Abstract
This paper discusses the testimony as a dense practice, crossed by several meanings, and capable of adding moral value to people socially discredited. This discussion is conducted from a research about a center of evangelical recovery, situated in outskirts of the metropolitan region of the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is argued that the witness is a practice that, in addition to preparing themselves through an autobiographical narrative (“to have a testimony”), performed in various situations (“to give a testimony”), is also composed of an exercise in preparing itself which is built, relationally, in everyday life (“to be a testimony”). The link between these different dimensions of the testimony produces its own grammar capable of adding value to moral actors to mobilize.
Keywords
testimony; drug rehab centers; Pentecostalism; urban violence; moral