Religion and communicative reason: the Christian Base Communities in the redemocratisation years.

Author(s)

Ana Amélia da Silva

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2003-02-05

Examining board members

Antonio Flavio de Oliveira Pierucci; Cicero Romao Resende de Araujo; Brasilio Joao Sallum Junior

• Advisor: Antonio Flavio de Oliveira Pierucci

Abstract

This research had as it main goal to study aspects of the Brazilian cultural modernization taking into consideration changes that have happened within its most traditional religion: the Catholicism. In terms of theoretical as well as methodological means, the present research has used as specific reference the Theory of Communicative Action by Jürgen Habermas, aiming to verify conditions that make possible the development of a certain type of rationality, know as communicative, in our culture. In terms of empirical analysis, it has chosen to study the Christian Base Communities, which are considered as being a privileged scenario to verifying potentialities to the development of communicative action. This choice is due to the fact that those religious communities have created, among their members, the habit of discussing and arguing for, collectively, whose intention is to come up with consensual solutions to their daily-life problems. (AU)