"Thy kingdom come": representations of time in the Evangelical Assembly of God Church of Brazil (1995-2005)

Abstract

This paper develops an analysis of the representations of time in most of Brazil Evangelical Pentecostal Church, the Evangelical Church Assembly of God (founded 1911), between 1995 and 2005. Based on theoretical thinking of Roger Chartier, Norbert Elias and Mircea Eliade on about how this church is influenced by the linear model of time of Christianity, as well as performs reinterpretations of the secular time placing it in the holy time from its eschatological worldview. The period chosen for analysis also expresses the thought of the church on a very present in Western societies in the turn of century and millennium, "millenarianism". For this purpose, we use a lot of sources relevant to the understanding of these elements, it is the main body of the institution of indoctrination, the magazine Bible Lessons, and its official newspaper, the Messenger of Peace, both hegemonic in their segments and therefore , revealing that the official discourse of the church.