Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 23, No.

3, October 2008, 269283

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil

ANDREW DAWSON

ABSTRACT This article explores a range of dynamics which inform the construction of new era religious identities of urban professionals in Brazil through their appropriation of traditional millenarian themes most closely associated with the nations rural peasantry. As part of this exploration, two lines of enquiry are followed. The first explores the continuity between the traditional millenarian paradigm most closely associated with Brazils rural peasantry and the new era millenarianism articulated by members of the urban middle-classes. While not denying narrative similarities with traditional millenarian movements in Brazil, the second line of enquiry engages new era millenarianism by regarding it as embodying a range of dynamics typical of the late modern context within which its urban professional adherents are situated. While the dynamics of practical-symbolic crisis identified by the first line of enquiry are not discounted, the second line of enquiry regards new era millenarianism as primarily expressive of a number of reflexive preoccupations typical of late modern urban existence.

Introduction What follows arises from fieldwork with new religious movements and organisations in Brazil. In the course of this fieldwork it has become apparent that millenarian themes and preoccupations traditionally associated with the rural poor are alive and well among sections of Brazils not so poor, urban-industrial middle classes. This article explores some of the dynamics involved in the construction of the new era religious identities of urban professionals through their appropriation of traditional millenarian themes most closely associated with the rural peasantry of Brazil. As part of this exploration, two lines of enquiry will be followed: one of continuity, the other of discontinuity. The first line of enquiry explores the continuity between the traditional millenarianism most closely associated with Brazils rural peasantry and the new era millenarianism articulated by members of the urban middle classes. Here, comparisons are drawn between the practical-symbolic crises suffered by rural adherents of traditional millenarian forms and the existential crises experienced by urban professionals espousing new era millenarianism. Like traditional millenarianism before it, new era millenarianism is held to express subjective experiences of alienation from and disenchantment with prevailing societal structures. While not denying narrative similarities with traditional millenarian movements in Brazil, the line of discontinuity engages new era millenarianism by regarding it as embodying a range of dynamics

ISSN 1353-7903 print/ISSN 1469-9419 online/08/03026915 2008 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/13537900802373155

270 A. Dawson typical of the late modern context within which its urban professional adherents are situated. While notions of alienation and disenchantment are not discounted, the second line of enquiry regards new era millenarianism as primarily expressive of a number of reflexive preoccupations typical of late modern urban existence. Prior to pursuing these lines of enquiry, however, it may prove fruitful to contextualise new era millenarianism within the long and fertile tradition of millenarian thought and action in Brazil.

Millenarianisn in Brazil Regarding millenarianism as a particular type of salvationism, Cohn argues that the millenarian paradigm can be identified through its characterisation of salvation as
(a) collective, in the sense that it is to be enjoyed by the faithful as a collectivity; (b) terrestrial, in the sense that it is to be realized on this earth and not in some other-worldly heaven; (c) imminent, in the sense that it is to come both soon and suddenly; (d) total, in the sense that it is utterly to transform life on earth, so that the new dispensation will be no mere improvement on the present but perfection itself; (e) miraculous, in the sense that it is to be accomplished by, or with the help of, supernatural agencies. (13)

While not exclusively so, the form of salvation articulated by the millenarian o maintains, paradigm in Brazil tends towards the messianic. As Negra messianic millenarianism involves the belief in a saviour (God himself or his emissary) whose anticipated arrival will put an end to the present iniquitous or oppressive order and establish a new era of virtue and justice (Revisitando 119). The history of messianic millenarianism in Brazil is fertile and Levine believes it likely that dozens or even hundreds of millenarian and messianic movements sprang up and died of their own accord over the centuries (218). Indeed, such has been the prevalence of messianic millenarianism in Brazil that Da Matta regards it as a fundamental part of Brazilian culture (5). As will be seen, the prevalence and persistence of millenarian imagery throughout the history of Brazil constitutes it as both a deep and well stocked symbolic reservoir from which successive generations have drawn. In terms of religious-cultural classification, Brazilian millenarianism may be categorised according to four types. The first type comprises wholly indigenous millenarian movements such as those exemplified by the periodic, pre-conquest migrations to the coast by Tupi-Guarani tribes in search of the Land Without Evil (Ribeiro 71). The second type involves a mixture of indigenous and Catholic components in which the latter, backed by its cultural hegemony, undertakes the lions share of the hermeneutical work. The santidades (holy ones) of the early colonial period are a classic example, as are the assorted movements peoples, which occurred in the late among the Baniwa, Canela, and Kraho nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Oros treatment of the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross (Irmandade da Santa Cruz), which emerged in the state of Amazonas in 1972, offers a more recent example. The third type of Brazilian millenarianism is by far the most prevalent and draws almost entirely upon Christian themes and practices as mediated by popular forms of Portuguese and, latterly, Roman Catholicism. As Myscofskis

