The lesson of humanism in evangelising the New World: Father Manuel da Nóbrega’s Dialogue on the conversion of the Gentile (1557)

Abstract

The Dialogue on the Conversion of the Gentile, from 1557, by canon lawyer Father Manuel da Nóbrega, S.I., considered the first work of Brazilian Literature, begins a trilogy that defines the ideals and specific means of acculturation of Brazilian Indians. The way of inculcating religion and Christian morals in the men of the New World follows the verisimilitude of dialogue, according to the nature of the interlocutors, with dialogue transitions that strive for naturalness. Nóbrega expresses, however, humanist concepts of a philosophical, ethical-pedagogical and theological scope that place this work as the ultimate reference for the thinking of one of the main workers of the unity and historical formation of Brazil. In the uniqueness of this “Brazilian pedagogy” he was able to count on the help of Father José de Anchieta and with the practical application of his humanist training to the reality of indigenous people, notably his philological knowledge and his poetic genius as a playwright. A sign of the Counter-Reformation times, and without denying the essence of their superior humanist formation, what mattered above all was the conversion of the Indians of Brazil, ad maiorem Dei gloriam.