THE NEO-THOMISM IN CURITIBA (1930-1950)

THE CÍRCULO DE ESTUDOS BANDEIRANTES AND THE CRITIQUE OF MODERNITY

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze Neo-Thomism in the Círculo de Estudos Bandeirantes between 1930 and 1950. The CEB was a center of studies and meeting of the Catholic intellectuality in Curitiba. Dissatisfied with the modernity of those years and its effects in the field of culture, thought and religion, the cebistas express their critique based on Thomist philosophy. They were realizing that modern liberal dynamic was not in keeping with the Catholic Christian ethos. Liberalism, supported by secularization and secularism, implanted a new order and a new ethos, produced a mediocre, anarchic and meaningless modernity. It is against this modernity that undermined the religion and the Catholic tradition as references and guides of the society that the cebistas raise their voice in the meetings at the CEB. It is in Thomism that they seek elements to dialogue with modernity and restore Christian values. The text is structured in four sections: 1. The Círculo de Estudos Bandeirantes and Neo-Thomism; 2. Mediocre and anarchic modernity; 3. Secularization, laïcité and secularism; 4. Order, ethos, modern culture and loss of meaning.