Voices 2012 3

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Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians Asociacin Ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo
Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology

Hacia una agenda de trabajo para una Teologa Planetaria
Issue Edited by EATWOT 's International Theological Commission in collaboration with the World Forum on Theology & liberation Volume XXXV N 2012/3-4 New Series July-december 2012
Towards a work Agenda for Planetary Theology
Hacia una Agenda de Trabajo para una Teologa Planetaria
VOICES
Release 1.0
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Advertisements' pages - Per i molti cammini di Dio V, page 44, Italian - Along the Many Paths of God, page 54, English - L'Utopie de la Solidarit au Qubec, page 64, French - Along the Many Paths of God (Series), page 78, English - 2013 International Buddhist-Christian Conference, page 88, English - Novelty! Roger Lenaers translated into Indonesian, page 98, English - Getting the Poor Down from the Cross, page 100, English - Without Buddha I Could not be a Christian, page 110, English - Biblical Liturgical Calendar, page 120, English - A New Christianity for a New World, page 138, English-Spanish - Toward a Planetary Theology, page 162, English

Hacia una Agenda de Trabajo para la teologa planetaria
http://InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians Asociacion Ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo Association Oecumenique des Theologiens du Tiers Monde
VOICES
Theological Journal of EATWOT, Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians New Series, Volume XXXV, Number 2012/3-4, July-December 2012 Towards a Work Agenda for a Plnanetary Theology. Issue edited by EATWOT's International Theological Commission, in collaboration with the World Forum on Theology & Liberation Free Digital Printable Bilingual Edition Release 1.0 of December 31, 2012 Current release: 1.2 ISSN: 2222-0763 - Cover and lay out: Lorenzo Barra and Jose M. Vigil - Editor for this VOICES issue: Jos Maria VIGIL If you want to print this whole Journal on paper for a local edition, please, contact the International Theological Commission, at its web, http://InternationalTheologicalCommission.org asking for full resolution printable originals. All the articles of this issue can be reproduced freely, since given the credit to the source. You can download VOICES freely, at:: http://InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
E A T W O T
Ecumenical Association Of Third World Theologians
A S E T T
EATWOT's web addresses: www.eatwot.org www.InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES www.Comision.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org www.Comissao.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org www.tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths www.tiempoaxial.org/PorLosMuchosCaminos www.tiempoaxial.org/PelosMuitosCaminhos www.tiempoaxial.org/PerIMoltiCammini
Asociacin ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo
CONTENTS - CONTENIDO
Presentation / Presentacin...........................................................................9
Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology....................................15 Pour une agenda de travail pour la thologie Planetaire.......................25 Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa planetaria.....................35 Para uma teologia de trabalho para a teologia planetria....................45 Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria..........................55 EATWOT's INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION Los bienes de la Tierra y de la Humanidad............................................65 Juan Jos TAMAYO, Madrid, Espaa. Critical Review of Religions.....................................................................79 Revisin crtica de las religiones.............................................................89 Geraldina CSPEDES, Guatemala What Can Christian Liberation Theologies Learn from World Social Forum....101 Denise COUTURE, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
The Problems We Face and the Theology We Need...................................111 Jean RICHARD
Elementi per un'antropologia messianica..............................................121 Giuseppe RUGGIERI, Italia. Capitalism, Coloniaity, Liberation.........................................................129 Gerald BOODOO, Pittsburgh, USA Pagan Post-modernity and the refounding of Christianity........................................................139 Posmodernit pagana e rifondazione del cristianesimo..........................149 Vito MANCUSO, Milano, Italia Theology of Axiality, Axial Theology.........................................................167. Teologa de la axialidad, Teologa axial................................................179 Jos Mara VIGIL, Panam, Panam
Bibliographical Reviews: Ulrich DUCHROW/Franz HINKELAMMERT: Transcending Greegy Money Paul CHUNG..........................................................................................193
Presentation
This double issue (3 & 4) of our theological journal VOICES corresponds to the second semester of 2012. It is being prepared since February 2012, by means of talks between the Permanent Secretary of WFTL (World Forum on Theology and Liberation) and by EATWOTs International Theological Commission. Both entities dreamed with the idea of giving continuity to the work hardly initiated at the WFTL of 2011 in Dakar, Senegal, whose central theme was to write down a work agenda for the planetary theology for the coming years. The Forum of Dakar, indeed, was merely able to lay out the first proposals. It became very clear that it was important to give continuity to the reflections held there. This is the goal of this very issue of VOICES: to pick up the proposals and reflections developed from Dakar on, and to offer some new contributions. With this objective, the present issue of VOICES, firstly, takes up some of the contributions presented at Dakar; some of these papers had been unpublished until now; others, though already published elsewhere, were seen to be published here, because they present at length and in detail the concrete challenges for that work agenda for a planetary theology. The beginning of the second section, and as kind of bridge, Denise COUTURE asks herself and asks us what can we learn from the World Social Forums, meanwhile Jean RICHARD share his point of view on the problems we face, and the theology we need. The entities who organize this issue thought it would be worthwhile to invite some experts to help in the search of new perspectives for that theological agenda. And so this issue of VOICES presents also the contributions of Gerald BOODOO, Vito MANCUSO, Giuseppe RUGGIERI, and Jos Mara VIGIL, who work out our topic in different but complementary ways.
10 Presentation
This issue does not end with a precise and closed conclusion, because we are aware that the final goal of the work agenda for a planetary theology is still very far away from our reach... We are just starting; there is still a long way ahead. We are all invited to contribute. In the meantime, the next World Social Forum is already near. It is going to take place at Tunnis, March 25-30, 2013. On the other hand, the WFTL (the World Forum on Theology and Liberation) was postponed for 2014, so it will have more time to assume and react to the results of Tunnis WSF. We wish you all a fruitful work ahead. Let the work agenda for the planetary theology start up from our own personal and local agendas. EATWOT's International Theological Commission InternationalTheologicalCommission.org InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES and WFTL Permanent Secretariat www.wftl.org The next issue of VOICES, the first one of 2013, is being preparing, several months ago, by the EATWOT region of United States and Canada. We hope with excitement this next issue.
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Presentacin
El presente nmero de la revista VOICES (nmero doble, 3 y 4) corresponde al segundo semestre de 2012. Viene siendo preparado desde esde febrero de este mismo ao de 2012, por las conversaciones entre la Secretara Permanente del WFTL (Foro Mundial de Teologa y Liberacin) y la Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT. Ambas entidades acariciaban la idea de dar continuidad al trabajo apenas iniciado en el WFTL de 2011 en Dakar, Senegal, cuyo tema central era la elaboracin de una agenda de trabajo para una teologa planetaria en los prximos aos. El Foro de Dakar, en efecto, apenas pudo hacer los primeros planteamientos. Qued muy claro que haba que dar continuidad a aquella reflexin. se es el objetivo de este nmero de VOICES: recoger los planteamientos del Foro de Dakar y ofrecer algunas perspectivas nuevas. Para ello, este nmero de VOICES recoge en primer lugar algunas ponencias de las habidas en Dakar; alguna que no ha sido publicada hasta esta fecha y alguna otra que, aunque publicada en otro lugar, conviene recoger aqu por el hecho de que presenta por extenso un elenco de desafos concretos para esa elaboracin de la agenda de trabajo para la teologa. En una segunda parte, como trazando un puente, Denise COUTURE se pregunta qu pueden aprender del Foro Social Mundial las teologas de la liberacin, mientras Jean RICHARD comparte su punto de vista sobre los problemas que afrontamos y la teologa que necesitamos. Complementariamente, a las entidades organizadoras de este nmero ha parecido bien solicitar la opinin de algunos expertos que nos ayudaran en esta bsqueda. Ah estn las aportaciones de Gerald BOODOO, Vito MANCUSO, Giuseppe RUGGIERI, y Jos Mara VIGIL, en direcciones diversas pero complementarias.
12 Presentacin
No hemos querido cerrar esta edicin de VOICES con una conclusin, definida y cerrada, porque somos muy conscientes de que el objetivo final de la agenda de trabajo para una teologa planetaria queda todava muy lejos. Apenas continuamos acercndonos, queda mucho camino por recorrer. Todos estamos invitados a hacer nuestra aportacin. Mientras, el prximo Foro Social Mundial ya est en el horizonte cercano. Va a ser en Tnez, del 25 al 30 de marzo prximo. Por su parte, el WFTL, Foro Mundial de Teologa y Liberacin ha sido pospuesto para 2014, de forma que tendr ms tiempo para asumir y reaccionar ante los resultados que aroje el WSF de Tnez. Buen trabajo teolgico para todos/as. Que la agenda de trabajo de una teologa planetaria comience a partir de nuestras propias agendas de trabajo personales y comunitarias.
Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT InternationalTheologicalCommission.org InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES y Secretariado Permanente del FMTL www.wftl.org
El prximo nmero de VOICES, el primero de 2013, est siendo preparado desde hace ya varios meses por la regin de EATWOT de Estados Unidos y Canad. Esperamos con ilusin su nmero.
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International Theological Commission of EATWOT
The schema in which we situate these ideas - The WFTL does not speak for or in the name of all theologies, but rather out of and for the contextual liberating theologies that work for another world that is possible. We want to take up this recognition as the schema within which we align our proposal: - LIBERATING theologies: motivated by the principle of liberation
that conceives reality as history as a utopian-liberating process on the basis of the option for the poor (which includes very different poverties)
- CONTEXTUAL theologies
that are incarnated in their local contexts, based on reality and that return to it with a militant commitment with a practice of historic transformation, both locally and globally.
- theologies of ANOTHER WORLD THAT IS POSSIBLE that we will call AXIAL, that is to say, which
find their center of gravity more on the side of the future than of the past, that consciously accept that we are in an axial time of ruptures and of new dimensions, and that attempt realistically to construct that other theology that is possible in the midst of the cultural and paradigmatic tsunamis that we are experiencing.
We structure our proposal within this same three dimensional schema. No doubt, there are many other possible focuses and categorizations. We propose this one motivated by its simplicity and only as a point of departure.
16 EATWOT's International Theological Commission
For a work agenda of Liberation Theologies for the next (two?) years A proposal for priorities in three dimensions (liberation, contextuality and axiality).
In the liberation dimension We believe that, in spite of the short history of our liberating theology, its consistency, its meaning and its fundamental positions have reached maturity in the last several decades and, in spite of the bad times we are going through, they remain firm and are not in danger. The foundation of liberating theology, the liberation principle, enjoys good health and is not a matter for preoccupation in itself at this point. Nevertheless, would it not be important to make our classical foundations face the new academic positions in political philosophy and sociology? For some time already these latter disciplines have been proposing a reconsideration of politics precisely around the idea of justice (Rawls, Sen). Should we not be intensely involved in that debate? Should we not also incorporate those current advances in a renewed version of the very grounding of our liberation theologies in order to be able to dialogue better with this very important and quite current line of thought? Certainly we need to pay a more sharpened attention to accompanying the world economic crisis. We need to denounce with more prophetic energy and a more theoretical economic penetration the turning of the screw that is bearing down on the poor and the middle classes at the hands of world economic domination. This tightening is led by the large multinationals and the world economic system, by those euphemistically and falsely so-called markets. It occurs within the context of a cultural hegemony, with the communications media at its service, that has managed to impose itself. That hegemony is presented as an inevitable and beneficial sacrifice for humanity. As theologies of liberation, we have the obligation to challenge that neoliberal cultural hegemony that weighs down on the poor. We need to accompany more closely and more efficiently the popular initiatives and movements, and even those coming from governments, which currently offer resistance. Concretely, in Latin America we are seeing this in the ALBA [Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas trans.] and in the Bolivarian movement. Perhaps we need to revisit theologically, in light of that other world that is possibleand of the Reignthe topic of the borders and links between faith and politics as well as our relationship with the civil and political mediations that are showing up autonomously in society. We cannot remain passively on the margin.
Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology 17
In a more theoretical field, the encounter, the interconnection, the re-elaboration of the liberating dimension of theology the liberating principle, does need attention in line with the new paradigms of the current axial epoch we are experiencing. This will help prepare a liberating theology for the new epoch, a theology of holistic liberation that is really axial, or post-axial. This re-reading that has already begun needs to be incorporated into our operative agenda for the coming years. We cannot live off the proceeds of a liberating theology whose theoretical foundations were established in a period that is no longer that of today and that requires these new approaches and interconnections. In the contextual dimension The contextual dimension of our theology is constituted by many faces and urgencies, according to the irreduceable variety of the different geographic, social and human locations in which we move. On this level, each theology has to better grasp the needs proper to its own context and in this way its local or regional operative agenda. Faced with a global agenda, the WSF is an ideal location to perceive the pressing needs of our context on a planetary level. In this seminar, we can discern them and by consensus choose those that seem the most pressing for us from among those that we perceive in the WSF. If that is acceptable, we merely suggest these priorities as a point of departure for debate:
- the victims of the world economic crisis - the victims (human and other) of the coming climate disaster (Earth, water, the community of life, humanity, the accumulated cultural and spiritual patrimony, and so on) - the victims of the intercultural and interreligious conflicts - the victims of wars and armed conflict.
In the axial dimension (theologies of another world is possible) On the historic heights of these times, after almost 50 years of liberating theology and ten years of the World Social Forum, we believe that there is sufficient clarity to provide a notable impulse toward this third dimension whose axis is bending the horizon for some time already. The other world that is possible is not only what we want to build thorugh our efforts; it is also a radical cultural transformation that we are experiencing as the result of a concurrence of forces that we dont understand or control. It is a real cultural tsunami. We areas the best observers are notingin an axial time, in a transformation that twists reality around an axis whose exploration can help us adjust to the movement in its new
dimension. Only by decisively adopting this awareness of axiality, will we be able to help construct the other world that is possible and its corresponding theology, the other theology that is possible. As theologians, men and women particularly oriented toward the greater breadth of the horizon of the future, we need to adopt a vision that is more clearly determined in favor of this new time that we are already living in. We need to adopt immediately a collective awareness of its truly axial qualitywith all that impliesand take it as a priority in this second decade of the WFTl-WSF to discover, walk with and support that axial transformation, including all the ruptures that would be required. We propose grouping together in five paradigmatic nodes. - The gender paradigm From the beginning, this paradigm has accompanied the liberating theologies, making itself present in the feminist movements and theologies (and also in the womanist, mujerista, the theology of African women, that of Asians and others) with a set of specific instruments (such as the category of gender analysis that has become a required instrument of reference for all theology) and a range of thematic developments that have notably enriched its proposal, taking in a wide range of aspects implied in corporality, sexuality, sexual orientation, racism, ethno-racism, gender violence, the marginalization of women, the feminization of poverty, the cross between ecology and feminism, and so forth. One can say that, for several decades already, this is one of the most effective and active veins in the whole range of the movement of theologies of liberation. This is not a sectorial thematic field (theologies in the genitive case), but rather part of fundamental theology that implies a transversal transformation in the whole theological field and a global attachment to life: from the most everyday practice to the image of God as God and other religious symbols. Everything is transformed by this new perspective that goes beyond patriarchy, kyrialism, and a rationalism torn away from the multirelational and holistic oikos that at some point we separated from our ancestral history. Even though this perspective and the cause that moves it is not a matter for women, but rather a profoundly human and humanizing reality, and even though one doesnt have to be a women to feel the urgent need to take up this cause resolutely, we believe that it is above all the specific group of women theologians present in this forum, who will be able to propose to us, with deeper knowledge, the priorities (both in thematic content and in hermeneutic focuses) that we ought to take up for the global theological agenda that we will try to elaborate in this WFTL. And that is so, not only because they are experts in feminist theology, but also because it is women who most suffer sexism in their own flesh,
and because, as theologies of liberation, not only do we want to speak in favor of the poor, but also to welcome in our theology the voices of those persons oppression silences. - The pluralist paradigm The inclusivism that is currently hegemonic in the Churches and among theologians is nothing more than a form of moderated exclusivism. We need to cross the bridge definitively and pass over into the new emerging territory that is pluralism in principle. Our religions were elaborated in a time when the exclusivism, absoluteness and unicity of each religion were possible. That time is now past, even though religions strive to extend it with the complicity of theologies that have not yet woken up. The step that happens between exclusivism to inclusivism does not resolve the problems; it only postpones them. It is time to reconstruct our whole theology on the evidence of pluralism in principle, to put an end to the myth of religious superiority in principle, and the shifting of the horizon toward a profound re-ligation [binding together again trans.], that situated us beyond the historic exclusivisms and inclusivisms. The greater part of our theologies are still confessional, inclusivist and quite often crypto-exclusivist. They are not prepared to dialogue and collaborate/interchange with other religions on the basis of equality. They do not explore the possibility of doing theology in a planetary interreligious perspective by asumming their responsibility, which is the only way to make possible a fraternal living together of religions as also a covenant of all those in favor of Peace and the Common Good of Humanity and the Planet. Only this theologyone that is axially pluralist, that definitively abandons exclusivisms, superiorities, self-attributions of uniqueness and absoluteness and the accompanying vision of proselytizing the world can be an axial theology, that is to say, one belonging the new time, a theology that with lucidity takes up the axes that the world today is turning on. To reconvert all traditional theology on the basis of a new pluralist perspective could be a priority task in which many of us could propose to come together in these next (two?) years. And even though this goes beyond our strictly theological area, should we not ask ourselves whether the WFTL could study the possibility of a Macro-ecumenical Forum of religions and spiritual traditions, given the urgencies of the climate and of the current economic crisis? - The ecological paradigm Many theologies continue to move in the framework elaborated during the last 4,000 years by the mythical religious stories of the his-
tory of revealed salvation, ignoring totally what we know today about the 13.7 billion years of cosmic history of this universe, which is perhaps only one of the many universes that could exist. Many theologies continue to be dualist, imagining that they are faced with a higher, second level, one that is supernatural, divine, eternal, for which one must live, in the face of the lower level on which we live and that is natural, pernicious and full of temptation, ephemeral, a simple material setting of resources to be used. Our theologies continue to speaksometimes somewhat embarrassingly- of a heavenly salvation of the human after death, as if that were the only objective of human life. It continues to be an anthropocentric theology that shuts us up in our particular software and closes us off and alienates us from the Earth and the cosmos. Our theology will not cease legitimating the destruction of nature as long as we do not change its vision. We will not cease to destroy nature as long as we do not acquire the religious conviction that we are part of it. Most of our religions and many of their theologies still hold to the divine and to the sacred by confining it in a so-called transcendence, by which this world is deprived of divinity and even of sacredness, thirsty for re-enchantment. The planet is confronted with the sixth massive extinction of life, not this time by an asteroid but by human beings themselves who, with their lifestyle have in fact become a strong geological force for the destruction of biodiversity at a rhythm that is a thousand times greater than that before the apparition of human beings and provoking, by atmospheric contamination, a planetary warming, one that almost certainly will be greater than 3o, which is considered the limit beyond which an irreversible chaos is unchained that will lead to a massive extinguishing of life and humanity itself. And our religions and theologies, that did not denounce this suicidal orientation in past centuries, still today appear reticent, slow to take up the life or death urgency that already is costing thousands of victims every year and that in 20 years is calculated to rise to a million. Much of our theology still thinks that ecology is important but that it is only another chapter to be encased in the antiquated scheme of traditional thinking, the same scheme that has led us to the current ecocide. We really need to develop that theology with new foundations, which we have already begun. It is an oiko-centered theology that breaks with the old distinction between the natural and the supernatural, and that undoes the strictly transcendental idea of divinity that de-sacralizes and empties the divine dimension of nature. It is a theology which dialogue with deep Ecology, a theology that refuses to grasp reality as a history
of the salvation of humanity and that goes beyond anthropomorphism in favor of an oiko-centrism, that is to say, a theology that is axially new and conceived on another axis. We ought to agree to introduce into our immediate theological agenda this extremely urgent priority to develop this theology that has already begun. Indigenous and feminist theologies have much to say and to contribute in this area. - The post-religional paradigm There is already a common ground, in civil society itself: a crisis of religion that has already reached half the planet, while in the other half a religious revival is exploding in our churches; there are new religions, new syncretic spiritualities and an neo-pentecostal avalanche that frequently turns back to archaic religion. Which of these two halves of humanity are closest to the future? The hugely contradictory data that we observe can lead to the most disparate diagnoses. But, looking up to see the widest possible panorama of the river of history, we can see that, in spite of all the meandering and whirlpools, the river as a whole presses its waters in a single global direction. Populations that come from poverty and achieve education and modern urban culture soon feel uncomfortable with their traditional religiosity. Religion is submitted to new study about its origin and its functional mechanisms, is no longer considered a privileged knowledge and the only instrument of spirituality, of contact with the divinity in the way it had always been considered. And everywhere the thesis is propagated that religions and not religiosity or re-ligation are also human constructions that arose in the era of the agrarian revolution, out of a rural matrice, with an expiry date linked to the disappearance of that same agrarian period, a disappearance that many analysts believe they can detect in our contemporary scene. Spirituality, religiosity, religation are essential to being human. Religions, the concrete forms in which that religation took place in the agrarian period are not; they can be radically transformed or indeed disappear. This vision is already present in many cultural contexts and in the mainstream anthropological studies of our societies. Obviously, it is not in the field of vision of the religious institutions, nor of the popular masses who have lesser access to education. This is one of the major challenges in which almost everything is gambled over religions. There is an urgent need to reevaluate religion (a new theological reflection on religion a new theology of religion, a need to study explicitly and deeply the possibility, as announced, of it being surpassed. Does this mean in the direction of a non-religious human or a supra-religious one? We need to
effectively give priority to religation over religion, by converting the former into a real beneficiary of theology. This whole problematicthat we will call post-religional not to say post-religious, in so far as people dont lose its profound religious dimension when they abandon the modalities of religionincludes, among its many contents the reevaluation of theism. Held as without room for doubt and indispensible in the majority of traditions, today its epistemological note is lowered. This does not happen without an impact on our coexistence that is now quite close among theist and non-theist religions. The eclipse of God and the crisis of religion have already acquired significant dimensions in Europe and in the first world in general. But, already there are also quite a few sectors on other continents that are beginning to feel it even in sectors that are in a neo-pentecostal effervescence. Will most of our theologies continue ignoring this need for a new reflection on religion itself, a reflection and a reconversion of the religious toward what is post-religional: (the spirituality beyond religions), while they still have clients of the old tradition that continue listening to them. Should they not already be preparing the future, which is so present in large sectors of todays humanity? In this challenge, the European experience seems to us to present a real theological location. Its presentation in this same seminar on the crisis of religion and the crilsis of God expresses better and confirms this problematic. No doubt European theologians have much to contribute to us all in this respect. - The epistemological paradigm There enters a new paradigm with special force for defining the new epoch of this axial time we are experiencing. It supposes a radical change that affects everything else: the change in epistemology. Human beings are changing in this very subtle dimension that is difficult to perceive. We are changing our way of knowing, our uncritical assumptions that have been unquestionable up till now including the basic axioms and postulates that have been used up till now along with the forces and dimensions implied by them. For a long time we were installed in a comfortable ingenuous realism that postulated the adequatio rei et intellectus, a direct correspondence between what we think or express and reality. We have been interpreting in a literal way the beliefs that were carried by religious myths, as if these were descriptive of reality and even of metaphysics because they had been revealed from outside by an absolute authority. We held on to some quite stretched links with metaphysics, rationalism and essentialism that are marginal to what is evolving, chaotic and process oriented.
The new epistemological paradigm that is advancing considers new knowledge not as describing reality but simply as modeling it and it considers that religious knowledge is also a human construction, elaborated on the basis of approximative metaphors that, with time, end up being displaced and obsolete. They can even become harmful in a determinate new cultural setting because of the global vision they imply. For some time now we are witnessing already the dissolution of metaphysics, which implies a radical crisis of foundations, above all for traditional Christian theology. Just as Kant was asking long ago and in another sense, the new paradigm asks us to wake up from the religious dogmatic dream that has kept us asleep until now. We are moving from a metaphysical and dogmatic paradigm to one that is epistemological and hermeneutic. It will no longer be possible to continue living in the traditional religious world of religious beliefs that are borne along by myths held to be literally certain. The epistemology that is focused on knowing things as they are in themselves, ingenuously, uncritically, mythically, is becoming impossible in the new knowledge society toward which we are moving. In many areas of the planet people are experiencing a rupture in the transmission of religion: new generations feel incapable of accepting what has been left to them by their elders. Religions will no longer be able to consist in believing, in bowing to revelation coming from outside, or in accepting truths or doctrines. Perhaps we are moving toward a religion without truths, without doctrines, reduced to its essence: religation, spirituality. Everything that has been elaborated over thousands of years and expressed through that ancestral epistemology needs to be reformulated. The growing cultural and religious pluralism in our societies adds another dimension to this new epistemological perspective: interculturality. We are already aware of the limitation of any specific cultural tradition as well as of the necessity of compensating for its atavistic, exclusivist tendency of turning in on itself. The world of monoculturalism has ended, whether it is imposed or hegemonic. We have to make a definitive move to interculturalism or to pluriculturalism. Is there a way of finding a common field (categories, language, epistemology...) in which we can come together for dialogue, to do theology and to engage in the historic praxis of liberation? The new sciencesabove all quantum physics and cosmology continue to spread inevitably in public opinion and in the communications media, even where one would think that peoples concerns were on more primary issues. Every day they gain acceptance among people tired of our perplexing traditional religious statements that have not yet come to terms with the radicality of the new areas of science. Many of our classical religious questions seem to have more to do with those new sci-
ences than with religion and the traditional auxiliary sciences of theology. For that reason a new way of facing the questions becomes necessary with a new dialogue between theology and science. It is a burning issue and a priority that cannot be postponed. An epistemological revolution is upon us, urging us on the one hand to reevaluate the securities of objectivity that we thought we had in our religiosity, and on the other hand, to reinterpretate religion more precisely as religation, liberated from truths, doctrines, dogmas, morality, canons, and institutionalizations. This is a truly axial change. Is this not a good moment for the WFTL to propose confronting all this at a global level, even if it might be only an initial exploration?
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Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire

Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT/ASETT
Schma sur lequel nous plaons ces ides Le FMTL ne sadresse pas toutes les thologies ni ne parle en leur nom toutes, mais il sexprime partir de et pour les thologies libratrices contextuelles qui travaillent pour un autre monde possible . Nous voulons partir de ce constat qui nous fournira le schma de pense sur lequel construire notre proposition : - thologies LIBRATRICES :
animes par le principe libration qui conoivent la ralit comme histoire comme processus utopicolibrateur dans loptique de loption pour les pauvres (ce qui inclut des pauvrets trs diffrentes)
- thologies CONTEXTUELLES:
qui, incarnes dans leurs contextes locaux, partent de la ralit et y retournent avec un engagement militant de praxis de transformation historique, tant localement que globalement.
- thologies DUN AUTRE MONDE POSSIBLE, que nous appellerons AXIALES,

cest--dire celles ... qui reconnaissent avoir leur centre de gravit plus du ct de lavenir que du pass, qui assument dj consciemment que nous sommes dans un temps axial deruptures et de nouvelles dimensions, et qui sefforcent de construire rellement lautre thologie possible, au milieu des tsunamis culturels et paradigmatiques que nous vivons.
26 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT
Pour des raisons de simplicit et de clart, nous allons structurer notre proposition dans ce mme cadre tripartite, sur ces trois dimensions de notre thologie. Ce ne veut tre quun point de dpart modeste pour le dbat collectif. 1. Priorits pour un agenda de travail des TL pour les (deux?) prochaines annes schmatises en trois dimensions (Libration, contextualit et axialit) Sur la dimension libratrice Nous croyons que malgr la jeunesse de notre thologie libratrice, sa consistance, son sens, ses assertions fondamentales sont arrives maturit depuis plusieurs dcennies et, malgr les mauvais temps qui courent, elle se maintiennent ferme et ne sont pas en danger. Le fondement de la thologie libratrice, le principe libration jouit dune bonne sant et il ny a pas motif en soi de sen proccuper pour le moment. Ne serait-il pas cependant ncessaire de confronter nos fondements classiques avec les nouvelles propositions acadmiques en matire de philosophie politique et de sociologie, qui en appellent depuis dj longtemps une reconsidration du politique prcisment autour de lide de justice (Rawls, Sen)? Ne devrions-nous pas tre intensivement prsents dans ce dbat? Ne devrions-nous pas ainsi incorporer ces avances actuelles dans une version rnove du fondement mme de nos Thologies de la libration, pour quelles puissent dialoguer avec ce courant si important et si actuel? Au niveau de la pratique quotidienne ce qui presse le plus dans notre tche daccompagnement, cest la crise conomique mondiale. Nous nous devons de dnoncer avec plus dnergie prophtique et plus de pntration de la thorie conomique, le tour de vis que la domination conomique, aux mains des grandes multinationales et du systme conomique global, de ce quon appelle par euphmisme les marchs , est en train de donner aux dpens des pauvres et des classes moyennes. Grce une hgmonie culturelle qui a russi simposer par le biais des mdias son service, elle est parvenue le reprsenter comme un sacrifice invitable et bienfaisant pour lhumanit. En tant que thologies de la libration, nous sommes dans lobligation de dfier cette hgmonie culturelle nolibrale qui soumet les pauvres, et daccompagner de plus prs et plus efficacement les initiatives et mouvements populaires, y compris gouvernementaux, qui rsistent actuellement (en Amrique latine concrtement nous vivons cela avec lALBA et le mouvement bolivarien. Peut-tre nous est-il ncessaire de revisiter thologiquement le thme des frontires et des liens entre foi et politique, ainsi que notre relation avec les mdiations civiles et politiques pour lautre monde possible - et pour
Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire 27
le Royaume - lesquelles se retrouvent de faon autonome dans la socit et face auxquelles nous ne pouvons pas demeurer passifs. Dans un domaine plus thorique, une attention urgente doit tre donne la confrontation, la rlaboration de la dimension libratrice de la thologie, du principe libration dans les nouveaux paradigmes de lactuelle poque axiale que nous traversons, pour prparer la thologie libratrice propre la nouvelle poque, la thologie dune libration holistique qui soit rellement axiale ou post-axiale. Cette relecture, qui est dj commence, devrait tre incorpore notre agenda opratoire pour ces prochaines annes. Nous ne pouvons vivre des rentes dune thologie libratrice dont les fondements thoriques furent tablis dans un temps qui nest plus et qui demande de nouvelles approches et rflexions. Sur la dimension contextuelle La dimension contextuelle de notre thologie la revt de visages et durgences plurielles, conforme lirrductible varit des diffrents lieux gographiques, sociaux et humains dans lesquels nous voluons. ce niveau, cest chaque thologie qui peroit le mieux les urgences propres son contexte et par consquent son agenda dopration local ou rgional. Pour ce qui est d un agenda global, le FSM est un lieu idal pour percevoir un niveau plantaire les urgences plus essentielles de notre contexte. Dans ce sminaire, nous pouvons les discerner et choisir par consensus celles qui nous apparaissent comme prioritaires parmi les urgences perues au niveau du FSM. Nous ne ferions que suggrer, seulement comme point de dpart pour le dbat, si sont acceptes les priorits suivantes :
-les victimes de la crise conomique mondiale -les victimes (humaines ou non) du dsastre climatique en cours (la Terre, leau, la vie prise comme un tout, lhumanit, le patrimoine culturel et spirituel accumul...) -les victimes des conflits interculturels et interreligieux du choc des civilisations... -les victimes des guerres et des armes.
Sur la dimension axiale (thologies de lautre monde possible ) Aprs presque 50 ans de thologies de la libration et 10 ans de Forum Social Mondial, nous croyons y voir suffisamment clair pour donner une impulsion notable cette troisime dimension, dont laxe apparat depuis longtemps lhorizon. Lautre monde possible nest pas seulement celui que nous voulons construire avec nos propres forces; cest aussi une transformation culturelle radicale que nous exprimentons
comme le rsultat dun concours de forces que nous ne connaissons pas, ni ne pourrions contrler, un vritable tsunami culturel. Nous sommes comme lannoncent les meilleurs observateurs - dans un temps axial dans une transformation qui dploie la ralit autour dun axe dont lexploration peut nous aider nous ajuster son mouvement dans la nouvelle dimension. Ce nest quen entrant rsolument dans cette conscience daxialit que nous pourrons aider construire lautre monde possible et sa correspondance thologique, l autre thologie possible . Comme thologiens et thologiennes, hommes et femmes spcialement tourns vers la plus grande amplitude dun horizon futur, il nous est ncessaire dopter plus rsolument pour ce temps nouveau que nous vivons et, en tant que FMTL, de prendre conscience de son caractre vritablement axial de faon donner priorit, pour cette deuxime dcennie du FMTL-FSM, laccompagnement et au soutien de cette transformation axiale, avec toutes les transformations et ruptures qui seront ncessaires. Nous proposons ici de les regrouper en cinq noyaux paradigmatiques : - Le paradigme de genre Il accompagne les thologies libratrice depuis le dbut, se rendant prsent dans les mouvements et thologies fministes (parmi lesquelles on retrouve aussi la womaniste, la mujeriste, la thologie des femmes africaines, celle des asiatiques et autres). Il sest donn un ensemble doutils particuliers (comme la catgorie danalyse du genre qui sest convertie en un instrument de rfrence oblige pour toute thologie) ainsi quun ventail de dveloppements thmatiques qui ont approfondi et enrichi, de faon notable, sa proposition sur la corporit, la sexualit, les orientations sexuelles, le racisme, lethno-racisme, la violence de genre, la marginalisation de la femme, la fminisation de la pauvret, le croisement cologie et fminisme, etc. On peut dire que, depuis plusieurs dcennies, il sagit dun des filons les plus efficients et actifs dans lensemble du mouvement des thologies de la libration. Il ne sagit pas dun champ thmatique sectoriel (une de ces thologies du...), mais dune perspective de thologie fondamentale, qui implique une transformation transversale de tout le champ thologique et affecte globalement toute la vie, depuis la pratique la plus quotidienne jusqu limage mme de Dieu et autres symboles religieux. Tout est transform par cette nouvelle perspective dpassant le patriarcat, le kyrialisme, le rationalisme coup de loikos multi-relationnel et holistique dont nous nous sommes spars par erreur un moment donn de notre histoire ancestrale. Bien que cette perspective et la Cause qui lanime ne soit pas une affaire de femmes, mais bien une ralit profondment humaine et
humanisante, et bien quil ne soit pas ncessaire dtre une femme pour sentir lurgente ncessit dassumer rsolument cette Cause, nous croyons que se sont surtout les regroupements spcifiques dans cette ligne thologique, prsents dans ce Forum, qui pourront en meilleure connaissance de cause, nous proposer les priorits que nous devrions assumer (tant en contenus thmatiques quen perspectives hermneutiques) pour lagenda thologique global que nous prtendons pouvoir laborer lors de ce FMTL. Et cela, non seulement parce quelles sont expertes en thologie fministe, mais parce que ce sont les femmes qui souffrent le plus dans leur propre chair du sexisme, y parce que comme thologies de la libration, nous ne voulons pas seulement parler en faveur des pauvres, mais accueillir dans notre thologie la voix des personnes qui loppression impose silence. - Le paradigme pluraliste Linclusivisme actuellement hgmonique dans les glises et les thologies, nest rien dautre quune forme dexclusivisme modr. Il nous faut achever de traverser le pont et de passer sur le nouveau territoire mergent, le pluralisme de principe . Nos religions ont t labores dans un temps o tait possible lexclusivisme, labsolutisme et lunicit de chaque religion. Ce temps-l est termin, bien que les religions sefforcent de le prolonger, avec les complicits des thologies qui ne se sont pas encore rveilles. Le pas quon a fait de lexclusivisme linclusivisme ne rsout pas les problmes, il ne fait que les repousser. Il est temps de reconstruire toute notre thologie sur lvidence du pluralisme de principe , la fin du mythe de la supriorit religieuse de principe et le dplacement de lhorizon vers une reliaison profonde , qui nous situe au-del des exclusivismes et inclusivismes historiques. Aujourdhui encore, la plus grande partie de nos thologies sont confessionnelles, inclusivistes et trs souvent crypto-exclusivistes; elles ne sont pas prpares pour dialoguer et collaborer/changer avec les autres religions sur un pied galit; elles nexplorent pas la possibilit de faire de la thologie partir dune responsabilisation plantaire interreligieuse, unique manire de rendre possible la convivialit fraternelle des religions et une alliance de toutes celles-ci en faveur de la Paix et du Bien Commun de lHumanit et de la Plante. Seule une telle thologie, pluraliste de faon axiale, qui abandonne dfinitivement les exclusivismes, les supriorits, les auto attributions dunicit et dabsolutisme, et la vision proslyte du monde qui en dcoule... seule une telle thologie pourra tre axiale , du temps nouveau, une thologie qui assume lucidement les axes autour desquels le monde actuel est en train de tourner tout en souvrant un autre type
de conscience. Reconvertir toute la thologie traditionnelle partir de la nouvelle perspective pluraliste pourrait tre une tche prioritaire vers laquelle plusieurs dentre nous pourrions nous proposer de converger durant ces (deux?) prochaines annes. Quoique cela sorte de notre aire strictement thologique, ne devrions-nous pas nous demander si le FMTL ne pourrait tudier la possibilit de promouvoir un Forum Macro cumnique des religions et des traditions spirituelles, afin de nous unir pour rpondre lurgence climatique et conomique actuelle? - Le paradigme cologique Une bonne partie de nos thologies continue de se mouvoir dans limaginaire labor par les rcits mythiques religieux de lhistoire du salut (humain) , rvl durant les quatre derniers millnaires, ignorant ce quaujourdhui nous savons sur les 13.700 millions dannes dhistoire cosmique de cet univers. Bonne partie de nos thologies continuent dtre encore dualistes, simaginant avoir devant soi un premier tage suprieur, surnaturel, divin, ternel... pour lequel il faut vivre, tout en tant de ce rez-de-chausse infrieur dans lequel nous nous trouvons, naturel, mauvais et tentateur, phmre, simple rservoir matriel de ressources utilisables. Nos thologies continuent de parler parfois avec une certaine pudeur dun salut cleste aprs la mort de ltre humain comme si cela devenait lobjectif unique de la vie humaine. Elles continuent dtre une thologie anthropocentrique, qui nous confine notre software particulier nous coupant et nous alinant de la Terre et du cosmos. Notre thologie ne cessera pas de lgitimer la destruction de la nature tant quelle ne changera pas sa vision. Nous ne cesserons pas de dtruire la nature tant que nous nacquerrons pas la conviction religieuse que nous en faisons partie. La majeure partie de nos religions et quelques de nos thologies maintiennent encore le divin et le sacr confins dans ce quon appelle transcendance , concevant Dieu comme theos , comme un Seigneur l en dehors, l-haut, laissant ce monde priv de divinit et mme de sacralit, et assoiff de r-enchantement. La plante est confronte la sixime extinction massive de la vie, aujourdhui non pas par le fait dun astrode, mais par celui de ltre humain lui-mme. Avec son systme de vie, il sest converti de fait en une force gologique destructrice de la biodiversit un rythme mille fois plus grand quavant lapparition de ltre humain. Avec la pollution atmosphrique nous sommes en train de provoquer un rchauffement plantaire cest maintenant presque assur de plus de ces 3o, considrs comme le point limite dont la transgression dchanera un chaos
irrversible qui exterminera massivement la vie et lhumanit elle-mme. Et nos religions et thologies, qui nont pas dnonc cette orientation suicidaire durant les sicles passs, continuent se montrer rticentes et lentes assumer cette urgence de vie ou de mort, qui dj frappe annuellement des centaines de milliers de victimes, lesquelles dici vingt ans, calcule-t-on, atteindront le million. Beaucoup de thologie pense encore que lcologique est important, mais quil serait seulement un chapitre supplmentaire imbriquer dans le vieux systme de pense, celui-l mme qui nous a amen lcocide actuel. Nous avons besoin de dvelopper cette thologie avec des bases nouvelles que nous avons dj labores; une thologie centre sur l oikos , qui rompe avec la vieille distinction entre le naturel et le surnaturel , et qui rejette lide transcendante de la divinit qui dsacralise et dpouille la nature de la dimension divine; une thologie qui dialogue avec l cologie profonde , qui cesse de comprendre de faon anthropocentrique la ralit comme histoire de salut de lhumanit et soriente vers un oikocentrisme ... cest--dire une thologie axialement nouvelle, conue partir de ces nouveaux axes. Nous devrions nous mettre daccord pour introduire dans notre agenda thologique immdiat cette priorit urgentissime de dvelopper cette thologie dj initie. Les thologies autochtones et fministes ont beaucoup dire et apporter dans ce domaine. - Le paradigme post-religion Cest dj un lieu commun, mme dans la socit civile, que la crise de la religion atteint maintenant la moiti de la plante, alors que dans lautre moiti une rsurgence religieuse explose dans de nouvelles glises, religions, spiritualits syncrtiques et une avalanche de no-pentectistes... De laquelle de ces deux moitis de lhumanit sera fait lavenir? Les donnes tellement contradictoires que nous observons rendent possible les diagnostics les plus opposs. Mais en levant le regard pour voir le cours le plus large possible du fleuve de lhistoire, il semblerait que, malgr les mandres et les remous, le fleuve en son ensemble entrane ses eaux dans une direction globale unique... Les populations qui sortent de la pauvret et accdent lducation et la culture urbaine moderne ont vite fait de se sentir mal laise dans leur religiosit traditionnelle. Comptant plus que jamais sur lappui dun large spectre de sciences de la religion, on soumet nouvelle analyse la nature et lorigine de la religion ainsi que de ses mcanismes de fonctionnement. On ne la considre plus gratuitement comme la connaissance privilgie et linstrument de spiritualit prfr ou unique comme on la toujours regarde;
32 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT 32
on distingue toujours plus frquemment entre religion et spiritualit, et on rpand partout la thse que les religions - non pas la religiosit ni la reliaison - sont aussi construction humaine, date du temps de la rvolution agraire, de caractre rural, et avec une date possible de premption lie la disparition de cette mme priode agraire, disparition que plusieurs analystes croient quelle se produit actuellement. La spiritualit, la religiosit, la reliaison est essentielle ltre humain; les religions, les formes concrtes que cette reliaison ont adopt durant la priode agraire ne le sont pas, elles peuvent se transformer radicalement, ou mme disparatre... Cette vision est dj prsente dans plusieurs milieux culturels et dans les prospections anthropologiques civiles de nos socits. Elle nest pas dans le champ de vision des institutions religieuses, ni dans celle des masses populaires qui ont un accs limit lducation. Il sagit dun dfi majeur, dans lequel se joue quasiment le tout pour le tout des religions. Lurgence simpose de rvaluer la religion (une nouvelle rflexion thologique sur la religion, une nouvelle thologie de la religion ), dtudier fond la possibilit de son dpassement annonc (vers un tre humain a-religieux ou supra-religionnel?) et de donner effectivement priorit la reliaison sur la religion , mettant la thologie effectivement au service de la reliaison et non pas des religions, comme objectif ultime. Toute cette problmatique (que nous appellerons post-religionnelle pour ne pas dire post-religieuse, par le fait que les personnes ne perdent pas leur dimension religieuse profonde quand elles abandonnent les modalits des religions), inclut, parmi ses multiples contenus, la rvaluation du thisme. Tenu pour indubitable et indispensable dans une bonne part des traditions, aujourdhui il abaisse sa qualification pistmologique. Intervient en cela la convivialit dsormais trs proche entre religions thistes et non thistes. Lclipse de Dieu et la crise de la religion ont dj acquis les dimensions dune poque en Europe et dans le premier monde en gnral ; mais dans dautres continents aussi, de nombreux secteurs commencent la ressentir, mme au milieu de leffervescence pentectiste. Ne devrions-nous pas nous poser la question de la ncessit de cette nouvelle rflexion sur la religion elle-mme, sur lurgence dune relecture et de la reconversion du religieux vers le post-religionnel (la spiritualit au-del des religions)? Pour ce dfi, lexprience europenne nous apparat tre le vritable lieu thologique. Sa prsentation dans ce mme sminaire sur la crise de la religion et la crise de Dieu exprime au mieux et confirme cette problmatique. Il ne fait aucun doute que les thologiens et thologiennes dEurope ont beaucoup tous nous apporter ce propos.
- Le paradigme pistmologique Ltre humain est en train de changer dans cette dimension si subtile et difficile percevoir. Changent sa manire de connatre, ses prsupposs acritiques, ses postulats et axiomes millnaires sur lesquels reposaient, sans quil le sache, le savoir les modes dinfrence utiliss jusqu prsent ainsi que les forces et dimensions qui y sont impliques. Une rvolution pistmologique qui affecte toute la connaissance, et par son intermdiaire, tout le reste. Pendant longtemps nous avons t installs dans un commode ralisme ingnu qui prtendait ladaequatio rei et intellectus, une correspondance directe entre ce que nous pensons ou exprimons et la ralit. Nous avons pris lhabitude dinterprter de faon littrale les croyances vhicules par les mythes religieux, comme si ceux-ci taient descriptifs de la ralit, parce quils auraient t rvls du dehors par une autorit absolue... Nous avons entretenus des liens trop troits avec la mtaphysique, le rationalisme et le substantialisme, en marge de lvolutif, du chaotique et du transformationnel. Le nouveau paradigme pistmologique considre que notre connaissance ne dcrit pas la ralit mais quil la forme tout simplement, et que la connaissance religieuse est aussi une construction humaine, labore sur la base de mtaphores approximatives, qui avec le temps deviennent obsoltes, et mme nuisibles... Nous assistons depuis longtemps la dissolution de la mtaphysique, ce qui suppose une crise radicale des fondements, surtout pour la thologie chrtienne traditionnelle. Comme autrefois et dans un autre sens lavait demand Kant, le nouveau paradigme nous demande de nous rveiller du songe dogmatique religieux dont nous rvions jusqu prsent. Nous sommes en train de passer du paradigme mtaphysique et dogmatique au paradigme pistmologique et hermneutique. Le monde religieux traditionnel des croyances religieuses vhicules par des mythes tenus pour littralement certains est en train de disparatre. Lpistmologie raliste, ingnue, acritique, mythique, devient impossible dans le nouvelle socit de connaissance vers laquelle nous avanons. Dans de nombreux endroits de la plante, on exprimente une rupture dans la transmission des religions : les nouvelles gnrations se sentent incapables daccepter lhritage de leurs anctres. La religion ne pourra plus consister croire et se soumettre une rvlation venue du dehors, ni accepter des vrits ou des doctrines... Peut-tre allons-nous vers une religion sans vrits, sans doctrines, rduite son essence : la reliaison la spiritualit... Tout ce qui a t labor et exprim depuis des millnaires par le truchement de cette pistmologie ancestrale a besoin dune reformulation.
Le pluralisme culturel et religieux croissant de nos socits ajoute une nouvelle dimension la nouvelle perspective pistmologique: linter culturalit. Nous nous sommes conscientiss sur la limitation de toute tradition culturelle, ainsi que sur la ncessit de compenser sa tendance atavique centripte et exclusiviste. Le monde de luni-culturalit, impos ou hgmonique, nest plus. Nous devons passer dfinitivement linterculturalit, ou la multi-culturalit... Y-a-t-il moyen de trouver un terrain commun (catgories, langage, pistmologie...) sur lequel nous puissions dialoguer, thologiser, et exercer la praxis historique de la libration? Les nouvelles sciences, surtout la physique quantique, la cosmologie et les sciences de lesprit, continuent se rpandre implacablement dans lopinion publique et dans les mdias; Y compris en certains endroits o il semblerait que les proccupations des gens soient plus primaires et lmentaires... Plusieurs des questions religieuses classiques semblent avoir aujourdhui plus voir avec ces nouvelles sciences quavec la religion. De nombreuses personnes, quotidiennement, choisissent de confier le sens de leur vie plus la science nouvelle qu la religion. Il devient ncessaire de resituer le dialogue de la thologie avec la science. Cest un thme brlant et une priorit qui ne peut tre reporte. Une rvolution pistmologique nous tombe dessus, nous pressant donc de rvaluer les assurances dobjectivit que nous croyions avoir dans la religion, et de rinterprter celle-ci plus nettement comme reliaison, libre des vrits, doctrines, dogmes, morales, canons, institutionnalisations... Un changement vritablement axial. Nest-ce pas ici un bon moment pour nous proposer de laffronter un niveau global?
35
Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa planetaria

