The article analyzes the relationship between Religious Education and Moral and Civic Education in the basic schooling in Brazil, focusing the attention, in the first case on the public school curriculum, and, in the second one, on that of all schools. The federal legislation, as the product of alliances and conflicts between the religious and the political fields, was examined in the light of education. The author concluded that, during the studied period, both subjects have accomplished different roles, complementing or alternating with one another, in the power game between the political and religious fields.
BRASILIAN EDUCATION; EDUCATIONAL POLITICIES; RELIGIOUS EDUCATION; SECULAR EDUCATION