IMPRESSOS RELIGIOSOS LUTERANOS INFANTIS E JUVENIS E FORMAÇÃO SECULAR (1929-1971)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the secular usage of Lutheran-religious printed material directed to children and young people. Although they had not been created for education, they were used for general knowledge training of such groups. It is about the magazines for children, The Little Lutheran (1931 to 1966), and the for young adults, The Young Lutheran (1929 to 1971), published by Concórdia publishing house, from the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Brazil, founded by the Missouri Synod within ethnic communities of German immigration in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. Both periodics aimed to reinforce doctrinal lessons, although they did not deviate from spreading secular knowledge as a strategy (Certeau, 2011) to expand its doctrine, but, above all, to influence upon ethics and educational development of the attending students. A thorough analysis of the whole material content made it possible to identify tactics from the children and youth readers to bypass such control and orientation. The theoretical-methodological support of Chartier (1990) and Bastos (2002) was taken into consideration, as it observes the importance of the press in regards of historical and educational studies, as well as the historiographical documentary analysis of Cellard (2010) for the organization of sources deriving from the printed material (Luca, 2008; Bacellar, 2008). In the light of this, these printed materials kept effective communication skills with their target audience aiming to consolidate a wider educational training without withdrawing the Christian formation. However, it was possible to notice that the readers appropriated some other manners, by escaping from controlling, not just sticking to the doctrine and moral contents.