Comisin Teolgica Internacional de EATWOT/ASETT
Esquema sobre el que ubicamos estas ideas El FMTL no habla para ni en nombre de todas las teologas, sino desde y para las teologas liberadoras contextuales que trabajan por otro mundo posible. Queremos tomar esta constatacin precisamente como el esquema de pensamiento sobre el que ordenar nuestra propuesta: - teologas LIBERADORAS: impulsadas por el principio-liberacin
que conciben la realidad como historia como proceso utpico-liberador desde la opcin por los pobres (que incluye diferentes pobrezas)
- teologas CONTEXTUALES:
que, encarnadas en sus contextos locales, parten de la realidad y que vuelven a ella con un compromiso militante de praxis de transformacin histrica, tanto local como global.
- teologas DEL OTRO MUNDO POSIBLE, que nosotros llamaremos AXIALES, es decir, aquellas...
que reconocen su centro de gravedad ms del lado del futuro que del pasado, que asumen ya conscientemente que estamos en un tiempo axial de rupturas y de nuevas dimensiones, y que intentan construir realmente la otra teologa posible, en medio de los tsunamis culturales y paradigmticos que venimos experimentando
Vamos a estructurar nuestra propuesta desde este mismo esquema tripartito, sobre esas tres dimensiones de nuestra teologa, por motivos de simplicidad y claridad, y slo como un modesto punto de partida para el debate colectivo.
36 Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT
1. Prioridades para una agenda de trabajo de las TLs para los prximos aos esquematizada en tres dimensiones (liberacin, contextualidad y axialidad) En la dimensin liberadora Creemos que a pesar de la juventud de nuestra teologa liberadora, su consistencia, su sentido, sus planteamientos fundamentales alcanzaron madurez hace varias dcadas, y pese a los malos tiempos que corren, se mantienen firmes y no estn en peligro. El fundamento de la teologa liberadora, el principio liberacin, goza de buena salud y no es motivo de preocupacin en s mismo en este momento. Sera no obstante necesario confrontar nuestros fundamentos clsicos con los nuevos planteamientos acadmicos en materia de filosofa poltica y sociologa, que proponen hace ya tiempo una reconsideracin de la poltica precisamente en torno a la idea de Justicia (Rawls, Sen)? No deberamos estar presentes intensivamente en ese debate? Deberamos asimismo incorporar esos actuales avances en una versin renovada de la fundamentacin misma de nuestras Teologas de la Liberacin, para que puedan dialogar con esta corriente tan importante y tan actual? Al nivel de la prctica diaria lo ms urge nuestra atencin de acompaamiento es la crisis econmica mundial. Debemos denunciar con ms energa proftica y ms penetracin terica econmica la vuelta de tuerca que la dominacin econmica, en manos de las grandes multinacionales y del sistema econmico global, de los eufemsiticamente llamados los mercados, est dando sobre los pobres y las clases medias, en medio de una hegemona cultural que ha logrado imponer con los medios de comunicacin a su servicio, presentndose como un sacrificio inevitable y beneficioso para la humanidad. Como Teologas de la liberacin, tenemos la obligacin de desafiar esa hegemona cultural neoliberal que somete a los pobres, y de acompaar ms de cerca y ms eficazmente a las iniciativas y movimientos populares e incluso gubernamentales que resisten actualmente (en Amrica Latina concretamente vivimos esto en el ALBA y el movimiento bolivariano). Tal vez necesitamos revisitar teolgicamente el tema de las fronteras y vnculos entre fe y poltica, y de nuestra relacin con las mediaciones civiles y polticas para el otro mundo posible -y para el Reino- que ya se dan autnomamente en la sociedad, ante las que no podemos quedar pasivamente al margen. En un campo ms terico, necesita atencin urgente el encuentro, el cruzamiento, la re-elaboracin de la dimensin liberadora de la teologa, del principio liberacin, en los nuevos paradigmas de la actual poca axial que atravesamos, para ir preparando la teologa liberadora propia de la nueva poca, la teologa de una liberacin holstica que sea realmente axial, o post-axial. Esta relectura, que ya est iniciada, s debie-
Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa panetaria 37
ra ser incorporada a nuestra agenda operativa para estos prximos aos. No podemos vivir de renta de una teologa liberadora cuyos fundamentos tericos fueron establecidos en un tiempo que ya no es el actual, y que demanda estos nuevos abordajes y cruzamientos. En la dimensin contextual La dimensin contextual de nuestra teologa la reviste rostros y urgencias plurales, conforme a la irreductible variedad de los diferentes lugares geogrficos, sociales y humanos en los que nos movemos. En este nivel, es cada teologa la que siente mejor las urgencias propias de su contexto y por tanto su agenda operativa local o regional. De cara a una agenda global, el FSM es un lugar ideal para percibir las urgencias mayores de nuestro contexto a nivel planetario. En este seminario podemos discernirlas y escoger consensuadamente las que nos parezcan prioritarias entre las que en el FSM hemos percibido. Nosotros slo sugeriramos, slo como un punto de partida para el debate, si se acepta, estas prioridades:
-las vctimas la crisis econmica mundial, -las vctimas (humanas y no) del adveniente desastre climtico (la Tierra, el agua, la comunidad de la vida, la humanidad, el patrimonio cultural y espiritual acumulado...) -las vctimas de los conflictos inter-culturales e inter-religiosos... -las vctimas de las guerras y las armas.
En la dimensin axial (teologas del otro mundo posible) Despus de casi 50 aos de teologas liberadoras y 10 del Foro Social Mundial, creemos que hay suficiente claridad como para dar un impulso notable a esta tercera dimensin, sobre cuyo eje se viene curvando hace tiempo el horizonte. El otro mundo posible no es slo el que con nuestro esfuerzo queremos construir; es tambin una transformacin cultural radical que estamos experimentando, como resultado de un concurso de fuerzas que no conocemos ni podramos controlar, un verdadero tsunami cultural. Estamos -como vienen anunciando los mejores observadores- en un tiempo axial, en una trasformacin que contornea la realidad sobre un eje cuya exploracin nos puede ayudar a ajustarnos a su movimiento en la nueva dimensin. Slo entrando decididamente por esa conciencia de axialidad, podremos ayudar a construir el otro mundo posible y su correspondiente teologa, la otra teologa posible. Como telogos/as, hombres y mujeres especialmente vueltos hacia la amplitud mayor del horizonte del futuro, necesitamos optar ms decididamente por este tiempo nuevo que ya vivimos, y como FMTL asumir conciencia
38 Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT
de su carcter verdaderamente axial, y dar prioridad en esta segunda dcada de FMTL-FSM a acompaar y secundar esa transformacin axial, con todas las transformaciones y rupturas que sean necesarias, que proponemos agrupar aqu en cuatro ncleos paradigmticos:
- El paradigma de gnero Acompaa a las teologas libradoras desde el principio hacindose presente en los movimientos y teologas feministas (y tambin la wumanista, la mujerista, la teologa de las mujeres africanas, la de las asiticas, y otras) con un conjunto de herramientas peculiares (como la categora de anlisis gnero, que se ha convertido en un instrumento de obligada referencia para toda teologa) y un abanico de desarrollos temticos que han ido profundizando y enriqueciendo notablemente su propuesta, sobre la corporalidad, la sexualidad, las orientaciones sexuales, el racismo, el etno-racismo, la violencia de gnero, la marginacin de la mujer, la feminizacin de la pobreza, el cruce eco-feminismo, etc. Se puede decir que, desde hace varias dcadas, se trata de uno de los filones ms eficientes y activos de entre el conjunto del movimiento de las teologas de la liberacin. No se trata de un campo temtico sectorial (unas teologas de genitivo), sino una perspectiva de teologa fundamental, que implica una transformacin transversal de todo el campo teolgico y una afectacin global a la vida: desde la prctica ms cotidiana, hasta la imagen misma de Dios y otros smbolos religiosos, todo queda transformado por esta nueva perspectiva superadora del patriarcalismo, del kyrialismo, del racionalismo desgajado del oikos multi-relacional y holstico del que equivocadamente nos separamos en algn momento de nuestra historia ancestral. Aunque esta perspectiva y la Causa que la mueve no es asunto de mujeres, sino una realidad profundamente humana y humanizadora, y aunque no hace falta ser mujer para sentir la necesidad urgente de asumir decididamente esta Causa, creemos que son sobre todo las agrupaciones especficas en esta lnea teolgica, presentes en este Foro, quienes con mejor conocimiento de causa podrn proponernos las prioridades (tanto en contenidos temticos como en enfoques hermenuticos) que deberamos asumir para la agenda teolgica global que pretendemos elaborar en este FMTL. Y ello, no slo porque ellas son expertas en teologa feminista, sino porque son las mujeres quienes ms sufren en propia carne el sexismo, y porque como teologas de la liberacin no slo queremos hablar en favor de los pobres, sino acoger en nuestra teologa las voces de las personas a quienes la opresin silencia.
Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa panetaria 39 39
- El paradigma pluralista El inclusivismo actualmente hegemnico en las Iglesias y en las teologas, no es ms que una forma de exclusivismo atemperado. Necesitamos terminar de cruzar el puente y pasar al nuevo territorio emergente, el pluralismo de principio. Nuestras religiones fueron elaboradas en un tiempo en el que era posible el exclusivismo, la absoluticidad y unicidad de cada religin. Ese tiempo se acab, aunque las religiones se empeen en prolongarlo, con la complicidad con las teologas que todava no han despertado. El paso que se dio del exclusivismo al inclusivismo no resuelve los problemas, slo los pospone. Es la hora de reconstruir toda nuestra teologa sobre la evidencia del pluralismo de principio, el fin del mito de la superioridad religiosa de principio, y el desplazamiento del horizonte hacia una religacin profunda, que nos sita ms all de los exclusivismos e inclusivismos histricos. Todava, la mayor parte de nuestras teologas son confesionales, inclusivistas y no pocas veces cripto-exclusivistas; no estn preparadas para dialogar y colaborar/intercambiar con las otras religiones en pie de igualdad; no exploran la posibilidad de hacer teologa desde una responsabilizacin planetaria inter-religiosa, nica forma de posibilitar la convivencia fraterna de las religiones y una alianza de todas ellas en favor de la Paz y del Bien Comn de la Humanidad y del Planeta. Slo una teologa as, axialmente pluralista, que abandone definitivamente los exclusivismos, las superioridades, las auto-atribuciones de unicidad y absoluticidad, y la consiguiente visin proselitista del mundo... podr ser teologa axial, del nuevo tiempo, una teologa que asuma lcidamente los ejes en torno a los que ya est girando el mundo actual y abrindose a otro tipo de conciencia. Reconvertir toda la teologa tradicional desde la nueva perspectiva pluralista, podra ser una tarea prioritaria en la que podramos proponernos converger muchos de nosotros/ as en estos (dos?) prximos aos. Y aunque se sale de nuestra rea estrictamente teolgica, deberamos preguntarnos si el FMTL podra estudiar la posibilidad de propiciar un Foro Macroecumnico de las religiones y tradiciones espirituales, para unirse en el dar respuesta a la urgencia climtica y econmica actual? - El paradigma ecolgico Una buena parte de nuestras teologas siguen movindose en el imaginario elaborado por los relatos mticos religiosos de la historia de salvacin (humana), revelada en los ltimos cuatro milenios, ignorando lo que hoy sabemos sobre los 13.700 millones de aos de historia csmica de este universo. Buena parte de nuestras teologas siguen siendo todava dualistas, imaginando que estn ante un segundo piso superior,
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sobre-natural, divino, eterno... para el cual hay que vivir, frente a este piso inferior en el que estamos, natural, maligno y tentador, efmero, simple despensa material de recursos utilizables. Siguen hablando nuestras teologas -a veces un poco pudorosamente- de una salvacin postmortal celestial del ser humano, como si ese fuera el objetivo nico de la vida humana. Sigue siendo una teologa antropocntrica, que nos confina en nuestro software particular desgajndonos y alienndonos respecto de la Tierra y el cosmos. Nuestra teologa no dejar de legitimar la destruccin de la naturaleza mientras no cambie su visin. No dejaremos de destruir la naturaleza mientras no adquiramos la conviccin religiosa de que somos parte de ella. Muchas religiones y no pocas de sus teologas todava tienen a lo divino y a lo sagrado confinado en la llamada transcendencia, concibiendo a Dios como theos, como un Seor ah fuera, ah arriba, dejando a este mundo privado de divinidad e incluso de sacralidad, y sediento de reencantamiento. El planeta se confronta con la sexta extincin masiva de la vida. Ahora no por un asteroide, sino por el propio ser humano. Con su sistema de vida, se ha convertido de hecho en una fuerza geolgica destructora de la biodiversidad a un ritmo mil veces mayor que antes de la aparicin del ser humano. Con la contaminacin atmosfrica estamos provocando un calentamiento planetario -ya casi con seguridad- mayor de los 3o, considerados el lmite cuya trasgresin desencadenar un caos irreversible que extinguir masivamente la vida y la humanidad misma. Y nuestras religiones y teologas, que no denunciaron esta orientacin suicida durante los siglos pasados, todava hoy se muestran reticentes, lentas para asumir esta urgencia de vida o muerte, que ya se cobra anualmente cientos de miles de vctimas, que dentro de 20 aos se calcula que llegarn al milln. No poca teologa todava piensa que lo ecolgico es importante, pero que sera slo un captulo adicional a ser encajado en el viejo esquema de pensamiento, el mismo que nos ha llevado al ecocidio actual. Nos hace falta desarrollar esa teologa con unas bases nuevas que ya hemos iniciado; una teologa oiko-centrada, que rompa con la vieja distincin entre lo natural y lo sobrenatural, y que deseche la idea estrictamente transcendente de la divinidad que desacraliza y despoja de dimensin divina a la naturaleza; una teologa que dialogue con la ecologa profunda y deje de entender antropocntricamente la realidad como historia de salvacin de la humanidad y se oriente hacia un oiko-centrismo... Es decir, una teologa axialmente nueva, concebida desde esos nuevos ejes. Deberamos acordar introducir en nuestra agenda teolgica inmediata esta prioridad urgentsima de desarrollar esta teologa ya iniciada.
Las teologas indgenas y feministas tienen mucho que decir y que aportar en este campo. - El paradigma post-religional Ya se ha hecho lugar comn, incluso en la sociedad civil, la crisis de la religin que ya alcanza a medio planeta, mientras en la otra mitad una reviviscencia religiosa explota en nuevas Iglesias, religiones, espiritualidades sincrticas y una avalancha neo-pentecostal... De cul de estas dos mitades de la humanidad ser el futuro? Los datos tan contradictorios que observamos posibilitan los diagnsticos ms dispares. Pero alzando la mirada para ver el tramo ms amplio posible del ro de la historia, parecera que a pesar de todas los meandros y remolinos, el ro como conjunto encamina sus aguas en una nica direccin global... Las poblaciones que salen de la pobreza y acceden a la educacin y a la cultura urbana moderna, pronto se resienten en su religiosidad tradicional. Contando como nunca con el apoyo de un amplio espectro de ciencias de la religin, se somete a nuevo escrutinio naturaleza y el origen de la religin y su mecanismos de funcionamiento; ya no se la considera gratuitamente como el conocimiento privilegiado y el instrumento de espiritualidad preferente o nico que siempre se le consider; se distingue cada vez con ms frecuencia entre religin y espiritualidad, y se extiende por doquier la tesis de que las religiones -no la religiosidad, no la religacin- son tambin construccin humana, datada en el tiempo de la revolucin agraria, de matriz rural, y con posible fecha de caducidad ligada a la desaparicin de esa misma poca agraria, desaparicin que muchos analistas creen estarse dando en nuestra actualidad. La espiritualidad, la religiosidad, la religacin es esencial al ser humano; las religiones, las formas concretas que esa religacin asumi en la poca agraria no lo son, pueden transformarse radicalmente, o incluso desaparecer... Esta visin est ya presente en muchos ambientes culturales y en las prospecciones antropolgicas civiles de nuestras sociedades. No est en el campo de visin de las instituciones religiosas, ni de las masas populares con menor acceso a la educacin. Se trata de uno de los desafos mayores, en los que se juega casi el todo por el todo de las religiones. Se impone la urgencia de reevaluar la religin (una nueva reflexin teolgica sobre la religin, una nueva teologa de la religin), de estudiar a fondo la posibilidad de su anunciada superacin (hacia un ser humano a-religioso, o supra-religional?), y de dar efectivamente prioridad a la religacin sobre la religin, poniendo a la teologa efectivamente al servicio de la religacin, no de las religiones, como objetivo ltimo. Toda esta problemtica (que llamaremos post-religional para no decir post-religiosa, en cuanto que las personas no pierden su dimensin
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religiosa profunda cuando abandonan los modos de las religiones), incluye, entre sus mltiples contenidos, la reevaluacin del tesmo. Tenido por indubitable e imprescindible en buena parte de las tradiciones, hoy rebaja su cualificacin epistemolgica, no sin que intervenga en ello la convivencia ahora muy cercana entre religiones testas y no testas. El eclipse de Dios y la crisis de la religin han adquirido ya dimensiones epocales en Europa y el primer mundo en general, pero tambin en otros Continentes bastantes sectores empiezan a sentirla, aun en medio de la efervescencia neopentecostal. No deberamos plantearnos ya esta necesidad de esa nueva reflexin sobre la religin misma, la urgencia de una relectura y reconversin de lo religioso hacia lo post-religional (la espiritualidad ms all de las religiones)? En este desafo, la experiencia europea nos parece ser un verdadero lugar teolgico. Su exposicin en este mismo seminario sobre la crisis de la religin y la crisis de Dios expresa mejor y confirma esta problemtica. Sin duda los telogos/as europeos/as tienen mucho que aportarnos a todos en este aspecto. - El paradigma epistemolgico El ser humano est cambiando en esta dimensin tan sutil y difcil de percibir: cambia su forma de conocer, sus supuestos acrticos, postulados y axiomas milenarios en los que se fundamentaba sin saberlo, los modos de inferencia hasta ahora utilizados y las fuerzas y dimensiones en ellos implicadas. Una revolucin epistemolgica que afecta a todo el conocimiento, y mediante l, a todo lo dems. Durante mucho tiempo hemos estado instalados en un cmodo realismo ingenuo que postulaba la adaequatio rei et intellectus, una correspondencia directa entre lo que pensamos o expresamos y la realidad. Hemos venido interpretando en forma literal las creencias que vehiculan los mitos religiosos, como si stos fueran descriptivos de la realidad, porque habran sido revelados desde fuera por una autoridad absoluta... Hemos mantenido unos lazos demasiado estrechos con la metafsica, el racionalismo y el sustancialismo, al margen de lo evolutivo, lo catico y lo procesual. El nuevo paradigma epistemolgico considera que nuestro conocimiento no describe la realidad sino que simplemente la modela, y que el conocimiento religioso es tambin construccin humana, elaborado a base de metforas aproximativas, que con el tiempo se vuelven obsoletas, e incluso dainas... Venimos asistiendo hace tiempo a la disolucin de la metafsica, lo que supone un una crisis radical de fundamentos, sobre todo para la teologa cristiana tradicional. Como otrora y en otro sentido pidi Kant, el nuevo paradigma nos pide despertar del sueo dogmtico
religioso que hasta ahora sobamos. Estamos pasando del paradigma metafsico y dogmtico al paradigma epistemolgico y hermenutico. El mundo religioso tradicional de creencias religiosas vehiculadas por mitos tenidos por literalmente ciertos desaparece. La epistemologa realista, ingenua, acrtica, mtica, se va haciendo imposible en la nueva sociedad de conocimiento hacia la que avanzamos. En no pocos lugares del planeta se est experimentando una ruptura en la transmisin de las religiones: nuevas generaciones se sienten incapaces de aceptar el legado de sus mayores. La religin ya no va a poder consistir en creer, en someterse a revelacin venida de fuera, ni en aceptar verdades o doctrinas... Tal vez vamos hacia una religin sin verdades, sin doctrinas, reducida a su esencia: la religacin, la espiritualidad... Todo lo que fue milenariamente elaborado y expresado mediante aquella epistemologa ancestral necesita ser reformulado. El pluralismo cultural y religioso creciente de nuestras sociedades aade una dimensin nueva a la nueva perspectiva epistemolgica: la interculturalidad. Nos hemos vuelto conscientes de la limitacin de toda tradicin cultural, as como de la necesidad de compensar su atvica tendencia centrpeta exclusivista. Se acab el mundo de la uniculturalidad, impuesta o hegemnica. Debemos pasar definitivamente a la interculturalidad, o a la multiculturalidad... Hay forma de encontrar un terreno (categoras, lenguaje, epistemologa...) comn en el que nos podamos encontrar para dialogar, para teologizar, y para la praxis histrica de liberacin? Las nuevas ciencias, sobre todo la cuntica, la cosmolgica y las ciencias de la mente, continan difundindose imparablemente en la opinin pblica y en los medios de comunicacin, incluso en sectores parecera que las preocupaciones de la gente son ms primarias y elementales... Muchas de las preguntas religiosas clsicas ahora parecen tener que ver ms con esas nuevas ciencias que con la religin. Muchas personas, diariamente, optan por confiar el sentido de su vida ms a la nueva ciencia que a la religin. Se hace necesaria un replanteamiento de la teologa en dilogo con la ciencia. Es un tema candente y una prioridad inaplazable. Una revolucin epistemolgica se viene encima, urgindonos pues a una reevaluacin de las seguridades de objetividad que creamos tener en religin, y a una reinterpretacin de la religin ms netamente como religacin, liberada de verdades, doctrinas, dogmas, morales, cnones, institucionalizaciones... Un cambio verdaderamente axial. No es un buen momento para de proponernos afrontarlo a nivel global?
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Per i molti cammini di Dio

VERSO UNA TEOLOGIA PLURALISTA, INTERRELIGIOSA, LAICA, PLANETARIA a cura di J.M.VIGIL, L.E.TOMITA, M.BARROS vol V
i bl
o at
Prlogo di Paul KNITTER Prefazione di Armido RIZZI PAZZINI Editore Villa Verrucchio RN, Italia 2012 www.pazzinieditore.it pazzini@pazzinieditore.it
Sono coautori: Michael AMALADOSS, Marcelo BARROS, Agenor BRIGHENTI, Amin EGEA, Edmund KEE-FOOK CHIA, Paul F. KNITTER, Afonso LIGORIO SOARES, David R. LOY, Laurenti MAGESA, J. NEUSSNER, Teresa OKURE, Irfan A. OMAR, Raimon PANIKKAR, Peter C. PHAN, Aloys PIERIS, Richard RENSHAW, A. RIZZI, Jos Amando ROBLES, K.L. SESHAGIRI RAO, Faustino TEIXEIRA e Jos Mara VIGIL
Con la pubblicazione del V volume si concluso il progetto editoriale Per i molti cammini di Dio all'interno della collana Frontiere, diretta da Marco Dal Corso per i tipi Pazzini Editore.
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Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria

Comisso Teolgica Internacional da EATWOT/ASETT Esquema sobre o qual localizamos essas ideias: O FMTL no fala para nem em nome de todas as teologias, mas sim a partir de e para as teologias libertadoras contextuais que trabalham por outro mundo possvel. Queremos tomar essa constatao precisamente como o esquema de pensamento sobre o qual ordenaremos nossa proposta: - Teologias LIBERTADORAS: impulsionadas pelo princpio-libertao
que concebem a realidade como histria como processo utpico-libertador a partir da opo pelos pobres (que inclui muitas diferentes pobrezas).
- Teologias CONTEXTUAIS:
que, encarnadas em seus contextos locais, partem da realidade e que voltam a ela com um compromisso militante de prxis de transformao histrica, tanto local como global.
- Teologias DO OUTRO MUNDO POSSVEL, que ns chamaremos de AXIAIS, isto , aquelas...

que reconhecem seu centro de gravidade mais do lado do futuro do que do passado, que assumem j conscientemente que estamos em um tempo axial de rupturas e de novas dimenses, e que tentam construir realmente a outra teologia possvel, em meio aos tsunamis culturais e paradigmticos que viemos experimentando.
Vamos estruturar nossa proposta a partir desse mesmo esquema tripartido, sobre essas trs dimenses de nossa teologia, por motivos de
46 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT
simplicidade e clareza, e s como um modesto ponto de partida para o debate coletivo. 1. Prioridades para uma agenda de trabalho das Teologias da Libertao para os prximos (dois?) anos, esquematizada em trs dimenses (libertao, contextualidade e axialidade) Na dimenso libertadora Cremos que, apesar da juventude da nossa teologia libertadora, sua consistncia, seu sentido, suas propostas fundamentais alcanaram maturidade h vrias dcadas e, apesar dos maus tempos que correm, se mantm firmes e no esto em perigo. O fundamento da teologia libertadora, o princpio-libertao, goza de boa sade e no motivo de preocupao em si mesmo neste momento. Seria, no entanto, necessrio confirmar nossos fundamentos clssicos com as novas propostas acadmicas em matria de filosofia poltica e sociologia, que propem, h j muito tempo, uma reconsiderao da poltica precisamente em torno ideia de Justia (Rawls, Sen)? No deveramos estar presentes intensivamente nesse debate? Deveramos, assim mesmo, incorporar esses atuais avanos em uma verso renovada da prprio fundamentao de nossas Teologias da Libertao, para que possam dialogar com essa corrente to importante e atual? Em nvel da prtica diria, o que mais urge a nossa ateno de acompanhamento a crise econmica mundial. Devemos denunciar com mais energia proftica e mais penetrao terica econmica a presso que a dominao econmica, nas mos das grandes multinacionais e do sistema econmico global, dos eufemisticamente chamados mercados, est fazendo sobre os pobres e as classes mdias, em meio a uma hegemonia cultural que conseguiu impor com os meios de comunicao a seu servio, apresentando-se como um sacrifcio inevitvel e benfico para a humanidade. Como Teologias da Libertao, temos a obrigao de desafiar essa hegemonia cultural neoliberal que submete os pobres e de acompanhar mais de perto e mais eficazmente as iniciativas e movimentos populares e inclusive governamentais que resistem atualmente (na Amrica Latina, concretamente, vivemos isso na ALBA e no movimento bolivariano). Talvez necessitamos revisitar teologicamente o tema das fronteiras e vnculos entre f e poltica, e da nossa relao com as mediaes civis e polticas para o outro mundo possvel e para o Reino que j se do autonomamente na sociedade, diante das quais no podemos ficar passivamente margem.
Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria 47
Em um campo mais terico, necessitam ateno urgente o encontro, o cruzamento, a reelaborao da dimenso libertadora da teologia, do princpio-libertao, nos novos paradigmas da atual poca axial que atravessamos, para ir preparando a teologia libertadora prpria da nova poca, a teologia de uma libertao holstica que seja realmente axial ou ps-axial. Essa releitura, que j est iniciada, deveria, sim, ser incorporada nossa agenda operativa para esses prximos anos. No podemos viver da renda de uma teologia libertadora cujos fundamentos tericos foram estabelecidos em um tempo que j no atual e que demanda essas novas abordagens e cruzamentos. Na dimenso contextual A dimenso contextual da nossa teologia a reveste de rostos e urgncias plurais, conforme a irredutvel variedade dos diferentes lugares geogrficos, sociais e humanos nos quais nos movemos. Nesse nvel, cada teologia que sente melhor as urgncias prprias de seu contexto e, portanto, sua agenda operativa local ou regional. Diante de uma agenda global, o FSM um lugar ideal para perceber as urgncias maiores do nosso contexto em nvel planetrio. Nesse seminrio, podemos discerni-las e escolher consensualmente as que nos paream prioritrias entre as quais percebemos no FSM. Ns s sugeriramos, s como um ponto de partida para o debate, se forem aceitas, estas prioridades:
* as vtimas da crise econmica mundial, * as vtimas (humanas ou no) do adveniente desastre climtico (a Terra, a gua, a comunidade da vida, a humanidade, o patrimnio cultural e espiritual acumulado...), * as vtimas dos conflitos interculturais e inter-religiosos do choque de civilizaes... * as vtimas das guerras e das armas.
Na dimenso axial (teologias do outro mundo possvel) Depois de quase 50 anos de teologias libertadoras e 10 anos do Frum Social Mundial, cremos que h suficiente clareza para dar um impulso notvel a essa terceira dimenso, sobre cujo eixo o horizonte vem se curvando h tempos. O outro mundo possvel no s o que, com o nosso esforo, queremos construir. tambm uma transformao cultural radical que estamos experimentando, como resultado de um concurso de foras que no conhecemos nem poderamos controlar, um verdadeiro tsunami cultural. Estamos como vm anunciando os melhores observadores em um tempo axial, em uma transformao que contorna a realidade sobre
um eixo cuja explorao pode nos ajudar a nos ajustar ao seu movimento na nova dimenso. S entrando decididamente nessa conscincia de axialidade, poderemos ajudar a construir o outro mundo possvel e sua teologia correspondente, a outra teologia possvel. Como telogos/as, homens e mulheres especialmente voltados para a amplitude maior do horizonte do futuro, necessitamos optar mais decididamente por esse tempo novo que j vivemos e, como FMTL, tomar conscincia de seu carter verdadeiramente axial e dar prioridade nessa segunda dcada de FMTL-FSM a acompanhar e ajudar nessa transformao axial, com todas as transformaes e rupturas que sejam necessrias, que propomos agrupar aqui em quatro ncleos paradigmticos: - O paradigma de gnero Acompanha as teologias libertadoras desde o princpio, fazendo-se presente nos movimentos e teologias feministas (e tambm wumanista, mujerista, a teologia das mulheres africanas, das asiticas e outras), com um conjunto de ferramentas peculiares (como a categoria de anlise gnero, que se converteu em um instrumento de referncia obrigatrio para toda teologia) e um leque de desenvolvimentos temticos que foram aprofundando e enriquecendo notavelmente a sua proposta sobre a corporalidade, a sexualidade, as orientaes sexuais, o racismo, o etnorracismo, a violncia de gnero, a marginalizao da mulher, a feminilizao da pobreza, o cruzamento ecofeminismo etc. Pode-se dizer que, h vrias dcadas, trata-se de um dos files mais eficientes e ativos dentre o conjunto dos movimentos das teologias da libertao. No se trata de um campo temtico sectorial (teologias de genitivo), mas sim uma perspectiva de teologia fundamental, que implica em uma transformao transversal de todo o campo teolgico e uma afetao global vida: da prtica mais cotidiana at a prpria imagem de Deus e outros smbolos religiosos, tudo transformado por essa nova perspectiva superadora do patriarcalismo, do kyrialismo, do racionalismo desengajado do oikos multirrelacional e holstico do qual, equivocadamente, nos separamos em algum momento da nossa histria ancestral. Embora essa perspectiva e a Causa que a move no sejam assunto de mulheres, mas sim uma realidade profundamente humana e humanizadora, e embora no preciso ser mulher para sentir a necessidade urgente de assumir decididamente essa Causa, cremos que so principalmente os agrupamentos especficos nessa linha teolgica, presentes neste Frum, que com melhor conhecimento de causa podero nos propor as prioridades (tanto em contedos temticos como em enfoques hermenuticos) que deveramos assumir para a agenda teolgica global que pretendemos elaborar neste FMTL.
E isso no s porque elas so especialistas em teologia feminista, mas tambm porque so as mulheres que mais sofrem na prpria carne o sexismo e porque, como teologias da libertao, no s queremos falar em favor dos pobres, mas tambm acolher em nossa teologia as vozes das pessoas s quais a opresso silencia. - O paradigma pluralista O inclusivismo atualmente hegemnico nas Igrejas e nas teologias no mais do que uma forma de exclusivismo atemperado. Necessitamos terminar de cruzar a ponte e passar para o novo territrio emergente, o pluralismo de princpio. Nossas religies foram elaboradas em um tempo em que era possvel o exclusivismo, a absoluticidade e a unicidade de cada religio.Esse tempo acabou, embora as religies se empenhem em prolong-lo, com a cumplicidade das teologias que ainda no despertaram. O passo que foi dado do exclusivismo ao inclusivismo no resolve os problemas, s os posterga. hora de reconstruir toda a nossa teologia sobre a evidncia do pluralismo de princpio, o fim do mito da superioridade religiosa de princpio e o deslocamento do horizonte para uma religao profunda, que nos situa para alm dos exclusivismos e inclusivismos histricos. Porm, a maior parte das nossas teologias so confessionais, inclusivistas e no poucas vezes criptoexclusivistas; no esto preparadas para dialogar e colaborar/intercambiar com as outras religies em p de igualdade; no exploram a possibilidade de fazer teologia a partir de uma responsabilizao planetria inter-religiosa, nica forma de possibilitar a convivncia fraterna das religies e uma aliana de todas elas em favor da Paz e do Bem Comum da Humanidade e do Planeta. S uma teologia assim, axialmente pluralista, que abandone definitivamente os exclusivismos, as superioridades, as autoatribuies de unicidade e absoluticidade, e a consequente viso proselitista do mundo... poder ser teologia axial, do novo tempo, uma teologia que assuma lucidamente os eixos em torno dos quais o mundo atual j est girando e se abrindo a outro tipo de conscincia. Reconverter toda a teologia tradicional a partir da nova perspectiva pluralista poderia ser uma tarefa prioritria na qual muitos de ns poderamos nos propor a convergir nestes (dois?) prximos anos. E embora se saia da nossa rea estritamente teolgica, deveramos nos perguntar se o FMTL poderia estudar a possibilidade de propiciar um Frum Macroecumnico das religies e tradies espirituais, para unir no dar resposta urgncia climtica e econmica atual.
50 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT 50
- O paradigma ecolgico Uma boa parte das nossas teologias continuam se movimentando no imaginrio elaborado pelos relatos mticos religiosos da histria da salvao (humana), revelada nos ltimos quatro milnios, ignorando o que hoje sabemos sobre os 13,7 bilhes de anos de histria csmica deste universo. Boa parte das nossas teologias ainda continuam sendo dualistas, imaginando que esto diante de um segundo piso superior, sobrenatural, divino, eterno... para o qual preciso viver, frente a este piso inferior em que estamos, natural, maligno e tentador, efmero, simples despensa material de recursos utilizveis. Certas teologias continuam falando s vezes um pouco pudorosamente de uma salvao ps-mortal celestial do ser humano como se fosse o objetivo nico da vida humana. Segue sendo uma teologia antropocntrica, que nos confina em nosso software particular, desengajandonos e alienando-nos com relao Terra e o cosmos. Nossa teologia no deixar de legitimar a destruio da natureza enquanto no mudar sua viso. No deixaremos de destruir a natureza enquanto no adquirirmos a convico religiosa de que somos parte dela. A maior parte das nossas religies e boa parte das nossas teologias ainda mantem o divino e o sagrado confinados na chamada transcendncia, concebendo a Deus como theos, como um Senhor a fora, a em cima, deixando este mundo privado de divindade, e at de sacralidade, e sedento de reencantamento. O planeta se confronta com a sexta extino massiva da vida. Agora, no por um asteroide, mas sim pelo prprio ser humano. Com o seu sistema de vida, ele se converteu de fato em uma fora geolgica destruidora da biodiversidade em um ritmo mil vezes maior do que antes da apario do ser humano. Com a contaminao atmosfrica, estamos provocando um aquecimento planetrio j quase com segurana maior do que os 3oC considerados o limite cuja transgresso desencadear um caos irreversvel que extinguir massivamente a vida e a prpria humanidade. E nossas religies e teologias, que no denunciaram essa orientao suicida durante os sculos passados, ainda hoje se mostram reticentes, lentas para assumir essa urgncia de vida ou morte, que j cobra anualmente centenas de milhares de vtimas, que dentro de 20 anos se calcula que chegaro a um milho. Grande parte da teologia ainda pensa que o ecolgico importante, mas que s seria um captulo adicional a ser encaixado no velho esquema de pensamento, o mesmo que nos levou ao ecocdio atual. Falta-nos desenvolver essa teologia com bases novas que j iniciamos; uma teologia oikocentrada, que rompa com a velha distino entre o
natural e o sobrenatural, e que descarte a ideia estritamente transcendente da divindade que dessacraliza e despoja a natureza da dimenso divina; uma teologia que dialogue com a ecologia profunda e deixe de entender antropocntricamente a realidade como histria de salvao da humanidade e se oriente para um oikocentrismo... Isto , uma teologia axialmente nova, concebida a partir desses novos eixos. Deveramos concordar em introduzir em nossa agenda teolgica imediata essa prioridade urgentssima de desenvolver essa teologia j iniciada. As teologias indgenas e feministas tm muito a dizer e a contribuir nesse campo. - O paradigma ps-religional J se tornou lugar comum, inclusive na sociedade civil, a crise da religio que j alcana meio planeta, enquanto na outra metade uma reviviscncia religiosa explode em novas Igrejas, religies, espiritualidades sincrticas e uma avalanche neopentecostal... De qual dessas duas metades da humanidade ser o futuro? Os dados to contraditrios que observamos possibilitam os diagnsticos mais dspares. Mas, levantando o olhar para ver o trecho mais amplo possvel do rio da histria, parece que, apesar de todos os meandros e redemoinhos, o rio como conjunto encaminha as suas guas para uma nica direo global... As populaes que saem da pobreza e tm acesso educao e cultura urbana moderna logo se ressentem em sua religiosidade tradicional. Contando como nunca com o apoio de um amplo espectro de cincias da religio, se submetem a novo escrutnio natureza e a origem da religio e seus mecanismos de funcionamento; ela j no considerada gratuitamente como o conhecimento privilegiado e o instrumento de espiritualidade preferencial o nico como sempre se considerou; distingue-se cada vez com mais frequncia entre religio e espiritualidade, e se estende por todo o lugar a tese de que as religies no a religiosidade, no a religao so tambm construo humana, datada no tempo da revoluo agrria, de matriz rural e com possvel data de caducidade, ligada ao desaparecimento dessa mesma poca agrria, desaparecimento que muitos analistas acreditam estar ocorrendo em nossa atualidade. A espiritualidade, a religiosidade, a religao essencial ao ser humano; as religies, as formas concretas que essa religao assumiu na poca agrria, no o so, podem se transformar radicalmente ou at desaparecer. Essa viso j est presente em muitos ambientes culturais e nas prospeces antropolgicas civis de nossas sociedades. No est no campo de viso das instituies religiosas, nem das massas populares
com menor acesso educao. Trata-se de um dos desafios maiores, nos quais se pe em jogo quase tudo pelo todo das religies. Impe-se a urgncia de reavaliar a religio (uma nova reflexo teolgica sobre a religio, uma nova teologia da religio), de estudar a fundo a possibilidade de sua anunciada superao (rumo a um ser humano arreligioso ou suprarreligional?) e de dar efetivamente prioridade religio sobre a religio, pondo a teologia efetivamente a servio da religao, no das religies, como objetivo ltimo. Toda essa problemtica (que chamaremos de ps-religional, para no dizer ps-religiosa, j que as pessoas no perdem sua dimenso religiosa profunda quando abandonam os modos das religies) inclui, entre seus mltiplos contedos, a reavaliao do tesmo. Tido por indubitvel e imprescindvel em boa parte das tradies, hoje ele diminui a sua qualificao epistemolgica, no sem que intervenha nisso a convivncia agora muito prximo entre religies testas e no testas. O eclipse de Deus e a crise da religio adquiriram j dimenses epocais na Europa e no Primeiro Mundo em geral, mas, nos outros continentes, muitos setores tambm comeam a senti-las, mesmo em meio da efervescncia neopentecostal. No deveramos nos propor j essa necessidade dessa nova reflexo sobre a prpria religio, a urgncia de uma releitura e reconverso do religioso ao ps-religional (a espiritualidade alm das religies)? Nesse desafio, a experincia europeia nos parece ser um verdadeiro lugar teolgico. Sua exposio neste mesmo seminrio sobre a crise da religio e a crise de Deus expressa melhor e confirma essa problemtica. Sem dvida, os telogos/as europeus/ias tm muito a contribuir com todos ns nesse aspecto. - O paradigma epistemolgico O ser humano est mudando nessa dimenso to sutil e difcil de perceber: muda a sua forma de conhecer, seus pressupostos acrticos, postulados e axiomas milenares nos quais se fundamentava sem saber, os modos de inferncia at agora utilizados e as foras e dimenses neles implicadas. Uma revoluo epistemolgica que afeta todo o conhecimento e, mediante ele, todo o resto. Durante muito tempo, estivemos instalados em um cmodo realismo ingnuo, que postulava a adaequatio rei et intellectus, uma correspondncia direta entre o que pensamos ou expressamos e a realidade. Interpretamos de forma literal as crenas que os mitos religiosos veiculam, como se estes fossem descritivos da realidade, porque teriam sido revelados de fora por uma autoridade absoluta... Mantivemos laos muito estreitos com a metafsica, o racionalismo e o substancialismo, margem do evolutivo, do catico e do processual.
O novo paradigma epistemolgico considera que o nosso conhecimento no descreve a realidade, mas sim simplesmente a modela, e que o conhecimento religioso tambm construo humana, elaborado com base em metforas aproximativas, que com o tempo se tornam obsoletas e at prejudiciais... Assistimos h muito tempo a dissoluo da metafsica, o que significa uma crise radical de fundamentos, sobretudo para a teologia crist tradicional. Como outrora e em outro sentido Kant pediu, o novo paradigma nos pede para despertar do sonho dogmtico religioso que at agora sonhvamos. Estamos passando do paradigma metafsico e dogmtico para o paradigma epistemolgico e hermenutico. O mundo religioso tradicional de crenas religiosas veiculadas por mitos tidos como literalmente certos desaparece. A epistemologia realista, ingnua, acrtica, mtica, vai se tornando impossvel na nova sociedade de conhecimento para a qual avanamos. Em no poucos lugares do planeta, est sendo experimentada uma ruptura na transmisso das religies: novas religies sentem-se incapazes de aceitar o legado de seus mais velhos. A religio j no vai poder consistir em crer, em submeter-se revelao vinda de fora, nem em aceitar verdades ou doutrinas... Talvez vamos rumo a uma religio sem verdades, sem doutrinas, reduzida sua essncia: a religao, a espiritualidade... Tudo o que foi milenarmente elaborado e expressado mediante aquela epistemologia ancestral precisa ser reformulado. O pluralismo cultural e religioso crescente de nossas sociedades acrescenta uma nova dimenso nova perspectiva epistemolgica: a interculturalidade. Tornamo-nos conscientes da limitao de toda tradio cultural, assim como da necessidade de compensar sua atvica tendncia centrpeta exclusivista. Acabou-se o mundo da uniculturalidade, imposta ou hegemnica. Devemos passar definitivamente para a interculturalidade ou para a multiculturalidade... H como encontrar um campo (categorias, linguagem, epistemologia...) comum em que possamos nos encontrar para dialogar, para teologizar e para a prxis histrica de libertao? As novas cincias, principalmente a quntica, a cosmolgica e as cincias da mente, continuam difundindo-se irrefreavelmente na opinio pblica e nos meios de comunicao, inclusive em setores que pareceria que as preocupaes das pessoas so mais primrias e elementares... Muitas das perguntas religiosa clssicas agora parecem ter a ver mais com essas novas cincias do que com a religio. Muitas pessoas, diariamente, optam por confiar o sentido de sua vida mais nova cincia do que religio. Faz-se necessria uma reformulao da teologia em dilogo com a cincia. um tema candente e uma prioridade inadivel. Uma revoluo epistemolgica se assoma, urgindo-nos, pois, a uma reavaliao das seguranas de objetividade que acreditvamos ter em reli-
gio e a uma reinterpretao da religio mais claramente como religao, liberta de verdades, doutrinas, dogmas, morais, cnones, institucionalizaes... Uma mudana verdadeiramente axial. No um bom momento para nos propormos a enfrent-la em nvel global?
Along the Many Paths

J.M.VIGIL, Luiza TOMITA, Marcelo BARROS (eds.) Foreword: Pedro CASALDLIGA Series : Interreligious Studies, edited by Frans Wijsen and Jorge Castillo Published by the Chair of World Christianity at Radboud University Nijmegen
Latin American theology is associated with liberation, basic Christian communities, primacy of the praxis and option for the poor. The present volume shows that Latin American theologians added new themes to the previous ones: religious pluralism, inter-religious dialogue and macroecumenism. It is the fruti of a programme of the Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) in Latin American, to work out a liberation theology of religions. This volume summarizes the three first ones of the series of five volumes. Distributed in North Amrica by Transactions Publishers: orders@transactionspub.com Distributed in UK by Global Book Marketing, London, www.centralbooks.co.uk Distributed from Germay: Lit Verlag, Berlin and Mnster: www.lit-verlag.de
55
Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria

Commissione Teologica Internazionale dell' EATWOT/ASETT Lo schema in cui collocare queste idee Il FMTL non parla per n a nome di tutte le teologie, ma a partire da e per le teologie liberatrici contestuali che lavorano per un altro mondo possibile. Vogliamo assumere tale constatazione proprio come schema di pensiero in cui ordinare la nostra proposta: - teologie LIBERATRICI, animate dal principio-liberazione,
che concepiscono la realt come storia, come processo utopico-liberatore, a partire dallopzione per i poveri (che incluvde povert assai diverse);
- teologie CONTESTUALI,
che, incarnate nei loro contesti locali, partono dalla realt e tornano ad essa con un impegno militante di prassi di trasformazione storica, tanto locale quanto globale;
- teologie DELLALTRO MONDO POSSIBILE, che chiameremo ASSIALI, cio quelle...

