Project Details
Description
liberation theology developed as a theology that focuses on the situation of injustice lived by the poor. This social reality served as the locus to identify where God is revealed, while the concern for the relationship between final salvation and historical liberation of the poor emerged as its subsequent fundamental question. The 70¿s and the early 80¿s were the peak of liberation theology with the main production of authors such as: Leonardo Boff, Enrique Dussel, Clodovis Boff, Pablo Richard, Juan Luis Segundo, Jon Sobrino, and Ignacio Ellacuría. The enthusiasm for this theology and also its academic production began to decrease in the middle of the 80¿s. Theoretical elements and historical circumstances contributed to this decline of momentum. On the theoretical front, and at the forefront of the discussion, were the concerns expressed by the Magisterium of the Church, largely due to the use of Marxism intertwined with this theology. These concerns were presented by the Latin America Episcopal Conference in Puebla and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would articulate them in two separate instructions, Libertatis Nuntius, 1984 and Libertatis Conscientia, 1986. On the historical front, the collapse of historical Sovietism and the transformations of neo-liberalism certainly led liberationist theologians into an atmosphere of disappointment and loss of hope in the advent of a final liberation of the poor, which would be seen as a historical image of the Kingdom of God. Hoewever, we will assert that the usual theoretical and historical elements invoked as contributing to the decrease of liberation theology are simply not the main cause of its crisis; and that, on the contrary, the main cause of the crisis is the presence of modern utopian reason. However, we will claim that if modern utopian reason is at the core of the crisis, it is also at the core of its alternatives.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 06/09/10 → 21/01/15 |