Interreligious Studies

Jose M. Vigil, Luiza Tomita, Marcello Barros (Eds.)

Along the Many Paths of God

Foreword: Pedro Casadaliga

LIT

Along the Many Paths of God

Foreword: Pedro Casadaliga
edited by

Jose M. Vigil, Luiza Tomita and Marcello Barros

LIT

Cover Picture: Photographer: Jan Gilhuis

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword Introduction PARTI Chapter 1 Religious Intolerance versus Religious Pluralism in Latin American History Armando Lampe Theology within a plural indigenous faith Diego Irarrazaval Religious Pluralism and the Afro-American Religious Traditions Antonio Aparecido da Silva The Challenge of Religious Pluralism for Latin American Theology Faustino Teixeira Spirituality of Religious Pluralism: an Emerging Spiritual Experience Jose Maria Vigil Cultural and Religious Pluralism: A Pivotal Point for Liberation Theology Marcelo Barros

7 11 13

15

Chapter 2 Chapter 3

31

43

Chapter 4

53

Chapter 5

71

Chapter 6

85 103

PART II Chapter 7 Many Poor People, Many Religions. Option for the poor, a privileged place for dialogue among religions Jose Maria Vigil

105

Chapter 8

Theology of Religions in a Latin American Perspective JoseComblin 119

CONTENTS

Chapter 9

Macro-ecumenism: Latin American Theology of Religions Jose Maria Vigil The Church of the Poor, Sacrament of the People of God: Towards a Macro-ecumenical ecclesiology of liberation Francisco de Aquino Junior Liberation Christology and Religious Pluralism Jose Maria Vigil

137

Chapter 10

153

Chapter 11

173 ffl 181

PART Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Secret and Sacred: Revelation and Black Theology Silvia Regina de Lima Silva One and Many. God in a pluralist perspective Marcelo Barros & Luiza E. Tomita Ecclesiology in a time of religious pluralism Faustino Teixeira There is Salvation Outside Religions. Salvation in a Pluralist Perspective Etienne A. Higuet Toward a Pluralist Spirituality of Liberation Jose Maria Vigil 183 195 207

Chapter 15

223 243

Chapter 16 Chapter 17

Contributions of a Pluralist Theology of Liberation to Building a World Ethic Joaquin Garay 259 The Missionary Task: Based on a pluralist theology of liberation Cristian Tauchner 271 287

Chapter 18

Authors

Foreword
All believers are more or less in agreement that, in believing, we refer to one Supreme Being. Many of us would agree also that we are referring to the same God using different names: "the God of all names" proclaimed during the First Macro-ecumenical Congress of the Assembly of the People of God on the highlands of Quito. But when it comes to systematize and to organize intellectually, culturally and morally the relationships or links (re-legar = religion) with this one God, we separate, take our distance and easily confront one another as enemies and in the name of God. God would unite us; religion separates us. Recently, after many centuries of distancing and of quarrels, some sectors of humanity are waking up, with a sense of guilt for our actions and omissions, to the evil that troubles religions and so there arises, like a human and divine vocation, the unsettling wish, tentatively but hopefully, to accept, through dialogue and collaboration, the global challenge to transform the evil of misunderstanding and religious wars. It is a challenge that affects practically all religions, but most concretely the Christian Churches because of its history of mission that was frequently colonizing and because of its traditionally exclusivist theology and its dogmatism. The same accusation of "Christian arrogance" that is made against biblical and ecclesial theology with respect to the ecological crisis can all too frequently also be made with respect to dialogue with other religions and with religious pluralism on the basis of a past that even today persists in many Christian minds. The Second Vatican Council finally managed to accept freedom of conscience and recognized salvific spaces in other religions. This began an era of dialogue, not only within the Church or ecumenically but also between the Churches and other religions: a macro-ecumenical dialogue. It happened still quite modestly and with much hesitation but in generalized declarations and in solemn sessions rather than in a quite natural experience of fraternal interchange. Pioneering theologians appeared. They were sometimes misunderstood and even censured by official instances because the institutions always are resistant to freedom and novelty. The texts, gatherings and declarations on the theme multiplied. Inter-religious dialogue, macro-ecumenism and religious pluralism became a discovery or a subject recognised as needing attention. Whether it was with the early enthusiasm or under suspicion, the topic found a place that is irreversible. There are those who even think that it is the topic of the day for theological reflection because of its intrinsic implications, because the matter is complex and new and upsets all the traditional schemes. You only have to read the index of an article in a theological journal to find the major questions of religion and of society set out there, relativizing what is relative and absolutizing what is absolute. God is God and humanity is God's 'prob-

FOREWORD

lem' and 'dream ' Religion, we are reminded, is a simple mediation Michael Amaladoss, currently the director of the Institute for Dialogue between Cultures and Religions in Chennay, Madras (India), insisted recently on an axiom that is fundamental for mter-rehgious peace "Religion is for human beings and not humans for religion " Along that line of thinking, this book, which is a compilation of a series of books initiated by the Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) in Latin America, comes to us It reflects a search for "a liberating theology of religions " It is a book of initiation "to wet our appetite " From a Latin American perspective of liberation theology, it sets forth the following major points for reflection Religious intolerance versus religious pluralism, Religious pluralism as experienced by Indigenous, AfroAmerican and Feminist theologies, Dialogue between theology of religion and that of religious pluralism, Liberation of the poor as a hermeneutic cntenon, The new emerging spirituality of religious pluralism, Pluralism in principle or by right and not just de facto, A new missionary spirit

It seems to me both elemental and fundamental in religious dialogue always to emphasize the content and objective of the dialogue It isn't always a matter of sitting the religions down in a social gathering in order to discuss more peacefully about religion while turning in on themselves narcissistically Both as content and as objective, true dialogue among religions should focus on the interests of God which are those of humanity itself and nature In the case of humanity, the priority is the large mass of those who are impoverished and excluded In nature, the earth, water and the air are polluted There is the question of justice and ecology, freedom and peace Life' Inclining his head and his heart deeply toward reality, Marcelo Barros writes, in his article that, The path for a theology of cultural and religious pluralism in Latin America is from the grassroots, from insertion and solidarity To return once again to a way of speaking that is common when we talk about pluralism, this new the ology is not Christ-centered and even less Church-centered It must be "life centered," that is to say centered on the project of life for everyone This shouldn't sound new to those of us to try to follow the One who came so that "all might have Life and Life in abundance " Religion is for Life The true God is justice and liberation and love

FOREWORD

In a timely way, we repeat along with Hans Kiing that today more than ever, there will be no peace among nations if there is not peace among religions and that there will be no peace among religions if there is no dialogue among them. We need to add that this dialogue will be useless and even hypocritical and blasphemous if it does not concern itself with Life and above all with the poor, with human rights that are divine rights as well. Bishop Henri Tessier of Algiers says, "Religions have to be subjected to the judgment of universal conscience in its effort to discover human rights and to promote them." Committed and politicized by God and by God's poor, this book tries to be the echo and the voice of a fruitful marriage that is beginning to be celebrated between theology of religious pluralism and liberation theology. "Many poor people, many religions" was the title given by Jose Maria Vigil to his article in the journal Exodo that singled out the thread. This "married" theology, is the appropriate and urgent theology of the Third World, the theology of a world that is globalized both for evil and for good, the theology of a living and life-giving God and of our unique, lost and saved humanity. Truth is in the journey, as are people, history and the living God who accompanies us. It is not mine or yours; it is ours or rather we belong to it. Antonio Machado warns us, "Your truth? No. The Truth. Come with me to search for it..." Along the many paths of God in which God comes across humanity creating it, welcoming it, searching for it - we advance with religious plurality, sons and daughters of the one God, brothers and sisters in God's human family. Let us be ever more conscious of our fundamental unity and of the enriching plurality with which we can and must live it, moving along toward to our shared Paternal/Maternal home. For that caminhada1 this book is a useful guide.

Pedro Casadaliga Sao Felix do Araguiaia, Mato Grosso, Brazil

[Tr: The word literally means a walk or stroll. However in the Brazilian context it refers to the long journey of the dispossessed toward "another world that is possible."]

Introduction
This book gathers an anthological selection of the first three volumes of the series, Along the Many Paths of God, of the Latin American Theological Commission of EATWOT (the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians). The series was conceived of in Quito (Ecuador) during the 2001 celebration of the General Assembly of EATWOT. In that assembly, that gathers representatives of the EATWOT members from around the "Third World" every five years, the theme of religious pluralism powerfully emerged before our eyes. Religious pluralism has always existed, but until then it seems that the time to theologically reflect about that plurality had not arrived. Now the hour of the "kairos" could be heard and before us appeared what we thought to be not a new sectional theme, not an additional chapter to the theology that we had traditionally been doing, but a new "paradigm", a macro horizon in which to "re-situate and re-understand" all theology until then done among us. We were not referring to just any theology, but to the Theology of Liberation, in any of its branches. During decades, without confessing it, we had considered that the liberating theology we were doing was "insurmountable". In that assembly, as if "falling of the horse", not just a few of us, understood that a paradigm shift was necessary. We were in need of a "pluralistic rereading" of the classic Latin American Liberation Theology. This theology, that we so loved, and thought of as so advanced, was the child of the inclusive proposals of the second half of the twentieth century, but now we noted a need to take a step forward, and the need to elaborate a theology of liberation that would be "pluralistic", a step beyond "inclusive". The need was not to do a "Theology of Religious Pluralism" as a new subject or as a new chapter to be added to the usual theology. It was about -as we certainly said in Quito- "doing a crossing between the Latin American Liberation Theology and the Theology of Religious Pluralism". This moved us to follow a road that we gathered could take us to a future "Latin American Pluralistic Liberation Theology". This was the goal that we recognized would not be immediately achievable. The Theology of Religious Pluralism already on in years, decades even, - from the end of the 80's - had functioned and had been developed in various places of the world, but not in Latin America. As a theology it had not yet started in other places. In those years, we in Latin America were absorbed by other chores that were not to be delayed. Now at the beginning of the 21 st Century, when we found ourselves with a North Atlantic, Anglo-Saxon, Theology of Religious Pluralism, we found it lacked a liberative dimension. It was time for Latin America, now in a more peaceful historical moment and with fewer urgencies and emergencies, to assume the theme of the Theology of Religious Pluralism, but that it do so with its own style, its own liberative "charisma", the spiritual gift that enriched the entire world through

12

INTRODUCTION

Liberation Theology. Should the future Latin American Pluralistic Theology not also deliver the same charisma? In that assembly, this intuition jumped out like a spark and this lit the willing spirits of the Latin American Theological Commission, made up of Luiza E. Tomita, Marcelo Barros and Jose Maria Vigil, who had been elected precisely in that General Assembly to encourage this. Soon the Commission started working right away, and called together the theologians that were interested in the topic. The result was three volumes, with a total of 43 articles, by 30 theologians women and men in their majority Latin Americans. Of this grouping we have put together the volume that the reader now has in hand. It is an anthological selection made possible by the support of the Nijmegen Institute of Mission Studies (NIM) of the Radboud University of Nijmegen. The NIM assumed generously the commitment to make this volume accessible to the international community by translating a careful selection of the most significant texts of these three volumes into English, and by publishing them in its new book series Interreligious Studies. We have not given up on seeking a way to make the other texts of the three volumes accessible in the English language. The current publication, however, will play the role of presenting a synthesis of the vision, the initial vision of the future of that "Latin American Liberative Pluralistic Theology". We wish to thank the Nijmegen Institute for Mission Studies, and explicitly Frans Wijsen and Jorge Castillo Guerra, for this generous service through which the word and the theology of EATWOT, the Association of Third World Theologians, in its Latin American section will be able to be heard practically in all continents. Additionally a word of very special thanks to Richard Renshaw, a collaborator and friend of the Latin American EATWOT, he has been for a long time a Canadian missionary in Peru. His enthusiasm for this new theological paradigm led him to generously translate the texts. This new diffusion of the texts, now in English make us all equally glad, and show the world that Latin American Theology has notably widened the fan of its classic themes during the last decades, without abandoning, but rather deepening and that way making more fecund its liberating "charisma".

Jose Maria Vigil Coordinator of the EATWOT's International Theological Commission.

PARTI

Chapter 1 Religious Intolerance versus Religious Pluralism in Latin American History

Armando Lampe Aruba, Caribbean

Our topic is very broad and there are various ways of approaching the question. There is a juridical focus. The question, for example, of freedom of religion or its absence in the constitutions of nation states could be one way of analyzing the topic. Practically all countries have a formal, constitutional recognition of freedom of religion. However, in practice the Catholic Church enjoys a privileged status in many countries with a consequent discrimination of Protestant Churches. 1 This essay will, nevertheless, not go that way. Rather we will use a historical approach. The object of our study is the history of the Christian Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean and our question is about why the official Churches have shown an attitude of religious intolerance that is so distinct from that of popular religiosity. Definitions This volume has, as its fundamental theme, religious pluralism in Latin America and the Caribbean. There are different uses of the term pluralism. In the United States one speaks of multiculturalism and Europe has begun defining itself as a multicultural society. 2 In this case the term refers to the existence of different ethnic groups in a single society. The Indigenous movement in Latin America has also used the term pluriculturalism in its struggle for greater respect for Indigenous rights. To claim the right to cultural pluralism is a way of resisting the process of globalization that seeks to impose a transnational culture. 3 This process provokes a counter-demand for cultural diversity. To speak of cultural diversity is to refer to the construction of multiple identities within a single nation. Cultural pluralism has an eminently positive meaning within such discourse. It also brings together pressure groups to achieve constitutional reforms in social, educational and cultural policies. A. Lampe, "Theology of Liberation Facing the Challenge of Freedom of Religion in Latin America," in Exchange 21 A, Leiden, 1998, 331-341. D. M. Guss, "Reimaginando la comunidad imaginada," in D. Mato (editor), Teoria y polltica de la construction de identidades y diferencias en America Latina y el Caribe, Caracas, Nueva Sociedad, 1994, 31-45. D. Mato, "Procesos de construccion de identidades transnacionales en America Latina," idem., 251-261.

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ARMANDO LAMPE

Not all discourse works with the same set of concepts. There is a generalized concept by which national identity necessarily leads to the suppression of cultural diversity. In fact there is a nationalistic discourse that denies the pluricultural dimension. The famous Venezuelan writer, Arturo Uslar Pietri, writes: "Those who speak of Blacks or Whites, or who appeal to racial hatred or privilege, are denying Venezuela. As far as politics or society goes, there are no Whites or Blacks, or people of Mixed-race or Indians in Venezuela. There are only Venezuelans." 4 By saying this he is denying the cultural diversity of Venezuela. Not only nationalistic discourse but also Catholic discourse formulates national identity in terms that exclude pluriculturalism. There is a certain Roman Catholic discourse that has problems with cultural pluralism. In the Santo Domingo Conference (1992) the Catholic bishops denounced the fact that in some areas there are those who destroy the Christian identity of Latin America "under the pretext of pluralism."5 In other places the Christian identity of Latin America is defined in Catholic terms that exclude cultural diversity. The recent proclamation of the first Guatemalan saint (Pedro de San Jose Betancourt) by John-Paul II or the canonization of Juan Diego in Mexico sends a similar message: the Guatemalan nation is Catholic or the Mexican culture is Guadalupan. The Catholic Church as an institution thus shows a high degree of religious intolerance. Plurality represents a threat both for State power and for the institution of the Catholic Church. In this sort of discourse, cultural pluralism has a pejorative meaning. The same thing is true for the term religious pluralism: It can have a negative or a positive meaning. Religious diversity exists since the European invasion of Latin America and the Caribbean. (Indigenous and African religions versus Christianity. Islam arrived initially with some African slaves and then massively in the 19th Century Caribbean with the arrival of Asian workers; Hinduism was established in this same way.) But the attitude can be one of intolerance, as in the case of civil and religious authorities throughout the whole colonial period, or it can be one of tolerance. Only in this latter case can one speak of religious pluralism. Religious pluralism refers to the situation where religious diversity exists and is tolerated. Here we have to make an important distinction by pointing to the schism between the institutional Church and the people. The institutional Catholic Church has maintained an attitude of intolerance to religious diversity ever since the colonial period. Surprisingly this attitude continues even today as when Pope John-Paul II canonized two Indigenous Zapotecas (Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles) in Mexico for having denounced the practice of witchcraft by their brothers in the 16th century. The message is clear: zero tolerance of Indigenous religion. This is not
4

Quoted by D. M. Guss, op. cit., 34-35. J. M. Aguirre, Genesis y evolution de la identidad de la Iglesia latinoamericana: el conflicto de las representaciones, en D. Matos (editor), op. cit, 193-202.

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE VS RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

17

something unique to the Catholic Church. Protestant Churches in the colonial period and the new Pentecostal Churches also practice the same intolerance: They preach that only Christ saves and they treat the religion of others as Satanic. The attitude of ordinary people has been totally different: They have been much more tolerant in face of religious diversity. African Religiosity Based on a historical reconstruction of the trials of the Inquisition affecting Blacks, it is possible to grasp the intolerant attitude of the institutional Catholic Church in the colonial period. Let us consider some examples of religious practices of Blacks in Cartagena in the 17th century and what happened in the Court of Cartagena. Francisca Mejfa was a free racially-mixed person born in Extremadura (Spain) and resident in Cartagena. He was punished by the Holy Office in 1613 for having drawn lots with beans in order to know the future: He described the way he was practicing drawing lots with beans as follows: He took a quantity of beans in his hands and placed a small ball of wax among them along with a little bread, charcoal, paper, a Spanish coin, salt, alum and a small coloured handkerchief. From all this he took out two beans: one as a sign of the person about whom one wanted information and the other for the person who wanted to know. He put them in his mouth and held the rest in his hands with the other things. Then he said: In the name of St. Peter and of St. Paul and of the apostle James and of St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist and Sts. Fabien and Sebastian.6 Here we have an African descendent who practiced a mix of various religious traditions without seeing any contradiction among them. In 1676 Antonio de Salinas, a free Black, a descendent of Guinean parents and a fisherman, was denounced before the Inquisition for sorcery, divining and superstitions. He was put in prison. In court he declared that he had thrown holy water on the nets he used while praying the Creed three times with those who accompanied him. He did this after observing the Indians of Nicaragua when they cast their nets: They took off the "rosary around their necks" before setting out to fish and they made the sign of the Cross with it in the water.7 Once more we have the case of a Black who could, without any problem, live with several different religious traditions.

Archivo Historico Nacional de Madrid, Book 1020, fac. 9v and 46v, cited by M.C. Navarrete, Prdcticas religiosas de los negros en la colonia Cartagena del siglo XVII, Santiago de Cali, Editorial Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad del Valle, 1995, 54. [Tr.: The translation given is my own.] 7 Ibid, 56.

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ARMANDO LAMPE

Another case was that of Mateo Arara, a Black slave, who in 1652 was accused by the Inquisition of casting spells He declared that he had cured a young Black in the following manner He put a cross made with sticks on the door of the hut where mother lived and then had them bring him a chicken With the chicken he cleaned the body of the Black boy and with the help of his mother who held him, he put it on his head, he entrusted him to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, asking God and the Virgin Mary to give a hand in curing him To this he added T want the boy, you can take the chicken,' and this was done while talking with the devil but always adoring God If the chicken died it would mean that the boy would live, but if the chicken lived the boy would then die After the healing, the boy was well and the chicken died He ordered the boy to go with someone else and to throw the chicken into a ravine while taking care not to look where it landed because that could bring evil on them s The slave learned this healing knowledge in Africa, but on the American continent he mixed it with Christian elements and for the African there was no problem in practicing various religious traditions at the same time The institutional Catholic Church didn't look kindly on these popular practices among Blacks and they ended up before the court of the Inquisition The official Church demonized any "other" religious practice that was not official Many of those accused by the Inquisition were Blacks and the accusation was always that of heresy because they practiced magic and witchcraft The medieval witch was confused with the African tradition, but the African element was the most important part of this process of cultural mixing and gave rise to a new religious culture in Latin America and the Canbbean In order to hunt it down, the Inquisition identified it with "European witchcraft" and with adoration of the Demon Saint Peter Claver, one of the representatives of the official Church who was more favourable to the Black question in Cartagena during the 17th Century, used physical violence to combat African religiosity This gives us an idea of the history of persecution of African religiosity by the official Church In spite of that persecution Blacks managed to express their religiosity through the medium of European Christianity This indicates that acceptance of Christianity did not necessarily mean abandoning African beliefs The Churches and the missionaries supported an intolerant Christianity through their preaching, but this is not the whole history of Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean The people provided their own more tolerant interpretation of Christianity, often in opposition to the ideas of the Christian missionaries In the history of Christianity in Surinam we have the following example 9 Ibid 64 [Tr The translation is my own ] A Lampe Mission or Submission ? Moravian and Catholic Missionaries in the Dutch Caribbean During the 19th Century, Gottingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2000

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE VS RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

19

The Moravian Church began its missionary effort in Surinam beginning in 1735 without much success. Only after 1830 did slaves enter the Church in large numbers. After the success of the Haitian revolution, making the slaves Christian began to be viewed as a way to civilize potential rebels. Throughout the Caribbean of the 19th Century the status quo in Surinam also took a kindly view of the Christianizing of slaves. But the massive conversion in Surinam cannot be interpreted simply as manipulation; there were other factors that explain this religious phenomenon. The German Moravian missionaries of the 19th Century began with a campaign to destroy the sacred places where the slaves practiced witchcraft - religious intolerance was thus not something exclusive to the Catholic Church. Surprisingly, only then did they have missionary success. The slaves interpreted Moravian Christianity as a ritual for cleansing from witchcraft, something common in the African religious view. In African religion the casting of spells produced, at the end of each cycle, a reaction that destroyed sorcery. The German missionaries wrongly interpreted the massive conversion as an abandonment of the presumed idolatry of the slaves. They wrote enthusiastic letters from Surinam to Herrnhut praising their success in destroying paganism and in saving the souls of the Blacks. On the other hand, the slaves interpreted Christianity from an African point of view. This explains the fact that shortly afterwards the missionaries sent letters of complaint to Herrnhut, lamenting that the new converts continued believing in witchcraft. They didn't understand that the slaves conquered the religion of the conquistadores thanks to the fact that African religion did not condemn the other religion. In the African soul, African religion could co-exist with Christianity. Right up to the present for example, there is no contradiction for the Haitian people between Voodoo and Catholicism. In their everyday life there are Catholic saints who represent African deities in spite of the fact that the Catholic Church organized campaigns against Voodoo. One researcher speaks of a symbiosis by identification and mentions, as examples, the identification of Catholic saints with African deities, songs and prayers that mix African and Catholic names for the same deity, the identification by the people of an Iwa with a saint, the ceremonies of lwa on the feast day of the saint.10 Desmangles argues that African religious customs were forbidden in the colonial period out of fear that they would inspire rebellions. The slaves were thus obliged to accept Christianity but continued with their African religious views. They accepted Catholicism as a strategy to become part of a national and respectable neo-colonial culture. Hidden in Catholic images and symbols they followed African religious practices. The lwa and the saints continued belonging to two

L. Desmangles, The Faces of the Gods, Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti, Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

