História do futuro, by Father Vieira, and the rhetoric of the messianic discourse

Abstract

This paper analyses História do Futuro, a text not very well-known by the public that was written by Father Antônio Vieira, a Luso-Brazilian Jesuit, in the 17th century. Vieira’s work is productive in the viewpoint of an analysis that takes into account the argumentative dimension, due to its double messianism: a Christian messianism and a more specific Portuguese-Christian messianism, since the text defends the imminent religious and political unification of the world under a global Christian empire led by Portugal. The fact that such a discourse is based on a fundamentally persuasive communication allows us to establish a dialogue between French Semiotics and other discourse approaches –in particular, the rhetorical one– in order to analyse how the Jesuit’s text not only handles this double messianism, seeking to persuade two different kinds of recipients, but also how, in doing so, it updates elements of a rhetorical frame typical of the messianism. In this way, we can propose the existence of a rhetoric of the messianic discourse, the organization of which we will try to point out and to explain.