Research

13 pages, 267 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Liberation Theologies and Their Future: Rethinking Categories and Popular Participation in Liberation

by Joerg Rieger and Priscila Silva

Religions 2023, 14(7), 925; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14070925 - 18 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2222

The first generation of Latin American liberation theologies was marked by the methodological status of the preferential option for the poor. In the following generations, this commitment was further developed in the struggle for a new way of doing theology, even more connected [...] Read more.

The first generation of Latin American liberation theologies was marked by the methodological status of the preferential option for the poor. In the following generations, this commitment was further developed in the struggle for a new way of doing theology, even more connected to material life, and disciplines such as history and economics were added. With this, the organizational structures of life in society started to be discussed in more critical, systemic, and prophetic ways. Especially thinking of the Latin American and US contexts, the production of theology derived from this intersectionality seeks not only to highlight and analyze the economic structures that cause exploitation (class), inequalities (gender and sexuality), and racism, but to identify how religion undergirds solidarity movements. The method applied to discuss these themes is bibliographical research. As a broad conclusion, this article indicates that future liberation theologies should discuss what the multiple victims of capitalism (always the majority of the population, never merely a minority) do in order to survive, related to the alternatives they create; discuss solidarity as the foundation that opposes social evil; and discuss the illusions of individualism that cover up both existing relationships of exploitation as well as solidarity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

11 pages, 218 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘It Was Just the Club from Nowhere:’ The Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Gastro-Politics of Black Domestic Women, and Liberation Theology Futures

by Julian Armand Cook

Religions 2023, 14(6), 755; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060755 - 07 Jun 2023

Viewed by 955

Abstract

This article posits Georgia Gilmore and the “Club to Nowhere”—a crucial fundraising arm of the Montgomery Bus Boycott—as a critical vector in a larger tradition in the U.S. In Black movements for Black liberation, food and food production are engaged as a communal [...] Read more.

This article posits Georgia Gilmore and the “Club to Nowhere”—a crucial fundraising arm of the Montgomery Bus Boycott—as a critical vector in a larger tradition in the U.S. In Black movements for Black liberation, food and food production are engaged as a communal pedagogy for constructing agency, behavioral reform, economic power, resistance, and sustainable social transformation. While Montgomery preachers made speeches, activists strategized, and male leaders debated the place of women in the Black liberation project, Gilmore and her cadre of Black women domestics secured thousands of dollars to fund the movement by selling soul food staples. Through their labor, “The From Nowhere” transformed the socio-political and epistemological positionality of Black domestic women into a valuable intellectual resource for generating a movement for social change. Consequently, Gilmore reminds contemporary and future liberation theologians that interrogating and re-envisioning our epistemologies is essential to sustainable revolutionary social praxes. Working at the juncture of history, ethics, and critical theory, I look to Gilmore and “The Club from Nowhere” for historical reflection on the intersections of food, race, gender, and the future of liberation theologies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

11 pages, 250 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Poor in Society, Resurrection from Social Death, and Latin American Liberation Theology

by Jung Mo Sung

Religions 2023, 14(6), 740; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060740 - 03 Jun 2023

Viewed by 1144

Abstract

Does Latin American liberation theology, with its option for the poor, still have something to contribute in a global scenario marked by neoliberal globalization and the discussion of identity politics? Based on the practices of Father Júlio Lancelotti against aporophobia (phobia against the [...] Read more.

Does Latin American liberation theology, with its option for the poor, still have something to contribute in a global scenario marked by neoliberal globalization and the discussion of identity politics? Based on the practices of Father Júlio Lancelotti against aporophobia (phobia against the poor) and the hostile architecture in Brazil, this article discusses the notion of the priority of orthopraxis over orthodoxy, the process of reordering the place of the poor in society and in the state budgets, and the notion of liberation practices and criticizes the process of dehumanization in neoliberal culture, in which personal identity and belonging to a community are marked by the pattern of consumption and wealth. Finally, it shows how the practices of recognizing the humanity of the poorest can been seen as a resurrection from social death, as a form of liberation within history, and as the affirmation of faith in a God who does not distinguish between human beings, while the idol demands sacrifices of life from the poor. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

