This article aims to raise new issues in the understanding of Pentecostal expansion by focusing on the interactions between charismatic leaders and ordinary believers, more specifically on the practices and meanings resulting from these interactions. We will investigate how the Pentecostal leaders are elevated to a position of spiritual superiority over the ordinary believers in a religion where such a hierarchy of difference is challenged. The concept of charisma, shared within these interaction, is central to our goal. We will then establish a relationship between the sharing of charisma and pentecostal expansion, since the success of Pentecostalism depends on the ability of the leader has to make charisma circulate. These factors will be verified in a comparison between the performances of the pastors Silas Malafaia and Valdemiro Santiago, the major evangelical celebrities of the day. This work is based on fieldwork carried out both in the churches and in events captained by those leaders.
Charismatic leaders; Sharing of charisma; Pentecostal expansion
