Kicking, Stripping, and Re-Dressing a Saint in Black: Visions of Public Space in Brazil’s Recent Holy War
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22394/2073-7203-2017-35-2-123-149Keywords:
Nossa Senhora Aparecid, Candomblé, brazil, religion, blasphemy, cult of saints, catholicismAbstract
This article deals with a particular case of blasphemy that happened in 1995 when a Protestant televangelist insulted one of the most reverend religious symbols of Brazil - Nossa Senhora Aparecid. This was shown on TV as the televangelist’s protest against the presence of Catholicism in the public sphere of Brazil. The author uses this case in order to consider the cult of saints as a symbolic site where issues of nation, history, ideology, public space, and so on, come together. The attack on the image of the saint and the outrage that followed revealed and unmasked many elements of Brazilian “invisible religion,” which until then had remained hidden. This scandal resulted in the paradoxical transformation of the image of the Virgin - this image blended with Afro-Brazilian tradition and Candomblé, leading to the reconfiguration of the whole structure of the public sphere that was deciphered in this image (of the Virgin).Downloads
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