El modelo jesuítario frente a las experiencias producidas por la práctica de la catequesis en el Brasil colonial

Abstract

This article analyses the work of the first Jesuits in Brazil, contrasting a hypothesis –that stems from their letters– according to which Indians were like «white sheets» on which anything could be written. For the Company, the task of converting the Brazilian Indians also implied the need to resee or re-interpret some essential concepts such as «poverty» or «temporal» issues in order to succeed in the convertion efforts. It can be said that the experience of Brazilian realitiy and the day-after-day with the Indians opened the way to significant changes in the Company’s conceptions.