Evangélicos e meio técnico-científico-informacional no Brasil: um estudo a partir da Igreja Batista da Lagoinha

Abstract

The present research aims to discuss the expansion of the brazilian pentecostal evangelism, through a spatial study of Igreja Batista da Lagoinha (IBL), a pentecostal protestant denomination associated to the medium urban classes, born from the Baptist Church, on 1957, in Belo Horizonte. The central idea is to lift and analyze the main social and spatial strategies used by this church to its consolidation and territorial expansion. With a business organizational structure and focused on the religious market, IBL started to expand with more expression in the end of the 1970 decade, exactly the decade that marks the start of the Technical-Scientific-Informational, as characterized by Milton Santos (1994 e 1996). Thus, the Technical-Scientific-Informational medium and the concepts associated – technosphere and psychosphere – had a fundamental theoretical importance to this investigation. From the methodological viewpoint, besides the execution of bibliographic and documental surveys, data through the censitory basis of Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) were collected, as well as the provided by the IBL itself in its official website. As the IBGE censitory data of 2022 were not provided yet, related to religion, it has been utilized here the the data provided by Datafolha Institute, as well as the Escola Nacional de Ciências Estatísticas do IBGE (ENCE-IBGE) projections. Concurrently, it has been madden camp works at the main IBL facilities in the State of Rio de Janeiro, located at the neighborhoods of Barra da Tijuca, Leblon and Niterói. To summarize, the results of this research indicates that IBL has expanded itself simultaneously to the intensification of the territory modernization and the urbanization process unleashed, mainly, in the 1970 decade. Therefore, IBL deployed itself in the most urbanized areas, and in 2023 presented a total of 522 churches/temples in Brazil. Furthermore, IBL initiated its business actuation, constituting enterprises that formed a real technical net in the Brazilian territory, having the information as a fundamental component and building part of the psychosphere of the period. As of the spatial record of Rio de Janeiro, it has been observed that IBL adopted a locational strategy, oriented to the most social and economically valued and privileged. Another important locational characteristic is the location pattern of their churches/temples, next to the main urban centers and the main circulation roads, enabling easy access and attraction through consumerism. Moreover, the assistentialism actions demonstrate the organic relationship between the pentecostal evangelism and the globalization process. It has been observed that the IBL actuation form in the Brazilian territory is consonant to the globalization process, as pointed out by Milton Santos (2001), as fairy tale and perversity.