Abstract:
Given the current developments in the Brazilian Christian-evangelical context and the growing scenario of religious fundamentalism and conservatism not only in Brazil but in different countries around the globe, christian churches of various traditions and orientations have been producing not only discourses but also community practices that drive discussions, mainly about the control of women's bodies, which to some extent, also influence the social and political practices of the entire society. Among the most paradigmatic practices of Christian churches is the worship service, understood as the heart of community life, the central space for the encounter between God and His community. During this event that issues related to the social and religious identities of women are articulated and can be observed to better comprehend the mechanisms of control that are developed, articulated, and applied, as well as to make visible women's processes of resistance. This research aims to study the Christian Service, in the current Brazilian context, based on the embodied experience of women. Through a constant dialogical process, between the social construction of knowledge present in the literature on the theme and fieldwork in the concrete reality of a Lutheran evangelical Christian community, using social research methodologies grounded in epistemologies and methodologies developed in the field of feminist theories, the central question of this research emerges: how do women, through their bodies, articulate their religious experiences in dialogue with the liturgy of the Sunday worship service? We observed that the presence of women, recognized and valued in the church, especially during the worship service, enables processes of liberation for both men and women. The legitimacy of theological knowledge shared in the liturgy by women also validates the faith experiences of those who listen and participate, reaffirming that God can speak and reveal Himself through different voices and embodiments, through and to women. In the worship service and in its liturgy, different aspects of life and the construction of people's social and religious imagination converge. These are expressed in the symbolic representations of the rite, which inscribe dispositions onto bodies via repeated practices, informing ways of being and existing in the world. This happens especially in the way the celebration values and makes visible the diversity of human experience, embodied in different people and groups, or in the way it controls, marginalizes, and silences these people and groups. In this sense, it is essential to observe who are the people that occupy the spaces, who have a voice and an opportunity to be part of it, and what is the level of participation provided to them during the service, a task pursued in this research.