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil 271 treatment of the Luso-Brazilian messianic tradition indicates, Portuguese Catholicism was replete with millenarian themes and imagery, which passed into the popular religious consciousness of the fledgling nation of Brazil (4376). Allowing for the fact that the greater number of popular Catholic millenarian movements have been lost to history, the most famous recorded examples are generally identified as the following: the movement led by dos Santos between 1817 and 1820, which founded the City of Silvestre Jose Earthly Paradise in the Rodeador mountains in the north-eastern state of o Ferreira in the mid- to late 1830s, Pernambuco; the movement led by Joa which established the Enchanted Kingdom of Vila-Bela at Pedra Bonita in central Pernambuco; the turn of the century founding of the Holy City of by followers of the prophet C cero Juazeiro in the north-eastern state of Ceara cero); the movement led by Anto nio Vicente Mendes o Baptista (Padre C Roma Maciel (the Counsellor), which existed between 1893 and 1897 and founded the Holy City of Canudos (known also as Belo Monte) in the north-eastern state of Bahia; the Contestado movement of the early 1900s led initially by the healer Mar a in the contested border regions of the southern states and prophet Jose and Santa Catarina; the movement of Caldera o established in the of Parana and headed by a succession of mid-1930s in the north-eastern state of Ceara Lourenc saints (beatos), the first of whom was Jose o (Levine 21825). While the most famous examples of Catholic millenarianism in Brazil are drawn from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, similar movements have continued o, Movimento; to emerge from the mid-1900s onwards (e.g. Consorte; Negra Queiroz 36364; Pessar). The fourth type of Brazilian millenarianism comprises movements in which popular Catholicism represents just one among a number of religious-cultural components. Perhaps the earliest example of this type is offered by the Muckers movement which gathered impoverished settlers chiefly of German (and Protestant) origin and which emerged in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul in the late 1860s (Amado). By and large, however, movements of this type have tended to arise in the mid- to latter part of the twentieth century and to exist in predominantly urban contexts. This is no coincidence, as the ability to draw upon a range of religious-cultural resources enjoyed by these movements owes much to the forces unleashed by Brazils rapid and far-reaching post-war urban industrialisation. While popular Catholic elements make themselves felt to a greater or lesser extent across all of these movements, their practical and discursive repertoires are just as likely, and increasingly so, to include components drawn from Kardecist Spiritism (espiritismo), Afro-Brazilian religion (e.g. Umbanda), European esoteric strands (e.g. Theosophy), indigenous religiosity (mediated through mixed-race cultures), new age beliefs (e.g. ufology), and assorted Asian and far-Eastern spiritualities and religious traditions (e.g. Krishna Consciousness and Japanese new religions).1 tica Espiritualista The Universal Spiritualist Eclectic Fraternity (Fraternidade Ecle Universal) and the Blue Butterflies (Borboletas Azuis) were among the first of the post-war movements to be studied as working examples of modern Brazilian millenarianism. The former was founded by the Venerable Master Yokaanam in o late-1940s Rio de Janeiro, while the latter was established in the 1970s by Rolda o). Mangueira in the north-eastern city of Campina Grande (Consorte and Negra Having relocated his group in 1955 from Rio de Janeiro to the planalto north-east

272 A. Dawson lia, Yokaanam announced that the third millennium would be ushered of Bras in by way of the calamitous effects of an asteroid, which would crash into the Atlantic ocean and raise sea levels to catastrophic proportions. Initially forecast to occur in 1979/80, this global catastrophe was later put back to 1990, at which point the appearance of a second sun and the outbreak of a third world war o, Movimento 57, 96). In the would herald the impending calamity (Negra same vein, Mangueira prophesied that in the month of May, 1980, there will be a great deluge as in the time of Noah and there will be 120 days of rain after o 328, 341). which no stone will remain upon another (Consorte and Negra tica) founded on the planalto by Although the Eclectic City (Cidade Ecle Yokaanams community remains as a collection of disparate dwellings and artisan outlets, neither of these movements exists today as a functioning religious unit.

