Revista Brasileira de História das Religiões

The Peter Binsfeld’s demonology exemplified in phenomenological cases in the works of Allan Kardec

2024-07-10T10:10:13-03:00

In 1589, the German theologian and bishop Peter Binsfeld established a hierarchical structure of demons with powers that would lead men to practice the seven deadly sins, associating each demon with a specific sin: Asmodeus (lust), Beelzebub (gluttony), Mammon (avarice or greed), Belfegor (laziness), Azazel (wrath), Leviathan (envy) and Lucifer (pride or pride). The objective of this article is to present a classification study of several phenomenological cases described in the works of Allan Kardec, according to this hierarchy. From a thorough reading of the works of the Spiritist Codification together with the twelve volumes of Allan Kardec's Spiritist Magazine, we classify each of the cases studied within Binsfeld's demonological structure. The study shows that, although the concepts of demon and sin are different for Spiritism in relation to classical Christian traditions, all cases addressed by Allan Kardec fit into the structure proposed by Binsfeld.

The regalist clergy and the moderate juste-milieu in the Province of Minas Gerais (1831-1835)

2025-03-10T11:27:27-03:00

This paper analyses the leading role of the regalist clergy in the scope of the moderate liberal political group, which conducted the structural dynamic of the Brazilian nation-state during the first half of the 1830s. In general terms, it is considered both the bureaucratic and the intellectual action of a clergy historically situated amongst the Catholic Church’s official guidelines, the State’s secular commitments, the daily life of its parishes and the distinct philosophical and doctrinal sources of the Euro-American world. It also seeks to reflect on the relevance of the concept of just-milieu to the moderate propositions and criticism about the Brazilian Empire’s institutional architecture and the values that should be direct that society. Finally, it emphasizes the regalist and liberal trend that the fathers José Bento Ferreira Leite de Melo and José Ribeiro Bhering set on the province of Minas Gerais’ press.

Magic, femininity and otherness: a synthesis on the figure of the norse prophetesses in Scandinavian Medieval sources

2025-02-05T19:30:33-03:00

The sources from Medieval Scandinavia have left many registers and impressions about certain magical practices and those who practiced them. Among such descriptions a series of female prophetesses called vǫlur (vǫlva in singular form) are frequently mentioned by medieval narrators as possessing the power to foresee the future or attacking someone by means of offensive magic. Our aim is to analyze the medieval sources available to offer a critical balance of them and afterwards to ellaborate a synthesis about how these prophetesses were perceived by medieval Scandinavian mentality. By approaching this phenomenon in terms of History of Magical Discourses, we intend to highlight not only the supernatural powers attributed to these women, but also to point out that magical practices seem to have been associated with feminility and alterity, considering that those women were frequently associated with other ethnicities from the region or even with the mythological race of giants. This demonstrates that magic was considered an alternative and marginalized form of reaching certain goals and/or obtaining advantages, above all in questions related to the peasant life.

Catholic Church and World War I: the case of the German friars of the Province of Santo Antônio in Pernambuco (1915-1918)

2025-02-05T19:54:59-03:00

The present article analyzes conflicts between 1915 and 1918 involving German friars established in the Province of Santo Antônio in Pernambuco, Brazil. Mobilizations against these religious figures emerged in Recife and the city of Pesqueira, located in the agreste region of Pernambuco, as a direct result of Brazil’s involvement in the issues surrounding World War I. Most of these friars, originating from Saxony, a province in Germany, had arrived in Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the mission of assisting the Catholic Church in its evangelization efforts. However, their lives underwent a radical transformation with the onset of the war, particularly following the incident in April 1917, when the Brazilian ship Paraná was torpedoed by German submarines off the coast of France, resulting in the death of three Brazilian crew members. This event led to Brazil breaking its neutrality and entering the war in October 1917. From that point onward, society began to view these German friars with suspicion, threatening them and opposing their presence in civil sectors—including some Catholics—and within the state bureaucracy. Analyzing various sources, such as newspapers, convent reports, police records, and chronicle books, reveals the growing anti-German sentiment targeting the Franciscan friars. During those years, Archbishop Dom Sebastião Leme intervened to shield these religious figures from popular fury and to ease tensions among Catholics.

