Abstract:
Formal theological education was the target of many criticisms throughout the history of the Assemblies of God and through this research we will seek to analyze the conflictive relation between formal theological education and the religious experience represented in the context of the Assemblies of God in Brazil. The customary posture of resistance to formal theological education was the fruit of anti-intellectualism, a mark of revivalism, which created a dualism between formal theological education and the religious experience, reason and feeling. Research of this theme is justified by the fact that, even though there have been advances as to the recognition of the importance of theological education in the bosom of Pentecostalism, there are still many leaders who prefer the devotional theology in detriment of an academic theology with deeper reflection. As a more expressive result of the set of documental and bibliographic research was the confirmation of the conflict that occurred between the Swedish mission, against the foundation of Biblical institutes and the American mission which approved the foundation of these institutes. This paper, developed throughout three chapters, presented in a way that its internal textuality should be cohesive and articulated deals in the first chapter with the presentation of historical facts which discourse about the development of Theological Education in the Assemblies of God in Brazil throughout history. In the second chapter, the discussion is opened up to the advance of theological education with the emergence of the first Pentecostal biblical institute on Brazilian soil. The third chapter deals with the variables related to the consolidation and the strengthening of the religious experience in the Assemblies of God in Brazil based on the implantation of the project of “formal theological education”, being that these concepts are deepened and correlated in the final considerations, as well as suggestions and contributions for future research.