New Era Religiosity Although yet to have their millenarian characteristics subjected to detailed scrutiny in their own right, contemporary organisations, such as the Religion lia, the Christian o de Deus) with its headquarters in Bras of God (Religia ) of the Dawn Valley, the Spiritualist Order (Ordem Espiritualista Crista stica do Brasil) based in the southern city Gnostic Church of Brazil (Igreja Gno of Curitiba, and the ayahuasca religions of Santo Daime and the Vegetable o do Vegetal), make explicit use of a range of millenarian themes Union (Unia common to more traditional forms of Brazilian chiliasm. Located at various points across the spectrum of new era religiosity in Brazil, each of these organisations articulates a millenarian scenario in which, relative to the group at hand, the current era is or is soon to be beset by global ecological disaster, warfare, civil unrest, moral degeneracy, rampant materialism, escalating crime and violence, and natural calamities of drought, famine, and earthquake. For de Andrade Neto, leader of the example, according to Master Joaquim Jose o do Vegetal), Campinas based Vegetable Union (Centro Espiritual Beneficente Unia humanity is currently living through one of the most crucial moments of its history. Characterised by moral corruption, family disintegration, and growing prostitution, for example, the present transitional era is beset by seismic shocks, floods, nuclear accidents, incurable illnesses, and other global disasters. Surrounded by evidence of its own disobedience, however, humankind appears not to understand or does not wish to understand that it is fatally making its way towards its own destruction (Milanez 129). Similar rio Sassi of the sentiments are expressed by the First Master Sun Tumuchy Ma Christian Spiritualist Order of the Dawn Valley. According to Sassi, the current civilizational cycle . . . is about to end and the world will pass through great transformations which are already evident to those with common sense (4). In de Paiva Netto, successor to the founder of the Religion of the same vein, Jose God, Alziro Zarur (19141977), argues that, because of humankinds separation from God, people are marching towards death in the forthcoming and last Armageddon of this cycle . . . these final times of deep changes for the World (Netto 28).

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil 273 Building upon the prophecies of the Venerable Master Samael Aun Weor (19171977), the Gnostic Church of Brazil claims that the world will be transformed by a forthcoming final catastrophehere in the year of 2043. Akin to other new era groups espousing millenarian scenarios, the Gnostic Church of Brazil maintains that its organisation and members will not only survive the impending disaster, but also form the basis of a renewed human race. According to the organisations leaders, extraterrestrial beings from the Pleiades will support those deemed worthy enough to have survived the catastrophe of 2043 by communicating valuable scientific and cultural information which will aid in the reconstruction. These aliens will also contribute genetically to humankinds regeneration and move survivors to safer places, either on earth or other planets. Within 50 to 100 years of the predicted catastrophe taking place, it is argued, extraterrestrial intervention and a transformed humanity will have given rise to a new religion, a new political system, a new economic system, a new Science, and a new Philosophy. Everything will be new. Within this Age of Gold,
no individual dies of hunger, no one is denied the universal right to study, to perfect oneself, to work, to health, to longevity, comfort, freedom of movement, housing, and to enjoy the benefits of mineral, vegetable, and animal resources. Everything is portioned out to all in abundance, with justice and equality. There are no armies, police or prisons . . . but the one and only law of conscious universal love. (Course in New Gnosis, IX. 3 qtd in A. Dawson, New Era 103)

Although devoid of extra terrestrials, the discursive repertoire of the new religion rios) of Santo Daime is well stocked with millenarian imagery. The hymnals (hina o Mota de Melo (19201990), of Raimundo Irineu Serra (18921971) and Sebastia Santo Daimes two most important figures, are replete with millenarian imagery in which the daimista community and its members are situated in the midst of the cosmic battle between good and evil. As Imperial Chief and General, o command battalions of respectively, Master Irineu and Padrinho Sebastia uniformed soldiers (fardados) regimented according to sex, age, and marital status. Both Irineu Serra and Mota de Melo founded communities which they regarded as foreshadowing the earthly Jerusalem to be established subsequent to the cosmic battle being decisively won by the forces of good (Cemin; Couto). Usually in the form of catastrophic ecological meltdown, talk of impending global disaster is commonplace among Santo Daime members. Drawing upon popular religious imagery, members are prone to making direct parallels between the shelter afforded by Noahs Ark at the time of the biblical flood and the safe haven to be offered by rural daimista communities when impending environmental calamities ensue.

