Written as a doctoral dissertation at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1959, this study remains a significant contribution to the historical record of Latin American Protestantism. Robert McIntire, who in 1959 had had what he calls in the preface a “brief missionary career” (p. 0/13), presents a straightforward account of the rise of Brazilian Presbyterianism. The opening three chapters deal with Brazilian history and religious tolerance before 1859, while the last six chapters describe the careers of such men as Ashbel Green Simonton, a leading missionary, and José Manoel da Conceição, a converted Catholic priest, as well as the Synods held after 1888, the constant disputes of denominational factionalism, and the Schism of 1903.
Disappointment awaits those who approach this book expecting something other than historical description from a Protestant perspective. Religious sociologists will find that it has little importance for their work, because the volume is completely devoid of the theoretical issues that provide intellectual excitement and general relevance for the more recent studies of Emilio Willems and Christian Lalive d’Epinay. Other readers may quibble with the pious tone of McIntire’s book and his pervading assumption of direct divine intervention in human affairs. Advocates of contemporary ecumenicalism will find numerous reminders of the frictions that have prevented an effective ecumenical movement in the past, as when McIntire presents Presbyterian claims in 1890 that “the chief antagonist to a true and living faith in Christ among the people of Brazil is the atheism and infidelity caused by reaction against the superstitions of the Church of Rome” (p. 8/2). But Mclntire never pretends that his book touches issues in religious sociology, or looks from an agnostic’s perspective, or tries to justify ecumenical endeavors. When seen in terms of its more partisan and discriptive objectives, the study is quite successful.
Given the documentary purposes of the book, its sources and style are admirable. In addition to going over the published histories of Presbyterianism, Mclntire has painstakingly researched missionary journals and letters, the relevant religious periodicals, and the reports of assemblies and committees. Lucid, concise writing makes this volume a pleasure to read. Mclntire’s knack for apt and entertaining quotation enlivens the book, and some quotes reveal motivations in their authors that are more intriguingly complex and contradictory than the writers themselves understood. The book contains a useful bibliography, although, like other Sondeos volumes, it is hurt by the absence of an index.
Besides the missing index, this book suffers from other aspects of the approach that has both plagued the Sondeos series and made it financially possible. The scholarly community owes a substantial debt to the series editors for giving wide circulation to many manuscripts and dissertations that would otherwise be far more difficult and costly to obtain. The type is clear, and the uneven right-hand margin provides no significant problem. Cases where mistyped letters are struck out and written in above are only annoying, although mistaken dates that are not corrected provide more serious problems (see, for example, pp. 4/19 and 4/20). The practice of renumbering pages for each new chapter remains rather disconcerting and inconvenient, and, since this study will become a library reference volume rather than a newsstand best seller, a more substantially bound edition should also have been made available. These faults do not relate, of course, to the substantive merits of Mclntire’s volume, which will interest those who study Presbyterianism, missionary activity, or religious movements in Latin America.