che riconoscono il proprio centro di gravit pi dal lato del futuro che da quello del passato, che assumono gi coscientemente il fatto che ci troviamo in un tempo assiale di rotture e di nuove dimensioni e che tentano di costruire realmente laltra teologia possibile, in mezzo agli tsunami culturali e paradigmatici che veniamo sperimentando.
Struttureremo la nostra proposta a partire da questo stesso schema tripartito, su queste tre dimensioni della nostra teologia, per motivi di semplicit e chiarezza, e solo come un modesto punto di partenza per il dibattito collettivo.
56 Commissione Teologica Internazionale dell' EATWOT
1. Priorit per unagenda di lavoro delle Teologie Liberatrici per i prossimi (due?) anni schematizzata in tre dimensioni (liberazione, contestualit e assialit) Nella dimensione liberatrice Crediamo che, malgrado la nostra teologia liberatrice sia ancora giovane, la sua consistenza, il suo significato, le sue linee fondamentali abbiano raggiunto una maturit da vari decenni e, nonostante i cattivi tempi che corrono, conservino la loro solidit e non siano in pericolo. Il fondamento della teologia liberatrice, il principio liberazione, gode di buona salute e non motivo di preoccupazione in s in questo momento. Sar malgrado ci necessario confrontare i nostri fondamenti classici con le nuove linee accademiche in materia di filosofia politica e sociologia, che propongono gi da tempo una riconsiderazione della politica precisamente intorno allidea di Giustizia (Rawls, Sen)? Non dovremmo essere fortemente presenti in questo dibattito? Dovremmo allo stesso tempo incorporare questi progressi attuali in una versione rinnovata del fondamento stesso delle nostre Teologie della Liberazione, perch possano dialogare con questa corrente tanto importante e tanto attuale? A livello della pratica quotidiana, ci che pi esige il nostro accompagnamento la crisi economica mondiale. Dobbiamo denunciare con maggiore energia profetica e maggiore penetrazione della teoria economica il giro di vite che la dominazione economica dei mercati, come sono eufemisticamente definiti - in mano alle grandi multinazionali e al sistema economico globale -, sta operando sui poveri e sulle classi medie, nel mezzo di una egemonia culturale che essa riuscita a imporre, con i mezzi di comunicazione a suo servizio, presentandosi come un sacrificio inevitabile e benefico per lumanit. Le Teologie della Liberazione, in quanto tali, hanno lobbligo di sfidare questa egemonia culturale neoliberista che sottomette i poveri e di accompagnare pi da vicino e pi efficacemente le iniziative e i movimenti popolari e anche governativi attualmente in resistenza (in America Latina, concretamente, viviamo questo nellALBA e nel movimento bolivariano). Abbiamo forse bisogno di rivisitare teologicamente il tema delle frontiere e dei vincoli tra fede e politica, e della nostra relazione con le mediazioni civili e politiche per laltro mondo possibile e per il Regno che gi si danno autonomamente nella societ, di fronte alle quali non possiamo rimanere passivamente ai margini. In un campo pi teorico, richiede urgente attenzione lincontro, linnesto, la ri-elaborazione della dimensione liberatrice della teologia, del principio liberazione, nei nuovi paradigmi dellattuale epoca assiale che attraversiamo, per preparare la teologia liberatrice della nuova epoca,
Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria 57
la teologia di una liberazione olistica che sia realmente assiale, o postassiale. Questa rilettura, che gi iniziata, dovrebbe essere incorporata alla nostra agenda operativa per i prossimi anni. Non possiamo vivere della rendita di una teologia liberatrice i cui fondamenti teorici sono stati stabiliti in un tempo che non pi attuale e che richiede questi nuovi approcci e innesti. Nella dimensione contestuale La dimensione contestuale della nostra teologia la riveste di volti e urgenze plurali, secondo lirriducibile variet di diversi luoghi geografici, sociali ed umani in cui ci muoviamo. A questo livello, ogni singola teologia a sentire meglio le urgenze proprie del suo contesto e pertanto la sua agenda operativa locale o regionale. Di fronte a unagenda globale, il FSM un luogo ideale per percepire le urgenze maggiori del nuovo contesto a livello planetario. In questo seminario possiamo discernere e scegliere in maniera consensuale le urgenze che ci appaiono prioritarie tra quelle che abbiamo colto nel FSM. Noi suggeriremmo solo, appena come un punto di partenza per il dibattito, se si accetta, queste priorit:
- le vittime della crisi economica mondiale, - le vittime (umane o meno) dellimminente disastro climatico (la Terra, lacqua, la comunit della vita, lumanit, il patrimonio culturale e spirituale accumulato...), - le vittime dei conflitti inter-culturali e inter-religiosi dello scontro di civilt... - le vittime delle guerre e delle armi.
Nella dimensione assiale (teologie dellaltro mondo possibile) Dopo quasi 50 anni di teologie liberatrici e dopo 10 anni di Forum Sociale Mondiale, crediamo che vi sia sufficiente chiarezza per dare un notevole impulso a questa terza dimensione, sul cui asse si viene curvando da tempo lorizzonte. Laltro mondo possibile non solo quello che con il nostro sforzo vogliamo costruire; anche una trasformazione culturale radicale che stiamo sperimentando, come risultato di un concorso di forze che non conosciamo n potremmo controllare, un vero tsunami culturale. Ci troviamo come stanno annunciando i migliori osservatori - in un tempo assiale, in una trasformazione che delinea la realt su un asse la cui esplorazione ci pu aiutare ad adattarci al suo movimento nella nuova dimensione. Solo passando decisamente per questa coscienza di assialit, potremo aiutare a costruire laltro mondo possibile e la sua corrispondente teologia, laltra teologia possibile. Come teologi/ghe, uomini
e donne specialmente rivolti verso la maggiore ampiezza dellorizzonte del futuro, dobbiamo optare pi decisamente per questo tempo nuovo che gi viviamo e, come FMTL, assumere coscienza del suo carattere autenticamente assiale, e dare priorit, in questo secondo decennio del FMTL-FSM, al compito di accompagnare e favorire questa trasformazione assiale, con tutte le trasformazioni e le rotture che saranno necessarie, che proponiamo di raggruppare qui in quattro nuclei paradigmatici: - Il paradigma di genere Accompagna le teologie liberatrici dal principio facendosi presente nei movimenti e nelle teologie femministe (compresa la teologia womanist, quella mujerista, la teologia delle donne africane, quella delle asiatiche e altre) con un insieme di strumenti peculiari (come la categoria di analisi del genere, trasformatasi in uno strumento di riferimento obbligato per tutta la teologia) e un ventaglio di sviluppi tematici che ne hanno approfondito e arricchito notevolmente la proposta, sulla corporalit, sulla sessualit, sugli orientamenti sessuali, sul razzismo, sulletnorazzismo, sulla violenza di genere, sullemarginazione della donna, sulla femminilizzazione della povert, sul binomio eco-femminismo, ecc. Si pu dire che, da vari decenni, si tratta di uno dei filoni pi efficienti e attivi nellinsieme del movimento delle teologie della liberazione. Non si tratta di un campo tematico settoriale (di teologie del genitivo), ma di una prospettiva di teologia fondamentale, che implica una trasformazione trasversale di tutto il campo teologico e di un coinvolgimento globale della vita: dalla pratica pi quotidiana fino allimmagine stessa di Dio e ad altri simboli religiosi, tutto viene trasformato da questa nuova prospettiva di superamento del patriarcalismo, del kyrialismo, del razionalismo separato dalloikos multi-relazionale ed olistico da cui ci siamo erroneamente distaccati in qualche momento della nostra storia ancestrale. Per quanto questa prospettiva e la Causa che la muove non siano questione di donne , ma una realt profondamente umana e umanizzatrice, e per quanto non sia necessario essere donna per sentire la necessit urgente di assumere con decisione questa Causa, crediamo che siano soprattutto i gruppi specifici su questa linea teologica, presenti in questo Forum, a poter proporre con miglior cognizione di causa le priorit (tanto nei contenuti tematici quanto nelle prospettive ermeneutiche) che dovremmo assumere per lagenda teologica globale che intendiamo elaborare in questo FMTL. E ci non solo perch si tratta di esperte in teologia femminista, ma perch sono le donne a soffrire di pi sulla propria carne il sessismo, e perch le teologie della liberazione, in quanto tali, non solo devono parlare a favore dei poveri, ma anche accogliere le voci delle persone che loppressione mette a tacere.
- Il paradigma pluralista Linclusivismo attualmente egemonico nelle Chiese e nelle teologie non altro che una forma di esclusivismo attenuato. Dobbiamo finire di attraversare il ponte e passare nel nuovo territorio emergente, il pluralismo de principio. Le nostre religioni sono state elaborate in un tempo in cui lesclusivismo, lassolutezza e lunicit di ogni religione erano possibili. Questo tempo finito, per quanto le religioni si impegnino a prolungarlo, con la complicit delle teologie che non si sono ancora risvegliate. Il passaggio che si effettuato dallesclusivismo allinclusivismo non risolve i problemi, li rimanda appena. il momento di ricostruire tutta la nostra teologia sullevidenza del pluralismo di principio, sulla fine del mito della superiorit religiosa di principio, e sullo spostamento dellorizzonte verso un rilegamento profondo (il termine rilegamento - dal latino religare: unire fortemente, vincolare, da cui deriverebbe la stessa parola religione - sta ad indicare il nostro vincolo con quella profondit che ci fa essere, ndt), che ci situa al di l degli esclusivismi e inclusivismi storici. Le nostre teologie sono per la maggior parte ancora confessionali, inclusiviste e non poche volte cripto-esclusiviste; non sono preparate a dialogare e a collaborare/interscambiare con le altre religioni su un piano di eguaglianza; non esplorano la possibilit di fare teologia a partire da una responsabilizzazione planetaria inter-religiosa, unico modo di rendere possibile la convivenza fraterna delle religioni e unalleanza tra tutte loro in favore della Pace e del Bene Comune dellUmanit e del Pianeta. Solo una teologia di questo tipo, assialmente pluralista, che abbandoni definitivamente gli esclusivismi, le superiorit, le auto-attribuzioni di unicit e assolutezza e la conseguente visione proselitista del mondo... potr essere teologia assiale, del nuovo tempo, una teologia che assuma lucidamente gli assi attorno a cui gi sta girando il mondo attuale e si apra a un altro tipo di coscienza. Riconvertire tutta la teologia tradizionale nella nuova prospettiva pluralista potrebbe essere un compito prioritario in cui potrebbero proporsi di convergere molti di noi in questi (due?) prossimi anni. E per quanto si esca dalla nostra area strettamente teologica, dovremmo chiederci se il FMTL possa studiare la possibilit di promuovere un Forum Macroecumenico delle religioni e tradizioni spirituali, perch si uniscano per dare risposta allurgenza climatica ed economica attuale. - Il paradigma ecologico Una buona parte delle nostre teologie continua a muoversi nellimmaginario elaborato dai racconti mitici religiosi della storia della salvezza
(umana), rivelata negli ultimi quattro millenni, ignorando ci che oggi sappiamo sui 13.700 milioni di anni di storia cosmica di questo universo. Buona parte delle teologie continua ad essere ancora dualista, immaginando di trovarsi dinanzi a un secondo piano superiore, soprannaturale, divino, eterno... per il quale bisogna vivere, rispetto a questo piano inferiore in cui siamo, naturale, maligno e tentatore, effimero, semplice dispensa materiale di risorse utilizzabili. Le nostre teologie continuano a parlare - a volte con un certo pudore - di una salvezza postmortale celestiale dellessere umano, come se questo fosse lunico obiettivo della vita umana. Continua a trattarsi di una teologia antropocentrica, che ci confina nel nostro software particolare separandoci e alienandoci dalla Terra e dal cosmo. La nostra teologia non cesser di legittimare la distruzione della natura finch non cambier visione. Non smetteremo di distruggere la natura finch non avremo acquisito la convinzione religiosa del fatto che siamo parte di essa. La maggior parte delle nostre religioni e teologie tiene il divino e il sacro ancora confinati nella cosiddetta trascendenza, concependo Dio come theos, come un Signore l fuori, l sopra, lasciando questo mondo privo di divinit e anche di sacralit, e assetato di nuovo incanto. Il pianeta si trova di fronte alla sesta estinzione di massa della vita. Oggi a causa non di un asteroide, ma dello stesso essere umano, che, con il suo sistema di vita, si trasformato di fatto in una forza geologica distruttrice della biodiversit a un ritmo mille volte maggiore rispetto allapparizione dellessere mano. A causa della contaminazione atmosferica, stiamo provocando ormai quasi certo - un riscaldamento planetario superiore ai tre gradi considerati il limite al di l del quale si scatener un caos irreversibile che determiner unestinzione di massa della vita e dellumanit stessa. E le nostre religioni e teologie, che non hanno denunciato questo orientamento suicida nel corso dei secoli passati, ancora oggi si mostrano reticenti, lente ad assumere questa questione di vita o di morte, a cui gi si devono ogni anno centinaia di migliaia di vittime, le quali si calcola che entro 20 anni arriveranno al milione. Molta teologia ancora pensa che lecologia sia importante, ma rappresenti solo un capitolo aggiuntivo da inscrivere nel vecchio schema di pensiero, lo stesso che ci ha condotto allattuale ecocidio. Abbiamo bisogno di sviluppare questa teologia con basi nuove a cui abbiamo gi dato avvio; una teologia oiko-centrata, che rompa con la vecchia distinzione tra naturale e soprannaturale, e respinga lidea strettamente trascendente della divinit che desacralizza e spoglia di dimensione divina la natura; una teologia che dialoghi con lecologia profonda e smetta di intendere antropocentricamente la realt come storia della salvezza dellumanit, orientandosi verso un oiko-centrismo... Una teologia, cio, assialmente nuova, concepita a partire da questi nuovi assi.
Dovremmo concordare lintroduzione nella nostra agenda teologica immediata di tale priorit urgentissima dello sviluppo di questa teologia gi avviata. Le teologie indigene e femministe hanno molto da dire e da offrire in questo campo. - Il paradigma post-religionale diventata ormai luogo comune, anche nella societ civile, lidea che la crisi della religione gi raggiunga mezzo pianeta, mentre nellaltra met una reviviscenza religiosa provoca unesplosione di nuove Chiese, religioni, spiritualit sincretiche e una valanga neo-pentecostale... Di quale di queste due met dellumanit sar il futuro? I dati assai contraddittori che osserviamo rendono possibili le diagnosi pi diverse. Ma alzando lo sguardo verso il tratto pi ampio possibile del fiume della storia, sembrerebbe che, malgrado tutti i meandri e i vortici, il fiume nel suo insieme volga le sue acque verso ununica direzione globale... Le popolazioni che escono dalla povert e accedono alleducazione e alla cultura urbana moderna ne soffrono subito le conseguenze a livello di religiosit tradizionale. Contando come mai prima dora sullappoggio di un ampio spettro di scienze della religione, si sottopongono a nuovo scrutinio la natura e lorigine della religione e i suoi meccanismi di funzionamento; gi non la si considera pi gratuitamente come la conoscenza privilegiata e lo strumento di spiritualit prioritario o unico come sempre avvenuto; si distingue sempre pi spesso tra religione e spiritualit, e si diffonde ovunque la tesi che le religioni - non la religiosit, non il rilegamento - sono anchesse una costruzione umana, che risale al tempo della rivoluzione agraria, di matrice rurale, e che ha una possibile data di scadenza legata alla scomparsa di questa stessa epoca agraria, scomparsa che molti osservatori credono si stia verificando nellattualit. La spiritualit, la religiosit, il rilegamento essenziale allessere umano; le religioni, le forme concrete che tale rilegamento ha assunto in epoca agraria non lo sono, possono trasformarsi radicalmente, o anche sparire. Questa visione gi presente in molti ambienti culturali e nelle analisi antropologiche civili delle nostre societ, ma non nella prospettiva delle istituzioni religiose, n in quella delle masse popolari con minore accesso alleducazione. Si tratta di una delle sfide pi importanti, in cui le religioni si giocano quasi il tutto per tutto. Si impone lurgenza di riconsiderare la religione (una nuova riflessione teologica sulla religione, una nuova teologia della religione), di studiare a fondo la possibilit del suo annunciato superamento (verso un essere umano a-religioso, o sovrareligionale?), e di dare effettivamente la priorit al rilegamento sulla religione, ponendo la teologia effettivamente al servizio del rilegamento, non delle religioni, come obiettivo ultimo.
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Tutta questa problematica (che chiameremo post-religionale anzich post-religiosa, in quanto le persone non perdono la loro dimensione religiosa profonda quando abbandonano le modalit delle religioni), include, tra i suoi molteplici contenuti, la riconsiderazione del teismo. Assunto come inconfutabile e imprescindibile in buona parte delle tradizioni, oggi esso riduce la sua qualificazione epistemologica, non senza che intervenga in ci la convivenza ora molto stretta tra religioni teiste e non tesiste. Leclissi di Dio e la crisi della religione hanno gi acquisito dimensioni epocali in Europa e nel primo mondo in generale, ma, anche in altri continenti, diversi settori iniziano a sentirle, pur in mezzo alleffervescenza neopentecostale. Non dovremmo ormai porci la necessit di questa nuova riflessione sulla religione stessa, lurgenza di una rilettura e di una riconversione del religioso verso il post-religionale (la spiritualit oltre le religioni)? In questa sfida, lesperienza europea ci sembra essere un vero luogo teologico. La sua esposizione in questo stesso seminario sulla crisi della religione e sulla crisi di Dio esprime meglio e conferma questa problemtica. Senza dubbio i teologi /ghe europei/e hanno molto da offrire sotto questo aspetto. - Il paradigma epistemologico Lessere umano sta vivendo un cambiamento in questa dimensione tanto sottile e difficile da cogliere: cambiano il suo modo di conoscere, i suoi presupposti acritici, i postulati e gli assiomi millenari su cui si basava senza saperlo, i modi di inferenza finora utilizzati e le forze e le dimensioni in essi implicate. Una rivoluzione epistemologica che interessa tutta la conoscenza e, mediante questa, tutto il resto. Per molto tempo ci siamo collocati in un comodo realismo ingenuo che postulava la adaequatio rei et intellectus, una corrispondenza diretta tra quello che pensiamo o esprimiamo e la realt. Abbiamo interpretato in forma letterale le credenze che veicolano i miti religiosi, come se questi fossero descrittivi della realt, perch sarebbero stati rivelati dallesterno da unautorit assoluta... Abbiamo mantenuto legami eccessivamente stretti con la metafisica, il razionalismo e il sostanzialismo, al margine dellevolutivo, del caotico e del processuale. Il nuovo paradigma epistemologico considera che la nostra conoscenza non descrive la realt ma semplicemente la modella, e che la conoscenza religiosa anchessa una costruzione umana, elaborata sulla base di metafore approssimative, che con il tempo diventano obsolete e persino nocive... Stiamo assistendo da tempo alla dissoluzione della metafisica, che presuppone una crisi radicale dei fondamenti, soprattutto per la teologia cristiana tradizionale. Come in altri tempi e in altro senso chiese Kant, il nuovo paradigma ci chiede di risvegliarci dal sogno dog-
matico religioso che sognavamo finora. Stiamo passando dal paradigma metafisico e dogmatico al paradigma epistemologico ed ermeneutico. Il mondo religioso tradizionale di credenze religiose veicolate da miti assunti come letteralmente certi scompare. Lepistemologia realista, ingenua, acritica, mitica sta diventando impossibile nella nuova societ della conoscenza verso cui stiamo avanzando. In non pochi luoghi del pianeta si sta sperimentando una rottura nella trasmissione delle religioni: nuove generazioni si sentono incapaci di accettare leredit dei propri genitori. La religione non potr pi consistere nel credere, nel sottomettersi a una rivelazione venuta da fuori, n nellaccettare verit o dottrine... Forse stiamo andando verso una religione senza verit, senza dottrine, ridotta alla sua essenza: il rilegamento, la spiritualit... Tutto ci che stato millenariamente elaborato ed espresso mediante quella epistemologia ancestrale deve essere riformulato. Il crescente pluralismo culturale e religioso delle nostre societ aggiunge una dimensione nuova alla nuova prospettiva epistemologica: linterculturalit. Siamo diventati coscienti della limitatezza di ogni tradizione culturale, come pure della necessit di compensare la sua atavica tendenza centripeta esclusivista. Ha avuto fine il mondo della uniculturalit imposta o egemonica. Dobbiamo passare definitivamente allinterculturalit, o alla multiculturalit... C modo di trovare un terreno (categorie, linguaggio, epistemologia...) comune in cui ci si possa incontrare per dialogare, per teologizzare, e per la prassi storica di liberazione? Le nuove scienze, soprattutto la meccanica quantistica, la cosmologia e le scienze della mente, continuano a diffondersi in maniera inarrestabile nellopinione pubblica e nei mezzi di comunicazione, anche in settori in cui sembrerebbe che le preoccupazioni della gente siano pi primarie ed elementari... Molte delle domande religiose classiche sembrano ora avere a che fare pi con queste nuove scienze che con la religione. Molte persone, quotidianamente, optano per affidare il senso della propria vita pi alla nuova scienza che alla religione. Si rende necessaria una riconsiderazione della teologia in dialogo con la scienza. un tema scottante e una priorit improcrastinabile. Una rivoluzione epistemologica ci cade addosso, spingendoci a una riconsiderazione delle certezze di oggettivit che pensavamo di avere nella religione e ad una reinterpretazione della religione pi nettamente come rilegamento, libera da verit, dottrine, dogmi, morali, canoni, istituzionalizzazioni... Un cambiamento veramente assiale. Non un buon momento per proporci di affrontarlo a livello globale?
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Los bienes de la Tierra y de la Humanidad en la perspectiva de las religiones

Juan Jos TAMAYO * Madrid, Espaa
Deseo expresar mi agradecimiento por la invitacin a participar en el Foro Mundial de Teologa y Liberacin, que se celebra en Dakar (Senegal), del 5 al 11 de febrero, al que vengo asistiendo desde su nacimiento en 2005 en la ciudad brasilea de Porto Alegre y de cuyo Comit Internacional formo parte. Se trata de uno de los espacios privilegiados de encuentro entre las religiones y los movimientos sociales, entre las diferentes tradiciones religiosas liberadoras y los movimientos alterglobalizadores en la bsqueda de Otro Mundo Posible. La convergencia este ao es mayor, si cabe, ya que su celebracin tiene lugar en las mismas fechas del X Foro Social Mundial. El tema de mi conferencia no puede ser ms prometedor y oportuno en este momento histrico en el que convergen diferentes crisis de carcter planetario que amenazan gravemente el futuro de la Tierra y de la Humanidad: Los Bienes Comunes de la Tierra y de la Humanidad en el horizonte de las tradiciones religiosas. El punto de partida de la conferencia es la Declaracin Universal del Bien Comn de la Madre Tierra y de la Humanidad. La conferencia tiene dos partes. En la primera *
Universidad Carlos III, Madrid. Conferencia pronunciada en el Foro Mundial de Teologa y Liberacin, 5 de febrero de 2011.
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expondr el avance que supone la Declaracin de 2009 con respecto a la Declaracin Universal de los Derechos Humanos de 1948 y analizar las grandes lneas de la Declaracin de 2009. En la segunda ofrecer los aportes que pueden hacer las religiones en la defensa y proteccin de los bienes comunes de la Tierra y de la Humanidad. La Declaracin Universidad de los Derechos Humanos de 1948 Durante el periodo 2008-2009 de la Asamblea General de la ONU se aprob, tras numerosas consultas a cientficos, polticos, politlogos e intelectuales, la Declaracin Universal del Bien Comn de la Madre Tierra y de la Humanidad bajo la responsabilidad de Miguel d'Escoto, que ocup durante ese periodo la presidencia de la Asamblea, y Leonardo Boff, Comisionado de la Carta de la Tierra. La Declaracin supone un avance significativo sobre la Declaracin de 1948. La Declaracin de 1948 se centraba exclusivamente en el reconocimiento de la dignidad y de los derechos humanos con total desconocimiento y absoluto silenciamiento de los derechos de la Tierra. Responda a la cosmovisin occidental, como revelan su formulacin conceptual y su antropologa, su cosmovisin y su concepcin universalista formal y abstracta. Durante los ms de sesenta aos de vigencia, se ha aplicado selectivamente en perjuicio de los pueblos, las comunidades y los sectores empobrecidos de la Humanidad, y se ha transgredido de manera de manera sistemtica, no slo en el plano individual, sino tambin, y de manera muy acusada, en el estructural e institucional, con frecuencia con el silencio cmplice e incluso con la colaboracin necesaria de los organismos nacionales, regionales e internacionales encargados de velar por su cumplimiento, la mayora de las veces para proteger intereses del Imperio y de las empresas multinacionales bajo el paraguas de la globalizacin neoliberal. Pareciera que los derechos humanos fueran todava la asignatura pendiente o, en palabras del premio Nobel portugus recientemente fallecido Jos Saramago, la utopa del siglo XXI. Efectivamente, el neoliberalismo niega toda fundamentacin antropolgica de los derechos humanos, los priva de su universalidad, que se convierte en mera retrica tras la que se esconde la defensa de sus intereses, y establece una base y una lgica puramente econmicas para su ejercicio, la propiedad privada, la acumulacin y el poder adquisitivo. En la cultura neoliberal los derechos humanos tienden a reducirse a los ttulos de propiedad. Slo quienes son propietarios, quienes detentan el poder econmico, son sujetos de derechos. Cuantos ms poder adquisitivo, ms derechos. Es especialmente en el Tercer Mundo donde resulta ms llamativa y creciente la contradiccin entre las declaraciones formales de los dere-
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chos humanos y la negacin real de los derechos humanos. La supuesta universalidad de los derechos humanos y sociales, y su aparentemente slida fundamentacin no se compaginan con su transgresin permanente en las mayoras populares del Tercer Mundo y los sectores marginados del Primer Mundo. La Declaracin Universal del Bien Comn de 2008-2009 La Declaracin Universal del Bien Comn de la Madre Tierra y de la Humanidad constituye un cambio de paradigma, que responde a la nueva conciencia planteara y ecolgica de la humanidad. Es el paso de la centralidad del ser humano en la vida del planeta y de su consideracin como dueo y seor absoluto, nico actor en la historia y en la naturaleza, a la consideracin de la Tierra y de la Humanidad como sujetos interdependientes, que no mantienen relaciones de rivalidad, sino de interactividad dinmica y simtrica; el paso del modelo antiecolgico de crecimiento de la Modernidad a un modelo sostenible de desarrollo ecohumano. Ya no son solo la dignidad y los derechos humanos los que hay que proteger, sino el Bien Comn de la Madre Tierra y de la Humanidad. a) Segn la Declaracin, la Tierra y la Humanidad forman una nica entidad, compleja y sagrada y poseen un destino comn, que hoy se ve amenazado de destruccin por la irresponsabilidad de los seres humanos. La Tierra es nuestro hogar comn y la Humanidad es parte de la comunidad de vida y el momento de conciencia y de inteligencia de la propia Tierra haciendo que el ser humano, hombre y mujer, sea la misma Tierra que habla, piensa, siente, ama, cuida y venera. b) Durante la Modernidad, se impuso el contrato social en detrimento del contrato con la naturaleza, que dio lugar al antropocentrismo y que gener un foso cada vez ms profundo entre ricos y pueblos. La Declaracin cree necesario articular el contrato social con el contrato natural, la dignidad de la Tierra con la de los seres humanos, la justicia ecolgica con la justicia econmica, la igualdad ecohumana con la equidad de gnero, los derechos de las personas con el inters colectivo de la humanidad. c) Pertenecen al Bien Comn de la Humanidad y de la Tierra: - la diversidad biolgica y la multiplicidad de culturas, lenguas, religiones, tradiciones ticas, caminos espirituales, filosofas, sabiduras, saberes, artes y tcnicas. - la hospitalidad y acogida de unos a otros como habitantes del hogar comn de la Tierra; la sociabilidad y convivencia pacfica de todos los seres humanos y los seres de la naturaleza; el respeto a las diferencias como expresin de la riqueza humana, diferencias que no deben desembocar en desigualdades; la reconciliacin entre los pueblos y las personas
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y la eliminacin de toda forma de violencia, odio y venganza; la utopa de la comensalidad, que consiste en sentarse juntos en torno a la mesa comn sin exclusiones, para compartir los frutos de la Tierra; la bsqueda de la paz entendida como relacin armnica del ser humano consigo mismo, con sus congneres, con la sociedad nacional e internacional, con la naturaleza y con el gran Todo; el bien vivir, que no ha de confundirse con el vivir mejor a costa de los otros. Colaboracin de las religiones en la defensa de los Bienes comunes de la Tierra y de la Humanidad Tras esta somera sntesis de la Declaracin, planteo dos preguntas: pueden apoyar las religiones la Declaracin del Bien Comn de la Madre Tierra y de la Humanidad? Qu pueden aportar a ella? La respuesta a la primera pregunta es afirmativa. Las religiones pueden y deben apoyar y difundir la Declaracin porque las lneas fundamentales de la misma, la cosmovisin que la sustenta, los valores que propicia, las iniciativas que propone y la tica que defiende coinciden en buena medida, si no en su totalidad, con los principios fundantes de las religiones. La respuesta a la segunda pregunta ha de ser igualmente afirmativa. Las religiones no pueden limitarse a prestar su adhesin acrtica a los principios doctrinales de cada sistema de creencias, ni recluirse en la esfera privada, ni encerrarse en los lugares de culto, como tampoco renunciar a sus responsabilidades histricas a nivel planetario. Su colaboracin es irrenunciable para curar las enfermedades (heridas, segn Leonardo Boff) que sufren Tierra y la Humanidad, muchas de ellas provocadas por las propias religiones. A continuacin enumerar algunas de las formas de colaboracin que considero ms importantes. 1. Trabajar por la proteccin de la naturaleza y de la vida. No pocas religiones se han movido en el paradigma antropocntrico y han considerado la naturaleza como un bien sin dueo a su servicio, del que el ser humano poda usar y abusar caprichosamente. Y lo han justificado a partir de sus textos fundantes. Por ejemplo, el cristianismo y el judasmo, a partir de los relatos del Gnesis sobre la creacin del ser humano a imagen y semejanza de Dios y el mandato divino de dominar la tierra. Pero se ha olvidado de otras tradiciones utpico-ecolgicas que recorren la Biblia, como la alianza de Dios con la humanidad y la naturaleza despus del diluvio (Gn 9), el derecho de la tierra al descanso sabtico, la reconciliacin del ser humano con los animales, incluso los ms violentos (Is 11,6-9). La teologa cristiana moderna asumi sin dificultad el giro antropolgico, pero descuid el giro ecolgico. Se reconcili con el progreso
y con el modelo de desarrollo cientfico-tcnico de la modernidad y fue alejndose paulatinamente de la filosofa de la naturaleza. Buena parte de la teologa cristiana se mueve todava hoy dentro de ese paradigma, incluida la teologa de la liberacin (TL) que, en un principio se ubic dentro del giro antropolgico e intent responder al grito de los pobres, al sufrimiento de las mayoras populares en Amrica Latina, descuidando el grito de la tierra. Fue a partir de los aos noventa del siglo pasado, gracias a las investigaciones ecolgicas y a las reflexiones teolgicas de Leonardo Boff, cuando, sin renunciar a la opcin por los pobres como imperativo tico fundamental, intent superar los lmites de la primera poca y respondi al grito de la tierra. Surgi as la teologa ecolgica de la liberacin, abierta a las ciencias que estudian la vida y el cosmos: eco-loga, bio-loga, bio-tica, bio-qumica, bio-fsica, cosmo-loga, geologa, etc. Conforme al nuevo paradigma, la relacin del ser humano con la naturaleza ya no es de sujeto opresor y depredador a objeto oprimido y depredado, sino de sujeto a sujeto, con el consiguiente reconocimiento de los derechos de la tierra en plena sintona con la teologa paulina (Rom 8,19-25). La religacin del ser humano con la naturaleza y la interdependencia de todos los seres vivos estn en la base de no pocas religiones, que pueden contribuir a superar el antropocentrismo tan presente en el paradigma filosfico occidental y en su correspondiente modelo de desarrollo cientfico-tcnico. Las religiones apenas se preocupan de la defensa de la vida de la naturaleza. Tampoco de la vida de los seres humanos? Habra que matizar. Su preocupacin se centra en la vida antes del nacimiento y despus de la muerte. Apenas prestan atencin a la vida humana en la tierra, a la que consideran, con frecuencia, un bien pasajero, del que se puede prescindir y al que hay que renunciar en favor de otros bienes superiores y conforme a las promesas de otra vida. Ms all de las proclamas retricas, la vida a defender en primer lugar y de manera prioritaria es la quienes la ven amenazada a diario, la de los pobres, marginados y excluidos, la de los nadie, que, al decir de Eduardo Galeano, no son seres humanos, sino recursos humanos, no tienen cara, sino brazos, no tienen nombre, sino nmero, cuestan menos que la bala que los mata. La defensa de la vida humana lleva derechamente a la de la naturaleza, ya que, segn expliqu anteriormente, seres humanos y naturaleza forman una comunidad vital. La destruccin del tejido de la vida de la naturaleza es destruccin de la vida humana. En ese contexto se inscriben la defensa de la dignidad e integridad fsica de la persona, el libre desarrollo de la personalidad de cada ser humano, la lucha contra la depredacin de la naturaleza y los malos tratos fsicos o psquicos, contra
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el exterminio de las minoras religiosas o raciales y contra la carrera de armamentos. 2. Trabajar por la paz desde la no-violencia activa y por la resolucin de los conflictos a travs de la negociacin, fomentando la reconciliacin y el perdn. Las religiones han sido con frecuencia fuentes de violencia y generadoras de conflictos, pero tambin agentes de paz y de con-cordia. Tomando prestado el ttulo de la novela de Len Tolstoy, podemos afirmar que guerra y paz constituyen la dialctica de las religiones. Las religiones son, ciertamente, fuentes de violencia y generadoras de conflicto. Ms an, tienden a sacralizar la violencia a travs del culto y suelen trasladar sta a la comprensin de Dios, lo divino, lo trascendente, el misterio, lo trascendente. Conceden carcter sacrificial y expiatorio a la muerte, a determinadas muertes, por ejemplo, el cristianismo a la muerte de su fundador, Jess de Nazaret. Incluso llegan a legitimar el uso de la violencia en nombre de Dios, como certera y dramticamente afirma Martin Buber en un texto estremecedor, que hoy tiene plena vigencia: Dios es la palabra ms vilipendiada de todas las palabras humanas. Ninguna ha sido tan mancillada, tan manipulada. Las generaciones humanas han hecho rodar sobre esta palabra el peso de su vida angustiada y la han oprimido contra el suelo. Yace en el polvo y sostiene el peso de todas ellas. Las generaciones humanas, con sus partidismos religiosos, han desgarrado esta palabra. Han matado y se han dejado matar por ella. Esta palabra lleva sus huellas dactilares y su sangre. Los seres humanos dibujan un monigote y escriben debajo la palabra Dios. Se asesinan unos a otros, y dicen: lo hacemos en nombre de Dios. Debemos respetar a los que prohben esta palabra, porque se rebelan contra la injusticia y los excesos que con tanta facilidad se cometen con una supuesta autorizacin de Dios. Qu bien se comprende que muchos propongan callar, durante algn tiempo, acerca de las 'ltimas codas' para redimir esas palabras de las que tanto se ha abusado! 1. Hasta vidas humanas y de animales se han sacrificado en los espacios sagrados de culto, creyendo que agradaban a Dios o que, al menos, servan para aplacar su ira. A su vez, en las religiones se encuentran algunas de las ms bellas utopas de la paz; propuestas de un mundo reconciliado; un lenguaje de armona; el imperativo tico no matars; el trabajo por la paz a travs de la lucha por la justicia; lderes religiosos, activistas sociales, msticos, msticas, cuya filosofa, estilo de vida, mtodo de accin es la no violencia activa: Confucio, Jess de Nazaret, Teresa de Jess, Juan de la Cruz, Swmi Vivekananda, Abul Kalam Azad, Mahatma Gandhi, Luther King, monseor
1
Martin Buber, Werke I, Munich-Heidelberg, 1962, 509s.
Romero, Angelelli, Abdul Ghaffar Jan, Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Asgha Ali Engineer, etc. Ms de tres cuartas partes de la poblacin mundial estn vinculadas a alguna religin. Si estas personas activan sus tradiciones pacificadoras resultar ms fcil la solucin de los conflictos. Comparto, por ello, uno de los principios de la tica mundial de Hans Kng: No habr paz entre las naciones sin paz entre las religiones. No habr paz entre las religiones sin dilogo entre las ellas. No habr dilogo entre las religiones si no se investigan los fundamentos de las religiones. 3. Practicar la tolerancia y el dilogo La tolerancia no ha sido precisamente una virtud que haya caracterizado a las religiones ni en el comportamiento con sus seguidores, especialmente con las mujeres, ni en la sociedad, y menos an con los no creyentes o con los creyentes de otros credos religiosos. Con frecuencia han impuesto un pensamiento nico y han perseguido, castigado o expulsado de su seno a los creyentes considerados disidentes o heterodoxos. En su relacin con la sociedad, han confesionalizado las realidades terrenas, invadido espacios civiles que no eran de su competencia e impuesto sus creencias, muchas veces por la fuerza. Una de sus prcticas ms extendidas y arraigadas ha sido la intolerancia, que hoy adopta la forma extrema de fundamentalismo, fenmeno que, aun cuando no pertenece a la naturaleza de las religiones ni est vinculado directamente a ellas, es una de sus ms graves y peligrosas patologas. Sobre todo en las religiones monotestas: que creen en un solo y nico Dios, considerado universal, cuya revelacin se recoge en un libro sagrado, interpretado por las autoridades religiosas. El fundamentalismo se caracteriza por la renuncia a la mediacin hermenutica, el empleo del lenguaje realista, la absolutizacin de la tradicin, la negacin del pluralismo, el recurso al anatema contra otros sistemas religiosos y, en ocasiones, la legitimacin religiosa de la violencia. Pero las religiones son tambin espacios de dilogo entre diferentes sistemas de creencias, lugares de encuentro entre culturas, mbitos de experiencias interespirituales, cruce de diferentes concepciones morales. La mstica es la quintaesencia de la religin y un lugar privilegiado para el dilogo. Sin dilogo afirma Raimond Panikkar el ser humano se asfixia y las religiones se anquilosan. El dilogo no busca el indoctrinamiento, ni hacer proselitismo de las propias creencias, ni ni uniformar las prcticas religiosas en torno a un nico modelo. No es fin en s mismo, ni punto de llegada. Menos aun puede convertirse en absoluto. Es un mtodo, un camino, una actitud, una manera de estar en el mundo y de relacionarse con los otros.
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Ha de ser inclusivo de todas las religiones, de todas las cosmovisiones, culturas, etnias, lenguas, sin jerarquizaciones previas; simtrico, es decir, desde bases de igualdad o con el compromiso de superar las desigualdades (no es posible el dilogo desde la desigualdad, que es el caso de la mayora de los dilogos y encuentros entre religiones, culturas, hemisferios); contrahegemnico; correlacional: todos los interlocutores tienen derecho a expresar sus opiniones y convicciones con libertad; globalmente corresponsable en la respuesta a los problemas de la humanidad; no neutral, sino desde el lugar social y epistmico las vctimas; respetuoso y potenciador de la diferencia como derecho, valor y riqueza de lo humano. Un dilogo, al decir de Pannikar, dialogal y duologal, que implica confianza mutua en una aventura comn hacia lo desconocido y aspiracin a la concordia discorde. Este tipo de dilogo lleva a descubrir al otro no como extrao, extranjero, sino como compaero, no como un ello annimo y despersonalizado, sino como un t en el yo. Es necesario potenciar el dilogo intercultural frente a quienes se obstinan en defender el choque de civilizaciones como mtodo para el mantenimiento de la hegemona de la cultura occidental sobre las dems. Dada su radicacin en plurales escenarios culturales, la mayora de las religiones se encuentran en condiciones favorables para facilitar el dilogo entre culturas a partir de relaciones simtricas, y no jerarquizadas. Todas las culturas poseen dimensiones liberadoras que es necesario activar y aportar a la liberacin integral de la humanidad. El fomento del dilogo interreligioso es sin duda uno de los mejores antdotos contra los fundamentalismos, que, aun siguen estando presentes en no pocos grupos religiosos fanticos y, como deca anteriormente, en las cpulas de no pocas religiones. Varias son las razones para el dicho dilogo: la dimensin social del ser humano; el carcter dialgico del conocimiento y de la razn; la pluralidad de manifestaciones de lo sagrado, del misterio y de lo divino en la historia; la diversidad de respuestas a las preguntas por el sentido de la vida y el sin-sentido de la muerte; la diversidad de lderes religiosos que han puesto en marcha diversos sistemas de creencias y propuesto modelos ticos de comportamiento acordes con el mensaje originario; la necesidad de la hermenutica de los textos sagrados de las religiones. La hermenutica no es otra cosa que el dilogo entre las comunidades religiosas de hoy con los textos sagrados y que debe llevarse a cabo desde el nuevo contexto cultural y a partir de las nuevas preguntas que se plantean en dicho contexto. 4. Crear redes de solidaridad interhumana Ello exige superar los localismos, tribalismos, confesionalismos, gremialismos y endogamias en que con frecuencia se ven envueltas las
comunidades religiosas, evitar el discurso frentista del nosotros-ellos y ensanchar el nosotros superando todo tipo de discriminaciones (etnia, religin, cultura, clase social, geografa, lengua, etc.). 5. Luchar contra las discriminaciones y violencias de gnero y construir una comunidad mundial de hombres y mujeres bajo el signo de la igualdad y el respeto a las diferencias. Las discriminaciones y la violencia de gnero se dan por doquier en la sociedad y se refuerzan en las religiones, la mayora de las cuales tiene una ideologa androcntrica, que se traduce mimticamente en una organizacin patriarcal y en legitimacin del machismo social. Pero las religiones cuentan tambin con tradiciones emancipatorias e igualitarias, la mayora de las veces subterrneas y desactivadas, y con experiencias de comunidades inclusivas de hombres y mujeres, que pueden colaborar en la lucha por la emancipacin de las mujeres y en la elaboracin de la teora de gnero. La corriente teolgica que mejor ha sabido recoger y sistematizar dichas experiencias, cuestionar el androcentrismo de los textos sagrados y dar voz a las tradiciones religiosas igualitarias es la teologa feminista, que no es patrimonio del cristianismo, sino que tiene su cultivo y desarrollo en la mayora de las religiones. 6. Fomentar la hospitalidad y la acogida a los inmigrantes, refugiados, desplazados, asilados polticos. En el origen de la mayora de las religiones se encuentra un fenmeno de migracin, animada por la necesidad de supervivencia y la bsqueda de mejores condiciones de vida, por librarse de la represin poltica y recuperar la libertad, por el deseo de buscar nuevos horizontes de sentido. Muchos de los lderes y reformadores religiosos se vieron obligados a migrar de su territorio al sentirse incomprendidos y ser perseguidos por el poder poltico y econmico, y encontraron acogida en otras comunidades. A partir de esa experiencia formularon cdigos jurdicos y principios ticos de hospitalidad y crearon espacios de acogida sin tener en cuenta la procedencia geogrfica, la pertenencia religiosa o la identidad cultural. La hospitalidad, que es principio de humanidad y regla fundamental de humanizacin, se convierte as en principio tico de las religiones. 7. Ser portadoras de preocupaciones antropolgicas Las religiones son portadoras de preocupaciones antropolgicas profundas, de preguntas significativas por el sentido y el sin-sentido de la vida y de la muerte, de experiencias-lmite y de propuestas alternativas de vida no mediadas por la razn calculadora. Para ellas, la vida del ser humano no es fruto del azar arbitrario ni de la necesidad ciega, sino que se inscribe en un conjunto ms amplio que tiene un origen y una meta, una direccin y un fin. Las religiones constituyen, a su vez, lugares pri-
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vilegiados de apertura a los mundos inexplorados de la trascendencia, a la espiritualidad, la experiencia del misterio y la vivencia de lo sagrado, sin que ello suponga caer en sacralizaciones ni implique la aceptacin de un credo concreto. Independientemente de sus creencias o increencias, la Humanidad puede renunciar al caudal de sabidura que son las religiones. 8. Compaginar la sabidura mtica y la bsqueda racional Las religiones no pueden renunciar a los mitos, que son relatos portadores de mltiples y profundos significados antropolgicos, y de criterios morales, al tiempo que cauces de expresin y de comunicacin de experiencias no racionalizables. El mito no limita el conocimiento humano, menos an lo anula. Todo lo contrario, lo potencia y permite su desarrollo. Tambin Prometeo es un mito, que simboliza la rebelda contra la arbitrariedad de los dioses, el pensamiento crtico, el actuar subversivo. El mito de Prometeo es portador de luz y utopa. Las religiones son, a su vez, uno de los caudales culturales ms preciados de la humanidad y una fuente inagotable de sabidura. Las preguntas y las respuestas a las que me refera en el apartado anterior han contribuido al desarrollo del pensamiento en sus diferentes modalidades: mtico, filosfico, cientfico, simblico, etc. Han hecho importantes aportaciones a la cultura de los pueblos y, en muchos casos, han contribuido sobremanera al desarrollo del pensamiento humano. En no pocas tradiciones culturales, filosofa y religin estn estrechamente unidas. Las tradiciones religiosas no deben ser excluidas de ninguno de los campos del saber, ya que ellas mismas son un saber con sus peculiaridades y estn en relacin con otros saberes. De ah la necesidad de su estudio, pues son fenmenos culturales relevantes que han intervenido de manera decisiva en la formacin de las sociedades humanas, como ha demostrado el antroplogo Roy A. Rappaport, uno de los mejores especialistas en el estudio antropolgico del fenmeno religioso. Nacimiento y evolucin de la religin, por una parte, y origen y desarrollo de la humanidad, por otra, son dos fenmenos interconectados. Lo sagrado y lo numinoso han jugado un papel fundamental en los procesos de adaptacin de las distintas unidades sociales en que la especie humana se ha organizado. En ausencia de la religin, cree Rappaport, la humanidad quiz no hubiera sido capaz de salir de su estado prehumano o protohumano. 9. Respetar el mundo de la increencia en sus diferentes modalidades y las razones de la increencia En torno al 20% de la poblacin mundial se ubica en el espacio plural de la increencia (atesmo, agnosticismo, indiferencia religiosa, etc.). Si hay razones para creer, tambin las hay para no creer. Los derechos de
la fe y los de la increencia merecen el mismo respeto. Por ende, cualquier guerra religiosa contra los increyentes o de stos contra los creyentes es un signo de intolerancia. La alternativa es el dilogo y el trabajo comn entre creyentes y no creyentes con la mirada puesta en un mundo ms justo y solidario. Las creencias o increencias no pueden ser motivo de discriminacin o de enfrentamiento entre los seres humanos. 10. Colaborar, desde una actitud crtica y autocrtica, en la construccin de una sociedad alternativa Las religiones deben colaborar en la construccin de una sociedad alternativa, en la propuesta de una cultura emancipatoria, en la elaboracin de un proyecto poltico contrahegemnico, en la puesta en marcha de una alter-globalizacin, es decir, de una globalizacin desde abajo, de la solidaridad, de la esperanza, inclusiva de los sectores, pueblos, pases, regiones y continentes que la globalizacin realmente existente, dominada por el neoliberalismo, excluye. Su tica liberadora es la que impulsa a las religiones a construir alternativas y a trabajar por otro mundo posible. 11. Combatir el fatalismo y transmitir esperanza Tarea de las religiones es combatir el fatalismo y el determinismo, que ellas mismas suelen justificar apelando al cumplimiento de la voluntad de Dios o de los dioses, a la fuerza del destino, que se impone de manera inexorable sobre la libertad de los seres humanos, as como la tendencia a mirar al pasado estticamente. La alternativa al fatalismo es la esperanza. Donde hay religin, hay esperanza, si bien rodeada de ilusin y fantasmagorera. Las religiones, poseen energas utpicas inexploradas que es necesario activar, especialmente hoy cuando la utopa ha sido excluida de todos los mbitos del saber y del quehacer humano, y se ha impuesto la razn instrumental, la razn de Estado, la razn cientficotcnica. De la mayora de los libros sagrados puede decirse lo que Bloch afirma de la Biblia, que son verdaderas enciclopedias de utopas. Las utopas son el motor de la historia, tambin las utopas religiosas, siempre que tengan sentido histrico y no caigan en una abstraccin desmovilizadora ni siten la meta o el futuro slo en el ms all de la historia. Por es necesario compaginar la esperanza religiosa con las utopas histricas. La esperanza religiosa no puede desembocar en confianza ciega e idealista. Ha de ser esperanza militante, siempre en accin, y docta spes, como dijera Enst Bloch, es decir, guiada por la razn, ya que la esperanza no puede hablar sin razn ni la razn puede florecer sin esperanza. 12. El principio-compasin Leemos en el artculo 20 de la Declaracin Universal del Bien Comn de la Madre Tierra y de la Humanidad: Pertenece al Bien Comn de la Humanidad la compasin por todos los que sufren en la naturaleza
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y en la sociedad, aliviando sus padecimientos e impidiendo todo tipo de crueldad a los animales. Qu pueden aportar las religiones a la idea y a la experiencia de la compasin? De nuevo chocamos con la ambigedad. Por una parte, no se han mostrado muy sensibles ante el sufrimiento humano en general y el de los inocentes en particular, y menos an ante los dolores de parto de la naturaleza. Ms an, han intentado justificarlo y le han dado un sentido redentor. Ellas mismas han recurrido a sacrificios humanos y de animales como parte necesaria de sus rituales. El chivo expiatorio es el ejemplo ms paradigmtico. Como contrapunto, la compasin est tambin en el centro de las religiones. La com-pasin en su sentido etimolgico: ponerse en lugar de los otros, compartir las alegras y los sufrimientos de los otros, sus anhelos y esperanzas, sus luchas, sus clamores angustiados, ponerse en su lugar. Dos ejemplos: la compasin de Yahv con los hebreos en Egipto y la experiencia de la compasin en el budismo. a) La compasin de Yahv con los hebreos sometidos a esclavitud por el faran durante su estancia en Egipto y la sensibilidad hacia sus sufrimientos: He visto la afliccin de mi pueblo en Egipto, he escuchado el clamor ante sus opresores y conozco sus sufrimientos. He bajado para librarlo de la mano de los egipcios y para subirlo de esta tierra a una tierra buena y espaciosa, a una tierra que mana leche y miel El clamor de los israelitas ha llegado hasta m y he visto la opresin con que los egipcios los afligen (Ex 3,10). La compasin es uno de los principios fundamentales de la tica buddhista. Puede considerarse su cdigo gentico y el criterio de identificacin de la prctica budista en relacin con los seres humanos, con la naturaleza, con los animales. Consiste en poner todos los medios al alcance de cada uno para proteger la vida, no causar dao a la naturaleza ni a los seres humanos, practicar la no violencia, que exige, en primer lugar, habrnoslas pacficamente con nosotros mismos. El monje vietnamita Thich Nhat Hanh lo formula as: Consciente del sufrimiento causado por la destruccin de la vida, hago el voto de cultivar la compasin y aprender maneras de proteger la vida de las personas, animales, plantas y minerales. Estoy dispuesto a no matar, a no dejar que otros maten y a no tolerar ningn acto mortal en el mundo, tanto en mi pensamiento como en mi forma de vivir. La compasin activa las potencialidades dormidas para luchar contra las causas del sufrimiento eco-humano. Sin compasin no hay lucha contra el sufrimiento. La compasin se convierte as en principio teolgico.
15. Promover y practicar el Bien Vivir, que no debe confundirse con el vivir mejor Vivir mejor suele ser la mayora de las veces a costa del otro (explotacin), vivir mejor que el otro (competitividad), desinteresarse de la suerte del otro (egosmo e individualismo). El Bien Vivir es, sin embargo, vivir en comunidad, hermandad y sororidad, en armona entre las personas y la naturaleza; compartir y no competir; alcanzar el equilibrio entre los seres humanos, entre stos y la naturaleza, entre los hombres y las mujeres; vivir con creatividad y accin conjunta; recuperar la cultura de la vida en armona y respetar a la Madre Tierra; respetar su capacidad de autorregulacin de la vida y del planeta; volver al camino del equilibrio; en definitiva, volver a ser. El logro del Bien Vivir requiere el cumplimiento de los Diez Mandamientos, que Evo Morales formula as: 1. acabar con el sistema capitalista inhumano; 2. renunciar a las guerras, de las que siempre salen ganando las transnacionales, no las naciones; 3. construir un mundo sin imperialismos ni colonialismos; 4. considerar el agua como derecho humano y de todos los seres vivientes del planeta; 5. acabar con el derroche de la energa; 6. respetar a la Madre Tierra, que es nuestro hogar y nuestra fuente de vida; 7. reclamar los servicios bsicos como derechos humanos; 8. acabar con el consumismo, el derroche de recursos naturales y el lujo; 9. optar por estados plurinacionales que respeten las diferencias, sin permitir el saqueo de los recursos naturales o la explotacin a los pobres; 10. plantear el bien vivir en comunidad, en armona hombre-mujer y con la Madre Tierra, respetando las distintas formas de vida comunitaria.
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A Theological Project Completed!

