Abstract:
This doctoral dissertation is an analysis of the formation of the Sínodo
Evangélico Luterano Unido (SELU) [United Lutheran Evangelical Synod], in 1962,
stemming from the fusion of the Lutheran Church in Brazil (1905) and the Evangelical
Synod of Santa Catarina and Paraná (1911), normally called synods. The trajectories
of these two institutions were marked in good measure by mutual combat, being that
the origins of these conflicts are in the pre-existing congregational divergences as
well as in theological and confessional differences which remit back to the history of
the institutions as to the origins of the pastors and members who make up the two
synods. The nationalisms of the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th
century determined the history of the synods. Mainly with the result of the Second
World War, the ideal of edifying the Church based on an ethnic matrix was revealed
as invalid, leading the synods to continue the dialog that had begun under their
condition of Germanity, however now with a new discourse, marked by a theological
reorientation. This new order gained formal expression with the constitution of the
Federação Sinodal (FS) [Synod Federation]/ Igreja Evangélica de Confissão
Luterana no Brasil (IECLB) [Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil], in
1949. From the commitment with the new established order there arose the need for
restructuring the two synods, which had experienced a parallel development even
though co-existing in the same territory. The constitution of the SELU is a
fundamental marking point in the consolidation of the IECLB as a church of Jesus
Christ in Brazil.
