Uma só língua, uma só bandeira, um só pastor: Spiritism and Esperanto in Brazil

Abstract

Humankind has perennially attempted to recover - or construct - a utopian language, shared by all, which would unify us into a single family, thereby diminishing political and religious strife. Long before the time of Jesus, the prophet Zephaniah anticipated a messenger who would bring us a pure language so that we could better serve God (3: 9). Various religious groups, such as the Bahai Faith, the Omoto-kyo religion in Japan and Won Buddhism in Korea, believe in the need for a universal language, or support the adoption of an international auxiliary language. In this study I explore the beliefs of a group in Brazil, the Spiritists (Kardecists), who with great faith have embraced Esperanto as the solution to this language problem. Although it is not the central tenet of their religion, the connection between Brazilian Spiritism and Esperanto provides a textbook case of symbiosis, in which the language serves as more than a proselytization tool. I intend to present the most important texts on this topic from the vast corpus of Spiritist literature, and will propose some interpretations as to how this relationship might have developed.