Santo Daime: a religious miscellany cabocla, afro-amerindian and christian

2025-02-06T14:48:32-03:00

The article has as premise to point out the elements that make Santo Daime this great miscellany of elements of shamanism, Catholicism, spiritism and Afro-Brazilian elements that reverberate from the forests of the Amazon to the world and that attract people from various social extracts and worldviews to their rituals in order to seek a cure for diseases of the body and soul, integration with the elements of nature or even their being-being position in the world. To this end, and because this is the starting point of a broader research in the communities of Santo Daime in the Amazon, a bibliographical research was carried out that seeks to speak from the elements that constitute shamamic rituals to its historical process of consolidation, because even having ancient origins and linked to the peoples of the forest, this vision only gains body and strength only in the mid-twentieth century, with the arrival of studies and research on the religions of the riverside peoples of the Amazon and with their expansion from the years of 1970, by leaving Acre and gaining a body in other communities of the Amazon region and, from their variations, gain space in several cities in Brazil as the study aimed to investigate.

“Returning to the Bosom of the Catholic Church”: abjurations and the anti-protestant discourse in the press of Alagoas and Pernambuco (1902–1908)

2025-03-10T10:36:06-03:00

This article analyzes certain aspects of the transformations in the Brazilian religious landscape following the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889, which marked the end of the Royal Patronage system and the emergence of a non-confessional state. Within this context of religious plurality, the Catholic Church adopted strategies to curb the expansion of Protestantism and reinforce its social dominance, notably leveraging the press as a means to disseminate anti-Protestant discourses. Among these strategies, abjurations – public ceremonies in which Protestants renounced their faith and returned to Catholicism – emerged as significant tools of religious propaganda. The study investigates the representations of these abjurations in the press of Pernambuco and Alagoas between 1902 and 1908, analyzing how these ceremonies were employed to reaffirm the legitimacy of the Catholic Church and discredit Protestantism. Situated within the field of Cultural History, the research is grounded in concepts such as Representation (Chartier, 1990), Drama and Liminality (Turner, 2008), and Symbolic Power (Bourdieu, 2007). The adopted methodology engages with qualitative documentary analysis and discourse analysis (Orlandi, 2005; Foucault, 1996), focusing on how Catholic and secular presses constructed and disseminated narratives of power and religious identity. The relevance of this study lies in understanding how discursive strategies contributed to strengthening Catholic hegemony, while also offering insights into religious disputes in Brazil and the dynamics of identity construction in the public sphere.

Between the Spiritual and the Temporal: Jesuits and the “Pagoda” Lands in the Islands of Goa (16th Century)

2025-03-10T10:29:43-03:00

This article aims to analyze the Jesuits' relationship with the lands of the Goa Islands during the 16th century, focusing on properties previously dedicated to non-Christian temples (referred to as "pagodas" by the Portuguese). This article focuses on these lands transferred, through royal grants to the College of St. Paul in Goa, a pivotal institution that served as the hub of Jesuit activities in Asia. This article contributes to the historiography by shedding light on the roles of the rectors and procurators of the College of St. Paul in managing these lands, a topic that has received relatively little attention in historical studies. The study draws on archival sources from Portugal, India, Italy, and Brazil, employing semiological discourse analysis to explore these historical processes. The article argues that the transfer of revenues from the pagodas to the College of St. Paul involved various social groups. Furthermore, the article discusses how the Jesuits' management of these lands intertwined spiritual and temporal concerns, offering a nuanced perspective on their administration in Goa.

Catholic Traditionalism and Religious Fundamentalism: a study of the cases of the personal apostolic administration of Saint John Mary Vianney and the Dom Bosco Center

2025-02-13T10:43:01-03:00

Based on the concepts and arguments of Berger and Zijderveld (2012) regarding fundamentalism, this article seeks to reflect and draw inferences on whether “Catholic traditionalists” can be considered fundamentalists. Defining Catholic traditionalists as those who prefer the Tridentine Mass while rejecting various innovations of Vatican II, the authors of this article present a brief overview of these groups in Brazil. Due to the number and diversity of these groups, a case study methodology was chosen. Two groups are analyzed: the Personal Apostolic Administration of Saint John Mary Vianney and the Dom Bosco Center for Faith and Politics (CDB). With distinct profiles and histories, these two groups were chosen both for their differences and for their emergence in Brazil. Based on information shared by each group on social media and websites, as well as data collected from studies conducted by other researchers, the authors identify characteristics that bring these groups closer to what is known as fundamentalism. Among these characteristics, the degree of rejection of the contemporary world and the presence of intolerant practices and discourses toward those who are different—even within their own religion—stand out. The article also highlights other traits of fundamentalism, such as aggressive and warlike political rhetoric, as well as the use of the internet as a means of dissemination and its increasing appeal among young people, aspects that are more evident in CDB. The study concludes that CDB tends to align more closely with various contemporary religious fundamentalisms than the Personal Apostolic Administration, which has become more moderate over the years.

