The Week of Religious Studies (WRS) is an annual scientific congress, international in character, promoted by the Graduate Program in Religious Sciences of the Methodist University of São Paulo. The WRS was created in 1997 and since then has been a forum for scholarly debate about relevant, theoretical and methodological issues  in the religious universe of Brazil and worldwide. Since its first edition the WRS counted with the presence of prominent researchers from Brazil and abroad. This year the topic in discussion is: Religion and power: about 50 years of the military coup (in Brazil).

50 years ago, the military seized power in Brazil, beginning a long and severe period of the suspension of civil rights of citizens and democratic institutions. During this period, thousands of oppositionists were arrested and tortured, and a regime imposed f through terror and denunciation has been initiated.

During this period, religious institutions and Christian churches, in particular, had an ambiguous role. On the one hand, they supported ideologically the military regime, on the other hand, they constituted spaces of resistance organization. This inner split has profoundly marked the ecclesiastical world in Brazil in the period and stills left its marks up to this day.

Reminding the 50 years of the military coup as a starting point, the eighteenth Week of Religious Studies of the Graduate Program in Religious Studies of the Methodist University of São Paulo invites the academic community to reflect on the complex and intricate relationships between religion and power and in consequence, the relation between religion and violence and religion and resistance. It starts from the Brazilian reality, and visits critically religious traditions and reflect on these relationships in a global context.

Prominent researchers of the field of Religious Studies and other human sciences in Brazil and abroad will participate in conferences and debates and the academic community is invited to present scientific comunications in seven workgroups on several subjects.