Por um ensino religioso empático: proposta de aplicação da compreensão empática da experiência religiosa de Joachim Wach para o Ensino Religioso

Abstract

This thesis is at the intersection between Religious Studies (RS) and Education, as it attempts to propose epistemological foundations for Religious Education (RE) based on Joachim Wach's conceptions about the understanding of religious experience and pedagogical theories of school education. Wach, who lived in the beginning of the 20th century, dedicated himself to the search for the autonomy of RS and, for this reason, developed an epistemological foundation for the area: theoretical questions about the object — religious experience — and about its method. Among his definitions, the “sympathetic understanding”, which consists of a comprehensive approach to the religious phenomenon, as well as its concept of religious experience and its theoretical, practical and sociological expressions, helps us to envision a pedagogy focused on human development in RE, bearing in mind RS as a reference area for this curricular component. For this undertaking, a structural reading of Joachim Wach's texts was carried out, contextualizing them, critically analyzing them and indicating the possible points of contact between his theory and RE. Bearing in mind that RE is part of the context of basic education, it was necessary to review the educational theorists in order to highlight the educational objectives of the RE proposal at hand, that is, the social transformation in favor of a democratic society. Starting from the observation that religious experience is rarely considered by educational theorists as a fundamental component for the construction of the human world, the way in which religious experience was/is mobilized in education was analyzed, sometimes being used for political and religious purposes, sometimes, similarly to Wach, understood as a human phenomenon that can be investigated by science, and that therefore must be addressed at school, with the RE being the appropriate school space to provide the instruments for acquiring religious knowledge with ways to transform experiences of individuals under the ideals of democracy. The teaching-learning process proposed to achieve these goals is based on the sympathetic understanding from Joachim Wach, which involves the interest, human character and imagination of the student, constituting a dialectical methodology, in which teaching is done the same way as the acquisition of knowledge is conceived. A method that offers the tools for acquiring systematic knowledge about the religious experience, as well as for a sympathetic attitude towards the differences of others. Thus, sympathetic RE enables the intellectual and practical transformation of the students' experiences, fostering autonomy, respect and dialogue, principles that promote a fully democratic society.