ABSTRACT
The origins and development of New Religious Movements (NRM) in Brazil are treated against the contemporary backdrop of global modernity. This chapter addresses the question of origins by using concrete examples to identify and engage four of the most important originary dynamics responsible for the arrival and formation of NRMs in Brazilian society: transnational migration, cross-border transmission, organizational schism, and creative hybridization. It outlines three of the most important socio-cultural implications that pertain to the contemporary proliferation of NRMs: detraditionalization, normalization, and subjectivization. At a macro-structural level, socio-cultural implications are mediated through modified political-legal frameworks or changes in overarching cultural patterns and expectations. The chapter also addresses the question of proliferation by identifying and examining five characteristically modern structural processes that combine to catalyze the originary dynamics in a manner that engenders the contemporary burgeoning of NRMs in Brazil: rapid and large-scale societal transformation, structural differentiation, individualization, state liberalization, and globalization.
