Deconstructing Narratives: The New History of the Beginning of the Church in Brazil

The Catholic Church in Brazil has undergone a fundamental transformation in its role in state and society during the past decade and a half, making it probably the most progressive Church in Latin America, if not the world. Based on theological innovations since the Second Vatican Council (1962–5) and the CELAM meeting in Medellín, Colombia (1968), the Church in Brazil has made a ‘preferential option for the poor’.

Few national churches can match the Brazilian Catholic Church in creative visions. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Brazilian church led the larger Latin American church toward a progressive orientation. Brazilian bishops and theologians helped to craft the decisive docu ments of the Medellin (1968) and Puebla (1979) Conferences of Latin American bishops. The Brazilian Catholic Church, the largest in the world, promoted what have become key innovations: theology of libera tion, base Christian communities, and preferential option for the poor. Now, approaching the millennium, the Brazilian church has taken a leadership role in Latin America in church-state relations. In April 1996, the Brazilian National Bishops Conference (CNBB) unveiled a four-year plan in which they address political issues, Rumo ao Novo Milenio (Way to the New Millenium).1 Human rights and nation-build ing form a centerpiece of the new plan. Extensive activities support this thrust. The church at many levels has been shaping spaces in contemporary Brazilian politics. This new phase follows twenty-one years of increasingly repressive military rule

Fragmented History: Challenges and Perspectives Building a Narrative of the Latter-day Saints in Brazil

For many years Brazil was a mission land, a space for evangelization mostly occupied by non-Christian peoples and targets of the conversion work of Catholic missionaries. Furthermore, the slowness of the colonizing—and missionary—advance toward the vast sertões of Portuguese America meant that a large part of the territory remained outside the principal organizing institutions of the colonial space, among which was the diocesan church. However, by confusing the space effectively occupied by colonization with what would eventually form the extension of the territorial possessions of the Portuguese monarchy, the field was opened to mistaken perceptions about the presence and importance of the diocesan Church in colonial Brazil. Since 2000, the proliferation of studies about the episcopacy and different aspects of the structures and actions related to episcopal power has contributed to a change in the understanding of its role and relevance in the development of the Church and the Luso-American colony. Contemporary historians, more attentive to documentary sources related to diocesan administration, have sought to show that the diocesan geography of Portuguese America had greater complexity and importance than has been attributed to it by incautious researchers convinced they were aware of the limitations of the role played by secular clergy in the construction of the Church and Catholicism. Emerging out of recent 21st-century studies is a better knowledge of diocesan structures—bishoprics, ecclesiastic administrations, parishes, chapels—and the functioning of the mechanisms of pastoral vigilance and the punishment of deviants, whether they were clerics or simple believers. This demystifies the idea that the royal Padroado was a nefarious obstacle to the development of the diocesan church in Brazil and shows the importance of the study of diocesan geography not only for the understanding of the history of the Church and Catholicism but also for the development of colonial society.

The history of the church in Brazil has traditionally been open to two basic interpretations. The first interpretation stems from the attitude of the original colonizer. The second interpretation is attributable to the people who suffered the consequences of the labour demands of the European settlers. There were three predominant religious orders in the Amazon region: the Carmelites, Franciscans and Jesuits. The organization of dioceses and parishes was slow and their influence on Catholic practice in Brazil for a long time minimal. In order to understand the process by which a Christian society developed in Brazil it is important to recognize the problems faced by Portugal when undertaking its colonial enterprise in America. The church was an agent of social control in colonial Brazil in a number of important ways. The church was called upon to create a general climate of agreement in favour of slavery.

Public value theory has introduced an alternative understanding of public and nonprofit organizations' performance. However, there is an academic consensus that the advancement of this theory requires more solid empirical foundations. This research empirically identifies factors of outputs (products, goods or services) and outcomes (impacts, benefits or consequences) offered by a nonprofit organization (NPO) that are perceived by society as creating public value. The Catholic Church in Brazil was the empirical setting, due to the important social role of churches and religious organizations in developing countries. A survey was administered in the Archdiocese of Curitiba geographic area. The data were examined using factor analysis and multiple linear regression. The results show that religious outputs, social outputs, and outcomes can explain the Catholic Church's public value creation. The public believes that the Catholic Church in Brazil creates public value mainly through its social outputs, of which social service and social assistance activities stand out. The perceived public value can be explained mainly by its outcomes. The findings bring academic impacts by empirically evidencing that outputs and outcomes are independent explanatory elements of public value, in addition to the prominence of outcomes as an explanatory element of perceived public value. In practice, the methodological path applied here can help managers to identify and monitor the impacts that NPOs (particularly religious organizations) have on society from a public value perspective. The results for the Catholic Church in Brazil are also noteworthy considering the unfavorable public perception about its social outcomes.