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ARMANDO LAMPE

different religious systems One could better say that Catholicism was assimilated by Voodoo Bastide has defended the position that civilizations can meet and live together in the same space without having a mutual influence " For Bastides there is a juxtaposition in time and space of European and African practices For example, the faithful assist at a Catholic Mass and then at a Voodoo ceremony without any mixing of the two Both the principle of juxtaposition of Bastide (Catholic baptism is added to the rituals of initiation into Voodoo) and that of identification proposed by Desmangles (the lwas are identified with the saints) have as their point of departure the assumption that one can only exercise one religious tradition in the same time and space The mistake in both tendencies is that they do not recognize the plurality of sources in popular religion in the same time and space The Haitian people practice two religions without any problem, they do not see the need to opt for one or the other, they are formally dedicated to one of the two religions but not exclusively Both are relevant, so that a religious person cannot say that he or she is Catholic here and Voodooist there The people have multiple religious identities that subsist in one setting It's not that the people have different identities in different settings For example, they are not Catholic at one point and then Voodooist at another For the official Church, an expression of Western logic - and thus its intolerance, - you cannot serve two religions at the same time The other logic, non-Western and present in Latin American and Caribbean popular religion, can practice different religious traditions at the same time 12 In section 4 we will return to this point about idolatry and monotheism Indigenous Religiosity The people had a more tolerant attitude In popular religious practice since the 16' century there has been a co-existence of Christian elements with other religious traditions coming from Europe, Africa and America Drawing on the occasion, in August, 2002, of the proclamation of Juan Diego as the first indigenous saint - whose historical existence is rightly questioned by some historians - it is worth considenng the example of popular devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe The appearance of the book entitled Tonantzin Guadalupe Pensamiento ndhuatl y mensaje cristiano en el "Nican mopohua " by Miguel LeonPortilla, published toward the end of 2000 by the Colegio Nacional and the

R Bastides, El proximo El encuentro de civihzacwnes, Buenos Aires, Amorrurto Editores, 1998, 145-157 C Parker Otra logica en America Latina Religion popular y modernizacion capitahsta, Mexico, D F , FCE, 1993, 32-33

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE VS RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

21

Fondo de Cultura Economica* in Mexico, helps us better understand die phenomenon of Guadalupe. It is important to distinguish between the Christianity of the missionaries and that of the Indigenous and Black peoples. The European and North American missionaries preached one thing and the Indigenous and Black peoples took as their own something quite different from this message. The Christianity of the colonizer and that of the colonized can be so different that one is unrecognizable in the other. This premise, although not explicit, can be found in the recent publication by Miguel Ledn-Portilla, author of the famous work, Vision de los vencidos** that pulls together Indigenous accounts of Nahuatl witnesses about the Conquest in New Spain. There exists an extensive literature in Nahuatl and one of the many accounts is the Nican Mopohua (from the first words that can be translated as: "Here is told....")- Doctor Leon-Portilla now gives us a new translation of the Nican Mopohua in Spanish (Part III of the book). What is new in this translation is that it is based on the assumption (Part II) that it is an Indigenous text expressed in the terms and speaking style of the tlamatinime or sages of the old Nahuatl world. The book contains, on the one hand a reproduction of the manuscript preserved in the Public Library of New York (Appendix II) that, according Leon-Portilla (Part I), dates from the hand of Antonio Valeriano in the 16th Century. Valeriano entered the Colegio de Santa Cruz in 1536 and had Fray Bernardino de Sahuagun as teacher. He was born between 1522 and 1526 in Azcapotzalco and died in 1605 as Governor of Mexico-Tenochtitlan. He spoke Nahuatl, Spanish and Latin, and wrote Nican Mopohua around 1556. This text narrates the so-called event of Guadalupe: The four apparitions, from the 9th to the 12th of December, 1531 of the Virgin Mary under the title of Guadalupe in Tepeyac, situated to the north of the former Aztec capital, Mexico-Tenochtitlan and now part of the city of Mexico, to the seer Juan Diego, a baptized Nahuatl Indigenous man who passed the message on to Fray Juan de Zumarraga, the first bishop of Mexico, so that a temple dedicated to her would be built on the site of the apparitions. The miraculous sign of the flowers of Tepeyac, the healing of the sick uncle of the seer and the miracle that occurred in the presence of the bishop, that is to say, the impression of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the cloak of Juan Diego.

[Tr: Tonantzin Guadalupe. Nahuatl thought and the Christian message in "Nican mopohua, " National College and the Economic Culture Foundation] ** [Tr: Vision of the Conquered]

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The subtitle of the work of Leon-Portilla suggests that in the Nwan Mopohua and in the devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe there co-exist two traditions: the Nahuatl thought and the Christian message The objective of the Spanish was to spiritually conquer the religion of the conquered The First Council of Lima, meeting in 1552, says explicitly that they had to build a church or to place a cross in those places that the Indigenous peoples held as sacred Sahaguan, mentioned above, recognizes that this was the missionary practice used in Mexico The first Religious there decided to build a church in honor of the Virgin of Guadalupe on the site where the Indigenous people venerated Tonantzin Tonantzin was the Mother Goddess of the Indigenous peoples, Totahtzin was the Father God Together they were expressions of the universal, dual principle, attributes of the supreme God, Ometeol, the god of duality So, as Leon-Portilla points out, it was a key concept in the Nahuatl thinking that the supreme divinity was conceived as being dual, that is to say, mother and father at the same time The missionaries brought the Virgin of Guadalupe from Spain but the Indigenous people took this image as their own and converted it into Tonantzin Sahagun himself affirms that the situation had to be remedied because the Indigenous called Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonantzin and that "it is evident that deep within, the people who go there on pilgrimage are not motivated by anything except their former religion " l3 The new translation of the Nican Mopohua by Leon-Portilla shows very well that the defeated conquered the religion of the conquerors, that is to say, they converted Mary into the Mother Goddess of the Indigenous people Truly I am, always and in everything, the Virgin, Holy Mary, Mother of the true God, Giver of life, Ipainemohuam, Fashioner of the people, Teyocoyam, master of what is near and far, Tloque Nahuaque, master of the heavens, Ilhuicahua, master of the surface of the earth, Tlalticpaque14
13

Quoted by R Nebel, Nican Mopohua Cosmoviswn indigena e inculturaaon Cnstiana, Mexico, FCE, 1996, 302 14 M Leon-Portilla T Guadalupe, Pensmiento nahuatl y mensaje cnstiana en el "Nican mopohua" Mexico, El Colegio Nacional-Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2000, 100103 [Tr There are English versions on the internet eg, http //wwv. ourladxofsuadalupeshnne com/nican html In this note I have followed the text as given in this article "en verdad soy yo - la en todo y siempre doncella - Santa Maria, - Su madrecita de el, Dios verdadero - Dador de la vida, Ipainemohuam, - In-

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE VS RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

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Leon-Portilla has published an entire poem from the ancient Cantares madcanos (Appendix I, Memory of an old singer: "CuicapeuhcayotF') in which there is an allusion to the divinity using these same names.15 Holy Mary enumerates the principal attributes of the God adored by the Nahuatl. The missionaries wanted to press the Indigenous people into submission but the Indigenous ended up bringing the White God into submission. The God of the Nahuatl triumphed through devotion to Tonantzin Guadalupe. There is a rupture here with Western Christianity. For the missionaries Mary was a human being, while for the Indigenous people she was divine. The missionaries preached about the Mother of God and the Indigenous people interpreted the message as that of the Mother God of the Nahuatl gods. While it is true that the defeated created a Christianity without Christ, there is nevertheless an element of continuity between the phenomenon of Guadalupe and the prophetic message of Jesus of Nazareth who announced good news to the poor. The God of the poor as central to the message of the Nazarene appears in the Nican Mopoh.ua. Tonantzin Guadalupe has a preferential option for the poorest. Juan Diego describes himself this way: "Truly I am an unfortunate laborer, I am merely like the cord used by those who bear burdens, Truly I am a pallet, I am only the tail, the wing, I am carried by others; I am a piece of cargo."16 Leon-Portilla points out that all the words that Juan Diego uses to describe himself as a poor man are to be found in other huehuehtlahtolli or testimonies of the ancient Word. He mentions, as an example, that when a father admonishes his son he tells him he is a just a pallet, or a cord for cargo or he points out that he is carried by others or is a burden. Tonantzin Guadalupe is presented as a mother who is concerned about her children, especially the poorest, and according to Leon-Portilla there was nothing strange about speaking thus of the divinity in the Indigenous world. The Indigenous people accepted Catholic practice by integrating it into their Indigenous vision of the world. And so the term "conversion" itself becomes problematic. Theologically speaking conversion to Christianity meant abandoning what is not Christian. For the Indigenous people, on the other hand, life is more important than dogma, spirituality is more important than the institution and the acceptance of Christianity ventor de la gente, Teyocoyani, - Dueno del cerca y del junto, Tloque Nahuaque, Duefio de los cielos, Ilhuicahua, - Dueno de la superficie terrestre, Tlalticpaque."] 15 Ibid, 162-171. 16 Ibid, 112-113.

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does not mean abandoning what is not Christian. In Section 5 we will return to this theme of conversion versus religious tolerance. Idolatry versus Monotheism The title of the work by Leon-Portilla, "Tonantzin Guadalupe" suggests the coexistence of two religious traditions although the author quite handily avoids entering into a discussion about those who use the term syncretism and those who reject it. Nor does he enter into the polemic between believers in Guadalupe and those who deny an apparition, arguing that it is not for a historian to demonstrate or to reject the existence of miracles. Others, like Diego Irarrazaval, speak of Indigenous syncretism in the devotion to Mary.17 The Diccionario de la Real Academia de la Lengua Espahola* mentions the Greek origin of syncretism which refers to a Cretan, an impostor. It is a reference to the historic event when various States of the Island of Crete joined together against a common enemy, that is to say, a coalition of two adversaries against a third. The individuals who were opposed desisted in their confrontation and appeared as if they were respectful of one another. Syncretism would then be the joining and melting together of doctrines and cultural elements, and thus its artificiality. For the Dictionary, what is qualified as syncretic would appear to be impure, without identity, artificial. The word, then, has a negative sense. This word, syncretism, was also introduced into the religious sciences to explain the mixing of different religions in one religious space. It speaks of fusion, of re-interpretation, of acculturation, of the principle of rupture. But in general the term preserves its negative connotation. An investigator of the theme writes that "in spite of the pejorative effects that dominate, syncretism is a phenomenon that exists in all religions, that is present in Brazilian society and that, whether we like it or not, should be analyzed."18 Leonardo Boff went a step further by giving a positive meaning to the term syncretism. He has stated that all religious are syncretic since any new religion is built upon elements of former religions. So, syncretic practice can be found everywhere.19 However our analysis must go deeper. The conquistadores were not successful in subjecting the feminine-masculine god of the conquered. According to the Popol Vuh, a book of the Maya-Quiche community discovered in the 18th Century by a Dominican friar but that had been written at the beginning of D. Irarrazaval, "Sincretismo indfgena, negro, mestizo, en la religion mariana," Lima, Pdginas, 116 (July 1992), 77-97. * [Tr: Dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language] 18 S. Ferretti, Repensando o Sincretismo, Sao Paulo, Universidad de Sao Paulo, 1995, 91. 19 L. Boff, Church, Charism and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church, New York, Crossroad, 1986, chapter 7.
17

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the conquest, everything derives from Tzakol (the Female Progenitor) and Bitot (the Male Progenitor), Alom (Mother) and Qaholom (Father). So also in the Quechua tradition the feminine and masculine representation of God is present. The Mapuche universe has complementary divinities that include the phases of life: Chao (Father) and Nuke (Mother), Fucha (the Old Woman), Weche (the Young Man) and Ulcha Domo (the Young Woman). The Quechua and the Aymara call on their masculine protectors {Apu, Huamani) and on the welcoming Pachamama (Mother Earth). The Tarahumaras in Mexico pray to our poor Father, our poor Mother. The God of the Indigenous is not the Abba God of Jesus of Nazareth, nor is it the masculine White God of the missionaries. The Indigenous people preserve their masculine and feminine gods within the Marian religion. For one student of Aymaran religion, the Aymara do not practice two religions, the Aymaran and the Christian. Rather they have made a synthesis that is grounded in the identity of the Aymaran people as an agricultural people.20 It is the Aymara-Christian religion although he recognizes that what happens is more an "Aymaranization" of Christianity than a Christianizing of the Aymaran religion. The question remains then whether one can be a Christian without ceasing to be Aymara. Personally I think that one can be a Christian without ceasing to be Aymara. Praying to God Our Father of Jesus of Nazareth is perfectly compatible with the divine conception of God as Father and Mother of the Indigenous people. In this sense we can say that the popular religious practice is multi-religious. For the people it is Tonanztin who uses the mask of Guadalupe. The missionary certainly does not identify with the religion of the Indigenous people. It is a Christianity that is often without Christ and with Mary as the central goddess in a pantheon of gods that sometimes wear the mask of a saint. It is the process of the indigenization of Christianity, not one of the Christianization of the Indigenous people.21 There is a historical continuity between the complaints of the missionaries against idolatry of the Indigenous peoples and the criticisms of the Pentecostal pastors against the adoration of the images of the Virgin by the people. Both want to impose the one true God, a masculine one. The existence of Marian religion is proof that our people have not been able to be faithful to a single God. For that reason, I disagree with the statement, clear though it might be, of a liberation theologian (Pablo Richard) who says that "In the Third World idolatry is more dangerous than atheism." The term idolatry appears once more in its pejorative sense. Nevertheless, popular religious practice has been multi-religious, has served different gods and has been idolatrous. The H. Berg, La tierra no da asi nomas. Los ritos agrkolas en la religion de los aymaracristianos, Hisbol-UCB/ISET, 1990, 262. See E. Langer-R.J. Jackson (editors.) The New Latin American Mission History, Lincoln and London, University of Nebraska Press, 1995.

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intolerance on the part of the institutional Churches is nourished by the definition of official Christianity as monotheist: There only exists one, true God. Thus it is intolerant All peoples must be converted Official Christianity, by being missionary, that is to say by considering other gods as false, is m essence intolerant with respect to the religious practice of others Conversion versus Religious Tolerance Conversion does not refer to an "I" totally isolated from a cultural tradition or social context There can be a redefinition of one's own identity without a total rupture with the past The term identity is imprecise Etymologically it comes from "idem," which means the same, but it would be wrong to think of something anti-dynamic 22 There is still something that remains the same the elements of continuity between prior beliefs and the new beliefs adopted The intellectual model of conversion is based on the premise that we belong to one religious tradition or another while recent studies show that there can be a conversion to certain practices without a rupture with the prior world view 23 Missionary accounts presented conversion with an emphasis on individual radical change because they assumed that it was not possible to serve two gods at the same time and because it was in the interest of the Church institution to speak of the successes of conversion But in reality conversion did not mean abandonment of the religious practices of the past The Indigenous and Black peoples accepted Christian practices while integrating them into their vision of the world 24 So, we cannot speak of a spiritual conquest of the Indigenous or Black peoples Another investigator, Fernando Cervantes, also questions the concept of a spiritual conquest of the Indigenous people, arguing that "what we see is not so much the imposition of a new life style but rather the manifestation of a new spiritual force " 25 He concludes "From what has been said it follows that the tendency to interpret the process of evangelization in Spamsh America from a perspective in D Mato, "Teorfa y politica de la construccion de identidades y diferencias en America Latina y el Canbe," in D Mato (coordinator), op_ cit, 13-28 R W Hefner (editor), Conversion to Christianity Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation, Berkeley, University of California Press. 1993 24 W. L Menll, "Conversion and Colonialism in Northern Mexico the Tarahumara Response to the Jesuit Mision Program," 1601-1767, in R W Hefner (editor) op cit, 129-163 25 F Cervantes. 'Cnstianismo o sincretismo9 Una reinterpretacion de la 'conqmsta espintual" en America espanola," in H J Pnen (editor), Religiosidad e Historwgrafla La irnipcion del pluralismo religioso en America Latina y su elaboracwn metodica en la histonografia, Frankfurt-Madrid,Vervuert Iberoamencana, 1998,21-33 32

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE VS RELIGIOUS PLURALISM

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which 'Christianity' and 'paganism' are mutually exclusive and in which any indication of the Indigenous religious survival is qualified immediately as 'syncretism,' in the pejorative sense of the term, is not only misleading but fundamentally wrong. The surprising thing therefore is the fierce persistence of that tendency in modern historical writing."26 Indeed, even in the publication of the volumes of the Historia General de la Iglesia en America Latina of CEHILA* this tendency persists. Cervantes presents the following reason for that persistence: the historians worked with a dualist epistemology, with a total separation between the divine and the human, between the material and the spiritual. In my view the principal reason for this lies in a rationalist conception of the process of conversion. The new "conversion studies" have shown that conversion is an expression of "wishful thinking" on the part of the theological mindset, while the historical reality is more complex. Church historians saw conversion as a process of intellect and will in which each individual accepts the truth of Christianity. This focus on studying religious phenomenon as a process of teaching and acceptance of new doctrine is an expression of the same ecclesiastical intolerance. For the official Church, the Indigenous person abandons Tonantzin to accept Guadalupe; this is the meaning of the spiritual conquest of the Indigenous person. The idea of a spiritual conquest of the Indigenous expresses an imperial vision of subjection of the other. Conversion and ecclesiastical imperialism come together. The idea of conversion preached by the Churches is in essence intolerant with respect to the religious practice of the other. Final Reflection Macro-ecumenism* and religious intolerance are two faces of the same coin, that is to say they are expressions of institutional Churches and their official theologies. Macro-ecumenism presupposes a dialogue between two subjects where each has a unique religious identity. In the past, the other was not tolerated and today we have to dialogue with the other. This is not the case for Haitians who consider themselves Christian and Voodooist at the same time. Dialogue presupposes two persons with two different identities; here we have a single person with different religious identities. The people live religious differences interiorly without any problem. That is why the ecumenical project never became popular. In fact, that effort has already been underway in Latin

Ibid, 33. /Tr: The translation given is mine.] [Tr: General History of the Church in Latin America by the Episcopal Commission for the History of the Church in Latin America] * [Tr.: The term was first used at the Assembly of the People of God in Quito, Ecuad in 1992. It refers to dialogue beyond the boundaries of Christianity. See the referen in the article by Faustina Teixeira this same volume.]

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America for several decades but continues to be a matter for institutional Churches and their leaders.

Bibliography Aguirre, J.M. (1994). Genesis y evolucion de la identidad de la Iglesia latinoamericana: el conflicto de las representaciones. In: Mato, D. (ed.). (1994). Teoria y politica de la construccion de identidades y diferencias en America Latina y el Caribe. Caracas: Nueva Sociedad. pp. 193202. Archivo Historico Nacional de Madrid. Book 1020. fac. 9v and 46v. Bastides, R. (1998). El proximo. El encuentro de civilizaciones. Buenos Aires: Amorrurto Editores. Berg, H. (1990). La tierra no da asi nomas. Los ritos agricolas en la religion de los aymara-cristianos. Hisbol: UCB/ISET. Boff, L. (1986). Church, Charism and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church. New York: Crossroad. Cervantes, F. (1998). Cristianismo o sincretismo? Una reinterpretacion de la 'conquista espiritual' en America espanola. In: Prien, H.J. (ed.). (1998). Religiosidad e Historiografia. La irrupcion del pluralismo religioso en America Latina y su elaboracion metodica en la historiografia. Frankfurt-Madrid: Vervuert-Iberoamericana. Desmangles, L. (1992). The Faces of the Gods. Vodou and Roman Catholicism in Haiti. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. Ferretti, S. (1995). Repensando o Sincretismo. Sao Paulo: Universidad de Sao Paulo. Guss, D.M. (1994). Reimaginando la comunidad imaginada. In: Mato, D. (ed.). (1994). Teoria y politica de la construccion de identidades y diferencias en America Latina y el Caribe. Caracas: Nueva Sociedad. pp. 3145. Hefner, R.W. (ed.). (1993). Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation. Berkeley: University of California Press. Irarrazaval, D. (1992). Sincretismo indigena, negro, mestizo, en la religion mariana. In: Pdginas 116 (July 1992). pp. 77-97. Lampe, A. (1998). Theology of Liberation Facing the Challenge of Freedom of Religion in Latin America. In: Exchange 27(1998-4). Leiden, pp. 331341. Lampe, A. (2000). Mission or Submission? Moravian and Catholic Missionaries in the Dutch Caribbean During the 19' Century. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.

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Langer, E. & Jackson, R.J. (eds.). (1995). The New Latin American Mission History. Lincoln/London: University of Nebraska Press. Leon-Portilla, M. (2000). Tonantzin Guadalupe. Pensamiento ndhuatl y mensaje cristiana en el "Nican mopohua". Mexico: El Colegio NacionalFondo de Cultura Econdmica. Mato, D. (1994). Procesos de construccion de identidades transnacionales en America Latina. In: Mato, D. (ed.). (1994). Teoria y politica de la construccion de identidades y diferencias en America Latina y el Caribe. Caracas: Nueva Sociedad. pp. 251-261. Mato, D. (1994). Teoria y Politica de la Construccion de Identidades y Diferencias. In: Mato, D. (ed.). (1994). Teoria y politica de la construccion de identidades y diferencias en America Latina y el Caribe. Caracas: UNESCO-Nueva Sociedad. pp. 13-28. Merill, W.L. (1993). Conversion and Colonialism in Northern Mexico: the Tarahumara Response to the Jesuit Mision Program, 1601-1767. In: Hefner, R.W. (ed.). (1993). Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 129-163. Navarrete, M.C. (1995). Prdcticas religiosas de los negros en la colonia Cartagena del sigh XVII. Santiago de Cali: Editorial Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad del Valle. Nebel, R. (1996). Nican Mopohua. Cosmovision indigena e inculturacion Cristiana. Mexico: FCE. Parker, C. (1993). Otra logica en America Latina. Religion popular y modernizacion capitalista. Mexico: FCE.

