Contribuições de Michel de Certeau para a História Cultural das Religiões

Abstract

This article examines Michel de Certeau’s contribution to the historiography of religions, focusing on his notion of the *historiographical operation* and its epistemological implications. Starting from the assumption that historical writing implies a double distance—temporal and epistemological—the text situates Certeau within the theoretical turn of French historiography in the 1960s, a period when the discipline sought to reconcile scientific rigor with its literary dimension. The main objective is to understand how, from a marginal position in the academic field, Certeau developed a critique of the claims of neutrality in historical discourse and advanced an anthropology of belief.

The theoretical-methodological framework combines historiographical analysis, the history of religions, and dialogue with psychoanalysis. By shifting attention to language, everyday practices, and mysticism, Certeau demonstrates that historical production is always shaped by ideologies and conditioned by the categories of the present. Mysticism is thus conceived simultaneously as a new science, an experimental science, and a science of enunciation, making it a privileged field for reflecting on the relationship between subjective experience, divine absence, and discursive practices.

The article concludes that, for Certeau, the history of religions should be understood less as the study of religious institutions and more as the analysis of belief as a social practice, marked by resistance, appropriation, and the everyday uses of faith. This approach breaks with the dichotomy between “high” and “popular” religion, giving centrality to ordinary cultures. In this way, Certeau’s work remains highly relevant as it critically reflects on the limits and possibilities of historical writing, highlighting the inseparability of religion, politics, and everyday practices.