Comprehending Judaizing practices and Zionist discourses among charismatic evangelicals/Pentecostals in the Lusophone Atlantic

Luso-Zion examines a growing religious tendency in the world, namely the appropriation by charismatic evangelicals/Pentecostals of Jewish narratives, rituals, and even Zionist anxieties.

These last have gained international attention in evangelical support for the U.S. administration’s decision to establish an embassy in Jerusalem.

At the same time, Brazilian Pentecostals also now demand that far-right President Bolsonaro fulfils his campaign promises to do the same.

While this adoption of Jewish liturgy, rituals, and Zionist geopolitical support by charismatic evangelical Christians is becoming more and more evident all over the world, no transnational study in the literature explains this growing tendency. To date, existing scholarship examining this phenomenon overwhelmingly focuses on U.S. cases.

Against this backdrop, Luso-Zion aims to elucidate how these religious forms and political leanings are taking shape within the Lusophone context with cases in Angola, Brazil and Portugal.

Through an ethnographic and geopolitical transnational comparison, this research investigates this phenomenon across multiple locations to construct a socio-cultural and political narrative that explains why contemporary charismatic evangelical/Pentecostal movements are turning to Judaism and Zionist discourses.

This research contributes to a greater socio-cultural understanding of this new religious tendency and indicates the potential implications of these religiously inflicted Zionist attitudes in Lusophone geopolitics.

Therefore, Luso-Zion is relevant not only because it is the first study to provide a transnational comparative framework for comprehending this new religious tendency in charismatic evangelicalism/Pentecostalism but also because it informs international relations studies and policymaking on how grassroots religious movements can be impacting contemporary geopolitics in the Lusophone Atlantic.