Mediations

Philosophical, sociological, anthropological and political mediations

The relation between theology and philosophy nowadays is a very complicated one, but liberation theologies always explicitly used philosophical mediations to clarify and support their theological programme. Historically, liberation theologies originate in Latin-America in the 1960s. It were concrete, contextual theologies with an accent on ‘orthopraxis’, aimed at liberating the many poor and oppressed people in Latin America. Directly inspired by what they consider to be the core of Jesus Christ’s message, a radical ‘option for the poor’, their analysis of the political and social situation and the action that came forth from this analysis, were mediated by the philosophy of Karl Marx. The Marxist interpretation of economic and social relations in the reality we live in, was used as a means to reach the final objective of liberation theology: the liberation of the poor and thereby, the installation of God’s Kingdom on earth.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the discredit of the communist system, however, our historical situation has changed and it could be questioned whether Marx is the best possible mediation for a contemporary, postmodern liberation theology. Other political theories of resistance have gained credibility instead of a pure Marxist mediation: poststructural and postcolonial theories, feminist thinking, ecological theories etc. have served and still serve as mediation for liberation theologians, but there has certainly been a fragmentation in the philosophies and the liberation theologies that are based on them.

The Centre for Liberation Theologies wants to reflect on different possible (new) mediations for doing theology. In this context, we invite people to think about the question: “who could be the ‘new Marx’ for postmodern liberation theologies?”

Currently, our interest concerning this question goes to the French thinkers René Girard, Gilles Deleuze and Michel Serres – among others.