Guillermo Fernández Beret, El pueblo en la teología de la liberación.

Consecuencias de un concepto ambiguo para la eclesiología y la pastoral

latinoamericanas (Frankfurt: Iberoamericana, 1996)

[Fernández Beret – Dominican friar from San Nicolás in Argentina]

Introduction, pp. 9-15

p.9

Developmentalist social and economic sciences of the 1950s interpreted Latin

America as at previous point of progress to that of the advanced countries
 These perspectives inspired ‘a theology of development whose principle
representative was the French theologian and economist Jacques Lebret’

p.10

Dependency theory – situation of underdevelopment as a structural relationship of

dependence

p.11

Methodology: “critical reflection on historical praxis in the light of the Word” – the
hermeneutic circle, in which reflection on praxis illuminates the task of liberating
transformation
 Thus ‘without being purely a pastoral theology, liberation theology by its own
definition is oriented towards the pastoral’
 “see, judge, act”

[This point, that liberation theology is oriented towards pastoral ministry, can be
contested to some extent – this seems to be a perspective that conforms to
Scannone’s ideas, while in the practice and theology of some others (see Concatti:
prophetism is oriented towards the political; Dri: revolutionary commitment
superseded pastoral commitment; Christians for socialism;) liberation theology is
oriented towards revolutionary political groups. The overemphasis on the pastoral
tends to lean towards a certain clericalism (not to mention patriarchalism), that also
often ends up reaffirming Church-institutional power and verticalism]

p.12

People – ‘an ambiguous and manipulable concept’, which cannot be avoided in Latin
America

Centrality of ‘people of God’ in conciliar ecclesiology brings the problem of the

relation between people and people of God
  Who is the people? What does one human group do to be called people? In
what way can this be a historical subject or can it not be?

JC Scannone and L Gera in particular have explicitly concerned themselves with the
problem of “people” and “people of God” – constitutes the centre of their reflections

p.13

Liberation theology not a totally homogenous bloc, despite common perspectives

and themes there are important differences – problematic of the people is of central
importance to perceiving common features and divergences

This study undertakes a comparative analysis of the responses of different currents

within libtheo, looking at coincidences and divergences

Structure:

Chapter 1) Referential framework of set of questions (“See”)

a. Conceptual and historical approximation of “people”
i. Overview of conceptual treatment of people especially in social
and political sciences
ii. “People” in recent history of Latin America, especially in Mexico,
Peru, Brazil and Argentina
b. Ecclesial framework from perspective of people and people of God
i. Conciliar concepts
ii. Medellín
iii. Puebla

p.14

Chapter 2) Theoretical reflection on the praxis described in first chapter (“Judge”)

 Analysis of authors most representative for the theme and who offer a wide
spectrum of questions

Chapter 3) Evaluation of critiques made on liberation theology (“Judge”)

 Personal critiques and critique of the CDF

Chapter 4) Return to praxis, shows how that analysed in second chapter is reflected
over conception of pastoral activity of the Church (“Act”)
 Themes addressed not by author but by theme
 Highlights consequences of theoretical options on pastoral activity
I. Demarcates priorities and options in Medellín and Puebla
II. Analyses question of the subject of pastoral activity
III. Analyses concrete pastoral options beginning from
evangelisation of culture, which undoubtedly represents
the central perspective of pastoral action in Puebla -
relations
Chapter 1. Referential framework of People-People of God, pp. 16-80

1.1 Concept and history of “people”

1.1.1 Ambiguity of the concept

p.17

Race, ethnicity, people, nation – ambiguous and manipulable concepts, not always
clear and lacking unanimous models for their articulation (although a consensus
largely exists now for race)

p.21

Peoples can be product of mestizaje between different ethnicities (they usually are),
as well as conjunction of ethnicities when they unite (historical pact and a political
will) – in this way, nation appears as the realisation of the political will of the people
 Generally based on common inheritance of language and culture, and
overcomes the merely ethnic congregation
 Also exist peoples without a nation or separated from their nation

p.22

People therefore connected to concepts of nation and state

 Social group of a nation
 Subject of a political and juridical system

Leibholz: two levels of political use of “people”

I. Real level: Popolo/people/people – real presence of a
number of persons, perceived as tangible
II. Ideal level: presupposed in representative democracy –
understanding of the people as a political whole

p.27

1.1.2 People in recent history of Latin America

‘During the formation process of Latin American countries, following the wars of
independence, the use of the word people acquired political relevance in order to
legitimise the formation of sovereign states’

p.47
Popular movements in Argentina

1.2 People and people of God in recent magisterium

1.2.1 Second Vatican Council

p.52

No systematic development in conciliar documents of the word people as it is

understood in the Latin American context
 Not the intention of the conciliar participants, concerned primarily with the
situation of the church in the modern world
 Nor was Latin American church in a condition to reflect on its own particularity
Conclusions, pp. 283-288

p.283

1) Latin American history makes the people an unavoidable concept for a

theology understood as a critical reflection on historical praxis

p.284

2) “People” must be sought in the consciousness that it has of itself in history

3) If one can speak of an analogical unity of the people and with it Latin
American culture, this must be sought in a common historical experience

p.285

4) People of God in Latin America acquires its particularity in the historical

experience of the Latin American people and in its religious experience in
history

p.286

5) Latin American people is people of God as depository of a common vocation

to being, in the communion of the Church, the sacrament of salvation in the
history of the continent

p.287

6) The people constituted in people of God is subject of the pastoral praxis of the
Church, giving it its own character

Popular pastoral implies not only that it is directed towards the people, ‘but also that
it is assumed by it as its subject, insofar as it assumes consciously its condition of
people of God’