"First Typological Identification of the Public Ecumenical Baptistery of Méier"
Year: 2025
Type: preprint
Abstract: This preprint documents and conceptualizes a contemporary Brazilian pattern in which public authorities provide permanent material infrastructure for Christian baptism. It focuses on the Public Baptistery of Jardim do Méier, inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro on 13 December 2025, while situating the case within a broader documentary corpus of municipal facilities, legislative proposals, historical regimes of baptismal governance, state-administered ritual-water infrastructures, and multifaith spaces. The study develops publicly provided baptismal infrastructure as an institutional category defined by three conditions: (C1) permanent support dedicated to the rite; (C2) allocation of use decided by a public authority; and (C3) absence of a single ecclesiastical authority controlling who may officiate. Méier is the reference case from which the typology is formulated—not its oldest instance—and is analyzed as an extreme case because public governance of the material support coexists with explicit Christian coding, denominational memory, documented ritual use, and public controversy. The study proposes, as the mechanism suggested by the evidence, a decoupling of material governance from ecclesiastical authority over the rite. Two simultaneous spatial processes are hypothesized to follow: the publicization of confessional infrastructure and the confessionalization of public space, shifting conflict from ownership toward designated use and eligibility. The preprint provides a documentary chronology, translated primary-source excerpts, photographic evidence, a case-by-condition matrix, a coding protocol, and appendices designed for future validation. It does not issue a constitutional verdict, make a chronological-precedence claim, or infer public-health effects from the existing evidence. Version 2.0 supersedes Version 1.0 (28 January 2026). It withdraws the earlier claims of precedence, priority, ecumenical character, and the holotype metaphor; see the Version Note and Appendix D. This record contains the English version (reference version) and a Portuguese translation. License: CC BY 4.0, except Figures 8, 9, and 11, which are excluded from the license (see Data and Image Rights). Project website: https://www.meierbaptistery.com
Language: English
Subfield: Architecture
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7125910194
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