"This pamphlet will defeat protestantism":

Religious controversies in the pernambucan press (1880)

Abstract

The latter half of the nineteenth century was marked by the dissemination of new ideas and political movements, which spurred significant social and cultural transformations. In the religious sphere, the emergence of the first Portuguese-speaking Protestant communities created fertile ground for ideological confrontation with Catholicism. A notable example of this dynamic occurred in Recife in 1880, through the exchange of polemical and doctrinal publications in the newspapers Diário de Pernambuco and Jornal do Recife. These debates prominently featured the Presbyterian missionary John Rockwell Smith and authors writing under the pseudonyms “Neophyto” and “Um Catholico.” This article aims to analyze how such discursive interactions revealed antagonistic worldviews and struggles for symbolic hegemony. Drawing on the Cultural History of Religions (Agnolin, 2013; Benatte, 2014; Silva, 2018) and Critical Discourse Studies (Amassoy, 2017; Fairclough, 2001; Van Dijk, 2023), the study examines the representations constructed by these religious groups as they sought to consolidate their own “truths” and shape public opinion. The research investigates how religious discourses, as cultural expressions, not only reflected the social tensions of the period but also actively contributed to the formation of collective identities and cultural power dynamics.