Religious reforms and the expansion of access to education

Abstract

This research is focused on the historical movements of the Christian religion, commonly referred to as Reformation and Counter Reformation (expressions rejected in this work), and their contribution to the education, mainly considering the expansion of the access to the education in a systematized way. The main objective is to highlight the proposals and activities of both, Protestants and Catholics, and analyze how it contributed to create opportunities for people to come into contact with the developed knowledge. This is accomplished from a point of view of the historical development of the notions and ecclesiastical organizations, outlining those dealing with education, that occasionally turns into just a political matter. The aim is to demonstrate the educational implications that such movements entailed through the history until their arrival to Brazil, with regard to the access to the formal education. This work is supported by a literature research, using as structural references the authors Hsia (2010), Lindberg (2001), Luzuriaga (1976) and Pereira (2012). We attempt to trace the relations between the religious movements and the political actions proposed with educational objectives, either by the State or the Church, based on historians focused on the topic. It’s a seemed fact that religious changes affect and are affected by the political setting and the vision of the human person or of the world.