21st century apologists and fakers: negationism and uses of the history of Inquisition on Brazilian catholic websites (2004-2019)

Abstract

This article is the result of a collection and analysis of texts published in virtual spaces, such as blogs and forums, aimed at the Catholic public and whose theme is the history of the Inquisitions. All these texts were published between 2004 and 2019, on Brazilian websites. The hypothesis defended is that there is in them a writing of history that articulates historical negationism and a Catholic-conservative apologetics, seeking to engage conservative catholic groups in contemporary cultural wars. These are social uses of narratives about the past, specifically about the courts of the Inquisition, made by groups linked to the Brazilian Catholic far-right, giving historical meaning to polemics against other religious groups and rejections to some aspects of modernity, since doctrines such liberalism and the communism to movements such feminism, or even democracy, secular states, and some others. This kind of writings about the past highlight some aspects that bring many different reflections on the current role of the historian and the social uses of history.