A "Era das Catedrais" da IURD: a autenticidade em exibição

Abstract

This dissertation has the objective of analysing the way in which the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (or IURD), founded 26 years ago, developped and constructed its particular "church project". This development had as one of its principal supports the tense and conflicting relationship that the IURD had with others interlocutors, especially in 1995, it's most critical phase. The discussion tries to show how this period was considered and interpreted by the different actors, but has its focus on "the native point of view". The question of "authenticity" will be the background of the suggested discussion, as far as it has been identified as an important category for understanding the relationship between this church and its interlocutors. In this study this notion has been presented in the form of oppositions: purity-impurity; church-sect; authentic-non-authentic. In contrast to most of the previous literature I try to show that there was, in this period, an interaction of different concepts of authencitiy. Taking as a starting point the attitude of the post-1995 IURD, a period that was characterized by the intensification of practices and attempts for its consolidation, the dissertation points out that the native notion of authenticity has given direction to the development of the project that was called "The Cathedral Era", including the construction of the Worldly Seat (Sede Mundial), that was seen as the principal mark in the process of realizing its "church project".