys dissolution of shared identities and the resultant loss of societyas a meaningful social system (355). Arguing that ours are times ofdisengagement, Bauman holds the indeterminacy of late modern life tohave engendered a kind of indifference resulting in an incapacity to makeplans and act on them (Community 127). In less general terms, for someBrazilians, strategic indifference may also be rooted in a lack of habit born ofthe paucity of proper mechanisms for political representation and civil agitation,which lasted from the military coup of 1964 until re-democratisation in the early1980s. Whatever the particular cocktail of causation, however, the contemporary

context of urban-industrial Brazil is seen to be characterised by democraticdeficit and associative alienation embodying both a distrust of anddisenchantment with existing structures of representation and mechanismsof collective expression (Baquero, Cultura, Construindo; Ferreira).Reflecting a lack of subjective investment in prevailing societal institutions,the implications of strategic indifference are that those desirous of socialchange must look for it through means other than established processes ofpolitical representation and civil agitation.

Together, systemic insecurity and strategic indifference engender among newera practitioners a practical-symbolic crisis which, at one and the same time,

longs for resolution through a change for the better, while they accept thatsuch positive transformation will come from neither internal reform of thesystem nor strategic engagement with it. Beck and Beck-Gernsheim,

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for example, link the late modern processes of individualisation with theemergence of novel religious phenomena, typified by what they call themarket for the answer factories, the psycho-boom, [and] the advice literature.As part of this market, new era millenarianism responds to late modernityserosion of established patterns of social reproduction. This erosion results

in the now disembedded individual facing a dizzying range of possibilitieswhich contemporary existence provokes, while, at the same time, underminingestablished (collective) means of orientation, meaning, and structure.Unsupported in the face of the tyranny of possibilities, the overtaxedindividual is disorientated and seeks a means of escape through the flightinto magic, myth, [and] metaphysics. Mediated by new era repertoires, theflight comprises a mixture of the esoteric cult, the primal scream, mysticism,yoga, and Freud which is supposed to drown out the tyranny of possibilities,

but in fact reinforces it with its changing fashions (7). Paulo Martins argues thatnew era religious repertoires channel a great dissatisfaction on the part of the

middle-classes with the functioning of certain basic societal institutions (81).In so doing, new era religiosity comprises a self-conscious revolt againstmodernitys prevailing Cartesian rationalism in which the physical has beensubordinated to the intellectual. Treating the body as little more than aninstrument of labour, the modern paradigm, Martins maintains, hassuppressed physicality and its attendant desires and emotions. In constitutingthe physical as a site of pleasure, play, fantasy, and emotion, new era regimesre-signify the corporeal imaginary and thereby emancipate the body asa vehicle of ethical desire (856).

Of course, by no stretch of the imagination are the significatory resources madeavailable by the millenarian paradigm the only means of disorientated anddisaffected urban professionals resolving the practical-symbolic crisis provoked

by the combination of systemic insecurity and strategic indifference.Nevertheless, the eschatological scenario articulated by millenarian motifs doesoffer resolution in that it furnishes the much desired change for the better,while leaving systemic insecurity and strategic indifference untouched. Albeitin paradoxical fashion, it is because the millenarian paradigm resolves thepractical-symbolic crisis while leaving its causes untouched that it continues to

be drawn upon by new era professionals living in the urban-industrial heartlandsof Brazil.

Line of Discontinuity

As indicated above, there is a second line of enquiry in respect of the attachmentof new era urban professionals to the millenarian paradigm. Although theimplications of systemic insecurity and strategic indifference are not rejected bythe second line of enquiry, it does place much more emphasis upon dynamicswhich reflect a greater degree of discontinuity between traditional and new eramillenarian discourses. This line of enquiry commences by regarding new eraespousals of millenarian themes as embodying a self-conscious strategic

articulation indicative of the heightened degree of reflexivity enjoyed by theurban middle classes of late modern industrial society. In effect, the reflexivitythesis argues that the historically recent transmutation of typically modern



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dynamics constitutive of urban-industrial society (e.g. individualisation,detraditionalisation, globalisation, and pluralisation) has resulted in anunprecedented degree of self-awareness being enjoyed by increasing numbersin contemporary late modern society. Using the term reflexivity to designatethis new-found degree of self-conscious appreciation, theorists of late modernity

argue that contemporary urban-industrial existence is, for many, marked bya strategically driven and instrumentally orientated subjectivity (e.g. Beck;Giddens, Modernity; Lash). Perhaps exemplified by the professional classes ofurban-industrial society, the reflexivity afforded by late modernity permitsindividuals a degree of self-critical awareness, positional understanding, andstrategic savvy hitherto unavailable to human consciousness (e.g. Beck,Giddens and Lash). As bona fide members of Brazils urban-industrial middleclasses, it should be of no surprise to find the dynamics of late modernreflexivity at play among contemporary new era participants and theorganisational repertoires articulated by them.

