So how did all this start? Hardy takes us back to the American Midwest in the early 20th century, painting a picture reminiscent of the “Prophets’ Corner” scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Self-styled holy men were everywhere, denouncing sinners and each other – among them one Charles Fox Parham, a slick-tongued preacher said to rant at 250 words per minute. It was the tongue of one of his congregationers, however, that sprang him to fame. While in the throes of religious ecstasy at his church in Bethel, Kansas, a woman called Agnes Ozman began speaking in a “tongue” said to be Chinese.

Parham hailed it as a sign that the Holy Spirit was coursing through her – just as it had done on Pentecost, the 50th day after the Resurrection, when Christ’s disciples are likewise said to have spoken a multitude of languages. So-called “glossolalia” – or tongue-speaking – is said to be a divine gift to allow the conversion of souls in foreign lands.

However, one flaw of Hardy’s otherwise elegant account is that it fails to unpick this key miracle. Ozman was not, by all accounts, speaking real Chinese. Nor did any other early Pentecostalists, some of whom only discovered this after heading off for missionary work in Asia. Hardy doesn’t really examine this – or say why folk believed it in the first place.

What does seem clear, though, is that Pentecostalism thrives where other churches – or the state – fail to deliver. Partly, it’s because it embraces a so-called “Prosperity Gospel”, whereby donations to the church encourage God’s financial blessings in return, like a heavenly investment bank. While Hardy says this can sometimes just be a “sacred shakedown”, it can also mean a social safety net in countries where there isn’t one, like Brazil. Couples like Flordelis and Anderson – who grew up in the favellas – can also connect with their congregants in a way that lofty, theologically-trained bishops do not. “The appeal of the Pentecostal pastor is that they have bubbled up from below, just as you aspire to,” writes Hardy. “They grew up navigating the same streets you did… They’re the first person to come around to give your idiot husband a talking to when he’s been drinking and gambling and womanising again.”