Reconciliation. The way to the healing of wounds and the overcoming of religious divisions

Abstract

This article presents the results of the scientific initiation research that bears the same title and was carried out at the Faculty of Theology, Universidade Metodista de São Paulo and funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp). It studies, in a precise way, Christianism as a religion fragmented since its formation. This fragmentation becomes accentuated since the Protestant Reformation. In Brazil, the protestant sector is the one in which most divisions take place, causing emotional wounds in the several groups of followers. The attempt to identify the factors that cause the divisions and some hints to reconciliation process is the possibility of churches preserving the ideal of brotherhood that, along with salvation, form the proposal of the Christian faith.

Keywords

Church – division – protestantism – reconciliation – ecumenism.

Maria Aparecida Silva is graduated in Theology by FaTeo (2007) and pastor of the Methodist Church in the city of Três Rios, Rio de Janeiro/RJ.