Following this line of enquiry, the appearance of traditional millenarian motifswithin new era narratives might, for example, be regarded as a reflexive strategyemployed to underwrite the utility value of organisational repertoires.By employing millenarian discourse to situate the world in the midst of a trulymomentous transitional phase, it could be argued, new era discourse reinforcesits pragmatic worth by offering itself as a form of practical knowledgewell-placed to aid individuals in meeting the very particular demandsprovoked by the calamitous times through which they are passing. Theknowledge furnished by new era narratives, it is claimed, allows individuals tounderstand the significance of current calamities and disasters by placing themin their appropriate cosmological context. At the same time, the practicalrepertoire afforded by new era regimes is said to equip practitioners witha range of techniques which enable members to endure successfully the trialsand tribulations associated with the birth of the new era. The sense of urgencyconveyed by the millenarian paradigm further reinforces individual motivationfor appropriating new era discourse and practice.

In the same vein, the reflexive character of new era appropriations oftraditional millenarian themes might be further underlined by regarding theespousal of millenarian motifs as part of a broader strategy to differentiate newera repertoires from other occupants of the increasingly crowded religiouslandscape of urban-industrial Brazil. In view of the fierce competition for what

remains a relatively small constituency of sympathetic urban professionals,religious production undergoes a degree of standardization, as organisationalrepertoires are progressively tailored to the same narrow band of potentialmembers (Berger 147). In order to stand out from the crowd, and therebymitigate the effects of repertorial standardisation, new era religions must findways of differentiating themselves from others in their field.2 Along the samelines, the appearance of traditional millenarian themes within narrativerepertoires might be viewed as another strategic attempt by these groups tomarginally differentiate themselves from their nearest competitors.

In keeping with late modernitys facilitation of the reflexive project

(Giddens, Modernity 186), the attraction of the millenarian paradigm to new eraurban professionals might also involve the strategic exploitation of itseschatological scenario in the cause of self-valorisation. In one sense, the new

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earth scenario portrayed by the millenarian paradigm provides new era adeptswith both a vindication of and reward for their perseverance and faithfulnessin the face of scepticism and persecution. The arrival of a new dispensation willinvolve not only the transformation of the world, but also the transposition ofgroup values and those who espouse them from their currently marginal status

to a central position in keeping with the character of the new world order.In another sense, the appropriation of millenarian motifs is even moreself-affirming because it reminds practitioners that the values and beliefs towhich they currently adhere are the very values and beliefs by which theworld will be transformed and upon which the new era will be founded.Further, because adherents live by these values and beliefs, they will be amongthe righteous remnant which is to form the vanguard of the renewed worldand its new civilization. The strategic linkage of contemporary new erapractice with impending global renewal endows both organisational repertoireand individual practitioner with a significance of truly cosmic proportions.

The new era preoccupation with what has elsewhere been called cosmicself-aggrandizement is further reinforced through the use of the millenarianparadigms decimation of the prevailing structures and dominant institutionsof contemporary society (A. Dawson,New Era 162). As with other occupants ofBrazils new era religious landscape, theraison detreof new era ritual repertoiresis held to be their nurture of the higher self (known also as the inner, cosmic,true or Christic self). The higher self is the interior aspect of the individualmost attuned to the universal whole of which we are all a part. Only whenthe higher self is developed are the latent powers residing deep within eachof us able to be tapped, harnessed, and manipulated to the end of obtainingabsolute self-realisation. Evident through spiritual enlightenment, universalunderstanding, and physical well-being, the selfs absolute realisation is,however, conditional upon the eradication of the ego (known also as thelower self). Originating through embodied interaction with the world at large,the ego is the part of the individual most affected by and attached to the external,material world. The ego suppresses the higher self and thereby restricts theindividual pursuit of absolute self-realisation.

Functioning, in effect, as the social self, the ego serves as a cipher for theplethora of forces and dynamics, which stand over and against the individual.The ego signifies society at large, just as its dissolution signifies the liberation ofthe individual from external forces and dynamics otherwise beyond its control.

By annihilating the ego, the new era repertoire eradicates societal determination.In so doing, new era discourse and practice free the individual from unwarrantedexternal interference and thereby allow the unfettered pursuit of absoluteself-realisation. In narrative terms, the annihilation of the ego and theemergence of the higher self correlate directly with the dissolution of societaldetermination and the achievement of absolute self-realisation. This is wherethe millenarian paradigm comes in. For, in the hands of urban middle-classadherents preoccupied with the reflexive project of the self, millenarianismsdecimation of the world at large reinforces the correlation. By completelyreconfiguring the societal dynamics responsible for the birth of the ego,

millenarianisms new earth scenario removes all forms of externaldetermination which might otherwise hinder the absolute realisation of thehigher self. The renewed earth of the millenarian paradigm thereby furnishes



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the individual with a blank canvas upon which s/he is unqualifiedly free toexpress her/himself and pursue her/his destiny. In effect, the millenarianparadigms removal of unwarranted societal determination underwrites theabsolute sovereignty of the late modern self.