Chapter 2 Theology within a plural indigenous faith

Diego Irarrdzaval

Several ways of doing theology are emerging in Latin America, because of new voices, symbols, concepts, methodologies. This happens on the basis of indigenous spirituality that pays attention to the signs of our times. We wish to eliminate impoverishment, for the sake of human well being that is in tune with the environment. This confronts self centered consumerism with its idolatrous characteristics. In our latinamerican multicultural contexts, people seek and encounter sources of Life. Aboriginal peoples stand out. Throughout centuries they have been treated as objects within socio-political and church programs. Nevertheless, aboriginal population continues to reconstruct its paths, and also to develop its own theological voices. Our reflection may be re-positioned within fertile Indigenous matrixes. This implies that in Aboriginal peoples's faith there are theological dimensions. Moreover there are political and economic alternatives for today's world. We are dealing with wisdoms that are rooted in daily life and in processes' of inculturation in each region of the continent. I am going to pay special attention to myth and Utopia. These types of language are bearers of religious pluralism. I want to underline that myth has been and is today a way of knowing that can dialogue with Christian tradition (in a similar way as modern science interacts with religious language). May I also underline my condition of apprentice and non-indigenous participant in a dialogue among Indigenous persons and communities who are authors of their theologies. 1 Reflection on religious pluralism today has to take into account colonial structures. The human condition of Indigenous peoples was denied. Colonialism has denied their spiritual values and labelled their religiosity as preThere has been a series of Latin American Conferences on Indigenous theologies: first Congress in Mexico (Mexico: CENAMI, 1991), second Congress in Panama (Mexico: CENAMI, 1994), third Congress in Bolivia (Cuzco: IPA, 1997); fourth Congress in Paraguay (Belem: Mensageiro, 2003); and the fifth Congress in Manos, Brazil, in 2006. The most outstanding theologian have been Domingo Llanque (Vida y Teologia Andina, Cusco: CBC and IDEA, 2004) and Eleazar Lopez {Teologia India, Antologia, Cochabamba: Verbo Divino, 2000); and a comprehensive work by Nicanor Sarmiento (Caminos de la Teologia India, Cochabamba: Verbo Divino, 2000). My essay is grounded on what was experienced and discussed during the IV Latinamerican meeting (held in Paraguay, 2002); its concern has been myth and Utopia, and how Christian communities dialogue with indigenous forms of wisdom.
1

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modern. Christian institutions systematically assaulted Aboriginal religions (by treating them as animism, as unreal myth, as lacking revelation). An arrogant christian civilization has been blind and deaf to the Sacred present in our peoples. Today there is a growing acknowledgment of spiritual creativity among all peoples, and how this contributes to a multi-faceted human future. We appreciate different paths leading towards the Mystery of Life. This is an Indigenous paradigm. A Christian understanding of these paths asks about the foundations of plural cultures and religions. Are these paths due to the Spirit that reveals components of the Body of Christ? I am interested in a theological reading of these phenomena that affirms the multi-faceted human journey. I am also concerned about Indigenous religious pluralism having an impact on Latin American theology with its focus on liberation. This concern is difficult to handle within a framework where faith is seen in terms of Revelation, on one part, and religion is seen only as a natural behaviour, on another part. This places the newness of Christianity on one side, and religious experience on the other side. Liberation theology -from its beginnings- has merged spirituality with human responsibility and reflection. But the religious dimension has often been discriminated. Only recently are indigenous religious symbols and concepts being taken into account. Christianity took on the function of evaluating the "pagan" world. In some cases it only saw seeds of truth. Now we also acknowledge flowers and fruits of Truth. Each person may learn from what is put forward theologically by Aboriginal peoples. Thus, it seems good to reposition theology within Indigenous faith. Something similar may be said about theology among AfroAmericans and among "mestizo" peoples; and it may also be said about belief patterns and insights of women, of youth, and of various latinamerican communities. In what follows I wish to underline how indigenous myth and Utopia challenge and nurture theological discourse. Myth and Utopia In the Latin American context, what stands out is the power of money that supposedly provides happiness. This global fantasy affects each human culture. For example, Chilean population shows lack of confidence towards each other, and has an attitude of competition and of material success.2 Having in mind the See PNUD, Desarrollo humano en Chile, Santiago, PNDU, 2002, 393-331; a survey of 3600 people in 13 regions of the country. Question 120: "in general terms, may I trust other people?". Responses: 24% say yes; 73% say they can not trust other people; 2.3% do not respond. Question 107: "the world today is like a race". Responses: I try to win and be the best: 23%; I do not want to be left behind: 38%; I prefer to go at my
2

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modern context, what is the meaning of myth and Utopia among Indigenous people 7 Such meaning may be compared with contemporary myths (personal success, technological progress, etc), and it can also be understood from the point of view of our faith in Christ One has to try to understand meaning withm each culture, and develop a Christian discourse that does not distort Indigenous cultures In terms of theory, one may see the difference between myth (that interprets a reality) and Utopia (that points towards the future) In examining Latin American stones 3 one sees that they refer to what exists and also to what is desired In various ways, they cross over between what is lived and what is hoped for According to Margot Bremer, myths are like roots that renew the meaning of life 4 In Mayan forms 5 of explaining the beginning of everything, there is a symbiosis between Nature and Humanity, between past and future According to the thousand-year-old Pop Vuh, divine beings called Tepew and Q'uq'kumatz formed our first mother and father from yellow and white corn Today, Maya people say We are father-mother but at the same time we are k'ak'alab,' we are young grains of corn Children therefore represent new life and growth in the community and the people According to the Mapuche world view 6 (6), at the beginning of time a dangerous water-snake, Kai-Kai, is confronted by the mountain-snake, Tren-Tren, who saves people By means of a human sacrifice, water and mountain achieve a way of co-existence This symbolism is the underpinning of current Mapuche ritual Many myths show why there is evil and why there is a good life Daily bread, which is corn, goes away from the child who does not nourish its hungry

own rhythm 36 3%, no response 1 7% Question 104 "How would you like to be remembered9" Responses as committed to others and loved by them 18 4%, as moving ahead against all odds 23 4%, as living according to my own goals 24 1%, as doing my duty 32 5%, no response 1 5% 3 I will comment on stories from Mexico, Mayan populanon, Paraguay (Guarani people), Amazomc and also Andean peoples, and Mapuche s in Chile, that were read and dramatized during the IV Congress of indigenous theologies (held in 2002) Basic resources in the study of Mexican myths are Miguel Leon Portilla, Literaturas indigenas de Mexico, Mexico FCE, 1992, Enrique Florescano, Memona Mexicana, Mexico Joaquin Mortiz, 1987 For Andean mythology Jesus Lara Mitos, leyendas y cuentos de los quechuas, La Paz Amigos del Libro, 2003, Xavier Albo, Felix Layme, Literature Aymara, La Paz CIPCA, 1992 4 M Bremer, La Bibha y el Mundo Indigena, Asuncion CONAPI, 1998, 28 ("myths are like roots that give new meaning to one's life when one is at a boundary") 5 See Popol Vuh, Bogota FCE, 1952, and Tierra y Espirituahdad Maya, Guatemala Voces del Tiempo, 2000 See Rolf Foerster, Introduccion a la rehgiosidad Mapuche, Santiago Editorial Umversitana, 1993, 162-163

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mother (Ch'ol story) The bloodthirsty sun is transformed by faithful Xolotl, a dog that is happy and makes others happy From then on, the warmth of the sun caresses people, animals and plants (Nahuatl story) The beloved spouse that had died is revived by the smell of the flower of seven colors (Mixteco story) The serpent that devours children is sent away by an organized population that throws hot stones into its mouth (Raramun/Tarahumara story) The spirit of the earth punishes those who do not work making pots from the soil (K'iche' story by Catanna Ixcoteyac Joj) The god of the mountain gives carnations to the poor brother (who thus has food and cattle), while the rich brother remains empty-handed (Andean story) There are thus several ways of understanding cosmic and human dramas Each story has meaning within a specific symbolic universe, and they all face the very heart of the human enigma concerning evil, on one part, and the miracle of life, on another part Myths usually take into account violent realities, and also explain just and harmonious forms of living What is said about the beginning of everything allows us to deal with the present and the future It seems to me that indigenous stories about "origins" shed light on the interaction between malicious and benign forces All this helps us to question modern progress (often naively understood only as positive), and it also allows us to face evil (confronted through mythical narratives) that harms everyone Let us consider a Mayan tradition that is helpful to challenge violence that has fallen over Guatemala during several decades 7 The indigenous myths show the dreams of ancestors and how God has dreamt the earth given to humanity Moreover, war is considered to be God's nightmare War is confronted together with globalization, since it hurts Mother Earth In terms of hope, there is justice, reconciliation, organization, likewise there is hope because the dead look up to the sun, and they prepare a banquet for all These myths also have some elements that are a way of dreaming the future There is a Utopian conviction This is not something that happens all of a sudden, it springs from the beginnings, from the origin of things, it is shaped now and tomorrow In Paraguay and the surrounding guarani areas, there is a nomadic form of life, and its spirituality has the character of pilgrimage The guarani myth/utopia of the "Earth without evils" means that people are pilgrims, walk7

Guatemalas contribution to the IV Congress has presented 'myths of the origins of our Mother Earth, and we have collated them with the report, Recuperacion de la Memona Histonca (REMHI) " It underlines "the earth without evil that God wants for us" (page 1) They add "massacres and clandestine cemeteries meant that the most sacred of our culture was violated Our loved ones were denied the right to continue living even after their deaths, they denied them the right to rise again," (page 6) It is a sharp theological discourse social violence in Guatemala is confronted with mayan myth/utopia centered on corn

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ing and also traveling by rivers. The longing for fullness is found here in the Earth; this is like a beautiful body. There are economic interactions showing reciprocity, and forms of celebration where each person gives and receives. Today this shapes Guarani music, song and dance. There are few words; rather there is plenty of body movement and beautiful melodies; they represent the "Earth without evils." It may be said that such myth and Utopia becomes a paradigm, arising from our indigenous and dark America. It may also be said that such paradigm is useful for a humanity that today thirsts for viable dreams. Another major paradigm comes from Nahuatl people. It is now meaningful in all of Mexico and in areas of south and north America. We have a Mother; and in her roots she was named Tonantzin/Guadalupe. Mario Perez describes her arrival on the summit of the mountain called Xochitldlpan or "Land of flowers". It represents the land of nourishment, of flower/wisdom, of having an encounter with Life. In that place appeared the Nahuatl Divinity; she had a symbiotic relationship with belief in Mary, the Mother of God. Another significant story is that of a Mayan leader, Xnuc Mani. It speaks of a very long rope that unites various peoples. When this rope is cut, blood flows out so that it reaches all people. Each one of these narratives has its particular place in history, and its meanings in a particular symbolic system. Therefore such narratives are not well understood in universal terms. However, there are some common features, and I wish to underline the dream concerning a new reality. In this sense, let us go back to the link between mythic and ritual languages, and especially to celebrations of life. The Mapuchan Nguillatun ritual with its abundant sharing of food and drink and with its prayers in favor of Life is like a synthesis of the human journey and its projects for today and tomorrow. The Mexican festivals with dancers who make offerings to the Virgin has a meaning of people joyfully dancing with God. The Totonaca ritual to the spirit of the Earth, called Puchina, when building a house; they mean according to Magdalena Garcia- that "the houses of our people are intended to be transformed into small houses of God, to become an earth without evils...." Each daily event, like building a house or holding a festival, has a mythic and Utopian depth. Something similar happens today in social networks that are patiently constructed, and in events like the World Social Forum. Courageous hope is thus celebrated. Thousands of persons cry out: "Another world is possible!" This courageous attitude has an Indo-American background. Christian dialogue with Religions A deeper dialogue between liberation theology and Indigenous reality happens when their myths are taken into account. That is to say, our dialogue pays attention to the roots of the human, cosmic, spiritual condition; likewise attention is given to Utopias, to human projects, and to intimacy with God. There is no

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point looking at isolated religious facts or simply juxtaposing what is Christian and what is Indigenous. Nor is an uncritical and fundamentalist attitude helpful in the case of Indigenous peoples. Rather, what is important is that each person and culture in Latin America recover their roots and their projects of life. This includes a critique of evil, and in a positive way courageous action. In the case of the voracious serpent -the Raaramuri/Tarahumara storythe bearers of the myth said during the IV Congress of Indigenous Theologies that the snake represents the voracity of evil. By this they mean conquerors of the past, and the neo-liberal system of today. This system is strengthened at the price of devouring the wealth and memory of people, symbolized in the life of small people who are the guarantee of the future of Indigenous peoples. They add that sharing a festival turns the dream/utopia of the Tarahumara people into a reality, since everyone eats and drinks, all respect one another and help each other. God, Father and Mother, makes the people strong when they organize celebrations so that there may be unending life. These and other reflections by Indigenous Christians make the dialogue between religions possible, since dialogue begins from within the Indigenous-Christian context (and not from a superior Christian vantage point that is placed above a "natural" religion). Such an interaction enriches both sides. Thanks to the Raramuri myth, the Christian imagination is enriched with images of Father/Mother, the self-affirmation of peoples who are discriminated against, and an understanding of salvation in terms of social and joyful strength. With respect to the Guarani story about the Earth without evils, Bartolomeu Melia notes that such a non-Christian language in fact evangelizes us. He adds: The "Earth without evil" is the condition for being able to give and to be fulfilled in giving. Thus the Gospel of the gift of Grace is inculturated in a Guarani way. At the same time the work of Christ and His Spirit is brought into the Guarani world, into its specific history and into its relationship with the rest of humanity. When there is dialogue between religions, each side takes seriously what is brought by others. On the one hand, it is most important to understand feelings, tasks, ideas, beliefs of an Indigenous population. In the case of myths, one has to broach the dimensions of the story (the textual organization), the etiology (the function of myth in society and religion), the symbolism (spaces and energies), and the religiosity (manifestation of the holy and of God represented in the myth).8 On the other hand, we have a plural and rich tradition about Jesus Christ, in the four Gospels and other New Testament writings, that constitute the basic sources of faith, and the implications of being the church of Christ. Those sources offer a marvelous contribution to Indigenous peoples'
See J. Vidal, "Mito" and "Mitos modernos," in P. Poupard (director), Diccionario de las Religiones, Barcelona, Herder, 1987, 1205-1210, 1224-1226, and M. Eliade, Traite d'histoire des religions, Paris, 1968.

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journeys. Further down, in reference to myth and Utopia, I will comment on Creation and Eschatology. These doctrines form part of the experience of salvation offered by God to each people. Such a dialogue does not take place between religious structures that are unchangable. Rather persons who share a dialogue are different as persons and are involved in changes. These changes are a part of the movement toward the Land of Flowers. Fruitful encounters happen when all sides are searching, and do not pretend to become owners of the truth. At times Christianity tends to be motionless, and does not continue on its journey (as Paulo Suess pointed out during the IV Congress in Paraguay). It is in moving along a journey that we encounter Jesus and that we find ourselves among brothers and sisters. Peoples move ahead, in the midst of obstacles and threats, that come from outside and also from within the Indigenous context. As Eleazar Lopez explains, "Our suffering but strong hearts have been touched, and we have been renewed from within.... With God, Mother-Father, with Jesus Christ our Brother, and with the strength of the Spirit, we take up the task of continuing along the path toward the Earth without evils, a land of flowers, a land that flows with milk and honey and that makes possible a new world that is plural and worthy of all humanity." Thus, faith is both transcendent and concrete. Moreover, the IV Congress proclaimed the plurality of "languages, cultures, spiritualities and dreams" and in them the possibility of "solidarity among peoples, bringing together our beliefs in ecumenical celebrations that include our differences..., so as to continue weaving together our histories". In short: different paths blend and join hands, in a journey towards life given to us by God. In Indigenous reflection and ritual there are plenty of flowers. Strong Christian institutions (and their theologies) are confronted by weak and resistant Indigenous flowers. In Paraguay a person told us: "We are like flowers whose petals are being pulled off; it's like we were in autumn" (in the midst of globalization). External and internal threats surround us, and we are also threatened by a loss of identity especially among Indigenous youth. Nevertheless, inner energies are not eliminated. It seems to me that it is good for Christian organizations to dialogue with Indigenous religions, to caress their flowers and petals. Christian theologies can value flowers different from ours, and at the same time, we may offer our own. Together we can praise the True God. The Mexican delegation told us, "We are a bouquet of different flowers that are offered to God and that we share with our brothers and sisters in other places of the universe." Such sensibility characterizes a common journey, toward the Land of Flowers, being faithful to Tonantzin/Guadalupe, and following the footsteps of Nahuatl Juan Diego who received flowers from Mary. In other words, each Christian community can be part of the universal journey toward Yvymarae'ij (the guarani way of speaking about Earth without evil). For the sake of human well-being, we give witness to salvation in Christ.

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It is a salvation that the Spirit imprints on creation and humanity. It is not a human product. Rather, it's a question of something new and different from Indigenous cultures in themselves. However, this is not happening because of a Christian superiority that discriminates the Aboriginal. Quite to the contrary, the new love of Christ enters the heart of Aboriginal peoples who have cultivated many and beautiful flowers, and due to this spirituality peoples of this earth are open to being saved through Christ. Where is this process unfolding? Some say it happens within religions. Sacred Indigenous behavior would then be the path towards God. My point of view is that since religion has a symbolic nature, it has the ambivalence of any symbolic phenomenon. For example, the myth of the serpent who devours new-born children can be a sign of acceptance of fate, or it could also be (as in the interpretation given during the Congress in Paraguay) a way of refusing evil and surpassing it. It seems to me that the process of salvation happens in the midst of each concrete human journey. With respect to the fragile and resistant Indigenous population, there are very clear signs that Christ strengthens them and that His Spirit animates them in their search for the Land without Evil. Thus God acts with them and with all humanity. As it was said in Paraguay, Indigenous people share their flowers "with other corners of the universe." They give witness that Salvation is always concrete and universal, because of the Incarnation of God's universal Love. Furthermore, the very special flowers of Indigenous spirituality and wisdom contribute to and challenge the universal Church and its theologies. Directions in Indigenous Theologies In Latin America, theology of religious pluralism takes into account plural experiences of Aboriginal peoples, and their own forms of belief and theology. This implies that reflection focuses not only on religious dimensions but rather on the whole Indigenous human experience, with its spiritualities and theological constructs. So, when we speak about pluralism we may not neglect everyday life and theology (otherwise there would be one dimensional and discriminatory biases). Christianized Aboriginal peoples have carried out their inculturations of the faith. For that reason, theology arises out of those journeys of faith (in a plural sense, and not according to a unilateral Western understanding of "one faith"). Moreover, reflection done within Indigenous communities is meaningful primarily in their lives (and also on the experience of those of us who are not indigenous). People give greater importance to a joyful faith, and to a corporal and cosmic celebration. This is meaningful for persons of other cultures; and certainly for theological discourse that is intercultural. This fact deserves to be underlined; because if Indigenous reality is isolated it would be a way of

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killing it Moreover what is at stake is being human due to our roots - where Indigenous myths give their contribution - and in our common human potentials - where Indigenous Utopias strengthen all our journeys There is a widespread attitude of praise towards Indigenous people However it is often done as if they belonged to the past (and thus it is a denial of their meaning for today and tomorrow) I share the point of view of many who walk in the midst of Indigenous people They are utmostly important today as meaningful for a fully human and Christian future The Mexican delegation (in the IV Congress) put it this way the God of life calls us to seek the land that flows with milk and honey, the land of flowers, the land without evil It is God s dream and also our own dream We may reground our history when we are nourished by indigenous and mestizo world views May I also say something about Christian dimensions of creation and eschatology They are different (but also in tune with) Indigenous spirituality and wisdom These realities - authoctonous faith, Christianity - are not synonyms Rather they are different kinds of language, with characteristics that enrich each other due to dialogue The Bible speaks about salvation within creation, that is to say, when God saves He recreates all that exists Creation is loved by God, and it reveals the work of God As we all know sections of the Bible were written in terms of people who underwent persecution and exile In these contexts, there is an obvious concern for evil, and on creation that wishes to be liberated Let us move over to indigenous myths about the beginnings of reality, about the foundations of everything They allow us to contemplate with new eyes the creative presence of God, in the midst of the paradoxical human condition with its evils and conflicts An indigenous vision of reality is most aware of sacred beings withm reality The world is considered sacred, and it participates in God Therefore it is a spintual-cosmic-human vision, and not an anthropocentnc perspective On one side there is an accent on creation as being good, and on God's presence On another side there is an accute awareness about resolving evils and catastrophes, and about reaching Salvation I believe that Indigenous world views help us to appreciate once again the sacred and salvific dimensions within creation It helps us to avoid reducing reality to "objects", and to be suspicious of any "consumption" of reality It rather encourages us to interact with creation, and to realistically confront evil in the world (evil stands out in Native South American myths) Moreover, it allows us to go beyond scientific and technical absolutes, that pretend to explain and manipulate everything This problem of totalitarian explanations and actions have been introduced into modern forms of Christianity, they need to be confronted, they need to be resolved by means of a healthy relationship that Indigenous cultures have with the environment In terms of eschatology, biblical traditions are like hoping for the impossible and for what is beyond human eyes Due to the work of the Spirit,

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humanity participates in the mystery of the Resurrection (see Romans 4, 18; 8, 10-11.) Such a down to earth eschatology operates in the present and in the future. Hope is grounded on God, and is not due to human omnipotence. There is a new creation; there is a Passover of creation.9 Nevertheless, writings on eschatology have been concerned about individual salvation or condemnetion outside of this world. This is not the key dimension of christian eschatology. Today we are recovering down to earth hope. Indigenous Utopias do not make the individual a divine being, nor do they run away from time and history. Rather, these Utopian attitudes are relational. The present context includes what has been lived before as well as the human and cosmic future. This concentration of time (the "now" includes the past and the future) is expressed in ritual and in celebration where there are Utopian signs. The goal of an Earth without Evil is a collective and permanent search for a new reality. It is not the product of an omnipotent human being. In the framework of such a collective spiritual and cosmic goal, the modern Utopia of progress may be re-understood with proper roots and projects. It can be said that Indigenous Utopias and Christian eschatologies challenge each another. The former points towards a radical transformation, so that a population exhausted by misfortune might find the fullness of life. It thus may be linked to an incarnated eschatology, where life in its fullness is not displaced into another world nor does it foster dualism. On the other hand, our message of hope has Christ the Savior as its foundation; and it acknowledges salvation both as already present and also as not-yet fully realized. It is not something under the ownership of human beings, rather it comes from God who saves us from evil and sin. There is thus something radically new in the Love of God that transforms people, history, creation. It seems fitting to conclude that faith and wisdom of Aboriginal peoples make a contribution to latinamerican theologies. In the case of liberation theology, it pays more attention to creation alongside with eschatology, it fosters relations between human beings and the environment. Faith is inseparable from hope, and our understanding of the faith takes up again the problem of evil and its redemption. Furthermore, there is a rediscovery of the many images of God in creation, in the human condition, and in each historical journey. A plurality of religions brings with it a theological pluralism. Indigenous people use several names (or signs) for the sacred and for God. This moves us not to use theological unilateral absolutes when we speak about God, in order to be faithful to the
9

J. Ruiz de la Pefia, La pascua de la creation. Escatologia, BAC, Madrid, 2000, 30 and 118: "the World begins to be a 'new creation' by its transformation"; see also J. B. Libafio and M. C. Bingemer, Escatologia Cristiana, Paulinas, Madrid, 1985. For an indigenous spiritual understanding of the earth ("Pacha"), see Victor Bascope, Espiritualidad Originaria en el Pacha Andino, Cochabamba: Verbo Divino, 2006.

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Mystery with its rich manifestations. Another crucial issue is that eschatology as lived by suffering Indigenous peoples- does not support Western anthropological omnipotence; it is rather closer to a humble Indigenous coresponsibility with divine creation. Conclusion We acknowledge and are nourished by many kinds of mythical and Utopian languages among Indigenous South American peoples. These languages are most significant in a theological discourse. They explain the beginnings or foundations of reality, marked by evil, and they also show forth Utopias that mean concrete happiness. This is relevant for humanity today when it becomes critical of globalization; since global factors tend to be homogeneous, and to neglect differences. Such myths and Utopias are also relevant if they enter into dialogue with a plural Christian hope. Theologies of liberation in Latin America and in other parts of the world are benefited by questions raised by Indigenous reality, by their myths, Utopias, rituals, ethics. Thus, theological discourse is not reduced to its own realm, but it is rather concerned about all efforts towards a full life with its spiritual symbols. I have argued that Christian reflection is reformulated due to Indigenous spirituality and wisdom. Faith is the matrix of theology, above all the faith of common people (Luke 10, 21), and not only beliefs of those of us who hold certain responsibilities in the church community. We are all concerned about unfolding solidarity within today's world, and this goes hand in hand with the well-being of nature that is God's creation, and with the spiritual qualities of common people. In this sense, it is wholesome to underline the interaction between Indigenous communities and other cultural realities, and the connections between Indigenous theologies and other ways of giving an account of hope in Life.

Bibliography Albo, X. & Layme, F. (1992). Literatura Aymara. La Paz: CIPCA. Bascope, V. (2006). Espiritualidad Originaria en el Pacha Andino. Cochabamba: Verbo Divino. Bremer, M. (1998). La Biblia y elMundo Indigena. Asuncion: CONAPI. Eliade, M. (1968). Traite d'histoire des religions. Paris: Payot. Florescano, E. (1987). Memoria Mexicana. Mexico: Joaquin Mortiz. Foerster, R. (1993). Introduccion a la religiosidad Mapuche. Santiago: Editorial Universitaria.

