As Testemunhas de Jeová no Brasil: uma perspectiva histórico-cultural (1920 - 1940)

Abstract

This work analyzes the representations produced by Jehovah's Witnesses about the Brazilian State and, in turn, the representations of the State towards this religious group, based on the observation of the conflict between both, marked by a dynamic of tactics and strategies. This conflict can be understood within the context of the process of recatholicization that was strengthening in Brazil during the period. The analysis is conducted through the methodology of Cultural History of Religions, which allows for a deeper understanding of the group’s practices and representations, considering not only the religious aspects but also the cultural, social, and political contexts in which they were embedded. The sources used include periodicals, books, and pamphlets produced by Jehovah’s Witnesses, as well as police records found in the Political and Social Order Department (DEOPS) of São Paulo, documenting the arrests of believers, such as the case of the March at the Estação da Luz in 1930. The work also investigates the construction of discourses about the religion, analyzing the narrative of Jehovah’s Witnesses and their political positions between 1920, when the religion began to gather its first followers in Brazil, and 1940, when it was banned for being considered subversive and contrary to the established order. The research aims to overcome the generalizations often reproduced both by popular understanding and in academic studies about the religion, offering a more precise and contextualized view. The transnational analysis is also a central point, observing the dynamics of persecution and resistance of Jehovah’s Witnesses in totalitarian regimes in the United States and Europe, and how these experiences influenced the group’s strategies in Brazil. The dissertation further examines how the actions of the believers, upon settling in the country, sought to guarantee a space of their own, using a discourse aimed at universalizing the religion through practices and narratives capable of transcending different cultures and social contexts. Finally, the study investigates the specificities that the religion had to assume in Brazil, given the country’s historical and cultural particularities. In this sense, the research analyzes both the group’s tactics of resistance and the control strategies employed by the Catholic Church, reflecting on how Brazilian recatholicization and the practices of Jehovah’s Witnesses shaped an ongoing dynamic of conflict and negotiation.