A desconstrução da morte: uma análise da visão espírita

Abstract

Spiritism, a religion that arrived in Brazil in mid-nineteenth century has grown significantly over the last decades. In 1980, 0.7% of people declared themselves as spiritists and in 2000, they represented 1.4% of the population. The number of self-declared spiritists has doubled in 20 years. These data reveal how much this religion has grown in the Brazilian religious field. This study suggests a counterpoint between the spiritism’s perception of death, considering the environment of a country that was an officially Catholic nation until the end of the 19th century, and in which Catholicism became a generalized reference. In other words, the other religions are institutionally and subjectively articulated in a peculiar way to the remaining Catholic domination, as its beliefs and customs are engrained in memory, in the mentality of Brazilian society. Therefore, it is necessary to know how Catholicism is lived in the Brazilian territory to understand how the new perceptions of the Spiritism as a doctrine are articulated.