Liberation Theology as a Postcolonial Critique of Theological Reason:
Issued Date: 15 Oct 2012
Abstract
The liberation theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez has offered an effective postcolonial critique of the conditions of life of the Latin American poor, and of a theological method that legitimated them. The present article studies early writings of Gutiérrez that show his critique taking form. In the first instance, Gutiérrez argued, theological truth is not something beheld in philosophical theoria, but is rather a performance of agonistic practice. One may usefully abstract to theoretical expressions of the truth about divine matters; however, the abstractions are only useful if—indeed only true if— they play back upon that practice to effect greater freedom for the poor. So Gutiérrez drew upon and pointed toward a ‘new spirituality’—a theological and practical reorientation away from the spirit of a Eurocentric faith, enmeshed in the geopolitics of colonialism and neocolonialism under which most Latin Americans have suffered for centuries, toward the spirit in which the poor whom he served live. Eventually, in pursuing this reorientation himself, Gutiérrez became persuaded that methodology is not the primary mode of critique, and began a turn from conceiving theology as ‘critical reflection on practice’ to conceiving it as ‘thought about a mystery’. This study’s limited purpose is to understand Gutiérrez’ development to this pivotal moment.
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References
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Bilimoria, Purushottama, and Andrew B. Irvine (eds.) 1998 Latinoamericanismo, modernidad, globalización: Prolegómenos a una crítica poscolonial de la razón. In Castro-Gómez and Mendieta 1998: 169-205.
Castro-Gómez, Santiago and Eduardo Mendieta (eds.) 1998 Teorías sin disciplina: Latinoamericanismo, poscolonialidad y globalización en debate. University of San Francisco, México.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 1984 Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’. Online: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html (accessed February 26, 2012).
Daly, Herman E., and John B. Cobb, Jr, with contributions by Clifford W. Cobb 1994 For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. 2nd edn, updated and expanded. Beacon Press, Boston.
Gaita, Raimond 2002 [1998] A Common Humanity: Thinking About Love and Truth and Justice. Paperback edn. Routledge, London.
García Canclini, Néstor 2001 [1995] Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts, translated and with an Introduction by George Yúdice. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Geertz, Clifford 1973 Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, New York.
Gelin, Albert 1964 The Poor of Yahweh, translated by Kathryn Sullivan. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1970 Pobreza evangélica: solidaridad y protesta. Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones, Lima.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1983 [1979] The Power of the Poor in History, translated by Robert R. Barr. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1984 [1983] We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People, translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY. Dove Communications, Melbourne.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1987 [1986] On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1988 [1971] A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, translated and edited by Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson. Rev. edn. with a new Introduction. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1991 [1989] The God of Life, translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1993 [1992] Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ, translated by Robert R. Barr. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1996a Essential Writings, edited by James B. Nickoloff. The Making of Modern Theology: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Texts. Fortress Press, Minneapolis.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1996b Toward a Theology of Liberation, translated by Alfred T. Hennelly. In Gutiérrez 1996a: 23-28.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1999 [1996] The Density of the Present: Selected Writings. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Hennelly, Alfred T. (ed.) 1990 Liberation Theology: A Documentary History. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Irrarázaval, Diego 2000 [1998] Inculturation: New Dawn of the Church in Latin America, translated by Phillip Berryman. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Irvine, Andrew B. 2010 Liberation Theology in Late Modernity. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78(4): 921-60. 2011 An Ontological Critique of the Trans-Ontology of Enrique Dussel. Sophia 50: 603-24. Klor de Alva, J. Jorge http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0210-8
Irvine, Andrew B. 1982 Spiritual Conflict and Accommodation in New Spain: Toward a Typology of Aztec Responses to Christianity. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History, edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 345-66. Academic Press, New York.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1991a Colonizing Souls: The Failure of the Indian Inquisition and the Rise of Penitential Discipline. In Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World, edited by Mary Elizabeth Perry and Anne J. Cruz, 3-22. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1991b Religious Rationalization and the Conversions of the Nahuas: Social Organization and Colonial Epistemology. In To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes, edited by Davíd Carrasco, 233-45. University Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1992 Nahua Colonial Discourse and the Appropriation of the (European) Other. Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 77: 15-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/assr.1992.1513
Irvine, Andrew B. 1993 Aztec Spirituality and Nahuatized Christianity. In South and Meso-American Native Spirituality: From the Cult of the Feathered Serpent to the Theology of Liberation, edited by Gary H. Gossen and Miguel León-Portilla, 173-97. Vol. 4 of World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest. Crossroad, New York.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1995 The Postcolonization of the (Latin) American Experience: A Reconsideration of ‘Colonialism’, ‘Postcolonialism’, and ‘Mestizaje’. In After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements, edited by Gyan Prakash, 241-75. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Kundera, Milan 1984. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel. Harper & Row, New York.
