In The Charismatic Gymnasium Maria Jose de Abreu examines how Charismatic Catholicism in contemporary Brazil produces a new form of total power through a concatenation of the breathing body, theology, and electronic mass media. De Abreu documents a vast religious respiratory program of revival popularly branded as "the aerobics of Jesus." Pneuma-the Greek term for air, breath, and spirit-is central to this aerobic program, whose goal is to labor on the athletic elasticity of spirit. Tracing the rhetoric, gestures, and spaces that together constitute this new theological community, de Abreu exposes the articulating forces among evangelical Christianity, neoliberal logics, and the rise of right-wing politics. By calling attention to how an ethics of pauperism vitally intersects with the neoliberal ethos of flexibility, de Abreu shows how paradoxes do not hinder but expand the Charismatic gymnasium. The result, de Abreu demonstrates, is the production of a fluid form of totalitarianism and Christianity in Brazil and beyond.

About the Author
Maria Jose de Abreu is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University.

Reviews
"The Charismatic Gymnasium is a rare work that refuses to simply stay on the safe page of a modernist critique of representation and instead enters the much weirder world of how things actually work. This brilliant and truly original book makes a major contribution to social, cultural, and political theory." -- Kathleen Stewart, coauthor of * The Hundreds *
"At every turn of the page, Maria Jose de Abreu helps us think outside of the box on issues of the rhythmical, spatial, theological, and charismatic-political dimensions of being in common from the point of view of a religious congregation and its presence in Brazilian media. Opening many different and innovative ways to understand the relations among mediation, theology, and politics, The Charismatic Gymnasium is a real jewel to read and to be inspired by." -- Valentina Napolitano, author of * Migrant Hearts and the Atlantic Return: Transnationalism and the Roman Catholic Church *
"De Abreu's approach to pneumatic Catholicism is quite original and highlights important aspects of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. . . . The Charismatic Gymnasium makes an important contribution to the literature of this form of Catholic Christianity." -- Eric Hoenes del Pinal * Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
"This is not the first book to discuss Brazil's Catholic charismatic renewal, but it is assuredly the first to apply this particular approach. Working from the concept of pneuma, which connotes both breath and spirit, Maria Jose de Abreu studies the role of breathing human bodies in the culture and theology of pneumatic, Spirit-based faith. She makes innovative observations about the material environment of charismatic worship, including airy tents, arenas, and outdoor settings. . . . [H]er insights are provocative and demand application beyond the Latin American context." -- Philip Jenkins * The Christian Century *

"In The Charismatic Gymnasium, Maria Jose de Abreu offers up an original and ethnographically intrepid portrait of the technologies of charismatic power that undergird authoritarian governance in contemporary Brazil. ... De Abreu makes a bold intervention in our understandings of power and governance in ways that treat atypical political actors -here, breath-with the attention and ethnographic nuance they rarely receive."

-- Irene Promodh * Material Religion *



Book Information
ISBN 9781478011347
Author Maria Jose de Abreu
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 363g