Martin

"In Brazil, the Church opened up a discreet dialogue with the military regime to ameliorate the most severe outbreaks of conflict over human rights (Serbin; Bruneau and Hewitt). With the return of democracy and the achievement of some stability under Cardoso, Lula and what is now (2005) the governing Workers Party adopted more conciliatory approaches to both Catholicism and Pentecostalism. The traditional divides became less significant and the Evangelical Presidential candidate, with 18% of the vote in 2002, actually threw his weight behind the election of Lula. The overarching role of the Catholic Church remained, in spite of the massive rise in Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism and the increasingly independent influence of Spiritism. " ¹(150)

"Liberation theology and the base communities both raised popular consciousness and made a serious contribution along with important sectors of the episcopate, to human rights and resistance to dictatorship. They also pre-empted the Marxist threat until it receded .... In a similar way, charismatic Catholicism, for example in Brazil, or New Evangelisation and the neo-catechumenate, may to some extent have pre-empted Pentecostalism (Clarke). Competition is good for monopolies, because it motivates them to find out need and meet it."² (151)

"The fundamentalist label is misleading, partly because Pentecostalism focuses as much on spiritual gifts as on the text, but also because fundamentalism in the developing world arises with the formation of the nation state...The fissiparous pluralism of Pentecostalism has little in common with this, even in places like Brazil and Ghana where Pentecostals harbour serious political ambitions"³ (155)

1D Martin ' Secularisation and the Future of Christianity', Journal of Contemporary Religion, 20:2 145–160, 150.

2D Martin ' Secularisation and the Future of Christianity', Journal of Contemporary Religion, 20:2 145–160, 151.

3D Martin ' Secularisation and the Future of Christianity', Journal of Contemporary Religion, 20:2 145–160, 155.