Millenarianism and Rural Peasantry Discursively speaking, the imagery employed by new era millenarian repertoires shares a lot with the third and historically most prevalent type of Brazilian millenarianism mentioned above. A phenomenon principally of the rural poor, traditional millenarian repertoires emerged on the back of a long-standing systemic marginalisation from prevailing structures of social-economic power and political representation. Resulting from a mixture of geographical,

274 A. Dawson historical, and social-cultural dynamics, the rural peasantry was disenfranchised on account of its social status and isolated by its dependence upon the lite (Monteiro 1314). Both literally and figuratively, the rural land-owning e peasantry lived on the periphery of things. In addition to experiencing systemic marginalisation from prevailing structures of power and representation, the rural peasantry also suffered from a deep-seated strategic impotence. This was characterised by an ideational and practical inability to conceptualise and implement strategies of social transformation. Indicative of the practical implications of systemic marginalisation, the strategic impotence was also fed by dominant symbolic representations of prevailing social structures as God-given hierarchies not to be messed with (Otten 287). A direct correlate of the heavenly order, traditional society was imbued with a fixity which allowed for change only in a cyclical (seasonal) and thereby closed sense. Enlightenment notions of linear (open) progress through incremental social transformation were alien to traditional rural society. Together, systemic marginalisation and strategic impotence fed a worldview in which prevailing structures of power and representation were regarded by the rural peasantry as neither belonging to them nor open to change. Consequently, if social transformation were to occur, it would have to occur through an agency other than theirs and by means external to the system. On both counts, social transformation would be dramatic, not simply in effect, but also in the manner of its arrival. Although opinion differs as to the causal mechanisms involved, treatments of traditional millenarianism in Brazil agree that some form of crise de conscience acts as a trigger of millenarian activity. The most popular causes of the crises which trigger traditional millenarian outbreaks are identified as the ingression of modernising capitalist dynamics within rural society and the inward expansion of centralised state systems already established among the bulk of the Brazilian population living in urban centres along the coast (e.g. Della Cava; J. Martins; Oliveira; Otten). Alternative readings place causal emphasis upon dynamics internal to the religious field (e.g. Myscofski) or the breakdown of established kinship structures (Queiroz). Whether social-cultural, political-economic or religious in nature, the crises which trigger millenarian activity do so because they have an impact upon both practical mechanisms of support and symbolic structures of signification. Practically speaking, for example, the transition from landed tenant to wage labourer brought on by the introduction of capitalist means of production quickly erode established modes of social-economic o and compadrio) which serve to ameliorate the reproduction (e.g. mutira hardships of rural life. In the same vein, and undermined by the rapid erosion of established means of social-economic reproduction, traditional meaning structures which likewise mitigate hardship, but also act as ideological cement are quickly exhausted as symbolic resources for making sense of just what is going on. Crises of practical-symbolic reproduction thereby provide fertile ground into which the seeds of already existing millenarian traditions can be sown as the negation of a negation. Driven by practical-symbolic crisis and the resulting longing for change, systemic marginalisation and strategic impotence combine to produce a worldview which holds that prevailing structures must end before things can change for the better and that this end will come by means both external to the system and other than collective agitation.

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil 275 Although not the only possible response, the deus ex machina model furnished by the millenarian paradigm squares the significatory circle in that it provides a much desired social transformation when both systemic marginalisation and strategic impotence dictate such a state of affairs to be an otherwise practical and symbolic impossibility.

Millenarian Views among New Era Urban Professionals In contrast to the groups within which millenarian perspectives have traditionally emerged, new era urban professionals espousing millenarian views cannot be said to be suffering under the same conditions of systemic marginalisation and strategic impotence. In social-economic terms, for example, and allowing for the usual variations between specific groups and organisations, new era participants are generally members of Brazils urban-industrial middle classes, which makes them preponderantly white, relatively well-educated, and usually employed in the professional field and its ancillary sectors (Bandeira; A. Dawson, Gnostic Church). In the same vein, new era urban professionals have at their disposal an established stock of knowledge populated by liberal views of historical progress and social development. Although Brazil undoubtedly suffered a democratic deficit during its years of military dictatorship (19641982), its political structures of representation are no more attenuated today than they are in many other liberal democracies across the globe. Whence then the attachment of new era urban professionals to millenarian themes and imagery traditionally associated with the rural peasantry? Pursuing the investigative line of continuity noted above, a number of comparisons might be drawn between the context of rural poverty which has historically given rise to traditional millenarianism in Brazil and the middle-class, urban-industrial context within which new era articulations of millenarian motifs occur.

