Study of religion à la Brazil

Testimonies and reports about a process under construction

Abstract

This paper aims to present the trajectory of the discipline of study of religion from a diachronic perspective. It will describe some aspects of its institutionalization in Brazil. Through bibliographical research, this paper surveys data on research into religion until the beginning of this process in the national academic sphere, founded by the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Federal University of Juiz de Fora) in the 1960s. Regarding the process of consolidating the discipline in graduate studies, a decade later, through the Pontifiícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo), the reflection was also guided by the testimonies, reports and first theoretical methodological reflections from some pioneers of the new discipline. Although the first chairs in the study of religion were established in Europe in the second half of the 19th century, and their theoretical methodological presuppositions were established by a tradition of university research, the study of religion “à la Brazil” shows traces of a relationship of tension and complementarity, especially with theology, the discipline with which it shares the political-academic organization of the area of evaluation in the country. These characteristics can be seen throughout the history of more than half a century, from the pioneers of the discipline in the country, such as Jaime Snoek, João Edênio Reis Valle and Antônio Gouvêa Mendonça. The new generations, the new graduate and undergraduate courses are continuing in the task of better defining the discipline's theoretical methodology in Brazil.