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Theology and Liberation: Deep Voices From The South by Professor Maria Pilar Aquino
Theology and Liberation: Deep Voices From The South by Professor Maria Pilar Aquino
Theology and Liberation: Deep Voices From The South by Professor Maria Pilar Aquino
* The content presented in this text is an abbreviated version, adapted to the NCR
50th Anniversary Conference, of a forthcoming publication on the World Forum on
Theology and Liberation (WFTL). This publication will be released in early Spring
2016. Please see: Mara Pilar Aquino, Justice, Knowledge, and Gratitude:
Embracing the World Forum on Theology and Liberation, in Religion, Human
Dignity and Liberation, ed. Gerald M. Boodoo (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock
Publishers, forthcoming Spring 2016).
to perspectives which have been, and continue to be ignored, or left out of the
conversation by the dominant Western European global North.
That expression also seeks to retrieve and keep alive the concerns of the
Second Vatican Council about the deeper longings of humanity for a life of
fullness, justice, and freedom. The kind of Church envisioned by Gaudium et Spes
is that of a universal religious body actively engaged in collaboration with other
social and religious actors for the promotion of solidarity, peace, and international
social justice. This is a Church committed to dialogue and respect of differences, a
global community of faith that meets the aspirations of peoples in their joys and
hopes, griefs and anxieties, particularly of those who are poor or in any way
afflicted.2
The title and description of my reflection this morning wish to honor both,
the thematic focus of this conference and the insights of Gaudium et Spes in terms
of contribution to shaping the future of the Catholic Church. To this end, rather
than pessimism or hopelessness, I declare to you that the deep voices from the
South are active and alive in todays world, and that there are reasons for hope. In
the current century, new transformative processes have emerged encompassing
social and religious actors, mobilization initiatives, and theological epistemologies,
strengthening together the affirmation that Another World is Possible. From my
systems and relationships becomes more important than ever. When a myriad of
social and religious actors declare by thought and action that Another World is
Possible, this declaration becomes the organizing platform of lived experiences
open to meet the novelties that the world delivers in the form of hopeful
alternatives. It also reveals that a desired world of justice and peace is not a
chimera produced by deceived minds but the certainty that historical realities have
still more to give of themselves, and that humanity has still to unfold fully its
potentialities. For involved actors motivated by religious faith, hope displays
credibility precisely in the very process of shaping alternatives for better conditions
of life for all. By the historical dynamics of Gods revelation, that process becomes
the revelatory site of Gods living presence in the world.
The World Forum on Theology and Liberation (WFTL) was born at the core
of the World Social Forum as a space for theological reflection on the
transformative practices of the global justice movement that populates the World
Social Forum. It develops concept and understanding from the reflected practices
of the social and religious actors who, confronting the challenges of fragmentation
and relativism, they seek coordination for the purpose of shifting from a position of
systemic subordination to another of socio-political intervention focused on
collaboration in alternatives for constructive social transformation. The World
Forum on Theology and Liberation seeks to both support in theological terms the
processes of the contemporary global justice movement4 and contribute to the
vision, values, goals, of the World Social Forum. From the perspective of the
Forum, action, reflection, transformation for justice, spirituality, and liberation,
belong together.
The intervention of religious actors in the processes of the global justice
movement brings to light how ones resolve to build a world fashioned by justice
and peace, properly emulates the very being of God as a God of life, justice,
freedom, and liberation. Theological reflection grounded on such intervention
produces ways of understanding infused by a deep hope in humanity and a deep
trust in Gods promises. Intervention for the advancement of human dignity,
human rights, social justice, sustainable communities, and solidarity undertaken by
a pluralism of religious actors is taking place around the world, and this is a
powerful reason for hope.
The deep voices from the South are contributing to fashion a different future
through constructive intervention, and invite everyone to do the same.
