Prospective experience of the specialization at PUC-SP (Brazil) for the profession of scholar of religion

Abstract

The first purpose of this article report is to present the experience of the specialization in the study of religion that since 2007 has been offered at PUC-SP by the area of ​​the study of religion and which, since its beginning, aims to approach the religious fact observed from of its natural elements (i.e., to treat and study religion and its articulations listening to the speeches and manifestations of human subjects in their activities and their living environments). A second, but no less important, is to place and stimulate the already initiated debate on the applied study of religion or the professionalization of the study of religion and thus broaden the debate on the openness of the area for practical activity and consequent pragmatic usefulness of religious studies. We intend to contribute to the discussion and clarity required on two tasks that the study of religion needs to deepen. It is necessary to give emphasis and epistemological and methodological guarantee for a growing solidity to pertinent arguments so that, in academic circles, specifically in Brazil, the religious fact continues to be perceived and studied in those “edges” that are usually not observed, therefore, it is necessary to face epistemological issues, but also issues of academic citizenship. It is necessary to promote and deepen research in the study of religion. However, the training of actors and professionals who act with skill and competence in dealing with the religious “thing” daily of the manifestations that identify the religious phenomenon should not be neglected.