Line of Continuity Firstly, whereas it cannot be said that the majority of new era participants suffer under the same conditions of systemic marginalisation as those among whom millenarianism has traditionally thrived, it might be argued that their status as urban professionals in contemporary Brazil nevertheless engenders a kind of systemic insecurity, created, among other things, by a decreasing standard of living and a steady decline in both physical and occupational security. Much has been written about the manner in and the extent to which contemporary urban-industrial society generates both material and psychological insecurity for its members. Giddens, for example, identifies anxiety, disorientation, and insecurity as integral components of subjective experience in late modern society (Consequences 153; Modernity 181; Living 89), just as Bourdieu highlights the generalized subjective insecurity experienced by those subject to neo-liberal policies of casualization and flexploitation (826). In the same vein, Beck and Beck-Gernsheim identify endemic insecurity and biographical uncertainties as now perennial features of contemporary existence (34); while carite Bauman talks of the awesome and distressing insecurity and pre engendered by late modern capitalism (Community 418, 11348; Liquid Life 313).

276 A. Dawson Of course, the life of the average urban professional is by no means as difficult or precarious as that of the poor majority in Brazil. Subjective experience is, however, very rarely a relative state of affairs. Nevertheless, consecutive decades of stagflation (1980s), neo-liberal reform (1990s), and fiscal redistribution (2000s) have eroded once secure professional comfort zones at a time when enhanced global awareness and late capitalist ideologies have actually increased urban middle-class expectations (ODougherty; Quadros; Pochmann et al.). Combined with the erosion of social-economic conditions, the shortfall between expectation and reality serves only to exacerbate the conditions of uncertainty, disorientation, anxiety, and distress identified by the likes of Bauman, Beck, Bourdieu, and Giddens. As with the systemic marginalisation suffered by the rural poor, the systemic insecurity experienced by growing sections of Brazils urban middle classes discourages change for the better being expected of current social structures. As such, change for the better will come from beyond the prevailing system. Secondly, while it cannot be said that the majority of new era adherents experience the same strategic impotence as those for whom millenarianism has traditionally been a response, it may be argued that, for some at least, there exists a kind of strategic indifference to established representative structures and processes of collective agitation. The cause (or admixture of causes) of such indifference will clearly differ from person to person. For Beck and Beck-Gernsheim, the urban-industrial processes of individualisation are responsible for the progressive subpoliticization of civil society and a subjectivity of political privatism, which manifest themselves in a growing disregard for political processes of representation and collective mechanisms of agitation (27, 38). Along the same lines, Castells blames the contemporary indifference to collective processes of representation and action upon modernitys dissolution of shared identities and the resultant loss of society as a meaningful social system (355). Arguing that ours are times of disengagement, Bauman holds the indeterminacy of late modern life to have engendered a kind of indifference resulting in an incapacity to make plans and act on them (Community 127). In less general terms, for some Brazilians, strategic indifference may also be rooted in a lack of habit born of the paucity of proper mechanisms for political representation and civil agitation, which lasted from the military coup of 1964 until re-democratisation in the early 1980s. Whatever the particular cocktail of causation, however, the contemporary context of urban-industrial Brazil is seen to be characterised by democratic deficit and associative alienation embodying both a distrust of and disenchantment with existing structures of representation and mechanisms of collective expression (Baquero, Cultura, Construindo; Ferreira). Reflecting a lack of subjective investment in prevailing societal institutions, the implications of strategic indifference are that those desirous of social change must look for it through means other than established processes of political representation and civil agitation. Together, systemic insecurity and strategic indifference engender among new era practitioners a practical-symbolic crisis which, at one and the same time, longs for resolution through a change for the better, while they accept that such positive transformation will come from neither internal reform of the system nor strategic engagement with it. Beck and Beck-Gernsheim,