The reflexive character of new era appropriations of millenarian themes

might be further underlined with reference to the typically instrumental andexpressionistic nature of new era religiosity in Brazil. Collectively, late moderntransformations of established urban-industrial dynamics have radicallymodified received relationships between religious communities and theirrespective participants. With emphasis shifting from collective to individualexpectation, growing numbers of individuals increasingly interact withreligious movements and organisations relative to subjective criteria guided

by immediate experience and orientated to personal fulfilment. Evaluatedrelative to subjective needs and aspirations, religious participation is therebyinstrumentalised, as it comes to be viewed as a means to self-realisation rather

than an end in itself or the meeting of pre-existing social obligations. Perhaps twoof the clearest expressions of the instrumentalisation of religious belonging inBrazil are the dynamics of religious transit and bricolage. Religious transit ischaracterised by the concurrent participation in and consecutive switching

between different religious groups, while religious bricolage embodies aneclectic, pick-and-mix approach in which otherwise disparate beliefs, rituals,and values are individually appropriated relative to subjective tastes andpreoccupations. Evidence of the instrumentalisation of religious belonging,along with the dynamics of transit and bricolage, are commonplace across thenew era community (A. Dawson,New Era 10911).

Practised by new era urban professionals, transit and bricolage express anexperimental and expressionistic religiosity which at times borders on theplayful. Facilitated by increasingly pluralised urban environments, transit andbricolage combine to produce a subjective polysemy of religious experience,in which an assortment of beliefs and rituals are picked up and played with

before being discarded or appropriated along idiosyncratic lines (Brandao 30).Set against the backdrop of instrumentalised religiosity, new era espousals ofmillenarian themes might best be understood not as embodying deep-seatedinsecurity and ambivalence, but rather as reflecting expressionistic andexperimental dynamics which are intrinsically ludic in nature. This is not toquestion the seriousness and commitment with which millenarian views are

expressed by new era participants. It is, though, to recognise the espousal ofmillenarianism as part of a transient and hybrid religious identity theprovisionality of which is reflexively orchestrated. The millenarian viewsexpressed by new era adepts can thus only properly be understood whenviewed as representing just one component of an otherwise variegated

biographical trajectory comprising a highly diverse and constantly changing setof beliefs.

Conclusion

The espousal of new era millenarianism by sectors of Brazils urban middleclasses is a far more nuanced process than an article such as this can suggest.

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Nevertheless, each of the lines of enquiry pursued above provides valuableinsight into a range of dynamics which combine to set the conditions ofpossibility within which new era appropriations of the millenarian paradigmoccur. By treating new era millenarianism as in continuity with Brazilstraditional millenarian paradigm, the first line of enquiry highlights its

significatory potential in resolving a range of practical-symbolic crises born ofthe confluence of systemic insecurity and strategic indifference. The argumentfrom continuity compares with other critiques which situate new era religiositywithin a context of social dislocation and crisis of meaning, brought on bythe vertiginous transformations wrought by rapid and far-reaching urbanindustrialisation (examples offered by Clarke 1719 and L. Dawson 4260).There is thus something to be said in favour of the argument from continuity.At the same time, the late modern context within which new era religion existsplays a massive part in influencing both the organisational repertoires by whichnew era millenarianism is framed and the subjective dynamics of individual

agency by which millenarian motifs are brought to life. Born of late modernreflexivity and seated within an instrumentally driven religious repertoire,new era appropriations of the millenarian paradigm assume an ineluctablystrategic quality. While not ruling out the dynamics of practical-symbolic crisis,

by underlining the intentional, self-aware qualities of new era millenarianism,the argument from discontinuity likewise has something to offer.

As Clarke reminds us, new religious phenomena are not . . . exclusivelymodern, but juxtapose both modern and traditional forms of religion (355).It is perhaps its exemplification of the both . . . and quality of novel religiousphenomena which ensures the contemporary prevalence of millenarian discourse

not just in new era religiosity of Brazil, but in new religious movements across theglobe (Landes). Strangely familiar by virtue of their recapitulation of establishedthemes, yet strikingly novel on account of their late modern preoccupations,contemporary articulations of the traditional millenarian paradigm underscorethe Janus-faced nature of new era religiosity both in Brazil and beyond.

Andrew Dawson lectures in religious studies at Lancaster University, UK. He has degreesfrom universities in England and the United States in religious studies, sociology,and theology. He researches and publishes in religion and society in Latin America,principally Brazil. His most recent book is New EraNew Religions which examinesthe rise and spread of new era religiosity in Brazil.CORRESPONDENCE:Department ofReligious Studies, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YN, UK.

NOTES

1. While the prevalence of millenarian discourse among the increasingly popular neo-Pentecostaldenominations of Brazilian Protestantism should not go unmentioned, the extent to which theseparticular end-time motifs serve as a discursive resource for other movements and organisationsis questionable.

2. Berger calls this process marginal differentiation, as any group employing it must be carefulnot to differentiate themselves so much as to place themselves outside the most profitable(and thereby standardised) band of organisational repertoires (147).



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