Yale University Library Research Guides: Latinx and Latin American Christianity: Brazil

Church History

Christianity in Brazil: An Introduction from a Global Perspective by Sílvia Fernandes This book offers a novel approach to considering Brazilian Christianity's interplay with global processes from its inception to the present day. It adopts a multi-scalar approach to Brazilian Christianity, linking local grassroots practices and beliefs with processes at the various spatio-temporal levels.
The Diaspora of Brazilian Religions (Online) by Cristina Rocha (Volume Editor); Manuel Arturo Vasquez (Volume Editor) Explores the global spread of religions originating in Brazil, a country that has emerged as a major pole of religious innovation and production. Includes discussion of the migration of Pentecostalism and Catholicism, as well as African-based religions such as Candombl and Umbanda.
Religious Conflict in Brazil: Protestants, Catholics, and the Rise of Religious Pluralism in the Early Twentieth Century (Online) by Erika Helgen This innovative study explores the transition in Brazil from a hegemonically Catholic society to a religiously pluralistic society. Shows that the rise of religious pluralism was fraught with conflict and violence, as Catholic bishops, priests, and friars organized intense campaigns against Protestantism.

Grassroots Pentecostalism in Brazil and the United States by Paul J. Palma Offers an historical and comparative profile of classical pentecostal movements in Brazil and the United States in view of their migratory beginnings and transnational expansion.
Onde a Luta Se Travar: Uma História das Assembleias de Deus no Brasil by Maxwell Fajardo
Struggle for the Spirit: Religious Transformation and Popular Culture in Brazil and Latin America by David Lehmann Explores the predicament of the Catholic Church in the face of the apparently irresistible rise of Pentecostalism, examines the structure and practices of the religious organizations and assesses the broader political implications of these developments.
Transmitting the Spirit: Religious Conversion, Media, and Urban Violence in Brazil (Online) by Martijn Oosterbaan Based on a decade of ethnographic fieldwork in Rio de Janeiro, this book argues that the Pentecostal movement's growth is due directly to its ability to connect politics, entertainment, and religion.

Looking for God in Brazil: The Progressive Catholic Church in Urban Brazil's Religious Arena by John Burdick Discusses why the Catholic Church's membership in Brazil is decreasing in comparison with Pentecostal and Afro-descendant religious traditions.
The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil, 1916-1985 by Scott Mainwaring
Women, Religion, and Social Change in Brazil's Popular Church by Carol A. Drogus Assesses the successes and failures of the liberation theology movement in relation to gender.
The Brazilian Popular Church and the Crisis of Modernity by Manuel A. Vásquez Examines economic, social and religious obstacles to progressive liberation theology in Brazil. Focusing on a Catholic community near Rio de Janeiro, Manuel A. Vásquez's incisive study shows how economic and political changes have affected religious practices, and argues that the plight of progressive Catholicism in Brazil forms part of a wider crisis of modernity and of humanist discourses.

Brazilian Evangelicalism in the Twenty-First Century by Eric Miller (Editor); Ronald J. Morgan (Editor) This volume's authors use statistical overview, historical narrative, personal anecdote, social-scientific analysis, and theological inquiry to map out this emerging landscape. The book's thematic center pivots on the question of how Brazilian evangelicals are exerting their presence and effecting change in the public life of the nation.
The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missionaries and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism by João B. Chaves Analyzes the first hundred years of Southern Baptist missionary activity in Brazil to reveal how the racialized practices of Southern Baptist Convention missionaries in the largest Latin America country shaped aspects of Latin American evangelicalism in general and the Brazilian Baptist Convention in particular.
Becoming Jewish, Believing in Jesus: Judaizing Evangelicals in Brazil (Online) by Manoela Carpenedo The first in-depth ethnography to investigate the "Judaizing Evangelical" variant in Brazil within exclusively Charismatic Evangelical churches.
Evangélicos Na Política Brasileira by Magali Cunha
Slavery and Protestant Missions in Imperial Brazil by José Carlos Barbosa; Fraser G. MacHaffie (Translator); Richard K. Danford (Translator) Looks at the role Christianity played in the struggle to abolish slavery in Brazil.