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil 277 for example, link the late modern processes of individualisation with the emergence of novel religious phenomena, typified by what they call the market for the answer factories, the psycho-boom, [and] the advice literature. As part of this market, new era millenarianism responds to late modernitys erosion of established patterns of social reproduction. This erosion results in the now disembedded individual facing a dizzying range of possibilities which contemporary existence provokes, while, at the same time, undermining established (collective) means of orientation, meaning, and structure. Unsupported in the face of the tyranny of possibilities, the overtaxed individual is disorientated and seeks a means of escape through the flight into magic, myth, [and] metaphysics. Mediated by new era repertoires, the flight comprises a mixture of the esoteric cult, the primal scream, mysticism, yoga, and Freud which is supposed to drown out the tyranny of possibilities, but in fact reinforces it with its changing fashions (7). Paulo Martins argues that new era religious repertoires channel a great dissatisfaction on the part of the middle-classes with the functioning of certain basic societal institutions (81). In so doing, new era religiosity comprises a self-conscious revolt against modernitys prevailing Cartesian rationalism in which the physical has been subordinated to the intellectual. Treating the body as little more than an instrument of labour, the modern paradigm, Martins maintains, has suppressed physicality and its attendant desires and emotions. In constituting the physical as a site of pleasure, play, fantasy, and emotion, new era regimes re-signify the corporeal imaginary and thereby emancipate the body as a vehicle of ethical desire (856). Of course, by no stretch of the imagination are the significatory resources made available by the millenarian paradigm the only means of disorientated and disaffected urban professionals resolving the practical-symbolic crisis provoked by the combination of systemic insecurity and strategic indifference. Nevertheless, the eschatological scenario articulated by millenarian motifs does offer resolution in that it furnishes the much desired change for the better, while leaving systemic insecurity and strategic indifference untouched. Albeit in paradoxical fashion, it is because the millenarian paradigm resolves the practical-symbolic crisis while leaving its causes untouched that it continues to be drawn upon by new era professionals living in the urban-industrial heartlands of Brazil.

Line of Discontinuity As indicated above, there is a second line of enquiry in respect of the attachment of new era urban professionals to the millenarian paradigm. Although the implications of systemic insecurity and strategic indifference are not rejected by the second line of enquiry, it does place much more emphasis upon dynamics which reflect a greater degree of discontinuity between traditional and new era millenarian discourses. This line of enquiry commences by regarding new era espousals of millenarian themes as embodying a self-conscious strategic articulation indicative of the heightened degree of reflexivity enjoyed by the urban middle classes of late modern industrial society. In effect, the reflexivity thesis argues that the historically recent transmutation of typically modern

278 A. Dawson dynamics constitutive of urban-industrial society (e.g. individualisation, detraditionalisation, globalisation, and pluralisation) has resulted in an unprecedented degree of self-awareness being enjoyed by increasing numbers in contemporary late modern society. Using the term reflexivity to designate this new-found degree of self-conscious appreciation, theorists of late modernity argue that contemporary urban-industrial existence is, for many, marked by a strategically driven and instrumentally orientated subjectivity (e.g. Beck; Giddens, Modernity; Lash). Perhaps exemplified by the professional classes of urban-industrial society, the reflexivity afforded by late modernity permits individuals a degree of self-critical awareness, positional understanding, and strategic savvy hitherto unavailable to human consciousness (e.g. Beck, Giddens and Lash). As bona fide members of Brazils urban-industrial middle classes, it should be of no surprise to find the dynamics of late modern reflexivity at play among contemporary new era participants and the organisational repertoires articulated by them. Following this line of enquiry, the appearance of traditional millenarian motifs within new era narratives might, for example, be regarded as a reflexive strategy employed to underwrite the utility value of organisational repertoires. By employing millenarian discourse to situate the world in the midst of a truly momentous transitional phase, it could be argued, new era discourse reinforces its pragmatic worth by offering itself as a form of practical knowledge well-placed to aid individuals in meeting the very particular demands provoked by the calamitous times through which they are passing. The knowledge furnished by new era narratives, it is claimed, allows individuals to understand the significance of current calamities and disasters by placing them in their appropriate cosmological context. At the same time, the practical repertoire afforded by new era regimes is said to equip practitioners with a range of techniques which enable members to endure successfully the trials and tribulations associated with the birth of the new era. The sense of urgency conveyed by the millenarian paradigm further reinforces individual motivation for appropriating new era discourse and practice. In the same vein, the reflexive character of new era appropriations of traditional millenarian themes might be further underlined by regarding the espousal of millenarian motifs as part of a broader strategy to differentiate new era repertoires from other occupants of the increasingly crowded religious landscape of urban-industrial Brazil. In view of the fierce competition for what remains a relatively small constituency of sympathetic urban professionals, religious production undergoes a degree of standardization, as organisational repertoires are progressively tailored to the same narrow band of potential members (Berger 147). In order to stand out from the crowd, and thereby mitigate the effects of repertorial standardisation, new era religions must find ways of differentiating themselves from others in their field.2 Along the same lines, the appearance of traditional millenarian themes within narrative repertoires might be viewed as another strategic attempt by these groups to marginally differentiate themselves from their nearest competitors. In keeping with late modernitys facilitation of the reflexive project (Giddens, Modernity 186), the attraction of the millenarian paradigm to new era urban professionals might also involve the strategic exploitation of its eschatological scenario in the cause of self-valorisation. In one sense, the new