14 pages, 301 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Embodying a Different Word about Fat: The Need for Critical Feminist Theologies of Fat Liberation

by Hannah Bacon

Religions 2023, 14(6), 696; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14060696 - 25 May 2023

Viewed by 1345

Abstract

In contemporary Western society, fatness speaks for itself, affirming the fat person as an aesthetic and moral failure even before they say a word. Fat bodies, and fat female bodies in particular, are produced and reproduced as sites of excess and obscenity. Christian [...] Read more.

In contemporary Western society, fatness speaks for itself, affirming the fat person as an aesthetic and moral failure even before they say a word. Fat bodies, and fat female bodies in particular, are produced and reproduced as sites of excess and obscenity. Christian theology has protected itself from the contaminating touch of fat by ignoring fatness in theological discourse. Especially concerning is the relative absence of ‘fat talk’ from liberation and feminist theologies. It is time for a different word to be offered on fat that does not speak for itself and that emerges from the lived experiences of diverse women as they interpret their own faith and fatness. This essay explores the need for critical feminist theologies on fat liberation and identifies some features they might display. Here, I discuss Feminist Participatory Action Research and ethnography as methodologies that might help feminist theologians researching fat to prioritise the overlooked bodies and stories of fat women, and to continue liberation theology’s longstanding commitment to constructing historical projects oriented towards social change. Fat liberation, as a historical and theological project, calls for a ‘conversion’ to fatness and for a critical questioning of assumed ‘truths’ about fat. It positions the struggle against fat hatred as a pursuit of life and as faithful participation in the liberating activity of the God of Life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

12 pages, 249 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Poor as Symptom: A Lacanian Reading of the Option for the Poor

by Levi Checketts

Religions 2023, 14(5), 639; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14050639 - 10 May 2023

Viewed by 1065

Abstract

Latin American liberation theology contributed perhaps the most significant theological contribution of the twentieth century in the “preferential option for the poor”. This insight has been an uneasy call to conscience for the magisterial Catholic Church, which has often buttressed the positions of [...] Read more.

Latin American liberation theology contributed perhaps the most significant theological contribution of the twentieth century in the “preferential option for the poor”. This insight has been an uneasy call to conscience for the magisterial Catholic Church, which has often buttressed the positions of the powerful. However, despite the central significance of this discovery, liberation theologians themselves often betray their own positions by romanticizing the poor, speaking on their behalf, diluting the meaning of poor and other such seeming shortcomings. This article argues that the incongruence regnant in discussions of the preferential option can best be understood through the Lacanian notion of a “symptom”. As “woman is the symptom of man”, the poor are the symptom of the upper classes. In order for nonpoor to understand their own socioeconomic position—including academically trained clergy—they must posit the poor as an Other against whom they understand themselves. As such, reaching “the poor” is an impossibility for anyone who is in a position to truly advocate for them. However, the insight of the preferential option tells us that the impossibility should be pursued nonetheless, with full understanding that it is an impossibility. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

16 pages, 956 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Liberation Theology Today: Tasks of Criticism in Interpellation to the Present World

by Javier Recio Huetos

Religions 2023, 14(4), 557; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14040557 - 21 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2006

Abstract

Latin American liberation theology appears to be an obsolete phenomenon that is unable to speak about the realities of today’s world. Since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published two instructions on liberation theology, the Vatican has been considered to have [...] Read more.

