O lastro da nacionalidade: história, catolicismo e providencialismo nos escritos de J.C. Fernandes Pinheiro (1825-1876)

Abstract

The present research has as general object the comprehension of the usages of the providentialist notion in Brazil’s literate context of the 19th century. The source of specific analysis consists on the studies of the canon and prime minister of the IHGB Joaquim Caetano Fernandes Pinheiro. The hypothesis of analysis is that in his scripts, the notion of divine providence worked not only as a narrative and explicative source for the construction of historical knowledge, but was also related to the wider argument of political justification of the monarchical government, on the second half of the 19th century. The main question that permeates the investigation is associated as hoe, in the studies of the canon, had been conciliated the usages of the providentialist explication and the demands for a “scientific” write of history during the period of the 19th century. The period of this investigation englobes the years from 1850 until the ending of the 1890 decade, which corresponds to the conjuncture of historiographic production of Fernandes Pinheiro.