How religions travel : comparing the John of God movement and a Brazilian migrant church

In this chapter I address the different ways in which religious movements travel and are able to establish transnational connections. Drawing on two different research projects on the global expansion of Brazilian religions that I have conducted over a decade (2006b, 2013, 2017a, b), I show that religious mobility takes place through diverse but overlapping vectors: the work of the imagination, the mobility of people (migrants, spiritual tourists, religious leaders, international students), religious artefacts, and old and new digital/ media. The Brazilian faith healer John of God has established a global movement by alluring Western spiritual tourists to Brazil through the sales of religious artefacts (crystals, rosaries, herbs, crystal beds1), his own travels overseas, and old and new/digital media (newspaper stories, TV documentaries, followers’ books, tour guides’ websites, and blogs and social media). The smaller Brazilian Pentecostal church in Sydney, Australia, grows its congregation among young Brazilian students who learn about and are attracted to Australia through annual Australian education fairs in Brazil, Brazilian agencies that sell study-abroad packages, media stories on the country, fellow Brazilians who report their stories on social media, and the marketing and tours of Hillsong United, the worldfamous band of the Australian Pentecostal mega-church Hillsong