“Enlisting in the invincible army of the printed page” - Adventist print culture in 20th-Century Brazil

ABSTRACT

Print media was fundamental for the expansion of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, therefore, it is important to reflect on representations related to print culture, which highlighted their powers of influence, instruction, and evangelization, with the help of colporteurs. This article uses theoretical references about religious print culture and representation to analyze the importance given by the church to printed material and colporteurs during the twentieth century. The study points to the notion that “good” religious print culture has transformative potential as an antidote to the secular media that supposedly propagates sins.

Keywords:
religious print media; Seventh-day Adventist Church; colportage; print culture; periodicals