An early church and international: the missionary profile of the Free Brothers upon their arrival in Argentina

Abstract

This paper aims to provide knowledge about the missionary profile of an evangelical group called Hermanos Libres, focusing on their performance during the arrival to the Río de la Plata in the late nineteenth century and the first great shift to Argentina’s Northwestern in the early decades of the twentieth century. The article is organized in four parts. First it deals with the doctrinal concerns of the group gathered at the ideation of a return to the early Christian church. Second, the paper continues with the process of territorial and social composition of the missions where the role of the expansion of the railroad in the creation of urban missionaries’ sites is a key factor. Here we examine the social configurations of Hermanos Libres’ communities in the frame of the local populations observed in such urban spaces. Thirdly, the study examines the collaborative bonds interwoven by Hermanos Libres with other evangelical groups and the implications of that spirit of solidarity and inter denominational attitude. Finally, we focus on the centrality of the written and printed practices for the development of the missionary project and the implications of them in the transnational trends of Hermanos Libres religious activities. The originality of this paper not only arises by the fact that Hermanos Libres nearly hadn’t been studied before. We try to give light to the fact that their history and characteristics allow us to rethink in wide perspectives the genesis and evolution of the evangelical past in the Southern Cone.