A Medicalized Enchantment: Faith Healing Practices among Brazilian Pentecostal Immigrants in Massachusetts

Abstract

Abstract

Sociological scholarship has extensively examined why many Latin Americans are drawn to Pentecostal faith healing. Yet limited attention has been paid to the interplay between these practices and medicine, and to how participation in healing rituals shapes health practices within broader social contexts. The research addresses this gap by applying Enchanted Modernity theory to examine healing practices in a Massachusetts branch of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the care routines members construct through their immigrant experiences. The study draws on nine months of ethnographic fieldwork and eleven interviews with church members. Ethnographic observation shows the church both integrates and delegitimizes medical knowledge through a dualistic and hierarchical belief system. This duality shapes participants’ daily care practices, but through a dualistic and horizontal belief system that separates mental and physical health. I argue that members’ immigrant experiences influence this body–mind divide. These findings inform the concept of Medicalized Enchantment, which proposes that, in matters of health, Enchantment is mobilized through medical categories and meanings. The findings highlight the importance of integrating spiritual and medical care while offering insights into the role of congregations in supporting diasporic well-being.