Abstract
The chapter describes the long path of changes in the religious distribution of the Brazilian population over 50 years between 1960 and 2010, analyzing how such changes correlate to broader socioeconomic transformations. We call “religious transition” the sum of these three trends: (i) the major change in the country’s religious landscape, from being predominantly Catholic to increasingly Evangelical, (ii) the Christianity’s tendency to boost its internal segmentation (especially among the Evangelicals) and to foster different ways of being a participant/believer, and (iii) the substantive pluralization and growth of non-Christians (people of other religions and also without religion). The analysis is divided into four parts. First, a basic descriptive overview indicates tendencies of growth, decline, continuity, and points of inflection. Then, the socioeconomic characteristics of major religious groups are presented. Afterward, an age-period-cohort analysis proceeds in order to identify how the probabilities of being part of each religious group changes for each person across the life course and for the whole population through the decades and generations. Lastly, religion reproduction within families through the transmission from parents to child is analyzed along with how this changed in the last decades. The religious transition is not just the differential growth between denominations – it is deeply rooted in changes in the socioeconomic characteristics and in the probabilities of reproduction inside the households, and it is taking place for a long time.
The authors are grateful for the thoughtful comments received from Ricardo Mariano, Marcelo Camurça, Eduardo Rios-Neto, and Marta Arretche.
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Notes
- 1.
There is no longer a Catholic majority in two Brazilian states: Rondônia and Rio de Janeiro, where Catholics represent 47.9% and 46.3%, respectively.
- 2.
Hypothesis raised by Ricardo Mariano when discussing an earlier version of this chapter during the first internal seminar of the project.
- 3.
Ethnic religions (Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc.), Eastern religions (Buddhism, Seicho No-Ie, Hare Krishna, etc.), indigenous religions (Santo Daime, União do Vegetal, Barquinha, etc.), and others.
- 4.
The 2010 census introduced differentiation between atheists (those who do not believe in the supernatural/are not religious) and agnostics (those who have suspended their questioning on the matter). But the reliability of this information is suspect. We cannot reasonably presume that the entire population knows how to properly differentiate between “without religion,” “atheist,” and “agnostic.”
- 5.
We understand pluralism to mean the fragmentation of the religious field into several denominations within a larger scenario of competitiveness, which implies adherence by individual choice, where belonging to one religion implies not belonging to or practicing another. Traditionalism, in turn, refers to religious behavior as a result of social and particularly family heritage. Traditional religious behavior is commonly not internalized (Camargo 1971). Lastly, syncretism encompasses the fusions between cosmological systems and different ritual practices, which may lead to a double religious affiliation or the development of new systems rooted in previous ones (Almeida 2009).
- 6.
Strictly speaking, secularization refers to the process of separating church and state, in which religious parameters do not dictate laws or secular institutions. The state deregulates the religious field (or vice versa), paving the way for competition between religions in an environment previously marked by a denominational monopoly (Pierucci 1998; Stark and Iannaconne 1994). Thus, pluralism is a result of secularization. In a broad sense, secularization involves the loss of plausibility of the religious worldview and, consequently, the weakening of religions and religiosity (Berger 1985).
- 7.
Camargo (1971) contrasts traditional religions with internalized religions, the former characterized by their ritualistic and procedural aspects that are strongly linked to established powers (and often legitimizers of the social order). In internalized religions, individual adherence occurs through conviction (the rapprochement to the Weberian concept of ethics of conviction is not random), which to a large extent can be based on criticism of traditional behaviors, leading to possible shocks or clashes.
- 8.
There were intense transformations in labor relations and economic organization in rural areas, displacing the former centrality of subsistence agriculture (anchored in family organization) and instituting “more modern” work and social organization models.
- 9.
Income variables were deflated according to the suggestion by Corseuil and Foguel (2002).
- 10.
The model used was the intrinsic estimator (Yang et al. 2008). It is a Poisson regression with modifications that allow us to isolate the separate influence of each component. Its specificity allows for the use of these three perfectly related variables (period = age + cohort) without the mathematical limitations inherent in regression analysis. Details for the estimate may be requested to the authors.
- 11.
Qualitative research has found that family exerts influence on the acceptance or rejection of a religion. In this case, a differentiated religious adherence in a single household may signal conflicts among members of a family (Almeida and Rumstain 2011).
- 12.
This same methodology was used by Barbosa (2009).
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de Almeida, R.R.M., Barbosa, R.J. (2019). Religious Transition in Brazil. In: Arretche, M. (eds) Paths of Inequality in Brazil. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78184-6_12
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