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Garcia, Maria A. (et. al.) (2000). Tierra y Espiritualidad Maya, Guatemala: Voces del Tiempo.. Lara, J. (2003). Mitos, leyendas y cuentos de los quechus. La Paz: Amigos del Libro. Leon Portilla, M. (1992). Literaturas indigenas de Mexico. Mexico: FCE. Libaiio, J.B. & Bingemer, M.C. (1985). Escatologia Cristiana. Madrid: Paulinas. Llanque, D. (2004). Vida y Teologia Andina. Cusco: CBC and IDEA. Lopez, E. (2000). Teologia India, Antologia. Cochabamba: Verbo Divino. Popol Vuh. (1952). Bogota: FCE. Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo (PNUD). (2002). Desarrollo hutnano en Chile. Santiago: PNDU. Ruiz de la Pena, J. (2000). La pascua de la creacion. Escatologia. Madrid: BAC. Sarmiento, N. (2000). Caminos de la Teologia India. Cochabamba: Verbo Divino. Vidal, J. (1987). Mito. In: Poupard, P. (ed.). (1987). Diccionario de las Religiones. Barcelona:Herder. pp. 1205-1210. Vidal, J. (1987). Mitos modernos. In: Poupard, P. (ed.). (1987). Diccionario de las #e/j'gzons.Barcelona:Herder. pp. 1224-1226.

Chapter 3 Religious Pluralism and the Afro-American Religious Traditions

Antonio Aparecido da Silva Sao Paulo, Brazil

The effort to create a Christian theology of religious pluralism based on the religious context in Latin American necessarily has to take into account the Afro-religious reality of the continent. There are various religious expressions of African origin that still exist and have a vibrant presence among us. Candomble in Brazil, Voodoo in Haiti, Santeria en Cuba are major manifestations of the African religious heritage in America and the Carribean.* These betterknown expressions are multiplied in many other rituals, more or less common throughout almost all the countries and regions. Some religions, even though they are not originally African, are frequently identified as such for having taken up elements of African religions. This is the case, for example, of Umbanda in Brazil. Although it is a genuinely Brazilian religion, it is frequently categorized among the African religions. The truth is that Umbanda is a religion put together syncretically. When it first appeared at the beginning of the twentieth century in Brazil, Umbanda was projected as a religion of national consensus. Here we have a country marked by the tradition of European Catholicism, whose symbolic world was transformed through popular practices and through the Spiritism of Alan Kardec. It was spread from the Empire and degenerated in the Republic. This is also a country strongly marked by African religious traditions and by some of the Indigenous heritage. In this context then, a religious practice was found that could establish a consensus by integrating in a single religion the significant element of each of the streams. That is the way Umbanda came about. So, unlike Candomble, Santeria and Voodoo that are traditional religions both in time and format, Umbanda is a modern religion engaged in attending to the immediate needs of people. From Candomble it took the ritual structure, from Spiritism a relationship with the dead, from the Indigenous heritage the sacred figures and from Catholicism the most popular saints. In each geographic region in which Umbanda worship is practiced the characteristic of one of its component religions received special emphasis. In Minas Gerais, for example, the traces of popular Catholicism stand out in Umbanda, while in Rio de Janeiro and in Brasilia it is rather the traces of Spiritism. * [Tr.: For a brief explanation of these traditions, you might want to consult Wilkipedia on the internet.]

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In the Amazon, elements of the Indigenous traditions are emphasized, while in Bahia it is strongly marked by the elements of Candomble. Turning once again now to the three African religions which are the ones practiced most among us, that is to say, Candomble, Santena and Voodoo, certain aspects of our topic need to be clarified. The first is that until now, Christian theologies have not taken Afro-American religions seriously. In the recent past they were treated as sects or diabolical cults both by Catholics and Protestants. As such they were the object of attacks. Today they are respected by the Catholic Church and by the mainline Protestant Churches. However they continue to be threatened by fundamentalist Neo-Pentecostals, Catholics and Protestants. Thus, a Christian theology of religious pluralism will require an intense preparation of the field. Another aspect that presents a challenge is the fact that little dialogue has happened up till now between Christian theology (Catholic and Protestant) and the religious universe of the African religious traditions. As with these two questions, there are a variety of other issues that challenge us if we want to have a relationship that would permit a theological reflection that is of any interest for all sides. In this brief reflection we are going to focus on some questions that are pertinent to the theme and that, no doubt, are going to demand very special attention in the effort to create a Christian theology of religious pluralism. Christian Theology and Theology of the African Religious Heritages The subordination of Christian theology to the ecclesiastical magisterial has occasioned a closure that has not uncommonly formulated theology much more in the direction of doctrine than as a wisdom or science. At the very time that it became a closed body of knowledge, Christian theology legitimized itself and turned its attention away from other theological possibilities. Even today many people are puzzled when one speaks of the theology of Candomble, of Voodoo or of the African religious heritages. On the other hand, the claims of the theologies of these religions are authentic. Jacques Dupuis reminds us that "the personal self-revelation by God in the history of nations took a form that allows us to speak in theology of a true divine revelation"1 even in non-Christian contexts. Thus, the effort to develop a Christian theology of religious pluralism has as its principal task that of opening up a theological space for the other religions and in this case for the African-American religions, by recognizing their legitimacy. Among those of us who are Christian, it is a fact that, in the five hundred years of Latin America, the means of production were privatized and kept under the control of a few. The same thing happened with the symbolic propJ. Dupuis, "Hacia una teologia cristiana del pluralismo religioso," Sal Terrea, Santander, 2000.

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erty. Thus we can speak of a real privatization of the theology called Christian as a symbolic wealth. As a result there is a need to de-privatize it so that the inter-theological dialogue can be established. Christian theology of religious pluralism will either engage in dialogue or it will not be a theology of religious pluralism. Without an open dialogue it will be a false proposal. Nevertheless, even in our times, inter-theological dialogue is damaged and even rendered impossible by an asymmetric relationship between the theologies in question. There is no possibility for dialogue when Christian theology is considered "the theology" and the theology of the African heritages continues to be viewed as "merely absurd popular beliefs." At this point the question inevitably comes to mind: Who will be the subject of the theology of religious pluralism? In the current context, does a theologian have any autonomy in this venture? The tentative of Jacques Dupuis crashed against the strong arm of the ecclesiastical magisterium.2 Those were good times during the Council when Congar dared to speak of a theological magisterium. The necessary inter-theological dialogue, as a condition for the possibility of a theology of religious pluralism, should on the one hand set aside the pretension of framing the wisdom coming from Afro-American religions within rationalized and methodologically rigid models that predominate in Christian theology. On the other hand it should encourage the theologies of African heritage to develop systematically their rich and precious experiences by going beyond a kind of scattered spontaneity. No doubt the point of departure for both theologies is to work out the reality and the experiences of their communities in light of their faith. The community of the faithful (communitas fidelium) is the key point around which the reflection and systematization of theological reflections turns. In this case, for these theologies, theological systematization is only minimally a rational discourse about God and much more a sensitivity in face of the concrete experiences of God. Even today it has to be made clear that just as Christian theology brings together a variety of Catholic denominations (Roman, Orthodox), Protestants with various origins, Pentecostals and Neo-Pentecostals, the theology of the Afro-American religions or those with African heritage are characterized also by an internal pluralism. Candomble, Santeria and Voodoo are conglomerates of cults and peoples each with their singularities. On the other hand, just as it is possible in spite of the diversity to speak of Christian theology in the singular, so also the plurality that characterizes the theology of Afro-American religions is not an obstacle to being recognized as a unity. If the amalgam that permits a unity in Christian theology is the faith of the community in the God
2

"Notification regarding the book of Jacques Dupuis," L'Osservatore Romano, n. 10, 2001, 8-10.

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of Jesus Christ, the unifying act of the African traditions is the experienced centered in the God of Life mediated by AXE. As far as the methodological aspects go, both theologies have defined their epistemological presuppositions very clearly. Christian theology has its tentacles in Western philosophy. With rare exceptions its methodological approach always followed idealist rationalism. Some think that even liberation theology in spite of its revolutionary posture did not go beyond a leftist Hegelianism. The instrumental reason that presided over knowledge in modernity has also affected theological knowledge and conditioned it. The theology of African heritage is grounded in a conception of a world of relations that is truly analytical rather than dialectical. The human and the divine co-exist in the same space of time and location. It is a logic of the lack of logic. What logic is able to give an account of a reality where the human and the divine transform corporality into a vehicle that carries both? What logic explains the "State of Saint?" It is evident that the assumptions regarding knowledge in each of the two theological reflections do not follow the same paths. Still, any approach between them could map out a new way of knowing that would be able to explain the pluralist reality encompassing being human. The subjectivity that characterizes African wisdom places a check on the rationality that distinguishes the Western way of proceeding. In spite of all this, they are ignorant of each other. The Understanding of Salvation as a Challenge Christian theology of religious pluralism will necessarily have to face the question of salvation or the lack thereof in non-Christian contexts. In Christian theology the act of creation is one thing and redemption is another. Although both actions - creation and redemption - are presided over by God the Father, by the Son Jesus Christ and by the action of the Holy Spirit, they are differentiated in time and space. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in its notification to theologian Jacques Dupuis refers to the Council of Trent: "For the unity of the divine plan of salvation centred in Jesus Christ, it must also be held that the salvific action of the Word is accomplished in and through Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of the Father, as mediator of salvation for all humanity."3 This separation or differentiation is not brought out in the African religious understanding. It is possible that the question of salvation that is presented as a problem between Christian theology and the theology of Afro-American religious traditions is less a question of content than one of pedagogy. To affirm, according to Christian doctrine, that the creative act and the redemptive act are ac3

Notification, 2. See SEDOC, Volume 33, n. 286, May-June 2001, 614.

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tions of the Tnnity is perhaps the same as saying, as happens in the African religious traditions, that creation and salvation constitute a single act The fact is that, for the theology of the Afro-American traditions, the creative act is at the same time an act of salvation Olorum in Candomble, or the "Great Lord" in Voodoo, creates and saves women and men, or even the whole family as we see m some mythical representations Creation and salvation are processes The logic (analectic) that grounds African understanding allows such a process in which creation and salvation intersect one another God creates by saving and saves in creating and no other way This conviction means that, without prejudice to ethical concerns, the followers of Afro-American traditions need not be concerned about salvation It is already given by God m the act of creation That is to say, salvation is a gratuitous initiative of God who invites us to participate in the divine life So, the ethical engagement or the practice of good is not oriented above all to salvation but to balance, a good relationship with people and with nature, and fidelity to the divine The destiny of women and men is necessarily salvation Evil is not eternal Grace is eternal as is love and the good The positioning of Afro-American religions with regard to salvation means that what stands out so much in Christian religions, a real obsession with salvation to the point that it ends up being a trading piece or a negotiation with God, disappears within those religions Some Questions: Christology and Messianism Although they are not religions in which there is a messianic protagonist, the Afro-American religious traditions did not have major difficulties m taking up the Christological concept In Candomble, in Santerfa, as well as in Voodoo, Jesus Christ was integrated among the faithful without reserve and above all in the popular environment Even for a certain level of intellectuals among the new adherents to these religious traditions, Jesus Christ does not really constitute a problem The theology of the Afro-American traditions incorporated Jesus Christ into its framework without bias On the contrary' The special warmth for the figure of Jesus Christ in these traditions is not limited to the economy of salvation either because, as we have seen, this is not the preponderant element Jesus Christ is not equated purely and simply with the other divine manifestations expressed in the range of Orixds, for example Jesus Christ represents something new that is precisely the capacity to overcome the defeat experienced in the diaspora, above all through slavery It is, therefore, part of a new context with new challenges To accept the figure of Jesus Christ in the AfroA A Da Silva, "Jesucnsto, luz y libertador del pueblo afroamencano," 6Existe un pensar teologico negro7, Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 1998, 37
4

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American religious traditions is not only to realize a turn-about in the original African sensitivity, that is to say, in the assumptions of matrilineal cultures, but, and above all, it is a new perception forged by the diaspora. What is really happening is a re-creation of the practice and of the theology of the African traditions. It is quite certain then, that accepting Jesus Christ in Africa meant a break with African religious traditions, while in the diaspora Jesus Christ and the African religious traditions came together in a syncretic symbiosis. The problem of the Black community in the diaspora was not and is not with Jesus Christ but rather with the Churches. Nevertheless, even though Church orthodoxy has control of Christology, the spiritual theology of the African traditions in the diaspora understands it with absolute originality. They de-privatize the Christological concept of its rigid doctrinal framework and transform it into a popular devotion. Thus Christ, living, crucified, put to death and risen, is the Holy One of God, the Saint of the poor and of Blacks.... Chapels, churches and sanctuaries dedicated to a Jesus with many names abound: Bonfim, Lapa, of the miracles, etc. In the theology of the Afro-American religious traditions, a theology characterized by a new religious creation presenting new realities experienced by the Black community, Jesus Christ is actively present and his presence is of interest to people in a life marked by suffering and hope. In this context, it is false to ask, "Does the Christian character of the economy of salvation lead one to conclude that the members of the other religious traditions are saved through the mediation of Christ, in a way that is parallel to the religious tradition they follow and practice or even in spite of that religious tradition? (...) Or, on the contrary, should we affirm that they are saved within and through that tradition."5 Such questions have no meaning for African religious traditions. The recreated tradition has incorporated Jesus Christ for Blacks. He is the divinity active here and now in the midst of the people and the salvation he reveals is a gratuitous gift of God. The deep bond between African religious traditions and the Christological concept, analyzed from the optic of the theology of the AfroAmerican heritages, can suggest new avenues for the theology of religious pluralism. Just as the Christological question requires an open dialogue, a similar approach will be proposed for the messianic question. In the African religious traditions there are no personified messianic figures. What could in that context be taken to be a messianic concept is in reality a force that arises out of the community. For this reason, the community is messianic.6 The way of understanding messianic action from the standpoint of the community - as is also the case for salvation - exempts the African religions from any desire for proselytizing and leaves them decidedly open to ecumenical and in5 6

Dupuis, op. cit., 421-422. Cf. Silva, op. cit.. 48.

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ter-religious dialogue Without a doubt, a personified messiamsm constitutes a big challenge for the theology of religious pluralism Ultimately, to be a Muslim is to be of Mohammed, to be Christian is to be of Jesus Christ and a similar approach is present in Judaism Moreover, the Council of Trent itself repeats, "It must firmly be believed that Jesus Christ, Son of God made man, crucified and risen, is the unique and universal mediator of salvation for all humanity " 7 This polarization concerning messianic figures creates enormous difficulties and limits inter-religious relationships The desire for a profound dialogue between these religions always turns around the deep value attached to its messianic figures They are religions of exclusion, that is to say "outside of them there is no salvation " The African religions, on the contrary, are inclusive, that is to say they allow faith to live in a plurality of forms as for example is the case with the double membership Church/Inculturation: Difficulities If Blacks have no problems with Jesus Christ, the same cannot be said about the Christian Churches The models and the practices of the Churches do not fit in well with African religious customs The difficulties were softened through the interaction between devotion to the Saints and to Orixas Baptised from the moment they arrived at our doors, it was really complicated for Blacks to understand why, among the members of the same Church, some were free and others were slaves The impediment of access to the other sacraments was another point that caused difficulties for Blacks Coming from an open and inclusive religious culture, it was difficult for Blacks to understand the prohibitions by the Churches to multiple religious membership In the face of this, the only option was syncretism The social and economic dimensions of worship and religious feasts also caused difficulties for Blacks In their African origins, religious feasts had as their finality above all the elimination of financial accumulation In the feast, excess wealth was given an outlet and in this way a balance or equality between people and family clans was restored So then, through the religious feasts the economic and social equilibrium was maintained Thus the religious feast is grounded m three basic points praise of the Saint, community engagement and thanksgiving Everybody celebrates and eats Nobody pays Everything is free The feasts in the Churches including the popular ones are just the opposite of the African religious traditions, They are marked by accumulation The objective of the feast is to gather funds The people who have property provide the supplies and acquire the products Quite often in the lotteries run by the Churches even slaves were supplied The supplier described in detail the
7

SEDOC,op

cit,613

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"piece" being offered as "a Black man or woman from Angola or even a couple or a pair of Blacks." The initial or final bid was often made by the landowner, who was considered "very Catholic" and a "benefactor" and who was seated beside the priest during the Mass. Certainly the ambiguous practice of the Churches confused the Blacks. On one hand the Church preached the Gospel values of freedom and on the other hand it was itself part of the slave system. We referred earlier to African religious syncretism. Without going into details about the term, one needs to keep in mind that the syncretic practice of the Black population had two well defined meanings. The repression of the African religious traditions led the Blacks to turn to syncretism as a way of masking, that is to say, maintaining underneath the Saints of popular Catholicism the figures of Orixds. Nevertheless, there is another dimension. With their characteristic way of being inclusive in religion, Blacks amalgamated the elements of two religions universes and worked out an eminently inculturated practice. It wasn't just a case of "masking" a reality but of expressing it on the basis of the genius proper to African cultures. This happened not only with Black men and women coming from nagd/Yoruba through Candomble but also among those of Bantu origin through the feasts of the congadas (dramatic dances in which the coronation of a king of Congo was represented.), through reisados (popular dramatic dances for the eve of the Epiphany) and through the Marian and Christological devotions. The symbiosis between African religious traditions and popular Catholicism, above all, raises some questions that continue to be asked about Christian theology of religious pluralism. A theology with those objectives ought to be able to cast light, without prejudice, on certain realities which have up till now continued to be little known or relegated to the sidelines by a lack of symmetry between the respective worships and the consequences of these realities. Take for example the relationship between the mystery of the Eucharist in Christian Churches and the "State of Saint" in the celebrations of Candomble. Both practices give evidence to moments of total relation between the human and the divine. In the Eucharist, bread is the material that mediates the relationship; in Candomble the mediation happens in the very body of the person. Seen from the point of view of the practice of religious pluralism it is necessary that, at least, one gives the same value to the "State-of-Saint" as to the Eucharist. In that way both moments would be taken to be "sacraments." How can one harmonize such situations? These are things that a (Christian) theology of religious pluralism ought to shed light on in order to do justice to its proposal, at least in what refers to African religious traditions.

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Concluding Faced with the framework presented by the African-American religious traditions, various questions arise as challenges for a Christian theology of religious pluralism. These challenges comprise an uncertainty as to whether we should really talk of a Christian theology of religious pluralism - one that already poses an obstacle - or whether we should simply speak of a theology of religious pluralism. Whatever the choice, it is not a question of just working on the specific questions that arise but also of considering them as a whole, that is to say, rethinking the theological question in a substantial and structural way. No doubt, this is a difficult task but a necessary one if we are to move forward with inter-religious dialogue itself and through it move toward a closer approach among people and among nations. Certainly, humanity hopes that religions contribute to the construction of that other world that we claim is possible.

Bibliography Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (2001). Notification 2. In: SEDOC, Volume 33, n. 286, May-June 2001. p. 614. Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (2001). Notification regarding the book of Jacques Dupuis (2001). In: L'Osservatore Romano. 10(2001). pp. 810. Da Silva, A.A. (1998). Jesucristo, luz y libertador del pueblo afroamericano. In: Da Silva, A.A. (1998). lExiste un pensar teologico negro? Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Dupuis, J. (2000). Hacia una teologia cristiana del pluralismo religioso. Santander: Sal Terrea.

Chapter 4 The Challenge of Religious Pluralism for Latin American Theology

Faustino Teixeira Juis de Fora, Brazil

Introduction At the beginning of this twenty-first century, religious pluralism is one of the most basic challenges for theology. It requires a new paradigm, one that calls theology to fundamentally review its hermeneutics.1 This unparalleled consciousness of religious pluralism stimulates a "new way of doing theology," contextualized now in a reality that is marked by an inter-religious dynamic. The theology of religions is now understood as an "inter-religious hermeneutical theology."2 At the root of this theology of religious pluralism3 is the practice of inter-religious dialogue. It is a theology that tries to respond to and to interpret on a theoretical level the current reality of religious pluralism. However, it is well known that there is no universal theology of religious pluralism since all theological reflection implies adherence to a specific faith. The path proposed here falls within the horizon of Christian theological reflection although it is always open to the broader global perspective. To the extent that this kind of reflection is permanently inspired by a spirit of dialogue, it entails a real sympathy and empathy for the universe of otherness. The practice of a Christian theology of religious pluralism requires a dynamic that welcomes difference and that presupposes a keen awareness of contingency and vulnerability. The great challenge of inter-religious dialogue lies in an unconditional recognition of the irreducible and irrevocable character of the other interlocutor with whom the search for mutual knowledge and reciprocal enrichment is established. In order to set itself up under the title of religious pluralism, this new theological reflection has to deal with the challenge of going beyond a way of thinking that only recognises de facto pluralism and needs to move toward a grasp of pluralism in principle. In this latter direction, theology recognises and

C. Geffre, Croire et interpreter: le tournant hermeneutique de la theologie, Cerf, Pa ris, 2001, 9. J. Dupuis, Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2002, 11. 3 Today this is the more precise term for dealing with the topic although traditionally the more common term was theology of religions. In this essay both terms are used; the second is applied above all to explain the history of this theological reflection.

