Coloniality and decoloniality of the sacred

religion science and the deconstruction of watertight paradigms

Abstract

This article aims to discuss the idea of coloniality of the sacred, which appears associated with the project of Eurocentric epistemic domination, guided initially by a process of colonization and later by a process of modernization/ secularization/ rationalization, responsible for relegating the ontological knowledge originated from the sacred to irrelevance, faking it to the reliability of the control of religion and subjecting it to the supremacy of science. However, as a critical counterpart, the decolonial and intercultural paradigms emerge, proposing renewed interpretations for sociocultural dynamics and consequently for the treatment of the religious phenomenon. Such epistemological alternatives are capable of untainting significant nuances of the sacred, veiled in religious traditions and refuted by science, taking it as a viable object of studies to be analyzed by the sciences of religion. Such epistemological alternatives are capable of untainting significant nuances of the sacred, veiled in religious traditions and refuted by science, taking it as a viable object of studies to be analyzed by the sciences of religion. It is important to reflect on how decolonial and intercultural strategies can conceive new theoretical-methodological arrangements and commit themselves to the implementation of interreligious dialogue and the fight against religious intolerance, as a feasible practical action, having in the recognition of the sacred the nodal point of interpretation and defense of ecumenic conciliation. To this end, a bibliographic dimension was made between the authors of the Latin American modernity/coloniality study group and other authors in the field of Brazilian religion sciences.