A God with the face of Brazil: an exploratory study on the relationship between images and imaginary of God in the culture and in the Evangelical Lutheran preaching

Abstract

This article aims to reflect on the images and the imagery of God in the Brazilian context in relation to images and imaginary God in the preaching of the Latin American context, taking as example sermons written by ministers of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB) published on the site Göttinger Predigten im Internet. For analysis of these images and the imagery of God, it was deemed important to treat the socio-cultural context of the IECLB – which corresponds largely to the context of the historical Protestantism in Brazil – and reflect briefly on image and imagery in relation to religion and theology, not intending to build a theory of image and imagery. The article is divided into three parts: the first part presents aspects of images and imagery of God present in Brazilian culture and religiosity, using a few examples of pop culture and theological context of some ecclesiastical segments. In the second part, we seek briefly for concepts of image, imagination and verify the relationship with theology. In the last part, it analyzes images of God in the preaching of the IECLB and seeks to reflect on the meaning of these images to the Christian preaching, considering the context in which the church is located.