This article is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 2013 to 2016 among Christians belonging to a Catholic community in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. It addresses the problems of “deliverance” and “charity” in terms of what I propose to call the regime of exchange with God. I argue that to regard charity as a “free” gift - one in which the giver renounces return in expectation of a future reward that culminates in eternal life, that is, deliverance (or liberation) in soteriological terms - would be a misunderstanding in the case of these Catholics. In the regime of exchange with God, charity delivers because deliverance (or freedom) is defined as an attachment (alliance or communion) to Him, instead of autonomy and emancipation. Therefore, charitable actions locate the divine presence in the here and now and are determined by specific ways of reciprocating Him.
Deliverance; Charity; Exchange; God; Christianity