Abstract

CERQUEIRA-SANTOS, Elder; KOLLER, Sílvia Helena  and  PEREIRA, Maria Teresa Lisboa Nobre. Religion, health and cure: a study among neopentecostalians. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2004, vol.24, n.3, pp. 82-91. ISSN 1414-9893.

The precarious health system has taken great part of the population to search alternative forms for the re-establishment of his/her well-being. We sought to understand the way he/she feels the construction of the notions of health and disease starting from a religious vision of the world and with the influences of this conception in the patients’ relationship with Medicine or with the search for supernatural powers. Participating in six cults of a neopentecostal church, we observed and accomplished semi-structured interviews with three followers and a shepherd. We noticed that the speech of the church supplies sense, guides and helps the people to solve problems and outline their daily afflictions. The “devil” becomes the main cause of all evils. Thus the disease becomes a demoniac action and the cure requests the exorcism of the faithful. It stands out that the rituals of cure in the church and the medical consultation are almost excluding actions.

Keywords : Religion; Health; Miraculous cure.

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