The Praxis of Suffering: An Interpretation of Liberation and Political Theologies Book

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