Religion

This article is about the relationship between football and religion. It focuses on the recent proliferation of neo-Pentecostalism among Brazilian football players living abroad and the importance of religion in their daily lives. Serving as a civilizing device that promotes better insertion of individuals in modern institutions, neo-Pentecostalism promotes voluntary obedience, self-control, self-awareness and reflexivity, by encouraging the conscious and constant monitoring of the individual over the body and emotions. This self-discipline has a limit, and the Theology of Prosperity offers conciliation between asceticism and material consumption. Football provides religion a large stage for its preaching, allowing it to reach billions of homes. The athletes become “selfless soldiers of the Word, ” who demonstrate the faith globally and disseminate banal religion through the mediascape