Abstract

NEVES, Delma Pessanha. Poverty and saving humanism: underlying mediations. Dados [online]. 2007, vol.50, n.1, pp. 117-158. ISSN 0011-5258.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0011-52582007000100005.

Considering the relatively recent political recognition of the extreme rates of socioeconomic inequalities and massive states of absolute and relative hunger in Brazilian society, alongside the expanded investments in social assistance programs (both by the state and private philanthropy), this article analyzes the conditions for objectively defining a field of intervention-mediation linked by the belief in a saving humanism. The development of this field values forms of mediation between different cognitive universes, corresponding to the worldviews of benefactors and beneficiaries, expressed by the collective construction of terms of communication that redefine interactive positions between Spiritists and the needy. Instrumentally, the field thus values the analysis of practical investments in the constitutive versions of the case that deserves being characterized by material and spiritual need.

Keywords : poverty; religion; spiritism; social mediation; philanthropy.