Os entrelugares da religião: teoria e epistemologia a partir de Mark C. Taylor

Abstract

This thesis concerns how the theory of religion implies new ways of studying religion, according to Mark C. Taylor. First, we outline the internal logics of his books, presenting how he receives the thought of deconstruction into theology and develops a non-binary logic of thought, resisting monistic and dualistic options of relation. Second, we demonstrate Taylor's theory of religion by checking how it meshes with the author's work. His main thesis is that religion is most interesting in the places where it is least obvious. At this point, we evaluate whether his theoretical proposal, which articulates deconstruction and complexity, is adequate to the challenges that religion in contemporary times imposes on us. In the third chapter, a encruzilhada. We make an interlude, a pause to reflect, from a decolonial point of view, on Taylor's cultural choices and silences. Here, we propose an exercise of approximation between decolonial theory and Afro-Brazilian religion, presenting alternatives to the Eurocentric thinking. Fourth, we verify the epistemological implications of the theory of religion proposed by Taylor. To do so, we think not only about the cultural analyses that the author makes, but about the way he makes them, what we call an anarcheology of religion. Finally, we dedicate the postlude to an anarcheological exercise of religion on the canvas A Bird Called Innocence by Samuel de Saboia, presenting how the author constructs a kind world in face of a irreparable loss.