The fifth and last volume has just been published
Along the Many Paths of GoD

a five volume collection series, edited by the Latin American Theological Commission of EATWOT and finally concluded by its International Theological Commission. The first and until now unique work addressing the cross-fertilization between Theology of Liberation and Theology of Pluralism The five volumes are: I. Challenges of Religious Pluralism for Liberation Theology II. Toward a Latin American Theology of Religious Pluralism III. Latin American Pluralist Theology of Liberation IV. International Pluralist Liberating Theology and the last one now also appearing in English: V. Toward a Planetary Theology edited by Jos Mara VIGIL vwith the collaboration of: M. Amaladoss (India), M. Barros (Brazil), A. Brighenti (Brazil), E.K-F. Chia (Malaysia), A. Egea (Spain), P.F. Knitter (USA), D.R. Loy (USA), L. Magesa (Tanzania), J. Neusner (USA), I.A. Omar (USA), T. Okure (Nigeria), R. Panikkar (India-Spain), P.C. Phan (Vietnam-USA), A. Pieris (Sri Lanka), R. Renshaw (Canada), J.A. Robles (Costa Rica), K.L. Seshagiri (USA), A.M.L. Soares (Brazil), F. Teixeira (Brazil). This fifth book is published in English by Dunamis Publishers To order: dunamis@live.com / dunamispublishers.blogspot.com For the Spanish edition: editorial@abyayala.org / www.abyayala.org (sold also in digital format: at half price, by e-mail ) For further information: tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths tiempoaxial.org/PorLosMuchosCaminos tiempoaxial.org/PelosMuitosCaminhos tiempoaxial.org/PerIMoltiCammini Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana de ASETT comision.teologica.latinoamericana.org and the International Theological Commission of EATWOT internationaltheologicalcommission.org
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Critical review of religions:

a way to regain its dynamism and relevance in the context of pluralism and global changes
Geraldina CSPEDES op * Repblica Dominicana - Guatemala
1. Religions finding the full life of the people and the earth We live in a privileged and dense time in which there is not only a change in the consciousness of humanity, but also a metamorphosis of religiosity. The religious records are no longer the same. The believers of the various religions of humanity or partake of this flow of life and change or simply our religions will atrophy and cease to be significant for a world in search and in the process of transformation. However, if religions get atrophied and, in a sense, die, we would not have to worry about them , because they are not to look after themselves nor to worry about their future, but they are to illuminate the path of humanity offering direction and guidance. What Jesus said regarding to the danger of being worried about oneself can be applied to religions. To paraphrase, then, the words of Jesus, one might say, "Religion that seeks itself, is lost. But religion that lose in the struggle for justice and peace in the world win". From this point of view, religions have to wonder about what causes are used in what they preach and propose, to whom they are useful and what they are offering on the construction of another possible world. They have to ask themselves about their role as an instance that is called to do critics and to offer an alternative in building a different world. Although many times they have played the role of legitimizing and mul*
Paper held at the Workshop Religions and Peace, organized by the EATWOT's International Theological Commission at the World Social Forum, Dakar, februray 2011.
80 Geraldina CSPEDES
tipliers of the values espoused by the system, at this historical time they must rediscover its fundamental call to be de-legitimizer and upsetting of the established order that does not guarantee a decent life for the majority neither the sustainability of the planet. We could discuss many aspects concerning the issue of religion and peace. Thus, taking into account that peace is in dialectical relation with violence, we could make a historical review by an assessment on how the various religions have helped or hindered the search for peace and how, in different historical circumstances, religions not only have hampered the peace among individuals, people and religious groups, but unfortunately many of them also have been outstanding as agents of war. If religions want to be relevant and meaningful in the present context, they have to go through the crucible and undertake a serious process of purification, since they have infiltrated many doctrines and colonialist, imperialist, exclusive and andocentric-patriarchal practices. They have to make a leap and redefine and reorganize their set of beliefs, practices, rituals and doctrines. 2. Self-understanding of religions: from stagnant deposits to moving sources The search for meaning is one of the overriding issues of the human condition. Religions seek to respond in different ways to this great question of human beings. The current situation shows how religion is not an issue human beings and societies have shelved. Instead, we might say that today we are witnessing how religiosity is in effervesce. Contrary to what was predicted decades ago when it was believed that the advance of secularization would overshadow the religious or in some cases it was to banish, today we find that there is a growing interest in religious or pseudo-religious matters. This situation has to let us think as people who are active in religion, because depending on how religions take their ethical-transcendent responsibility, they will help with the cause of liberation or they will anesthetize the consciences of people. Since religious ideas and images penetrate every corner of our lives, we must recognize that religion plays an important role in shaping a new order. To do that, religions have to know how to place themselves in this global context and have to review how their self-understanding allows or not allows the step to move in to a new world of justice and peace. What vision or religious self-standing hinders the way to peace? What religions are to be raised in order to be fruitful for our world and to be the fresh water that helps the flourishing of life in all its forms? There are many religious ideas, beliefs and theological visions that wither life instead of promoting it. The different religions have to step into new ways of self-understanding themselves and interact in the world and with
Critical Review of Religions 81
the world. So, I propose a critical and self-criticism review as a way for religions to open to a pluralistic perspective to contribute with their best in the transformation of our history and from there, they also recreate and revitalize themselves. This workshop wants to help us see the transformation that is required to give at the very core of religion, so from its anchorage in the transcendent experience, they can develop better its mission of inspiring a new way to live our relationships as a human being and with all the creation. We aim not to change the facade or make some improvements, but to a radical change that has to start from a question about the same theological foundations that underlie the variety of religious traditions. Taking into account that, somehow, we all participate consciously or unconsciously, explicitly or implicitly, in some ways of religious practice, it is necessary to go into the deepest foundations of belief systems and worldviews that motivate people and groups. Within this process of quest for another possible world, a world of full life for everyone, the revision of the theological foundations and visions that sustain religions is an urgent and crucial issue because religions wield undeniable power over the consciences of individuals and peoples. The question is for what and for whom this power that religions have is in favor of. Each religion will have to undertake an exodus that takes them to go through the wilderness of deconstruction in order to reconstruct and search in their own well those principles and attitudes aimed at responding to the challenges of the world and finding peace within and among religions and with the world in general and the cosmos. All these areas of peace building are interconnected. The concern for peace is to cover each of these dimensions. But how do we head toward it? What are the common theological presuppositions that would help? Religions have to keep a self-critical position to detect in what they are steeped and static. They must be vigilant not to become stagnant deposits, but springs or fountain in motion. The world, society, and science have evolved, but many times religions have been deadlocked on issues that once they responded to a situation or a particular view of the world. That is why religions have to be aware that their life, their dynamism and relevance to our world will depend on their ability to deprogram and reconfigure themselves in a new way. Everything changes and everything evolves in life, but at a religious level it is hard for us to evolve because we tend to be dogmatic and establish as principles entrenched issues that just respond to a particular historical juncture. Religions cannot remain static facing the new signs of the times and the changes that are occurring in the socio-religious imagery.
Religions must change the chip and be opened to new interpretations of the sacred issues that are emerging at the same time our life is changing. If they want to be faithful to their original vision and at the same time, be meaningful to men and women of today, religions have to dare to reinvent themselves. 3. "Killing our gods": to change life, we need to change God Although in the middle of religious plurality in our planet it is difficult to dare to ask what would be the common theological principles that religions should promote and care in order to be meaningful and contribute to the pursuit of justice and global peace, I note some elements regard. First of all, religions have to dare to review their image or their understanding of divinity, as there are conceptions of the divine that are dangerous and harmful from the perspective of looking for an adult believer and from the horizon of conducting a just and inclusive world and the health of our planet. Perhaps, religions have to dare to "kill our gods"1. We must explore and question which are the images and conceptions of God with which we deal, both "to walk home" and in the most elaborate theological discourses. And we must dare to change, because, as Pedro Casaldliga tells us,"to change life / we need a change of God / God must change / to change the church / to change the world / God must change"2. To raise the question about the image of God from which we operate is not an idle or irrelevant question, but it is a necessary and healthy daring within the religions themselves and for our world. Religions need a high dose of honesty and courage to get into it and abide with the consequences. In some cases, this may mean entering into a deep crisis, feeling that the ground cracks under our feet or gets into conflict because it touches a high voltage cable that leads to some kind of death in the very heart of our religions. In this review, religions need to confront themselves with some crucial issues that have infected the image of God. For example, they have to ask themselves how they have legitimized and multiplied racist, classist, sexist, militarist, imperialist or colonialist practices and discourses. Religions have to clean their own home and dare to junk all those elements that are not part of their essence and all those schemes and harmful elements that are embedded in them.
1 2
This is the book left by Mardones as his spiritual testament. (Cfr. Jos Mara MARDONES, Matar a nuestros dioses. Un Dios para un creyente adulto, Madrid, PPC, 2006). Pedro CASALDLIGA, World Latin American Agenda 2011, pg. 10-11.
The restructuring of religions requires a reassessment of the question of power. All religions are somehow a power and wield power. Even those considered to be minority religions hold, albeit quietly, some kind of power. Religions have to wonder what kind of power they have, how they exercise it and for what and for whom they exercise it. And above all, they have to wonder if that is a power that set freedom or a power for oppression, if it is a power that propels the full life of everyone or it is a power that leads to stunting and underdevelopment of individuals, peoples and all living beings. In short, the question we must ask is whether religions are empowering individuals and groups so that from their spiritual visions they become critical and committed subject, able to transform the reality we live. We must take into account that all this has to do with the image of God as power. From that image of God as power springs a series of practices and positions of both religions with their same members and for the whole of society. For example, based on that power, religion can be, and indeed often is, controller of the practices of citizens, especially in regard to moral issues. From the conception of God as power (the Almighty) are justified as normal kyriarcal-hierarchical relations that exclude women from the structures and areas of mediation and representation of the sacred. The same concept is also on the basis of the oppression of the weaker ones and the relations of domination and exploitation of nature. Then, this vision of God as power needs to be revised and reinterpreted. Due to an inadequate conception of the divine power, many religions spend their energies to control and repress people than what really should be the role of religions in the world: to be a source where people go to drink and nourish themselves and to find sense and meaning in their lives, to be inspiring of peace and weavers of communion among people and between them and the cosmos, provide guidance to the many who suffer from disorientation, the search for meaning amidst the absurdities of our world; at the end, to offer a hopeful utopian horizon that although points beyond our history, it does not ignore the vicissitudes of our reality, but begins to build here and now that other reality as possible. 4. "In the beginning was the plurality": Welcoming the pluralism, a leap in the evolution of religions All religions have to face the challenge of learning how to live together with plurality. Although we find various form of reality (including the divine reality) that allows us to state that "In the beginning was the plurality", pluralism as an essential mark of our time has not yet received a welcome open by religions. Pluralism is often presented to us as a difficulty or a risk for our faith. Religions still have a long way to learn to see the plurality not as a problem or a threat but as an opportunity and
a challenge, as richness and a growth path. They have to accept with joy and hope the biodiversity religious, the multi-religiosity. This means, cultivating a respectful and reverent approach to the diversity of languages, symbols, rituals and formulations in which we express the experience of Mystery and the ethical-liberating dimension that is called to exercise all religions. In this way, the acceptance of pluralism represents a leap in the evolution of religions and it is testimony strength for the world. Among the various exclusions and divisions, religions are called to be a critical and alternative instance for its practice of tolerance, understanding, and dialogue and for working together for justice and peace. Furthermore, the pluralistic theological vision is an indispensable condition for a real intra-and inter-religious dialogue. But to reach a peaceful coexistence and to assume pluralism as a possibility (as a gift and task at a time) some previous things, a new attitude and a new way of being of each religion are needed. Within these previous things I consider it necessary to get rid of any stance with a smell of superiority, narrow-minded posture, dogmatism, moralism, fundamentalism and arrogance. It is clear that to walk with ease and to reach the top, we have to lighten the luggage that along the history of religions have become increasingly heavy. Then, if we advance along the path of peace, religions have to place from a humble attitude, going back to the humus (to bent over to the ground), to go back to the essential, stripping us of many heavy accessories that prevent us from barefoot and naked encounter with the other. Religions must enter the path of pluralism, not for convenience or because the reality and the historical circumstances that led them do that, but have to accept it as their attitude towards life and as their horizon of understanding, based on theological foundations, as is the essence of divinity with their inexhaustible and unable to be trapped nature that leads us to accept pluralism as an attitude of the believer, as openness to a mystery that is overwhelming and not get caught or privatize by any religious structure. It is precisely to recognize the universal presence of the mystery that leads us to accept pluralism and work from the cooperation for a transformed world of peace. Religions must overcome the temptations of absolutism or the complex of "chosen one" that becomes a superiority complex that tends to exclude or belittle other religious expressions. Against the absolutist, religions have to develop a humble attitude, because with them there are limitations and can claim that they are contingent and are convertible, as absolute and infallible that only God is. Religions have to give up absolutist and rigorist positions and statement, they have to help to
themselves grow in freedom instead of strengthening the mechanisms of control of the consciences of the faithful, should help the emergence and strengthening of the subjects, and strive for an experience adult faith and not children-like. Religions must live up to the current global consciousness that is reluctant to exclusivist and absolutist positions. They should behave from a conviction that no religion has the exclusive of God and of the truth. They also have to wonder if it's time to move from a local God to a global God, leaving in the storage a particularistic image or vision of God (a tribal God) that excludes and punishes those who are not part of the "chosen ones". Religions have to enhance the awareness of otherness, for the real access to the mystery involves the recognition and acceptance of the other. They have to put this reception of otherness as a theological principle that leads us to act in a way that instead of imposing on others, we grow in awe of the mystery of the other and their spiritual expressions. It is important that every religion known also integrates the shock of otherness. As we approach another one who has a different understanding and formulation of the sacred we can feel shaken and shocked. That scandal is to get through when we adopt an attitude of no aversion and indifference that makes us not cling to our own matters, but to live in openness and dialogue, considering the others as companions and fellow travelers in the search for the Absolute and a world according to God dream for humanity. Religions today have to cultivate a sense of interconnectedness with all the seekers of meaning. It is about making of the journey that we are making a friendly experience, helping each other to be consistent with the most authentic principles of our spiritual tradition. It requires a new spirit and a new sensibility to manage our differences without making them a wall that separates us, but a bridge to cross the abyss established by the dominant system and dogmatisms and religious fundamentalisms. In this global context, religions cannot lock up themselves in, but they have to be outgoing, out of themselves and turn to the fractures and outcries of our world, giving up their proselytizing zeal, competition and rivalry. Religions are called to generate new relationships, reconciliation and mediation in conflicts, rather than creating conflicts and confrontations. In my mind, this springs from the revitalization of its mystical and prophetic roots. 5. Recovering the mystical and prophetic entrails of religions Another important element is the recovery of the mystical and prophetic entrails present in some way in all religions. To make the
dream of a peaceful world real, every religion has to recreate its utopian horizon and make an effort to weave all these utopias. Peaceful coexistence is part of the utopian vision of all religions. Each, in its way, dreams and desires peace. We will be a great power if we unite and push together toward that utopia. The rekindle of mystical-prophetic substrate in the religions, offers to the commitment for peace and the integrity of creation the strength that can hold and make it a sustained and durable commitment. This revitalization of the mystical and prophetic substrate implies that religions go into the bottom in two directions: down to the source, the deepest well where they have sprung up to confront their dream and their original intuition and relearn the way back home to take them to recreate the essence of their religious tradition in today's context. On the other hand, it means going down to the bottom of the reality of who are now in the underworld of society. The credibility of religion is at stake in their compassion with those who are suffering (people and mother earth). This implies that religious speech has to get out of abstraction, puritanism and elitism to be inserted and provide answers to vital questions of everyday people and the global situations of our world. Religions have to undertake an exodus and go down to muddy their feet on the reality of the impoverished ones. When religions go down to the bottom, to the deep roots that are the essence of faith, the path to commitment and interfaith dialogue is flattened. But when we emphasize too much what in our religion is only part of the clothing, then the way turns uphill. Hence this is important that the different religions help each other to make a process of purification of those accessory elements that prevent the communion, dialogue and work together to transform the world. We discover that religions agree better in those areas that are part of their fresh and original essence and with regard to ethical issues than in those aspects we have turned into fixed doctrines. Today we observe religion tune in much more in a mystical and ethical dimension. In this sense, we must also recognize that spirituality goes beyond religion. Religion has to do with an institutionalized system of dogmas and beliefs with respect to the Transcendence, which is expressed through rites and liturgies, while spirituality is a personal understanding of our life, our relationship with the Transcendence and our aim as human beings in this world. Spirituality permeates our entire worldview and touches all aspects of our lives: how we accept personal, institutional and social changes, our understanding of success or failure, what vision we have of hunger, poverty, sexuality, politics, economics, relationships between men and women and with the cosmos, etc. Therefore, it is possible to find two people who belong to the same religion, but have
different spirituality. It is possible that two people belonging to different religions can share the same spirituality3. Taking this into account, then we must say that when we speak of religious pluralism we have to clarify that we mean not only different religions but also a plurality of spiritual options that may be part of a religious body, but can also be outside the structured religions. This is a growing phenomenon and we cannot ignore them when talking about religious pluralism and about the role of religions in the current global scenario. Anyway, whatever kind of spiritual options taken by individuals and groups, they must go through the same examination as religions. That is, they have also to confront the demands that come from the great cries and dreams of humanity. If religions and spiritual options want to mean something and to do something to help in the building of a peaceful world, they cannot ignore the questions that emerge from the great themes of the global agenda. Today they cannot continue without going through these matters. Spiritual currents of humanity will find greater vitality and can be recreated and renewed as they make a descent to the bottom of the most genuine of themselves, if they keep opened to the major issues affecting our humanity today; and they move to encounter other religions and spiritual options, daring not only to be questioned by them, but being open to drink from other fountains and even to cross borders and break down walls to give everyone free access to all fountains. This is the way in which religions can fertilize each other and help to better fulfill its mission to be inspiring and to nurture new forms of relationships between human beings and the cosmos.
Cfr. Geraldina CSPEDES, Buscando las fuentes de la sabidura para regar nuestras vidas. Espiritualidad feminista en tiempos de globalizacin. XVII Meeting of Women and Theologists. (Santander, October 24-26, 2008), published by Cultura para la esperanza, n 74, 2009, pages 39-49 (part I) y n 75, 2009, pages 38-45 (part II).
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2013 International Buddhist-Christian Conference ENLIGHTENMENT AND LIBERATION Engaged Buddhists and Liberation theologians in Dialogue
Objective: To create a mutually transformative dialogue/diapraxis between Engaged Buddhists and Liberationist Christians.
At the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York April 17-20, 2013
For more information, contact the UTS at website: www.utsnyc.edu
89
Revisin crtica de las religiones:

camino para recuperar su dinamismo y relevancia en el contexto del pluralismo y los cambios globales
Geraldina CSPEDES op * Repblica Dominicana - Guatemala
0. Las religiones ante la bsqueda del buen vivir de las personas y la tierra Estamos viviendo en una poca privilegiada y densa en la cual se est dando no slo un cambio en la conciencia de la humanidad sino tambin una metamorfosis de la religiosidad. Los registros religiosos ya no son los mismos. Los y las creyentes de las distintas religiones de la humanidad o participamos de este flujo de vida y de cambio o simplemente nuestras religiones se atrofiarn y dejarn de ser significativas para un mundo en bsqueda y en proceso de transformacin. Sin embargo, el que las religiones se atrofien y en cierto sentido, hasta mueran, no tendra que preocuparnos, pues ellas no estn para buscarse a s mismas ni para preocuparse por su futuro, sino que ellas estn para iluminar el camino de la humanidad ofreciendo sentido y orientacin. A las religiones se les puede aplicar lo que deca Jess respecto al peligro de buscarse a s mismo. Parafraseando, entonces, las palabras de Jess, se podra decir: religin que se busca a s misma, se pierde. Pero la que se pierde en su lucha por la justicia y la paz en el mundo, se gana. Desde este punto de vista, las religiones tienen que cuestionarse sobre a qu causa sirve lo que ellas predican y proponen, a quin sirve y qu estn ofreciendo para la construccin de otro mundo posible. Tienen que interrogarse respecto a su papel como instancias llamadas a levantar *
Intervencin en el Foro Religiones y Paz, organizado por la Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT en el Foro Social Mundial, en Dakar, febrero de 2011.
una crtica y ofrecer una alternativa a la construccin de un mundo distinto. Aunque muchas veces ellas han jugado el papel de legitimadoras y multiplicadoras de los valores propugnados por el sistema, en esta hora histrica han de reencontrar su llamada fundamental a ser deslegitimadoras y trastocadoras de un orden establecido que no garantiza la vida digna de las mayoras ni tampoco la sustentabilidad del planeta. Podramos analizar muchos aspectos que conciernen a la cuestin de religiones y paz. As, tomando en cuenta que la paz est en relacin dialctica con la violencia, podramos hacer una revisin histrica haciendo un balance respecto a cmo las distintas religiones han contribuido o frenado la bsqueda de la paz o cmo, en diversas circunstancias histricas, las religiones no slo han obstaculizado la paz entre las personas, los pueblos y las mismas religiones, sino que, lamentablemente, muchas de ellas tambin han destacado como agentes de la guerra. Las religiones, si quieren ser relevantes y significativas en el contexto actual tienen que pasar por el crisol y emprender un proceso de purificacin seria, pues en ellas se han infiltrado muchas doctrinas y prcticas colonialistas, imperialistas, excluyentes y androcntrico-patriarcales. Ellas han de dar un salto y redefinir y reorganizar su mismo sistema de creencias, sus mitos, sus prcticas, sus rituales y sus doctrinas. Propongo cuatro puntos para ayudarnos en el debate respecto a ese cambio radical hacia el que tendramos que encaminarnos todas las religiones. 1. Autocomprensin de las religiones: de depsitos estancados a fuentes en movimiento La bsqueda de sentido es una de las cuestiones insoslayables de la condicin humana. Las religiones buscan dar respuesta de distintas maneras a esa gran interrogante de los seres humanos. La realidad actual evidencia cmo lo religioso no es una cuestin que los seres humanos y las sociedades hayan aparcado o que haya pasado de moda. Al contrario, podemos decir que hoy asistimos a una efervescencia de lo religioso. Contra lo que se vaticinaba dcadas atrs cuando se crea que el avance de la secularizacin iba a eclipsar lo religioso o en algunos casos lo iba a desterrar, hoy constatamos que hay un creciente inters por las cuestiones religiosas o pseudo-religiosas. Tal situacin tiene que hacernos pensar a las personas que militamos en las religiones, pues dependiendo de cmo las religiones se planteen su responsabilidad tico-trascendente van a servir a la causa de la liberacin o van a anestesiar las conciencias de las personas. Puesto que las ideas y las imgenes religiosas penetran todos los rincones de nuestra vida personal y social, hay que reconocer que las religiones juegan un
Revisin crtica de las religiones 91
papel importante en la configuracin de un nuevo orden mundial. Para ello las religiones tienen que saber ubicarse en este contexto global y tienen que revisar de qu manera su autocomprensin posibilita o imposibilita el paso hacia un mundo nuevo de justicia y paz. Qu visin o autocomprensin religiosa obstaculiza el camino hacia la paz? Qu han de plantearse las religiones en orden a ser fecundas para nuestro mundo y para que sean el agua fresca que ayude al florecimiento de la vida en todas sus formas? Tenemos que admitir que hay muchas ideas religiosas, creencias y visiones teolgicas que marchitan la vida en vez de potenciarla. Las distintas religiones tienen que dar el paso hacia nuevas formas de autocomprenderse e interactuar en el mundo y con el mundo. Por eso propongo una revisin crtica y autocrtica como camino para que las religiones se abran a una perspectiva pluralista desde la que aporten lo mejor de s a la transformacin de nuestra historia y desde ah tambin ellas mismas se recreen y revitalicen. Este taller quiere ayudarnos a ver la necesaria transformacin que se ha de dar en las entraas mismas de las religiones para que ellas, desde su anclaje en la experiencia trascendente, puedan desarrollar mejor su misin de ser inspiradoras de una nueva manera de vivir nuestras relaciones como humanos y con la creacin entera. Queremos apuntar no hacia un cambio de la fachada o a hacer algunas reformas, sino hacia un cambio radical que ha de partir de un cuestionamiento a los mismos cimientos teolgicos en que se sustentan las distintas tradiciones religiosas. Tomando en cuenta que, de alguna manera, todos y todas participamos consciente o inconscientemente, explcita o implcitamente, de algn tipo de prctica religiosa, es necesario ir a los cimientos ms profundos de los sistemas de creencias y las cosmovisiones que mueven a las personas y a los colectivos. Dentro de este proceso de bsqueda de la otro mundo posible, un mundo de la vida buena en el que todos y todas quepamos, la revisin de los fundamentos teolgicos y de las visiones que dan sustento a las religiones constituye una tarea urgente y una cuestin crucial, pues las religiones ejercen un poder innegable sobre las conciencias de las personas y los pueblos. La cuestin es a favor de qu y de quines est ese poder que las religiones tienen. Cada religin tendr que emprender un xodo que le lleve a pasar por el desierto de la deconstruccin para reconstruirse y buscar en su propio pozo aquellos principios y aquellas actitudes encaminadas a dar respuesta a los desafos del mundo y a la bsqueda de la paz dentro de las religiones, entre las religiones y con el mundo en general y el cosmos. Todos estos mbitos de construccin de la paz estn interconectados. La preocupacin por la paz ha de abarcar cada una de
esas dimensiones. Pero, cmo encaminarnos hacia ello? Cules seran los presupuestos teolgicos comunes que nos ayudaran? Las religiones han de tener una postura autocrtica para detectar en qu ellas se han quedado ancladas y estticas. Ellas han de estar vigilantes para no convertirse en depsitos estancados, sino mantenerse como fuentes en movimiento. El mundo, la sociedad, la ciencia han ido evolucionando, pero muchas veces las religiones se han quedado congeladas en aspectos que en su momento histrico respondan a una coyuntura o a una visin determinada del mundo. Por eso las religiones han de ser conscientes de que su vida, su dinamismo y su relevancia para nuestro mundo va a depender de su capacidad de desprogramarse y reconfigurarse de una manera nueva. Todo cambia y todo evoluciona en la vida, pero a nivel religioso nos cuesta evolucionar porque tendemos a dogmatizar y establecer como principios inamovibles cuestiones que respondieron a una coyuntura histrica concreta. Las religiones no pueden permanecer estticas ante los nuevos signos de los tiempos ni ante los cambios que se estn dando en el imaginario socio-religioso. Las religiones tienen que cambiar de chip y abrirse a las nuevas interpretaciones de lo sagrado que van surgiendo a medida que nuestra manera de vivir va cambiando. Si ellas quieren ser fieles a sus intuiciones originarias y a la vez significar algo para los hombres y las mujeres de hoy, las religiones tienen que atreverse a reinventarse. 2. Matar nuestros dioses: para cambiar de vida hay que cambiar de Dios. Aunque ante la pluralidad religiosa en nuestro mundo se hace difcil atrevernos a plantear cules seran los principios teolgicos comunes que las religiones deben potenciar y cuidar en orden a ser significativas y contribuir a la bsqueda de la justicia y la paz global, quiero sealar algunos elementos ms directamente ligados a la cuestin teolgica. Ante todo las religiones tienen que atreverse a revisar su imagen o su comprensin de la divinidad, pues hay concepciones de lo divino que resultan peligrosas y dainas desde la perspectiva de la bsqueda de un/a creyente adulto/a y desde el horizonte de la realizacin de un mundo justo e incluyente y desde la salud de nuestro planeta. Quiz las religiones tengamos que atrevernos a matar nuestros dioses 1. Hay que explorar y cuestionar cules son las imgenes y concepciones de Dios
1
Este es el ttulo del libro pstumo que Mardones nos ha dejado como su testamento espiritual (Cfr. Jos Mara MARDONES, Matar a nuestros dioses. Un Dios para un creyente adulto, Madrid, PPC, 2006).
con que nos manejamos, tanto para andar por casa como en los discursos teolgicos ms elaborados. Y hay que atreverse a cambiar, pues, como nos dice Pedro Casaldliga, Para cambiar de vida / hay que cambiar de Dios. / Hay que cambiar de Dios / para cambiar de Iglesia. / Para cambiar el mundo / hay que cambiar de Dios 2. Plantearnos la pregunta por la imagen de Dios desde la que funcionamos no es una cuestin ociosa e irrelevante, sino que se trata de un atrevimiento necesario y saludable al interior de las religiones mismas y para nuestro mundo. Las religiones necesitamos una alta dosis de honestidad y de valenta para adentrarnos en ello y atenernos a las consecuencias. En algunos casos, ello puede significar entrar en una profunda crisis, sentir que el suelo se resquebraja bajo nuestros pies o entrar en conflicto porque tocamos un cable de alta tensin que lleva a algn tipo de muerte en el seno mismo de nuestras tradiciones religiosas. Dentro de esta revisin, las religiones necesitan confrontarse con algunas cuestiones cruciales que han contaminado la imagen de Dios. As, por ejemplo, las religiones tienen que preguntarse de qu manera ellas han sido legitimadoras y multiplicadoras de prcticas y discursos racistas, clasistas, sexistas, militaristas, colonialistas o imperialistas. Las religiones tienen que hacer una limpieza dentro de su propia casa y atreverse a echar al basurero todos aquellos elementos que no forman parte de su esencia profunda y todos aquellos esquemas y elementos dainos que se han incrustado en ellas. La refundacin de las religiones exige tambin un replanteamiento de la cuestin del poder. Todas las religiones son de alguna manera un poder y ejercen un poder. An aquellas religiones consideradas minoritarias detentan, aunque sea discretamente, algn tipo de poder. Las religiones tienen que preguntarse qu poder tienen, cmo lo ejercen y para qu o a favor de qu o quines lo ejercen. Y sobre todo han de preguntarse si ese es un poder que oprime o un poder que libera; si es un poder que impulsa hacia la vida buena, la vida en plenitud de todas y todos o es un poder que lleva al raquitismo y al subdesarrollo de las personas, los pueblos y todos los seres vivos. En definitiva, la pregunta que tenemos que hacernos es si las religiones estn empoderando a las personas y a los grupos para que desde sus visiones espirituales sean sujetos crticos y comprometidos, capaces de transformar la realidad en que viven. Hay que tomar en cuenta que todo esto tiene que ver tambin con la imagen de Dios como poder. De esa imagen de Dios como poder se desprenden una serie de prcticas y posturas de las religiones tanto para con los mismos miembros de las religiones como para el conjunto de la
2
Pedro CASALDLIGA, Agenda Latinoamericana 2011, pg. 2.
sociedad. As, por ejemplo, en base a ese poder, una religin se puede constituir, y de hecho muchas veces se constituye, en fiscalizadora de las prcticas de los ciudadanos y ciudadanas, especialmente en lo que concierne a cuestiones de moral. A partir de la concepcin de Dios como poder (el Todopoderoso) se justifican como normales las relaciones jerrquico-kyriarcales que dejan fuera a las mujeres de las estructuras y de los mbitos de mediacin/representacin de lo sagrado. Esa misma concepcin es la que tambin est a la base de la opresin de los ms dbiles y de las relaciones de dominio y explotacin de la naturaleza. Entonces, esa visin de Dios como poder tiene que ser revisada y reinterpretada. Debido a una concepcin inadecuada del poder de la divinidad, muchas religiones gastan sus energas ms en ser controladoras y represoras que en lo que en verdad ha de ser su papel de cara al mundo: ser una fuente donde las personas van a beber y a nutrirse para encontrar sentido a sus vidas; ser inspiradoras de paz y tejedoras de comunin entre las personas y de stas con el cosmos; ofrecer orientacin ante las muchas desorientaciones que padecemos; la bsqueda de sentido en medio de los sinsentidos de nuestro mundo; en fin, ofrecer un horizonte utpico y esperanzador que, aunque apunta ms all de nuestra historia, no se desentiende de los avatares de nuestra realidad, sino que empieza a construir aqu y ahora esa otra realidad posible. 3. En el principio era la pluralidad: La acogida al pluralismo: un salto en la evolucin de las religiones. Todas las religiones tienen que encarar el desafo de aprender a convivir con la pluralidad. Aunque constatamos diversas manifestaciones de la realidad (incluida la realidad divina) que nos permite afirmar que en el principio era la pluralidad, el pluralismo como un sello fundamental de nuestro tiempo, an no ha recibido una bienvenida abierta por parte de las religiones. Ms bien, frecuentemente se nos ha presentado el pluralismo como dificultad o riesgo para la fe. Las religiones todava tienen un largo camino para aprender a ver la pluralidad no como un problema o una amenaza, sino como una posibilidad y un desafo, como una riqueza y un camino de crecimiento. Ellas tienen que acoger con gozo y esperanza esa biodiversidad religiosa, la multirreligiosidad. Esto implica cultivar una postura respetuosa y reverente ante la diversidad de lenguajes, smbolos, ritos y formulaciones en que se puede expresar la experiencia del Misterio y la dimensin tico-liberadora que est llamada a ejercer toda religin. De esta manera, la acogida del pluralismo representara un salto en la evolucin de las religiones y poseera, adems, una fuerza testimonial
de cara al mundo. En medio de las distintas exclusiones y divisiones, las religiones estn llamadas a ser una instancia crtica y alternativa por su prctica de la tolerancia, el entendimiento, el dilogo y el trabajo conjunto por la justicia y la paz. Adems, la visin teolgica pluralista es condicin indispensable para que se d un autntico dilogo intrarreligioso e interreligioso. Pero, para llegar a una convivencia pacfica y a asumir la pluralidad como posibilidad (como don y tarea a la vez) son necesarias unas cuestiones previas, unas actitudes nuevas y una nueva manera de ser de cada religin. Dentro de esas cuestiones previas considero que es necesario despojarnos de cualquier postura con olor a superioridad, posturas cerradas, dogmatismos, moralismos, fundamentalismos y prepotencia. Para caminar con soltura y llegar a la cima est claro que tenemos que aligerar el equipaje que a lo largo de la historia las religiones hemos hecho cada vez ms pesado. Entonces, si queremos avanzar por el camino de la paz, las religiones tenemos que situarnos desde una actitud humilde, volviendo al humus (inclinarnos hacia la tierra), a lo esencial, despojndonos de los muchos y pesados accesorios que nos impiden llegar descalzos y desnudos ante la otra y el otro. Las religiones tienen que adentrarse por el camino del pluralismo no por razones de conveniencia o porque la realidad y la coyuntura histrica nos empuja a ello, sino que han de asumirlo como su actitud vital y como su horizonte de comprensin, basndose en cuestiones teolgicas, pues es la esencia misma de la divinidad con su carcter inagotable e inapropiable la que nos remite a acoger el pluralismo como gracia y como actitud creyente, como apertura a un Misterio que nos desborda y que no se deja atrapar ni privatizar por ninguna estructura religiosa. Precisamente es el reconocimiento de la presencia universal del Misterio lo que nos conduce a acoger el pluralismo y a trabajar desde la cooperacin por un mundo transformado y en paz. Las religiones tienen que superar las tentaciones de absolutismo o el complejo de elegidas, que se torna en complejo de superioridad que tiende a excluir o a minusvalorar otras expresiones religiosas. Contra las tendencias absolutistas, las religiones han de desarrollar una actitud humilde, pues en ellas existen limitaciones y se puede afirmar que ellas tienen un carcter contingente y son transformables, pues absoluto e infalible slo es Dios. Esto llevara a que las religiones abandonen las posturas y afirmaciones rigoristas y absolutistas; ayudara a crecer en libertad en vez de reforzar los mecanismos de control de las conciencias de sus fieles; posibilitara el surgimiento y fortalecimiento de los sujetos, encaminndolos hacia una vivencia adulta de fe y no infantilizndolos.
Las religiones tienen que colocarse a la altura de la actual conciencia planetaria que es reacia a posturas exclusivistas y absolutistas. Han de conducirse desde la conviccin de que ninguna religin tiene la exclusiva de Dios ni la exclusiva de la verdad. Tambin tienen que preguntarse si no sera la hora de pasar de un Dios local a un Dios global, dejando en el trastero la imagen y la visin de un Dios particularistas (un Dios tribal, un Dios propiedad privada) que excluye y castiga a quienes no forman parte de los elegidos. Las religiones han de potenciar la conciencia de la alteridad, pues el verdadero acceso al misterio pasa por el reconocimiento y la aceptacin del otro y la otra. Han de colocar esta acogida de la alteridad como un principio teolgico que nos lleva a actuar de tal manera que, en vez de la imposicin sobre los otros y otras, crezcan en respeto reverencial por el misterio de la otra y el otro y por sus manifestaciones espirituales. Esta conciencia de la alteridad constituye un horizonte vlido que tenemos que fortalecer de cara a nuestra relacin con la madre tierra en estos tiempos de crisis ecolgica. Es importante que cada religin sepa integrar tambin el choque de la alteridad. Al acercarnos al otro/a diferente, que tiene una comprensin y formulacin distinta de lo sagrado, nos podemos sentir sacudidos y escandalizados. Ese escndalo lo superamos cuando adoptamos una actitud de no aversin y desapego que nos lleva a no aferrarnos a lo nuestro como lo nico vlido y verdadero, sino que nos hace vivir en una actitud abierta y dialogante, viendo al otro/a como compaeras y compaeros de camino en esa bsqueda del Absoluto y de un mundo acorde al sueo suyo para la humanidad. Las religiones hoy da tienen que cultivar un sentido de interconexin con todos los buscadores y buscadoras de sentido. Se trata de hacer del caminar que vamos haciendo una experiencia cordial, ayudndonos mutuamente a ser coherentes con los principios ms autnticos de la propia tradicin espiritual. Se requiere de un nuevo espritu y una nueva sensibilidad para gestionar nuestras diferencias sin hacer de ellas un muro que nos separe, sino un puente para cruzar los abismos establecidos por el sistema dominante y por los dogmatismos y fundamentalismos religiosos. En este contexto global, las religiones no pueden cerrarse sobre s mismas, sino que ellas deben ser extrovertidas, saliendo de s mismas y volcndose hacia las fracturas y clamores de nuestro mundo, renunciando a sus afanes proselitistas, a la competencia y a la rivalidad. Las religiones tienen que ser generadoras de nuevas relaciones; ser reconciliadoras y mediadoras de conflictos, en vez de ser creadoras de nuevos conflictos y confrontaciones. En mi opinin, esto ha de brotar de la revitalizacin de su raigambre mstico-proftica.
4. La urgencia de recuperar las entraas msticas y profticas de las religiones. Otro elemento importante es la recuperacin de las entraas msticas y profticas presente de alguna manera en todas las religiones. Para hacer realidad el sueo de un mundo en paz, cada religin ha de recrear su horizonte utpico y hacer un esfuerzo por entretejer todas esas utopas. La convivencia en paz forma parte de la visin utpica de todas las religiones. Todas ellas, a su modo, suean y anhelan la paz. Seramos una gran fuerza si nos uniramos y empujramos juntos hacia esa utopa. La revitalizacin del sustrato mstico-proftico presente en las religiones ofrece al compromiso por la paz y la integridad de la creacin los resortes que le puedan sostener y hacer una accin sostenida y duradera. Esta reactivacin del sustrato mstico y proftico supone que las religiones hagan un ejercicio de bajada al fondo en una doble direccin: bajar a la fuente, al pozo ms profundo de donde ellas han brotado para confrontarse con su sueo y su intuicin original y reaprender el camino de vuelta a casa que le llevar a recrear lo esencial de su tradicin religiosa en el contexto de hoy. Por otro lado, significa bajar al fondo de la realidad de quienes estn hoy en los bajos fondos de la sociedad. La credibilidad de las religiones hoy se juega en su compasin para con los que sufren (las personas y la madre tierra). Esto implica que los discursos de las religiones han de salir de la abstraccin, del puritanismo y del elitismo para insertarse y ofrecer respuestas a las interrogantes vitales y cotidianas de la gente y a las grandes urgencias globales de nuestro mundo. Las religiones tienen que emprender un xodo y bajar a enlodarse los pies en la realidad de los empobrecidos y empobrecidas. Cuando las religiones bajan al fondo, a las races ms profundas que constituyen la esencia de la fe, el camino hacia el dilogo y el compromiso interreligioso se allana. Pero cuando acentuamos excesivamente aquello que en nuestra religin muchas veces no es ms que parte del ropaje, entonces el camino se nos hace cuesta arriba. De aqu la importancia de que las distintas religiones nos ayudemos mutuamente a hacer un proceso de purificacin de aquellos elementos accesorios que impiden la comunin, el dilogo y el trabajo conjunto para transformar el mundo. Constatamos que las religiones nos estamos poniendo ms de acuerdo en aquellos aspectos que forman parte de la esencia fresca y originaria de las mismas y en lo relativo a las cuestiones ticas que en aquellas que hemos convertido en doctrinas inamovibles. Podemos constatar que hoy da se aprecia una mayor sintona respecto a la dimensin mstica y ticoproftica de las religiones. En el contexto actual, es importante tomar en cuenta el debate respecto a la relacin entre religin y espiritualidad. Hay que reconocer que la espiritualidad va ms all de las religiones, pues la religin tiene
que ver ms con un sistema institucionalizado de dogmas y credos con respecto a lo Trascendente que se expresa a travs de ritos y liturgias, mientras que la espiritualidad es la comprensin personal y profunda de nuestra vida, de nuestra relacin con lo Trascendente y de nuestro propsito como seres humanos en este mundo. La espiritualidad es el modo de entrar en relacin con lo Sagrado, con el Misterio que habita nuestra vida y el cosmos. A veces las religiones neutralizan o controlan las experiencias espirituales que tienen fuerza liberadora y transformadora. Por eso hay quienes proponen que hay que dar ese paso peligroso de la religin a la espiritualidad 3. La espiritualidad envuelve la totalidad de nuestra visin del mundo y toca todas las dimensiones de nuestra vida: cmo asumimos los cambios vitales, institucionales y sociales, cmo concebimos lo que es xito o fracaso, qu visin tenemos del hambre, de la pobreza, de la sexualidad, de la poltica, de la economa, de la relacin entre hombres y mujeres, de nuestra relacin con el cosmos, etc. Por eso, es posible encontrar a dos personas que pertenecen a la misma religin, pero tienen diferente espiritualidad. Y es posible que dos personas que pertenecen a diferentes religiones puedan compartir la misma espiritualidad 4. Tomando esto en cuenta, entonces tenemos que decir que cuando hablamos de pluralismo religioso hay que matizar que nos referimos no slo a las distintas religiones, sino tambin a la pluralidad de opciones espirituales que pueden formar parte de un cuerpo religioso, pero que tambin pueden existir al margen de las religiones estructuradas. Este es un fenmeno creciente y que no podemos obviar a la hora de hablar de pluralismo religioso y a la hora de hablar del papel que compete a las religiones en el actual escenario mundial. De todos modos, las distintas opciones espirituales adoptadas por personas y grupos han de pasar el mismo examen que las religiones. Es decir, ellas tambin han de confrontarse con las exigencias que provienen de los grandes clamores y los sueos de la humanidad. Si las religiones y las distintas opciones espirituales quieren decir y hacer algo significativo para ayudar a la construccin de un mundo en paz, ellas no pueden obviar las preguntas que se desprenden de los grandes temas de la agenda global. Hoy da ellas no pueden darse el lujo de pasar de largo ante esas cuestiones.
3 4
Vase por ejemplo JOAN CHITTISTER, Ser mujer en la Iglesia. Memorias espirituales, Santander, Sal Terrae, 2006, pg. 15. Cfr. GERALDINA CSPEDES, Buscando las fuentes de la sabidura para regar nuestras vidas. Espiritualidad feminista en tiempos de globalizacin. XVII Encuentro de Mujeres y Teologa (Santander, 24-26 octubre, 2008), publicado en Cultura para la esperanza, n 74, 2009, pgs. 39-49 (parte I) y n 75, 2009, pgs. 38-45 (parte II).
Las corrientes espirituales de la humanidad encontrarn mayor vitalidad y pueden ser recreadas y renovadas en la medida en que hagan una bajada al fondo de lo ms genuino de s mismas; si ellas se mantienen abiertas a las grandes cuestiones que afectan hoy da a nuestra humanidad; si ellas se mueven al encuentro con las otras religiones y opciones espirituales, atrevindose no slo a dejarse cuestionar por ellas, sino tambin estando abiertas a beber de otras fuentes y a cruzar fronteras y derribar muros para que todos tengan libertad de acceso a todas las fuentes. Esta es la forma en que las religiones podrn fecundarse mutuamente y ayudarse a cumplir mejor su cometido de ser inspiradoras y alimentadoras de nuevas formas de relacin entre los seres humanos y con el cosmos.
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Getting the Poor Down From the Cross Cristology of Liberation

