“Health and wealth” in contemporary Brazilian religious culture

Abstrakt

The various connections between financial, physical, and mental health are often visible: health (physical and mental) can have an outsized impact on one’s financial life. The reverse is true as well: financial well-being and socioeconomic status are often determining factors in what helps people keep healthy. How religious institutions (Igreja Internacional da Graça de Deus/International Church of the Grace of God – here IIGD), by means of their doctrines (prosperity gospel) and business-like (including religious marketing) strategies of growth, influence everyday life of their followers in Brazil, while taking advantage of the “health and wealth” concept for the sake of their own expansion, is the main topic of the article.