Progressive evangelicals? aesthetics, theology, and tensions in the public engagement of evangelical churches in Metropolitan Recife

Abstract

This paper reflects, based on ongoing observation, on the forms of social engagement, theological discourses, and internal disputes within the First Baptist Church in Bultrins (Olinda) and the Baptist Church in Coqueiral (Recife), aiming to comparatively understand the meanings, tensions, and limits of the category "progressive evangelical" in the public action of peripheral communities in the Recife Metropolitan Area. The methodology is grounded in a qualitative ethnographic approach, combining participant observation and informal conversations with leaders and members. The considerations presented here articulate the category "progressive evangelical" as operating in a constitutive friction zone between self-identification and hetero-identification. While at PIB Bultrins one observes an open and institutionalized progressivism centered on gender, race, and diversity issues, at IB Coqueiral public action focuses on territorial and socio-environmental transformation, where the adjective "progressive" is not explicitly used, though subtly perceived by external observers. It concludes that public engagement in these territories reconfigures what it means to be "crente" (evangelical), moving beyond the conservative/progressive binary of the digital sphere through community praxis anchored in human dignity.