Lindbeck, George 1984 The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age. Westminster Press, Philadelphia.
Mendieta, Eduardo 1998 Modernidad, posmodernidad y poscolonialidad: una búsqueda esperanzadora del tiempo, translated by Marcelo Paz y Pedro Lange-Churión. In Castro-Gómez and Mendieta 1998: 147-68.
Mignolo, Walter D. 2000 Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Mignolo, Walter D. 2009 Enduring Enchantment: Secularism and the Epistemic Privileges of Modernity. In Bilimoria and Irvine 2009: 273-92.
Moraña, Mabel 1998 El boom del subaltern. In Castro-Gómez and Mendieta 1998: 233-43.
Nava, Alexander 2001 The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutiérrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.
Nickoloff, James B. 1996 Introduction. In Gutiérrez 1996a: 1-22.
O’Brien, John 1992 Theology and the Option for the Poor. Theology and Life 22. A Michael Glazier Book. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.
Rabasa, José 1993 Inventing America: Spanish Historiography and the Formation of Eurocentrism. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Segundo, Juan Luis 1990 [1983] Two Theologies of Liberation. In Liberation Theology: A Documentary History, edited with introductions, commentary, and translations by Alfred T. Hennelly, 353-66. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Sen, Amartya 1987 On Ethics and Economics. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty 1988 [1985] Can the Subaltern Speak? In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited and with an Introduction by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 271-313. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Taylor, Mark Lewis 2003 Subalternity and Advocacy as Kairos for Theology. In Opting for the Margins: Postmodernity and Liberation in Christian Theology, edited by Joerg Rieger, 23-44. AAR Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion. Oxford University Press, New York.
Walzer, Michael 1994 Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame.
Yadav, Bhibuti 2009 Mispredicated Identity and Postcolonial Discourse. In Bilimoria and Irvine 2009: 71-103. Springer, New York.
Bilimoria, Purushottama, and Andrew B. Irvine (eds.) 1998 Latinoamericanismo, modernidad, globalización: Prolegómenos a una crítica poscolonial de la razón. In Castro-Gómez and Mendieta 1998: 169-205.
Castro-Gómez, Santiago and Eduardo Mendieta (eds.) 1998 Teorías sin disciplina: Latinoamericanismo, poscolonialidad y globalización en debate. University of San Francisco, México.
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 1984 Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation’. Online: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html (accessed February 26, 2012).
Daly, Herman E., and John B. Cobb, Jr, with contributions by Clifford W. Cobb 1994 For the Common Good: Redirecting the Economy toward Community, the Environment, and a Sustainable Future. 2nd edn, updated and expanded. Beacon Press, Boston.
Gaita, Raimond 2002 [1998] A Common Humanity: Thinking About Love and Truth and Justice. Paperback edn. Routledge, London.
García Canclini, Néstor 2001 [1995] Consumers and Citizens: Globalization and Multicultural Conflicts, translated and with an Introduction by George Yúdice. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Geertz, Clifford 1973 Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture. In The Interpretation of Cultures. Basic Books, New York.
