Catholic intellectuals and the construction of an economic development project for Brazil and Latin America

the contributions of Alceu Amoroso Lima, Dom Hélder Câmara and Álvaro Vieira Pinto

Abstract

This article analyses the contribution of three Brazilian Catholic intellectuals - Alceu Amoroso Lima, Dom Hélder Câmara and Álvaro Vieira Pinto - for the economic development of Brazil and Latin America during the Cold War. The prosopographical methodology proposed by Laurence Stone and Christophe Charle guides the investigation of the individual trajectories, networks of influence and elective affinities of these thinkers, highlighting their theoretical and practical propositions. The study is based on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of fields of power, understood as spaces in dispute and forces in conflict, and Max Weber's notion of elective affinities, which allows us to explore the connections between French and Brazilian social-catholic thought, as well as their articulation with Marxist thought. The sources include works by the intellectuals in question, historical documents and sociological and historiographical references on the period. It is concluded that these thinkers played a central role in the construction of an engaged Catholic social thought that responded to the local and global demands of their time, promoting an ethic of political and economic transformation aligned with social justice.