A classical work of EATWOT's International Theological Commission
In 30 days after the Notification against Jon Sobrino, the EATWOT's International Theological Commission requested and collected the contributions of more than 40 theologians, from all over the world, to reflect and testify about their theological work, as getting the poor down from the cross. As a result, there is this digital book, which in its first week -40 days after the Notification- registered more than three thousand downloads. It continues to be on line for downloading in several languages (English, Spanish, Italian) and in paper (English, Spanish, Portuguese). Printable originals with full resolution can still be requested for local editions without profit purposes.
Getting the Poor Down from the Cross: still on line digital edition, which was printed on paper in many places, 314 pp Bajar de la cruz a los pobres: edicin digital en lnea, y tambin una edicin en papel, por Dabar, Mxico 293 pp. Descer da Cruz os Pobres: edio s em papel, pela Paulinas, So Paulo, 357 pp Deporre i poveri dalla croce: edizione soltanto digitale, nella rete. More information at the webpage: InternationalTheologicalCommission.org See also, alternatively: servicioskoinonia.org/LibrosDigitales
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What Can Christian Liberation Theologies Learn from the World Social Forum?
Denise COUTURE * Montral Qubec, Canada
The World Social Forum (WSF) was born out of outrage in the face of unbearable injustices in these days of neoliberal globalization. It aims to address these injustices, including among other things the increasing gap between rich and poor, between countries and within each country, in the South as well as in the North; unacceptable living conditions of poverty experienced by most of Two-Third World populations; multiple controls and discrimination against people who continue to reproduce; and the destruction of planet Earth's health. The WSF is now more than ten years old, and assessments are starting to emerge. During the last few years, the number of humanities studies on the WSF has considerably increased. In this research corpus, there is wide agreement on two points: first, the WSF represents an unprecedented phenomenon in terms of a political change strategy to create justice; second, it is difficult to analyze, because of both its novelty and its great multiplicity. Two WSF activists and humanities researchers, Jai Sen and Peter Waterman, see it as one of the most significant civil and political initiatives of the past several decades, and perhaps even of these past hundred years (Sen and Waterman 2009: xv). Is this judgment inflated? Is the WSF political innovation so significant? At least, it seems productive to take part in the effort to understand the innovation introduced by the Social Forum. This task appears all the more relevant for Christian theo* Professor at the Facult de thologie et de sciences des religions de lUniversit de Montral
(Qubec, Canada), Denise Couture participates in the World Forum of Theology and Liberation. She is a member of the feminist and Christian collective Lautre Parole (The Other Word): denise.couture.2@umontreal.ca.
102 Denise COUTURE
logy, as liberation theologies share some affinities with WSF politics, and as the World Forum of Theology and Liberation (WFTL), created in 2005 by Brazilian theologians in collaboration with EATWOT, is since held biannually as one of its parallel forums. I propose that an analysis of the WSF innovative politics can help us to understand some of the changes undergone by liberation theologies in a global context. Among these elements, I note the following: types of relationships between much diversified groups, strategies of change in order to create justice, and the way to conceive unity within a great multiplicity. In short, I ask the question: what can Christian liberation theologies learn from the unique and unparalleled event that is the WSF? How can analyses of WSF politics help us identify some of the current challenges of liberation theologies as practiced in the global arena? Before we get to the heart of the matter and try to answer these questions, I feel it is important to make some preliminary remarks about the time in which we live and, thus, to specify my position of location. The hypothesis of living in an in-between time We live in complex times of concomitant upsurges in specific liberations and oppressions. These are the days of neoliberal globalization, which corresponds to the current phase of colonization. It operates, among other things, through a deterritorialization that makes individuals occupy the position of virgin territories that must be conquered (Spivak), as producers or consumers of goods. From my point of view, located in North America and in Canada, the period that we live in also appears characterized by two other significant phenomena that combine rather naturally with this form of globalization: first, a political, social, cultural, as well as religious neo-conservatism, which manifests itself by a reestablishment of hierarchies between people, and by a hijacking of the ecological question; second, a post-feminism that induces the illusory belief that relational justice - between women and men, and between ethnic groups - would already be attained in rule-of-law Western countries, whereas it is yet to come in developing (in terms of human rights) countries. This pervading neo-conservatism and post-feminism in the West perpetuate and consolidate colonial relations. From the northern context and political and theoretical perspective where I am located - which I call ecofeminist, antiracist and interspiritual it seems that a core challenge for resistance is to attack the logic of the Same of the dominant Western subjectivity. This logic proceeds by organizing differences into a hierarchy, by appropriation and subordina-
What Can Christian Liberation Theologies Learn from the World Social Forum? 103
tion of the Other (Keller 2004). A key question, then, is to know how we stop considering difference in a negative manner, or how to experience it without producing hierarchy. To say it differently, it is about deconstructing the otherness structure of the white Man (which goes through self) that produces his constitutive Others: its sexual Other (women, multiple sexualities), its colonial Other (brown and black people; inhabitants of conquered territories; subjectivities like economic virgin territory to exploit), and the technoscience Other (animals, Earth). How is resistance to the Same experienced? How do we take complexity into account? Feminist and European philosopher Rosi Braidotti provides an insight. She describes postindustrial globalization as being marked at the same time by ultrafast changes and considerable complexity, the latter being characterized by the fact that the phenomena we wish to analyze involves contradictory effects, both positive and negative, with respect to the creation of relational justice. An example of contradictory effects is that of multiplicity: as we know, fostering the multiplicity of positions is essential to liberation groups for the recognition of each one; but, at the same time, fostering multiplicity serves perfectly well the interests of multinational corporations that rely on the fragmentation of needs and identities to incessantly produce new objects of targeted consumption. In liberation theology, we learned how to analyze complexity. We learned how to integrate each subjects diversity of identities, how to take into account several lines of oppressions that relate to the same subjects, and how to perceive structures intermingling both oppression and liberation. Oppression analysis has become more complex, a position that Marcella Althaus-Reid clearly described as follows: Oppression is perhaps what we cannot have in common, because oppression is built in overlapping levels of multiple and contradictory elements which, according to context, produce variably dense, saturated effects. [] [A]ny theology concerned with issues of wealth and poverty needs to consider more the incoherence of oppression and its multiple dimensions rather than its commonalities (Althaus-Reid 2000: 168-169). According to R. Braidotti, critical thought's challenge is to monitor rapid changes and complexity in their timeliness but, currently, it does not succeed in doing so. This applies to structures of oppression as well as to emancipation strategies (Braidotti 2003). Something seems to occur to which actors and actresses of liberation theologies are accustomed: practices precede theories, doing precedes saying. WSF analysts also insist that WSF transformation practices remain ahead of our ability to analyze them. In their view, we are only beginning to understand the phenomenon. Application of existing theories would not be sufficient. Our challenge would be to imagine new ways of theori-
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zing justice creation. Thus, according to a perspective shared by a number of activists and humanities thinkers, intellectual work in connection with oppression and emancipation would now be a step behind the changes that are occurring. From the point of view of intersectoral feminism, this position of critical thought, far from bringing discouragement or resignation, seems rather positive. It shows the limit reached by a way of thinking that is based on the logic of the Same and that we seek to overcome. In practices and bodies of texts where I learned how to approach things from that perspective, a strong image is used to describe the times in which we live. It has the advantage of taking into account our reassessment of this way of thinking. The image is that we would be living in an in-between time between, on the one hand, relationships of domination that we no longer accept but that structurally continue to determine organizations and subjectivities; and, on the other hand, new types of right relationships which we are creating, locally and genuinely, in a multiplicity of practices that we try to interconnect within solidarity networks. In these days of neoliberal globalization, and of multiple resistances to its unbearable effects, we would be living in an in-between time! This critical perspective conveys a paradoxical position. We would have left the oppression structures while remaining structured by them. In other words, within the structures of injustice that continue to define us, we would have started to create another possible world, a WSF caption and slogan. It is from this perspective that I try to understand the WSF innovation and its political strategy to change the world.
Affinities between Liberation Theologies and the WSF Liberation theologies as practiced in a global context have several affinities with the WSF.
Liberation theologies are born from the struggles of the poor and the oppressed, struggles that were translated into an epistemological break with the whole of the Western theological tradition [] Here lies the epistemological break : Liberation theology whether Latin American, black, womanist, African, feminist, queer, etc. realizes that theology has traditionally been done from a standpoint of privilege. Western theology is the product of a minority of humankind living in a state of affluent exception and enjoying gender, sexual and racial dominance. Oppression and poverty remain the norm for the majority of the worlds population. By grounding themselves in the perspective of the oppressed, therefore, liberation theologies come as close as possible to being the first truly global theologies (Althaus-Reid and Petrella 2007 : ix).
This working definition of liberation theologies emphasizes some essential points that find a resonance with WSF politics: outrage in the face of the injustice that affects most of the world's population; struggle against multiple oppressions and poverty; the great diversity of positions from where to take on those struggles; and the act of adopting the perspective of oppressed people. The authors also talk of a break with Western epistemology. I described it earlier, from my perspective, as a criticism of the logic of the Same of dominant Western subjectivity. The professed orientations of both formations liberation theologies and the WSF make possible the creation of solidarity between South and North, which is based, among other things, on such a break with Western epistemology. Finally, the authors of the above quotation describe liberation theologies as global theologies, and even as first truly global theologies. Indeed, liberation theologies build a global solidarity between people and groups that struggle against multiple dominations. This solidarity is real and concrete, because it starts at the grassroots, from life, and from collective action that builds justice. To refer to this kind of approach, theologians now readily use the term of planetary theologies the more so as the term belongs to the same family as the word planet, and that it points to the urgency of changing our relations with the Earth (Vigil 2010). It is postcolonial theorist Gayatri Spivak who proposed the planetarity figure as a critical term of globalization. Whereas globalization levels the issues and eradicates the local ones in order to further neoliberal interests, planetarity sides with those struggling against dominations, and articulates both local and global issues in order to build justice on both levels (Spivak 2003: 78ss). Some theologians took up Spivak's idea to rethink love from a Christian perspective (Moore and Rivera 2011). I would like to stress two other points with regard to affinities between liberation theologies and the WSF. First, both formations belong to the base, originate from the base and remain at the base. Liberation theologies correspond to the words and actions of believers, taken one by one or brought together through faith communities, whenever they are located on the side of emancipation. For its part, the WSF brings together groups and movements from civil society (Charter of Principle, 1), a very diverse group of people that come from everywhere and from all community or base formations; local, regional and international associations; rural, anti-capitalist, ecological, feminist organizations; university activists, aggregates of indigenous people, and so on who all share the goal of creating another possible world. The WSF Charter of Principles states that The World Social Forum is a plural, diversified, non-confessional, non-governmental and non-
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party context (point 8). People who act as representatives of political parties, governments, churches or military organizations cannot take part in it. One of its cofounders, Chico Whitaker, speaks about a new way of changing the world that is based on civil societys actions. According to him, it is no longer taken for granted that changes in our society will only be achieved by the takeover of political power (Whitaker 2006: 24, my translation). Wherefrom this option: It is necessary that all society be committed: each citizen, in his actions, his behavior, his organizations. (ibid). This perspective matches that of liberation theologies, which are theologies of God's people, theologies that adopt the positions, the viewpoints and the interventions of oppressed people. Secondly, both formations can be regarded as a continuous process that prepares another possible world through daily life and through the transformation of oneself and one's own group. Indeed, it is interesting to note that, according to the view held by its protagonists, the WSF is not limited to holding the World Forum, or regional or local forums: it becomes a permanent process of seeking and building alternatives, which cannot be reduced to the events supporting it (Charter of Principle, 2). Both formations, liberation theologies and the WSF, unfold in a multiple, continuous, daily and deliberate process, generated by individuals and groups who seek to create relational justice. The Open Meeting Space, a WSF Political Innovation The first principle of the WSF Charter, a central and broadly discussed point, defines it as an open meeting space. This is a significant WSF innovation with respect to the strategy to create another possible world. In my opinion, this point represents the most difficult element to understand, and that which is most likely to teach us something new. The primary thrust of the open space strategy is to implement radical non-discrimination. It is intended as a concrete practice of difference without hierarchy production. On the website of the WSF international meeting held in Dakar, in 2011, a brief overview reads as follows: The World Social Forum is an open space for all, without discrimination of race, origin, gender, religious beliefs, political ideologies, sexual orientation etc. The objective of non-discrimination is critical. A second element of the WSF open meeting space strategy is the option to differentiate it from a deliberative space: The meetings of the World Social Forum do not deliberate on behalf of the World Social Forum as a body (Charter of Principle, 6). Inside the WSF space, groups, clusters of organizations, and networks can proceed by way of deliberation and propose actions platforms, but not the WSF as a whole. This means that the WSF as a body entails a form of freedom of being,
in another space than that of attaining objectified goals. In this spacetime (an in-between-time, I would say), groups celebrate their ways of being which deconstruct the logic of the Same. I have in mind feminist collectives that, at the WSF, do more than present their world vision, but continue to experience and create new forms of relationships as forms of the activities they propose. These collectives, then, do not initially strive to convince others of what they have discovered, or to set up intervention programs. They live and celebrate what they are becoming. The WSF also constitutes an open space for these experiments and celebrations. It seems to me particularly profitable to challenge the idea that we will only succeed in changing the world by attaining objectified goals. From an activist approach, we are so accustomed to the strategy of (liberal) deliberative platform with respect to collective action, that it is difficult to imagine proceeding differently. Deliberative procedures lead to decision-making, to the production of manifestos, and to the organization of joint actions. They involve instrumental reason. Open space strategy teaches us how to relativize this approach while still using it. But is it an effective strategy to change the world? There is an internal debate at the WSF on the open meeting space and it concerns the two aspects I mentioned above: the non-discrimination practice and nondeliberative space. (1) Some critics denounce the fact that the WSF does not succeed in becoming a real non-discriminatory open space, because it still entails specific exclusions. The objective of non-discrimination is not reached and, thus, remains a permanent challenge for the WSF. (2) Others stress the need and urgency to generate concrete change in the state of the world and, for that purpose, to prepare joint actions. They would like the WSF to take a stance and engage in concrete actions; they view the idea of non-deliberative space as counter-productive and ineffective. (3) Others critics some of which come from indigenous people call into question the Western turn of the logic of open space as such, as well as the discussions that surround it, which dismisses their world visions and practices. Each one of these criticisms is important and should be taken into account. In accordance with the reading that I presented above with respect to the times in which we live, I propose to locate the open meeting space in the in-between time. I defined the action of in-between time as that which is located between the logic of the Same, which continues to determine us, and relational justice, which we create by doing it. In this in-between time, during the time of creation of another possible world, action necessarily possesses a paradoxical character, since the intervention that aims at change is based on what constructs us as action subjects, at the same time as it transforms it. If we take into account the
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paradoxical character of the action of change in this in-between time, we can perceive that the WSF simultaneously is and is not (it partly reaches that point), and that it must and must not be (it adopts a transitory logic), an open meeting space. The essential point is to agree to live within this paradox. Such would be its conditions of current deployment. The open meeting space is a planetary space within the meaning of the figure suggested by Gayatri Spivak, and of what we could call a planetary theology. To the image of planetarity, the WSF adds that of open space. I suggest we combine this image with that of the inbetween time, and thus conceive a specific space-time of emancipation, as an open meeting space in the in-between time. This space-time would correspond to the continuous process of struggle against multiple dominations, which occurs by the action of individuals and groups committed against dominations everywhere on the planet. Towards a Transposition of Open Meeting Space to Liberation Theologies? What might a transposition of the open meeting space strategy generate in the field of liberation theologies? Can we conceive liberation theologies as an open space in the sense of the WSF strategy to change the world? Is this WSF strategy radically innovative, as a number of analysts argue? What might it mean for liberation theologies? Above all, I wish to keep these questions open-ended, and I will only mention three points. The first two are related to the two elements that characterize the open space: non-discrimination and non-deliberation. Firstly, a transposition of the image of open meeting space in the realm of liberation theologies provides an ethics of meeting between liberation theologies groups, that of the unreached objective of nondiscrimination amongst groups. This challenge remains open and unrelentingly so. From the WSFs practice of transformation, we may learn to reverse a much accustomed reflex which consists in pointing out, in the work of other liberation theologians, the exclusions their work entail; in order, rather, to pay attention to the paradoxes of ones own work. This supposes an ethic of generosity between those who stand on the side of liberation. Like some feminist collectives who intervene in the WSF, the WSF brings the actions into dialogue in an open space where the priority is not to raise awareness among others about what ones group knows or does, but rather to learn from others what one does not yet know or has not yet done. In this form of activism, which aims to change the world, one uses the motto learn to unlearn (Whitaker 2006). The second point, non-deliberation, relates to the strategies of change in order to create justice. It concerns a practice of utopia, a ques-
tion much-discussed in liberation theology. In the in-between time of emancipation, it seems relevant to free the action of transformation from its dependency to the quest of objectified goals without rejecting it. This produces a utopia of the present. The creation of new relations involves an ongoing process of transformation of the self and of the group which is perpetually coming into this time. One abandons the idea of a temporal utopia which expects justice to arrive in the future. In contrast, one commits to create right relationships in the present with the understanding that that action itself is ever renewed in concrete struggles. Some authors have described this kind of utopia as a concrete and circumstantial process of transformation (Rockhill and Gomez-Muller 2010). One acts, not only so that justice will come in the future, but so that it take root now in its own way, according to its own scale, and to its own partial, local and situated reading of reality. The third transposition concerns the way to conceive unity and the issue of the possibility of developing a common language within a great multiplicity. How do we articulate liberation theologys unity and great diversity a diversity that is encouraged and still growing? How might a common language simultaneously promote its unity and its great and desired multiplicity? An advantage of the open meeting space perspective, and of the related image of the space-time of liberation, would be to provide a way of naming the unity of a great diversity of practices and orientations, and to be able to do so not from afar, and without glossing over their differences. To what extent does the WSFs strategy of change propose radically new practices of transformation? The question remains open. It seems, at the least, that liberation theologies practiced in a planetary perspective are participating in this radical change. References ALTAUS-REID, Marcella (2000), Indecent Theology. Theological Perversion in Sex, Gender, and Politics, New York, Routledge. ALTAUS-REID, Marcella et Ivan Petrella (2007), Series Editors Preface, dans M. Althaus-Reid, I. Petrella et L. C. Susin, eds., Another Possible World, Londres, SCM Press (Reclaiming Liberation Theology), p. ix-x. BRAIDOTTI, Rosi (2003), Mtamorphoses. Towards a Materialist Philosophy of Becoming, Cambridge, Polity Press, 2003. ROCKHILL, Gabriel and GOMEZ-MULLER, Alfredo, eds. (2011), Politics of Culture and the Spirit of Critique : Dialogues, New York, Columbia University Press.
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KELLER, Catherine (2004), The Love of Postcolonialism : Theology in the Interstices of Empire , in C. Keller, M. Nausner et M. Rivera, eds., Postcolonial Theologies. Divinity and Empire, St. Louis, Mo., Chalice Press, p. 221-242. MOORE, Stephen D. and Mayra Rivera, eds. (2011), Planetary Loves. Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology, Lieu, Fordham University Press. SEN, Jai et Waterman, Peter (2009), ed., World Social Forum Challenging Empires, 2nd ed., Montral, Black Rose Books. SPIVAK, Gayatri (2003), Planetarity , in Death of a Discipline, New York, Columbia University Press, p. 71-102. VIGIL, Jos Mara, ed. (2010), Toward a Planetary Theology. Along the Many Paths of God, Montral, Dunamis Publishers. WHITAKER, Chico (2006), Changer le monde, [nouveau] mode d'emploi, translated from the first edition in Portugese, 2005, Paris, ditions de l'Atelier.
New perspectives in inter-religious spirituality, by Paul Knitter www.oneworld-publications.com, 240 pages.
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The Problems We Face And the Theology We Need

Jean RICHARD *
No one today needs to be reminded that the cultures of the world present deep differences in basic ideas and values about the nature of human existence and our common situation. Nevertheless, we cling to the idea that we are one human race and that our common humanity can be accessed so that it may become a basis for elementary communication among all human beings. This communication is never as easy as it may be imagined: in fact, some social scientists wonder whether any deep cross-cultural understanding is possible. One way to attempt such a communication moves through the negativities of human existence. It is surely less difficult to come to a common appreciation of what is wrong with human society than an agreement of what to do about it. A positive program relies on so many different cultural values and methods of approach that to adopt one requires negotiation and compromise all around. With that basic paradigm in mind, this essay will follow a simple structure. It begins with a list familiar to all parties because it assembles the topics of theology that have occupied us over the past decades. All parties do not appreciate these problems in the same way; some problems so dominate a region that they virtually crowd out the others. But these problems affect us all. The second part reflects on how to go about dealing with these issues. Readers from different cultures should recognize how culturally specific this essay is and be encouraged to bring their own insights to the conversation. In the third part, I propose three qualities of the theology that we need today if we are to work ensemble, in communication with each other. * Jean Richard is a theologian whose position would be compromised if her or his name were
known in the present ecclesiastical administration.
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The problems we face What is the point in producing another list of the problems we face? Such a list surely does not instruct people about issues of which they are ignorant. The problems we face today have been with us for some time. I understand this list as bearing witness; I am a theologian from a particular culture, specifically the Christian North Atlantic, testifying to what I see as a web of issues that define our common field. In what follows I will note in each area what I think is particularly neuralgic, an issue within the issue that remains an open question. Ecological concerns. By ecological concerns I refer to how the human race is dealing with the planet. Doomsday scientists continually remind us of thresholds that are either near or upon us as a species that, if not addressed, will ultimately spell the demise of humanity. Most of us do not feel the immediate affects of this corporate human crisis, but it has bearing on our common future. The area for this conversation is creation theology; our new awareness of our corporate responsibility for the world appeals to a sense of stewardship. The discussion of the problem of human resources and care of nature has as its premise the dialogue between theology and science. But thus dialogue draws us as theologians out of our comfort zone and into a new world of assumptions and, more importantly, imaginative frameworks. All our classical doctrines were formulated within a framework of classical philosophy and a nave picture of the world. Entering into this new sphere makes the implicit premises and the use of the traditional terms of classical theology not only archaic and irrelevant but also straightforwardly deceptive. Especially on the catechetical level, but also more generally in the spheres of spirituality and basic ethics, traditional theological language needs to be overhauled. Religious pluralism. I use the term globalization neutrally to point to the shrinking of our world so that in terms of time and space it has become a more interdependent place. We have become a more tightly interactive species. This has resulted in more interreligious contact and interchange, sometimes leading to more distrust and sometimes, especially in controlled situations that are found in large urban settings in the capitals of the world, more mutual understanding. In any case, the new situation calls for formal or intentional interreligious dialogue and interfaith understanding. But this situation raises some serious problems for Christian selfunderstanding because of the absolute claims that Christians make about Jesus and the church. Different theologians have addressed these issues but the church at large is far from arriving at a consensus. The discussion raises two very deep issues relative to the very basis of Christian faith.
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The one regards an understanding of the nature and character of Jesus Christ relative to other historically autonomous religions. This is complicated by a new sense of historicity where people are generally aware of the cultural bias of all understanding including religious convictions. The other dimension of this problem regards the viability of Christian mission. How are Christians able to support a Christian mission to other religious cultures that is intrinsically divisive insofar as it proposes a religious alternative? The decline of Christian mission in many parts of the world shows that this issue is being resolves by default, that is, by walking way from mission itself. This problem area thus engages fundamental issues in christology and ecclesiology (missiology) that have not been resolved. Discrimination against women. The bias against women is clearly perceptible today and is almost universal. Moreover, because it has been endemic in the patriarchal cultures of the past, the sources of Christian theology are soaked through with it. It requires a self-conscious attention of theologians to even begin to influence the churches about how deeply Christian language has been contaminated with sexism. Beneath linguistic usage, therefore, theologians have to call into question the often assumed anthropology that lies behind many of the behaviors and statements of the different churches about life in society. Concern for the poor and other marginalized groups. Liberation theologies began to address racism and systemic oppression of the poor in the 1960s in language that is analogous to that of the social gospel movement at the turn of the twentieth century. These theologies have revolutionized the discipline as a whole by the sheer fact that a privatized and socially insensitive theology is immediately transparent today. Who benefits from this theology? is a question that spontaneously operates as a norm of theologys authenticity and validity. But this lesson has not been fully learned, and theology as a discipline remains socially differentiated by class. Moreover, the promise that social suffering would become the negative situation that might unite the churches and the religions in a common resistance to it has failed to materialize. We still have not been able to express together how struggle against dehumanization constitutes an intrinsic part of Christian faith. Ecumenism. The development of ecumenism during the course of the twentieth century remains one of the proudest stories in the whole history of Christianity. Gradually and against all odds Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox churches constructed the World Council of Churches. Later, with the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church joined the ecumenical movement and opened bi-lateral dialogues with many churches. Although no one is quite ready to say ecumenism is dead, the life and the challenge of the movement seem to be depleted. On the
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one hand, several principles are almost universally accepted. For example, unity must include acceptance of autonomous spiritual traditions. But at the same time, in a pluralistic religious situation, the leadership of the churches consistently turns to conservative preservation of self-identity. Ecclesiology remains a tribal discipline with each church teaching its ministers and people how to conform to a narrow tradition and thus find an illusory safety. The challenge of ecumenism for theologians is to think ecumenically and to identify with what we share in common and unites different autonomous Christian spiritual traditions. Animation of daily life. There has always been a distinction between what might be called academic theology and practical theology, even though they exist on a continuous spectrum and are most visible only at the extremes. That is to say, at the center, a carefully argued position drawing on the sources of Christian theology can be directly relevant for human life. It would be a mistake, therefore, to forge an antithesis between truth and relevance. Yet at the same time, one can and should continually ask theology what difference does it make? and for whom? In order to survive as a publically recognized disciple, theology has to make for sense for everyday life. Theologians must find the kernel of the classic doctrines and show how they hold out principles for confronting current problems. Decline of the churches in the West. Theologians of the West are aware that Christianity is losing hold of people in educated, secularized, and consumer-oriented societies. It is probably apparent to Christian theologians outside of this milieu that they have less and less to learn from theologians who operate within it. Yet something is going on in the West may have universal valence, and I associate this with the lost of a religious dimension in academia. The secular disciples not only do not refer to religion, their practitioners seem to be hostile to it. This situation has contributed to the rise of a notion of spirituality that is distinct from and even separable from religion. All of theology in the West today is challenged to show the humanistic relevance of faith and to explain how the churches are servants of humanity and not themselves. How does theology deal with these issues? Before taking up the theology we need to address these issues, I offer a view of the discipline of theology that lies behind the qualities I highlight. Theology is a pluralistic discipline; these reflections are not meant to be normative but to be transparent about the premises operative in this essay. Theology is frequently explained through the etymology of the word as talk about God. But eighty percent of a theological library deals
with other subjects. Although theology is not exclusively about God, neither do the human dilemmas that give rise to theology in the end constitute it. A more adequate description of theology would recognize that it can deal with anything, but that its method rests upon a commitment of faith whose object illumines the relationship of a person to the subject matter. Christian theology reflects on reality through the lens of God as revealed in the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. The audience of theology usually consists of those who share a given faith, but it can reach others in an attempt to give a reasonable account of that faith. The formal quality that defines theology, namely, the faith that supports it, supplies the specific character of the treatment of the problems that have been enumerated. Some of the problems outlined above are quite secular in character, and disciplines other than theology deal with them. For example, theology is not going to offer relief from poverty; frequently the election of a socialist government or the passage of a single law will do more for the poor than the whole history of theology. The expertise of theology is not social amelioration. And theology reduced to moralizing about what human beings should or must do results in no theology at all. But at the same time, theology deals with understanding the mutual relationship between human beings and ultimate reality. Moreover, according to Christian faith, that relationship to God entails a personal and social responsibility relative to other human beings that gets played out in action. Christian faith carries an ethical responsibility, and that responsibility is intrinsically social so that it cannot be reduced to a private interpersonal morality. Therefore these polar tensions are always in play: on the one hand, theology is not ethics, yet, on the other hand, theology serves ethics as knowledge serves human living; on the one hand, theology cannot be reduced to solving human problems, yet, on the other hand, theology that does not relate to human dilemmas is irrelevant. A formula that includes these tensions might be something like this: theology offers a transcendent vision of reality that supports constructive solutions to the human dilemmas that we encounter. Finally, theology as it is understood here does not depend on ecclesiastical authority. It depends rather on the sources of faith, namely, scripture, tradition, and the communitys experience of scripture and tradition in the present situation. Rather than being dependent on any particular churchs authority structure, theology is meant to criticize whether that authority is authentically representing the faith in the light of Christian sources. Thus theology is thoroughly ecumenical; the corps of theologians across denominations should be the critics of ecclesial existence.
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The theology we need Given the problems we face and the broad description of the discipline just offered, how might we describe the theology that we need today. Theology of course will take on different characteristics according to various cultures and the exact contours of the problems it addresses. The qualities that are offered here, therefore, are broadly conceived. But they are not without relevance. They are meant to counter their opposites and respond to a common situation that binds not only Christian but all human beings together. Searching. The first quality of the theology we need I call "searching." The public theology of the churches almost always appears to be too sure of itself. It lacks the questioning attitude of most ordinary and especially educated Christians. To many it does not seem authentic. The idea of a "searching theology" addresses what might appear as theological arrogance. The phrase describes what theology has to be today if it is to speak to the consciousness of Christians and those to whom we witness. A searching theology recognizes the transcendence of its object, the incomprehensible and absolutely mysterious character of ultimate reality. Because the horizon of infinite reality always recedes from our theological advances, and because other faiths surely have religious truths that are not found in the Christian tradition, theology should always exhibit the attitude of a people who are searching and learning. But how can theology be searching if it rests on the assurance of faith in Jesus Christ as God's absolute word of truth? This is a delicate question and any appreciation of a response will be influenced by the direction one is traveling at any given time: for example, from certitude toward doubt or from doubt toward new convictions. But can we not all agree with our tradition that God is God and not readily available to our everyday language, that the many signs of God's absence rival God's presence and cannot be dismissed with ready formulas, that others too have religious beliefs different from our own that cannot be empty of all value? Can we not internalize and display in our conduct that, if we cling to Christ, to doubt is not to lose faith, and to search for more light is itself a kind of faith? "I believe. Help my unbelief" (Mk 9:24). To welcome the authenticity of others, including their religious faiths, is not to betray Christ but, as Matthew's Jesus proposes, to find him (Mt 25:31-46). Narrative. Our theology should have a narrative character. All experience occurs in time and a place. It has a before and an after. Experiences may seem sudden, contingent, and utterly serendipitous, but they would not have happened at all without the prehistory that brought a person or a community to this time and place. Significant experiences also live on; they reverberate in a person over time; through human action
they generate effects. This is obvious in both traumatic and "peak" experiences. But protracted experiences, too, like being socialized in a vibrant liturgical community, may shape a people and their stories decisively. Our faith, then, formed in and through the beliefs of the community, is a living thing and thus has a story: it expands, grows strong, gets ill, confronts challenges, matures. The turn to experience reveals that the faith of each one has a personal narrative identity. And the faith of every church, large or small, reflects at any given time and place the conclusion of its story to date and the prospects of an immediate and long-term future. This raising up the narrative character of faith reinforces the historical drama of the shifting faith of people. Generally the stories of a community constitute its identity. This is true of the Christian community as well. Scripture is itself a narrative, not an analytical synopsis of beliefs. The books of both Testaments in so many different genres tell the story of a community's encountering God, experiencing God as Word and Spirit within itself, and recognizing God's power and revelation in Jesus. That story continues. The discipline of history tells the story of how the bible lives and grows within the ongoing story of the church. By a correlation and fusion of these narratives with the stories of people today systematic theologians create new languages to tell the story today. Practical theologians help us to preach, celebrate, and live the story together. This reflection on the narrative character of faith and its tradition should help us realize that being a community of faith and being persons of faith are much more fluid than is often depicted in the individual churches. It gives a new perspective on faith lived in history. We should not think of Christian faith as a fixed deposit of beliefs painfully adapting to new historical contexts and often seeming to yield ground in an undignified manner. Rather, faith should be considered a continuous existential narrative of people in history, with an identity, but always searching to find new ways to understand and live faithfully within the mystery of existence itself. Generative of a spirituality of engagement. The theology we need should generate a spirituality of engagement. By "spirituality" I mean the experience of conscious involvement in the project of life-integration through self-transcendence toward the ultimate value one perceives. 1 This definition of Sandra Schneiders is inclusive, it integrates all aspects of human life, it transcends religion, and applies to all people who live with self-conscious depth. Spirituality used to be a Christian term in the West, more Catholic than Protestant, but it has jumped out of the
1
Sandra Schneiders, Religion vs. Spirituality: A Contemporary Conundrum, Spiritus 3 (2003), 166.
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Christian sphere and into general secular culture. The most disenchanted of people today want to be spiritual. I want to co-opt this term from secular society and put it back to work for Christianity in a new way. Christian spirituality consists in our human lives lived before God as God is revealed in Jesus Christ. The closest description in the Reformers for what I mean by "spirituality" appears in Calvin's Institutes as the Christian life. 2 Spirituality embraces the whole of Christian life, not just prayer, worship, and sacrament. It includes the internal discipline described by a theology of the cross, the guidance of law, the use of creatures and the things of this world according to God's creative intent, and Calvin's famous formula for stewardship. In sum, Christian spirituality refers to the way Christians live, as individuals and as a group, in church, in the family, at work, in society, and more generally in the world. This is the existential reality; the discipline of spirituality studies it. Such a spirituality must be personal, but it can never be merely private. Christian spirituality transcends individuals and becomes an ecclesial spirituality with public consequences. Such a corporate spirituality is always socially engaged, too often by silence and support of the status quo. For example, what is the church's stance and rationale for it on ecological issues, religious pluralism, women, the poor, and other marginalized groups? But how do we get from God, as God is revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, to a social engagement that has strictly religious value? There are several routes that lead directly there, not least those developed by political and liberation theologies. But let me note the move made in this direction by Ignatius of Loyola, contemporary of Luther and like Calvin an alumnus of the College of Montaigu in Paris, succeeding him there by a matter of weeks if not days. Ignatius had a high christology. But rather than introduce Jesus only as a divine figure, Ignatius presents him to the person making his Spiritual Exercises as a leader to be followed. 3 Unlike the classic work, The Imitation of Christ, which counseled withdrawal from the world, Ignatius presents Jesus' leadership as drawing the Christian into engagement with the world. The leader proposes a cause marked by high ideals and asks for a militant active engagement in the battle between good and
2
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. by John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960), Book III, Chapters 6-10. Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius, ed. by George E. Ganss (Chicago: Loyola Press, 1992). These exercises are essentially meditations on the ministry of Jesus as presented in the gospels stories.
evil. In effect Ignatius consciously and explicitly highlights the humanity of Jesus and the historical character of his mission so that we can join the project. With this shift, Ignatius in several respects transformed medieval piety and left a lasting legacy for modernity and postmodernity as well. The rearrangement can be seen at three points. The first is the transformation of christology into a narrative form. The Spiritual Exercises consists essentially in following the stories of Jesus' ministry through death and into resurrection. Second, Ignatius does not suppress Jesus' divinity, but he highlights Jesus' humanity. A divine leader cannot really lead human beings. Ignatius presents Jesus as a leader participating in the hardships of those who follow. Third, these followers do not in the first instance relate to Jesus passively as their divine savior; they relate to him actively by joining and following him. The almost rote religious relationship to Jesus conceived on the model of therapist and client is broken and transcended, so that one relates to Jesus as companion and coworker. One approaches Jesus not in the first instance to get something from him but as a searcher to see what he sees in order to do what he does. The one approaching Jesus does not pose questions to Jesus who has the answers, or problems to which he has the divine solution. One comes looking for a direction, searching, and Jesus points a way; one considers the world's problems and Jesus proposes a corporate project and movement that will take them on. * * *
Let me conclude with a summary response to the question, what is the theology we need in the face of the problems we face? I take for granted that theology fails as a discipline if it is not faithful to our originating story, attentive to the history which defines our present identity, and critically appreciative of the intellectual demands for understanding today. But we need more. The problems we face are far-ranging, and we cannot face them without ecumenical solidarity, interreligious cooperation, and collaboration with all human beings who may or may not be religious at all. We need a searching theology, critical but modest, and never triumphant before the transcendent face of absolute mystery and human suffering all around. We need a narrative theology that merges the story of Jesus with the actual particular stories of people today. The point of the narrative character of theology lies in the concreteness of every persons and every groups story. Theology has to fit into the story of each person and resonate with the history of every group that embraces it. This forces
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Christian theology to keep in view its roots in the narrative of the ministry of Jesus and how the rule of God that he preached engages concrete human life everywhere. We need a theology that generates an activist spirituality of social engagement. The basic spirituality of Christianity is activist; it is a way of engaging life. The broad inclusive definition of spirituality given here makes it function relative to theology the way the terms experience and praxis of faith are often used. Spirituality is the basis of theology and that which theology is mean to energize. This spirituality will unite Christians with God by following Jesus Christ in service of the values of the reign of God. See, Revelation says, the home of God is among mortals (Rev 21:3).
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Elementi per unantropologia messianica

Giuseppe RUGGIERI Italia
Un deficit teologico Nella riflessione teologica prevale una concezione delluomo ancora ispirata fondamentalmente ad Agostino, quella del cor inquietum, delluomo mosso dal desiderio di Dio. Questa concezione ha molti meriti: essa permette anzitutto una comprensione della rivelazione di Dio come risposta al bisogno delluomo. Tuttavia essa non sufficiente. Infatti questa concezione ignora strutturalmente la storia. Essa rimanda luomo a se stesso e alladempimento del suo desiderio. Ci che accade nella storia, soprattutto la presenza del male, appare del tutto secondario. Il male visto soprattutto come limite che rende attualmente impossibile lattuazione del mio desiderio. La Scrittura ebraico-cristiana invece integra il desiderio umano di Dio e per cos dire lo incastra in un contesto storico collettivo determinato dalla presenza del male come negazione del disegno creatore. Il desiderio delluomo non cio solitario, ma fa parte intima della apokaradokia della creazione tutta che aspetta la rivelazione dei figli di Dio. Il termine greco, usato da Paolo in Rom 8, contiene un ap privativo e quindi apokaradokia significa primariamente lassenza di speranza. la disperazione per la contraddizione alla quale la creazione stata sottoposta che genera lattesa (cf. Lampe, A Patristik Greek Lexikon, alla voce apokaradokew). La concezione esclusivamente personalistica del desiderio delluomo non ci fa comprendere quindi il senso della fede in Ges Cristo, cio in Ges Messia. Cosa significasse il termine Messia e lattesa del Messia nel giudaismo al tempo di Ges non molto chiaro. Esistevano infatti diverse concezioni sulla venuta del Messia e sul ruolo che doveva giocare. E sembra che Ges abbia rifiutato per s il titolo. Eppure la comunit dei primi discepoli non ha esitato un istante a considerarlo come il Messia e a riassumere il contenuto della propria fede nella confessione che Ges
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il Messia. E questo a buon diritto. Infatti il fondo comune delle varie concezioni del Messia consisteva nel fatto che egli doveva giocare un ruolo centrale nellavvento del Regno di Dio. E Ges aveva identificato lavvento del Regno con la sua vicenda personale. Il Messia (sacerdotale? regale? sofferente? Figlio delluomo escatologico? ) avrebbe comunque operato la liberazione del male che opprime luomo e introdotto lavvento di unera (terrena?, celeste?) nella quale Dio avrebbe instaurato il suo dominio sulla creazione tutta. In particolare erano i circoli apocalittici che aspettavano una rottura dellordine presente che solo un intervento di Dio avrebbe potuto operare. E Ges ha in gran parte mutuato il loro linguaggio. Lesperienza delle apparizioni di Ges dopo la sua morte cre nei discepoli la convinzione che effettivamente in Ges il Regno di Dio si era avvicinato in maniera definitiva, irreversibile. A questa fede in Ges Messia non corrisponde tuttavia, nella comune coscienza dei cristiani, una concezione antropologica corrispondente, se non in rivoli secondari della tradizione cristiana, prevalentemente nella vita vissuta delle donne e degli uomini santi. Il compito da affrontare allora quello di formulare alcune linee di unantropologia messianica che faccia tesoro dellesperienza della chiesa impegnata nella liberazione dal male e che recuperi i tratti fondamentali della vicenda messianica di Ges di Nazaret. La domanda pu essere cos formulata: qual limmagine delluomo e della donna, caratterizzata dalla sequela e dalla imitazione di Ges Messia? Le viscere del Messia Ges si collocato in maniera originale dentro lattesa del Regno di Dio comune ai gruppi apocalittici. Progressivamente egli ha preso coscienza della propria fine e del proprio fallimento storico, ma vissuto sempre in una partecipazione sofferente alla condizione del suo popolo, di quelle pecore perdute della casa di Israele a cui si sentito inviato. Se cio lorizzonte di Ges stato quello dellattesa apocalittica, stato daltra parte tipico della sua azione il fatto che egli abbia teso ad anticipare il carattere non catastrofico, ma positivo della venuta del Regno. Per questo nella sua predicazione lannuncio del Regno che viene inscindibile dallazione della cacciata dei demoni e della guarigione dalle malattie. Il vangelo predicato da Ges infatti una parola di liberazione e di riammissione nella convivenza umana. Nella risposta agli inviati del Battista, Ges sottolinea che venuto per adempiere la profezia di Isaia sui ciechi che ricuperano la vista, gli storpi che camminano e i poveri a cui annunciata la buona novella (Mt 11,2-6); ugualmente nel discorso nella sinagoga di Nazaret egli si presenta come colui che adempie la promessa di liberazione di Is 61 (Lc 4,16-20).
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Questo annuncio e questattivit di liberazione dal male che opprime luomo, nelluomo Ges originato ancora, e questo ai fini dellantropologia messianica fondamentale, da una partecipazione alla sofferenza umana che dobbiamo chiamare fisica, corporea, giacch essa non si limita a un sentimento spirituale, ma si esprime anche nei movimenti stessi del suo corpo. Il termine che usano i vangeli per designare questa partecipazione alla sofferenza umana da parte di Ges infatti quello del verbo splanchnizomai (alla lettera: commuoversi fin nelle viscere) applicato esclusivamente a Ges (con pochissime eccezioni che confermano luso cristologico). Ricordo velocemente le occorrenze del termine, reso per lo pi dai traduttori con un innocuo aver piet, aver compassione:
Mt 9,36 (par Mc 6,34): Vedendo le folle, si commosse fin nelle viscere, perch erano stanche e sfinite come pecore che non hanno pastore. Mt 14,14: Ges, smontato dalla barca, vide una gran folla; si commosse fin nelle viscere e ne guar gli ammalati. Mt 15,32 (par Mc 8,2): Ges, chiamati a s i suoi discepoli, disse: Io mi commuovo fin nelle viscere per questa folla; perch gi da tre giorni sta con me e non ha da mangiare; non voglio rimandarli digiuni, affinch non vengano meno per strada. Mt 18,27: Il signore di quel servo, commosso fin nelle viscere, lo lasci andare e gli condon il debito. Mt 20,34: Allora Ges, commosso fin nelle viscere, tocc i loro occhi e in quell'istante ricuperarono la vista e lo seguirono (i 2 ciechi di Gerico). Ometto qui di citare per esteso le altre occorrenze sinottiche (Mc 1,41; Mc 9,22; Lc 7,13:13; Lc 10,33 nel contesto della parabola del buon samaritano, dove possiamo vedere un esempio di antropologia messianica); Lc 15,20.
Il quadro apocalittico messianico cos modificato da Ges, ma non annullato. Ges attende ancora levento finale che comporter la distruzione di questo mondo. Inequivocabili sono le sue parole sul Figlio delluomo che verr sulle nubi per giudicare il mondo (immagine ripresa da Daniele). Ma egli sposa la visione del messianismo apocalittico in due tempi: la venuta del Messia non coincide con il momento finale, ma introduce un periodo penultimo e anticipatore, dove la sua compassione, la sua commozione viscerale per la sofferenza delluomo, si traduce in prassi di liberazione. Lattesa imminente della venuta del Regno allora solo il risvolto linguistico della sua partecipazione viscerale alla sofferenza umana. Ges non si illuso, ma ha partecipato con tutto se stesso, fin nelle viscere, allattesa della creazione sottomessa controvoglia alla vanit e ha pensato come imminente il compimento di questattesa.
Per unantropologia messianica Unantropologia messianica, immersa nella storia degli uomini ha quindi un suo orizzonte, quello stesso del Ges storico, dove al peccatore si annuncia la misericordia, al povero la buona novella, al sofferente la liberazione, alla vittima la fine del mondo che lha cancellata dalla faccia della terra. Il suo orizzonte non quello etico, ma quello del vangelo. Non gi che ignori lingiustizia, ma al contrario si oppone ad essa tramite la partecipazione al dolore degli uomini che ne sono oppressi. Unadeguata descrizione di questa antropologia, che unermeneutica critica della storia tutta posta sotto il dominio del peccato, quella di Rom 8, 1629. Mi si permetta qui una brevissima e sommaria interpretazione di questo brano, che integra il motivo della partecipazione alla sofferenza del Messia con quello della partecipazione alle sofferenze del mondo. Infatti, per un verso la partecipazione alla gloria del Messia, da parte dei figli di Dio e coeredi quindi del Messia, condizionata dalla partecipazione delle sue sofferenze: se patiamo con lui (sympaschomen) saremo coeredi della sua gloria (v. 17). Ma al v. 18 Paolo non parla delle sofferenze del Cristo, della sua morte etc. Apparentemente egli cambia argomento, perch parla invece delle sofferenze della creazione e degli stessi figli di Dio. Che la sofferenza dei figli di Dio possa tuttavia essere intesa solo come il con-patire dei credenti con Cristo, forse possibile, ma questo non pu valere della sofferenza della creazione, delle sofferenze del momento presente. Infatti la creazione non soffre per partecipare alle sofferenze di Cristo, ma perch stata sottomessa controvoglia per il volere di un misterioso colui che lha sottomessa (ma si tratta di Adamo o, secondo altre tradizioni presenti anchesse nella Bibbia, degli angeli stessi che, con il loro peccato hanno consegnato la creazione alla caducit) . Si tratta di una sofferenza subita, della sofferenza apocalittica per le conseguenze del rifiuto del progetto iniziale di Dio sullumanit. Ma allora qui si parla della sofferenza del mondo. Il con-patire con il Messia equivalente al con-patire con la creazione tutta. I vangeli, come abbiamo visto, ci parlano del Cristo come di colui che non solo patisce per salvare il mondo, per redimerlo, ma che anzitutto patisce con il mondo, fin nelle viscere. Quando Paolo specifica il senso di questa compassione comune, si serve di due verbi che si trovano in questo brano soltanto in tutto il NT: systenazein, synodinein (gemere assieme, giacere assieme nelle doglie). Lidea quella di una fecondit del patire assieme agli altri. Questo patire con gli altri, porta frutto, cos come le sofferenze della donna durante il parto permettono il venire al mondo di un bambino. Si comprende cos latteggiamento messianico di Ges, il motivo per cui gli autori del NT lo abbiano considerato come il Messia sofferente. Ges ha portato vicino a noi, irreversibilmente disponibile
a noi, il Regno di Dio perch, partecipando alla sofferenza del mondo, ne ha reso possibile la liberazione: questo il senso del guarire come momento essenziale del suo annuncio, assieme alla liberazione da Satana e al perdono dei peccati, con un potere di cui ci ha reso partecipi. Egli dimostra questo potere nellepisodio relativo alla guarigione del paralitico di Cafarnao (Mt 9, 1-7 parr.), ma questo potere di rimettere i peccati anche dato ai discepoli tutti in Mt 18, 18, a conclusione della descrizione della prassi della comunit nellammettere il peccatore. Questultimo brano forse non appartiene al Ges storico, ma una testimonianza eloquente dellautoconsapevolezza dei primi discepoli. Homo patiens A partire da qui possiamo allora delineare qualche tratto essenziale dellantropologia messianica. Non si tratta di una teoria sulla liberazione del mondo dalle sue contraddizioni. Si tratta in primo luogo del legame che mediante il corpo, mediante le sue viscere, intese come luogo delle emozioni pi profonde, lega ogni uomo e ogni donna allaltro. un legame originario, che anteriore ad ogni apprezzamento etico o religioso. quel legame che evoca il brano di Giobbe 6, 14-15, dove ad un tempo traspare la nostalgia del legame tradito e la durezza del giudizio su questo tradimento: Alluomo distrutto dovuta fedelt (hesed) dagli amici, anche se tradisce la fede in Shaddaj. I miei fratelli mi hanno deluso come un wadi secco, si sono dileguati come i torrenti dai loro letti. (trad. G. Ravasi). Il mio corpo e quello dellaltro sono legati, comunicano nella gioia e nella sofferenza. Questo legame originario e, se il nostro cuore non indurito, esso si impone da s. Il legame non la conseguenza di unidea, di una considerazione anche religiosa. Esso esprime la solidariet della creazione tutta nella quale, anche materialmente, trasfuso lamore del suo Creatore. Giobbe afferma che nemmeno Dio pu essere un motivo per distruggere questo legame. Esso riflesso della sua fedelt (hesed). Limmagine delluomo che patisce, homo patiens, rende in maniera sufficiente la profondit anche teologica del legame. Infatti il verbo pati ha il significato originario di subire, essere soggetto, essere schiavo (G. Semerano, Le origini della cultura europea, vol. 2, p. 507). Lo statuto umano dellessere legato allaltro ripreso nellesortazione neotestamentaria a essere soggetti gli uni agli altri a imitazione di Cristo che si fece obbediente fino alla morte di croce. E Benedetto, nella sua Regola, pone come obbligo dei monaci non solo lobbedienza allabate, ma a tutti: scientes per hanc oboedientiae viam, se ituros ad Deum (cap. 71). Non lorgoglio, ma lumilt contrassegna luomo messianico, che commosso fin nelle viscere dalla sofferenza dei fratelli e delle sorelle e, come il
Messia Ges, trova la forza per sconfiggere il male nella profondit della condivisione di questa sofferenza. Appare qui tutta la profondit del pensiero dellebreo W. Benjamin e della sua lettura messianica della storia stessa: C un quadro di Klee che si chiama Angelus Novus. Vi rappresentato un angelo che sembra in procinto di allontanarsi da qualcosa su cui ha fisso lo sguardo. I suoi occhi sono spalancati, la bocca aperta, e le ali sono dispiegate. Langelo della storia deve avere questo aspetto. Ha il viso rivolto al passato. L dove davanti a noi appare una catena di avvenimenti, egli vede ununica catastrofe, che ammassa incessantemente macerie su macerie e le scaraventa ai suoi piedi. Egli vorrebbe ben trattenersi, destare i morti e riconnettere i frantumi. Ma dal paradiso soffia una bufera, che si impigliata nelle sue ali, ed cos forte che langelo non pu pi chiuderle. Questa bufera lo spinge inarrestabilmente nel futuro, a cui egli volge le spalle, mentre cresce verso il cielo il cumulo delle macerie davanti a lui. Ci che noi chiamiamo il progresso, questa bufera (Sul concetto di storia, tesi IX). Luomo messianico volge il suo sguardo ai vinti ed contrario ad ogni ideologia del progresso costruita sulla vittoria dei forti a danno dei deboli. Piuttosto non dimentica i vinti e i poveri, ma si carica della loro sofferenza, non toglie lo sguardo dalle loro piaghe e cerca nella solidariet vissuta con essi la liberazione dal male. Homo orans Il Messia Ges ha pregato spesso: solo, in sinagoga o al tempio con gli altri, prima di fare un miracolo. Ha insegnato ai suoi discepoli a pregare. Giacch il Messia ha strutturalmente lo sguardo rivolto a Dio e luomo messianico, che preso dalla sofferenza del mondo, rimane rivolto a Dio, prega, proprio in forza della sua partecipazione alla disperazione della creazione che attende il Regno. Prega anzitutto con la preghiera che ci ha insegnato il Messia Ges e con la sua invocazione fondamentale: venga il tuo Regno. A tal proposito sempre provocatorio il pensiero di Tertulliano. Nel suo commento al Padre nostro egli scrive: Come mai alcuni chiedono un prolungamento del tempo, dal momento che il regno di Dio, per il cui avvento preghiamo, tende alla consumazione del tempo? Desideriamo di regnare al pi presto e di non servire pi a lungo. Ma anche se non fosse stato prescritto nella preghiera di chiedere lavvento del regno, pronunceremmo spontaneamente quelle parole per affrettarci allabbraccio della nostra speranza. Le anime dei martiri sotto laltare gridano al Signore disonorandolo (sottolineatura mia) : Fino a quando, o Signore, non vendicherai il nostro sangue sugli abitanti della terra? La loro vendetta infatti regolata a partire dalla fine del mondo (De oratione, 5).
Il testo di Tertulliano riprende, forzandolo con lintroduzione del termine invidia = disonore, il testo dellApocalisse 6, 9-11: Quando l'Agnello apr il quinto sigillo, vidi sotto l'altare le anime di coloro che furono immolati a causa della parola di Dio e della testimonianza che gli avevano resa. E gridarono a gran voce: Fino a quando, Sovrano, tu che sei santo e verace, non farai giustizia e non vendicherai il nostro sangue sopra gli abitanti della terra?. Allora venne data a ciascuno di essi una veste candida e fu detto loro di pazientare ancora un poco, finch fosse completo il numero dei loro compagni di servizio e dei loro fratelli che dovevano essere uccisi come loro. Ma si potrebbe ricordare Lc 18, 1-8. Pregare il Padre nostro significa allora associarsi alle vittime per amore della giustizia, che esigono vendetta da Dio. una richiesta che precede e accompagna quella dellinvocazione del perdono e limpegno a perdonare da parte nostra. Luomo messianico rivolto a Dio con gli occhi delle vittime del male le quali, anche se vinte e scomparse dalla scena di questo mondo, non si rassegnano a scomparire dalla memoria di Dio e degli uomini. Chi ama inoltre pregare ogni giorno con i salmi dIsraele, quei salmi stessi con i quali pregava il Messia Ges di Nazaret, spesso deve far fronte a gravi problemi di comprensione. Accanto ai salmi che riesce a fare suoi, per esprimere il proprio desiderio di Dio e del compimento della sua volont, si trova a pronunciare parole, versetti, salmi interi che difficilmente riescono a veicolare il suo stato danimo: Il giusto godr nel vedere la vendetta, laver i piedi nel sangue degli empi (Sal 57); Figlia di Babilonia devastatrice, beato chi ti render quanto ci hai fatto! Beato chi afferrer i tuoi piccoli e li sbatter contro la pietra (Sal 136). E gli esempi si possono accumulare. Com possibile che colui il quale per esprimere la sua brama di Dio ricorre allimmagine dellanelito delle cerve verso i corsi dacqua (Sal 41), prorompa poi in sentimenti di vendetta efferata e disumana, fino a immaginare di sbattere contro la roccia un bambino innocente? La risposta pi facile a questa domanda potrebbe essere quella secondo cui alcuni Salmi o altre parti dellAT rappresentano uno stadio imperfetto della rivelazione di Dio, superato poi dal NT. Io ritengo questa risposta pericolosa, molto vicina alleresia di Marcione che rinnegava lAT in nome della rivelazione del Dio Amore. Se invece partiamo dallunit dei due Testamenti, sempre proclamata dalla chiesa, e consideriamo quindi come autentica parola del Dio Padre di Ges Messia anche quelle richieste di vendetta, dobbiamo cercare la risposta in unaltra direzione. Se Dio cio accoglie come parole sue le parole di un uomo che grida vendetta al suo cospetto, significa che egli fa sua la storia di questuomo. Nessun frammento della storia umana infatti
estraneo a Dio. Nei salmi non prega soltanto il singolo, ma lumanit tutta che porta dentro questa preghiera le sue sofferenze e la sua gioia, la sua speranza e la sua disperazione. La storia tutta visitata da Dio, anche quella dellabiezione, anche quella della lontananza da Dio. I salmi, prima ancora che preghiera del singolo credente, del popolo dIsraele e delle chiese, sono preghiere di tutta lumanit che anela di contemplare il volto di Dio dentro la propria situazione. Solo pregando a nome di tutti gli uomini, noi possiamo pregare i salmi, non con i nostri sentimenti ma facendo nostri i sentimenti di Dio che accoglie i desideri degli uomini. Luomo messianico colui che apre il suo cuore a tutta lampiezza della presenza di Dio nella storia e quindi il suo sguardo cerca di contenere e di rivolgere a Dio lo sguardo di ogni uomo e di ogni donna. Epilogo sulla prassi messianica La prassi messianica di Francesco dAssisi e di Vincenzo dei Paoli o, in tempi vicini a noi, di Oscar Romero, Marianella Garcia, Teresa di Calcutta, Rutilio Grande, dei gesuiti assassinati a San Salvador, dei trappisti assassinati a Tibhirine in Algeria, del mio amico Ronaldo Muoz e di tanti altri uomini e donne messianiche, non corrisponde mai ad un modello astratto, ad una teoria della liberazione. Non corrisponde nemmeno ad un modello unico. Essa fu suscitata e continua ancora ad essere suscitata in altri uomini e in altre donne dallo Spirito del Messia, lo stesso che lo spinse durante la sua vita terrena ad annunciare il Regno e a renderlo vicino agli uomini e alle donne del suo tempo. Let dello Spirito, come aveva intuito Gioacchino da Fiore, non il futuro, ma la soglia alla quale introduce let del Padre e let del Figlio, il tempo in cui il Regno si avvicina, senza essere mai passato. Ma lo Spirito spira come vuole, lo Spirito della libert. Per comprendere la logica della prassi di questi uomini e di queste donne occorrerebbe penetrare nel loro cuore e conoscere i movimenti delle loro viscere.
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Capitalism, Coloniality, Liberation