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affirms the wealth and meaning that the plurality of religions accomplishes in the mysterious divine plan for humanity In this sense, religious pluralism is welcomed positively since it expresses "all the richness of the infinite and many-faceted wisdom of God " 4 Before human beings even set out in search of the mystery of God, that same mystery had already embraced them in its infinite mercy The reality of this religious pluralism thus has "its primary foundation in the abundant wealth and variety of God's revelation of himself to humanity The divine initiative of self-communication 'on many occasions and in many ways' and its 'reception' and codification in various traditions is at the origin of the plurality of religions " 5 Recognition of and openness to pluralism in principle will not happen without resistance and difficulties Above all at this point when identities are being sharpened and ethnocentnsm is being radicalized, countless obstacles are placed in the way of a theological effort to think about religious pluralism in a richer and more open way The reality of diversified pluralism provokes a crisis in the structures of credibility that try to assure the nomos of unique identities and of communities of meaning Its impact on belief systems leads to intellectual and affective insecurity to the extent that it breaks the barriers of territorial protection and invites us to extend borders A distrust of relativity and the loss of substance in religious contents set in motion a desire for more security, stability and grounding This then provokes defensive and/or offensive reactions against the universe of otherness In taking up the question of religious pluralism in a classic work of the sociology of religion, Peter Berger showed how the pluralist situation gave rise not only to the "era of ecumenism," but also to the "era of rediscoveries of confessional heritages " 6 In trying to face the insecurity aroused by pluralism and as well the related fear of relativity, there is in some cases a tendency to concentrate on confessional differences as a guarantee for maintaining a threatened identity This kind of preoccupation appears strongly in the declaration Dominus Jesus of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith 7 The distinction established in the declaration between theological faith or beliefs (DJ, 7) and Pontifical Commission for Inter-Religious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation, n 41 J Dupuis and P Berryman, // cristianesimo , op cit, 469 Asian theologians were pioneers in this recognition of pluralism in principle In a beautiful document in 1969 the bishops of India said, "Other religions are not walls to attack or to demolish They constitute a dwelling place of the Spirit that we have not yet visited They are receptacles of the Word of God that we have chosen to ignore " F A Machado, "Diventare un'autentica chiesa locale fare teologia nell'Asia del Sud," en Vanos, Teologia delle rehgioni bilancie prospettive, Paohne, Milano, 2001, 169 P Berger, The Sacred Canopy Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion, Dou bleday, Garden City, 1967, 148 The document is available in English on the Vatican Web Site (www Vatican va)

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the negation of religious pluralism in principle (DJ, 4) fits in perfectly with this logic of a defense of identity 8 In another sense, the path of dialogue proposed by the theology of religious pluralism implies recognition not only of the genuine difference that marks different religious traditions, but also of their richness as truly precious realities This otherness has to be honored in its very specific quality To honor otherness is to be able to recognize the value and the credibility of a religious pluralism as a nght or principle This challenge was pursued energetically by the theology of religious pluralism and now has proven to be a fruitful path that enlarges the perspectives of liberation theology Liberation Theology and Religious Pluralism Liberation theology began around 1968 m the search for a double fidelity to the God of life and to the Latin American people It was born as a new way of doing theology understood as a "critical reflection on historic praxis m the light of the Word " The decisive attention of this theology is directed to the historic future of humanity situated in the perspective of salvation There is a break with the idea of two histories, one sacred and the other profane running parallel to one another The accent is placed rather on the unity of a single history brought to term in Christ According to liberation theology, the saving action of God is present in the whole course of history and works toward greater human dignity The reflective dynamic of liberation theology is illumined by the perspective of the poor and their liberation If every human being is a "living temple of God," it is through encounter and engagement with each of them and with their historic future that the encounter with God becomes a reality 10 Even more decisive is the encounter with the poor and with the oppressed since they are privileged in the Reign of God In the view of liberation theology, growth of the Reign of God happens through a liberating histoncal process This does not mean that the process exhausts the whole reality of God's Reign, which is above all a gift'' According to the declaration Dominus Jesus, theological faith consists in "acceptance of the truth revealed by the One and Triune God ' Belief in other religions then represents "religious experience still in search of absolute truth and still lacking assent to God who reveals himself" (DJ7) This is a distinction that confirms adherence to a theology of completion that seeks to draw a clear line of demarcation between Christianity and the other religions 9 G Gutierrez, Teologia de hberacion, Perspecttvas, edicwnes Sigueme, Slamanca, 1987, 38 10 Ibid. 162 J Sobnno, "Jesus Christ Liberator A Historical-Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth," Editorial Trotta, Madrid, 1993, 171 Liberation theology takes very sen8

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As you can see, liberation theology gives a very important place to history as the place where the mystery of God is revealed as also to the poor as the privileged subject to which that action is addressed There is no way to deny the presence of the world of the other in liberation theology 12 However, this other is localized in the figure of the poor, of the oppressed and of the exploited classes A more resolute openness to the question of other religious traditions did not attract the immediate interest of liberation theology above all during the first two decades of its appearance In his doctoral thesis in 1969, Leonardo Boff treated the theme in one chapter of The Church as Sacrament and the Religions of the Earth 13 Based on the reflection of H R Schlette, Boff underlines the salvific meaning of world religions as "ordinary paths" for God and recognizes the presence of grace in specific religions He recognizes religions as a histonc-salvific phenomenon and points out the importance of pluralism in religions It is a pluralism seen not as an expression of confusion or of failure but as a sign "of the richness of human beings, of their experiences and of their interpretations of reality, all of which includes religion as a response of human beings to the saving initiative of God Thus religions are ordinary paths of salvation toward God grounded in the general history of sacramental salva tion " 14 Boff's reflection on this occasion is still marked by a certain Churchcentered perspective There is recognition of general sacramentahty in religions but a special sacramentahty is also identified that renders the experience of grace something more determinate m Israel and in Christianity For Boff, Christianity represents "in a more perfect way the glory of God and God's gift of self to human beings through the grandeur, victory and rule over the history of non-salvation and, at the same time, in the self-abasement and power to suffer and die shown by Jesus of Nazareth " 15

ously the essential historical dimension of the Reign of God This means that it does not relegate its realization to the end of history, even though only at the end will its fullness be clarified Rather it insists on its current actuality in the historical present 12 G Guttierez A forga histonca dos pobres Vozes, Petropohs, 1981, 69 13 L Boff, Die Kirche als Sakrament lm Honzont der Welterfahrung, Verlag Bomfacius Druckerei, Paderborn, 1972 The chapter cited here is being published in the journal Numen of the post-graduate program in religious sciences of the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF) with a post-script by the author himself u Ibid, 10 15 Ibid, 9 This perspective returns, although in a more qualified way, in other books of the author Idem "The grace that steeps the world, achieves in Jesus Christ and in his community (the Church) its densest sacramental expression" Liberating Grace, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1976, 121 "The Church constitutes an intellectual elite, with a deeper awareness of the reality of salvation present in the world that affects everyone," Teologia do cativeiro e da hbertacao, Voces, Petropohs, 1976, 209 In the post scnpt, written in 2000 to the chapter of his doctoral thesis, Boff recognizes that his theological vision at that time was still "held hostage to the Catholic perspective," that is to say

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Influenced by the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), liberation theology accentuated the understanding of Church as sacrament and sign As sacrament of salvation in the world, the Church is invited to live in profound fidelity to the Gospel, pointing out in history the fundamental values of the Reign of God and of the dream of Jesus for a society that is more just, fraternal and united in solidarity In liberation theology there is a view of "decentralization" of the Church that no longer presents it as the exclusive locus of salvation The entire ecclesial dynamic is fundamentally pointed toward the Reign of God and is oriented toward a commitment with human beings, in particular with the poor The Church is situated thus in the larger horizon of the work of salvation 16 While recognizing that this position opens up a new way of understanding the Church, a Church-centered dynamic still continues and should be noticed in specific texts of liberation theologians This could be taken as an existential experience of faith that is celebrated in a given community but that cannot be universalized as a standardized experience In the context of the current situation of religious pluralism it becomes complicated for example to continue using terminology that practically identifies the Church as the culminating point of the realization of the Reign of God n In taking a look back at liberation theology during these last three decades, one can see how much attention was directed preferentially to the question ot the poor and their liberation Under the influence of this specific perspective, they tried to remain faithful to the paths already traveled even when theological reflection pointed to a need to open new horizons for liberation theology There was considerable resistance to embarking on these new paths and violence was done some topics, reducing them in one way or another to the question of the poor This was the impression given, at first, by the attempt to revitalize the "option for the poor" by adding the problem of Blacks, of Original peoples and Women, or even more explicitly, by not recognizing the rele-

a vision that "starts from the position, as an undisputed fact, that the Church alone has the fullness of the means of salvation For that reason she represents an unsurpassed and unsurpassable culmination of God's design " Boff questions to what extent this vision contains an element of ecclesial narcissism, that is to say of a Church that "only sees itself in others " In reality, he concludes, "It does not recognize otherness as other " 16 G Gutierrez, Liberation Theology, op at, 189-204 - Chapter 10 17 See for example Boff s reflection on the degrees of being Church in Comumdade ecclesial comumdade politico, Vozes, Petropohs, 1978, 56 According to Boff a significant deepening of the Reign of God is required if the Church is really to deserve being called Church a mature and full Church even if it is not complete and perfect, given that it always conditioned by the eschatological dimension Still, this mature Church, he says, is "equipped with the fullness of the means of salvation " Ibidem, 56

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vance of additional perspectives that were seen to be unconnected with liberation, like modernity, culture or religions 18 There was one specific difficulty in the field of relationship with religions The authors who addressed the topic of popular religion in liberation theology recognized that a more decisive effort was lacking in this area, not only with respect to the ecumenical question, but above all in the area of dialogue with the alternative religious world of the continent 19 This does not mean that the theme of religion had not been in the repertory of liberation theology but rather that reflection on the topic tried always to underline its ambivalent aspects Explicitly or often in a more qualified way, it tried to contrast popular religiosity with a liberating faith There are very evident examples of this in the pioneers of liberation theology 20 A similar tendency occurred in the preoccupation about recovering the liberating fragments of popular religiosity and the exercise of "purifying it" from its "alienating" or "oppressive" elements 21 This was a perspective that had a direct incidence in documents of the Latin American Bishops and of other local churches In the Document of Puebla, the Latin American Bishops insisted For lack of attention by pastoral workers and because of other complex factors, the religion of the people, in some cases, shows signs of being worn out or deformed Aberrant substitutes and regressive syncretisms
22

appear Grounded in theological reflection from that period, the prevailing position in this field always put the accent on the need for welcoming the liberating elements in popular religiosity This was a position that was still kept hostage by a limited opening in its view of religious otherness Perhaps the question merits a deeper theological treatment Theological difficulties with religion are old but Carlos Palacio, "Tnnta anos de teologia na America Latina," in L C Susin (coordinator), O mar se abnu, Sao Paulo, Loyola/SOTER, 2000, 63 D Irarrazaval, "Vertientes teologicas actuales Balance desde abajo, adentro, adelante," in L C Susin (coordinator), O mar se abnu, 101 For Irarrazaval theology has an "ecclesial debt" with respect to the faith of the people He underlines that "liberation theology has rarely taken seriously the complex and marvelous religious trajectory of our peoples," idem, "Religioes do povo e sua teologia," in L C Susin, (coord ), Sarga ardente, Sao Paulo, Pauhnas/SOTER, 2000, 384 John Sobnno recognizes that this topic appears in his essay only in a fragmentary way, See J Sobnno, "Teologia desde la reahdad," in L C Susin (coord ), O mar se abnu op cit, 169 A Piens, El rostro asiatico de Cnsto, Sigueme, Salamanca, 1991, 100 J B Libanio, Teologia da hbertacao roteiro didatico para um estudo, Loyola, Sao Paulo, 1987, 279 " /// Conferencia General del Episcopado Latino-Americano La evangelizacion en el presente y en el futuro de America Latina Puebla, 1979, n 452

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it's worth pointing to one important moment as a reference point on this question, namely the influence of Karl Barth who established decisively the opposition between religion and revelation Through the agency of Jean Damelou this opposition penetrated the Catholic sector giving rise to what came to be called the theology of completion (or of fulfillment) Perhaps we can note a difficulty certain authors of liberation theology had in perceiving the positive side of religions, a kind of legacy from that distinction that was made and is still made When the declaration Dominus Jesus firmly established the distinction between theological faith and belief, it was making that legacy clear and proclaiming its difficulty with recognizing the value of revelation in other religious experiences But liberation theologians also showed a similar difficulty by maintaining the distinction between the experience of faith (theology) and experience of the sacred (religion) While the former points to the movement of God toward human beings, the second expresses how human beings move toward God 23 As you can see, the challenge of how to live the experience of Church in a Latin America with many religions continues to be an open-ended task It was above all beginning of the 1990s that liberation theology tried to respond in a more adequate way to the challenge of welcoming diversity The first to take up this topic were authors who were working on the indigenous question and the theme of inculturation Important names like Diego Irarrazaval, Paulo Suess, Xavier Albo, Bartolomeu Melia, among others, were pioneers in affirming the uniqueness of the Original peoples as other as well as the specific quality of their experience of God and the special attention needed for the treatment of this question in liberation theology A space was then opened for the perception of the specific nature of ethnicity that cannot be reduced to the question of social class, that is to say, to the grasp of other levels of social oppression In line with reflections on the indigenous question, other theologians introduced the question of inculturation into Latin American theological reflection Along the same line opened by the theologians who worked those questions, there is the contribution made by theologians and pastoral workers who developed the theology of African religions in Brazil24 The decisive thrust came, nevertheless, from developments in spirituality of liberation Through reflection and above all through the practice of this spirituality, a decisive climate was created for openness and welcome to diversity, for a sensitivity to gratuity and for a greater receptivity to the gift of God One expression of this new moment was the First Encounter of the Assembly of the People of God in Quito (Ecuador) in 1992 In this important Assembly J B Libamo, "Rehgiao e teologia da hbertacao," in L C Susin (coordinator), Sarga ardiente, op cit, 81-85 24 For more details, see F Teixeira, "A interpelacao do dialogo inter-religioso para a teologia," in L C Susin (coordinator), Sarga ardente, Paulmas/SOTER, Sao Paulo, 2000, 421 429

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the idea of "macro-ecumenism" was established It was a new term meant to express a new consciousness of an ecumenism marked by the universality of the people of God The people of God are many peoples It is a new ecumenism prepared to "embrace with many arms and many hearts, the one supreme God " 25 Also worth noting is the presence of open and focused experiences and reflections on macro-ecumenism in Brazil today These are experience and reflections that are operative in authors like Pedro Casaldahga and Marcelo Barros 2 6 Taking advantage of the publication of a new edition of his book, A Theology of Liberation, Gustavo Gutierrez wrote a long prologue in which he evaluated the contribution of liberation theology In his opinion, the itinerary of this theology in recent years has been enriched by a broadening of perspective He underlines in particular the importance of the dialogue established with other theologies that have helped to broaden Gutierrez points to religious pluralism and to inter-religious dialogue as one of the fundamental contemporary challenges for liberation theology For him, it is at this point a "decisive question for Christian faith," a challenge that is delicate, complex, new and demanding 21 The Reception of Religious Pluralism in the Theology of Religions The theology of religions or of religious pluralism constitutes a new field for reflection and its epistemological status is gradually being defined It is a phenomenon that is typical of a plural modernity that provokes a crisis in "closed structures" and invites "open systems of knowledge " 28 The originality of this theological dynamic only began to be sketched out during the 20th century "Manifesto do I Encontro da Asambleia do Povo do Deus," in F Teixeira, O dialogo inter-rehgioso como affirmacao da vida, Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 1997, 150 P Casaldahga, "O macroecumemsmo e a proclamacao do Deus da vida," in F Teixeira, O dialogo inter-rehgioso como qffirmado da vida, op at, 31-38 P Casaldahga - J M Vigil, Espirituahdade do hberacao, Petropohs, Vozes 1993 192f, M Barros, O sonho da paz, Vozes, Petropohs, 1996 In Brazil today one of the most innovative experiences in this field is associated with the name of Marcelo Barros It is an experience of macro-ecumenism lived and celebrated in the Monastery of the Annunciation of Goias (GO) G Gutierrez, "Situacion y tareas de la teologfa de la liberacion," in L C Susin (coord ), Sarqa ardente, Pauhnas/SOTER, Sao Paulo, 2000, 55 57 For Gutierrez, theology must deal with this topic, understanding it to be a sign of the times and searching to discern "in the light of faith, the new hermeneutic field it provides for reflecting on faith and speaking of God who has something to say to the people of our time " Ibid, 52 P Berger, Rumor of Angels, Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural, Anchor Books, 1970, 45

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when Christian theology accepted a unique relationship with other religions. Influenced by the religious sciences that offered valuable elements for a more objective analysis of religions, Chnstian theology could look more positively at its relationship with other religions The specific approach of a theology of religions led to a search for an understanding of the meaning of religious pluralism in the plan of God for humanity Paul Tilhch (1886-1965) and Karl Rahner (1904-1984) deserve special note among the pioneers who staked out the decisive boundaries for beginning a more positive Christian reflection on religions In a climate that was still strongly marked by the presence of the theology of Karl Barth and his pessimistic attitude toward religions, Paul Tilhch, above all in the final years of his life, began a reflection in Protestant circles that was much more positive on this issue During an important trip to Japan, Paul Tilhch began to develop a creative theological work on the question of Christianity and the encounter with world religions This work began around 1961 In a book on the meaning of the history of religions for systematic theology,29 Tilhch questions the Barthian understanding ot religion that ends up in a split between true religion (vera rehgw) and false religions (rehgwnes falsae) For Barth, only Christianity has an authentic experience of revelation The other religions only represent a human attempt that is not suitable for reaching God Reacting to this position, Tilhch points out that "the experience of revelation is universally human" and that the dynamic of revelation and salvation is part of all religions 30 In another text on dialogue between Christians and Buddhists, Tilhch takes up the argument again, bolstering the idea that dialogue between religions can only really happen when the beliefs of the other are valued and it is recognized that their conviction is "grounded in an experience of revelation "31 In Catholic circles it was Karl Rahner who broke through the limitations of a narrow reflection on the relationship between Christianity and other religions Taking a substantially different approach to that of the theology of completion defended by theologians like Danielou and Henri de Lubac, Karl Rahner showed that other religions do not just reveal elements of a natural belief in God but that they bear within themselves "substantial supernatural features of the grace given by God to human beings in Jesus Christ "32 In the

P Tilhch, The Future of Religions, Harper & Row, 1966, 80-94 Ibid, 81 31 P Tilhch, Christianity and the Encounter of World Religions, Minneapolis Fortress Press, 1994, 62 32 K Rahner, "Cnstianesimo e religiom non cnstiane," in Saggi di antropologia sop tranaturah, Paolme, Roma, 1975, 545 The thesis proposed by Rahner reappears in the decree Ad Gentes, no 9, of the Second Vatican Council "Whatever good is found to be sown in the hearts and minds of men, or in the rites and cultures peculiar to various
30

29

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space opened up by this renewal the first systematic efforts to pose the question of a theology of religions took place This is what happened in the case of the book of Hemz Robert Schlette, Toward a Theology of Religions, originally published in 1963 33 Theology of religions, still in its infancy, would follow a path marked by a broad range of perspectives In general, there was a tendency to synthesize these approaches in three major categories exclusivity, inclusivity and pluralism, although this terminology would be resisted by certain authors It is not germane to go into greater detail here about any of them since this has been done extensively in other works on the topic 34 What is important is to try to grasp the movement that opened theological reflection to religious pluralism The most decisive stimulus came from the pluralist views of John Hick and Paul Knitter among others They reacted above all to mclusivist theologians who, while recognizing spiritual values in other religions, continued to assert, often implicitly, the ultimate superiority of Christianity For the inclusivists, salvation is always Christian salvation wherever it happens Summarizing the pluralist position, Hick indicates that its uniqueness lies in recognition of the "validity of all the great world faiths as authentic contexts of salvation/liberation, not as secretly dependent upon the cross of Christ " 35 Without ignoring all the complexity that surrounds the topic, a group of Catholic theologians are trying to respond positively to the challenge that the diversity of religions poses for Christianity today without radically breaking with inclusivity, and while accepting the fruitful interchange of pluralism Though still lacking definition, these theologians express their lack of satisfaction with the way the topic is being treated both as Christ-centered inclusivity and as God-centered pluralism Among the most representative authors in this new approach are Jacques Dupuis, Christian Duquoc, Claude Geffre, Edward Schillebeeckx, Andres Torres Queiruga, Joseph A Di-Noia, John B Cob,

peoples, is not lost More than that, it is healed, ennobled and perfected for the glory of God " The author introduces into the reflection a distinction between religions as legitimate, ordinary paths to salvation and the Church as an extraordinary path to salvation This thesis encountered strong resistance in the sessions of the Second Vatican Council and was substantially reversed in the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii nuntiandi of Paul VI See EN, n 80 34 For a sintesis, see F Teixeira, Teologia das religwes, Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 1995 35 J Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate, John Knox Press, Westminster, 1993, 88 and he continues "Those of us who advocate this pluralist position do so because it seems to us to be more realistic than the older alternatives For we see taking place within each of the great traditions at their best and to more or less the same limited extent, the salvific transformation of human life " Ibid

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David Tracy, Michael von Bruck ( among Europeans and North-Americans) as well as Michael Amaladoss, Raimundo Panikkar, Aloysius Piens, Felix Wilfred (among those from India)37 This new model of theological reflection on religious pluralism has a range of labels There is "open mclusivity," "mutual inclusivity," "reciprocal mclusivity", "receptive mclusivity," "inclusive pluralism" and so on In general, they share the same conviction about the value of pluralism in principle and about the irreducible and irrevocable quality of religious traditions The challenge for dialogue presented by the acceptance of pluralism in principle shows up in innumerable authors of the theology of religions One can see that this theme is expressed more vibrantly where the Christian tradition is an intellectual minority as in India Asian theologians were pioneers in this reflection and their influence has been felt in the documents of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) Among Indian theologians, Raimundo Panikkar was been one of the pioneers in this positive evaluation of religious pluralism He has long defended pluralism by right For Panikkar the wealth of human experience cannot be understood by denying the reality of diversity For him, "pluralism is one of the most enriching experiences that human consciousness can receive" since it encourages an attitude that stresses welcoming contingency 38 In the field of the Catholic magistenum, the first moves toward openness in this direction occurred in reflections published by the FABC, founded in 1970 In the First Plenary Assembly of the FABC that took place in Taiwan in April, 1974, the Asian bishops already underlined the positive value of other religious traditions in the divine plan of salvation in so far as they convey a "heritage of religious experiences " This tendency of openness was confirmed in later documents by the same federation and its associated organizations A continuing preoccupation of the FABC toward openness to religious pluralism
A good presentation of the current twists and turns in the theology of religions can be found in Monique Aebischer-Crettol, Vers une cecwnenisme interrehgieux jalons pour une theologie chretienne du plurahsme rehgieux, Cerf, Pans, 2001, esp 317-629 37 The resistance put up by Asian theologians to the Western characterization of the theology of religions needs to be stressed They object to the classification of the theology of religions as exclusivist, mclusivist and pluralist For them this categorization is simplistic and reductionist See for example the criticism provided by A Piens, Liberacwn, inculturacion, dialogo rehgioso un nuevo paradigma desde Asia, Verbo Divino, Estella, 2001, 259 For theologians from India in particular, the mclusivist categorization that tends to connect the salvific value of religions with implicit faith in Jesus Christ does not have a large acceptance because it does not correspond to the real lived experience of the believers in other traditions See George Gispert-Sauch, "La teologia Indiana dopo ll Vaticano II," Rassegna di teologia, v 42, n 1, 2001, 24 R Panikkar, Entre Dieu et le cosmos, A Michel, Pans, 1998, 166 See also, Sobre el dialogo intercultural, Salamanca, Editorial San Esteban, 1990, 17-94

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stands out as does the connection of that pluralism with the history of salvation It speaks of "receptive pluralism," indicating in this way an mterrelational dynamic and a complementarity that operates between religions in the one plan of salvation For the Asian magistenum, the variety of cultures and religions is seen as "a manifestation of the infinite richness of the God of all human beings," who throughout history has covered the manifold journey of peoples with attention and care Drawing on this same sensitivity, a brief document on the Church and other religions of the then Secretariat for NonChnstians (DM-1984) introduced this position of a broad openness to the reality of religious pluralism into the highest official circles putting in relief a recognition of the universal immanence of God in the world Liberation Theology and Theology of Religions: Specific Differences and Convergences One of the most important challenges offered by the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) was the establishment of a major program and dialogue between liberation theology and the theology of religions In fact, while liberation theology was more centered on the question of the poor, of suffering and injustice, theology of religions sought to respond to the challenge of religious pluralism In the first ten years of its existence, this theological association was more under the influence of liberation theology One needs to remember also that liberation theologians had a broad influence on many theologians of religions The new generation of theologians in India who have marked the development of reflection on religious pluralism has been deeply influenced both by Vatican II and also liberation theology These theologians "welcomed with particular interest the new models of theological thinking and pastoral practice coming out of Latin America Immediately after the Council, Gustavo Gutierrez became a familiar name and his foundational text on liberation theology (1971) met with an avid welcome "39 During the 1980s, there was a new development m EATWOT that included a more decisive presence of the thinking of Asian theologians and their preoccupation with the question of religious pluralism, inculturation and dialogue among religions Liberation theology was enriched by this new presence To-