Uses of memory in the spiritist movement in Ceará: the dispute over the founding events between the federatives FEEC and USEECE, 20th and 21st centuries

2025-03-10T10:12:51-03:00

This article aims to analyze the process of memory disputes in the spiritist movement in Ceará, involving intellectual productions from the two federatives active from the 1990s onwards. Specifically, the study envisages a dispute over the original landmarks of the federative movement in Ceará in the two entities - Spiritist Federation of the State of Ceará (1990) and Union of Spiritist Societies of the State of Ceará (1993) - based on the memorial constructions of both, taking as distinct temporal references the foundations of the Centro Espírita Cearense (1910) and the Grupo Espírita Auxiliadores do Pobres 1928), respectively, in their memorial-historical productions published in books, magazines, websites and internet channels. The recompositions, or framing work of the groups' memories in their identity projects and political legitimation in the local and national spiritist movement are discussed.

Missionary Memoirs of Dom Luiz Fernando Pessoa in Mozambique

2025-03-21T15:24:37-03:00

Africa as the Intellectual Center of Christianity in Late-Antiquity: 4th Century Egypt

2025-03-21T10:36:23-03:00

Ancient Egypt is generally known for the history of the Dynastic period. However, even in Antiquity, the history of this African country has much more to tell us. A commonly unknown period of Egyptian Ancient history is the 4th century, when Egypt became the intellectual center of Christianity. During the 4th century, Egypt witnessed some of the most important religious controversies and discussions that shaped essential Christian dogmas, such as the divinity of Christ. In addition, Egypt was the place where Athanasius, one of the most significant theologians of the first centuries, performed his pastoral work. 4th century Egypt also witnessed the birth and development of monasticism, a fundamental reality for medieval Christianity, being a role model for many important Western monastic movements, such as that founded years later by Benedict of Nursia. It was therefore in Egypt, in Africa, that some of the most important Christian and Western Civilization elements came into being. This article thus demonstrates how Egypt was the intellectual center of Christianity in the 4th century, with its cutting-edge theological discussions and the emergence of monasticism.

Christianity in Axum in a global perspective: the cases of Frumentius and Ezana

2025-03-10T09:53:07-03:00

Axum was a kingdom located in northeaster Africa, in the Horn of Africa region. Because of previous military expansion, Axum was able to access the Red Sea coast in the 4^th century. In 334, the aksumite negus Ezana was converted to Christianity by the influence of Frumentus, a Syrian Christian established in Axum. This article focuses on the examination of two textual documents written by authors who were contemporaneous to Ezana and Frumentius: the Ecclesiastical History written by Rufinus of Aquileia, and the Apology to Emperor Constantius authored by Athanasius of Alexandria. The objective of this study is to evaluate references to Axum´s inclusion in global economic, political, religious, and diplomatic networks in passages with references to Frumentius and Aezana. To achieve this objective, the Global History approach is employed, which focuses on forms of integration. The analysis of the two documents in their context revealed that Ezana´s conversion and Frumentius actions were connected to Christian mercantile networks. Additionally, it was found that adherence to Christianity triggered Axum´s mobilization in political-clerical disputes that has been going on since the Roman Empire and that had repercussion on diplomatic relations between reigns and empires.

