O Clube dos Jornalistas Espíritas de São Paulo: esfera pública, imprensa e espiritismo (1948 - 1970)

Abstract

Several recent studies have examined the Spiritist Doctrine, encoded by Allan Kardec in 1857, exploring the impact of this religion on politics, intellectualism, published work, the public sphere, and the structure of the spiritist center in the Brazilian field. Hence, this study was conducted to investigate the connection between press, religion, and the public sphere, specifically focused on Spiritist Doctrine. The research object was the Club of Journalists Spiritists from São Paulo (1948-1970), conducted by José Herculano Pires (1914-1979). This Ph.D. thesis uses qualitative methods (discourse analysis, documentary and bibliographic research) to comprehend a path to construct legitimacy in a religious field and society. Therefore, the central question asks how debates in the public sphere could interfere in maintaining the doctrine in Brazil and its bond with civil society. The result of the analysis presents that the journalist profession was a possibility to delimit the space into the doctrine and to construct the legitimacy. The moment of democratic context and opening to trade unions allowed a critical and defensive positioning related to doctrine. Furthermore, the city of São Paulo demonstrated as a competitive doctrine expansion in relation to the spiritism of Rio de Janeiro. Thereupon, the central thesis of that work is: the Club of Journalists of São Paulo was founded by Jose Herculano Pires due to his work on social-politics causes and as a man from the commercial press. This actor comprehended the press as a source for discursive legitimacy, in a context of sanitary persecution originated in the 1890 Criminal Code (influenced by members of press, judiciary, medicine and religion) and their respective updates (Decree 5.156/1904). With a strong position both in spiritism and in civil Society, the Club performed in disputes, criticism and constructed as social agenda (communism, education, party participation) as religious (Umbanda, Catholicism). There was a distinction among amateurs journalists spiritists (spiritist press) and professionals journalists spiritists (commercial press), by virtue of the moment of professionalization in journalism. Hence, there were clarity and awareness on importance of the construction of the message and information both into the consolidation of the ways of thinking and the reception of the message. Subsequently, the decline of the Club, after a member hidden jewels at the Club’s headquarters, Herculano also continued working on spiritism (and on spiritist press) until his death, in 1979.