AN ANALYSIS OF ADVENTIST MISSION METHODS IN BRAZIL IN RELATIONSHIP TO A CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT ETHOS by Marcelo E. C. Dias Adviser: Bruce Bauer ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE RESEARCH DissertationOF GRADUATE RESEARCH Dissertation Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: AN ANALYSIS OF ADVENTIST MISSION METHODS IN BRAZIL IN RELATIONSHIP TO A CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT ETHOS Name of researcher: Marcelo E. C. Dias Name and degree of faculty chair: Bruce Bauer, DMiss Date completed: May 2016 In a little over 100 years, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Brazil has grown to a membership of 1,447,470 (December 2013), becoming the country with the second highest total number of Adventists in the world. Very little academic research has been done to study or analyze the growth and development of the Adventist church in Brazil. In terms of its mission methods, what is the Christian movement ethos that fostered this development in Brazil? How can it continue to foster Adventist church growth in Brazil in spite of contextual changes? As a missiological study that reflects typical interdisciplinarity crossing traditional boundaries of academic disciplines to borrow methods and insights and apply them toward a better understanding of a specific problem, this study employs Gailyn van Rheenen’s Missional Helix and intertwines theological reflection, cultural analysis, historical perspective, and strategy formation within the context of the practice of ministry. The first part of this research is a biblico-historical overview of the character of Christian movements followed by a socio-religious systematization of the ethos of Christian movements. The third part focuses on the ethos of the Adventist movement in Brazil including a description and analysis of its mission methods. The present study analyzes five major mission methods used by the Adventist Church in Brazil from 1895 to 2007 based on the characteristics of an Adventist missionary movement ethos in order draw lessons to face the contemporary contextual challenges. A brief analysis of the Adventist movement in Brazil, according to the proposed ethos model (confession of Jesus as Savior, Lord, and Priest; a missional-incarnational impulse of the soon coming of Jesus; an apostolic movement as part of the Great Controversy; communitas as a reflection of the will of God for relationships as described in God’s commandments; organic systems according to spiritual gifts; and disciple making in preparation for eternity), suggests specific findings. Clearly, the Adventist Church has grown and developed as it has relied on different mission methods (literature evangelism, public evangelism, radio and TV evangelism, metropolitan evangelism, and integrated evangelism). And, even after discounting some of the obviously triumphalist enthusiasm found in the church leaders’ reports and official sources of information, one is able to identify signs of a movement motivated by its mission. In many ways, the overall lesson of this analysis is the importance of fostering mission as a way of living that is at the core of an Adventist movement and developing methods based on a biblical understanding of Christianity that will develop movements with a missionary ethos. In spite of the somewhat positive analysis of the Adventist movement ethos in Brazil, it is clear that there is much room for improvement in each area. This is especially important in face of the realization of the ideal biblical standards and the current contextual changes. A sign that the Adventist movement in Brazil has developed a true Christian ethos and a mature missiological understanding would be its significant missionary-sending activity to the world. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary AN ANALYSIS OF ADVENTIST MISSION METHODS IN BRAZIL IN RELATIONSHIP TO A CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT ETHOS A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Este artigo versa sobre igrejas no país que se autodenominam "inclusivas", espécie de movimento noticiado pela mídia entre os anos 1990 e 2000, como "igrejas gays". O foco incide sobre o surgimento no Brasil da Igreja da Comunidade Metropolitana - uma famosa denominação ativista, criada em 1968 nos Estados Unidos - e sua transformação em Igreja Cristã Contemporânea. Analisa como ela se consolidou a partir de influências locais e de um diálogo com ideias de sistemas religiosos do campo hegemônico. Argumenta que a implantação desse grupo compreende coloridos regionais, fornecidos por noções oriundas de passagens e mediações realizadas pelos sujeitos entre suas comunidades de origem e uma nova alternativa religiosa. Examina alguns modelos e imagens da homossexualidade cultivados e/ou produzidos nesse movimento plural.

