Corporeality and religious experience in Verbo da Vida church

Abstract

This article analyses the pedagogies of corporeality developed in Verbo da Vida Neopentencostal Church. The qualitative research was done using direct observation during services and events in the institution, as well as semi-structured interviews with non-random member samples. As we observed priests and ministers mobilizing and stimulating believers for the use of gestuality in services, we attested that they felt the “anointing’s manifestation” onto their bodies activated a set of “corporeal techniques.” At those moments, the believers run, dance, jump, stagger and speak in strange languages, feeling in their bodies sensations like “shivers,” “joy,” “sense of God’s presence,” “energy” and “power,” also associating such sensations to the effects of a “drug” or of an “energy drink.”