Latin American liberation theology appears to be an obsolete phenomenon that is unable to speak about the realities of today’s world. Since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published two instructions on liberation theology, the Vatican has been considered to have condemned it. Likewise, the Vatican of John Paul II and Benedict XVI focused on the reprobation of several liberation theologians attempting to silence their voices. However, liberation theology aimed at the realisation of justice in a world in which the injustice that gave birth to this phenomenon still prevails in new ways. This article establishes a relationship between liberation theology and critical thinking to offer an alternative to the future of liberation theology. We insist that, despite the end of the era in which both were born, they continue to challenge the present world. Using Adornian optics, we establish how critical thought constitutes a prophetic denunciation. Thus, liberation theology will be understood within this critical tradition and how it critiques the current reality, in which the logic of late capitalism prevails. Afterwards, the contemporary world will be studied from this point of view to try to discover the pending tasks of criticism. It is the question of discovering the tasks of critiques to challenge the present. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

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12 pages, 241 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Whom Do We Serve? Dismantling the Church Industrial Complex in North American Mainline Protestant Churches

by Sheryl Johnson

Religions 2023, 14(2), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020245 - 13 Feb 2023

Viewed by 1347

Abstract

Social justice is often identified as a central commitment in mainline Protestant churches in North America. However, it is often approached as a public-facing issue that engages broader society, rather than as a comprehensive value that also informs internal practices in those same [...] Read more.

Social justice is often identified as a central commitment in mainline Protestant churches in North America. However, it is often approached as a public-facing issue that engages broader society, rather than as a comprehensive value that also informs internal practices in those same North American Protestant congregations/denominations, particularly in the area of finance. This reality means that a profit orientation often informs and shapes practices, undermining the mission; this reality can be understood as part of an industrial complex. To counter this tendency, I present two themes that are rooted in a liberation-based critical understanding of inequality found in the World Council of Churches’ AGAPE (Alternative Globalization Affecting People and the Earth) statement. These two themes are as follows: that one’s personal financial resources (or lack thereof) are deeply connected to oppressive systemic factors, and that churches are called to exist in economic solidarity and communion with one another. I conclude by asserting that church finance must be rendered more coherent with churches’ own values and commitments to liberating justice as a matter of faith. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

12 pages, 307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Current and Future Potentials of Liberation Pedagogies: A Discussion of Paulo Freire’s, Augusto Boal’s, and Johannes A. van der Ven’s Approaches

by Jan-Hendrik Herbst

Religions 2023, 14(2), 145; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020145 - 25 Jan 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1778

Abstract

In a time of social crises, pedagogical approaches are necessary that are sensitive to power relations, social crises, and political transformations. The pedagogies of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, and Johannes A. van der Ven represent such approaches. In this article, I aim to [...] Read more.

In a time of social crises, pedagogical approaches are necessary that are sensitive to power relations, social crises, and political transformations. The pedagogies of Paulo Freire, Augusto Boal, and Johannes A. van der Ven represent such approaches. In this article, I aim to critically re-read these three theories and contextualize them within the vibrant and transnational history of liberation theologies. This historical approach makes it possible to uncover untapped potential for today and to think of liberation pedagogy at the cutting edge. Even though the three approaches were developed in contexts different from today’s, Freire, Boal, and Van der Ven, reflected on some commonalities that are also characteristic of the social crises of our time. With their help, I am going to outline three elements useful for the much-needed elaboration of a contemporary liberation pedagogy. A lively theory-practice-relationship and an embedding of theory in social movements (1); a complex analysis and critique of society and education and an easy-to-understand short version of it (2); and a profound emancipatory concept of education that gives freedom to learners while not being politically neutral (3). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

13 pages, 307 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Alleged Decline of Liberation Theology: Natural Death or Attempted Assassination?

by Madeleine Cousineau

Religions 2022, 13(12), 1181; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13121181 - 02 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1896

Abstract

Is liberation theology dead or in decline? This article analyzes factors that have led to that perception and provides evidence to the contrary. It demonstrates that the theology has survived multiple attempts by certain sectors of both church and state to eliminate it, [...] Read more.

Is liberation theology dead or in decline? This article analyzes factors that have led to that perception and provides evidence to the contrary. It demonstrates that the theology has survived multiple attempts by certain sectors of both church and state to eliminate it, and that it remains very much alive in grassroots pastoral programs and social movements. Support for this last statement is provided by the author’s field research in Brazil. The article concludes with signs that liberation theology will endure as it continues to inspire spiritually motivated people who commit themselves to addressing human needs by promoting social justice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Future of Liberation Theologies)

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