Gelin, Albert 1964 The Poor of Yahweh, translated by Kathryn Sullivan. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1970 Pobreza evangélica: solidaridad y protesta. Centro de Estudios y Publicaciones, Lima.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1983 [1979] The Power of the Poor in History, translated by Robert R. Barr. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1984 [1983] We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People, translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY. Dove Communications, Melbourne.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1987 [1986] On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1988 [1971] A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, translated and edited by Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson. Rev. edn. with a new Introduction. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1991 [1989] The God of Life, translated by Matthew J. O’Connell. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1993 [1992] Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ, translated by Robert R. Barr. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1996a Essential Writings, edited by James B. Nickoloff. The Making of Modern Theology: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Texts. Fortress Press, Minneapolis.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1996b Toward a Theology of Liberation, translated by Alfred T. Hennelly. In Gutiérrez 1996a: 23-28.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo 1999 [1996] The Density of the Present: Selected Writings. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Hennelly, Alfred T. (ed.) 1990 Liberation Theology: A Documentary History. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Irrarázaval, Diego 2000 [1998] Inculturation: New Dawn of the Church in Latin America, translated by Phillip Berryman. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Irvine, Andrew B. 2010 Liberation Theology in Late Modernity. Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78(4): 921-60. 2011 An Ontological Critique of the Trans-Ontology of Enrique Dussel. Sophia 50: 603-24. Klor de Alva, J. Jorge http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11841-010-0210-8
Irvine, Andrew B. 1982 Spiritual Conflict and Accommodation in New Spain: Toward a Typology of Aztec Responses to Christianity. In The Inca and Aztec States, 1400–1800: Anthropology and History, edited by George A. Collier, Renato I. Rosaldo, and John D. Wirth, 345-66. Academic Press, New York.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1991a Colonizing Souls: The Failure of the Indian Inquisition and the Rise of Penitential Discipline. In Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World, edited by Mary Elizabeth Perry and Anne J. Cruz, 3-22. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1991b Religious Rationalization and the Conversions of the Nahuas: Social Organization and Colonial Epistemology. In To Change Place: Aztec Ceremonial Landscapes, edited by Davíd Carrasco, 233-45. University Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1992 Nahua Colonial Discourse and the Appropriation of the (European) Other. Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions 77: 15-35. http://dx.doi.org/10.3406/assr.1992.1513
Irvine, Andrew B. 1993 Aztec Spirituality and Nahuatized Christianity. In South and Meso-American Native Spirituality: From the Cult of the Feathered Serpent to the Theology of Liberation, edited by Gary H. Gossen and Miguel León-Portilla, 173-97. Vol. 4 of World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest. Crossroad, New York.
Irvine, Andrew B. 1995 The Postcolonization of the (Latin) American Experience: A Reconsideration of ‘Colonialism’, ‘Postcolonialism’, and ‘Mestizaje’. In After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements, edited by Gyan Prakash, 241-75. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Kundera, Milan 1984. The Unbearable Lightness of Being: A Novel. Harper & Row, New York.
Lindbeck, George 1984 The Nature of Doctrine: Religion and Theology in a Postliberal Age. Westminster Press, Philadelphia.
Mendieta, Eduardo 1998 Modernidad, posmodernidad y poscolonialidad: una búsqueda esperanzadora del tiempo, translated by Marcelo Paz y Pedro Lange-Churión. In Castro-Gómez and Mendieta 1998: 147-68.
Mignolo, Walter D. 2000 Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Mignolo, Walter D. 2009 Enduring Enchantment: Secularism and the Epistemic Privileges of Modernity. In Bilimoria and Irvine 2009: 273-92.
Moraña, Mabel 1998 El boom del subaltern. In Castro-Gómez and Mendieta 1998: 233-43.
Nava, Alexander 2001 The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutiérrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God. State University of New York Press, Albany, NY.
Nickoloff, James B. 1996 Introduction. In Gutiérrez 1996a: 1-22.
O’Brien, John 1992 Theology and the Option for the Poor. Theology and Life 22. A Michael Glazier Book. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN.
Rabasa, José 1993 Inventing America: Spanish Historiography and the Formation of Eurocentrism. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Segundo, Juan Luis 1990 [1983] Two Theologies of Liberation. In Liberation Theology: A Documentary History, edited with introductions, commentary, and translations by Alfred T. Hennelly, 353-66. Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY.
Sen, Amartya 1987 On Ethics and Economics. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty 1988 [1985] Can the Subaltern Speak? In Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited and with an Introduction by Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg, 271-313. University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Taylor, Mark Lewis 2003 Subalternity and Advocacy as Kairos for Theology. In Opting for the Margins: Postmodernity and Liberation in Christian Theology, edited by Joerg Rieger, 23-44. AAR Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion. Oxford University Press, New York.
Walzer, Michael 1994 Thick and Thin: Moral Argument at Home and Abroad. University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame.
Yadav, Bhibuti 2009 Mispredicated Identity and Postcolonial Discourse. In Bilimoria and Irvine 2009: 71-103. Springer, New York.
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