This chapter argues that the transnationality of the Brazilian migrant religious institutions does not fit neatly into a theoretical dichotomy of the ‘local’ and the ‘global’, between transnational processes ‘from above’ or ‘from below’, or between ‘here’ (in London) and ‘there’ (back in Brazil). It considers the ways in which religious institutions carve out transnational religious spaces of the middle as they adapt and adjust to the challenges of a new context, negotiate spaces within an unknown environment and respond to the diverse needs of migrants. The chapter then discusses the initial challenges faced by religious leaders. Finally the chapter describes the ways in which the churches adapt in response to the new environment, and explores the contrasting positions of the two Brazilian churches in the case study with regard to migrants immigration status and, finally, civic engagement and integration. Keywords:Brazilian church; London; transnationalism

Part 1 Cultural explanation and the question of intergroup life: The impact of material change culture as analytical frame of reference the linkage between ideas of culture and ideas of race. Part 2 Culture and ethnicity - a crossnational contrast: The "whitening of race" concept - material and symbolic implications "patrimonial" and "bureaucratic" patterns of ethnic stratification. Part 3 The meeting of dominant and minority cultures - integration vs. separatism: Patterns of interethnic contact further notes on syncretism points of agglutination crossnational variations in minority-group assimilation - the case of the Africans. Part 4 Miscegenation and intermarriage in the formation of society: The nature of biracialism the societal treatment of intermarriage and miscegenation materialist interpretation and the miscegenation-race consciousnesss nexus. Part 5 The psychosocial aspect - group consciousness and cultural identity: the meaning of race consciousness the dominant social consciousness the foreignness of the minority identity material and symbolic consequences of the separatist consciousness: the totalizing power of racial identity. Part 6 Revisiting secularization - religion as implicit normative systems: Secularization theory reconsidered the religious aetiology of culture religion and cultural genesis - universalism vs. particularism religion and cultural physiognomy - "roundedness" vs. "angularity" a note on Calvinism in the United States the dominant religion and the problem of difference. Part 7 The church in Brazil - folk Catholicism and ethnic assimilation: Slavery in hemispheric perspective religion and minority-group assimilation the lay brotherhoods a baroque religion towards cultural unity. Part 8 The church in the United States - Calvinistic Protestantism and ethnic assimilation: dominant-minority relations in the antebellum South Southern social thought and the proslavery argument the master-slave relationship and the problem of difference the moral basis of tradition the structure of thought of the Southern ruling class God and science through Southern eyes religious thought as worldview. Part 9 Conclusions.

The church in Brazil suffers many but by no means all of the ills usually ascribed to Catholicism in Spanish American countries. Concern over these problems has grown throughout the Catholic world, as well it might. One-third of the world's Roman Catholics live in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere. According to many churchmen a state of spiritual bankruptcy confronts the church in most of these countries. Basically it is a matter of the irrelevance of a system still rooted in hierarchic and paternalistic spiritual guardianship among people in transitional societies whose goals are modern, affluent egalitarianism. In simpler terms, more and more people in Latin America learn about widespread wealth among others, and fewer and fewer believe that their own disadvantages are preordained and can be changed for the better only in the next world—as the church has long taught.

There has been an underlying assumption in much of the research on the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil that activism toward social and religious change is stimulated by the church hierarchy. That assumption is called into question by the present research which examined five dioceses in the northern state of Maranhao. Evidence is presented here to show that, even in dioceses where the bishop is not supportive of innovation, priests, sisters, and lay church workers are organizing base ecclesial communities (CEBs) that help to facilitate the empowerment of poor people. This article also questions the urban bias of much of the research on Brazilian CEBs, the majority of which are located in rural areas, and suggests that further studies need to be conducted in rural base communities in different parts of Latin America.

Journal Article Thomas M. Cohen. The Fire of Tongues: António Vieira and the Missionary Church in Brazil and Portugal. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1998. Pp. viii, 262. $49.50 Get access Cohen Thomas M.. The Fire of Tongues: António Vieira and the Missionary Church in Brazil and Portugal. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 1998. Pp. viii, 262. $49.50. Stuart B. Schwartz Stuart B. Schwartz Yale University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 105, Issue 2, April 2000, Pages 592–593, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/105.2.592 Published: 01 April 2000

This article traces the efforts of the National Council of Churches in Brazil to endorse the document ‘Christian witness in a multi-religious world’ and to implement its recommendations in the practice of churches in Brazil. The reception of the document is placed into the historical development of the ecumenical movement in Brazil since an important conference in 1962 in Recife, Brazil, and the impact the Second Vatican Council had in the Latin American country. The focus is then on how the religious plurality in the country started to be perceived. Three examples follow showing how fundamentalist Christian groups oppose other religious expressions in the country and how the churches united in the council are challenged by the spirit of witnessing in respect to embrace pluralism.

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