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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
One Of the many challenges of the theology of liberation of Latin America (TL or LT) has been to rethink the relation between theory (theology) and praxis. A debate, which has been going on for over a century among philosophers and social thinkers since Hegel and Marx has finally hit the serene shores of Christian theology. Are theory and praxis two co-equal dimensions of human existence, or is the one derivative from the other? Is Christian faith primarily a matter of theory, belief and truth, or is it primarily a matter of praxis, action and justice? Is theology only a reflection on faith or a reflection in faith as well? What is the relation between theology and contemporary historical praxis? Does theology have to remain ‘external’ to that praxis in order to preserve its critical objectivity, or is participation of theology in that praxis the very condition of its objectivity? Is the prior commitment of theology— so much insisted on by TL — to the praxis of liberation detrimental or necessary to the integrity of theology? In this essay I propose to deal with these issues in the context of recent debates between Schubert Ogden and the Vatican on the one hand and TL on the other. I shall first review Ogden's and the Vatican's critique of TL, then present the position of TL, and finally evaluate both TL and its critics and reconstruct a theory of the relation between theology and praxis in light of the preceding discussion.
1 For my evaluation of Ogden's other criticisms of TL and of his own attempt to do a ‘more adequate’ theology of liberation, see my ‘How Not To Do a Theology of Liberation: A Critique of Schubert Ogden’ (forthcoming).
2 Ogden, , Faith and Freedom: Toward a Theology of Liberation (Nashville, TN.: Abingdon Press, 1979), p. 33Google Scholar. This book will be referred to as FF.
3 Ibid., p. 34.
4 Ibid., p. 33.
5 Ibid., p. 116.
6 Ibid., p. 117.
7 Ibid., p. 118.
8 Ibid., p. 120.
9 See Ibid., pp. 119–21.
10 See Ibid., p. 123.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ogden, , ‘The Concept of a Theology of Liberation: Must a Christian Theology Today Be So Conceived?’ in Mahan, Brian and Richesin, L. Dale (eds.), The Challenge of Liberation Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1981), p. 131.Google Scholar
14 Ibid., pp. 131–2.
15 FF, p. 123.
16 See Challenge, p. 134.
17 On the distinction between ‘ explicit’ and ‘implicit’ witness of Christian faith, seeFF, p. 60.
18 Ibid., p. 124.
19 See The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, , ‘Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation”’, Origins, XIV, No. 13 (September 13, 1984), 194–204.Google Scholar
20 Ibid., x, 2.
21 Ibid., x, 3.
22 Ibid.
23 Ibid., ix, 6.
24 Ibid., x, 1 and 3.
25 Ibid., x, 1.
26 Ibid., x, 3.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid., xi, 13.
29 Ibid., ix, 6.
30 Ibid., ix, 10.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid., ix, 9.
33 Ibid., ix, 7.
34 Gutierrez, Gustavo, The Power of the Poor in History (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1983), p. 42Google Scholar. The quotation is from Metz, Johannes B., Theology of the World (New York, N.Y.: Herder and Herder, 1969), p. 112.Google Scholar
35 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 60.Google Scholar
36 Gutierrez, , ‘Liberation, Theology and Proclamation’, Concilium 96 (1974), p. 73Google Scholar; emphasis added.
37 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 60.Google Scholar
38 Ibid., p. 17.
39 See Gutierrez, , A Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1973), p. 12.Google Scholar
40 See Gutierrez, , Theology, pp. 12Google Scholar, 14, and Power, pp. 16, 61, 65.
41 See Gutierrez, , Theology, p. 11Google Scholar; Power, pp. 61, 103, 204.
42 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 91.Google Scholar
43 Ibid., p. 213.
44 See Ibid., p. 93.
45 Ibid., p. 201.
46 Ibid., p. 66.
47 See Sobrino, Jon, Christology at the Crossroads (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books 1978), p. 22Google Scholar; Assmann, Hugo, Theology for a Nomad Church (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1976), p. 121.Google Scholar
48 See Sobrino, op. cit., xxi, 13.
49 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 266.Google Scholar
50 Gutierrez, , Theology, p. 32.Google Scholar
51 On the relation between redemption and liberation in TL, see my ‘Liberation Theology, Marxism, and the Vatican’, and ‘Two Theologies in Conflict: The Vatican and Liberation Theology’ (forthcoming).
52 See Gutierrez, , Theology, p. 11.Google Scholar
53 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 197.Google Scholar
54 Ibid., p. 58.
55 Ibid., p. 44.
56 Ibid.
57 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 103Google Scholar; Theology, p. 14.
58 Gutierrez, , Power, p. 15.Google Scholar
59 For a critique of Ogden on this point, see my ‘How Not to Do a Theology of Liberation: Critique of Schubert Ogden’ (forthcoming).