La teología de la liberación en prospectiva - Noticias más vistas

There are also twenty-one churches of the Brazilian Assembléia deDeus, which were formed by Brazilian migrants or missionaries from Brazilin recent years 4 .While the Assemblies of God in Japan and the Brazilian Assembléiade Deus are both affiliated with the World Pentecostal Assemblies of GodFellowship, they have little interaction with each other.nUniversal Church of the Kingdom of God (uckg)The other popular church among the Brazilians in Japan is the UniversalChurch of the Kingdom of God (uckg). The uckg is a fast-growing neo-Pentecostal church founded by Edir Macedo in 1977. Since its foundation,the church has been attracting a great deal of attention and scrutinyconcerning its controversial theology, numerous allegations surroundingmoney, political ties, and use of media. The church has continued to expandin 176 countries, while establishing 5000 temples in Brazil. It is saidthat its expansion is beginning to approach that of Assembléia de Deus,the most populous Pentecostal denomination in Brazil (Reis 2006: 170).The uckg began planting church in Japan around 1996. Currently,under its original Portuguese name, Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus(IURD), it has 2000 members with 18 temples, each opened every day,commonly holding the prayer meetings. There is a weekly cycle with particulardaily themes, such as: Monday: financial problems, and Friday: liberationfrom evil spirits. These two themes explain the Church’s theologywell. Because it is one of the Pentecostal characteristics to emphasize thesalvation of the present life, not only uckg but also some other Pentecostalchurches adopt this so-called “prosperity theology” (Steigenga and Cleary2007: 221). As for the members of uckg, they believe that God’s gracecomes in the form of financial success and spiritual health.The Growth of Pentecostal Brazilian Churches in JapanAmong those aforementioned churches, the Pentecostal church is growingrapidly. Rafael Shoji estimates the religious demographics of the Braziliansin Japan as below (2008: 55).Of course, the numbers of Brazilians in Japan who identify themselvesas Catholics and the actual number of church attendees differ. However,the number of Pentecostal Christians is visibly increasing. At many Pen-4 Assembléia de Deus no Japão: (accessed:September 10, 2012).Congreso Continental de Teología x 111