Seminar Series: Abstract

09:30
September 23 2009
Seminar Room A

Healing the Land of its Suffering: The John of God Movement in Australia
Cristina Rocha (University of Western Sydney)

João de Deus/John of God is a Brazilian faith healer who has been attracting a large number of followers overseas. In the past decade he has conducted healing events in Germany, the US, New Zealand, and Greece, returning to some of these countries more than once. John of God's story has been told in documentaries on North American, British, Australian, and New Zealand television. Such a global exposure has been accompanied by an intense flow of people, ideas, practices and commodities between Casa de Dom Inácio (John of God's healing centre in Brazil) and these countries. In this paper, I address the particular ways in which the John of God movement takes root in Australia. I analyse how Australians deploy Spiritism (the religion John of God adheres to) and the beliefs they acquire at Casa de Dom Inácio in relation to their own country's history. I argue that the position of Australia as a colonial-settler society, where the aboriginal population has suffered immense loss, entails a different understanding of Spiritism. For many Australian followers, the arrival of the "entities" (spirits) whom John of God incorporates is perceived as a way to heal the land of its suffering.