The Praxis of Suffering

by Chopp, Rebecca S.

• ISBN13: 9781556352782
• ISBN10: 1556352786
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-03-16
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

Liberation and political theologies have emerged powerfully in recent years, interrupting the way in which First World Christians both experience and understand their faith. Through an analysis of the cultural and ecclesial contexts of these theological movements, as well as a critical examination of four of their principal exponents--Gustavo Gutierrez, Johann Baptist Metz, Jose Miguez Bonino, and Jurgen Moltmann--the author demonstrates that political and liberation theologies represent a new model of theology, one that proffers a vision of Christian witness as a praxis of solidarity with suffering persons.

Author Biography

Rebecca S. Chopp is President and Professor of Philosophy & Religion at Colgate University

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Witness of Theology	p. 2
Different Voices in the Paradigm	p. 4
Latin American Liberation Theology	p. 7
The Historical Context	p. 8
The Church and Aggiornamento	p. 14
The Conversation with Marxism	p. 16
The Influence of Modern Theology	p. 19
The Sacrament of God and Basic Christian Communities	p. 20
Basic Themes in Latin American Liberation Theology	p. 22
The Preferential Option for the Poor	p. 22
God as Liberator	p. 24
The Liberation of Theology	p. 25
Political Theology	p. 28
The Project of Modern, Western Theology	p. 29
The Cultural Situation of Political Theology	p. 33
Ideology Critique	p. 33
Pluralism	p. 35
Relativism	p. 36
Praxis	p. 36
Political Theology: Stage One	p. 38
Political Theology: Stage Two	p. 41
Gustavo Gutierrez: A Theology for Historical Amnesia	p. 46
The Power of the Poor	p. 47
Faith: Poverty, Solidarity, and Protest	p. 51
Liberation and Salvation	p. 52
Eschatology and Politics	p. 54
The Church as the Sacrament of God in History	p. 55
Theology as the Voice of the Voiceless	p. 57
Conclusion	p. 62
Johann Baptist Metz: The Subject of Suffering	p. 64
Freedom as Autonomy and Future	p. 65
Secularization	p. 65
Eschatology	p. 67
Deconstructing the Subject	p. 71
The Subject of Suffering	p. 74
A Practical, Fundamental Theology	p. 78
Conclusion	p. 80
Jose Miguez Bonino: The Conversion to the World	p. 82
A Hermeneutics of the World	p. 83
A Hermeneutics of the Word	p. 87
Discerning the Logic of Death	p. 92
Conclusion	p. 98
Jurgen Moltmann: The Language of God as the Language of Suffering	p. 100
The Origin of Moltmann's Political Theology	p. 101
The Advent of Hope	p. 102
The Cross and the Resurrection	p. 106
The Spirit and the Church	p. 112
Method, Suffering, and Praxis	p. 115
Christ Liberating Culture	p. 118
Human Existence: An Anthropology of Praxis	p. 120
Christ and Solidarity	p. 126
Christ and Culture	p. 130
Toward Praxis: A Method for Liberation Theology	p. 134
The two sources for liberation theology are human existence and Christian tradition	p. 135
Liberation theology interprets the source of human existence politically, using, among other disciplines, the social sciences to reflect on the full concreteness of historical existence	p. 136
Theology employs a hermeneutics of liberation, including a project of deideologization in relation to the source of Christian tradition	p. 137
The method of liberation theology can be characterized as a critical praxis correlation, wherein praxis is both the foundation and the aim of theological hermeneutics	p. 139
Liberation theology's method of critical praxis correlation is, by its nature, a form of ideology critique	p. 142
Liberation theology must develop an adequate social theory to attend to the full meaning of praxis	p. 144
Conclusion	p. 149
Notes	p. 155
Index	p. 175
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