The theology of the spiritual battl

a bibliographical review

Abstract

The socio-anthropological literature on the “spiritual battle” waged by Pentecostals and neo-Pentecos- tals in Brazil has been marked by two concerns: the re-enchantment of this theology, on the one hand, and its relation of continuity and rupture with Afro-Brazilian religiosity and so-called Brazilian culture, on the other. Based on a critical analysis of this bibliography, the article underscores theology’s ethical role within this spiritual war and argues that as a process of ethicizing religion, the battle is an element that conveys Western modernity.