Contextualized within the broader panorama of the Forums as embodying the
contemporary global justice movement, this conference convened by the NCR,
acquires greater relevance. That is why, informed by the thought and work of the
Justice. From a theological perspective, because justice belongs to the very being
of God, it emanates from God to fashion both human relationships and the morality
of the social order. Palestinian liberation theologian Naim Stifan Ateek speaks about
justice as the most basic cornerstone for life in ones community, nation, and the
world.6 More than an individual option, an illusionary virtue, or an abstract notion,
justice is understood theologically as a life giving reality, as an envisioned and
desired world that sustains the flourishing of humans and creation, and actualizes
the very being of God as a God of life and liberation. The practice of justice belongs
to the core of religions as a way of being in the world to enable the wholeness, wellbeing, and flourishing of all. Todays global context of struggle for human dignity
and social justice benefits from, and welcomes religious actors to insert oneself in
those struggles in proactive ways. The activities and works of the World Forum on
Theology and Liberation seek to facilitate resources for this.
religious pluralism,7 which is a new theological paradigm that opens new paths for
the future of theology.
justice movement rather than serving the national security interests of the militaristic
hegemonic powers.
Peacebuilding. Todays reality of U.S. society and culture demands, perhaps more
than ever before, a strong commitment to educational endeavors by which everyone
gains skills and capacities to address conflict situations constructively, not through
guns and weapons. While this month opened in Oregon with the 45th school
shooting, the Mass Shooting Tracker reports that this year alone 296 mass shootings
have taken place in the U.S.10 At world level, the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute reports that in early 2015 there were more wars in 2014 than any
other year since the year 2000. Led by the United States, Russia, China, Germany,
and France continued to be the largest supplier of weapons, accounting for 74 per
cent of the total global volume of arms exports.11 Countries of the geopolitical
South continued to be the recipients of weapons, in which deadly conflict, tension,
anxiety, and insecurity persist. This tragic reality forces religious actors to devise
better responses to the question about: What kind of a future are we seeking to build?
Neither the weapons industry nor inaction by religious actors will bring peace to our
schools and world. On its part, the World Forum on Theology and Liberation affirms
commitment to religious peacebuilding for conflict transformation. It understands
that alternatives for a just world entail strategic responses to overcome destructive
conflict, to reinforce links of solidarity against hateful interaction, and to overcome
political cultures that declare guns and weapons as means for human security.
Religious institutions can and should promote the reduction and eventual elimination
of the U.S.-based weapons industry if a peaceful world is to be sustained.
the General Secretary of the World Forum on Theology and Liberation, says as
follows: An ardent spirituality for this time of transformation can only be
revolutionary: the mystic and the prophet require each other.12 Accordingly, the
Forum encourages one to understand that ultimately, thought and practice for
liberation are the expression of a spirituality lived with a prophetic sense as a way
to correspond to Gods gift of grace and hope. Clearly and directly, Christians can
speak of a revolutionary spirituality because it seeks to effect the radical conversion
of peoples consciences, values, hearts, and behaviors. This type of spirituality is
relevant particularly in contexts where society and religion attempt to close the space
for prophecy, hide the martyrs, bury the struggles of people for justice and human
rights, and deny the claims of radical transformation for the flourishing of all humans
and creation. Christians know that the Gospel aims at producing deep, radical
transformations to make possible the coming of Gods Reign. Yes, Another World is
Possible.
Feminism. As the social base of feminist theory and theology, the womens
movement and feminist organizations populate the World Social Forum in
significant ways. From plural social locations and from many religious traditions,
women gather at the Forum to support one another in our commitment to advancing
womens rights around the world. Struggling together against patterns of social,
cultural, and religious kyriarchy, women are moving from subordination to
intervention for constructive change. Many of us no longer accept societal models
which are insensitive to, or unwilling to meet the fundamental needs of women and
children. Many of us no longer tolerate the pattern of womens exclusion from
sacramental ministry. We continue to devise alternatives of global justice for women
because we believe that Another Religion and Church Are Possible.
