Exceptional normal? The trajectory of three Lutheran pastors in southern Brazil (1824-1893)

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the trajectory of the Lutheran pastors João Jorge Ehlers, Carlos Leopoldo Voges and Frederico Cristiano Klingelhoeffer by using the concept of exceptional normal formulated by Edoardo Grendi. The three ministers arrived between 1824 and 1826 in the German colony of São Leopoldo, the province of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, following German immigrants who settled there. Conflicts that arose between them are related to the attempt to get established at the center of the colony in the position of senior pastor. In this case, the methodology of micro-history helped to carry out this analysis as it allowed the trajectory of Ehlers, Voges and Klingelhoeffer cast light on the exercise of the pastoral ministry developed in Brazil in the 19th century. The sources are located in the Historical Archive of the Rio Grande do Sul and in the Historical Archive of the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil, and the main references are in the libraries of the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos and Faculdades EST. The use of the concept of exceptional normal applied to the investigation made it possible to deepen the analysis of how the non-Catholic ministers corresponded to the expectations of the Church and their congregations. Results show that there was exceptionality and normality in the activities of those pastors as they ministered to their faithful and dialogued with national authorities representing the legal and bureaucratic sectors of the Brazilian empire and the Rio Grande do Sul province.

Keywords: immigration, Rio Grande do Sul, 19th century, pastor, exceptional normal.