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil 279 earth scenario portrayed by the millenarian paradigm provides new era adepts with both a vindication of and reward for their perseverance and faithfulness in the face of scepticism and persecution. The arrival of a new dispensation will involve not only the transformation of the world, but also the transposition of group values and those who espouse them from their currently marginal status to a central position in keeping with the character of the new world order. In another sense, the appropriation of millenarian motifs is even more self-affirming because it reminds practitioners that the values and beliefs to which they currently adhere are the very values and beliefs by which the world will be transformed and upon which the new era will be founded. Further, because adherents live by these values and beliefs, they will be among the righteous remnant which is to form the vanguard of the renewed world and its new civilization. The strategic linkage of contemporary new era practice with impending global renewal endows both organisational repertoire and individual practitioner with a significance of truly cosmic proportions. The new era preoccupation with what has elsewhere been called cosmic self-aggrandizement is further reinforced through the use of the millenarian paradigms decimation of the prevailing structures and dominant institutions of contemporary society (A. Dawson, New Era 162). As with other occupants of tre of new era ritual repertoires Brazils new era religious landscape, the raison de is held to be their nurture of the higher self (known also as the inner, cosmic, true or Christic self). The higher self is the interior aspect of the individual most attuned to the universal whole of which we are all a part. Only when the higher self is developed are the latent powers residing deep within each of us able to be tapped, harnessed, and manipulated to the end of obtaining absolute self-realisation. Evident through spiritual enlightenment, universal understanding, and physical well-being, the selfs absolute realisation is, however, conditional upon the eradication of the ego (known also as the lower self). Originating through embodied interaction with the world at large, the ego is the part of the individual most affected by and attached to the external, material world. The ego suppresses the higher self and thereby restricts the individual pursuit of absolute self-realisation. Functioning, in effect, as the social self, the ego serves as a cipher for the plethora of forces and dynamics, which stand over and against the individual. The ego signifies society at large, just as its dissolution signifies the liberation of the individual from external forces and dynamics otherwise beyond its control. By annihilating the ego, the new era repertoire eradicates societal determination. In so doing, new era discourse and practice free the individual from unwarranted external interference and thereby allow the unfettered pursuit of absolute self-realisation. In narrative terms, the annihilation of the ego and the emergence of the higher self correlate directly with the dissolution of societal determination and the achievement of absolute self-realisation. This is where the millenarian paradigm comes in. For, in the hands of urban middle-class adherents preoccupied with the reflexive project of the self, millenarianisms decimation of the world at large reinforces the correlation. By completely reconfiguring the societal dynamics responsible for the birth of the ego, millenarianisms new earth scenario removes all forms of external determination which might otherwise hinder the absolute realisation of the higher self. The renewed earth of the millenarian paradigm thereby furnishes

