Protestantism in Brazil began in the 19th century and grew in the 20th century. The 2022 census reported that 26.8% of the Brazilian population was Protestant, over 47 million individuals,[1][2] making it the second largest Protestant population in theWestern world. Another 2020 study from theAssociation of Religion Data Archives estimated that Brazil's Protestant population was 15.12%.[3]
Protestantism was first practiced in Brazil byHuguenot travelers attempting to colonize the country while it was under thePortuguese colonial rule. These attempts, however, would not persist.
A French mission sent byJohn Calvin was established in 1557 on one of the islands ofGuanabara Bay, where theFrance Antarctique colony was founded. On March 10 of the same year, theseCalvinists held the first Protestant service in Brazil and, according to some accounts, the first in all the New World.[4]
Varieties of Protestantism were often introduced by immigrants from Europe but over the last three decades, the number ofNeo-Pentecostal churches such as theUniversal Church of the Kingdom of God has grown significantly.
In the 19th century, while the vast majority ofBrazilians were nominal Catholics, the nation was underserved bypriests, and for large numbers of people religion did not play an important role in daily life.[5] Protestantism in Brazil largely originated withEuropean immigrants as well asBritish American missionaries following up on efforts that began in the 1820s.
The firstAnglicanchapel began to offer services to English-speaking people inRio de Janeiro in 1822. In the same city, the Prussian consul sponsored the founding of aGerman andFrench Reformed congregation in 1827, which today is a Lutheran church.
Amongmissionaries,Methodists were most active, along withPresbyterians andBaptists. The Seventh-day Adventists began in 1894, and the YMCA was organized in 1896. The missionaries promoted schools, colleges and seminaries, including the liberal artsMackenzie Presbyterian University inSão Paulo, and an agricultural school. The Presbyterian schools in particular later became the nucleus of the governmental system. In 1887 Protestants in Rio de Janeiro formed ahospital.
The missionaries largely reached a working-class audience, as the Brazilian upper class was wedded either to Catholicism or to secularism. By 1914,Protestant churches founded by U.S. missionaries had 47,000 communicants, served by 282 missionaries. In general, these missionaries were more successful than they had been inMexico,Argentina or elsewhere inLatin America.[6]
The firstSeventh Day Baptists soon appeared in Brazil. They expanded in territory and Brazil became home to one of the world's highest Seventh Day Baptist populations.[7]
TheCatholic Church was disestablished in 1890, and responded by increasing the number of dioceses and the efficiency of its clergy. Many Protestants came from a largeGerman immigrant community and they were mostly Lutheran, but they were seldom engaged in proselytizing and grew by natural increase. Most Protestants came from missionary activities sponsored by theUnited States andEurope. By 1930, there were 700,000 Protestants, about 2% of the population, and they were increasingly in charge of their own affairs.
In 1930, the Methodist Church of Brazil became independent of the missionary societies and elected its ownbishop. Protestants were largely working-class, but their networks helped accelerate their upward social mobility.[8][9]
Protestantism, which has resisted syncretism more than otherChristian churches have in the diverse country,[10] established a significant presence in Brazil during the first half of the 20th century and grew during the second half. Protestants accounted for fewer than 5% of the population until the 1960s, but by 2000 made up over 15% of those affiliated with a church. Pentecostals andCharismatic groups account for most of this expansion. This expansion has historically been attributed to the efforts of American missionaries, entrepreneurs and politicians (including theCentral Intelligence Agency) with expanding evangelical theology in South America as a counter tocommunism,socialism, and other movements including Latin American Catholicism's growingliberation theology.[11][12]
After centuries of persecution under Portuguese colonial rule, which was successful in consolidating Catholicism in the country, Protestant denominations have seen a rapid growth in their number of followers since the last decades of the 20th century.[13]
Until the late 1970s, the majority of Brazilian Protestants were Lutherans, Presbyterians, or Baptists; however, the Pentecostals, especially from neo-charismatic churches linked to theprosperity doctrine, have grown significantly in number since then.[14][11]
Through the 20th century efforts of theSeventh-day Adventists, Brazilians developed aSeventh-day Adventist educational system with over 475 elementary schools, 67 secondary schools, two colleges and a university.[15][16] The rich and the poor remained traditional Catholics, while most Evangelical Protestants were in the new lower-middle class, known as the "C class" (in a A–E classification system). A 2015 survey in Brazil found that the majority of prisoners may be Evangelicals.[17]
At the time of the 2000 census, due to evangelism and missionary work, 15.4% of the Brazilian population began to identify as Protestant. Research conducted by theDatafolha institute showed that an estimated 31% of Brazilians became Protestants as of 2020.[18] The 2010 census found that 22.2% were Protestant,[19] while a 2020 survey from ARDA estimated a 15.12% Protestant population, down from Datafolha's studies.[3]
With the growth of Evangelicalism and Pentecostal churches across Brazil, however, as of 2023, there has been an increase in religious intolerance toward non-Protestants;Afro-Brazilian religious leaders and institutions have been targeted and destroyed,[20][21] sparking numerous interfaith protests. An Afro-Brazilian priestess was also murdered.[22][23] As of 2024, Evangelicals were labeled as the most intolerant of religious groups in Brazil.[24]
According to 2010IBGE census, the following were the biggest Protestant denominations in Brazil.[35] Only those with more than half a million members are listed.
^Kenneth Scott Latourette,A History of the Expansion of Christianity: volume V: The great century in the Americas, Austral-Asia, and Africa: A.D. 1800-A.D. 1914 (1943) 5:120-3
^Sanford, Don A. (1992).A Choosing People: The History of Seventh Day Baptists. Nashville: Broadman Press. pp. 127–286.ISBN0-8054-6055-1.
^Kenneth Scott Latourette,A History of the Expansion of Christianity: Volume VII: Advance through Storm: A.D. 1914 and after, with concluding generalizations (1945) 7:181-2
^Erasmo Braga and Kenneth G. Trubb,The Republic of Brazil: A survey of the religious situation (1932)
Birman, Patrícia, and Márcia Pereira Leite. "Whatever Happened to What Used to Be the Largest Catholic Country in the World?,"Daedalus (2000) 129#2 pp. 271–290in JSTOR
Burdick, John. " Why is the Black Evangelical Movement Growing in Brazil?"Journal of Latin American Studies (2005) 37#2 pp 311–332.
Chesnut, R. Andrew. "The Salvation Army or the Army's Salvation?: Pentecostal Politics in Amazonian Brazil, 1962-1992,"Luso-Brazilian Review (1999) 36#2 pp 33–49
Chesnut, R. Andrew.Born Again in Brazil: The Pentecostal Boom and the Pathogens of Poverty (1997)excerpt and text search
Corten, Andre.Pentecostalism in Brazil: Emotion of the Poor and Theological Romanticism (1999)excerpt and text search
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