Endnotes
1
A point of clarification for the readers of this paper. For the sake of the audience, I will include
in my PowerPoint slides with key definitions, such as the one that I underline below in this note:
The Construction of an Epistemology of the South. By epistemology of the South I mean the
retrieval of new processes of production and valorisation of valid knowledges, whether scientific
or nonscientific, and of new relations among different types of knowledge on the basis of the
practices of the classes and social groups that have suffered, in a systematic way, the oppression
and discrimination caused by capitalism and colonialism. The global South is thus not a
geographical concept, even though the great majority of these populations live in countries of the
Southern hemisphere. The South is here rather a metaphor of the human suffering caused by
capitalism and colonialism at the global level, and a metaphor as well of the resistance to
overcome or minimise such suffering. It is, therefore, an anticapitalist, anti-colonialist, and antiimperialist South. It is a South that also exists in the global North, in the form of excluded,
silenced and marginalised populations, such as undocumented immigrants, the unemployed,
ethnic or religious minorities, and victims of sexism, homophobia and racism.
The two premises of an epistemology of the South are as follows. First, the understanding
of the world is much broader than the Western understanding of the world. This means that the
progressive change of the world may also occur in ways not foreseen by Western thinking,
including critical Western thinking (Marxism not excluded). Second, the diversity of the world is
infinite. It is a diversity that encompasses very distinct modes of being, thinking and feeling,
ways of conceiving of time and the relation among human beings and between humans and nonhumans, ways of facing the past and the future and of collectively organising life, the production
of goods and services, as well as leisure. This immensity of alternatives of life, conviviality and
interaction with the world is largely wasted because the theories and concepts developed in the
global North and employed in the entire academic world do not identify such alternatives. When
they do, they do not valorise them as being valid contributions towards constructing a better
society, Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Public Sphere and Epistemologies of the South, Africa
Development, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, Vol. XXXVII,
No. 1 (2012): 51. The underline is mine. See also, Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Epistemologies
of the South. Justice Against Epistemicide (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers, 2014).
2
On this paragraph, see Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes, Pastoral Constitution on
the Church in the Modern Word, nn. 1, 9, 28, 40, 90-91, Accessed October 4, 2015,
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/.
Franz J. Hinkelammert, Determinismo y autoconstitucin del sujeto: Las leyes que se
imponen a espaldas de los actores y el orden por el desorden, Revista Pasos 64 (March-April
1996): 20.
3
From the theories of social movements and new social movements, and in connection to the
World Social Forum, V.M. Moghadam describes this term as follows: The global justice
movement (GJM) has been in formation since at least the late 1990s and has become the subject
of many new studies. It is being analyzed as a reaction to neoliberal globalization, an expression
of globalization-from-below, a key element of global civil society, and an exemplar of the
transnationalization of collective action. Comprised of NGOs, social movement and civil society
organizations, transnational advocacy networks, unions, religious groups, and individual activists
opposed to neoliberalism and war, the global justice movement exists, to varying degrees of
coordination and activism, across regions, see Valentine M. Moghadam, Globalization and
Social Movements: Islamism, Feminism, and the Global Justice Movement, Second edition
(Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), 171.
World Forum on Theology and Liberation, Charter of Principles of the World Forum on
Theology and Liberation, n. 8, Accessed October 5, 2015, http://wftlofficial.org/quemsomos.html.
5
Naim Stifan Ateek, A Palestinian Christian Cry for Reconciliation, Third printing (Maryknoll,
N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2010), 16.
Jos Mara Vigil, Epilogue. Pluralistic Theology: Data, Tasks, Spirituality, in Intercontinental
Liberation Theology of Religious Pluralism, ed., Jos Mara Vigil, Luiza Tomita, and Marcelo
Barros, vol. IV of Series Along the Many Paths of God, Ecumenical Association Third World
Theologians (Digital edition: Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, 2010), 240,
241, accessed October 5, 2015, http://tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths/.
7
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Summary. The SIPRI Yearbook 2015.
Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, SIPRI Yearbook Online, Accessed October
2, 2015, http://www.sipri.org/yearbook/main.
11
Luiz Carlos Susin, Introductory Remarks and Welcome, in Spirituality for Another Possible
World, ed. Mary N. Getui, Luiz Carlos Susin, Beatrice W. Churu (Nairobi: Twaweza
Communications Ltd and World Forum on Theology and Liberation, 2008), 14.
12