O imprensa evangélica: diferentes fases do jornal no contexto brasileiro predominante católico dos anos 1864-1892

Abstract

The Brazilian press was officially installed with the transference of the royal family to the country in 1808, and it expanded trough all national territory, after a short time of rigid control. Enjoying the relative press freedom, some newspapers questioned and criticized, by their publications, the performance of the Catholic Church in Brazil. The theme attracted readers from all social layers and arouse attention of the protestant segment of society. Thus, the evangelization tips trough provinces, cities, villages and countryside proved that the press and religion relationship could be explored in the divulgation of Protestantism. The theme that was followed with interest could gain a new focus. The creation of a protestant newspaper in a country with catholic majority attracted not only the attention of the population, but also of the dominant Church and, in particular of the most radical group of the Catholic Church: the ultramontanes. As the first gospel newspaper of Brazil and Latin America, the Imprensa Evangelica (1864-1892), was published by the Presbyterian Denomination during the second half of the XIX century; it presented distinct features of other Brazilian journalistic publications of the period, since its founder, the American Reverend Ashbel Green Simonton, supported its publishing in the models of its origin country and with directed content, preferentially, to the elites, the newspaper offered also religious education for all social classes, getting subscribers from all Brazilian zones. The Imprensa Evangelica, as a main source of this research, is one of the sources from which a formal and substantial analysis of the periodicals can be performed and a reading of the Presbyterian Protestantism in the XIX century in Brazil