Israel of God in Brazil: An Imagined Messianic Nation
摘要
Adherence of Brazilian evangelical groups to the right-wing political movement of president Jair Bolsonaro resulted in an association between Israeli religious symbols to the imaginary of national conservatism. This chapter explains this association through historical perspectives (the persistent messianism of Brazilian popular classes, rooted in Iberian mysticism; the North American origins of Brazilian Pentecostalism) and social analysis (Anderson’s concept of imagined communities). Conclusions point out that the country imagined by the Brazilian Pentecostal community is monarchical, religious, politically centralized and capitalist, and also marked by the worldviews of the United States. In this sense, the constitution of an “Israel of God” in Brazil based on biblical prophecy allows part of the Brazilian population to aspire to a happy future, in contrast to a reality of underdevelopment.