Igreja cristâ reformada do Brasil: identidade étnica e religião: um estudo de caso

Abstract

The present work is part of a much wider project, which theme is the relation between ethny and religion in Brazil. The so called Christian Reformed Church in Brazil, object of this study, is mostly composed by Hungarians and shows to be the holder of a religious and socio-cultural preservation of the Hungarians reformed ones. The Hungarians who came to Brazil, were from some dismembered territories, as a consequence of the center-European-politic transformation, the economy desorganization and the revolutions, which were not in favor of the Hungarians in that area. We can obseve that this immigration, which used to be temporary, became definitive. When we take into consideration the importance of the Reformed Christian Church in Brazil and the high number if these immigrants, we can understand that it changes to a universal ethnicized religion, in other words, it uses religion to preserve their culture, their background. The religious elements start to compose the ethnic identity of the group. After 75 years of being organized, the Reformed Christian Church in Brazil faces, for many reasons, problems to keep its original characteristics.