G Gispert-Sauch, "La teologia Indiana dopo ll Vaticano II," art cit ,11 For a more detailed study of the journey of theology in India, see Jose Kuttianimattathil, Practice and Theology of Interrehgious Dialogue A Critical Study of the Indian Christian at tempts since Vatican II, Kristu Jyoty Publications, Bangalore, 1995 (This is a doctoral thesis defended at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome) A similar influence occurred between other theologians of religions like Paul Knitter 'Liberation theology became for me not just a 'new method,' but a matter of making sense of religion and of being a faithful disciple of Jesus " Idem, One Earth, Many Religions op cit 9

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day the uniquely specific accents that mark Asian, Latin American and African theologies are more clearly seen and also a closed and rigid compartmentalization of its challenges is questioned40 What has become apparent in recent years is the urgent necessity for a larger interaction between liberation theology and the theology of religions As Paul Knitter well stresses, The liberation theologians are realizing that economic, political, and especially nuclear liberation is too big a job for any one nation, or culture, or religion A crosscultural, mterrehgious sharing of liberation theory and praxis is needed And theologians of religions are recognizing that a dialogue among religions that does not promote the welfare of all humanity is not a religious dialogue 41 He was throwing out a double challenge on the one hand, the importance of enlarging the regional boundaries of liberation theology and of involving the liberation movement in other regions, on the other hand, the importance of keeping the option for the impoverished and excluded in the forefront of a theology of religions and thus taking seriously the question of poverty and of oppression42 There is no way of denying the originality and richness that drives reflection in these two theologies They are extremely creative and invigorating articulations that stand out in contemporary theological thinking and that seek to respond to one of the questions that currently challenges the Churches and religions most the painful reality of so many poor, the wealth of the multi-faceted cultural dynamic and the diversity of religions Perhaps the deepest convergence that links liberation theology with Christian theology of religions is a shared passion for the widest scope of God's Reign These theologies are untiring in their affirmation of hope in and their struggle for an approach centered on the Reign of God The hermeneutic key for the universal presence of the Mystery in all creation and history is at work in the position of pluralism in principle The ecclesial mission does not lose its position but is redefined through the indicator of an approach centered
As Gustavo Gutierrez pointed out, "The temptation to classify needs to be avoided This consists in sharing out such challenges to the various continents modernity to the Western world, poverty to Latin America and to Africa, and religious pluralism to Asia," i n L C Susin (coordinator), Sarca ardente, op cit, 77 41 P Knitter, "Catholic Theology at a Crossroads," Concilium 203, no 1, 1986, 104 42 Knitter points out that just as liberation theology cannot relativize the attention given to the global cultural and religious context, so the theology of religions, in turn, must be attentive to the common and human experience of suffering as a "kairos hermeneutic for inter religious encounter," One Earth, Many Religions Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1995, 97-117 and 54-72 See also, "Toward a Liberation Theology of Rehgions," in H Hick and P Knitter, The Myth of Christian Uniqueness Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1987, 178200

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on the Reign of God. Witness continues to be an essential element but is always understood in the dynamic of an "interchange of gifts." Christians have no reason to hide from others their experience of encounter with the Lord, the joy of this "mystery of love." The desire to share this encounter with others should nevertheless be motivated by the same love. Authentic witness has no place when based on an obligation or "mandate." A witness that is grounded in this way provokes rather a crisis and discredits the Church itself. The fundamental element is not that of trying to bring about a change of religion but rather a change of outlook on life: from a self-centered life to one centered on the mystery of God. This is the very deep conversion that sets us all on a path toward the mystery of God. The path followed by important sectors of the theology of religions was not that of exclusion of the unique reference to Jesus Christ but rather a questioning of a "Christ-centeredness" that is not Christian," and that ends up absolutizing Christianity.43 The "experience of Jesus," the living presence of his "mystery" that had such an impact on his first disciples continues today to speak to human beings of an alternative perspective on affirming life. George Soares Prabhu, a theologian from India who died quite young, worked in a remarkable way on the importance of the experience and meaning of Jesus for Christians in India, a work that is substantially valid also for Latin America. His concern is focused on the meaning of Jesus and not on the "structure of his being," on the "mystery of Jesus" and not on the "mechanisms" used to explain that mystery. Traditional Christology ended up concentrating on those mechanisms and "drowned" and "dulled" the mystery that gives life. An understanding of Jesus that emerges as a challenge for the Third World open to dialogue must be inspired by the dialectic of the Jesus of faith and the cry for life: Jesus is a saving name for the Absolute Mystery as it is experienced by us. But the inexhaustible Absolute Mystery has, as Hinduism teaches, a thousand saving names.... All these names speak to us of the incredible richness of the religious experience of humankind, which throws up forms of religiosity as abundantly as the flowers of a forest. To fight about the superiority of one or the other of these would seem neither practical nor wise. Indeed the problem of the uniqueness of Christ as discussed in theology today seems to me an academic problem with little significance.... In Asia at least, it is God (not Christ) who will always remain at the center. That is why perhaps Asians have produced no notable Christologies but many 'theologies.' The true 'uniqueness' of Christ is the uniqueness of the way of solidarity and struggle (a way that is neither male nor female), that Jesus showed as A. Gesche, "O cristianismo e as outras religioes," in F. Teixeira, Didlogo de pdssaros, Paulinas Sao Paulo, 1993, 56-57.

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the way to life We 'follow' Jesus along this way because we have experienced the Absolute Mystery in him and have realized that his way is indeed the way of life We invite others to walk along with us and share the experience we have had without affirming that this is the only way or the best one ^ One outstanding challenge is the demand for a more decisive acceptance of the inter-religious system of symbols for the Reign of God understood as "a mystery that invites a profound relationship between all religions without binding itself exclusively to any of them "45 In accepting this system of symbols, the reality and value of otherness is also accepted This turns each tradition into a mystery of incommensurability that cannot be reduced in its deepest meaning The mystery of difference is present in the whole inter-personal dynamic As the poet Lya Luft pointed out, there is a "space of silence that cannot be overcome even in the deepest intimacy of love "4 It is a silence of incommensurability that preserves equally the uniqueness of each religious tradition The presence and the recognition of this enigma is nevertheless not an obstacle to the challenge of a dynamic of dialogue The other is someone who is unique, mysterious but who equally invites encounter and becomes available for the apprenticeship of difference This common passion for the Reign of God that evokes an exercise of otherness is also convocation to a radical dynamic of compassion that seeks the affirmation of life and justice for all The theologian Johann B Metz, speaking on behalf of an "ecumenism of compassion," expressed well the reason for the existence of theological discourse when he said, "Discourse about God can only be universal, that is to say it can only have meaning for all human beings, if it incorporates at its core a discourse about a God who is sensitive to the suffering of others "47

Bibliography Aebischer-Crettol, M (2001) Vers une oecumenisme interrehgieux jalons pour une theologie chretienne du plurahsme rehgieux Pans Cerf
George M Soares-Prabhu, "The Jesus of Faith," in The Dharma of Jesus, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2003, 96-97 45 M M Quatra Regno di Dio y misswne della Chiesa nel contesto asiatico uno studio sui documenti della FABC (1970-1985) Doctoral thesis in missiology, Faculty of Missiology, Pontifical Gregorian University, Roma 1998, 325 46 L Luft, Mar dentro, 3 ed , Sao Paulo, ARX, 2002, 30 47 J B Metz, "La compasion Un programa universal del cnstianismo en la epoca del plurahsmo cultural y rehgioso," Revista Latinamericana de teologia, 19/55, 2002, 27

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Barros, M. (1996). 0 sonho dapaz. Petropolis: Vozes. Berger, P. (1967). The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. Garden City: Doubleday. Berger, P. (1970). Rumor of Angels. Modern Society and the Rediscovery of the Supernatural. New York: Anchor Books. Boff, L. (1972). Die Kirche als Sakrament im Horizont der Welterfahrung. Paderborn: Verlag Bonifacius-Druckerei Boff, L. (1976). Liberating Grace. Maryknoll: Orbis. Boff, L. (1976). Teologia do cativeiro e da libertagao. Petropolis: Vozes. Boff, L. (1978). Comunidade ecclesial comunidade politica. Petropolis: Vozes. Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1993). Espiritualidade do liberacdo. Petropolis: Vozes. Casaldaliga, P. (1997). O macroecumenismo e a proclamacao do Deus da vida. In: Teixeira, F. (1997). O didlogo inter-religioso como qffirmacao da vida. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Dupuis, J. (2002). Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue, [transl. from Italian by P. Berryman]. Maryknoll: Orbis. Geffre, C. (2001). Croire et interpreter: le tournant hermeneutique de la theologie. Paris: Cerf. Gesche, A. (1993). O cristianismo e as outras religiSes. In: Teixeira, F. (1993). Didlogo de pdssaros. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Gispert-Sauch, G. (2001). La teologia Indiana dopo il Vaticano II. In: Rassegna di teologia. v. 42, 1 (2001). Gutierrez, G. (1987). Teologia de liberacion. Perspectivas. ediciones Sigueme. Slamanca. Gutierrez, G. (2000). Situacion y tareas de la teologia de la liberacion. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). Sarca ardente. Teologia na America Latina: prospectivas. Sao Paulo: Soter/Paulinas. Guttierez, G. (1981). Aforga historica dos pobres. Petropolis: Vozes. Hick, J. (1993). The Metaphor of God Incarnate. Westminster: John Knox Press. Ill Conferencia General del Episcopado Latino-Americano (1979). La evangelizacion en el presente y en elfuturo de America Latina. Puebla. Irarrazaval, D. (2000). Religioes do povo e sua teologia. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). O mar se abriu. Sao Paulo: Loyola/SOTER. Irarrazaval, D. (2000). Vertientes teologicas actuales. Balance desde abajo, adentro, adelante. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). O mar se abriu. Sao Paulo: Loyola/SOTER. Knitter, P. (1986). Catholic Theology at a Crossroads. In: Concilium 203(19861). Knitter, P. (1987). Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions. In: Hick, H. & Knitter, P. (1987). The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions. Maryknoll: Orbis.

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Knitter, P. (1995). One Earth, Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility. Maryknoll: Orbis. Kuttianimattathil, J. (1995). Practice and Theology of Interreligious Dialogue: A Critical Study of the Indian Christian attempts since Vatican II. Bangalore: Kristu Jyoty Publications. Libanio, J.B. (1987). Teologia da libertagao: roteiro diddtico para um estudo. Sao Paulo: Loyola. Libanio, J.B. (2000). Religiao e teologia da libertacao. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). Sarca ardente. Teologia na America Latina: prospectivas. Sao Paulo: Soter/Paulinas Luft, L. (2002). Mardentro. 3 ed. Sao Paulo: ARX. Machado, F.A. (2001). Diventare un'autentica chiesa locale: fare teologia nell'Asia del Sud. In: Varios (2001). Teologia delle religioni bilancie prospettive. Milano: Paoline Metz, J.B. (2002). La compasion: Un programa universal del cristianismo en la epoca del pluralismo cultural y religiose In: Revista Latinamericana de teologia 19/55 (2002). p. 27. Palacio, C. (2000). Trinta anos de teologia na America Latina. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). O mar se abriu. Sao Paulo: Loyola/SOTER. Panikkar, R. (1990). Sobre el didlogo intercultural. Salamanca: Editorial San Esteban. Panikkar, R. (1998). Entre Dieu et le cosmos. Paris: A. Michel. Paul VI (1975). Evangelii nuntiandi. Apostolic Exhortation. Pieris, A. (1991). El rostro asidtico de Cristo. Salamanca: Sigueme. Pieris, A. (2001). Liberacion, inculturacion, didlogo religioso: un nuevo paradigma desde Asia. Estella: Verbo Divino. Pontifical Commission for Inter-Religious Dialogue (1991). Dialogue and Proclamation, n. 41. Quatra, M. M. (1998). Regno di Dio y missione della Chiesa nel contesto asiatico: uno studio sui documenti della FABC (1970-1985). Roma: Pontifical Gregorian University. [Doctoral thesis in missiology]. Rahner, K. (1975). Cristianesimo e religioni non cristiane. In: Rahner, K. (1975). Saggi di antropologia soptranaturali. Roma: Paoline. Soares-Prabhu, George M. (2003). The Jesus of Faith. In: The Dharma of Jesus. Maryknoll: Orbis. Sobrino, J. (1993). Jesus Christ Liberator: A Historical-Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth. Madrid: Editorial Trotta. Sobrino, J. (2000). Teologia desde la realidad. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). O mar se abriu. Sao Paulo: Loyola/SOTER. Teixeira, F. (1995). Teologia das religioes. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Teixeira, F. (1997). O didlogo inter-religioso como affirmacao da vida. Sao Paulo: Paulinas.

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Teixeira, F. (2000). A interpelacao do dialogo inter-religioso para a teologia. In: Susin, L.C. (ed.). (2000). Sarga ardente. Teologia na America Latina: prospectivas. Sao Paulo: Soter/Paulinas. Tillich, P. (1966). The Future of Religions. London: Harper & Row. Tillich, P. (1994). Christianity and the Encounter of World Religions. Minneapolis: Fortress Press.

Chapter 5 Spirituality of Religious Pluralism: an Emerging Spiritual Experience

Jose Maria Vigil Panama

Religious pluralism, inter-religious dialogue and pluralist theology are now "fashionable topics." For some time now there are countless publications and dialogues on these themes. It is no longer possible to explain today's global situation of religion without paying special attention to this "new consciousness" that has rapidly spread throughout the world. And as John Hick says, it is a very recent awareness that has emerged entirely within the span of the current generation.1 It arrived only yesterday and already it is all over the world. Everything seems to indicate that "it has come to stay." And what do these new "states of consciousness" that arise and spread unexpectedly throughout the world convey? There is no doubt a "new spiritual experience." The broad theological currents, the large movements or cultural transformations do not normally happen in response to something dreamed up by an ingenious thinker. They correspond rather to new spiritual experiences2 which humanity, or some sector of it, feels is right. Behind those phenomena is the Spirit, encouraging, directing, and pressing them forward. And the more alert human spirits sense that presence in the wind and unfold their sails to let themselves be led. Today we are living with this new spiritual experience. There is a new Spirit circling round us, challenging us almost daily in a multitude of gestures, reflections and new practices. We are in a moment of transformation. Historically, we are passing from a Christ-centered approach to one that is pluralist. There is fear, resistance and at the same time an attraction, a clarity and even evidence that lowly but surely asserts itself. It is a "kairos," a moment with an important shift of tone that is going to bring very deep changes: a new epoch to follow 19 centuries of exclusivism and barely one of Christ-centeredness. It is very important then to be attentive to this kairos. We have to track the spirit that animates it in order to discern it and to provide support for it. And that is what this brief text wants to do. It is intended to be a simple attempt God has Many Names, Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1980, 7: "In Western Christianity this pluralistic consciousness has only emerged during the lifetime of people now living..." L. Boff, De la espiritualidad de la Liberation, a la prdctica de la liberation, in BONNIN, Eduardo (org.), Espiritualidad y Liberation en America Latina, San Jose de Costa Rica, DEI, 1982,49.

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to grasp and to systematize that Spirit or "spirituality of Religious Pluralism" that is growing among us. What, then, are its more important characteristics? Let me describe the principle elements. A pluralism of principle versus the old de facto pluralism In the experience of the ordinary believer other religions never existed. In the first place this was so because they were outside his reach and secondly because, if they succeeded in being noticed, they were considered as something negative. God's will had been revealed to us, an offer of salvation that laid out a path for us to God: "our" religion. It just happened that other people were confused by religious superstitions that for them took the place of the only true religion: ours. This way of seeing things happened in all religions. They all considered themselves "the religion," the only one, the true one as opposed to the others that were the "false religions," that were human creations, "beliefs," superstitions or even perhaps diabolical cults. The plurality of religions was thus a sad fact, a negative reality. It was a pluralism that happened "in fact," but it was not the will of God, it was not "pluralism by right." Well then, that is what has changed. A new spirit has spread throughout the world. Human beings now have another perception. They look at religions with a different sensitivity. Like cultures, religions are part of the most precious capital of people. In some way they constitute their identity and so it cannot be a bad thing to have many religions. It no longer appears acceptable to think that there is one good and true religion and that all the rest are evil and false. No, "all religions are true,"3 because God loves all people. God created each and every people, with their identity, their religion and their culture; each is a work of God's hands, a unique sparkle in God's rainbow of colors. Believers now see religious pluralism not as a sad fact but as the positive will of God, not any more as de facto pluralism, as a deplorable situation, but as a pluralism desired by God, that is to say a pluralism by right, by "divine right." Theology calls it "pluralism in principle." This implies a radical change of attitude regarding the plurality of religions. Now we see an attitude that is positive, reverent, respectful, that sees in religions a work of God. This also means a change in the image itself that we have of God. Before, we believed in a God who had chosen one people and had disengaged from the rest. Now we recognise a more universal, less private image of God, one that is not reduced or attached to one people, but that is rather in relationship with all peoples.

Cfr Jose Maria Vigil, Theology of Religious Pluralism, Berlin - Miinster - Hamburg - London : LIT Verlag 2008, chapter 15.

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A major lack of confidence in attitudes of privilege or exclusivity There is a growing perception in current world consciousness that attitudes of "religious exclusivity" are not viable or justified Increasingly, the majority of modern religious faithful from all religions see, by a kind of sixth sense and without knowing how to explain why with arguments, that their own religion cannot be "the only true one " In other words, the old exclusivity that said "outside our religion there is no salvation" is no longer accepted This change means also a change as much m the image we have of our own religion as in that of God him/her-self We no longer think that our religion is the only true one and we no longer see God as "ours," but rather as that of all peoples and all religions The rejection of exclusivity that became common in the middle of the past century has, today, been extended in the theological field also to mclusivlty More and more believers see that inclusivity is still a kind of exclusivity, one that is tempered and less imposing but in the end still exclusivity As Hans Kung said about the inclusivity theory of "anonymous Christians" proposed by Rahner, it is a very educated way of conquering and subduing someone through an embrace Inclusivity, which is still the official position, has its days numbered in face of the irruption of this spirituality of religious pluralism In the same way, another category that is beginning to be rejected is that of "election " This is a category that is indeed biblical, rooted in the First (Old) Testament and taken as its own by the New Testament It includes the "choice" of Abraham, the "chosen" People, etc Even just a few years ago the well-known Biblicist Gerhard Lohfmk offered a brilliant justification of the reasons why "God needs His own people" and argued theologically that "concretely this people is Israel " 4 A whole "constellation of major arguments - the appropriate place, the right moment and an acceptable people" - pointed to the profound suitability of the choice of Israel by God, a choice that "is like an anticipation of the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God in that people " 5 Torres Queiruga, one of the theologians who has stood out most in his dedication to the theme of religious pluralism, seems to us to take note of a significant evolution Ten years ago he still attempted to provide a theological justification for the concept of choice but m the most recent text we are aware of he proposes simply and entirely to abandon the category of selection6 Yet it
Does God Need the Church ? Toward a Theology of the People of God, Michael Glazier Books, 1999 The original was published in 1998 Braucht Gott die Kirche7 5 Ibid, 56 For John Hick (The Metaphor of God Incarnate, Westminster, John Knox Press, 1993) it is precisely the incarnation that is the key piece that explains the feeling of superiority held by Christianity 6 El dialogo de las rehgiones, en Vatwano II Como lo imaginan 17 cnstianos y cnstianas, Barcelona, Herder, 2001
4

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is not the theologians who are going to discover the inadequacy of this concept. Rather it is the new emerging spirituality of religious pluralism that will lead us to recognize that inadequacy. The theologians are those who adequately express what everyone in some way perceives deep within. A great opening to complementarity and to inter-religiosity Many legal prohibitions still regulate the participation of Christians in celebrations of other Christian denominations, for example, and even more in the case of non-Christian religions. The official norms of the Catholic Church still prohibit "communion" in the worship of other groups or to have "sacred books" other than the Bible read in our own worship. However this pertains to the world of institutional religions. The world of mutual religious influences7 is much more varied and uncontrollable; it is not possible to close off the field. "What person, Christian or not, who is seriously concerned about religion and its repercussion on the world, has not felt at some point the urgency of enriching the experience of his or her tradition with the contributions of others? Even more, for many of us is not today's experience already, in fact, much more enriched than one ordinarily thinks by contact with other traditions? Think simply of the growing influence of Eastern spirituality on our way of praying or of welcoming the presence of God in our lives. Personally I will never adequately express my gratitude for the contact I had with the Indian Jesuit - Hindu Jesuit? - Anthony de Melo. The way his words were received - along with all that similar spiritual literature - shows that we have here a phenomenon that goes beyond individual taste."8 Religions meet one another now not just in religious books that cross borders but also in the street, in the media of communication, in the stairways of apartment buildings, in marriages, through immigration, everywhere. Today, by the way society is plural and inter-religious as never before, "authentic religion necessarily implies a relationship with other religions, and for specific individuals being religious is being inter-religious."9 Already we all recognise that the light of God is not shut up inside any one religion. By the very fact that they are human and cultural, no one of them can contain in itself all the richness of God. In religions outside it other sparks

Afonso Soares, Interfaces da Revelacao. Presupostos parauma teologia do sincretis mo religioso no Brasil, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 2003. 8 A. Torres Queiruga, El didlogo de las religiones, Sal Terrae, 1992, 30. J. DUPUIS, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1997,11.

