THE DIVERSITY OF PROTESTANT GROUPS IN BRAZIL AND THE ECUMENISM

Abstract

The text presents research results around religious diversity in the Protestant field, seen from the pluralist principle, which analyzes data on how Protestant groups that, historically, have ecumenical practices and perspectives are present in the current religious framework and how their performance highlights the Protestant diversity today. Thus, within the variety of denominational, ideological and of distinct pastoral practices, the analysis pays attention to the recurring distinction between groups, whose pastoral and theological conception was constituted in a more airy way, maintaining clearer links with society, expressed in a way that highlights social criticism, the search for rights and dialogical and inclusive forms of action. These are groups usually called ecumenical and evangelical. Methodologically, the contents were organized into two blocks. The first offers a synthesis of the main aspects of the emergence and development of ecumenical groups in Brazil. The second is a map, also synthetic, and certainly provisional, of organizations, groups, collectives and movements that mark the Protestant scene in Brazil and present, with greater or lesser intensity, traces of the ecumenical vision.