Chesnut Born Again

RA Chesnut, Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty, (London: Rutgers University Press, 1997)

Health Maintenance: Spiritual Ecstasy and Mutual Aid
importance of the experience of God's power.1 92-93
“Spiritual baptism provides a phenomenological bridge to the new faith for poor Brazilians familiar with spirit possession in African-Brazilian religion.”2 94
“In Latin American Pentecostalism...the Holy Spirit is a decidedly masculine being...penetrates the believer, injecting her with seminal power.”3 95
“the Holy Spirit operates as a sort of divine patron, offering protection in exchange for service and loyalty.”4 96
“The AD's organizational design, though centralized, has left the churches of the baixadas with sufficient autonomy to maintain the priesthood of all believers.”5 (98) contrast this with the more authoritarian nature of the “postmodern” Pentecostal churches [can they be postmodern, then?]6 (98) claims that in the latter, members become the beneficiaries, but not the practitioners of gifts which are concentrated in the leaders.7 (99)
Speaking in tongues, escape from speaking in a Portuguese which is ridiculed by the rest of society.8 (100)
Healing, beyond pastors is exercised by exceptionally devout women; status on pastor dependent on talent as healer.9 (102)
“So fundamental is music to Pentecostal liturgy in Brazil that it typically comprises two-thirds of the culto.”10 (102)
Significance of mutual aid in the church, often through informal networks rather than the institution.11 (104) Role as a job bank.12 (105) role of pastors as employment agents.13 (106)