Brazilian Modernities and Secular Repair

In the center of São Paulo stands two megastructures, the Edifício Copan and the Templo de Salomão. The Copan—an Oscar Niemeyer apartment building with more than 5,000 residents that opened in 1966—has been a monument to the urban life imagined by midcentury modernity. The Templo is a replica of Solomon's temple magnified to occupy an entire city block, constructed by an evangelical church for 300 million US dollars in 2014. While the Templo has become a mecca for conservative Christians throughout South America, the Copan decays; its intricate tilework falling into the street below. This paper compares what James Holston calls the “alternative modernities” represented by these edifices to diagnose the slippery hold of secularism in contemporary Brazil. It argues that instead of viewing the post-secular as an inevitable condition of post-modern societies, we should view secularism as a political project in need of intellectual repair.