Ecclesia Reformata Semper Reformanda: O testemunho como proposta pedagógica para a formulação de uma mística cristã libertadora em contexto urbano

Abstract

The cities have become the place where most of the inhabitants of this planet today have their life experience. The first ones emerged in the proximities of the Euphrates and the Nile rivers, in ancient times when the human being passed from being a nomad to being a farmer. As production grows, generating an excess, there begins one of the characteristics of the cities: the exploitation of the rural areas by the city. The farmer and his family, in exchange for security or religious and political mediation, is exploited mainly through taxes and the services which he needs to carry out for the king. This type of organization, even though unjust, has been imposed throughout time and has spread to various parts of the world. In Brazil, the process of Portuguese colonization was based on the private use of the land and slave work for more than three centuries. With urbanization and industrialization, the exploitation of the so called free worker is accentuated as of the 19th century. The capitalist city, which lives according to the rhythm of the industry, privatizes the land, exploits the sale of labor, expels from the fields and controls the access to dwelling, generating spatial segregation, all in the name of the growth of capital. Today, they are the repositories of the main conflicts which affect society, but, at the same time, they give rise to the hope of a more comfortable life with access to the consumer goods and the indispensable services for a dignified life. All this happens in the city in current times, the evil and the good, work and technology, pleasure and disgrace. Even in an ever more urbanized reality and founded on the rationality of the system, the human being who dwells in it, experiences something which defines him or her as a being who is in quest due to the uncertainties which surround his or her existence, the social conflicts and the desire which the city continuously encourages (e.g. through propaganda), this human being shows him/her self to be particularly open to novelty, to that which comes from outside. In this sense, he/she also becomes receptive to the presence of God. In this relation between God and the human being one encounters the challenge of mystique. Mystique, defined as cognitio Dei experimentalis, or the knowledge of God through experience, involves and guides the life of every being, causing them to look beyond themselves, seeking in the encounter with the other and with the world a dignified life project. This being is then confronted with the project itself of God, just and liberating. Many are the witnesses of this journey in the history of the Christian church. But how does one make the human being of the city commit him/herself with the cause of God? In the quest for an answer a field research was carried out with groups Evangelical-Lutheran participants of the parishes of the city of Porto Alegre and with Roman Catholic people who participate in Ecclesial Base Communities in the range of the Porto Alegre Archdiocese. The subject of the research was to verify what mystique orientates the life of these people and what makes them seek, amidst a contradictory reality, the presence of God and the meaning of this presence in their lives. Since the locus of this research is the Latin American reality one cannot ignore the suffering. Thus, the central role of the Evangelical witness as a factor for motivating and becoming involved in Christian action in the urban context, which is adverse to the will of God, became very clear. The witness makes the innards of life and ecclesial action shake in this world. This research places it as a fundamental factor for the construction of a liberating Christian mystique in the urban context.