Theology and Praxis

by Boff, Clodovis; Barr, Robert R.

• ISBN13: 9781608990801
• ISBN10: 160899080X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-10-01
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

In this book Clodovis Boff rigorously and passionately erects the methodological scaffolding that is necessary to construct a true theology of the political, a true theology of liberation. Much of the book is devoted to clarifying and articulating the boundaries of the relationships among theology, The political, The social sciences, hermeneutics, and praxis. As an element of that constructive work, Boff carefully points out the past and present theoretical shortcomings of political theology And The theology of liberation. Thus the book fills a methodological void that has hampered the full development of a theology of the political, and it blazes a path beyond what the author calls the first phase of liberation theology.

Author Biography

Clodovis Boff, born in 1944 in Concordia, Brazil, is a member of the Servite order and a professor at the Catholic University of So Paulo. He devotes part of his time to working with the poor of Brazil in basic Christian communities and to giving theological assistance to clergy.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xiii
Preliminary Note	p. xix
Preface	p. xxi
Socio-Analytic Mediation
A Correct Status Questionis: The Reference to Praxis	p. 3
Approaches to be Excluded	p. 3
Proposed Approach: A Reference to Praxis	p. 4
The Classic Theology of "Social Morality"	p. 8
The Cultural Imperative of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 10
Marx's Critique of Theology	p. 12
Two Regimes of Theological Practice	p. 14
Ideo-Political Vigilance and Other Consequences	p. 17
Formal Establishment of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 20
Empiricism: Absence of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 20
Methodological Purism: Exclusion of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 24
Theologism: Substitution for Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 26
Semantic Mix: Faulty Articulation of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 27
Bilingualism: Unarticulated Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 29
The Constitutive Relationship between the Sciences of the Social and the Theology of the Political	p. 29
Extension of the Theoretical Field of Theology	p. 31
Difficulties on the Side of Faith: The Ideological	p. 35
Socio-Analytic Mediation: Ideologization of Faith?	p. 35
Some Precisions	p. 37
Toward a Right Use of the Notion of "Ideology"	p. 41
Theology: A Regional Language	p. 44
Theology of History	p. 48
Some Concrete Details: Practice of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 51
Theology of the Political, Sciences of the Social: A Deontological Code	p. 51
Historical Materialism	p. 55
Criteriology for the Choice of Social Theory as Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 57
Toward a Savoir-Faire of the Practice of Socio-Analytic Mediation	p. 60
Hermeneutic Mediation
Theological Pertinency: Word of Revelation	p. 67
Theological Nonpertinency	p. 67
The Process of Theoretical Practice	p. 70
Theology as Disciplined Knowledge	p. 73
Theology of the Political and its Archeology	p. 78
Complex Order of Articulation between the Theology of the Political and the Sciences of the Social	p. 84
Objectivity of Theology: Order of Salvation	p. 91
The Epistemological Approach	p. 91
Order of Salvation: The "Real" of Theology	p. 93
Appropriation of Salvation: Practice of Agape	p. 100
Theological Logocentrism	p. 104
Theological Theory: Order of Knowledge	p. 109
The Theological Difference	p. 109
The Theological Difference in the Theoretical Project of Thomas Aquinas	p. 114
Faith and Religion: Christian Identity	p. 117
"Language Play" of Theology as a Whole	p. 124
Specific "Language Play" of the Theology of the Political	p. 127
Hermeneutics: Constitution of Theological Pertinency	p. 132
Three Acceptations of Hermeneutics	p. 132
The Hermeneutic Circle	p. 135
A Hermeneutics for Theology of the Political: Possibility and Necessity	p. 139
Two Unacceptable Models of Hermeneutic Mediation	p. 142
Alternative Model: Correspondence of Relationships	p. 146
Two Attitudes toward Hermeneutic Practice	p. 150
Dialectic Of Theory And Praxis
The Theologian's Social Commitment	p. 159
Theology and Social Context	p. 159
Difference between Social Locus and Epistemic Locus	p. 162
Relationship between Social Locus and Epistemic Locus	p. 164
Models for a Vital Synthesis of Theology and Politics	p. 168
Thematic Relevance of Theology	p. 175
Where Theory Begins	p. 175
Notion and Establishment of Relevance	p. 178
Relevance as a Critical Position	p. 182
Political Objective of Theology	p. 186
Disinterestedness or Interest of Theory: An Analytic Difference	p. 186
Disinterestedness and Interest of Theory: A Real Relationship	p. 189
Conclusions from the Preceding Three Chapters	p. 193
Praxis as Criterion of Truth	p. 195
Context of the Question: The Course of "Political Theology"	p. 195
Theological Criteriology	p. 198
Pistic Criteriology	p. 201
Articulation of Theological Criteriology with Pistic Criteriology	p. 204
Dialectic: Its Modes and Norms	p. 206
Initial Definitions	p. 206
Two "Keys" of Dialectic	p. 207
Perichoresis and Chorismos between Theory and Praxis	p. 210
Dialectical Movement and its Rules	p. 213
Theology of the Political within the Greater Circuit of Dialectic	p. 216
Who Has the Last Word?	p. 219
Summary of Conclutions	p. 221
General Epistemological Principles and Approach	p. 221
	p. 221
	p. 225
	p. 229
Notes	p. 233
Bibliographic References	p. 337
Index	p. 371
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