No caminho de uma teoria da religião em Bourdieu: as apropriações marxianas

Abstract

This essay presents an investigation concerning the use of language and basic concepts of Karl Marx’s (1818-1883) method of political economy by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) in the elaboration of his Theory of Religion. Bourdieu elaborates a theory of religion based on the image of the field as a "market" associated with religious systematization and urbanization, with the distinction between material and spiritual works and with the closure in the autarkic reference of religious knowledge production. In the proposed religious market, there are struggles for the monopoly of production and distribution of "symbolic goods of salvation" by agents recognized as legitimate to produce, reproduce, manage and distribute such goods, followed by internal tensions in the religious field between specialized agents and lay self-production. Considering the extent of the question, the paper focuses on some basic concepts of the German theoretical framework present in Bourdieu’s work. The analysis of the religious phenomenon proposed by Bourdieu is marked by the adoption of the principles of philosophical and political critique of religion and by the methodological elaboration of the field as a religious market.