Life and death in the Portuguese Shadow Empire: commending the souls in Annobón and Haiti

2025-02-28T10:24:27-03:00

This article introduces a new methodological concept to the study of black religiosity in the Atlantic World, that of the “Portuguese Shadow Empire”. First coined in 1991 by historian George Winius, the concept alludes to indigenous and/or mestizo communities that, either on the periphery or beyond the limits of Portugal’s effective administrative apparatus, developed a new cultural-religious identity according to a Portuguese model, but in a way that involved the modification and critical reinterpretation of Portuguese elements. Because their complex identities does not correspond to traditional postcolonial models of analysis, they have remained largely forgotten in studies of indigenous responses to colonialism, imperialism, and slavery. To illustrate how this concept can allow us to approach expressions of black religiosity from a new perspective, the article will focus on the Atlantic island of Annobón and, from there, draw a parallel with Haiti. It will argue that communities in the “shadow empire” such as those in Annobón provide unique insights into the formation of Luso-African identity. This makes Annobón a unique place to understand and identify Luso-Africanisms in the diaspora and, subsequently, a key to unlocking some complex cultural traditions from black communities in the Americas. This new approach will be exemplified by comparing two Portuguese Lenten rituals: the Portuguese and Annobonese tradition, known as “encomendação das almas”, and the Haitian tradition “Rara”. Studying Rara in parallel with the encomendação das almas in Annobón will allow for a better understanding of this tradition and its rituals.

Religions in traditional States of black Africa between the 19th and 20th centuries: the case of Islam and christianity in the Kingdom of Bamum (Western Cameroon)

2025-03-22T11:34:32-03:00

Between the 19th and 20th centuries, the Bamum Kingdom was the scene of political and socio-cultural upheaval. Imported religions such as Islam and Christianity arrived in this Grassfields monarchy, where traditional religions had been practised for several centuries. The aim of this article is to present and analyse the establishment and development of imported religions in this traditional kingdom. For example, when and how did Islam and Christianity become mass religions in the Bamum Kingdom, where people were already practising traditional religions ? To answer this question, we have drawn on oral, written, iconographic and digital sources. Using a diachronic, synchronic and comparative approach, we found that the history of religions imported into the Bamum Kingdom dates back to the 19th century. It was after the intervention of the Fulani cavalry of Lamido Oumarou of Banyo in the Bamum civil war in 1896 that King Njoya decided to adopt Islam. The establishment of Christianity was linked to European intrusion. Protestant and Catholic missionaries settled in Foumban in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But with the liberalisation of the 1990s, the New Religious Movements (NMR) came to the fore. In any case, in the Kingdom of Bamum, a distinction was made between the newer strains of Islam, namely Sunnism (and especially Wahhabism) and Shi'ism, which developed alongside an older strain known as the Tijâniyya Brotherhood (a branch of Sufism). In Christianity, on the other hand, we are witnessing the meteoric rise of the 'revivalist churches', much to the dismay of traditional religions.

Afro-Christianity: the diversity of a religion once thought to be European

2025-02-06T09:35:26-03:00

This article aims to address the presence of Christianity in Africa since the first centuries of our era, showing how, from countries such as present-day Ethiopia, it spread throughout the north of the African continent, long before the arrival of Europeans in the 15th century who, from the 16th century onwards, brought discriminatory and authoritarian versions full of orthodoxies generated by the Council of Trent (1545-1563) and the Protestant Reformation. The text also speaks of one of the most significant contacts of Portuguese Catholic Christianity in Africa, which occurred, still in the 15th century, with the peoples of present-day Congo and Angola and which generated, in slave-owning Brazil, the devotion and festivals dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and Saint Benedict, celebrated in several Brazilian states and known as Congadas, Reinados and other variations, in addition to having influenced the different forms of Candomblé and Umbanda in Brazil. Finally, it deals with the current situation of Christianity on the African continent, thus covering a circle of more than 1000 years in which Christianity left Palestine, was structured in Africa, crossed the Mediterranean and entered Europe, returning to Africa with colonization, quite transformed.

África Cristã: 2.000 anos de História

2025-04-14T17:38:53-03:00

Com o dossiê África Cristã: 2.000 anos de História, a presente edição da Revista Brasileira de História das Religiões apresenta uma atualização necessária e urgente sobre a presença desde a Antiguidade, o desenvolvimento e o impacto do Cristianismo na África para a História do Cristianismo Global. O objetivo dos sete artigos desta chamada temática, incluindo dois de autores internacionais, atendem ao objetivo de demonstrar a riqueza cultural das manifestações cristãs milenares africanas, não sendo produto, portanto, apenas da ação colonialista europeia na Modernidade.