Entre a evangelização e a política

Abstract

The objective of this thesis was to analyze the proposed Baptist missionary expansion to Brazil Central in order to evangelize the people who lived there, mostly indigenous, through the mission design of the National Mission Board (JMN) of the Brazilian Baptist Convention (CBB) between the years 1925 and 1939. The option to evangelize the region was within the context of missionary expansion in Latin America, government incentives for internal migration to the central and northern regions of the country as well as the state's interest in expanding the indigenous policies by the Indian Protection Service (SPI). In the narrative construction were used daily trips, reports, articles and letters from missionaries, mostly, were published in the main communication vehicle of the denomination, O Jornal Batista. In the analysis of the cited sources were used authors working in line with the Cultural History of Religions, like the historians Eliane Moura da Silva and Dana L. Robert. The sources and literature were found in archives and libraries in Brazil and the United States, as the Baptist Theological Seminary of Northern Brazil and The University of Texas at Austin. It was verified that JMN was not successful in its intentions, since constantly were reported failure of the reports in the evangelization and few conversions among the natives and, in 1939, the institution decided to change their work focus focusing on the evangelization of country people. It"s believed that the work will bring a contribution to the historiography of Protestantism in Brazil, especially Baptist, within the field of Cultural History, stimulating new research and discussions on the subject.