Abstract:
This dissertation seeks to investigate the existence of a
Brazilian Reformed Theology in the area of
ecclesiology and its relation to culture by using the
Presbyterian Church of Brazil as the object of
investigation. The first part investigates how the
reformer John Calvin was educated and how his humanism
related to the teaching he developed, as also its possible
application to Brazilian Reformed Theology, choosing
common Grace to understand this relation to culture in
seeking to understand how wide was its influence in his
ecclesiology. In the second part, Calvinism, Puritanism
and Neopuritanism are analyzed toward possible divisions
or continuity. Such situations will be studied as a
possible cultural influence of the practical
rationalization of the Calvinists and of the relation of
Calvin and the puritans with science. The third part
presents Richard Shaull as a contradiction to the style of
being reformed neopuritans , applical to a good part of
the Brazilian reformed of the Presbyterian Church of
Brazil, to the extent that he attempted to construct a
Reformed Theology of Revolution that his followers,
perhaps his major contribution, could transform into a
Theology of Liberation. His ecclesiastical vision will be
compared to that of Ashbel Green Simonton, pioneer of the
Presbyterian Church of Brazil. The fourth and final part
will study the construction of Reformed Theology in the
Presbyterian Church of Brazil today, its possible relation
to fundamentalism, beginning or not with the puritans,
above all a real fear as to its Brazilianity, seeking ways
to respond to the kind of ecclesiology the Reformed
Theology of the Presbyterian Church of Brazil has
produced.