Gearld BOODOO Duquesne University, Pittsburgh USA
Capitalism Let me begin my demythologizing by addressing the use of the term global. I prefer to use the term world following my brothers and sisters who insist on using terms that imply plurality of contexts and epistemic locations. The myth of global capitalism is just that, a myth, because it requires persons in varying contexts to buy into the understanding that it is the only economic, cultural, social and structural form of shaping relationships that can both address and solve our worlds problems. That these problems tend to be understood and presented in mainly economic terms hides the wider and more far reaching effects of its cultural and identity forming (or deforming) aspects. Coming from the Caribbean, this has been apparent in the modern projects of colonization and the current neo and post-colonial contexts. The latter terms can be misleading in so far as they seem to hint that the project of colonization is over. In one sense it, in the sense that there no longer are colonizing countries physically occupying countries and territories in the Caribbean. But the mentalities and material structures put in place and left behind by the colonizers still remain in effect and are still occupying the living conditions of Caribbean people. This is what postcolonial and decolonial thinkers investigate with the view to changing the epistemic and ontological location of people in the region in order to change and shift the parameters of identities forged through capitalism and slavery. It is very difficult to dispute that religions which came with the colonizers aided and abetted (with some exceptions among their ranks) this process of colonization. However, strangely enough, religion did and does offer spaces for decolonial thinking and activity and have been used
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to reshape and ground Caribbean identities locally. This spans the mixed religious expressions of Vodun, Santeria, Pocomania, Rastafarianism, Winty, Obeah as well as the Shouter Baptist and Independent Church movements moving through evangelical and established Christian churches as well as some Hindu revival movements and Muslim brotherhoods. Since I am most familiar with the Catholic context in the non-latin Caribbean, I will limit my representative remarks to this area. In this area, theories in the 50s and 60s about the nature of our problems dealt with the economic nature of our servitude and presented solutions along these lines. Most thinkers at that time were influenced by Marxist analyses but they also thought that religion, as a de facto expression of the lives of people, needed to be taken into account when considering revolutionary change. One noted exception to this trend was Frantz Fanon with his striking analysis on coloniality in his texts Black Skin White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth. Here Fanon unmasks and exposes the complex roles and identities that get shaped and warped in the contexts of colonization and conflict. Of particular interest was/is the problem of race, which still plays a role in the shaping of Caribbean identity and society. This of course is not straightforward and is also linked to economic and social status but the basis of what is considered authentic identity is not solely or primarily economic but a type of racial belonging that is at the basis of a cultural reality which is foreign. That this foreign culture is the ground of desire for the formation of Caribbean culture creates a love-hate relationship with and among Caribbean people where we have a splitting of identity as Homi Bhabhai 1 calls it, because the otherness that circumscribes the process of identity is both desired yet at the same time loathed as the agency of dehumanization. This is what Guyanese intellectual Wilson Harris calls a dislocation created in the consciousness of the Caribbean person as a result of a cleavage in the psyche of such persons because of an absent historical consciousness, a lost memory, a lack of recollection of traditions of origin. In some sense continuity of tradition in the Caribbean, spiritual and otherwise, is a series of discontinuities pulled together in eclectic fashion, but shaped and influenced by the overriding condition of coloniality. To my mind, this is the real effect of capitalism in the Caribbean and indicates a wider cultural problematic than that which economic perspectives consider. I do not deny the real and important effects of economic exploitation and the very real and legitimate efforts to strive for economic self-determination. But I do want to point out that such efforts still have to provide a wider context for meaningful identity negotiation and this is where I think religion and religious reflection can be of some help.
1
The Location of Culture, Routledge, New York, 1994, p. 63.
Capitalism, Coloniality, Liberation 131
Having said that, I do want to also say that religions themselves (and there is great range with regard to this) even those that are considered, or consider themselves forms of resistance, also have to undergo a process of decolonization if the meaning systems offered and inhabited by their followers can shape epistemic, ontological, material and spiritual locations geared towards, and creative of, liberation. As a believer myself, I am painfully aware of the dehumanization that occurs in the name of religion. I am also aware of the power of religion to mobilize person, so how do we use this to insure greater humanization and liberation? Coloniality One of the first aspects we need to consider is how to struggle against systems that we inhabit and benefit from at the same time that we are seeking to change them? It is a poignant question since most of the theoretical framework for these issues come from intellectuals who inhabit and benefit from the structures they critique and indeed find their fame in the very centers of the systems they critique. As Jon Sobrino asks in his Christ the Liberator, how can those of us who are not victims actually take the epistemic and ontological location of the victim? Here the reflections on coloniality can be helpful. There are three main points I want to make with regard to decolonial thinking. The first is that we need to understand that modernity has created a world system that for the first time in the history of the world has linked all (or virtually all) parts of globe and subsumed them into a connected system. Along with this comes the realization that not everyone and everywhere have benefited from these connections. There is a dark side to this modern system of coloniality so that you have those who benefit from the modern project, those who are inside modernity and wield the power of modernity and who can be too easily blinded to the millions who are negatively affected by modernity, who are outside. This outside of modernity is termed the colonial difference. By colonial difference is meant the place and experiences of those who have been the object of inferiorization on the part of others who, in the midst of the colonial endeavor, have come to consider themselves to be superior. It is a place and experience constituted as an exteriority to modernity according to a negative logic (a logic of inferiorization). 2 Second, there is a coloniality of power 3 which privileges and enshrines Euro-American thinking by constituting itself in (i) the clas2
Gregory A. Banazak & Luis Reyes Ceja, The Challenge and Promise of Decolonial Thought to Biblical Interpretation, Postscripts 4.1 (2008) 113127, p. 116. Cf. Anibal Quijano, Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Social Classification, in Mabel Morana, Enrique Dussel, Carlos A. Jauregui, eds., Coloniality at Large: Latin America and the Postcolonial Debate, Duke University Press, Durham, 2008.
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sification and reclassification of the planet population (the concept of culture becomes crucial in this task) (ii) institutional structures which function to articulate and manage such classifications (state, university, church etc.) (iii) the definition of spaces appropriate to such goals (iv) an epistemological perspective that articulates, legitimates and channels its production of knowledge. Walter Mignolo explains that Eurocentrism becomes, therefore, a metaphor to describe the coloniality of power from the perspective of subalternity. From the epistemological perspective, European local knowledge and histories have been projected to global designs. 4. Third, decolonial thought seeks to produce knowledge formed from the colonial difference. What is needed is a new way of thinking, not new ideas. As such, if one speaks from the perspective of the colonial difference, one also speaks from what Mignolo calls the colonial wound and therefore the other paradigm does privilege the knowledge from these spaces of oppression, the victims of modernity, but with the realization that even though it is produced from outside modernity it still is linked to the modern project. The colonial wound is created by coloniality. So decolonial thought gives rise to an ethics and a politics of pluriversality (a combination of the words plural and universality). Standing in opposition to global and totalitarian designs, created in the name of universality (which usually means a particularity claiming to be universal), pluriversality is an attempt to make visible and viable a multiplicity of knowledges, forms of being, and visions of the world. Pluriversality is equality-in-difference, the possibility that many worlds can fit in one world. It is the future alternative to modernity/coloniality. 5 Decolonial thinkers see this as occurring across many disciplines and many facets of life, hence they assert the transdisciplinary and transcultural nature of decolonial thinking. This mixture of perspectives works to unmask the purity of disciplines and the so-called universality of modernity. I am always amazed at how Western theologians, scientists and cultural theorists, consider themselves the default perspective for authentic thinking yet have little and in some cases no familiarity with authors and works from the so-called other universal spaces of Christianity. Theological and religious education is still part of the problem. The funny thing about empire and coloniality is that while it connects many places only a few of those places are considered to produce authentic knowledge. There needs to be emphases on the validity of local spaces of knowledge production.
4
Walter D. Mignolo, Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2000, p. 17. Gregory A. Banazak & Luis Reyes Ceja, The Challenge and Promise of Decolonial Thought to Biblical Interpretation, Postscripts 4.1 (2008) 113127, p. 118.
Instead of presupposing that there is a place (materially and mentally) where one can step out of this self-referential problem we need to take this as a given and recognize the need for constant vigilance as we revise (continuously and necessarily) our epistemic locations. This is aided by asking and attempting to ask questions from locations that do not seem to represent dominant narratives, especially those dominant narratives enhanced and supported by neo liberal capitalism. So the voices of the indigenous, of women, of gays and lesbians, of ways of life suppressed and oppressed by the market, and so on, can offer an epistemic location that allows us to have some reflexive correctives to our perspectives. We should live in a state of constant revision. Now this is something constitutive of religion since the believer is always confronted by the realization that where and how we are, is not where and how we should be, there is always a striving for something more. This is not seen as a lack, or an opiate, but a constitutive hope that is more than optimism, indeed does not require optimism (though it may help) for its realization. This is also the source of struggle and resistance for the believer, even against ones own religion. What is interesting about this, in terms of religious expression, is that it is put within a wider and holistic context of meaning that allows for disappointment and recommitment. So revision, constant revision should be constitutive of religious traditions. This seems common sense, but in practice it sometimes seems an improbable task. Improbable but not impossible, and it is this hope in the possibility and necessity of change that is in the service of justice and another, better, possible world that as a first point, religion can offer. Why and how? At least from the Christian viewpoint, if we (all of creation) are made in the image and likeness of God then we are sacramental by nature and not solely instrumental. Our functionality is not limited to what we can see and understand but points to something more that proceeds beyond us. This sacramental nature can find its analogous expressions in folk culture, in indigenous traditions and myths, in the very relationships we inhabit. This should run counter to the instrumental and commodified systems of capitalist culture and indeed as strident critiques and corrective revisions to the death dealing cultural expressions that undergird and accompany such systems. Liberation In looking at the possibility of liberation from decolonial perspectives it is important to look at the possibility of indigenous histories. With regard to the Caribbean I will turn to the thought sof Guyanese writer Wilson Harris who has been concerned to create an architecture of native imagination, an outline of structures of consciousness native to the region. By native, Harris does not mean local. Native is not local/insular
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or pseudo/universal and has application beyond its local context. This does not mean that native consciousness is not location driven, shaped and formed in the landscape of its inhabitation. Though exhibited in location, the native expression is not limited to or by local conscription and therefore relates beyond the shores of its genesis. What this means for re-reading the history of the region is the profound partiality of ones tradition (any tradition). Harris speaks of the numinous partiality 6 we present in our historical and fictional expressions that allow us to arrive in tradition.
Indeed, in this scenario we come abreast of the self-deceptions in a purely formulaic (some would say Cartesian) education, in which a so-called dialogue with the past rests on descriptions of, not numinous arrival in, the complex, disturbing life of tradition. 7
He is arguing here against the retrieval of some magical pure native consciousness or calcified structure which is presupposed with dominant historical descriptions. Instead, to arrive in tradition involves an appreciation of profound tension between originality and tradition. There is a deep sense of owning and appreciating the partiality of any interpretation. How will Christian narratives, imperial narratives, colonial narratives, dominating narratives fare in such an exercise when their aims and goals are toward total description? None of these narratives lay claim to partiality nor are they interested in doing so. Theological and dogmatic expressions recoil at this because of the spectre of relativism. Perhaps we have given that term a bad rap by not embracing the partiality of our native histories.
There can be no perfect or absolute arrival in tradition, and some measure of descriptive logic is necessary; but we need a narrative that helps us to sense the partiality of linear progression and brings home to us in genuine stages of creativity (rather than purely intellectual experimentation) the simultaneity of the past, present and the future in the unfinished genesis of the imagination. 8
This arriving in tradition depends on our use of the arts of the imagination which seem to have been shunned in the technologically driven modern age. In our rush to invest absolutely in partial traditions (modernity, coloniality, religious economies) we do not partake of the creative capacity to read ourselves in the book of reality...as partial creatures.9 Instead of arriving in tradition, we encapsulate it with descriptors that make us essential to its existence. We become not just necessary to
6
Wilson Harris, Creoleness: The Crossroads of a Civilization?, in Andrew Bundy, ed., The Unfinished Genesis of the Imagination: Selected Essays of Wilson Harris, Routledge, New York, 1999, pp. 247. Ibid., p. 243.
8
Ibid., p. 244.
Ibid., 247.
the tradition, we become the tradition itself! A new historical reading from the native partiality of our contexts, struggling with the tension between originality and tradition that address the heart of our presuppositions must work with our imaginative capacity for re-creative genius. Such indigenous history is possible and not reliant solely on a historical description of origination. This is a significant aspect of working towards liberation from dominant colonial and capitalistic structures. I also see in what Mignolo calls border thinking or border gnoseology some way forward with this. For Mignolo
transcending of the colonial difference can only be done from a perspective of subalternity, from decolonization, and therefore, from a new epistemological terrain where border thinking worksBorder thinking can only be such from a subaltern perspective, never from a territorial (e.g. inside modernity) one. Border thinking from a territorial perspective becomes a machine of appropriation of the colonial differe/a/ nces; the colonial difference as an object of study rather than as an epistemological potential. Border thinking from the perspective of subalternity is a machine for intellectual decolonization. 10
So it is not a territorial/geographic grounded space that can then become commodified but an epistemological space that generates intellectual decolonization. This border thinking is still within the imaginary of the modern world system but is repressed by the coloniality of power which controls the conceptualization of knowledge, however, it is exposed in the moments in which the imaginary of the modern world system cracks. 11 This is similar to the recognition Harris suggests of the partiality of our traditions. If our traditions begin to be seen and understood as partial then there is the space for an other imaginary, an other epistemology. Mignolo describes border thinking as
a way of thinking that is not inspired in its own limitations and is not intended to dominate and to humiliate; a way of thinking that is universally marginal, fragmentary, and unachieved; and, as such, a way of thinking that, because universally marginal and fragmentary, is not ethnocidal. 12
Again we see parallels with Harris thinking, the native consciousness is not a conscriptive and/or descriptive localizing totality but a partial consciousness that does not impose tradition but arrives in it. As such, it too is fragmentary and unachieved. The key configuration of border thinking is thinking from dichotomous concepts rather than
10
Walter D. Mignolo, Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 2000, p. 45. Ibid., p. 23.
12
11
Ibid., p. 68.
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ordering the world in dichotomies. 13 This is similar to Harris creolization of the chasm created by the involuntary associations of cultures in the Caribbean. Instead of dismissing the dichotomies and the blends that result from involuntary associations we should creatively think from the spaces of these occurrences. This note on the configuration of border thinking is significant and is commonplace in the Caribbean. However, the still common (colonial) tendency is to reconcile dichotomies or to resolve them into whole systems which then enshrine the colonial difference and continues the inside/outside structures of the coloniality of power. The still deep desire to be the included the insider in the modern world system (in the current church structure) keeps us entrenching rather than overcoming the colonial difference. Instead of using dichotomous reality as a means for decolonization we favor coloniality and the difference it inscribes because it legitimates our existence and production of knowledge according to its own logic. Our desire to be (and to be highly acclaimed) in this system blinds us to the potential of not being able to be in this modern world system. On the contrary:
Not being able to be where one is is the promise of an epistemological potential and a cosmopolitan transnationalism that could overcome the limits and violent conditions generated by being always able to be where one belongs. I am where I think. 14
I think this border thinking is a kind of liberative thinking and can be understood in the following aspects. First, the decolonial notion of pluriversality in relation to religions or Harris native consciousness can be of help. If being Catholic, for instance is not simply nor only where Catholics are, but the engagements and relationships Catholics have with all people who could also be people of diverse faiths could we not also call the epistemic locations at the crossroads of these encounters also Catholic space? And at the same time Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Hindu, and Muslim space? The dichotomous nature of such spaces (Catholic-Hindu, Catholic-Presbyterian etc.) open the possibility of border thinking in relation to religion. Instead of trying to resolve these dichotomies into homogenous narratives allow for what Mignolo calls macronarratives 15 that allow for these seemingly contradictory experiences which people experience every day the world over or partial traditions which allow us to be inserted without totalization or conquest. This is not strange to Christian self understanding since we do hold another religion ( Judaism) as the genesis of our own. We are constituted in our originary architecture of consciousness in dichotomous form! That there are plural
13
Ibid., p. 85.
14
Ibid., p. 334.
15
Ibdi., p. 22.
universal claims add to the epistemic locations that can crack totalizing systems and decolonize the knowledge that informs our sense of mission. Such decolonial thinking, to my mind, has to be engaged without fear of losing ones faith or faith tradition. I would contend that a totalizing descriptive dogmatic reasoning does not do justice to our situated experiences as a people of God and our mission to cross the borders in voluntary or involuntary associations. Aligned with this we have to assert that the myth of a pure tradition has to be excised from our understandings. This is one certain epistemological step towards decolonization. The premise that what we have is full and thereby requiring preservation and not creative adjustment must be replaced by Harris notion that what we have is partial and re-creative. Our faith must serve and be served by the epistemological perspectives that are generated out of the colonial difference, the dichotomous experiences of our situations, the border thinking that comes from our forced and dislocated spaces. Second, we have to recognize the complicity of secularity with Christianity yet recognize the need for post-secular thinking. As Nelson Maldonado-Torres suggests, secularism has been pitted as the enemy and/or negation of religion in the modern/colonial world system. Both secularists and religious thinkers have made this claim without recognizing how the secularist thesis builds off of the religious reality in that it continues the dual opposition of what is considered sacred and what is profane or unacceptable. Given Christianitys role in the domination and subjugation of non Western cultures and races there is a bias towards secular forms of redress that do not see anything but an imperial colonially implicit role for religion. But Maldonaldo Torres claims that this secularism continues the logics of imperial Christendom in so far as it inherits
from imperial Christianity a fundamental impetus either to convert, to control, or to radically domesticate other epistemesThe secularreligious divide has come to work in ways similar to the Christian-pagan divide. The lack of a radical critique of secularism surreptiously serves to maintain the superiority of Western cultural epistemologies intact. 16
By a critique of secularism is not meant the usual religious attempts at denial, denunciation, disengagement and despair over secularism, but recognition of the complicity between Christianity and secularity with regard to coloniality. We have to recognize the ways in which our scripting and acting of Catholic mission enshrine the secular dualisms that continually recreate the colonial difference and intentionally re-inscribe
16
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Secularism and Religion in the Modern/Colonial World System: From Secular Postcoloniality to Postsecular Transmodernity, in Mabel Morana, Enrique Dussel, Carlos A. Jauregui, eds., Coloniality at Large: Latin America and the Postcolonial Debate, Duke University Press, Durham, 2008, p. 382
138 Gerald BOODOO
coloniality. From this point of view, the critique of secularization is also a simultaneous critique of aspects of Catholicism in its continued colonial and imperial forms and thus constituted a form of liberative thinking for both Churches and societies.
John Shelby SPONG A NEW CHRISTIANITY FOR A NEW WORLD

Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith Is Being Born
El nico libro que hace actualmente la propuesta de pasar de un cristianismo testa a otro pos-testa, justificndola y aplicndola concretamente a los diferentes componentes de la visin cristiana (Dios, Jess, Evangelio, Jess, Iglesia, oracin, liturgia, misin...). Jos Mara VIGIL. In this brave and important book, Bishop Spong continues his lifelong quest for a living faith and church worthy of the Christ in whom we can find God in our time. His call for a new reformation is honest, deep, provocative, and needed. Matthew FOX. In English, HarperSanFrancisco: www.harpercollins.com En espaol, increble su precio: US$ 8'5: www.abyayala.org y tiempoaxial.org In italiano: Un cristianesimo nuovo per un mundo nuovo, Massari Ed., www.enjoy.it/erre-emme
139
Pagan Postmodernity
and the refounding of Christianity
Vito MANCUSO Milan, Italy
Starting from the historical moment In one of his best essays, proceeding from a statement from the Vatican II, Karl Rahner wrote: Auf den letzten Konzil hat die Kirche von einer Hierarchie der Wahrheiten der Offenbarung gesprochen. Es gibt gewi eine objective Hierarchie [] Aber es gibt auch gewi eine Hierarchie der Wahrheiten von der geschichtlichen Stunde her, in der ein Mensch leben mu, und von seiner eigenen Eigenart und Berufung her.1 I absolutely agree: I am of the opinion that the quality of a theological thought depends in the first place on its ability to catch the spirit of its own time, and then place doctrinal truths according to a consequent hierarchy. I am convinced, in other words, that what Hegel saidof philosophy is valid for theology as well: that it is ihre Zeit in Gedanken erfat (its own time apprehendedin thoughts).2 It is precisely because of this
1
Karl Rahner, Eine Theologie, mit der wir leben knnen, in Schriften zur Theologie, Band XV: Wissenschaft und christlicher Glaube, bearbeitet von Paul Imhof (Zrich-EinsiedelnKln: Benzinger Verlag, 1983), 110. English translation: In the last Council the Church spoke about a hierarchy of revealed truths. Certainly, an objective hierarchy does exist but anotherhierarchy exists as well: one of truths which are determined by the historical moment in which a human being is called to live, by his nature and his vocation. The text of the Vatican II which Rahner refers to is Unitatis Redintegratio 11. Georg W. F. Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), 26.
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apprehension of their own time that, within the same Catholic faith, different and even contrasting theologies can arise. The novelty of the theology of the twentieth century is all here, in the introduction of the spirit of time (or of the signa temporum, to use an expression from the Vatican II) 3 in considering doctrinal truths, before 1900 conceived only objectively and not in relation to time and its turning, both merciless and generous because il tempo tutto toglie e tutto d.4 It was the entry of the spirit of time that ledto the rise of a storm of theologies where there had been only one theology before. The task of contemporary systematic theological thought is indeed double: on the one hand, to seek a living communion with the present, according to what Bonhoeffer called Treue zur Welt (loyalty to the world), in order to individuate the specific question that this time bears with it; on the other hand, a new approach, based upon that very same question, to the traditional configuration of Catholic doctrine. We must point out, however, that it would be a serious mistake to reduce doctrine to the expectations of the present;in doing so, the question of the world would find no answer, as an answer must by definition always contain something that the question does not know. Only in this way, only by cultivating a real communion with the present, by conveying to it what it is not, or is no longer, aware of, can theology remains theo-logy and become present, able to touch, cure and perhaps also, to a certain extent, heal peoples lives. And only in this way can it avoid the danger, unfortunately quite frequent, of denselben alten Kohl immer wieder aufkochen und nach allen Seiten hin ausgeben.5 It is necessary to explain what question, in my opinion, the present age is asking the Catholic faith, and what kind of hierarchy of truths results from it. Postmodernism as a new Paganism I am convinced that it is actually against Nietzsches frhliche Wissenschaft that Christianity, even if unaware of it, is fighting a war of survival, a war as radical as the one that many centuries ago saw Christianitypitted against Paganism. In my opinion, it is in fact the same war. There are many analogies and identical opinions between Celsus and Nietzsche. To Nietzsche, Christianity is eine Todfeindschafts-Form
3 4 5
Gaudium et Spes 4. Giordano Bruno, Candelaio, 13, Opere italiane (Torino: Utet, 2007) I, 263. English: Time takes everything away and gives everything. Georg W. F. Hegel, Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1970), 13. English: warming up and distributing on all sides the same old cabbage, translated by S.W. Dyde, www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/index.htm (accessed April 15, 2009).
Pagan Postmodernity and the refounding of Christianity 141
gegen die Realitt,6 to Celsus Christians do not love life.7 Paganism was considered defeated once and for all after the Emperor Justinian closed the School of Athens in 529, but it came alive again in the Italian Renaissance (with Lorenzo Valla, Leon Battista Alberti, Marsilio Ficino, Leonardo da Vinci, Niccol Machiavelli, Bernardino Telesio, Tommaso Campanella,Giordano Bruno), in Spinoza, in Goethe, and achieved through Nietzsche the possibility to regain Europes spiritual heart. Postmodernism is, in my opinion, a renewed Paganism. And it is therefore the time of Nietzsche. Postmodernitys specific challenge to Christianity no longer consists in a criticism of faith in God in order to proclaim a purely materialistic view. This was rather modernitys endeavour: to exalt mankind, the state-party, science or other immanent absolutes by way of theoretical atheism. Modernitys collapse, however, meant the end of every immanent absolute. Today, mankind is very far from embracing an atheism committed to changing the world and eradicating every reference to the divine. Those who embody todays militant atheism (such as Richard Dawkins and other authors of the same kind) represent in my opinion a passed age of the world. They wish to destroy religion just at a moment when from several sides the present age is described as the revengeof God, as a desecularization, as a return to the sacred.8 Perhaps, they aim to destroy it precisely because they are disturbed by this return. The specific issue of this age, however, is another one: the return of God by no meansrepresents a return of the Christian God. Althoughpostmodernity means overcoming atheism, this does not mean that the growing wish for spirituality finds its expression in the traditional Christian forms. As a spiritual offering, in fact, Christianity has lost its fascination, it has become boring or, in the best of cases, comforting. If already at the end of the 19th century one could say die wirklich aktiven Menschen sind jetzt innerlich ohne Christentum, 9 one could say it even more now. If at the end of the 19th century it was already that es ist unanstndig, heute Christ zu sein,10 this is even more the case now.
6
7 8
Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, 27, in Smtliche Werke, Kritische Studienausgabe (KSA), 6, Herausgegeben von Giorgio Colli und Mazzino Montinari (Mnchen Berlin: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag de Gruyter, 1999), 197. English: A sort of war to the death upon reality, translated by H.L. Mencken, www.gutenberg.org (accessed April 15, 2009). Origen, Against Celsus, VIII, 54. Gilles Kepel, The revenge of God (Cambridge: Polity, 1994); The Desecularization of the World, edited by Peter L. Berger (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1999); Philip Jenkins, Gods Continent (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). Friedrich Nietzsche, Morgenrthe, 92, KSA, 3, 85. English: Nowadays, really active human beings are inwardly without Christianity.
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The issue of the present age can then be formulated as the questions: what kind of theism (personal God) and deism (impersonal divinity), what kind of divine and spirituality? This is in my opinion the peculiar quest which drives postmodernity, an age which has a wish to be religious, spiritual, even mystical as Malraux predicted, but no longer Christian in the traditional sense of the term. Our age is, in a way, retracing Nietzsches personal journey. Hewas possessed by such an intense spiritual tension that Giorgio Colli (together with Mazzino Montinari editor of a critical edition of Nietzsches works) found in him una sorprendente affinit di linguaggio (a surprising affinity of language) with the mystic Jacob Bhme.11 It is indeed because of this spiritual tension that Nietzsche was so fiercely antichristian. Nietzsche was antichristian because he was fighting in the name of life, of beauty and of lifes power. His intention was to redeem the world from Christianitys vilification and from its consequence: nihilism. Nietzsches struggle against Christianity was fought in the name of the worlds divinity, and was actually therefore a theological struggle. To him, the main limitation of Christianity consisted in eine solche Reduktion des Gttlichen, 12 since der christliche Gottesbegriff Gott als Krankengott, Gott als Spinne, Gott als Geist ist einer der korruptesten Gottesbegriffe, die auf Erden erreicht worden sind [] Gott zum Widerspruch des Lebens abgeartet, statt dessen Verklrung und ewiges Ja zu sein! 13 In light of all this, I think that the decisive task of theology is to understand how to meet this challenge, which has the peculiarity of being played on its own ground, namely theo-logy. As the Greek etymology shows, a drug (pharmacon) is most potent when created from the same poison that it is meant to defeat. For this reason, it is necessary to identify the strong points in Nietzsches theo-logical attack against Christianity, and to renew theology starting from there. It is my opinion that there are two strong points: radical intellectual integrity and the supremacy of life.
10 11 12 13
Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, 38, KSA, 6, 210. English (Mencken): Indecent to be a Christian today. Giorgio Colli, Nota introduttiva to the Italian edition of The Antichrist (Milan: Adelphi, 1984), XV. Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, 17, KSA, 6, 184. English (Mencken): Reduction of the godhead. Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, 18, KSA, 6, 185. English (Mencken): The Christian concept of a god the god as the patron of the sick, the god as a spinner of cobwebs, the god as a spirit is one of the most corrupt concepts that has ever been set up in the world. [] God degenerated into the contradiction of life. Instead of being its transfiguration and eternal Yea!
Theological methodology as radical intellectual integrity The first task that Nietzsches challenge lays before theology consists inredefining the theological method according to the following principle: Man muss rechtschaffen sein in geistigen Dingen bis zur Hrte.14 In order to regain a meaning for our age, the most important methodological approach that theology must adopt is radical intellectual integrity. There were 20th century authors who wrote about God utilising this approach and, for this reason, left us real treasures. I referin particular to Pavel Florenskij, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Simone Weil and Teilhard de Chardin. We must continue in this way, raising moral truthfulness to the highest intensity, and from there practising theology, without ever betraying moral truthfulness. Today, the European conscience is no longer willing to credit a theology harbouring within itself even the smallest pia fraus (to use the curious term traditionally used to indicate the document attributed to the emperor Constantine, but actually forged centuries later by the papal chancellery, as proved by Lorenzo Valla). In the name of moral truthfulness, practiced with utmost intensity, theology must initiate a struggle within the Church and its doctrine, sometimes even against the Church and its doctrine, without fear of creating scandal for the faithful, because the real scandal is the betrayal of truth, and hypocrisy. Joseph Ratzinger wrote: Im Alphabet des Glaubens steht an erster Stelle die Aussage: Im Anfang war der Logos. Der Glaube zeigt uns, da die ewige Vernunft der Grund aller Dinge ist bzw. da die Dinge vom Grund her vernnftig sind. Der Glaube will dem Menschen nicht irgendeine Art von Psychotherapie anbieten, seine Psychotherapie ist die Wahrheit. 15 Ratzinger is right. To the Catholic faith, two things are essential: being conscious of speaking in the name of truth and stating the rationality of truth that acts as logos. But here is the paradox: it is precisely by effectively applying reason for truths sake that faith experiencesthe greatest uncertainty; it is precisely by unfolding within the doctrine the peculiarly Catholic thought of a law of truth as logos, and therefore as logic, that acute doctrinal difficulties arise. Simone Weil, for whom intellectual probity became the symbol of her entire existence, clearly denounced this paradox: En fait il y a depuis le dbut,
14 15
Friedrich Nietzsche, Der Antichrist, Vorwort, KSA, 6, 167. English (Mencken): One must carry intellectual integrity to the verge of hardness. Joseph Ratzinger, Zur Instruktion ber die kirchliche Berufung des Theologen, Communio, Deutsche Ausgabe, 19 (VI/1990): 562. English: In the alphabet of faith, the place of honour is given to the affirmation: In the beginning was the Logos. Faith assures us that the foundation of all things is the eternal Reason, that is the things, in virtue of their origin, are rational. Faith is not meant to offer mankind some form of psychotherapy: its psychotherapy is truth.
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ou presque, un malaise de lintelligence dans le christianisme.16 Such a discomfort of intelligence is also documented by the theology of the 20th century, considering the fact that many among the most important Catholic theologians,in consequence of the exercise of their intelligence, encountered serious difficulties with the Roman teaching. To name only Europeans, I mention here Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Stanislas Lyonnet, Karl Rahner, Bernard Hring, Edward Schillebeeckx, Hans Kng, Piet Schoonenberg, Carlo Molari and Jacques Dupuis. Their personal histories are very different, but on the whole they show that, in Catholicism, innovation deriving from research is destined to clash with the immobility and rigidity of doctrine. Only a quick look at the history of theology in enough to confirm this, since even Thomas Aquinas was condemned three years post mortem on March 7th 1277 by the highest doctrinal authority of the time, and Antonio Rosmini, beatified in 2007, was condemned twice, once in 1849 while he was still alive, and again in 1887, after his death. Nietzsche writes: Es ist unsere strengere und verwhntere Frmmigkeit selbst, die uns heute verbietet, noch Christen zu sein.17 We can meet such a challenge only by demonstrating that, on the contrary, it is our most demanding wish for truth that makes us remain Christians. However, this very quest for truth within the Christian dogmatic leads to conflicts with the institution. How are we to extricate ourselves from this paradoxical situation? Since fidesquaerens intellectum, it is clearly faith that motivates theologys existence. Without faith, no theology. Rahner said: Theologie setz [] ein existentielles Verhltnis zur Glaubenswirklichkeit voraus,18 and Karl Barth: Der Glaube die conditio sine qua non theologischer Wissenschaft!19. It is hence unquestionable that theology is organically dependent upon faith. Rahner, however, also added that die Theologie ist eine Glaubenswissenschaft im Bereich der Kirche (my emphasis), that sie kann nur so betrieben werden, and that for this reason sie mu eine kirchliche Theologie sein. 20 And it is enough to remember the adjective that Barth chose for his monumental Dogmatics, namely kirchliche (ecclesial), to rediscover the same perspective. The following thought is vastly prevalent within Christianity: theology comes from faith and is
Simone Weil, Lettre un religieux, in Oeuvres, dition tablie sous la direction de Florence de Lussy (Paris: Quarto Gallimard, 1999), 1007. English: Nearly from the beginning there has been in Christianity a discomfort of intelligence. Friedrich Nietzsche, Nachla 1885-1887, KSA, 12, 165. English: . Karl Rahner, Eine Theologie, mit der wir leben knnen, 105. English: Theology presupposes an existential relation with the reality of faith.
16
17 18
practised within the Church and for the Church. Just as faith necessarily has an ecclesial form, so theology is called to have such a form as well. This thought reaches its peak in the pronouncements of Catholic teaching, particularly in the Instruction Donum veritatis of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith On the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian, from 1990. The faith-church-theology link appears fully organic. In my opinion, it is precisely this link that theology must critically examine, if it wishes to survive as a discipline worthy of being taken into consideration by the contemporary conscience, and, even more radically, if it intends to contribute to the prevention of the progressive disappearance of Christianity from the European continent. In order to allow Christianity to survive, theology must free it from the stiffly ecclesial form imposed upon it by hierarchy throughout the centuries. Theology must free faith from the doctrinal configuration with which it was covered, and which created the grip of the ecclesiastical control with its anathema sit. Naturally, without the Church there can be neither faith nor theology, both because it is the Church that conveys the content of faith, and because the constructing of the Church as communion and community is the natural outcome of lived faith. This is by no means a matter of eliminating the Church, as in the ingenuousness of those who imagine being able to live without an institutional dimension. According to the strict logic of history, what does not become an institution within history is soon doomed to disappear. This alone would have been enough for me not to wish for any institutional pauperism. Nor do I wish a disappearing of the doctrinal teaching, for which I recognize, on the contrary, an essential function; it is far better to have an institution that makes decisions than not to have one. What I wish for is something else, namely for believers to overcome the conviction that the truth of their Catholic faith can be measured by the degree of conformity to the consolidated doctrine, both in the dogmatic and in the ethical field. What I wish is to introduce in the minds of believers a dynamic-evolutionary concept of truth (truth = good) instead of a static-doctrinal one (truth = doctrine). At the conclusion of his Spiritual Exercises, Saint Ignatius of Loyola presents some rules for those who wish to be good children of the Church, the thirteenth of which prescribes: Debemos siempre tener, para
19 20
Karl Barth, Einfhrung in die evangelische Theologie (Zrich: Theologischer Verlag, 1970), 112. English: Faith conditio sine qua non of theological science! Karl Rahner, Eine Theologie, mit der wir leben knnen, 105 and 111. English: Theology is a science of faith within the Church, it can be cultivated only in this way, and must be an ecclesial theology.
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en todo acertar, que lo blanco que yo veo creer que es negro, si la Iglesia jerrchica as lo determina. 21 The rule of Ignatius is based upon the equation: truth = doctrine of the Church, and this rule represents, to this day, the predominant vision within Catholicism. On the contrary, I agree with Karl Barths words about theology: Ihre besondere Aufgabe gerade im Blick auf die berlieferung ist eine kritische Aufgabe. Sie hat die durch sie bestimmte Verkndigung der Gemeinde dem Feuer der Wahrheitsfrage auszusetzen. 22 A really modern theology can no longer afford to define itself a priori as unconditional obedience to the Magisterium. Returning to the title of an Encyclical of John Paul II, I affirm that the splendour of truth must be such as to illuminate even the shadows and contradictions of doctrine. Theologians should expose themselves to the splendour of truth with the most radical intellectual integrity, without ever bending their thoughts a priori to justify decisions which they do not think well founded, and by doing so transforming themselves into court apologists. Clearly, assuming this perspective of rigorous truthfulness has an unavoidable price, called heresy. However, if heresy means being ready to fight for truth to the point of destroying everything that when put to the test, reveals itself to be an ideological forcing of dogmatics, then heresy is necessary to the survival of Christianity. By establishing this principle, perhaps we are looking at a revenge of history. Perhaps the time has come to pay the price for a dogmatics built throughout the centuries at times on violence, intrigues and games of power. Indeed, it cannot be denied that theology has sometimes been functional to power, instrumentum regni. The first seven ecumenical councils were all summoned by emperors, and certainly not for love of theology. And it was certainly not for love of theology that the Holy Inquisition, without which dogmatics would not be structured as it is today, was founded, because Jan Hus, instead of being burnt alive at the stake on July 6th 1415, would have been free to keep arguing, contributing to the development of some of the content of doctrine. The same can be said of thousands of other Christians before and after him. Today, however, it is not a single dogma or liturgical custom that is at issue. What is at stake is the moral and spiritual condition of our people. To this purpose, the following words, pronounced over a century
21
22
Ignatius of Loyola, Ejercicios espirituales, 365. English: To be right in everything, we ought always to hold that the white which I see, is black, if the Hierarchical Church so decides it, translated by Elder Mullan, www.ccel.org (accessed April 15, 2009). Karl Barth, Einfhrung in die evangelische Theologie, 51. English: Thespecific task of theology towards tradition is a critical task. Theology must expose the preaching of the community to the fire of the truth question.
ago, will appear modern to anyone willing to open his eyes and look: Unsere ganze europische Kultur bewegt sich seit langem schon mit einer Tortur der Spannung, die von Jahrzehnt zu Jahrzehnt wchst, wie auf eine Katastrophe los: unruhig, gewaltsam, berstrzt: wie ein Strom, der ans Ende will, der sich nicht besinnt, der Furcht davor hat, sich zu besinnen. 23 Neopagan postmodernity, shaped by Nietzsche, represents a challenge on a methodological level that calls for a passage, in theology, from the principle of authority to the principle of authenticity. This passage could be summarized by a variation of the classical saying amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas, traditionally attributed to Aristotle, into: Magistra ecclesia, sed magis magistra veritas. In light of this thinking, assigning the supremacy to life and not to doctrine, I define my work secular theology; by which I mean a theology born from faith, that wishes to serve the spiritual experience of faith, but that does not consider the teaching of the Church the ultimate and normative criterion for believing. The ultimate and normative criterion is not doctrine, it is truth. By saying this, I reject the fundamental theological equation underlying the Catholic teaching, i.e. truth = doctrine, and suggest another: truth = doctrine. This is exactly what the Bible says when it speaks about truth. According to the Bible, truth is not a doctrine, and even less a system, it is something vital, on which one can lean and walk;it is bread to eat, water to drink. Truth, in biblical language, means trust. Theology realizes this perspective by affirming that spiritual experience is worth more than doctrine, that supremacy is not held by dogmatics but by spirituality, that the true masters of the faith are not the keepers of the orthodox doctrine but the saints and the mystics (some of whom are formally heterodox, such as Master Eckhart and Antonio Rosmini). Catholicism today must rediscover the biblical meaning of truth and hold it highest, above doctrinal meaning, adopting a dynamic vision of truth and no longer a static one. The loss of the dynamic status of truth is in my opinion the main cause of the crisis that, starting with the modern age, has never ceased to haunt Catholicism. This crisis is evident also in the progressive loss, in contrast to the great past, of its capacity to produce art. In this present post-modern age, shaped by Nietzsche, doctrine can no longer represent the horizon on which truth can be thought of. Truth
23
Friedrich Nietzsche, Nachla1887-1889, KSA, 13, pag. 189. English: For a long time the whole of European culture seems to have been moving, with a tormented tension growing from decade to decade, towards a catastrophe: restless, violent, reckless, like a current longing for the end, no longer reflecting and afraid of reflecting.
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must again be thought of as life. Karl Barth wrote: Denken ist, wenn es echt ist, Denken des Lebens und darum und darin Denken Gottes. 24 For this reason, the criterion of truth in issues of faith should no longer be placed within faith itself, but outside, in life. A doctrinal statement will be true not because it corresponds to some biblical verse or to some ecclesiastical dogma, but because it does not contradict life. From a closed, self-referring system, which reasons according to the logic orthodox heterodox, theology must change into an open, life-referring system, which reasons according to the logic true false. It is namely life that determines whether a statement is true or false, because Denken, wenn es echt ist, ist Denken des Lebens. By doing so, we must not be at all afraid of diminishing the theological value of statements. This can only increase, because it is precisely when it thinks of life that theology is Denken Gottes, of a living God here and now, and not of a God locked up in the Denzinger or in the literal word of the Bible. To this end, I give you a concrete example: can we really go on believing and teaching that death was introduced in biological life by the sin of mankind, as Paul affirms (see Romans 5,12) when we know today that death has existed since sexual reproduction has existed, i.e. several hundreds of millions of years before man appeared on earth? Death is not the product of mankinds sin, but it is written from the beginning in the logic of biology. Theology, in understanding truth as life and not as doctrine, cannot avoid reformulations on the basis of lifes teachings. Benedict XVI says that we must obey the truth, and that a theologian must always be interiorly purified by obedience to the truth. 25 Wonderful words - how can we not agree? However, obedience to truth makes a revision of certain doctrinal assertions necessary, and certainly not only of that linking death to Adams sin.
24 25
Karl Barth, Der Rmerbrief (Zollikon-Zrich: Evangelischer Verlag, 1954), 411. English: For thought, when true, is thought of life, and in this, and because of this, thought of God. Benedict XVI, Address to Participants at the Plenary Session of the International Theological Commission on December 5th 2008, www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2008 (accessed April 15, 2009).
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Postmodernit pagana
e rifondazione del cristianesimo
Vito MANCUSO Milano, Italia
Partire dal momento storico In uno dei suoi saggi migliori, prendendo spunto da unaffermazione del Vaticano II, Karl Rahner ha scritto: Nellultimo Concilio la Chiesa ha parlato di una gerarchia delle verit rivelate. Esiste certo una gerarchia oggettiva ma esiste sicuramente anche una gerarchia delle verit dettate dal momento storico in cui luomo chiamato a vivere, nonch dalla sua indole e dalla sua vocazione 1. Sono perfettamente daccordo: io ritengo che la qualit di un pensiero teologico dipenda in massima parte dalla capacit di cogliere lo spirito del proprio tempo e di disporre poi le verit dottrinali secondo la gerarchia che ne consegue. Sono convinto, in altri termini, che anche per la teologia valga ci che Hegel diceva della filosofia, che essa sia il proprio tempo appreso in pensieri 2. precisamente in base a questa apprensione del proprio tempo che, allinterno della medesima fede cattolica, sorgono diverse e talora anche contrastanti teologie. La novit della teologia del 900 sta tutta qui, nellintroduzione dello spirito del tempo (o dei segni dei tempi, per usare lespressione del Vaticano II) 3 nella considerazione delle verit dottrinali, le quali invece
1
Karl Rahner, Eine Theologie, mit der wir leben knnen, conferenza del 22 luglio 1982 a Wrzburg, ora in Schriften zur Theologie, Band XV: Wissenschaft und christlicher Glaube, Benzinger Verlag, Einsiedeln 1983; citata dalledizione italiana Scienza e fede cristiana, Edizioni Paoline, Roma 1984, pag. 150. Il testo del Vaticano II cui Rahner si riferisce Unitatis Redintegratio 11, che parla di una hierarchiam veritatum doctrinae catholicae, in EV 1, n 536. ihre Zeit in Gedanken erfat: G.W. F. Hegel, Lineamenti di filosofia del diritto, Prefazione, pag. 15. Gaudium et Spes, n 4, in EV 1, 1324.
150 Vito MANCUSO
prima del 900 erano pensate solo oggettivamente, senza nessuna relazione con il tempo e il suo ruotare, spietato e insieme generoso perch il tempo tutto toglie e tutto d 4. stato lingresso dello spirito del tempo che ha fatto sorgere, dove prima cera solo la teologia, una tempesta di molteplici teologie. Il compito del pensiero teologico sistematico contemporaneo quindi duplice: da un lato la comunione viva col presente allinsegna di ci che Bonhoeffer chiamava fedelt al mondo per cogliere quale sia la domanda specifica che il tempo porta con s; dallaltro la rilettura in base a tale domanda della tradizionale configurazione della dottrina cattolica. Non inutile specificare che sarebbe per un grave errore ridurre la dottrina alle attese del presente, perch in questo caso la stessa domanda del mondo non potrebbe trovare una risposta, che, per essere tale, deve sempre contenere qualcosa che la domanda non sa. Solo cos, solo coltivando una reale comunione col presente, al quale poi dare ci di cui esso non ha ancora (o non ha pi) coscienza, la teologia rimane teo-logia e si fa attuale, in grado di toccare, curare e forse anche un po guarire la vita degli uomini. E solo cos essa evita il pericolo, purtroppo abbastanza frequente, di ricuocere e servire da tutti i lati sempre lo stesso vecchio cavolo 5. Occorre dunque che io esponga quale sia per me la domanda che il presente pone alla fede cattolica e la gerarchia delle verit che da essa consegue. Il postmoderno come neo-paganesimo Sono convinto che, anche quando non ne consapevole, con Nietzsche e con la sua gaia scienza che il cristianesimo oggi sta combattendo una guerra di sopravvivenza altrettanto radicale di quella che molti secoli fa loppose al paganesimo. Anche perch si tratta, a mio avviso, della medesima guerra. Tra Celso e Nietzsche vi sono molte analogie e identit di vedute. Per Nietzsche il cristianesimo una forma di mortale inimicizia contro la realt 6, per Celso i cristiani non amano la vita 7. Il paganesimo, ritenuto definitivamente sconfitto con la chiusura della Scuola di Atene da parte dellimperatore Giustiniano e invece rinato con il Rinascimento italiano, Giordano Bruno, Spinoza, Goethe, ha raggiunto grazie a Nietzsche la possibilit di riconquistare il cuore spirituale dellEuropa. Il postmoderno, a mio avviso, un rinnovato paganesimo. E per questo il tempo di Nietzsche.
4
Giordano Bruno, Candelaio, 13, finito di comporre nel 1582; in Opere italiane, vol. I, Utet, Torino 2007, pag. 263. Denselben alten Kohl immer wieder aufkochen und nach allen Seiten hin ausgeben: G.W. F. Hegel, Lineamenti di filosofia del diritto, Prefazione, ed. it. pag. 42-43. Lanticristo, par. 27; ed. it. pag. 35.
Postmodernit pagana e rifondazione del cristianesimo 151
La sfida specifica della postmodernit al cristianesimo non consiste pi in una critica alla fede in Dio per affermare un orizzonte meramente materialista. Tale era limpresa della modernit, caratterizzata da un ateismo teoretico che rintracciava lassoluto nelluomo, nello stato-partito, nella scienza o in altri assoluti immanenti, ma il crollo della modernit ha significato la fine di ogni assoluto immanente. Oggi gli uomini sono ben lontani da un ateismo impegnato a cambiare il mondo e a sradicare ogni rimando al divino, e gli odierni alfieri dellateismo militante (come Richard Dawkins e altri autori sulla stessa lunghezza donda) rappresentano a mio avviso unet del mondo ormai superata. Vogliono distruggere la religione proprio mentre da pi parti si connota il presente come ritorno del sacro, desecolarizzazione, rivincita di Dio 8; anzi, forse la vogliono distruggere proprio perch essi stessi ne percepiscono con un certo dispetto il ritorno. La questione epocale piuttosto unaltra, cio che tale rivincita di Dio non corrisponde per nulla a una rivincita del Dio cristiano. Se la postmodernit rappresenta il superamento dellateismo, non per questo il suo crescente desiderio di spiritualit intende tradursi nelle tradizionali forme cristiane. E questo perch proprio in quanto offerta spirituale il cristianesimo ha perso fascino, annoia, nel migliore dei casi consola. Se gi alla fine dellOttocento gli uomini realmente attivi oggi sono interiormente senza cristianesimo 9, quanto pi ai nostri giorni. Se gi alla fine dellOttocento indecoroso essere oggi cristiani 10, quanto pi ai nostri giorni. La questione contemporanea si traduce quindi nella domanda su quale tipo di teismo (Dio personale) o di deismo (divinit impersonale ), su quale forma di divino e di spiritualit. questa, a mio avviso, la peculiare ricerca che muove la postmodernit, unepoca che vuole essere religiosa, spirituale, persino mistica come prevedeva Malraux, ma non pi cristiana nella forma tradizionale del termine. La nostra epoca riproduce la parabola personale di Nietzsche, abitato da una tensione spirituale cos intensa da far riscontrare a Giorgio Colli (curatore con Mazzino Montinari delledizione critica delle sue opere) una sorprendente affinit
7 8
Celso, Il discorso vero, VIII, 54; ed. it. pag. 156. The God Continent, Oxford University Press, con dati sullaumento delle visite ai santuari. Cf. The Desecularization of the World. Resurgent Religion and World Politics, edited by Peter L. Berger, Grand Rapids, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999; cf. anche dello stesso Peter L. Berger, Questions of Faith, Oxford, Blackwell, 2004. Cercare il libro sulla rivincita di Dio. Aurora, n 92; ed. it. 67. Lanticristo, 38; ed. it. pag. 49.
10
152 Vito MANCUSO
di linguaggio con il mistico Jacob Bhme 11, ma che, proprio a causa di questa tensione spirituale, era ferocemente anticristiano. Nietzsche lo era perch lottava nel nome della vita, della bellezza e della forza della vita, che egli intendeva riscattare dalla denigrazione cristiana e dal conseguente nichilismo. La lotta di Nietzsche contro il cristianesimo era condotta nel nome della divinit del mondo, ed era quindi una lotta propriamente teologica, perch per lui il principale limite del cristianesimo consisteva in una riduzione del divino 12, essendo il concetto cristiano di Dio uno dei pi corrotti concetti di Dio [] degradato fino a contraddire la vita, invece di esserne la trasfigurazione e leterno s 13. Alla luce di ci, io ritengo che il compito decisivo della teologia cristiana sia comprendere come affrontare questa sfida che ha la singolare peculiarit di giocarsi sul suo stesso terreno, cio la teo-logia. E siccome (come insegna gi letimologia greca) ogni farmaco si costituisce nel modo pi efficace proprio a partire dal veleno che intende sconfiggere, necessario capire quali sono i punti di forza dellattacco teo-logico di Nietzsche al cristianesimo e rinnovare la teologia a partire da l. Io penso che questi punti di forza siano due: radicale onest intellettuale e primato della vita. Metodologia teologica come radicale onest intellettuale Tra gli imperativi che la sfida di Nietzsche impone alla teologia il primo riguarda il metodo. Il compito al riguardo presto detto, consiste nel riconfigurare il metodo teologico allinsegna di questa prospettiva: Nelle cose dello spirito si deve essere onesti fino alla durezza 14. Se vuole tornare a essere significativa per il nostro tempo, la principale caratteristica metodologica che la teologia deve assumere si chiama radicale onest intellettuale. Vi sono stati pensatori che nel 900 hanno scritto di Dio praticando questa prospettiva e per questo hanno lasciato autentici tesori. Mi riferisco in particolare a Pavel Florenskij, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Simone Weil, Teilhard de Chardin. Si tratta di continuare sulla loro strada portando la sincerit morale alla massima intensit e a partire da l fare teologia. Oggi la coscienza europea non pi disposta a concedere credito a una teologia che ospiti in s anche la minima pia fraus (per riprendere la curiosa terminologia con cui la tradizione designava il documento attribuito allimperatore Costantino e in realt prodotto secoli dopo dalla cancelleria pontificia, come dimostrato da Lorenzo Valla).
11 12 13 14
Giorgio Colli, cf. pag. XV dellIntroduzione a Lanticristo. Lanticristo, 17; ed. it. pag. 20. Lanticristo, 18; ed. it. pag. 21. Nietzsche, Prefazione, ed. it. pag. 3.
Nel nome della sincerit morale esercitata con la massima intensit la teologia deve intraprendere una lotta allinterno della Chiesa e della sua dottrina, talora persino contro la Chiesa e la sua dottrina, senza eccessivo timore di dare scandalo ai fedeli perch il vero scandalo il tradimento della verit e lipocrisia. Ha scritto Joseph Ratzinger: Nellalfabeto della fede, al posto donore laffermazione: In principio era il Logos. La fede ci attesta che fondamento di tutte le cose leterna Ragione La fede non vuole offrire alluomo una qualche forma di psicoterapia: la sua psicoterapia la verit 15. Ratzinger ha ragione, alla fede cattolica sono essenziali due cose: la coscienza di parlare nel nome della verit e lesibizione della razionalit di tale verit che si dice come logos. Ma ecco il punto: proprio dallesercizio effettivo della ragione per amore della verit derivano alla fede le maggiori insicurezze; proprio dispiegando allinterno della dottrina la peculiarit dello statuto cattolico della verit che la pensa come logos e quindi come logica, sorgono acute difficolt dottrinali. Simone Weil, che fece della probit intellettuale la sigla dellintera esistenza, denunci con chiarezza questa situazione paradossale: Nel cristianesimo, sin dallinizio o quasi, c un disagio dellintelligenza 16. Tale malaise de lintelligence attestato anche dalla teologia del 900 in considerazione del fatto che molti tra i principali teologi cattolici ebbero seri problemi con il magistero romano a seguito dellesercizio dellintelligenza. Limitandomi agli europei ricordo Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, Marie-Dominique Chenu, Stanislas Lyonnet, Karl Rahner, Bernard Hring, Edward Schillebeeckx, Hans Kng, Piet Schoonenberg, Carlo Molari, Jacques Dupuis. Le vicende personali sono molto diverse, ma nellinsieme mostrano che linnovazione derivante dalla ricerca destinata nel cattolicesimo a scontrarsi inevitabilmente con la staticit e la rigidit della dottrina. Basta una fuggevole occhiata alla storia della teologia per confermare la cosa, visto che persino Tommaso dAquino fu oggetto di una condanna post mortem da parte della massima autorit dottrinale del tempo e che Antonio Rosmini, beatificato nel 2007, venne condannato due volte, una da vivo nel 1849 e una da morto nel 1887 17. Scrive Nietzsche: la nostra stessa piet pi severa ed esigente a proibirci di essere ancora cristiani 18. Tale sfida si pu sostenere solo
15
Joseph Ratzinger, La teologia e il magistero della Chiesa. Un contributo alla discussione e comprensione della Istruzione sulla vocazione ecclesiale del teologo, ed. it. pag. 91, originale 1990. Simone Weil, Lettre un religieux, in Oeuvres, dition tablie sous la direction de Florence de Lussy, Quarto Gallimard, Paris 1999, p. 1007. Su Rosmini, cf. DH 3201-3241. Jaspers, p. 46; citazione dal Nachla 1885-1887, KSA, 12, p. 165
16
17 18
154 Vito MANCUSO
mostrando che, al contrario, la nostra pi severa ed esigente volont di verit a farci rimanere ancora cristiani. Ma proprio questa esigenza di verit esercitata allinterno della dogmatica cristiana conduce al conflitto con listituzione. Come uscire da questa situazione paradossale? Essendo fides quaerens intellectum, chiaro che la fede a motivare lesistenza della teologia. Senza fede nessuna teologia. Rahner diceva che la teologia presuppone un rapporto esistentivo con la realt della fede 19, e Karl Barth definiva la fede conditio sine qua non della scienza teologica 20. quindi indiscutibile la dipendenza organica della teologia nei confronti della fede. Rahner per proseguiva dicendo che la teologia una scienza della fede nellambito della Chiesa (corsivo mio), che la si pu coltivare solo cos e che essa quindi deve essere una teologia ecclesiale 21, ed sufficiente ricordare laggettivo apposto da Barth alla sua monumentale Dogmatica, cio appunto ecclesiale, per ritrovare la medesima prospettiva. Limpostazione di gran lunga prevalente nel cristianesimo quindi la seguente: la teologia nasce dalla fede e si esercita nella Chiesa e per la Chiesa, e come la fede ha una forma necessariamente ecclesiale cos anche la teologia chiamata ad averla. Tale impostazione raggiunge il suo vertice nei pronunciamenti del magistero cattolico, in particolare nella Istruzione della Congregazione per la dottrina della fede La vocazione ecclesiale del teologo del 1990 22. Il nesso fede-chiesateologia si presenta come un tutto organico. A mio avviso precisamente questo nesso che oggi la teologia deve sottoporre a critica se vuole sopravvivere come disciplina degna di essere presa in considerazione dalla coscienza contemporanea, e, ancora pi radicalmente, contribuire a impedire il progressivo estinguersi del cristianesimo dal continente europeo. Perch il cristianesimo possa continuare a vivere, necessario che la teologia lo liberi dalla forma rigidamente ecclesiastica impostale dalla gerarchia lungo i secoli. La teologia deve liberare la fede dalla configurazione dottrinaria di cui stata rivestita e
19
Karl Rahner, Eine Theologie, mit der wir leben knnen, conferenza del 22 luglio 1982 a Wrzburg, ora in Schriften zur Theologie, Band XV: Wissenschaft und christlicher Glaube, Benzinger Verlag, Einsiedeln 1983; citata dalledizione italiana Scienza e fede cristiana, Edizioni Paoline, Roma 1984, pag. 144. Karl Barth, Einfhrung in die evangelische Theologie, Theologischer Verlag, Zrich 1970; citata dalledizione italiana Introduzione alla teologia evangelica, Edizioni Paoline, Cinisello Balsamo 1990, pag. 142. Rahner, pag. 144-145 e 153. Al riguardo si pu affiancare larticolo di Joseph Ratzinger, La teologia e il magistero della chiesa. Un contributo alla discussione e comprensione della Istruzione sulla vocazione ecclesiale del teologo (ed. it. pag. 89 ss.) e le recenti dichiarazioni del pontefice.
20
21 22
che ha prodotto la morsa del controllo ecclesiastico coi suoi anathema sit. Naturalmente senza Chiesa non si d fede e non si d teologia, sia perch la Chiesa a trasmettere il contenuto della fede, sia perch la costruzione della Chiesa in quanto comunione e comunit il naturale sbocco della fede vissuta. Non si tratta quindi in nessun modo di eliminare la Chiesa, nellingenuit di chi pensa di poter fare a meno della dimensione istituzionale. La storia ha una logica rigorosa secondo cui quanto in essa non si fa istituzione presto destinato a svanire, e anche solo per questo non auspico nessun tipo di pauperismo istituzionale. Ci che auspico non neppure la scomparsa del magistero dottrinale, al quale anzi riconosco una funzione essenziale, perch molto meglio avere un magistero che non averlo, molto meglio avere unistituzione che decida che non averla. Ci che auspico unaltra cosa: il superamento nella mente dei credenti della convinzione che la verit della loro fede cattolica si misuri sulla conformit alla dottrina consolidata, tanto in campo dogmatico quanto in campo etico. Ci che auspico lintroduzione nella mente dei credenti di una concezione dinamico-evolutiva della verit (verit = bene) e non pi statico-dottrinaria (verit = dottrina). Alla fine degli Esercizi spirituali santIgnazio di Loyola presenta alcune regole per chi vuole essere un buon figlio della Chiesa, tra le quali la tredicesima prescrive: Per essere certi in tutto, dobbiamo sempre tenere questo criterio: quello che io vedo bianco lo credo nero, se lo stabilisce la Chiesa gerarchica 23. La regola ignaziana si basa sullequazione: verit = dottrina della Chiesa, la quale sottost ancora oggi allimpostazione predominante allinterno del cattolicesimo. Al contrario io sottoscrivo queste parole di Karl Barth: Il compito specifico della teologia, proprio nei confronti della tradizione, un compito critico. La teologia deve esporre la predicazione della comunit al fuoco della questione della verit 24. Una teologia allaltezza dei tempi non pu pi permettersi di configurarsi a priori come obbedienza incondizionata al Magistero. Riprendendo il titolo di unenciclica di Giovanni Paolo II, affermo che lo splendore della verit deve essere tale da illuminare anche le ombre e le contraddizioni della
23
Ignazio di Loyola, Esercizi spirituali, ed. it. a cura di Giuliano Raffo S.I., Edizioni ADP, Roma 1991 (ed. or. 1544), p. 313. Si tratta di una frase indicativa di un atteggiamento complessivo nato per lo meno a partire da Agostino e dalla sua celebre frase: Io stesso non crederei al Vangelo, se non mi spingesse a credere lautorit della Chiesa Cattolica: Contro la lettera di Mani detta del Fondamento, 5, 6; tr. it. di Augusto Cosentino, nel volume intitolato Polemica con i Manichei, XIII/2 dellOpera omnia, Citt Nuova, Roma 2000, pag. 309. Karl Barth, Einfhrung in die evangelische Theologie, Theologischer Verlag, Zrich 1970; citata dalledizione italiana Introduzione alla teologia evangelica, Edizioni Paoline, Cinisello Balsamo 1990, pag. 92.
24
156 Vito MANCUSO
dottrina. Il teologo si deve esporre allo splendore della verit con la pi radicale onest intellettuale, senza piegare mai a priori il proprio pensiero per giustificare decisioni di cui non riscontra la fondatezza, trasformandosi in un apologeta di palazzo. Valgono al riguardo le seguenti parole di Simone Weil: Non riconosco alla Chiesa alcun diritto di limitare le operazioni dellintelligenza e le illuminazioni dellamore nellambito del pensiero 25. La teologia deve diventare libera ricerca spirituale. chiaro che lassunzione di questa prospettiva di rigorosa sincerit ha un prezzo inevitabile che si chiama eresia. Ma se eresia significa essere pronti a lottare per la verit fino a scardinare ci che alla prova dei fatti appare come una forzatura ideologica della dogmatica, allora per la sopravvivenza del cristianesimo necessaria leresia. E nel porre questo principio, forse ci troviamo di fronte a una vendetta della storia. Forse giunge il momento di pagare il conto per una dogmatica costruita lungo i secoli anche sulla violenza, sugli intrighi, sui giochi di potere, perch innegabile che talora la teologia sia stata spesso funzionale al potere, instrumentum regni. I primi sette concili ecumenici vennero tutti convocati dagli imperatori e non certo per amore della teologia, come non certo per amore della teologia si istitu la Santa inquisizione senza la quale la dogmatica non avrebbe la configurazione attuale, perch Jan Hus, invece di essere arso vivo sul rogo il 6 luglio 1415, avrebbe potuto sostenere liberamente i suoi argomenti e contribuire a far evolvere qualche contenuto dottrinale. Lo stesso vale per migliaia di altri cristiani prima e dopo di lui. Oggi comunque non si tratta di qualche singolo dogma o di qualche usanza liturgica; oggi in gioco la condizione morale e spirituale dei nostri popoli al cui proposito lattualit di queste parole, pronunciate oltre un secolo fa, manifesta a chiunque voglia aprire gli occhi e guardare: Gi da molto tempo tutta la nostra cultura europea si muove, con una tensione tormentata che cresce di decennio in decennio, come in direzione di una catastrofe: inquieta, violenta, precipitosa: come una corrente che anela alla fine, che non riflette pi e che ha paura di riflettere 26. La sfida lanciata a livello metodologico dalla postmodernit neopagana fecondata da Nietzsche impone alla teologia il passaggio dal principio di autorit al principio di autenticit. Il che si potrebbe riassumere mediante una variazione del classico motto amicus Plato sed magis amica veritas, tradizionalmente attribuito ad Aristotele, in questaltro: Magistra ecclesia, sed magis magistra veritas.
25 26
Dernier texte, in appendice a Lettera a un religioso, p. 91. Nachla 1887-1889, KSA, 13, pag. 189; citato da Karl Jaspers, pag. 55.
Alla luce di questa impostazione che assegna il primato alla vita e non alla dottrina, definisco il mio lavoro teologia laica, intendendo una teologia che nasce dalla fede e vuole servire lesperienza spirituale della fede, ma che non fa del magistero della Chiesa il criterio ultimo e normativo del credere. Il criterio ultimo e normativo non la dottrina, la verit. Con ci nego lequazione teologica fondamentale che sottost al magistero cattolico, cio verit = dottrina, per porre invece questaltra: verit > dottrina. esattamente ci che afferma la Bibbia quando parla di verit. Per la Bibbia la verit non una dottrina, meno che mai un sistema, ma qualcosa di vitale, su cui potersi appoggiare e camminare, pane da mangiare, acqua da bere. Verit, nel linguaggio biblico, significa fiducia. La teologia realizza tale prospettiva col sostenere che lesperienza spirituale ha pi valore della dottrina, che il primato non della dogmatica ma della spiritualit, che i veri maestri della fede non sono i custodi dellortodossia dottrinale ma i santi e i mistici (alcuni dei quali formalmente eterodossi come Meister Eckhart e Antonio Rosmini). Il cattolicesimo oggi deve ritrovare e porre al primo posto il significato biblico di verit, privilegiandolo rispetto al significato dottrinale e ospitando una visione dinamica e non pi statica della verit. La perdita dello statuto dinamico della verit a mio avviso la causa principale della crisi che a partire dallepoca moderna non ha cessato di interessare il cattolicesimo, la quale si manifesta anche nella perdita progressiva della sua capacit, a differenza del grande passato, di produrre arte. In questo tempo postmoderno fecondato da Nietzsche la dottrina non pu pi essere lorizzonte sotto cui si pensa la verit. La verit deve tornare a essere pensata come vita, secondo quanto ha scritto Karl Barth: Il pensiero, quando vero, pensiero della vita, e in ci e per ci pensiero di Dio 27. Ne viene che il criterio di verit delle affermazioni della fede non deve essere collocato pi allinterno della fede stessa ma fuori, nella vita. Unaffermazione dottrinale non sar vera perch corrisponde a qualche versetto biblico o a qualche dogma ecclesiastico, ma perch non contraddice la vita. In teologia si tratta di passare dal sistema chiuso e autoreferenziale che ragiona in base alla logica ortodosso-eterodosso, al sistema aperto e riferito alla vita che ragiona in base alla logica verofalso. E ci che determina la verit o falsit di unaffermazione la vita, perch il pensiero, quando vero, pensiero della vita. Non bisogna per nulla temere di diminuire cos il tasso di teologicit delle affermazioni, il quale anzi potr solo aumentare, perch proprio pensando la vita che la teologia pensiero di Dio, del Dio vivo qui e ora, e non di quello depositato nel Denzinger e nella lettera biblica.
27
Karl Barth.
158 Vito MANCUSO
A questo proposito faccio un esempio concreto: possiamo continuare a credere e a insegnare che la morte stata introdotta nella vita biologica dal peccato delluomo come afferma san Paolo (cf Rom 5,12), quando invece oggi si sa che la morte c da quando esiste la riproduzione sessuata, cio svariate centinaia di milioni di anni prima della comparsa delluomo? La morte non frutto del peccato delluomo, ma inscritta da sempre nella logica della biologia. La teologia che intende la verit non come dottrina ma come vita, non pu non riformularsi sulla base di quanto la vita le insegna. Benedetto XVI dice che occorre obbedire alla verit e che il teologo deve essere interiormente purificato dallobbedienza alla verit 28. Parole stupende, come si fa a non essere daccordo? Ma proprio lobbedienza alla verit impone una revisione di alcuni asserti dottrinali, e non certo solo di quello che riconduce la morte al peccato di Adamo. Il primato della vita Il primato dellonest intellettuale a livello di metodo teologico non pu non avere ripercussioni sul contenuto, a partire dai principali problemi sollevati da Nietzsche: 1) il rapporto tra Ges e Paolo, ovvero la questione di chi fu il fondatore del cristianesimo (alla buona novella segu immediatamente la peggiore di tutte: quella di Paolo) 29; 2) il senso della redenzione tramite la croce (bisogna essere teologi per credere a una potenza che cancelli una colpa) 30; 3) il peccato originale (tutta la concezione del mondo insudiciata dallidea di castigo) 31; 4) la lettura cristiana delle Scritture ebraiche e la loro connessione col NT (quella inaudita farsa filologica intorno al Vecchio Testamento) 32; 5) il clero e la sua selezione-formazione (La variet di uomo pi viziosa il prete: lui insegna la contronatura) 33. Ma la principale sfida che oggi Nietzsche costituisce per il contenuto del cristianesimo unaltra, ed propriamente teologica perch riguarda la natura di Dio. In realt da sempre la pi grande questione
28 29 30
Nota Lanticristo, 42, ed. it. pag. 55. af. 235, p. 136. O anche: Dio dette suo figlio per la remissione dei peccati, come vittima. Fu di colpo in bianco la fine del Vangelo!: Lanticristo, 41, ed. it. pag. 54. af. 141, p. 89. Cf. anche Crepuscolo, pag. 81; e Lanticristo, 51; ed. it. pag. 71. Aurora, 84. Lanticristo, pag. 98.
31 32 33
che si pone al pensiero teologico la quaestio de Deo, ma ogni epoca la considera a suo modo, e il modo con cui la questione si presenta ai nostri giorni non riguarda pi se Dio esista (questione tipicamente moderna che presuppone la centralit del soggetto) ma quale sia la natura intima dellessere, o, che lo stesso, quale sia la natura intima della divinit. Qual la natura intima dellessere? Qual la natura intima di Dio? il bene e lamore, oppure la forza e la potenza? Il cristianesimo ha le idee chiare: Dio amore, assunto teoretico da cui discende la norma della condotta etica compendiata nel comandamento dellamore. Anche Nietzsche per ha le idee chiare. Anzitutto dichiara che proprio il concetto di Dio come bene e come amore ci che pi di ogni altra cosa lo allontana dai cristiani: Quel che ci divide non sta nel fatto che non ritroviamo Dio n nella storia, n nella natura e neppure dietro la natura bens nella circostanza che noi sentiamo quel che viene venerato come Dio, non come divino, ma come miserabile, assurdo, dannoso, non soltanto come errore, ma come delitto contro la vita 34. Il suo rifiuto del cristianesimo proprio in considerazione di argomenti teologici. Ed ecco la sua proposta: Togliamo la bont suprema dal concetto di Dio: indegna di un Dio No! Dio la suprema potenza e basta! Da lei deriva tutto, da lei deriva il mondo! 35. Altrove scrive della castrazione contronatura di un Dio in un Dio soltanto del bene 36. Per Nietzsche guardando alla vita quale fenomeno interamente naturale si scorge lessere (e quindi il divino) corrispondere alla seguente logica: La natura: osare di essere immorali come la natura 37. qui, a mio avviso, che si gioca la partita decisiva. Col porre limmoralit della natura e dellessere Nietzsche ripresenta il paganesimo e la sua elevazione della potenza a criterio assoluto, la potenza che vuole solo se stessa, la potenza come pura volont di dominio. il concetto incarnato dalla figura di Zeus, il Dio supremo che, come scrive Esiodo, non mai senza il potere (Kratos) e la forza (Bia) 38. La figura di Zeus si traduce speculativamente nel dire che la natura intima dellessere volont di potenza 39. Ritengo che la risposta pi adeguata a Nietzsche debba avvenire proprio qui dove risiede la sua forza, contrastando questa sua affermazione centrale. Si tratta di mostrare che non cos, che la natura intima
34 35 36 37 38
Lanticristo, 47, ed. it. pag. 65. af. 1037, p. 546. Lanticristo, 16, ed. it. pag. 18. Volont di potenza, af. 120, pag. 71. e Potere e Forza gener, illustri suoi figli, / lontano dai quali di Zeus non c n casa n sede: Esiodo, Teogonia, 385; ed. it. pag. 87. af. 693, p. 379.
39
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dellessere non la potenza in quanto dominio, ma il bene, essendo il bene la forma pi armoniosa e quindi pi stabile, pi forte e pi duratura, di relazione. Per secoli si ritenuto che la sostanza venisse prima della relazione, un pensiero che da Aristotele arriva a Spinoza e abbraccia anche buona parte della teologia cristiana con la concezione della aseit di Dio e della non necessit della sua relazione col mondo. Al contrario oggi sappiamo dalla scienza che la relazione viene prima della sostanza, perch ogni sostanza scaturisce solo dal lavoro delle relazioni che intessono lessere (che si dice come energia) fino al livello subatomico. Lunica sostanza pensabile senza relazione la singolarit cosmica (il puntino primordiale dalla dimensione inafferrabile di cm 10-33) per la quale energia e massa coincidevano e non esistevano n spazio n tempo. Ma dopo il big bang ogni fenomeno esiste in quanto prima relazione, per la precisione relazione armoniosa. Lessere energia, cio en-ergon, al-lavoro dice il termine greco, e il lavoro consiste nellininterrotto tessere relazioni, dallinfinitamente piccolo delle particelle subatomiche allinfinitamente grande delle galassie coi loro miliardi di stelle. La medesima logica vale per il nostro corpo, il quale atomi che si relazionano armoniosamente e diventano molecole, molecole che si relazionano armoniosamente e divengono cellule, cellule che si relazionano armoniosamente e divengono organi, organi che si relazionano armoniosamente e divengono organismo (per citare solo i passaggi pi significativi tralasciandone molti intermedi). In questa prospettiva lordinamento del mondo, il fatto cio che lessere-energia assuma forma e produca i diversi enti compresi noi stessi, interpretabile come creazione continua, una creazione da attribuire al Logos intrinseco allessere-energia che agisce come logica relazionale armoniosa. Il mondo si svela come un grande laboratorio dove il Logos continuamente allopera. La fondazione del primato del bene in cui consiste teoreticamente il cristianesimo si basa sul carattere relazionale dellessere, sul fatto che senza armonia gli enti non potrebbero esistere. Il bene ha a che fare con lontologia, consiste nella logica relazionale armoniosa che prima tesse e poi tiene insieme i fenomeni. In principio era il Logos unaffermazione che merita davvero il primo posto nellalfabeto della fede cristiana, come ha scritto Benedetto XVI, soprattutto se lo si interpreta speculativamente come in principio era la Relazione 40. chiaro che spesso la relazione si esprime anche come conflitto e quindi come volont di potenza, ma altrettanto chiaro che essa non riducibile alla sola volont di potenza. Per lo meno non lo , se per volont di potenza si intende unicamente volont di dominio. Se invece
40
Simone Weil, Lettera a un religioso, pag. 70.
alla volont di potenza si assegna anche una capacit di trascendere la volont di dominio personale, se si riconosce cio alla volont anche la possibilit di determinarsi per il giusto e per il bello in s ritrovando una crescita di potenza personale nelladesione a un livello pi nobile dellessere non riducibile allego, allora non ho obiezioni a che si determini il senso ultimo dellessere come volont di potenza (come gi faceva Spinoza) 41. Allobiezione che non esiste un giusto in s o un bene in s, rispondo che con in s intendo qualcosa di fronte a cui il singolo soggetto percepisce di non desiderare il dominio ma la dedizione e la comunione. La vita non solo volont di imporre se stessi, conosce anche il movimento opposto quale volont di consegnare se stessi. La vita dominio e sottomissione, attivit e passivit, resistenza e resa, e un pensiero maturo sa vedere e comporre entrambi i momenti. Anche Nietzsche, oltre alla volont di potenza, conosce lamor fati. Sulla base del carattere relazionale dellessere-energia, il bene e la giustizia emergono come i valori pi alti in base a cui vivere perch sono lespressione pi alta della logica primordiale intrinseca allessere quale viene informato continuamente dal Logos. questo il kerygma eterno, la buona notizia di sempre, valida a partire dal primo giorno della creazione del mondo, a cui il cristianesimo col suo kerygma storico deve essere funzionale. Si tratta di ricomprendere il cristianesimo storico come funzionale al cristianesimo eterno, la Chiesa istituzionale come funzionale alla ecclesia ab Abel. Si tratta di giungere a quel cristianesimo universale di Atti 17,28 che parla di Dio dicendo che in lui viviamo, ci muoviamo ed esistiamo, il cristianesimo amico degli uomini e delle loro religioni. Il vero kerygma, la buona notizia definitiva ed eterna, non riguarda la storia ( successo questo, accaduto questaltro) ma riguarda luniversalit dellessere, scoperto come bene e come giustizia, e che si traduce esistenzialmente generando fiducia nella vita. Alla luce del fatto che lessere in se stesso relazione, il cristianesimo, che esalta la relazione nel modo pi radicale dicendo che Dio stesso amore cio relazione assoluta, compimento vero dellessere vero. Contrariamente alla versione di cristianesimo attaccato non senza buone ragioni da Nietzsche, un cristianesimo di impostazione amartiocentrica basato sul nesso peccato originale-croce (cio buco-tappabuco), il cristianesimo da me esposto non una fuga o un tradimento del mondo, ma sua autentica espressione. Con questa prospettiva io intendo concretizzare il desiderio di Dietrich Bonhoeffer (inconcepibile senza Nietzsche, a partire dalla sua critica al Dio tappabuchi) il quale voleva parlare di Dio non ai limiti, ma al centro, non nelle debolezze, ma nella forza,
41
cf. anche Tillich, The Courage to Be.
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non dunque in relazione alla morte e alla colpa, ma nella vita e nel bene delluomo 42. Teologia della relazione Avendo individuato nella logica relazionale il principio che muove lessere-energia e quindi al contempo la prospettiva a partire dalla quale guardare il mondo, la mia proposta teologica definibile come teologia della relazione. Si tratta di una teologia cristiana della relazione, perch in essa il Cristo il paradigma della perfetta relazionalit, pienamente verticale (amore per Dio in quanto origine e meta dellessere) e pienamente orizzontale (amore per il prossimo e per ogni frammento di essere). Il Cristo il simbolo concreto che manifesta come la relazione pi alta sia lamore, nonch la promessa e la speranza che il compimento della logica relazionale che informa lessere-energia sar lamore. A partire da questo centro presento i tratti fondamentali del mio pensiero, per quanto solo in forma necessariamente sintetica. 1) Primato della spiritualit. Il destinatario privilegiato della teologia deve diventare la vita concreta degli uomini, la loro fiducia, la loro speranza, la loro capacit di continuare ad amare. La teologia compie se stessa quando contribuisce a condurre gli uomini allunione con Dio, alla santit, e il suo senso consiste nel porsi al servizio allesperienza spirituale. Ne viene che la dogmatica va interpretata in funzione della vita spirituale, quando necessario piegandola. 2) Dio. Il senso della dottrina cristiana su Dio in quanto Trinit consiste nel primato della relazione rispetto alla sostanza. Non ci sono prima le tre persone e poi lunica divinit, ma c prima lunica divinit che, essendo in se stessa relazione, fa sorgere le persone dal suo movimento relazionale. Non ci sono prima le persone del Padre, del Figlio e dello Spirito come tre persone autonome che solo in seguito si relazionano: pensare cos sarebbe triteismo, e non avrebbero torto gli ebrei e i musulmani a rimproverare i cristiani di politeismo. Al contrario il Padre si costituisce come padre solo nella relazione col Figlio, e se non ci fosse il Figlio non potrebbe essere padre; viceversa il Figlio si costituisce come figlio solo nella relazione col Padre, e dalla loro relazione procede lo Spirito. Quindi prima c la reciproca relazione allinterno dellunica divinit la cui logica interiore la relazione, e poi, come risultanza delle relazioni, sorgono le persone, le quali, insegna san Tommaso dAquino, vanno intese come relazioni sussistenti. in questo senso che si comprende anche che Dio amore, essendo lamore lespressione pi intensa della relazionalit.
42
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Resistenza e resa (lettera del 30 aprile 1944), ed. it. pag. 351. Tappabuchi.
3) Una nuova visione del rapporto Dio-mondo. Dopo la dissoluzione novecentesca delle tradizionali teologie della natura e della storia, oggi il compito pi urgente della teologia consiste nel rendere di nuovo concepibile il rapporto Dio-mondo, pi in particolare lazione di Dio nel mondo. A questo riguardo io concepisco lazione divina come una e unica, identica da sempre a se stessa, perch in Dio non ci sono mutazioni. Limpassibilit divina sostenuta dalla teologia classica da intendere come azione permanente, continua, senza variazioni. Se qualcosa muta nella relazione Dio-mondo, non perch Dio intervenga operando qualcosa di particolare, magari dopo aver cambiato opinione. piuttosto il mondo a mutare e ad evolversi, e la sua evoluzione fa mutare il rapporto con Dio. Levoluzione del polo mondo muta il rapporto bipolare Diomondo. Non c Dio che prima crea luomo, poi assiste sorpreso e amareggiato al peccato di Adamo ed Eva, poi elegge un popolo preferendolo a tutti gli altri, poi si incarna in un uomo, poi piuttosto il mondo che, creato continuamente dallunica e incessante azione divina in quanto natura naturans, va prendendo consapevolezza nella mente umana della sua unione con Dio. La logica che guida lorganizzazione progressiva del mondo il Logos divino, il Verbo come attivit continuamente creatrice, sempre allopera, sempre al lavoro. 4) Cristologia. I titoli di Logos e di Verbo si applicano a Ges di Nazaret in senso pieno, nel senso che in lui leterna relazione di Dio col mondo ha avuto la sua massima consapevolezza soggettiva (io e il Padre siamo una cosa sola) e la sua massima manifestazione ontologica (nel porre lamore quale essenza di Dio). La qualifica di Logos e di Verbo, e anche di Cristo, non appartengono per in modo esclusivo a Ges: vi sono stati altri fenomeni storici nei quali la continua comunicazione di Dio giunta a prendere coscienza di s come Logos o Verbo o Cristo. Cristo maggiore di Ges. La pienezza del Cristo per coincide con la vita umana di Ges. 5) Soteriologia. La salvezza presente da sempre nella creazione e nella sua logica che si dice come relazione. Seguendo la logica relazionale immessa continuamente dallincessante azione divina, praticandola concretamente qui e ora, gli uomini divengono giusti, cio partecipi di una dimensione pi ordinata dellessere. Tale dimensione apre a una vita al di l di questa vita terrena, denominata dalla tradizione come vita eterna. Si tratta di rifondare la soteriologia pensando la salvezza non pi come redenzione ma come risultato del lavoro secondo giustizia, tornando allannunzio originario di Ges, cercate prima il regno di Dio e la sua giustizia, e destituendo limpostazione paolina basata sul sacrificio del sangue. Dio non ha bisogno del sangue per salvare gli uomini, il Padre si prende da sempre cura dei suoi figli dando loro da sempre la possibilit di essere con lui. La salvezza presente da sempre nella creazione grazie al fatto che la creazione viene da Dio mediante il Logos, e in questo
164 Vito MANCUSO
senso il Cristo, per quem omnia facta sunt, il salvatore di tutto il genere umano. Questa unione inestirpabile tra Dio e gli uomini esclude ogni concetto di colpa e di peccato originale. Non c alcuna colpa che grava sugli uomini, imputata loro da Dio Padre come peccato, per il quale occorre il perdono. C piuttosto lenergia caotica della libert che ha bisogno di essere ordinata e disciplinata per diventare volont di bene e di giustizia. Quando la libert viene disciplinata grazie al fascino che lidea del bene esercita su di lei (fascino in cui consiste lazione della grazia), essa si esprime come giustizia e ottiene la vita, perch chi pratica la giustizia si procura la vita (Proverbi 11,19). 6) Antropologia spirituale. Quando un singolo uomo giunge a concepire se stesso come opera della creazione continua di Dio, si scopre qui e ora figlio di Dio. Quando un singolo uomo giunge a concepire se stesso cos intimamente unito al Dio personale da chiamarlo Padre, si ha lidentificazione di questuomo con Dio. In questuomo allora il Logos diviene carne, e questuomo diviene relazione divina tra Dio e il mondo. Diviene mediatore. Non mediatore tra Dio e gli uomini, come se Dio avesse bisogno di qualcuno per muoverlo alla comunione con gli uomini; ma piuttosto mediatore presso gli uomini, tra la loro esistenza concreta e la loro essenza divina, tra la temporalit fenomenica e leternit che portano in s. Quando un uomo prende coscienza della sua origine divina abitato dallo Spirito, e in questo suo essere abitato dallo Spirito luomo condotto sempre pi a volere solo il bene e la giustizia. Si ha cos il suo ingresso nella dimensione dello Spirito santo, il suo spirito diviene uguale allo Spirito santo. E luomo, un semplice uomo, appare diverso agli altri uomini che, per questo, lo chiamano santo. 7) Liturgia e sacramenti. Se il primato della vita cristiana spetta alla spiritualit, la forma pi consapevole di esercizio della spiritualit la liturgia. Condurre gli uomini della postmodernit a celebrare la liturgia uno dei compiti essenziali della teologia, che a sua volta si nutre della celebrazione della lode divina. A questo riguardo io ritengo che il mondo sia il primo e fondamentale sacramento. La categoria di sacramento eminentemente relazionale: tutto sacramento, tutto mediazione di Dio perch tutto viene da Dio. I sette sacramenti sono per i cattolici i luoghi dove emerge tale fondamentale sacramentalit dellessere, le occasioni nelle quali essi divengono consapevoli della dimensione ontologica fondamentale della realt quale linguaggio di Dio. Ma non solo i sette sacramenti, tutte le cose sono mediatrici della grazia divina, una volta che si sia compreso che vengono e tornano a Dio, origine e fine dellessere-energia. Tutta la vita deve diventare liturgia, e la liturgia deve essere celebrazione e lode della vita.
8) Ecclesiologia. La costruzione della Chiesa in quanto comunione e comunit il naturale sbocco della fede vissuta. Non c vera fede vissuta senza comunit. E alla comunit cristiana compete essenzialmente anche la struttura gerarchica, perch al mondo non esiste organizzazione che non sia gerarchicamente strutturata, gi a partire dai fenomeni naturali. La gerarchia della Chiesa sar tanto pi fedele al suo compito quanto pi sar al servizio dellesperienza spirituale dei fedeli. 9) Etica nella situazione. La vita spirituale si esprime come attenzione, e quindi letica si traduce a sua volta come attenzione, unattenzione alla rivelazione continua che ogni momento dellessere e ogni situazione della vita porta con s. Il compito delletica cristiana condurre gli uomini a vivere la vita nella consapevolezza che Dio amore e lo qui e ora, contro ogni dottrinalismo astratto che imponendo dallalto lapplicazione di regole pensate astrattamente toglie alla vita la capacit di essere rivelazione, e quindi sopprime il senso stesso della vita spirituale. Le norme sono necessarie, essenziale che vi siano. Ma letica propriamente detta inizia quando esse si espongono alla situazione concreta. il senso delle parole di Ges sul primato delluomo rispetto al sabato. 10) Il criterio. Il criterio decisivo per valutare gli asserti teologici ed etici laumento della qualit della relazione, cio laumento dellunit con gli altri (comunione) e con se stessi (unificazione interiore). Tutto ci che aumenta lunit e la comunione gradito a Dio perch riproduce la sua logica, e lo si pu dire sim-bolico nel senso etimologico del greco sym-ballo, mettere insieme, unire. Tutto ci che diminuisce lunit e la comunione e aumenta la dispersione sgradito a Dio perch contrasta la sua logica, e lo si pu dire dia-bolico nel senso etimologico del greco diaballo, dividere, disunire. Lamore la forma pi alta di unione, unione come com-unione, e per questo la forma pi alta dellessere. La teologia si deve porre al suo servizio in fedelt assoluta.
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Theology of Axiality and Axial Theology

Jos Mara VIGIL Panam, Panam
POINT OF REFERENCE: axial age theory During the process of learning and recovering our evolutionary past, we have not long ago discovered a special phenomenon which has been called "axial age". Although Karl Jaspers states he had been preceded in this reference by Lasaulx, Viktor Strauss and Alfred Weber, both the concept and the name is today generally attributed to Jaspers, since he made it popular in his work Origin and Goal of History 1. A first meaning of Achsenzeit, axial age, is a concept originating around the idea of an imaginary axis in time, to which everything makes a reference; a moment marking a before and an after in the time line. Jaspers starts his book by saying that Hegel considered an axial time, which for him was Christ, as a central axis for history, an axial moment around which time would move. Oscar Cullman 2 in his famous book Christ and time, some time before had said the same: all previous times converge in Christ, from whom a new time emerges, open to an absolute future; Christ would serve as the alpha and omega of all the history of salvation, of time and of eternity ... But this concrete concept of an axial age is religious -says Jaspersbelonging to the Christian faith, and cannot be accepted by science, which uses universal and demonstrable criteria. Jaspers proposes to find, with those scientific criteria, an axial time, a time that can be identified as an axis dividing history in a before and an after, a time that would mark the beginning of the present time in history, the now.
1
Origen y meta de la historia (Origin and goal of history), Alianza Universidad, Madrid 1980. Original in German: Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte, Piper Verlag, Mnchen 1949. y el tiempo, (Christ and Time) Estela, Barcelona 1968, p. 105ss. Original 1945, Zrich.
2 Cristo
168 Jos Mara VIGIL
Jaspers conclusion about this axial age is well known. He thinks he can find this age in the period between the years 200 and 800 BC, in the transformations that humanity experienced at that time, transformations that developed a different type of human conscience, which we are still today experiencing, thousands of years later. We have greatly developed in information, technology and not so much in science, but we have not grown in knowledge. The levels of spirituality and wisdom attained at that axial age have not been surpassed. Maybe in a future axial age we may overcome the present human conscience, that formed in the axial age of the first millennium BC. In fact Jaspers suggests 3 that there could be a second axial age soon and states succinctly that this would not be based on the aggregation of isolated geographic-cultural transformations, but it would be a planetary event, "involving all humanity". Human evolution seems to have been constant, but not linear nor homogeneous. Jaspers thought he had discovered a time when human conscience had made a deep spiritual evolutionary change that would divide time in a before and an after, an axial age. This theory has been fortunate and is increasingly being accepted in the fields of history, sociology and anthropology. International interdisciplinary congresses have continued the study, extending and going deeper into the subject at specialized university levels 4. The concept is now acknowledged and is a known reference in subjects related to the evolution of humankind in its historical and anthropologic-cultural aspects. In the same way as some decades ago it was common to say "we are not in an era of change but in a change of era", it is now becoming common to say that we are facing -even in theology- a cultural tsunami, as well as a new axial age. These are signs that an awareness of what we are going through is not just of "accelerated changes" 5 but of a global cultural-spiritual transformation of Humanity so profound that it could be called a new axial age. From this growing conscience that is starting to be accepted and imposed without resistance, we would like to start our study. This our worry: the thesis (or hypothesis) of an imminent axial age is a great menace for theology; therefore, we think it urgent to call attention to this subject so as to face it and give way to a (new) Theology of Axial Age, as well as to a renewal of different theologies from that perspective, transforming them into axial theologies.
3 4
Origen y meta..., p. 46-48. For example the Conference of Florence, December 2001, organised by European University Institute, Israels Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Swedish College for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences As said by the II Vatican Council through its famous phrase for the analysis of the signs of time, Gaudium et Spes 4.
Theology of Axiality and Axial Theology 169
SEEING: Data that confirm the possibility of the present axial age. There is a growing consensus about the transformation that the Human conscience is experimenting, regarding its acceleration and its depth. For a long time we have been talking of progress -during all the modern age- of "progress" and of changes. As we have recalled, the II Vatican Council stated that society was going through a period of changes, so quick that society did not even have time to accompany them. Around the 90s the phrase which became famous was that we were not in an age of changes, but in a change of age. And it has been recently when we have started to say that we are not in a change of age, but in a cultural tsunami, or in a new axial age. This progression of statements clearly expresses a conscience that is confirmed and transformed in the spirit of the age, in an undisputed conviction socially assumed. Although it also comes from the beginning of the Modern Age, it was in the last decades when the crisis of religion in the West has become known and evident, with a multimillionaire drop in followers in Europe and North America (Canada and Quebec) mainly. Analysts talk of a new crisis, of a crisis of God (Gotteskreise), of an "eclipse of God" (Martin Buber), of a "metamorphosis of religion" ( Juan Martn Velasco), of the end of christianity, of a growing secularisation, of an "ex-culturisation" of christianity (Herv-Legier)... And all this acknowledging that a big proportion of humanity still pratises its traditional religion, even with a strong revival, as indicated by the great growth of the neo-pentecostals 6... which shares time with a growing phenomenon of atheism and new generations that live away from the religious conscience traditional of the two last millennia. In conclusion: it is impossible -we are not attempting it- to demonstrate with arguments and data that we are in an axial age; we can say it is more a feeling experienced by many up to the point of a conviction, that we are possibly in a situation like that, although probably different, and we do not even need it to be the same. If, as it seems, the hypothesis that we are within such a radical or even bigger transformation from the one Humanity lived in that axial age, is possible, and if this means that we are on the point of, or even already in, a transformation that will outgrow and break the major patterns within which our knowledge moves and has been moving in the
Pentecostal groups are expected to amount to a thousand million followers by 2050, an increase that makes them in the most successful Christian movement of our times. Cfr Jorge CASTILLO, Teologa de la liberacin y cristianismo mundial,(Liberation Theology and world Christianity) in the III Minga of theology Latinamerican magazines (2013), published by more than fifteen Latinamerican magazines.
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last millennia, it appears logical that a responsible theology should face this possibility and reflect on its significance. This is what we would like to do here, very simply. JUDGING: A) What would accepting this scientific hypothesis imply? We ask ourselves what implications the acceptance of an axial age of the present transformation would have for religion and theology. Accepting this axial hypothesis would evidently question the foundations -believed as true- on which religion and theology are built. We will try to state here the most important: - Religions believe in the objectivity of their faith contents, and are sure that the truths in their symbolic patrimonies are objectively true. Religion has been that instance to which, as Humanity, we have recognised the biggest authority and credibility in the task of telling us what reality is and what it means. For three thousand years Humanity has looked at reality through the glasses of religions. If the thesis of an axial age is true, this would imply the falsehood of that certainty: the contents of our faith would not express reality objectively, eternally and immutably, but it would simply be, a concrete way to mould our knowledge of reality within a certain specific period in our evolutionary history, called to be overcome in a new axial age. - Religions have considered themselves as coming directly from the hands of the gods, they have believed they were present since the origins of time in this world created specifically for the human being, and destined to escort us until the end of the world (and to introduce us to the post-human period of reality). If the axial thesis is true, the message of religions is dated as corresponding to the post-axial age. That vision which religions instilled on us as eternal, had never existed before the axial age, and possibly will not exist in a new axial age -in which we might now be-. - If it is true that the axial age implies a radical global transformation of human conscience, it is logical to think in a radical transformation of the religiosity we have been showing since the last axial age. Towards what new forms would our religiosity be transformed -according to clues we now have-?
* Maybe the deutero-axial religiosity will not be that of a relationship with a Mystery separated from reality, with a transcendent divinity separated from the cosmos... but it will be panentheistically cosmo-cen-
tred... It will not be dualistically oriented to heavens, to the things above, to eternal-postmortal realities... but towards the Earth-Cosmos, downwardly, inwardly, to the integral reality... * The new religiosity could not accept the totalising religioncentrism which for millennia has covered us, placing and enclosing Humanity in the lantern of a religious vision made up by religion itself and self-erected into an infallible and highest authority... * The new religiosity can never ever come from "the Book", from an external absolute source of knowledge, from above, from the gods... but will be radically and decisively marked by science, by the human knowledge of the cosmos, by Reality, at all levels... * The new deutero-axial religiosity, will very probably resign all pretension of implying truths, respecting all other faculties and instruments that humanity has to continually search for truth, acknowledging that the intrusion of religion in this field caused great suffering and backlogs to humanity. The deutero-axial religiosity will very probably be a religion not only without dogmas but also without truths, delimiting its fundamental task to accompanying the human being in its cultivation of sense, of depth, of the profound human quality... * The deutero-axial religiosity will be post-theist, because it will not fall in the mirage of thinking that the divinity is a separate entity, placed up above, beyond, a theos inhabiting the second floor, intervening in human life... The deutero-axial religiosity will be at least panentheist... * The deutero-axial religiosity will not be able to stay within the limits of any religion, as if this were the only road available to mediate with the Mystery... recognising that religions have been human constructions, at the same time amazing and defective, that helped humanity and at the same time prevented it to continue growing. The deutero-axial religiosity will not be limited nor encompassed by any religion exclusively.
Many other transformations could be stated; we have just mentioned these as an example. And serious, very serious are the implications of an acceptance or rejection of this hypothesis of an axial age. This is why it is convenient to make a theologic judgement.
JUDGING: B) Can we accept the thesis and its implications? Before we try to make a theological judgement about the possibility of integrating theologically the thesis of an axial age, the first thing to do is to recognise that the thesis/hypothesis of an axial age belongs to the scientific field. It is an interdisciplinary subject, which may involve many disciplines, mainly history, cultural anthropology, philosophy and the sciences of religion. If the axial age before our era existed, and if
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there is going to be a similar phenomenon in the near future or it is already happening, is not a statement within the theological know-how. It is a purely scientific statement. Despite what John Paul II said when he reinstated Galileo Galilei, in the sense that there was now no conflict between science and faith, it is obvious that the implications of an axial age are in deep conflict with the traditional theological vision, to which those implications are just unacceptable. The faith-science conflict reappears here in a new and greater version. How can, four hundred hears after Galileo, this faithscience conflict be resolved? Under the old classic theological criteria still in force today, officially and in the minds of many people- a theological statement based on faith would have pre-eminence over any scientific statement. The scientist may have a thousand arguments, but they would be observational, inductive or deductive. The faithful, and theology itself, would have superior foundations, foundations of faith, based on revelation. That is the reason why cardinals of the Inquisition were sure they could not even believe what Galileo was trying to prove. It was not that they did not believe Galileos point of view based on his observed data; it was that they could not believe him because they possessed a superior source of knowledge, as Christians: revelation, the Bible. Galileo invited them to look through the telescope, they answered they did not need to look through it. Even if through the telescope they could observe what Galileo was stating, in that case they would believe what they saw was an optical illusion. They were so sure that statements based on faith were so infinitely superior to scientific statements because they were revealed truths, that they would reach the point of overriding science in case of conflict. Not very different from this was the recent case of monogenism, in times of Pius XII. Science started to think that the human species would have been born not from one couple, but could have been formed from various evolutionary sources. The ecclesiastical magisterium quickly stated that it could not rule out or support scientific proof given by biology and paleontology, but because of revealed knowledge they could state poligenism was impossible because according to the Bible we are all children of the first and sole human couple, that of Adam and Eve, who committed the primordial sin, without which not all humanity would be contaminated. Today this is not so. Times have changed, and our epistemology has changed. Today we are not so clear as to the pre-eminence of faith
over science in scientific matters. Today we know that all that we have believed through faith related to scientific matters, has been more the fruits of our ignorance, and not Divine Revelation. All those scientific truths that had come from above, we now know have come from down here, from our inventiveness, as much from our genius as from our ignorance, fear and imagination. Faith claimed geocentrism as revealed, and science has made us abandon this belief, although we did it reluctantly and in almost three hundred years. Faith declared anthropocentrism as part of Gods project and science makes us abandon this now. Faith declared the divine project for human salvation was unique and science today is about to find life (animal, rational, intelligent, spiritual?) in any of the external planets that could bear life, that have been discovered throughout the last 20 years, (in 2012 they amount to 800, and it is calculated that there could be millions). The ecclesiastical magisterium keeps silence on this subject - a more important subject than monogenism and this is because it is not sure it can oppose science based on faith. Times have changed even for the Inquisition. What can we say before the challenge the axial age presents to the important theological presuppositions mentioned? Can we say based on faith that science is wrong? Many theologians and believers will not be ready to accept this. It is logical. But we would like to state the thesis/hypothesis of the axial age is not impossible to accept and we should start now accommodating and rereading the vision of our faith and of theology. That could not necessarily be interpreted as servitude to science but as a critical-epistemological maturation of faith. Despite it seems difficult, an approach between faith and science is possible. What is the basis for this new way of coming to terms with the most radically challenging proposals of science, such as this of the axial age? With Thomas Berry we may accept that science has a certain revelatory 7 value, although it is such in a different sense, not as something coming from above but from within. We have stated that what we believed was coming from above we now know comes really from down
7
Thomas BERRY considers we are in a new revealing moment about how the divine intervenes in the universe, qualitatively different from the biblical revelation. Reconciliacin con la Tierra,(Reconciliation with Earth) Cuatro Vientos, Santiago, Chile 1997, p. 20.
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here 8. It is also revelation what we experience when Reality uncovers/discovers to us part of its mysteries through science. Thanks to the community and continuous effort, the book of reality, of creation, has been unfolding ever more, and with increasing acceleration, since the scientific revolution of the XVII Century. The exponential growth of scientific knowledge has been discovering for our surprised eyes and hearts, mysteries of reality we had never even imagined. We are sometimes disillusioned when important elements of our religious thought are reduced to fantasies and to an evident ignorance -, because they were lacking foundation, since they were made in historic times when the book of reality, of the present revelations, was still almost closed. But this disenchantment is quickly overcome when we see the great horizons opened to us by the present revelations of this first book through science. Everything that science is saying and confirming, is now considered word of god by us, that make us modify and readjust our religioustheological elaborations in accordance with the new stated and revealed data During the last centuries science has been expanding with increasing acceleration our knowledge and our perspective. All human ways of being that existed in the past are being altered. We ourselves are changing. Christianity, which appeared 2000 years ago, and our biblical revelation, which started 3.200 years ago, should now work within this new context. Unluckily there are no clues as to Christians thinking at this level of change. Same as the planet is changing more than it had changed in a very long time, the human order that provoked these changes must change in a similar profound way. This is why I think what is happening with Christian theology, with the other theologies, with religious life or with any moral code, is the most profound change in the last 5.000 years. All human aspects must change more now than with the appearance of the big civilizations. We could even say that all religious traditions and civilizations that started 5.000 years ago have already completed their historic mission. This is also true of Christian civilization and the religious and human experience.
8
Gods Word is the Word of people who talk about God. To say sic et simpliciter, that the Bible is the word of God does not correspond with truth. It is word of God but indirectly. It is important to bear in mind human beings mediation, historical and contingent. There is never a direct encounter, you and me, of God with man, but always through mediations. Men talk about God. For the theological investigation and to understand the evolution of dogmas, this is very important. The new theology cannot be understood without this concept of mediated revelation by history (and by science), through the interpretative experience of men. When mediation is not accepted, we fall necessarily in fundamentalism. Cfr. SCHILLEBEECKX, E., Soy un telogo feliz, (I am a happy theologian) Athens Society of Education, Madrid 1994, p. 72-73.
We cannot function without these achievements. They will have an important role to play in moulding the future. But they will have to be modified at a level never seen before. Teilhard de Chardin transformed the Christian thought most thoroughly since Saint Pauls era 9. It is obvious this way of talking may be seen, intentionally, provocative. But it is not the case. Different from classical theology based on dogmas, science works with much more humbleness. Never thinks to possess the final truth, only the latest version, which hopes to re-elaborate and overcome as soon as possible. Revelation coming from the first book is always incomplete, and always in the process of being surpassed. If this is so, our faith may willingly accept the thesis and hypothesis of science, each one in its own statute, sharing with it the humble wish of search for truth, and trusting the best ability of Humanity to search for truth. We may trust best a science that searches permanently and humbly, than a dogmatic theology that does not search, and repeats intemperately some pseudo-scientific statements apparently revealed from above. Today many Christians find not difficult to admit the possibility of the thesis/hypothesis of an axial age, and at the same time, and with the same trust, that many of the beliefs they considered as revealed and immutable, are today considered surpassed and should be abandoned. To accept with no scandal the implications of a thesis of an axial age, we can remember/recognise various experiences we have already had. In fact, in our religious life we have suffered many mirages or optical illusions, that made us see reality in a wrong way.
- up to just two centuries ago the Churches have believed and defended passionately and intolerantly geocentrism against those who opposed it with proof in their hands For millennia we have been wrong, dogmatically wrong. It was not out of bad will. It was what appeared to be really and evidently from our position in the planet, an optical illusion we assumed and considered an essential element of our faith; - for millennia we thought it acceptable to declare dogmatic definitions and think that their formula would be always infallible and irrevocable in their content and sense. The message and the doctrine should be kept... in suo dumtaxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu eademque sententia. 10
9
BERRY, ibid., p. 22. Jos A. DE ALDAMA, El pluralismo religioso actual, (The present religious pluralism) in Los movimientos teolgicos secularizantes, (The securalising theological movements) BAC minor 31, Madrid 1973, p. 189
10
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- just some years ago we believed with ingenuity the formulas the Church used to propose faith dogmas, express concepts that are not linked to any human culture, nor to a specific stage of scientific progress, nor to one or another theological school; but they express the necessary and universal experience. That is why they serve all people of all ages. 11 Today we rub our eyes and think how we could be so epistemologically nave.
They are mirages, not bad will. They were optical illusions that made us see things that way, and today, we humbly recognise we were wrong. And that vision of the cosmos that was essential to faith, was destroyed after the discovery of the telescope, was freed from fundamental errors and from an unfocused perspective. This is a clear argument for the plausibility of the thesis of an axial age and its stirring theological implications. In view of so many errors (just optical) that we made, it is not so difficult to accept and recognise the new mirages the scientific hypothesis of an axial age tell us that today we are going through, even if they are far more serious than the previous ones. Certainly, the importance of the implications of the thesis of axiality are big for theology. But after considering the reasons of science, it is not that difficult to accept. And with an open mind and in some way forecasting, it is neither difficult to accept the mentioned implications. ACTING: Theology before a new axial age. What should a responsible and consistent theology do before this axial age perspective? Face the topic with decision. In fact, if the hypothesis is true, the change will come with or without our support, even if we fight against it. But the most intelligent attitude is to face the issue, study it, reflect on it and assume the consequences, no matter how difficult. It hurts to face the deconstruction the axial age thesis/hypothesis implies, used as we are to our classical theological vision; we should say goodbye to many reassurances, presuppositions considered eternal and unfailing but it is not impossible to recognise this new perspective which science is confirming. With a little calm and reflection we end up discovering that we must accept reality, and that this perspective, almost apocalyptical, could be more promising than the mere continuation of the present situation, apparently closed and without an exit. A truly axial age,
11
Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, AAS 57 (1965) 758.
even if it appears so deconstructive and frightening, may be the necessary condition for an evolutionary leap, incredibly positive. We should not go against the tide. On the contrary: let go, controlling the force of the current so as to understand which is our role in this transformation. We must face the issue positively, taking the bull by its horns: confront each religion with the possibility of this axial age helping them assume with courage the perspective and demands of the next transformation. Help common believers to try and understand the change that is coming and undergo the transit we will have to make to reach the new deutero-axial stage. Live with trust, with faith in Reality, in the Cosmos, in Life, which never stop evolving, autopoietically, chaotically, with the appearance of emerging properties. What we think we experiment in what we call axial age is just a kind of avatar of the evolution of the developmental process of total reality. It is a process we cannot apprehend in its entirety, we cannot understand fully, what we can do is simply try to interpret and accompany it as cleverly as we can, co-piloting the process as we may. It would be convenient to elaborate an agenda of topics for a theological reflection, starting by listening as much as possible to the various sciences that are talking about axial age, thus revising and reconstructing our own conscience of reality. Towards a theology of axiality and an axial theology. If we admit what science tells us about the imminence or presence of a new axial age, (similar or totally different from the previous, this does not matter), theology should take two actions: a) Make this axial characteristic of the present transformation the content of theological reflection: what does it mean, what real possibility does it have, what are the concrete implications it has on religion and on theology, what are the possibilities of being accepted from the present religious presuppositions, what presuppositions should be overcome under the light of the scientific truth, etc. We would be thus elaborating a theology of axiality, a theological reflection of axiality, of the axial characteristics of the present transformations, what they imply and what their consequences are. It would be a genitive theology of which axiality would be its material object. b) To start to re-elaborate theology, in all its ramifications, so it assumes this axial perspective: reflect upon any of the theological issues
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of the present but under the presupposition that we are on the eve of a new axial age, or starting it, consequently reformulating that theological reflection. It would not be a theology of axiality (of the genitive) but a theology from axiality (theology of the ablative), an axial theology, that is to say a theology where axiality would be its formal perspective (its formal object); any theological issue could be its object of study, but from the conviction of this radical transformation with all its consequences of de-construction and re-construction implied. With this initial reflection, we just want to call the attention of the international theological community over this subject and this new perspective, as a necessary and urgent novelty for a working agenda of a planetary theology, along the lines which the Dakar WFTL, World Forum on Theology and Liberation, requested us to follow.
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Teologa de la axialidad y teologa axial