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of the light of God can be found that it has not itself captured in the same way or with the same intensity So, from a more specialized theological perspective, one can say that the Christian doctrine of the Trinity needs a little of the Islamic insistence on the unity of God, that the impersonal emptiness of Buddhism needs the Christian experience of the divine "Thou," that the propheticpractical contents of Judeo-Chnstianity are complemented in a healthy way by the Eastern accent on contemplation and the gratuity of action l0 This is not a question of pleading for a confused eclecticism nor is it a loss of identity It is rather a matter of not feeling oneself imprisoned by those rigid borders of lack of knowledge and of mutual excommunications Today more and more religious people are going to be so inter-religiously ] ' A New Missionary Spirit One of the most sensitive points of Christianity that is shaken by the irruption of this new pluralist spirit is that of mission It makes sense To take Christianity as an example, for 19 centuries mission was grounded in an exclusivist position "Outside the Church there is no salvation " For large periods in the history of the Church it was thought that "no-one outside the Catholic Church would enter eternal life This included not only pagans but also Jews, heretics and schismatics They would go to the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels "12 Saint Francis Xavier went to the East Indies filled with a missionary zeal grounded in the conviction that all those who would die without knowing Jesus Christ would not attain salvation Just 50 years ago Pius XII spoke of those billions of human beings who "dwell in darkness and the shadow of death" as Psalm 107 says - a psalm that the missionary encyclicals13 applied in a classical way to the "pagans "14 Even today there are authors who continue speaking quite naturally of today's "pagans" without any recourse to metaphor i5

P Knitter, No Other Name ?, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2000, 221 ' P Knitter, Introducing Theologies of Religions, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2002, xi 12 DS 870 {Unam Sanctam), DS 1351 (Council of Florence) Pius IX held this clearly as a dogma, affirmed and reaffirmed l e F A Sullivan, Salvation Outside the Church Tracing the History of the Catholic Response, New York, Paulist Press, 1992, 66 13 Evangelu Praecones, 227', 30 years before we have Benedict XV in his Maximum Illud, 1 14 In the Protestant World, just 40 years ago the Congress on World Mission in Chicago declared, "In the years since the war, more than one billion souls have passed into eternity and more than half of these went to the torment of hell fire without even hearing of Jesus Christ, who He was, or why He died on the cross of Calvary " See the acts published by J O Percy, Eerdmans, 1961, 9 5 J A Saves, for example, in Cnstiamsmo y rehgiones, Madrid, San Pablo, 2001
1

1U

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When a religion goes beyond exclusivity - as is the case with Christianity today - all those motivations for mission that were founded on exclusivity fall at the same time. And when inclusivity also goes through a crisis, then the renewed mission that was founded on it enters into crisis. Today the mission continues to have meaning but only a mission based on a pluralist perspective. The mission is not going to bring salvation to a place that was a sort of "soteriological vacuum," a void in salvation, because such a place does not exist. As was said in the celebrated phrase from liberation theology: "The first missionary always arrives late: The Trinity has always came earlier."16 The mission is not going to bring salvation as if salvation could not come without its presence or as if it were not already there from the beginning17. The mission today cannot have as its primary objective - as it practically always did - implanting a Church. Besides, Jesus himself never had the goal of founding a Church or of spreading one through a missionary effort.18 Jesus' purpose was quite different. Mission makes sense, yes, but a different sense. In the context of pluralist theology and spirituality, mission is centered on God (Theo-centric), on the God of the Reign and on Reign of God19. Mission is a drive toward other peoples and religions in order to share with them - mutually - the religious quest. It serves to teach and also to learn, to proclaim our good news and to hear the varieties of good news that certainly others also have to offer us, without an a priori thought that others should abandon their religion and adopt ours in order to deepen their encounter with God. Today we sense rather that conversion, understood as a change of religion, is not necessary. In principle, others have to encounter God through the path that God has placed before them. The conversion that needs to happen is different. It is the conversion to God, to the God of the Reign and to the Reign of God. It is the same conversion that is imperative also for us. We do not want the other to stop being Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu but rather to be a better Buddhist, Muslim or Hindu. Conversion understood as a change of religion is not excluded when either of the two sides feels that they can better move forward toward religious fullness by the other path. But this would not be the normal way or normative for mission. Certainly mission, as dialogue, will not L. Boff, 500 anos de evangelizacao, Petropolis, Vozes, 1992. Casaldaliga - Vigil, Espiritualidad de la liberation, Santander, Sal Terrae, 1992, 242-243. 18 Today, for example, there is a general agreement among exegetes that the canonical conclusion of Mark's Gospel (16, 9-20) did not constitute part of the Gospel written by the evangelist. See Giuseppe Barbalio and Rinaldo Fabris, Os Evangelhos (I), Sao Paulo, Loyola, 1990, 620-621. Faustino Teoxeira, Teologia das religioes. Uma visao panordmica, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1995, 224ss.
17

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be complete until we announce Jesus Christ on our side just as it would not be complete until the array of religious good news that the other side has for us were also announced.
20

This new experience of mission involves many more nuances but what has been said is enough for us to understand that this new spirit of religious pluralism involves in fact a real shake-up for mission. It is a transformation which will strengthen and renew the mission. Reinterpreting Christology For years now the fundamental debate for theology of salvation has not been around ecclesiology but rather Christology. What is the role of Christ in salvation? Evidently it is an extremely sensitive point because of the absolutely central and "absolutely absolutized" role that has characterized the theologicaldogmatic construction surrounding the figure of Christ. On various fronts, the new spirit of religious pluralism is producing a thaw in the rigid and absolutized postures to which we have become accustomed. In the first place, the specific texts in the Second (New) Testament that constitute the exegetical basis of dogmatic Christology are being examined again. Briefly, these are texts that are set in a language that is one of praise, confession and even of liturgy and devotion. The authors were not trying to do theology or philosophy or, much less, dogma. Hick says it graphically, "poetry was taken as prose and metaphor as metaphysics." In addition there is the question of history: What role have those dogmas played in the history of Christianity; what attitudes have they legitimized?22 Today's judgment of the history of Christianity is quite severe. Its invasions, wars, crusades, conquests, colonisations, neo-colonisations and imperialisms were almost always accompanied by a Church presence that globally legitimized them as well as an evangelization and missionary action that complemented on the spiritual plane what was done in the field of politics and economy. Today these are looked at in a new perspective with a critical historical-ideological methodology. Let us take a symbolic example from the Requerimiento, a document the Spanish conquistadores read and proclaimed to the Indigenous people on their arrival in America in order to warn them that all those lands were theirs because the Pope had given them to his Catholic king.

J.M. Vigil, r/ieo/ogy o/Xe/igious P/ura/ism, Berlin - MOnster - Hamburg - London: LIT Verlag 2008, chapter 19. John Hick, The metaphor of God Incarnate, Christology in a Pluralistic Age, Louisville, Kentucky, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993, especially chapter 10, 99-111. 22 Ibid, chapter 8, 80ff. See P. Knitter in Hick-Knitter, The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1998, 182: "Orthodox' doctrines that bear unethical fruits are, to say the least, highly suspicious."

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The very wording of that statement included, as a key element of its theological argument, the mediation of Christ, God Incarnate, Lord of all the earth whose vicar was the Pope. Other approaches to this debate deal with the very genesis of the dogmatic presentation during the first centuries right up to the conciliar decisions of Nicea and Chalcedon23, or with a study of the plausibility of the specific ontological categories involved in the dogmatic statements (nature, person, hypostasis, etc.) without underestimating the more recent focus such as that of theologies of the twentieth century that denounce the sexist and racist role that a Christology could have and in fact did play in the notion that the perfection of humanity was achieved in a White male.24 All this leads us to think that Christology has some new challenges to face and that they are so large that we cannot today foresee how it will evolve. Perhaps this will be the work of several generations.25 For the moment in any case, there is no basis for making gratuitous statements one way or the other. Rather we need to remain open to reflection and discernment and know how to be patient with history. We all affirm the unique and universal quality of Christ. What needs discernment is the rigid quality of the classical affirmations made regarding his absoluteness. A new critical and penitential spirit Christianity was the first major religion that undertook a re-reading of its symbolic patrimony by confronting it with the developments in science. Today and in most of the Christian world a critical attitude toward the history of their own Christian tradition as an institution has become widespread among educated people and also in the experience of ordinary people. The "Masters of suspicion" and their critical sensitivity are now, whether we like it or not, part of modern Western culture and Christianity cannot get around them. Today no believer is scandalized by hearing that religion is frequently something different than what it claims to be. A new spirit is on the move and leads us all to be suspicious of the ease with which a doctrine can become "ideology," that is to say a justification of one's own interests over against those of others. How frequently a doctrine that we propose as the "will of God" or as "revealed" can in reality be an unconscious way of obtaining or maintaining a privileged status, the control of a situation or a cultural or eco23

Cfr Jon Sobrino, Lafe en Jesucristo Ensayo desde las victimas, San Salvador, UCA, 1999, p. 408; p. 500, footnote 3 24 Tom Driver, Christ in a Changing World: Toward an Ethical Christology, New York, Crossroad, 1981, 22; Rosemary Ruether, To Change the World and Cultural Criticism, New York, Crossroad, 1981, 4; Paul Knitter, No Other Name?, 163. 25 John Hick, God Has Many Names, 125.

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nomic superiority. Today we see clearly that history is plagued with such examples. This "hermeneutic of suspicion" leads us to question theological and doctrinal affirmations that lie behind those clearly ideological historical attitudes. The Gospel had already told us that "By their fruits you will know them." The "orthodox" doctrines that produce bad fruit are, to say the least, very suspect.2 All this applies concretely as well to our theology of religions and to the "map" we are laying out that positions our religion in the whole array of religions. Is it possible that God has placed us precisely in the center of everything and in such a privileged position? Have our own interests and our ideology influenced the shape of this "map?" From Asia the question arises: "Could the self-understanding of the Churches that have legitimized sexist, racist, class and religious oppression be theological true?"27 Something is profoundly wrong with exclusivity and with inclusivity when we see them engender those historic attitudes of arrogance and of lack of respect toward other religions and cultures or when they stand in the way of dialogue between brothers and sisters, "in equity" (par cum pari). An upright spirit does not accept "stifling the truth by their injustice."* A spirit of humility will not accept those historic attitudes of arrogance that these "suspect theologies" continue pressuring us to keep alive. A penitential spirit28 asks pardon for our history of crusades, conquests and cultural and religious colonization. This new spirit of religious pluralism is shaping a new mood among Christians and theologians. A new kind of truth "The truth will make you free," Jesus said. Pilate asked him, "And what is the truth?" The question is raised again today. The model of truth that Christianity has cultivated since very early in its history has been based on a Greek model. The foundations of that model are in the logical and metaphysical principles of Aristotle: the principle of identity and the principle of non-contradiction. A thing is what it is and cannot be another thing. Something cannot be and not be at the same time and in the same respect. It is either one thing or it is another; it

P. Knitter, "Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions," in Hick-Knitter, The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1998, chapter 11, 178. 27 Tissa Balasurya, "A Third World Perspective" in Doing Theology in a Divided World, Virginia Fabella and Sergio Torres (editors), Maryknoll, Orbis, 1985, 202. * [Tr.: The New English Bible, 1976. The addition of "by their injustice" is based on the presence of "adikfa" in the Greek text.] 28 Pedro Casaldaliga, Missa da Terra sem Males, Sao Paulo, Editorial Tempo e Presence 1980.

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cannot be both at the same time. This is the model of truth by exclusion: I am myself because I am not you. The Western model of truth, through the tremendous development of Aristotelian-Scholastic logic, was very useful for the construction of impeccable theoretical systems. That model, based on the truth of exclusion - the only one that produces the security of absolute affirmations assured precision in its pronouncements as well as the correction of its argumentation and the legitimacy of its conclusions. The West, and within it Christianity, boasted of the solidity of its conclusions, of its absolute affirmations, of its assurance and conviction in the face of non-Western scientific, cultural or religious systems of truth. This model of Western, Greek, Aristotelian truth has been in crisis for some time now. And the new spirit of religious pluralism is specifically related to the emergence of a distinct model of truth. Today we are going through a period of "de-Hellenization," of "de-Westernization," of openness to other approaches to truth. "Catholics, like Christians in general, are realizing that for something to be true, it need not to be absolute."29 Today it is increasingly recognized that truth has a quality that is more inclusive than exclusive, more practical than theoretical, more evolutionary than fixed, more historic than physical or natural. Truth is like life: it is growing, developing, evolving. We never totally contain it. Rather we progressively move toward perceiving it. The movement forward in history allows us to reach new points of observation that provide new perspectives, new visions and a new configuration of truth that is always shifting. Today we recognize the multi-relational quality of everything. Everything is related to everything else; all that exists co-exists and mutually overlaps everything around it. On the level of absolute truths we cannot judge by exclusion as is the case with "clear and distinct ideas." In the depths of that mystery for which we believe we need absolute expressions, our affirmations cannot box in the mystery with mathematical affirmations that can be manipulated, that are perfectly delimited, mutually excluding one another. Profound truths cannot be managed like controllable objects. Niels Bohr said that, "a profound truth is expressed in a statement whose opposite is also a profound truth; a superficial truth is expressed in a statement whose opposite is false.30 In this new model of truth, many of the theological-dogmatic constructions, that have pretended to distil, as in a laboratory, a perfectly delimited truth in formulas that are defined and controllable, collapse before the imposing evidence that the truth which makes us free is itself free and escapes our grasp. The exclusivist and inclusivist affirmations that pretend to exclusive absoluteness in face of the age-old religious quest by immense sectors of humanity, today simply provoke a benevolent smile rather than an angry rejecP. Knitter, No Other Name?, 219. Atomtheorie und Naurbeschreibung, Berlin, 1931, 143.

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tion The spirit of religious pluralism opts for another model of truth and for other attitudes in the face of truth attitudes of untiring listening, of integral holism, of tolerance, of recognition of complexity and inter-relatedness, in short of humility For this reason it is difficult to dialogue with those who are trapped in the old model of truth. The liberation of the poor as a hermeneutic criterion What I want to reflect on now is already implied in several of the characteristics of this spirit that I have pointed to the liberating dimension For Christians who feel called by this spirit of religious pluralism, as also for Jesus, the good news for the poor continues to be the touchstone, that is to say a central criterion that readjusts everything that went before and subjects it to the realism of the truth of love What we have said about the "ethical hermeneutic" and about a critical attitude is related to this liberating dimension It is not possible for a religious truth to be really true if it is not liberating, and even less if it becomes party to a system of oppression of any kind The truth will make you free and will make you free in order to liberate If the truth of religion does not liberate, if it is not good news for the poor, then it is not true religion Outside of the good news for the poor, is no salvation Extra Evangehum pauperibus, nulla salus We can state, as a general criterion, that "a religion is true and good to the extent that it does not oppress or destroy humanity but rather protects and promotes it "31 Here we are situated on a first level where the poor to be liberated is humanity itself On a second and more concrete level, the poor person to be liberated is our neighbor in general In this respect the "minimal ethics" of the "Golden Rule applies Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you Today we know that this golden rule is, with very similar wording, present in almost all religions On a third level, this golden rule is concretized in and is the foundation for the option for the poor All this is not based on new theories but moves in that spirit we have been referring to It is a spirit that creates a sensitivity and a pre-disposition of conscience that imposes itself on us from the start, even though we don't know the theological arguments that justify it It is an intuition rather than a theology, a spirit more than a moral norm Taking advantage of this aspect of the liberation of the poor as a hermeneutical criterion, we can go more deeply into our topic What ultimately is religion9 How and where does a human being realize the deeper encounter with God that religion says it makes viable? The origins of Judeo-Chnstianity
H Kung, Theology for the Third Millennium An Ecumenical View, New York, Doubleday, 1988 [page] See also Leonard Swindler, "The Dialogue Decalogue," in Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 20/1 (1983), 10

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are clear on this point A phrase from Van der Meersch that struck Alfonso Carlos Comin can provide an image for this spirit that unites religious truth and liberation "The truth, Pilate, is this to stand beside the humble and those who suffer " It is an opinion that we can place on a parallel with that of the word of St James (1,27) "The kind of religion which is without stain or fault in the sight of God our Father is this to go to the help of orphans and widows in their distress and keep oneself untarnished by the world " Here we could quote innumerable passages from the Bible that point in this same direction 32 For Judeo-Chnstianity true religion is love, justice and commitment to building up the Reign of God that is "life, truth, justice, peace, grace and love," for everyone but in the first place for the poor who are victims of injustice33 and those who are deprived of their rights Some religions have found access to God through Nature, others have encountered God in interior subjective or inter-subjective experience JudeoChnstianity has found God in a privileged way through the encounter with the poor (Matt 25, 3Iff) We think that, in the inter religious dialogue that is expanding throughout the world today, this can be its principal contribution These are only a few scattered elements among many that could be indicated as a way of characterizing the new spirituality of religious pluralism that is invading the world With it, the dialogue among religions no doubt enters a new stage

Bibliography Balasurya, T (1985) A Third World Perspective In Fabella, V & Torres, S. (eds ) (1985) Doing Theology in a Divided World Maryknoll Orbis Barbaho, G & Fabns, R (1990) Os Evangelhos (I) Sao Paulo Loyola Benedict XV (1919) Maximum Mud

Permit me to mention only this one "God has told you what is good, and what is it that the Lord asks of you7 Only to act justly, to love loyally, to walk wisely before your God " (Micah 6, 8) J M Vigil, The Option for the Poor is an Option for Justice, and non Preferential A new theological systematic framework for the Option for the Poor Vidyajyoti, Journal of Theological Reflection vol 68/7(July 2004)509 520, Dehli, India EAPR, East Asian Pastoral Review, Manila, 4(octubre 2005)321-335, Manila Journal of Inculturation Theology, 7/1 (April 2005)31-49, Published by Faculty of Theology, Catholic Institute of West Africa, Lagos, Nigeria Voices from the Third World, XXXVII/l(June 2004)7-21, EATWOT, Tiruvalla, India

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Boff, L. (1982). De la espiritualidad de la Liberation, a la prdctica de la liberation. In: Bonnin, E. (ed). (1982).Espiritualidad y Liberacion en America Latina. San Jose de Costa Rica: DEI. Boff, L. (1992). 500 anos de evangelizacao. Petropolis: Vozes. Bohr, N. (1931). Atomtheorie und Naurbeschreibung. Berlin. Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1992). Espiritualidad de la liberacion. Santander: Sal Terrae. Casaldaliga, P. (1980). Missa da Terra sem Males. Sao Paulo: Editorial Tempo e Presenca. Driver, T. (1981). Christ in a Changing World: Toward an Ethical Christology. New York: Crossroad. Dupuis, J. (1997). Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll: Orbis. Hick, J. (1980). God has Many Names. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. Hick, J. (1993). The metaphor of God Incarnate. Christology in a Pluralistic Age.Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press. Hick, J. & Knitter, P. (1998). The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions Mmy\no\\\ Orbis Books. Knitter, P. (1985). No Other Name?A Critical Survey of Christian Attitudes toward the World Religions. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books. Knitter, P. (1998). Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions. In: Hick, J. & Knitter, P. (1998). The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Knitter, P. (2002). Introducing Theologies of Religions. Maryknoll: Orbis. Kiing, H. (1988). Theology for the Third Millennium: An Ecumenical View. New York: Doubleday. Lohfink, G. (1999). Does God Need the Church? Toward a Theology of the People of God. Michael Glazier Books, [transl. from orig. Braucht Gott die Kirche (1988) by Linda M. Maloney]. Percy, J.O. (ed.). (1961). Facing the Unfinished Task. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. Pius XII. (1951). Evangelii Praecones. Ruether, R. (1981). To Change the World and Cultural Criticism. New York: Crossroad. Sayes, J.A. (2001). Cristianismo y religiones. Madrid: San Pablo. Soares, A. (2003). Interfaces da Revelacdo. Presupostos parauma teologia do sincretismo religioso no Brasil. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Sobrino, J. (1999). La fe en Jesucristo Ensayo desde las victimas. San Salvador: UCA. Sullivan, F.A. (1992). Salvation Outside the Church: Tracing the History of the Catholic Response. New York: Paulist Press. Swindler, L. (1983). The Dialogue Decalogue. In: Journal of Ecumenical Studies, 20/1 (1983). p. 10.

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Teixeira, F. (1995). Teologia das religides. Uma visao panordmica. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Torres Queiruga, A. (1992). El didlogo de las religiones. Sal Terrae. Torres Queiruga, A. (2001). El didlogo de las religiones en Vaticano II. Como lo imaginan 17 cristianos y cristianas. Barcelona: Herder. Vigil, J.M. (2004). The Option for the Poor is an Option for Justice, and non Preferential. A new theological-systematic framework for the Option for the Poor. In: Vidyajyoti. Journal of Theological Reflection, vol 68/7(July 2004). pp. 509-520. Dehli, India. In: East Asian Pastoral Review (EAPR). Manila 4(octubre 2005). pp. 321-335. Manila. In: Journal of Inculturation Theology. 7/1 (April 2005). pp. 31-49. Lagos, Nigeria. In: Voices from the Third World XXXVII/l(June 2004). pp. 721. EATWOT, Tiruvalla, India. Vigil, J.M. (2008). Theology of Religious Pluralism. Berlin - Munster - Hamburg - London : LIT Verlag 2008.

Chapter 6 Cultural and Religious Pluralism: A Pivotal Point for Liberation Theology
Marcelo Barros Goias, Brazil

The theology of religious pluralism is the newest entry in the field of Christian theology. It could be one of the foundations for the articulation of a future "Universal Theology." Still, this is not a kind of religious "Esperanto" or minimal common denominator that doesn't respect diversity. My reflections, grounded in the Latin American reality and in what my brothers and sisters have said in previous chapters, will test whether we can address the theology of religious pluralism as a new and additional paradigm for liberation theology and I will offer some suggestions for continuing the theological and pastoral journey of our communities and movements. For various reasons, this topic is not an easy one, least of all in the limited space offered by one chapter in a book. This is so above all because we are not dealing with the relationship between two institutional and monolithic items. There is no one theology of religious pluralism and no one liberation theology. Both theological movements are plural and co-exist in diversity. From the viewpoint of liberation theology I will summarize some features that are more apparent in one or other movement. To the extent that it is possible, we will look at the topic using the Latin American method of "see, judge and act," while recognizing that these three steps overlap one another. The topic (the relationship between liberation theology and a theology of religious pluralism) is new and too large for me to offer a synthesis or conclusion. Rather, from the Latin American experience and its option, I will show how I see the relationship between these theological currents and I will try to outline possible points of view for deepening the theme. Difficulties Between Liberation Theology and Pluralism We begin by admitting that in fact the Latin American brothers and sisters who developed liberation theology in its various branches and nuances do not seem to have shown very much interest in a theology of religious pluralism. Exponents of the history of Latin American theology recognise that the theme of pluralism has never been developed. Others consider it merely academic or of interest only to Europeans. Others, brothers and sisters committed to Black, Feminist or Indigenous theology, have declared they are favorable to a theology of religious pluralism but believe they are already living it without

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any need for the dialogue proposed here. The Indigenous communities and those of African origin are multi-cultural and multi-religious and the theologies that come from them are so also. Although the topic of pluralism has not been laid out in the way done by theologians on other continents, and although they have not deepened the connection between Latin American experiences and the theology of religious pluralism from other continents, those colleagues think they already know enough about the matter. Without wanting to provide a response at this point, I do express here a doubt or a proposal for developing the topic. While other continents like Asia, North America and even Europe have had to face cultural and religious pluralism already, in Latin America most people are Catholic (or formed in categories that are dominated by what is called Catholic culture). Liberation theology emerged among groups preoccupied with adapting the mission of the Church to the service of people whose cultures are strongly Catholic. Up till the 1990s even the ecumenical, inter-Church question did not seem to interest classical liberation theologians very much. When they spoke of "ecumenism," everyone said they were in favour and open but counted on others to develop the topic. And when there was need to organize an ecumenical department in a biblical or theological organization, it was simply entrusted to a Protestant friend who was participating in our activities. I don't say this to criticize my colleagues and brothers whom I admire and esteem deeply. I am simply trying to understand the ecclesiology present in our ecclesial settings, including the grassroots ones of that period. Thanks be to God, in a number of popular efforts and even in the Latin American theological context since the 1980s, a co-existence and a collaboration among Catholics and Evangelicals began. It is likely that this occurred more due to the support of Evangelical colleagues for the work and the themes that Catholics undertook and promoted (basic ecclesial communities (CEBs), the Center for Biblical Studies (CEBI), the land ministry, the Indigenous ministry and others) than for a real and effective ecumenical ecclesiology in Catholic theological contexts that were largely self-sufficient. Liberation theologians have always been in favour of ecumenism but for them the problem seems to have had only a minor social and ecclesial importance. The problems that really needed to be attended to were social and economic. In many pastoral and liberation theology settings since the 1990s, the concern for inculturation of the faith and Christian language intensified but always with the idea that it was the Catholic or Christian world that they were adapting to the Indigenous or Black world and not as the challenge of a real cultural and religious pluralism that existed among our people but that only showed up in our Church settings in small groups that were not really representative or grassroots in character. I could be mistaken and I don't want to criticize anyone, but even in committed grassroots pastoral settings sometimes I sense a very Church-centered mentality. It is a Church-centeredness that criticizes the clerical bureaucracy and the

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inner circles of power and that renders a real service to the oppressed, but that remains Church-centered. In that context the "other" - the cultural and religious other - does not really exist. For that reason there is no openness to cultural and religious pluralism. The origins and the assumptions of the current theology of religious pluralism One of the foundation pieces for a Christian theology of religious pluralism is the understanding that God is Love and universal Salvation. God does not restrict his love and his project for life to only one religious or spiritual path. Some of the Fathers of the Church spoke of the "Old" covenants of other peoples. They compared the Greek philosophers with the biblical prophets. Others said that all religions contained "seeds of the Divine Word." 1 Beginning in the 1960s, the Catholic Church, drawing on the theology of the Second Vatican Council, the mainline Protestant Churches and the World Council of Churches, went deeper into this theological appreciation of other religions.' In Europe and North America, various theologians developed the theme of religious pluralism through dialogue with oppressed cultures. Jacques Dupuis left Europe to live for years among the poor of India. Raimundo Panikkar did the same. Paul Knitter, one of the North American theologians who treats of this topic, admits that, Since the early 1970s, I had been trying to follow the developments of the new liberation theology coming out of Latin America. My interest was fuelled initially by my desire to be methodologically up to date. Then in 1983 I met two Salvadoran students in Cincinnati; they were refugees after speaking up for human rights and were being pursued by their Salvadoran government which was supported by my United States government. Since that fortuitous encounter, my life as they say has not been the same. The following year my wife Cathy and I became active members of the Sanctuary Movement - a loose ecumenical bonding of churches and synagogues who, in defiance of U.S. government policy, were publicly providing shelter and support to Central American refugees fleeing the poverty and dan-

Justin of Rome, Apology II, 8 and others, Irenaeus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria. See Faustino Teixeira, Teologia das Religioes, uma visao panordmica, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1995, 22. In the Catholic Church, see the Second Vatican Council, Declaration Nostra Aetate, Dignitatis Humanae and the Constitution Lumen Gentium, 1, 13, 16; Gaudium et Spes, 22, 92 and others. In the Protestant context, see various presentations of theologians and the general orientation of the conferences of the World Council of Churches in 1961 in Vancouver: "Jesus Christ, Life of the World" and in 1968, Upsala: "I Make All Things New."

