Abstract:
What is the proper object of Religious Education in school? This is the main question
of this thesis, from which the following corollary problems derive: What is the
comprehension and the theoretical-epistemological foundation of professors and
researchers in the area concerning this object? What do the National Curriculum
Guidelines for Religious Education (PCNER) state as regards this subject? What
relevant approaches can be found in publications in this area s representative
events? What can be found on this subject in the country s two most representative
religious education online venues: the National Permanent Forum of Religious
Education s (FONAPER) website and the Education and Religion Research Group s
(GPER) website? In order to answer the main question of this research and offer
epistemological input for Religious Education, the thesis is divided into two parts. In
the first, an epistemological analysis of Religious Education is offered. It begins with
exposure of the author s identity as a basis for reading and for the construction of the
argument. The second chapter deals more specifically with the assessment of the
current concept of what this object is. For this purpose, a field research analysis was
carried out with professors and researchers in the area; analysis of the PCNER; of
FONAPER s website guest book; of the topics of theses, dissertations and
monographs posted on GPER s website; of the publications in events; and of the
Pedagogical Book of Religious Education of the State of Paraná. The second part of
the thesis, for the epistemological propositions, begins with the concept of religious
phenomenon and the research of phenomenological approach; the second chapter
seeks to offer subsidies for reflection as regards the sacred as numinous in Rudolf
Otto and the Sacred of Attribution as a system of meanings. A reflection within the
same perspective articulates the myth from the etymological, anthropological and
literary rubric. In the last chapter, transcendence is dealt with in its ontological and
cultural aspects, in its relation with the immanence, with the object of transcendence,
with the means of transcendence, with education and, more specifically, with Paulo
Freire s pedagogy.