Jos Mara VIGIL Panam, Panam
PUNTO DE REEFERENCIA: La teora del tiempo axial En el proceso de conocimiento y recuperacin del proceso de nuestro pasado evolutivo, no hace mucho tiempo que hemos descubierto en l un fenmeno peculiar que se ha venido en llamar un tiempo axial. Aunque Karl Jaspers dice haber sido precedido en esa referencia por Lasaulx, Viktor Strauss y Alfred Weber, tanto el concepto como el trmino suele ser hoy da atribuido generalmente al propio Jaspers, por haberlo popularizado con su obra Origen y meta de la historia 1. Una primera acepcin de Achsenzeit, tiempo eje, tiempo axial, es un concepto elaborado sobre la idea de un imaginario eje en el tiempo, al cual todo hara referencia; un momento que marcara un antes y un despus en la lnea el tiempo. Jaspers comienza su libro diciendo que ya Hegel contaba con un tiempo eje, que para l fue Cristo, como la referencia central de la historia, un momento axial en torno al que todo el tiempo girara. Oscar Cullmann 2, en su famosa obra Cristo y el tiempo, haba dicho poco antes otro tanto: que todo el tiempo anterior confluye en Cristo, a partir del cual surge un nuevo tiempo abierto al futuro absoluto; Cristo fungira como el alfa y la omega de toda la historia de la salvacin, del tiempo y la eternidad...
1
Origen y meta de la historia, Alianza Universidad, Madrid 1980. Original alemn Vom Ursprung und Ziel der Geschichte, Piper Verlag, Mnchen 1949. Cristo y el tiempo, Estela, Barcelona 1968, p. 105ss. Original de 1945, Zrich.
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Pero esta concreta concepcin de un tiempo eje dice Jaspers es religiosa, perteneciente concretamente a la fe cristiana, y no puede por ello ser aceptada cientficamente, con criterios demostrables y universales. Jaspers propone encontrar, con esos criterios cientficos, un tiempo axial, un tiempo que pueda ser identificado como un eje que divide la historia en un antes y un despus, un tiempo que marcara el inicio de la actual poca de la historia, la que estamos todava viviendo. Lo que Jaspers concluye respecto a ese tiempo axial ha venido a ser muy conocido. l cree encontrarlo en el perodo que va entre los aos 200 y 800 a.e.c., en el conjunto de trasformaciones que experiment la humanidad en esa poca, transformaciones que configuraron un tipo de conciencia humana diferente, de la cual todava estamos viviendo hoy, varios miles de aos despus. Hemos crecido muchsimo en informacin, no tanto en ciencia, y mucho tambin en tecnologa, pero no hemos crecido en sabidura. Los niveles de sabidura y de espiritualidad que alcanz la humanidad en aquel tiempo axial, no han sido rebasados. Tal vez en un posible futuro tiempo axial podamos superar nuestra actual conciencia humana, la que se form en esa poca del tiempo axial del primer milenio a.e.c. De hecho, Jaspers sugiere 3 que podra darse pronto un posible segundo tiempo axial, y apunta, muy someramente, por ejemplo, que hoy no se dara a base de una agregacin de transformaciones en sectores geogrfico-culturales aislados, sino que se dara de un modo planetario, de la humanidad en su conjunto. La evolucin humana parece haber sido constante, pero no homognea ni lineal. Jaspers crey descubrir una poca en la que se dio un cambio evolutivo espiritual tan profundo para la conciencia de la humanidad, que dividira su historia en un antes y un despus, como un eje, un tiempo axial. Esta tesis ha hecho fortuna, y es aceptada crecientemente en los planteamientos sobre todo histricos, sociolgicos y antropolgicos. Congresos internacionales interdisciplinares han continuado estudiando, prolongando y tratando de profundizar en el tema en niveles universitarios especializados 4. El concepto ha cobrado ya divulgacin, y se ha convertido en referencia conocida en los temas sobre la evolucin histrica y antropolgico-cultural de la humanidad. As como hace unas dcadas se hizo clebre la expresin de que ya no estamos en una poca de cambios, sino en un cambio de poca, ahora se est haciendo habitual incluso en la teologa hablar de que estamos ante un tsunami
3 4
Origen y meta..., p. 46-48. Por ejemplo la Conferencia de Florencia, de diciembre de 2001, organizada por el European University Institute, la Academia de Ciencias y Humanidades de Israel y el Colegio Sueco para Estudios Avanzados en las Ciencias Sociales
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cultural, y tambin... en un nuevo tiempo axial. Son signos de que crece la conciencia de que lo que estamos viviendo no son simples cambios acelerados 5... sino una transformacin global cultural-espiritual de la Humanidad de tal profundidad, que bien podra ser catalogado como un nuevo tiempo axial. De esta conciencia creciente, que va siendo aceptada y se va imponiendo sin resistencia, queremos partir en este estudio. Nos mueve esta inquietud: la tesis (o hiptesis) de la posibilidad de un nuevo tiempo axial ms o menos inminente es tremendamente amenazadora para la teologa; por lo cual creemos que urge llamar su atencin para afrontar el tema y dar paso tanto a una (nueva) teologa de la axialidad, cuanto a una renovacin de las teologas sectoriales desde esa perspectiva de la axialidad, convirtindolas en teologas axiales.
VER: Datos que confirman la posibilidad del tiempo axial actual Podemos constatar que va creciendo un consenso en torno a la transformacin que la conciencia de la Humanidad est experimentando, cuanto a su aceleracin y su profundidad. Hace mucho tiempo que venimos hablando de progreso toda la edad moderna de progreso, y de cambios. Como hemos recordado, hace cincuenta aos, el Concilio Vaticano II afirm que la sociedad atravesaba una poca de cambios tan acelerados que casi no daba tiempo a la sociedad a acompaarlos debidamente. Por los aos 90 se hizo clebre la frase-retrucano de que ya no estbamos en una poca e cambios, sino en un cambio de poca. Y ha sido ms recientemente cuando hemos comenzado a decir que no slo estamos en un cambio de poca, sino en un tsunami cultural, o en un nuevo tiempo axial. Esta progresin creciente de las afirmaciones expresa elocuentemente una conciencia que se confirma y se convierte en espritu de la poca, en conviccin indiscutida asumida socialmente. Aunque tambin viene de los comienzos de la Edad Moderna, es en las ltimas dcadas cuando se ha hecho ostensible e inocultable la crisis de la religin en Occidente, con una cada multimillonaria de fieles en Europa y Norteamrica (Canad, Quebec) sobre todo. Los analistas hablan de una crisis indita, de una crisis de Dios mismo (Gotteskreise), de un eclipse de Dios (Martin Buber), de una metamorfosis de la religin ( Juan Martn Velasco), del fin de la cristiandad, de una secularizacin siempre creciente, de una exculturacin del cristianismo (HervLegier)...
5
Como dijo con frase clebre el Concilio Vaticano II en su anlisis de los signos de los tiempos, Gaudium et Spes 4.
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Y todo ello sin negar que buena parte del mundo sigue practicando su religin tradicional, incluso con una fuerte reviviscencia, como indicara por ejemplo el vertiginoso crecimiento de la corriente neopentecostal 6 ... que puede convivir con el fenmeno del tambin creciente atesmo y de nuevas generaciones que viven ya asumidamente al margen de lo que ha sido la conciencia religiosa tradicional de los dos ltimos milenios. En definitiva: no es posible ni pretendemos demostrar que estamos en un tiempo axial con argumentos y datos; asumimos simplemente que se trata ms bien del presentimiento vivido por muchos a nivel de conviccin, de que estamos posiblemente en una situacin semejante a aquella, aunque probablemente, ni ser igual, ni necesitamos que lo sea. Si, como parece, es plausible la hiptesis de que podamos estar en una transformacin tan radical o mayor como la que ya vivi la Humanidad en aquel tiempo axial, y si ello significa que podemos estar a punto de, o inmersos ya, en una transformacin que desborde y rompa los moldes mayores dentro de los cuales se mueve y se ha movido nuestro conocimiento en los ltimos milenios, parece lgico que una teologa responsable debera afrontar esta posibilidad y reflexionar sobre su significado. Es lo que queremos hacer aqu, con toda sencillez. JUZGAR: A) Qu implicara aceptar esta hiptesis cientfica? Nos preguntamos qu implicaciones tendra para la religin y la teologa la aceptacin de la axialidad (el carcter axial) de la transformacin en curso. Parece claro que las bases tenidas por ciertas e indubitables sobre las que se asienta la religin y la teologa se veran cuestionadas por la aceptacin de esta hiptesis de la axialidad. Trataremos de enumerar algunas de entre las principales: - Las religiones tienen por cierta la objetividad de los contenidos de su fe, y estn seguras de la veracidad objetiva de las verdades formuladas en su patrimonio simblico. La religin ha sido la instancia a la que, como Humanidad, hemos reconocido mayor autoridad y credibilidad en la tarea de decirnos qu es y qu significado tiene la realidad. Desde hace tres mil
De los grupos pentecostales se espera que en 2050 sumen alrededor de mil millones de seguidores, un incremento que les convierte en el movimiento cristiano ms exitoso de nuestros tiempos. Cfr Jorge CASTILLO, Teologa de la liberacin y cristianismo mundial, en la III Minga de revistas latinoamericanas de teologa (2013), publicada por ms de quince revistas latinoamericanas.
aos, la Humanidad ha mirado la realidad por medio de las lentes que le han proporcionado las religiones. Si la tesis del tiempo axial es cierta, ello implicara la falsabilidad de aquella certeza de objetividad: los contenidos de nuestra fe no expresaran una realidad objetiva, eterna e inmutable, sino simplemente, la forma concreta de modelarla en nuestro conocimiento en una determinada etapa de nuestra historia evolutiva, llamada a ser superada en un nuevo tiempo axial. - Las religiones se han considerado a s mismas como venidas directamente de la mano de los dioses, se han credo presentes desde el origen de los tiempos en este mundo creado expresamente para el ser humano, y destinadas a acompaarnos hasta el fin del mundo (y a introducirnos en la etapa post-mundana de la realidad). Si la tesis axial es cierta, el mensaje de las religiones queda datado como correspondiente al perodo post-axial. Esa visin que nos inculcaron las religiones como eterna, nunca se haba dado antes del tiempo axial, y es posible que no se d despus de un nuevo tiempo axial en el que quiz ya estamos. - Si es cierto que el tiempo axial supone una transformacin radical global de la conciencia humana, es lgico pensar en una transformacin radical tambin de la religiosidad que venimos exhibiendo desde el pasado tiempo axial. Hacia qu nuevas formas podra transformarse nuestra religiosidad segn los indicios de que disponemos?
* tal vez la religiosidad deuteroaxial ya no podr ser la relacin con un Misterio separado de la realidad, con una divinidad transcendente-separada del cosmos... sino que ser panentesticamente cosmocntrica... No estar ya orientada dualsticamente hacia el cielo, hacia las cosas de arriba, hacia las realidades eternas-postmortales... sino hacia la Tierra-Cosmos, hacia abajo, hacia adentro, hacia la realidad integral... * la nueva religiosidad no podr aceptar ya el religio-centrismo totalizante que durante estos milenios ha revestido, colocando y encerrando a la Humanidad en el fanal de una visin religiosa elaborada por la religin misma y autoerigida en autoridad mxima e infalible... * la nueva religiosidad no podr ser ya nunca de el Libro, de una fuente absoluta de conocimiento supuestamente venido de fuera, de arriba, de los dioses... sino que estar marcada radical y decisivamente por la ciencia, por el conocimiento humano del cosmos, de la Realidad, en todos sus niveles... * la nueva religiosidad deuteroaxial, muy probablemente renunciar a toda pretensin de implicar verdades, respetando las otras facultades e instrumentos que la humanidad tiene para buscar incesantemen-
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te la verdad, reconociendo que la intrusin de la religin en este campo caus grandes sufrimientos y atrasos a la Humanidad. La religiosidad deuteroaxial ser muy probablemente una religin no slo sin dogmas sino incluso sin verdades, reducindose a su tarea fundamental de acompaar al ser humano en el cultivo del sentido, de la profundidad, de la calidad humana profunda... * la religiosidad deuteroaxial ser postesta, en el sentido de que no caer ya en el espejismo de pensar que la divinidad sea una entidad separada, ubicada ah arriba, ah fuera, un theos habitante del segundo piso, interventora en la vida humana... La religiosidad deuteroaxial ser por lo menos panentesta... * la religiosidad deuteroaxial no ser ya capaz de quedar circunscrita en el interior de cualquier religin, como si sta fuera el cauce imprescindible de mediacin con el Misterio... reconociendo que las religiones han sido construcciones humanas geniales y a la vez defectuosas, que ayudaron a la humanidad y a la vez le impidieron seguir creciendo. La religiosidad deuteroaxial no estar limitada ni siquiera concretada por ninguna religin en exclusiva.
Muchas otras transformaciones podra apuntarse; nos hemos referido a stas slo por va de ejemplo. Y graves, muy graves son las implicaciones de la aceptacin o no de esta hiptesis del tiempo axial. Por eso, es conveniente pasar a hacer un juicio teolgico.
JUZGAR: B) Podemos aceptar la tesis y sus implicaciones? Antes de tratar de hacer ese juicio teolgico sobre la posibilidad de integrar teolgicamente la tesis del tiempo axial, lo primero que hemos de hacer es caer en la cuenta de que la tesis/hiptesis del tiempo axial pertenece al campo cientfico. Se trata de un tema en realidad interdisciplinar, que puede involucrar varias disciplinas, principalmente la historia, la antropologa cultural, la filosofa y las ciencias de la religin. Si se dio o no se dio aquel tiempo axial del milenio anterior a nuestra era, as como si se va a dar un fenmeno semejante en un futuro prximo o si se est dando ya en la actualidad, no es una afirmacin que quede dentro de los alcances del saber teolgico. Es una afirmacin (o negacin) puramente cientfica. A pesar de lo que Juan Pablo II, con ocasin de la rehabilitacin de Galileo Galilei, dijo que no haba ya conflicto entre fe y ciencia, es
obvio que las implicaciones de la tesis/hiptesis del tiempo axial estn en conflicto grave con la visin teolgica tradicional, para la que tales implicaciones resultan sencillamente inaceptables. El conflicto fe-ciencia revive aqu en una edicin corregida y aumentada. Cmo resolver, cuatrocientos aos despus de Galileo, este conflicto fe-ciencia? En la criteriologa teolgica clsica antigua todava vigente oficialmente, y presente en muchas mentes una afirmacin teolgica fundamentada en la fe tena precedencia sobre cualquier afirmacin cientfica. El cientfico podra tener mil argumentos, pero seran observacionales, inductivos o deductivos. El creyente, y la teologa, por su parte, tenan fundamentos de un nivel superior: fundamentos de fe, basados en la revelacin. Es por eso por lo que los cardenales de la Inquisicin estaban seguros de no poder siquiera creer lo que Galileo intentaba probarles. No es que no creyeran lo que Galileo les argumentaba, con sus datos observacionales en la mano; es que crean saber, desde la fe, que lo que afirmaba Galileo no poda ser verdad, porque ellos, como cristianos, tenan una fuente superior de conocimiento: la revelacin, la Biblia. Galileo les invit a mirar por el telescopio; ellos respondieron que no necesitaban mirar por el aparato. Incluso aunque por el telescopio se pudiera observar con los propios ojos la evidencia de lo que Galileo afirmaba, en ese caso habra que pensar que lo que por el aparato se vea sera una ilusin ptica. Tan ciertos estaban de que las afirmaciones de la fe, por su fundamento en la revelacin, eran de orden infinitamente superior las afirmaciones de la ciencia, hasta el punto de anularlas en caso de conflicto. No muy distinto fue el caso ms reciente del monogenismo, en tiempos de Po XII. La ciencia comenz a entrever y a afirmar la posibilidad de que nuestra especie no necesariamente viniese de una nica primera pareja humana, sino que podra haber surgido de varios frentes evolutivos. El Magisterio eclesistico se apresur a afirmar que aunque no poda ni aportar ni refutar ninguna de las pruebas que la biologa y la paleontologa s aportaban, se senta en condiciones de afirmar de antemano (por su conocimiento revelado) que era imposible el poligenismo, ya que, por la fe, la Iglesia saba que somos todos hijos de una primera y nica pareja humana, la de Adn y Eva, que cometi un pecado primordial que, en caso de poligenismo, no hubiera contaminado a toda la especie humana. Hoy no es as. Han cambiado los tiempos, y ha cambiado nuestra epistemologa. Hoy no tenemos ya clara la precedencia criteriolgica de la fe sobre la ciencia en materias que son competencia de sta. Hoy sabemos que todo lo que de materia cientfica hemos credo saber por la fe ha mostrado ser ms bien fruto de nuestra ignorancia, ms que Revelacin
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divina. Todas las verdades de ciencia que hemos credo que venan de arriba, sabemos hoy que han venido de abajo, de nuestra inventiva y de nuestra genialidad tanto como de nuestra incultura, miedo e imaginacin. La fe afirm el geocentrismo como revelado, y la ciencia nos ha hecho abandonarlo, aunque haya sido regaadientes y nos haya costado casi trescientos aos. La fe afirm el antropocentrismo como parte central del proyecto de Dios, y la ciencia nos hace hoy da abandonarlo. La fe afirm la unicidad del proyecto divino de la salvacin humana, y hoy la ciencia cree estar a punto de encontrar vida (animal, racional, inteligente, espiritual, humana?) en cualquiera de los exoplanetas capaces de albergar vida que desde hace 20 aos no deja de descubrirse cada poco tiempo (en 2012 suman ya 800, y se calcula que tiene que haber millones). El magisterio eclesistico se calla sobre este tema un tema mucho ms grave que el del monogenismo pero es porque ya l mismo no est en absoluto seguro de poder contradecir a la ciencia en nombre de la fe. Los tiempos han cambiado, incluso para la Inquisicin. Qu decir pues ante el desafo que el tiempo axial lanza sobre tantas afirmaciones y presupuestos teolgicos graves a las que antes hemos aludido? Podemos en nombre de la fe asegurar que la ciencia est equivocada? Sern muchos los telogos y los creyentes que no estarn dispuestos, en principio a aceptarla. Es lgico. Pero quisiramos afirmar que no es imposible aceptar la tesis/ hiptesis del tiempo axial y proceder a la correspondiente acomodacin y relectura de nuestra visin de fe y nuestra visin teolgica. Ello podra no sr interpretado necesariamente como un servilismo frente a la ciencia, sino a la maduracin epistemolgico-crtica de la fe. Aunque parezca difcil, otra forma de relacin entre fe y ciencia es posible. En que se basa esta nueva forma de habrselas ante las afirmaciones ms radicalmente desafiantes de la ciencia, como stas sobre el tiempo axial? Con Thomas Berry podemos aceptar que la ciencia tiene su cierto valor revelatorio 7, aunque sea en un sentido de revelacin de signo diferente, no como considerada procedente de arriba, sino desde adentro. Hemos dicho que hoy ya sabemos que todo lo que cremos
Thomas BERRY considera que estamos en un nuevo momento revelador acerca de cmo opera lo divino en el universo, cualitativamente diferente de la revelacin bblica. Reconciliacin con la Tierra, Cuatro Vientos, Santiago, Chile 1997, p. 20.
venido de arriba, vena en realidad de abajo 8. Tambin es revelacin la que experimentamos cuando con la ciencia logramos que la Realidad nos desvele/revele parte de sus misterios. Gracias al esfuerzo continuado y comunitario, el libro de la realidad, de la creacin, a partir de la revolucin cientfica del siglo XVI se nos ha ido abriendo ms y ms, con aceleracin creciente. El consiguiente crecimiento exponencial del conocimiento cientfico ha ido desentraando ante nuestros ojos y nuestros corazones atnitos, misterios de la Realidad que nunca antes pudimos siquiera imaginar. Nos desilusionamos a veces al ver reducidos a fantasas y a evidente ignorancia elementos importantes de nuestro pensamiento religioso, carentes de fundamento, por haber sido elaboradas por la humanidad en pocas histricas en las que apenas se haba abierto ese libro primero de la revelacin, el libro de la realidad. Pero pronto salimos de nuestra desilusin, al ver los horizontes redobladamente amplios a los que nos trasladan las actuales revelaciones de ese primer libro a travs de la ciencia. Todo lo que nos va diciendo y confirmando la ciencia, se convierte para nosotros, de alguna manera, en palabra de dios que nos obliga a modificar y reajustar nuestras convicciones y elaboraciones religiosoteolgicas de acuerdo a estos nuevos datos revelados, manifestados... En los ltimos siglos, y con una aceleracin creciente, la ciencia amplia inabarcablemente nuestros conocimientos, y con ellos nuestra perspectiva. Toda la percepcin humana se ve modificada, as como nuestra propia conciencia. Todas las modalidades humanas de ser que existieron en el pasado estn siendo profundamente alteradas. Nosotros mismos estamos cambiando. El cristianismo, que apareci hace 2.000 aos, y nuestra revelacin bblica, que comenz 3.200 aos atrs, deben funcionar ahora dentro del contexto de estas nuevas dimensiones. Lamentablemente, an no hay indicios de que los cristianos piensen en esta escala de cambio. As como el planeta est cambiando actualmente ms de lo que cambi en un perodo muy prolongado, el orden humano que provoc estos
La palabra de Dios es la palabra de los hombres que hablan sobre Dios. Decir sic et simpliciter que la Biblia es la palabra de Dios no se corresponde con la verdad. Es palabra de Dios slo indirectamente. Es necesario tener presente la mediacin humana, histrica, contingente. No se da nunca un encuentro directo, de t a t, de Dios con el hombre, sino siempre a travs de mediaciones. Son los hombres los que hablan de Dios. Para la investigacin teolgica y para entender la evolucin de los dogmas, esto es muy importante. No se puede comprender la nueva teologa sin este concepto de revelacin mediada por la historia, [y por la ciencia,] por la experiencia interpretativa de los hombres. Cuando no se acepta la mediacin, se cae necesariamente en el fundamentalismo. Cfr. SCHILLEBEECKX, E., Soy un telogo feliz, Sociedad de Educacin Atenas, Madrid 1994, p. 72-73.
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cambios se deber modificar de una manera igualmente profunda. Por eso pienso que lo que est ocurriendo con la teologa cristiana, con las dems teologas, con la vida religiosa o con cualquier cdigo moral, es el cambio ms profundo en los ltimos 5.000 aos. Todos los aspectos humanos estn obligados a cambiar ahora ms que desde la aparicin de las grandes civilizaciones. Incluso podemos decir que todas las civilizaciones y tradiciones religiosas iniciadas hace 5.000 aos han cumplido en gran medida su misin histrica. Tambin la civilizacin cristiana y la experiencia religiosa y humana. No podemos funcionar sin estos logros. Desempearn un importante papel en la formacin del futuro. Pero deben cambiar a un nivel jams visto antes. Teilhard de Chardin fue quien manifest la mayor transformacin del pensamiento cristiano desde la poca de San Pablo 9. Es obvio que esta manera de hablar puede resultar, intencionadamente, un poco provocativa. Pero en realidad no es el caso. A diferencia de la teologa clsica dogmatizante, la ciencia actual procede con mucha ms humildad. Nunca cree tener la verdad definitiva, sino slo una versin ltima, que desea poder reelaborar y superar cuanto antes. La revelacin que surge del primer libro siempre es incompleta, siempre est en trance de superacin. Si esto es as, nuestra fe puede aceptar de buen grado las tesis e hiptesis de la ciencia, cada una en su estatuto, compartiendo con ella el deseo humilde de bsqueda de la verdad, y confiando en la mejor capacidad de la Humanidad para buscar la verdad. Podemos confiar ms en la ciencia que busca permanentemente y con humildad, que en una teologa dogmtica que no busca, sino que repite intemperantemente unas afirmaciones pseudocientficas supuestamente reveladas de lo alto. Hoy da muchos creyentes ya no tienen dificultad para admitir la plausibilidad de la tesis/hiptesis del tiempo axial, admitiendo, con la misma confianza, que muchas de aquellas creencias que tuvimos como reveladas e inmutables, hoy las consideramos sobrepasadas y dignas de ser abandonadas. Para aceptar sin escandalizarnos las implicaciones que tiene la aceptacin de la tesis del tiempo axial, podemos recordar/reconocer varias experiencias que ya hemos tenido. En efecto, en nuestra historia de fe religiosa hemos sufrido ya muchos espejismos o efectos pticos que nos hicieron percibir la realidad de un modo equivocado:
BERRY, ibid., p. 22.
- hasta hace apenas dos siglos las Iglesias han credo en el geocentrismo y lo han defendido apasionada e intolerantemente contra quienes lo han puesto en tela de juicio con sus pruebas cientficas en la mano... Durante milenios hemos estado equivocados, solemne y dogmticamente equivocados. No era mala voluntad. Era lo que efectivamente pareca ser evidente desde nuestra posicin en el planeta, un efecto ptico, que hicimos nuestro y lo consideramos elemento esencial de nuestra fe; - durante milenios nos pareci aceptable la posibilidad de declarar definiciones dogmticas y de pensar que sus frmulas seran siempre infalibles, e irrevocables en su letra y en su sentido. El mensaje y la doctrina se deben mantener... in suo dumtaxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu eademque sententia 10. - hace apenas unos aos todava creamos ingenuamente que las frmulas de que se sirve la Iglesia para proponer los dogmas de fe, expresan conceptos que no estn ligados a una determinada forma de cultura humana, ni a una determinada fase de progreso cientfico, ni a una u otra escuela teolgica; sino que manifiestan... la experiencia universal y necesaria. Por eso resultan acomodadas a todos los hombres de todos los tiempos 11. Hoy nos restregamos los ojos y nos preguntamos cmo hemos sido capaces de tal ingenuidad epistemolgica.
Son espejismos, no mala voluntad. Fueron efectos pticos que hicieron que nos pareciera ver as, y hoy, con toda humildad, reconocemos que estbamos equivocados. Y aquella cosmovisin del mundo que pareca esencial a la fe y que se vino abajo con el descubrimiento del telescopio, se liber de errores fundamentales y de una perspectiva toda ella desenfocada. ste es un argumento claro en favor de la plausibilidad de la tesis del tiempo axial y sus conmovedoras implicaciones teolgicas. A la vista de tantos errores (simplemente pticos!) como ya cometimos, nos cuesta menos reconocer hoy este nuevo espejismo en el que la tesis del tiempo axial evidenciara que hemos estado durante tanto tiempo. Si hoy sabemos y reconocemos que a lo largo de milenios hemos sido vctimas de nuestros espejismos, no nos cuesta tanto aceptar y reconocer los nuevos espejismos que la hiptesis cientfica del tiempo axial nos dice hoy que todava estaramos sufriendo, por ms que sean mucho ms graves que los anteriores.
10
Jos A. DE ALDAMA, El pluralismo religioso actual, en Los movimientos teolgicos secularizantes, BAC minor 31, Madrid 1973, p. 189 Pablo VI, Mysterium Fidei, AAS 57 (1965) 758.
11
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Ciertamente, la envergadura de las implicaciones de la tesis de la axialidad es grande para la teologa. Pero despus de atender las razones de la ciencia, no resulta tan difcil aceptarla. Y con una mente amplia y de alguna manera prevenida, no resulta tampoco difcil aceptar las implicaciones referidas.
ACTUAR: La teologa ante un nuevo tiempo axial Qu debera hacer una teologa responsable y consecuente ante esta perspectiva del tiempo axial? Afrontar decididamente la temtica. Ciertamente, si la hiptesis es cierta, el cambio se va a dar, con nuestro apoyo, o sin l, incluso aunque lo combatamos. Pero la actitud ms inteligente sin duda es afrontar el tema, estudiarlo, reflexionarlo y asumir sus consecuencias, por difciles que puedan parecer. Acostumbrados desde siempre a nuestra visin teolgica clsica, lo normal es que nos resulte muy doloroso afrontar el panorama de deconstruccin que la tesis/hiptesis del tiempo axial implica; hemos de despedirnos de muchas seguridades, presupuestos y elementos que habamos considerado eternos e indefectibles... pero no es imposible asumir esta nueva perspectiva que la ciencia parece confirmarnos. Con un poco de calma y de reflexin... acabamos descubriendo que hay que aceptar la realidad, y que este perspectiva casi apocalptica tal vez sea incluso ms prometedora que la mera prolongacin de la situacin actual, aparentemente cerrada y sin salida. Un tiempo verdaderamente axial, aunque resulte tan deconstructivo y asustador, tal vez sea la condicin de posibilidad para un salto evolutivo inimaginablemente positivo. No ir contracorriente. Al contrario: dejarse llevar, manejando la fuerza de la corriente para llegar a comprender inteligentemente cul pueda ser nuestro papel en esta transformacin epocal. Afrontar el tema positivamente agarrando el toro por los cuernos: confrontar a cada religin con la posibilidad del tiempo axial, ayudarle a asumir con coraje la perspectiva y las exigencias de la transformacin que se avecina. Ayudar a los creyentes sencillos a intentar comprender el cambio que viene, y a sobrellevar el trnsito que habremos de atravesar todos para llegar a ese nuevo estadio deuteroaxial... Vivir con confianza, con fe en la Realidad, en el Cosmos, en la Vida, que no cesan de evolucionar, autopoiticamente, caticamente, con la aparicin de propiedades emergentes. Lo que creemos experimentar en esto que llamamos tiempo axial no es ms que una especie de avatar de la evolucin misma del proceso evolucionario de la realidad total... Se trata de un proceso que nos supera enteramente, que no podemos com-
prender a cabalidad, que apenas podemos simplemente tratar de interpretar y de acompaarlo lo ms inteligentemente posible, co-pilotndolo hasta donde nos sea posible intervenir... Sera conveniente elaborar una agenda de temas de contenido para la reflexin teolgica, comenzando por escuchar lo ms amplia y profundamente posible a las varias ciencias que estn hablando del tiempo axial, y revisando y reconvirtiendo despus, consecuentemente nuestra propia conciencia de la realidad. Hacia una teologa de la axialidad y una teologa axial Si admitimos lo que la ciencia nos dice acerca de la inminencia (o de la ocurrencia actual) de un nuevo tiempo axial (semejante o muy diferente del anterior, no importa), la teologa podra adoptar dos acciones: a) hacer de ese carcter axial de la transformacin actual una materia de reflexin teolgica: qu significa, qu posibilidades reales reviste, qu implicaciones concretas tiene sobre la religin, sobre las religiones y sobre la teologa, qu posibilidades de aceptacin tiene desde los presupuestos religiosos actualmente vigentes, qu superacin de estos presupuestos se impone ante la evidencia de la verdad cientfica, etc. Estaremos as elaborando una teologa de la axialidad, una reflexin teolgica sobre la axialidad, sobre el carcter axial de la transformacin actual y sus implicaciones y consecuencias. Se tratara de una teologa de genitivo, de la que la axialidad sera su objeto material. b) pasar a reelaborar toda la teologa, en cualquiera de sus ramas, de una forma que asuma esta perspectiva axial: reflexionar sobre cualquiera de las materias teolgicas habituales, pero desde el supuesto de que estamos en vsperas de un nuevo tiempo axial, o entrando ya en l, reconfigurando consecuentemente esa reflexin teolgica. Ya no se tratara de una teologa de la axialidad (de genitivo), sino de una teologa desde la axialidad (teologa de ablativo), una teologa axial, es decir, una teologa en la que la axialidad sera su perspectiva formal (su objeto formal); cualquier materia teolgica podra ser su objeto material, pero estudindola desde la conviccin de esa transformacin radical, con todas sus consecuencias de deconstruccin y re-construccin implicadas. Con esta reflexin inicial, simplemente queremos llamar la atencin de la comunidad teolgica internacional hacia esta temtica y esta nueva perspectiva, como novedad necesaria y urgente para una agenda de trabajo para la teologa planetaria, en la lnea en la que el WFTL de Dakar nos peda avanzar.
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Toward a Planetary Theology

The fifth and last volume of the Series. Published in March 2010, by Dunamis Publishers, Montreal, Canada, 198 pages.
A collective EATWOT's work by Michael AMALADOSS (India), Marcelo BARROS (Brazil), Agenor BRIGHENTI (Brazil), Edmund CHIA (Malaysia-USA), Amn EGEA (Spain), Paul KNITTER (USA), David LOY (USA), Laurenti MAGESA (Tanzania), Jacob NEUSNER (USA), Irfan OMAR (USA), Teresa OKURE (Nigeria), Raimon PANIKKAR (India-Spain), Peter PHAN (Vietnam-USA), Aloysius PIERIS (Sri Lanka), Richard RENSHAW (Canada), Amando ROBLES (Costa Rica), K. SESHAGIRI (USA), Afonso SOARES (Brazil) Faustino TEIXEIRA (Brazil) and Jos Maria VIGIL (Panama) You can download freely this book from the Net, at http://tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths/ On paper it is published by DUNAMIS PUBLISHERS
For orders: dunamis@live.com For Canada: $20 (shipment included) For USA: $23 (shipment included) For rest of the world: $27 (shipment included)
193
Bibliographical Reviews
Ulrich DUCHROW/Franz HINKELAMMERT: Transcending Greedy Money: Interreligous Solidarity for Just Relations, Palgrave MacMillan, New York 2012, 310 pages (Series: New Approaches to Religion and Power, ed. Joerg Rieger). Review by Paul CHUNG, Professor at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN, USA.
A: Content This is in several ways an outstanding book, and a timely one. It deals with the current economic crisis as a crisis of Western spirituality and rationality. Written by two of the worlds leading experts on the subject matter, one from Europe and the other from Latin America, it condenses more than four decades of intensely involved scholarly work at the intersection of liberation theology and economy. The scope is breathtakingly broad, spanning 3000 years of history and requiring the reader constantly to transgress disciplinary boundaries, moving back and forth between present and past, and as diverse areas as developmental psychology, trauma theory, neuroscience, biblical theology, Western philosophy, world religions, political theory and social movements. This both strenuous and highly stimulating exercise not only challenges the habits of any comfortably compartmentalized thinking but is in itself part of the message: While what we are facing is undeniably a (terminal) crisis of global capitalism as a modern economic and monetary system, it is much more than that, namely an irreparable crisis of (post)modernity (which includes historical socialism as well) that has turned into
a life-threatening crisis of humanity as a whole. Extraordinary modes of analysis and synthesis, of acting and of thinking need to be mobilized both on the individual and collective level to find a new sustainable balance of life on a global scale. The roots of the present crisis and, as the authors contend, also its remedies are to be found thousands of years back in the
194 Ulrich Duchrow / Franz Hinkelammert / Paul Chung
so-called Axial Age (800-200 B.C.E.). In that period money first entered into the economic and inter-personal/intra-personal circulation, starting to profoundly re-shape society, religion, psychology and philosophy as it changed the way how human beings interacted with one another and thought about themselves and their neighbor. With impressive scholarly expertise and illuminating incisiveness Duchrow/Hinkelammert trace some of these complex transformations and their multi-faceted mutations throughout the history of Western civilization. Among the most stimulating ideas at the core of this endeavor are the following:
the bad Other (the first being projected unto the outside, the latter becoming internalized), a configuration is created where even bad authorities and social circumstances are perceived as good, whereas the bad is seen in oneself. The individual thus responds to outside violence (e.g. unemployment) either by self-punishment or by acting out hatred as violence towards other weak groups: women, children, immigrants, enemies. From early childhood on we carry within us both malignant and benign patterns that can be activated by the social environment we encounter later in our life. A malignant social matrix (like in present neoliberal capitalism) where the Part I human need for basic security, stability and 1. Dating back to the money-based so- recognition are constantly and systemicial and economic innovations of the Axial cally undermined (e.g. through joblessness) Age, at least four among the major world produces violence, destructive relationships religions (Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, and diseases like currently depression on a Islam) from their origins share a common mass scale. To understand how and why the core of resistance that is still present in victims turn the violence they suffer from each of them. It challenges the devastating against oneself or each other, rather than human consequences embedded into the the cause of their suffering is vital for any emergence of a money and debt economy: discussion of social change, which basically social inequality and loss of solidarity, requires a rehabilitation of deeply ingrained competitiveness, greed, self-centeredness malign patterns. In this process the differat the expense of the Other, all of them ent classes need to be treated differently: related to the new modes of accumulation while the victims victimize themselves a and property building on the one hand, second time, the perpetrators suffer from land loss and debt slavery on the other. greed/pleonexia (in the Aristotelian sense) This non-compliant core at the centre of that needs to be treated as a narcissistic the Abrahamic religions and of Buddhism addiction. Middle classes pose specific is the essential resource and potential on problem as they are losers but still have which the book draws all throughout (chap- an illusionary consciousness that they can ters 1 and 3-5). become part of the elites (chapter 3). 2. The current crisis needs to be analyzed from a socio-psychological perspective as well. Developmental psychology and trauma theory are mustered to explain the self-destructive compliance of a majority of people with social conditions that victimize and damage their lives. Due to a split in early childhood between the good and Part II 3. The second part of the book , written by Hinkelammert, contains an incisive critique of capitalism - after the collapse of historical socialism the only remaining global representation of modernity and its mad concept of rationality. A money
Transcending the Spirituality of the Money 195
based logic that in its modern form dates back to the invention of double-entry book keeping in 15th century Venice is imposed on society as a whole and makes everything and everybody an object of calculation and utility. This means-end rationality (in the sense of Max Weber) that is solely driven by efficiency maximization and competition, thus ignoring any other than the monetary costs/gains of production, has become profoundly irrational and self-destructive: in its indirect and mostly non-intentional effects it annihilates the very sources of all wealth (in the Marxian sense) - humans and the natural environment. Capitalism thus produces meaningless and nihilism in a systemic way. The current crisis has implications far beyond the economy, as it reveals a lethal and comprehensive disorder irreparably embedded into the global market order. It is not simply capitalism but humanity and life as such that have entered into a deadly crisis. This double crisis of life and of meaning requires a new rationality, subjectivity and ethic that are based on mutual recognition and common good rather than self-destructive self-interest. Only a reproductive rationality that takes life and the right to live seriously is capable of countering the suicidal irrationality of the rationalized (chapters 7-9).
as individuals towards the common good, humans become subjects in the image of the God who him/herself has become human: Do as God does and become a human being (chapter 10). Part III
5. Part III deals with practice, healing through becoming involved into movements towards social change, and the development of a new grand narrative. In all of the Axial Age-religions the rebellious potential of non-compliance with an all too ambiguous progress got partly buried and suppressed by the dominant structures, but it can be reactivated towards the building up of new multi-religious and multicultural social movements that withdraw energy from cancerous growth and nurture life instead. These movements that are based on reproductive rationality in connection with a spirituality and practice of compassion, solidarity, and non-greed are not only transforming social relationships but also individuals as they have a quasi-therapeutic effect and can rehabilitate the malign patterns and responses addressed in chapter 2. To boost these pluriform movements that are already existing or emerging all over the world (chapter 12) requires both affirmation and, most essentially, a critique of estab4. At the same time Hinkelammert pro- lished religions (chapters 11 and 13). This poses a new materialist spirituality of hu- opens up new perspectives for the encounmankind that takes humanization as eman- ter and the collaboration among the world cipation seriously and implies the critique religions: Both an other world and a new of all false Gods and religions (both those Axial Age are possible (chapter 13). of the market and the state) that justify or tolerate the dehumanization of the fellowB: Strengths and weaknesses human as a degraded, enslaved, neglected, contemptible being. (Marx) This is a point This is a undoubtedly a big book, a where in his view liberation theology both huge synthesis, nonetheless original, indraws on the Marxian critique of religion novative, compelling and with vast implicaand goes beyond it as it positively engages tions. Arguing from a Marxian and liberathe messianic paradigm of incarnation. In tion theology centered background, it raises the process of transcending themselves and answers its questions in a radical way
196 Ulrich Duchrow / Franz Hinkelammert / Paul Chung
and at the same time in a very inclusive, nuanced and remarkably broad global perspective. While some of the approaches and conclusions will be controversial, e.g. with regard to Israel/Palestine or the (self-)critique of each religion as a vital prerequisite for inter-religious collaboration, all of them are intensely thought-provoking, stimulating and tied to the core of collective survival for humanity, both as a social and ecological, economic and spiritual, religious and political problem. For an audience in the United States this book productively intervenes into some deeply ingrained dichotomies that continue to haunt public debate and stifle action, for example oppositions like those between the religious and the secular, personal spirituality and social involvement, or individual and common good. It is a not too commonly heard integrative voice in the disparate discursive fields of religion and economy that is urgently needed in the current debate: chillingly realistic but not apocalyptic, both prophetic and pragmatic, praxis-oriented
and contemplative-analytical at the same time. Due to its specific structure I think that this book, or even individual chapters and parts of it, can be of high potential value for classroom use across the board in departments of religion and theological seminaries alike, specifically in classes on ethics, social theories or philosophy of religion, as much as on Bible and world religions/interreligious dialogue. One of its strengths in this regard is that it gives broad overviews and introduces a vast amount of cutting-edge literature and initiatives that one can hardly find collected in one place elsewhere. Regarding potential weaknesses, the Judeo-Christian tradition, including a Christian reading of the Jewish tradition, is more broadly and in-depth represented than Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism (cf. e.g. the very brief chapter on Islam). This is naturally due to the fact that both authors represent the Christian tradition.
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Free downloadable at: InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
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Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians Asociacin Ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo Association Oecumnique des Thologiens du Tiers Monde Volume XXXIV N 2012/3-4 New Series July-December 2012
http://InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES ISSN: 2222-0763

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t is ilin su g e u

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology

Towards a work Agenda for Planetary Theology

Hacia una Agenda de Trabajo para una Teologa Planetaria

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology

Asociacin ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo

The Problems We Face and the Theology We Need...................................111 Jean RICHARD

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology

16 EATWOT's International Theological Commission

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology 17

18 EATWOT's International Theological Commission

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology 19

20 EATWOT's International Theological Commission

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology 21

22 EATWOT's International Theological Commission

Towards a Work Agenda for Planetary Theology 23

24 EATWOT's International Theological Commission

Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire

- thologies DUN AUTRE MONDE POSSIBLE, que nous appellerons AXIALES,

26 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT

Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire 27

28 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT

Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire 29

30 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT

Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire 31

32 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT 32

Pour un Agenda de travail pour la thologie planetaire 33

34 Commission Internationale Thologique de l' EATWOT

Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa planetaria

36 Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT

Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa panetaria 37

38 Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT

Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa panetaria 39 39

40 Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT 40

Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa panetaria 41

42 Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT 42

Hacia una agenda de trabajo para la teologa panetaria 43

Per i molti cammini di Dio

Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria

- Teologias DO OUTRO MUNDO POSSVEL, que ns chamaremos de AXIAIS, isto , aquelas...

46 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT

Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria 47

48 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT

Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria 49

50 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT 50

Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria 51

52 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT

Para uma agenda de trabalho para a teologia planetria 53

54 Comisso Teolgica Internacionale da EATWOT

Along the Many Paths

Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria

- teologie DELLALTRO MONDO POSSIBILE, che chiameremo ASSIALI, cio quelle...

56 Commissione Teologica Internazionale dell' EATWOT

Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria 57

58 Commissione Teologica Internazionale dell' EATWOT

Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria 59

60 Commissione Teologica Internazionale dell' EATWOT

Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria 61

62 Commissione Teologica Internazionale dell' EATWOT 62

Verso una agenda di lavoro per la teologia planetaria 63

Los bienes de la Tierra y de la Humanidad en la perspectiva de las religiones

66 Juan Jos TAMAYO