Looking for God in Brazil

For a generation the Catholic Church in Brazil has enjoyed international renown as one of the most progressive social forces in Latin America. The Church's creation of Christian Base Communities (CEBs) groups of Catholics who learn to read the Bible as a call for social justice has been widely hailed. Still in recent years it has become increasingly clear that the CEBs are lagging far behind the explosive growth of Brazil's two other major national religious movements—Pentacostalism and Afro-Brazilian Umbanda.

On the basis of his extensive fieldwork in Rio di Janeiro including detailed life histories of women blacks youths and the marginal poor John Burdick offers the first in-depth explanation of why the radical Catholic Church is losing and Pentecostalism and Umbanda winning the battle for souls in urban Brazil.

PREFACE
Introduction: Paradoxes in a Religious Arena

1
Getting Bread at Rodrigo's
2
The Religious Arena
3
"The Church is Open!": Class Fractions in the
Religious Arena
4
"I Struggle at Home Every Day": Women and
Domestic Conflict in the Religious Arena
5
Escape from the Snake's Nest: Unmarried
Youth in the Religious Arena
6
Slaves and Wanderers: Negros in the Religious Arena
7
Catholics Crentes and Politics

Conclusion: Looking for Liberation
NOTES
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX