From the religious standpoint, the Italian case is a good example of how, and to what extent, a symbolically monopolistic system can be transformed exogenously. Using the famous paradox of Achilles and the tortoise attributed to the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea (5th century BC), the author analyzes the social changes taking place in Italy from a particular angle, i.e. the passage from a society under a Catholic monopoly to one characterized by an unprecedented and unexpected religious pluralism. The maps illustrating the presence of a number of religions other than that of a typical Italian’s birth (Catholicism) show how the country’s social and religious geography is changing. Such a change is a major novelty in a country that has always seen itself as Catholic for long-standing historical reasons and also for deeply rooted and still strong cultural motives.

English The author deals with the following thesis: salvation goods are governed not only by the exchange economy, but also by the gift economy. They have less to do with the logic of social action aimed at profitable returns and more to do with the non-utilitarian aspects of behaviour. The salvation goods have features that cast serious doubts on the hypothesis that they are basically governed by market forces. On the basis of these considerations, the author attempts to verify whether a sociological approach to liturgy of a charismatic performance might be able to discover how salvation gift or goods work. Two case studies have been selected: the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the Catholic Neo-Pentecostal movement. French L'auteur avance l'hypothèse suivante: les biens reliés au salut ne sont pas régis uniquement par l'économie de l'échange mais également par l'économie du don. Ils ont moins à voir avec la logique de l'action sociale axée sur la rentabilité et plus à voir avec les aspects non utilitaires du comportement. Les biens reliés au salut possèdent des caractéristiques qui jettent des doutes sur l'hypothèse voulant qu'ils soient fondamentalement régis par les forces du marché. A partir de cette argumentation, l'auteur tente de voir si une analyse sociologique de la liturgie d'une cérémonie charismatique permet de découvrir le fonctionnement du don du salut ou des biens reliés au salut. Il a choisi deux études de cas: l'église universelle du royaume de Dieu et le Mouvement catholique néopentecô'tiste.

This article deals with Catholic Charismatics in Italy. The brief description of the case study gives a chance to make some more general comments on what is happening under the sacred canopy of Global Catholicism where the Spirit blows, and furthermore in relation with so-called Global Pentecostalism. In other words, my working hypothesis includes the following statements: (a) Catholic Pentecostalism constitutes a variant of a more global phenomenon, which seems to challenge the organizational model of historic Christian churches. (b) The study of the Italian case is interesting because its story shows the extent to which Pentecostalism questions the Roman form of Catholicism. Elsewhere in the world, the development of the phenomenon has not encountered the same difficulties as it did in Italy. Indeed, in some cases (Brazil and the Philippines), it has been supported and accepted as a sign of new religious vitality. From this point of view, Rome is relatively far away. The Roman–Tridentine model governed by the clergy resists in Italy, while it appears weaker where the Spirit blows wherever it wants. The Charismatic movement was gradually brought back to the bed of ecclesial orthodoxy after a long persuasive work carried out by bishops and theologians towards the leaders of the movement itself. However, despite this ecclesification/clericalization process, the charismatic tension remains, and the expectation for a pneumatic church constitutes an implicit form of criticism of the Roman form of Catholicism.

O artigo trata da teoria de sistemas para a religião, em particular a abordagem de Luhmann. Este ponto de vista permite escapar de pelo menos dois dilemas. O primeiro diz respeito ao tema da secularização, ou o declínio versus o renascimento do sagrado. O segundo diz respeito à questão de saber se a religião é uma província finita de significados, ou uma superestrutura que depende de outra coisa – seja a economia ou o código genético, a estrutura neurológica de nossas mentes, ou distúrbios da nossa psique. Considerando-se a religião como um sistema em relação com ambientes sociais diversos, múltiplos e cambiantes, a religião sofre uma perda relativa de importância social ou um consentimento em declínio durante certos períodos evolutivos de suas relações com o ambiente, enquanto em outros momentos ela se revitaliza. Declínio e revitalização realmente significam os ciclos recorrentes de inflação e deflação sociorreligiosa. Eles descrevem a capacidade do sistema de crenças de diferenciar-se, a fim de resistir ao teste de um ambiente em mudança, persistindo e mantendo sua coerência interna (autorreflexividade).

In 1843, in Paris, Karl Marx wrote the article Zur Judenfrage (On the Jewish Question) (Marx and Engels 1975, p