Paper short abstract:

This paper has the objective of examining the distribution of cult places of marginalized religions in relation to dominant religion in a specific area of Lisbon, emphasizing how minority Christian groups daily negotiate their social place.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper, I present an analysis of the the religious scenery Ajuda parish, Lisbon, emphasizing the configuration of the landscape and the tensions that permeate the public space. Based on a fieldwork realized among three religious groups - the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Filadélfia Evangelical Church and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God -, I sketch the context where the ethnography was accomplished and how different cult places are inserted in the landscape. Through a diachronic presentation of socio-cultural dynamics of Ajuda, strongly marked by the presence of the Catholic Church, it is possible to discuss how this area of Lisbon city has been configured throughout the time - pointing to social processes that are imbricate with the insertion of different cult places (imigration, e.g.). They are hierarchically distributed through the parish; they have different logics of presenting themselves. They find different ways to be at the public space dominated by catholic values and practices. Tensions emerge from the proselitism face to face of the Jehovah's Witnesses, from the expectation of moral conversion of the evangelic gypsy at the Filadelfia Church and from the Universal Church's investments on its own visibility. Exposing the specific dynamics of each religious institution, the complexity of the thematic in question is revealed.