280 A. Dawson the individual with a blank canvas upon which s/he is unqualifiedly free to express her/himself and pursue her/his destiny. In effect, the millenarian paradigms removal of unwarranted societal determination underwrites the absolute sovereignty of the late modern self. The reflexive character of new era appropriations of millenarian themes might be further underlined with reference to the typically instrumental and expressionistic nature of new era religiosity in Brazil. Collectively, late modern transformations of established urban-industrial dynamics have radically modified received relationships between religious communities and their respective participants. With emphasis shifting from collective to individual expectation, growing numbers of individuals increasingly interact with religious movements and organisations relative to subjective criteria guided by immediate experience and orientated to personal fulfilment. Evaluated relative to subjective needs and aspirations, religious participation is thereby instrumentalised, as it comes to be viewed as a means to self-realisation rather than an end in itself or the meeting of pre-existing social obligations. Perhaps two of the clearest expressions of the instrumentalisation of religious belonging in Brazil are the dynamics of religious transit and bricolage. Religious transit is characterised by the concurrent participation in and consecutive switching between different religious groups, while religious bricolage embodies an eclectic, pick-and-mix approach in which otherwise disparate beliefs, rituals, and values are individually appropriated relative to subjective tastes and preoccupations. Evidence of the instrumentalisation of religious belonging, along with the dynamics of transit and bricolage, are commonplace across the new era community (A. Dawson, New Era 10911). Practised by new era urban professionals, transit and bricolage express an experimental and expressionistic religiosity which at times borders on the playful. Facilitated by increasingly pluralised urban environments, transit and bricolage combine to produce a subjective polysemy of religious experience, in which an assortment of beliefs and rituals are picked up and played with o 30). before being discarded or appropriated along idiosyncratic lines (Branda Set against the backdrop of instrumentalised religiosity, new era espousals of millenarian themes might best be understood not as embodying deep-seated insecurity and ambivalence, but rather as reflecting expressionistic and experimental dynamics which are intrinsically ludic in nature. This is not to question the seriousness and commitment with which millenarian views are expressed by new era participants. It is, though, to recognise the espousal of millenarianism as part of a transient and hybrid religious identity the provisionality of which is reflexively orchestrated. The millenarian views expressed by new era adepts can thus only properly be understood when viewed as representing just one component of an otherwise variegated biographical trajectory comprising a highly diverse and constantly changing set of beliefs.

Conclusion The espousal of new era millenarianism by sectors of Brazils urban middle classes is a far more nuanced process than an article such as this can suggest.

New Era Millenarianism in Brazil 281 Nevertheless, each of the lines of enquiry pursued above provides valuable insight into a range of dynamics which combine to set the conditions of possibility within which new era appropriations of the millenarian paradigm occur. By treating new era millenarianism as in continuity with Brazils traditional millenarian paradigm, the first line of enquiry highlights its significatory potential in resolving a range of practical-symbolic crises born of the confluence of systemic insecurity and strategic indifference. The argument from continuity compares with other critiques which situate new era religiosity within a context of social dislocation and crisis of meaning, brought on by the vertiginous transformations wrought by rapid and far-reaching urban industrialisation (examples offered by Clarke 1719 and L. Dawson 4260). There is thus something to be said in favour of the argument from continuity. At the same time, the late modern context within which new era religion exists plays a massive part in influencing both the organisational repertoires by which new era millenarianism is framed and the subjective dynamics of individual agency by which millenarian motifs are brought to life. Born of late modern reflexivity and seated within an instrumentally driven religious repertoire, new era appropriations of the millenarian paradigm assume an ineluctably strategic quality. While not ruling out the dynamics of practical-symbolic crisis, by underlining the intentional, self-aware qualities of new era millenarianism, the argument from discontinuity likewise has something to offer. As Clarke reminds us, new religious phenomena are not . . . exclusively modern, but juxtapose both modern and traditional forms of religion (355). It is perhaps its exemplification of the both . . . and quality of novel religious phenomena which ensures the contemporary prevalence of millenarian discourse not just in new era religiosity of Brazil, but in new religious movements across the globe (Landes). Strangely familiar by virtue of their recapitulation of established themes, yet strikingly novel on account of their late modern preoccupations, contemporary articulations of the traditional millenarian paradigm underscore the Janus-faced nature of new era religiosity both in Brazil and beyond.

Andrew Dawson lectures in religious studies at Lancaster University, UK. He has degrees from universities in England and the United States in religious studies, sociology, and theology. He researches and publishes in religion and society in Latin America, principally Brazil. His most recent book is New EraNew Religions which examines the rise and spread of new era religiosity in Brazil. CORRESPONDENCE: Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, Bailrigg, Lancaster, LA1 4YN, UK.

NOTES
1. While the prevalence of millenarian discourse among the increasingly popular neo-Pentecostal denominations of Brazilian Protestantism should not go unmentioned, the extent to which these particular end-time motifs serve as a discursive resource for other movements and organisations is questionable. 2. Berger calls this process marginal differentiation, as any group employing it must be careful not to differentiate themselves so much as to place themselves outside the most profitable (and thereby standardised) band of organisational repertoires (147).

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