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gers of U.S.-sponsored wars in their countries. This led to summer visits to El Salvador and Nicaragua over the next five years. Through these experiences working with refugee families in Cincinnati, meeting with base Christian communities in Central America, collaborating with Jon Sobrino and Lutheran Bishop Medardo Gomez ... liberation theology became for me not just a 'new method' but a matter of making sense of religion and of being a faithful disciple of Jesus. I experienced the fundamental option for the oppressed to be not simply an option but a demand. It affected the way I do theology to the point that I could no longer go about a theology of religions unless it was, somehow, connected with a theology of liberation. And so my contribution to The Myth collection bore the strange title 'Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions."3 Many of the theologians of pluralism are Asian, poor and committed to the liberation of their peoples. Some are even members of EATWOT which held its 3rd General Assembly (EATWOT III) in Wennapuwa, Sri Lanka in 1979 under the theme, "The Struggle in Asia for full humanity." There Aloysius Pieris spoke and later published An Asian theology of liberation. In this book, Aloysius decried a certain lack of dialogue. "Latin American liberation theology is today," he said, "the only valid model of theology in the Third World. Nevertheless, it has no understanding of the monastic ideal of the Asian traditions."5 The theology of religious pluralism begins with a critique of the Christian pretension of being the absolute truth and with an appraisal of other religions as revelations of the love of God for humanity. Liberation theology has no difficulty with the first assumption of a theology of religious pluralism - the critique of the pretension of a Christian absolute - but it does have a problem with the second - the appraisal of other religions - if this is not well understood and correctly interpreted. Presumptions proper to liberation theology Liberation theology came out of circles that were critical of the Churches and of religions. In the 1960s, in Latin America, many Christians got involved in social movements dedicated to the liberation of their people. The majority of these groups and movements had a long history of conflicts with ecclesiastical hierarchy. To connect faith with liberating action, the Christian communities had to confront ecclesiastical power and to read their faith and the Bible in a way that was more historical and less religious. In this respect, for those who do liberation theology, the thinking of Karl Barth who opposes faith and relig-

P. Knitter, One Earth, Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibi ity, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1995, 8-9. 4 A. Pieris, An Asian Theology of Liberation, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1988. 5 A. Pieris, idem, 141.

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ion seemed closer and more familiar than that of theologies that see religions in a positive way and recognize in every religious tradition something of divine revelation. In Protestant circles at the beginning of the twentieth century, Karl Barth interpreted the word of the New Testament that only faith saves by asserting that all religion is idolatrous and sinful. Religion is the relationship that people set up with the divine using their own resources. On the other hand, faith is a relationship that God sets up gratuitously with human beings. Religion is a human work; the God it represents is always an idol. Barth concludes, "Our religion consists in the dissolution of religion; our law is the complete disestablishment of all human experience and knowledge and action and possession."6 On several occasions, even in recent years, I have heard these words repeated by liberation theologians. It's just that this position requires a hermeneutic shift in relation to Christianity itself that we often end up neglecting. We say that religions are all pretty much idolatrous, except Christianity. This immediately places the Christian religion on a higher level and our discourse becomes Church-centered. This was the mistake made in Dominus Jesus published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It identifies "the faith that saves" with Christianity. In the Ecumenical Gathering of Theology in Sao Paulo sponsored by EATWOT in 1981, what stood out for Aloysius Pieris and other Asian brothers was how the Latin American theologians criticized religion. Gustavo Gutierrez offered "popular religiosity" and "liberating faith" as an alternative. The Biblicist, Jose Porfirio Miranda maintained that "religion is an evil that should be destroyed."7 Even Jon Sobrino, although more moderate in his position, considered religion as a "degradation of faith."8 In the 1970s and 1980s, several books and studies in liberation theology opposed the God of the Bible, as the God of Justice committed to the poor, to the gods of other religions who were comfortable with the status quo of this world.9 Liberation theology was right in its critique of religion. Nevertheless, we have to situate Christianity in the context of other religions and not as if it was a purified religion. It certainly isn't! In addition, we cannot apply this principle to popular religions and traditions of the East. For Asian theologians, the critique of religion by liberation theology is a Western discourse and can

K. Barth, Epistle to the Romans, Oxford University Press, 1968 (originally 1933), 110.. 7 See J. P. Miranada, El Sery el Mesias, Salamanca, Sigueme, 1976, 47ff. 8 See A. Pieris, idem, 157-158. See, for example, Several Authors, La lucha de los dioses (Los idolos de la opresion y la busqueda del Dios Liberador), Costa Rica, DEI and Managua, Centro Antonio Valdivieso,1980

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turn colonialist because the Western notion itself of religion cannot be applied to Asian religions They do not recognize themselves in that classification 10 A Dialogue Based on Necessary Ruptures In order to speak of a dialogue between liberation theologies and theologies of religious pluralism, a comparison comes to mind with the Christians of the first centuries Because of the context in which they lived, the Fathers of the Church in the second century are called the Apologetic Fathers and not the Dialoging Fathers Nevertheless, even m their apologies there are elements of dialogue with other religions and cultures In the same way, ever since they arose, grassroots movements and the various liberation theologies were persecuted by empires and dictators and even by the Roman hierarchy Even though we cannot consider liberation theology to be a homogenous block and taking into account the extreme diversity of the theologies of religious pluralism, we can consider Latin American theologies as sisters to the theologies of religious pluralism, committed, as they are to life and justice for all Both theological movements arise out of a re-reading of the image of God in the Bible, out of a missionary dialogue that is more open and respectful of humanity and out of contextual theologies that in the 1960s already tried to take seriously the implications of the incarnation Many people and communities that tried to connect Christian faith with a liberating political action in the 1970s and 1980s had difficulty accepting popular Latin American Catholicism On the one hand, it is true that in Latin America the oppressors, quite often in league with the Catholic hierarchy, persecuted the liberation movements and took advantage of popular Catholicism and of Black and Indigenous religions to legitimize their oppression We also need to recognize that popular Catholicism often promoted a spirituality of resignation and a passive acceptance of suffenng The traditional celebrations of the Black and Indigenous communities were used to firm up the authority of populist politicians and authoritarian military On the other hand, it is also true that the Christian movements for liberation showed a kind of religious and political intransigence along with a difficulty in co-existing with what was culturally different Only at the end of the 1960s, with the emergence of base communities and popular Christian movements, was a way found for reconciliation between faith and social engagement Only then did liberation theology begin to dialogue with the cultural and religious sensitivity of the poor They had their own theological experience of cultural and religious pluralism We can conclude by saying that liberation theology only found itself in harmony with the theology of religious pluralism, its separated sister, when it A Piens, idem, 158

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entered into dialogue with Indigenous and Black religions and with expressions of popular Catholicism. Only with a loving opening to popular religions did it deepen some theological principles of religious pluralism in the setting of Latin American theology.'' Roots of religious pluralism in Latin America Through contact with Indigenous peoples from among the most diverse ethnic groups and regions, such as those of the Amazon, the Andean plateau and the Cerrado of central-west Brazil, we discover common elements that, through contact among these communities, were integrated with elements from other groups and regions. The Churches called this synthesis "syncretism." The African peoples that were brought over as slaves to Brazil, to Colombia and the Caribbean had different religions. The colonial authorities and the Church forbad them all to practice their rituals. Thus they were obliged to find a common way of expressing their faith and amalgamate their worship in common religious frameworks. To survive, they dialogued with the Indigenous religions as well as with the oppressor, namely Christianity. They created a synthesis of rituals with an African origin, such as Candomble in Bahia, Xango in Recife or the House of Mina in Sao Luiz del Maranhao, the Santeria in Cuba and the Black rituals in Colombia. This spiritual synthesis which is quite profound and resistant, was not recognized and was condemned by the Catholic hierarchy. Nevertheless, it was the first experience of a multi-religious theology created by the Latin American people, developed not in books or intellectual theses but in the long-suffering and hidden experience of many poor people who searched for God by binding together spiritual experiences that were different but capable of complementing one another. Certainly this is a phenomenon that is both complex and diversified. Perhaps our continent is the place where we can see proof of what Panikkar calls "intra-religious dialogue," a synthesis of pluralism that believers live out in their own hearts. This synthesis exists in both Catholic and Evangelical groups and individuals. It is a way of living the Christian faith grounded in Indigenous and Black roots. Eleazar Lopez says, "The people knew how to reinterpret their culture ... in the context of the system (...) They re-read the Christian religion in order to provide continuity within it for the ancestral traditions of our peoples.. ,"12 Diego Irarrazaval explains, Besides, many of the theologians who were thinking about a theology of religious pluralism also developed their thought in dialogue and insertion with the religions of the poor of the earth such as the great Asian religions. E. Lopez, "500 afios de resistencia y de lucha de los pueblos de America contra la opresion," Chiapas, 1991, mimeograph 8, quoted by D. Irarrazaval, Inculturacion, amanecer eclesial en America Latina, Puno, Lima, IDEA, CEP, 1998, 180.

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Following the characteristic features of each region and in line with local practices, people have coped by using spaces and times that are their own and that we call polycentric. They don't all fall into the same pattern. (...) We have a raft of ways of invoking and understanding the sacred. It looks like polytheism but in fact it is a human polycentrism with religious associations.13 In the 1950s and 1960s, European monks and theologians like Bede Griffiths, Henri Le Saux, Cornelius Tollens and Jules Mochanin left for India and joined ashrams. They lived their Christian faith as believing Hindus. Similarly, in Latin America there were some experiences of a communion of life between Christians and Indigenous religions, as also between Christians and rituals of African origin. Since the 1950s, in what is now the Prelature of Sao Felix do Araguaia (Brazil), a fraternity of Little Sisters of Jesus in a rural village of the Tapirape lives an experience that honors Indigenous culture and religion. In the 1970s, Father Bartolome Melia lived for several years among the Saluma Indians and participated in their Indigenous religion. Father Francois de l'Espinay who is associated with liberation theology, became a member of a Candomble community in Bahia. Pluralisms in the Cultural and Religious Resistance of the People The context in which Latin American theologies emerged More than as a pluralism of separated religious experiences, in Latin America most people live a pluralism of religious experiences as a unique way of belonging to Christianity. Today the theology of religious pluralism is deepening the meaning of this "double membership." Claude Geffre, a French theologian, declared that, To the extent that Christianity does not count itself as one more religion, I believe in the possibility of a 'double membership.' Such a person, converted to Jesus Christ, baptized and who really lives in the Spirit of Christ, would seem to me capable of continuing to integrate aspects on the spiritual level that are foreign to historic Christianity including the physical and mental discipline of asceticism and even gestures of adoration and praise. I am convinced that those cases of 'double membership' point to an encouraging potential for new historic forms of Christianity. The model that Christianity followed historically for the last 20 centuries, D. Irarrazaval, op. cit., 178. F. De L'Espinay, "Igreja e Religiao Africana do Candomble no Brasil," "REB 47" December, 1987, 870.
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does not block the future and does not preclude the Utopia of a truly 'world Christianity,' a Christianity that, while remaining always true to itself, is authentically rooted in all the great cultures. To say 'rooted in cultures,' is an improper way of speaking because, if it is really rooted in different cultures of the West, it will also be rooted in a variety of religious traditions.15 In Latin America, since the beginning of the grassroots journey,* we have tried to sustain and to deepen certain discussions in the theology of pluralism that have to do with the universality of salvation, the unity of the mediation of Christ, the relationship between biblical revelation and other revelations. In 1976, Leonardo Boff was the animator of a meeting in Bahia between Christians and followers of Candomble. There, for the first time, he defended syncretism as an expression of the catholicity of the faith16 and developed some theological foundations for a Latin American theology of religious pluralism. In 1982, in Cuiaba, Mato Grosso, the Indigenous Missionary Council (Consejo Indigenista Missionero, CIMI), held an assembly on "The Bible and Indigenous Myths." Along with Carlos Mesters, he animated the topic of pluralism in this assembly. To the extent that theological reflection springs out of a pastoral work that is committed to service and to communion with all Indigenous peoples and not only with those who are Indigenous Christians, with all women and men in the Black communities and not only with those who are Christian, then we are dealing with a ministry and a macro-ecumenical theology that from the beginning has had to deal with the cultural and religious pluralism inherent in the Indian, Black and feminist world of Latin America. The sensitivities and the intuitions of the pastoral practice of liberation are intimately associated with respect for and dialogue with the plurality of possible Christianities in the history of the Latin American peoples. Personally, I think that the evolution of the world as well as the new religious challenges require these theologies, and also other theologies, to dialogue with the theology of religious pluralism in spite of being macro-ecumenical from the beginning and by nature.

C. Geffre, Profesion Theologien, Paris, Ed. A. Michel, 1999, 242. * Translation of caminhada popular This was the first draft of a text that later became chapter 7 in Church: Charism and Power. Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church, New York, Crossroad, 1985. After a historic meeting in El Salvador, Boff s presentation was published in Revista de Cultura Vozes, n. 71, 1977, 53-68.

15

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Latin American Macro-ecumenism In 1992, the different social groups in Latin American split over the observance of the fifth centenary of the conquest. During the First Continental Congress of the Assembly of the People of God (APD), Indigenous and Afro-American groups approved the term "macro-ecumenism" to refer to a new ecumenism that would go beyond the unity among official Christian Churches. The term included the inter-cultural encounter involved in a relationship between religions. It also went beyond what was called "inculturation," a missionary strategy for the insertion of the Church among Indigenous peoples and Black communities which were considered Christian even though they came from other cultures. Macro-ecumenism accords the same importance to the inter-cultural dimension as to the inter-religious aspect and calls the Churches to go beyond an understanding of self-affirmation that ignores the other as other with autonomous cultural and religious rights. The official media of communication in the Church questioned the validity of the term "macro-ecumenism." In fact, since no "micro-ecumenism" existed, the term which is made up with a prefix, did not seem appropriate. Historically however, an expression like that was necessary to overcome the artificial division between ecumenism as a movement for Christian unity and an inter-religious dialogue that was pretty much restricted to diplomatic relations between the heads of religions considered "noble" by seasoned Western prejudices. Macro-ecumenism, more than a mere dialogue, proposes a path toward unity through service and witness to solidarity in the defense of oppressed peoples.17 In this book reactions can be found from some authors to ecumenism or to religious pluralism that does not truly recognize the legitimate nonRoman-Catholic diversity of popular Latin American cultures. 18 An example would be the inappropriate tendency of a certain Western theological school to divide theology into Theology 1 and Theology 2.19 This pretension to the universality of Western theology remains colonizing and is not very respectful of difference. Nevertheless we are not going to overcome this tendency by isolating ourselves or refusing to treat those topics that challenge all Christians and our groups as well. In the same way, just as in the 1970s liberation theology needed to work on a Christology and a Ecclesiology grounded in the social Declarations of the lsl and 2" Congress of the Assembly of the People of God. See also M. Barros, O sonho da Paz, Ed. Vozes, 1996. See especially chapter 3: "A Unidade das Religioes Populares." 18 See in this same book: "Intolerancia religiosa contra el pluralismo religioso" by A. Lampe. 19 See "The Theology of Religions in Latin America," by Jose Comblin, in the second volume of this series, Quito, Abaya-Yala, 2004.

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struggles of the poor, so current Indian, Black and feminist theologies need to present a formulation of those "new" themes rooted in their own concrete experience and the interests of the oppressed that they represent This is why we need to dialogue not only with Indigenous peoples, with Blacks and with women who are already incorporated in grassroots groups, but also more broadly with sectors of Indigenous peoples, Blacks and women who are impoverished and with people from oppressed cultures who are already caught up in the dominant neo-hberal culture Either we are saved together or we all lose The Latin American Journey and the Wider Pluralism Some further points Latin American theology matured through prophetic gestures by bishops who took positions that went beyond the written texts In 1970, Dom Helder Camara took part in the Conference on Religions for Peace in Kyoto, Japan Why was he invited'7 Did his work and his actions not have anything to do with the journey of liberation theology7 On the contrary, his participation in that inter-religious assembly would have been impossible if liberation theology had not prepared the way and had not deepened a sense of mission as the construction of Peace and of Justice Dom Helder's presentation in Kyoto focused on the statement that "religions and spiritual paths need to dialogue and to walk together in order to be the ethical conscience of humanity and a cry of peace coming from the impoverished " There are references in some books of liberation theology to recognition of a divine presence and action m popular religions and in other religions Juan Luis Segundo gave a lecture on pluralist faith open to dialogue not only with other religions but with atheists and all humanity In the 1960s, at a time when this topic had not yet been discussed in Latin America, Juan Luis Segundo, along with Pierre Sanchis, wrote a little book that was the first tool that opened up other religions and cultures for me when I was still a young theology student The title of the book remains ambiguous and today is out of date, but it contained the fundamental elements of openness to pluralism that I and the writers here are pursuing It was called The pre-Christian stages in the discovery of God20 In his collection, A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity, Segundo returns on several occasions to the theme of the universality of the grace of God and to the recognition of the divine presence and action beyond the Christian Churches 21 Toward the middle of the 1980s, the collection, TheJ L Segundo and P Sanchos, As etapas pre-cnstas da descoberta de Deus, Petropolis, Ed Vozes, 1969 21 J L Segundo, A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1973-1974 See especially "Vatican II and the Redemption of the World" in the second volume Grace and the Human Condition, 129-138 See also the presentation of the

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ology and Liberation proposed a synthesis of all liberation theology although for ecclesial reasons and because of the political situation it remained incomplete Right from the start, the dimension of the cultural and religious pluralism of our peoples was addressed There is one volume on "The Indian Face of God" and there was supposed to have been another on religions of African origin Before completing the work, the author passed away On the larger scene of religious pluralism, no specific volume was envisaged although some writers were open to the topic Julio de Santa Ana gave to his book, Ecumenism and Liberation, the subtitle "Reflections on the relationship between Christian unity and the Reign of God " In the last chapter, "Challenges for the ecumenical movement in Latin America," he proposes an inclusive dialogue and says, The Churches should remember that the first independent country in what is today Latin America was Haiti In the struggle for the liberation of the Haitian people, Voodoo played a dominant role When a religion has this capacity to motivate toward freedom, it cannot be left aside by the Gospel of Christ which is the power of liberation 22 When Jose Luis Caravias and I wrote Teologia da Terra, we published an appendix on "Palestinian and Muslim Theology of the Earth" even though we had little data 2 3 In spite of these and other specific examples, we need to acknowledge that religious pluralism was not a main theme m liberation theology In various articles and books, Diego Irarrazaval developed an understanding of a respectful mission of pluralism To quote an example Another challenge is the multiplicity of religious patterns with their correct or mistaken searches for the fullness of life We begin to see that the mystery of salvation in Jesus Christ reaches those who practice other religions 'by the invisible action of the Spirit ' 24 The most lucid and profound elements of the theology of pluralism in a Latin American setting can be found in the investigations and publications of third volume, Our Idea of God in which he asks, "Does God exist17 Which God9" 1214 2 J de Santa Ana, Ecumenismo e hbertagao Reflexoes sobre a relagao entre a umdade crista e o Reino de Deus Vozes, Petropolis, 1987, 303 23 M Barros and J L Caravias, Teologia da Terra, Vozes, 1988, 290-295 D Irarrazaval, Inculturacwn, idem, 55 The author quotes the document "Dialogue and Proclamation" of the Pontifical Commission for Inter-religious Dialogue and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, 1991, n 29-30

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Faustino Teixeira and the groups that he animates in the Department of Religious Sciences of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora.25 He shows us the importance of religious pluralism and links it to a vision of Christian faith and to the mission of the Church as centered on the Reign of God or, to put it more concretely, as centered simply on the defense of the life of people and of the world. An attempt at a synthesis The theology of religious pluralism emerged in Europe, Asia and North America in a context where Christianity ceased to be the dominant culture. In a world where one of the fastest growing phenomena is religious fundamentalism, a theology of pluralism and of dialogue is essential if we are to build a world of justice and peace. Is the theology of religious pluralism a new paradigm for liberation theology? Some Latin American authors alert us to the risk of using the expression "new paradigms" so easily that it winds up meaningless. There are those, in theology, who call "new" what is in fact not new.26 Still, no one can deny that at present theological wisdom must be not grounded only in Western rationality but needs to incorporate new themes like subjectivity, corporality, affective-sexual questions, ecology, international peace and justice and the challenge of pluralism and inter-religious dialogue, among others. All this is characteristic of the theological agenda at the beginning of this millennium and imposes new themes and challenges for all Christian theology and therefore also for liberation theology. Cultural and religious pluralism is a new paradigm for liberation theology and for all Christian life. A theology of religious pluralism opens up an important debate and should be taken seriously, although I don't know if it is, in itself, a new paradigm for liberation theology. Several of its elements are not new for our practice and reflection. In connection with those themes that really are new, we have to separate out those that are universal and those that come from another human and theological context. The theology of religious pluralism developed in Asia where Christianity is in a minority position and where it has nothing to offer society if it does not dialogue with other religious traditions. The Latin American reality is different from that of Europe, North America and Asia. Even here, migration and the media of communication have established a multi-cultural and multireligious setting, although Christianity is still the religion of the majority here See F. Teixeira, Didlogo de Pdssaros: nos caminhos do didlogo inter-religioso, Sao Paulo, Ed. Paulinas, 1993. Teologia das Religioes, Uma Visdo Panordmica, Paulinas, 1995. And many articles in a variety of Brazilian and international theological journals. 26 M. Fabri, several authors, Teologia Aberta ao Futuro, Soter/Loyola, Sao Paulo, 1997, 7.

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and predominates. Wherever they are a minority, the Churches tend to accept a theology of religious pluralism and to dialogue. They are less open where they are still the majority. That doesn't happen with groups involved with liberation theology. Still the fact is that many have opened up to the theology of pluralism largely because of the challenges of inculturation of the mission. This reveals that the perspective is still limited and a certain form of Churchcenteredness persists even though it is a Church-centeredness that is less closed and colonialist because it is inculturated. The perspective seems to be less one of co-existing with religious diversity than one of accepting it as different from the dominate culture and this in order to improve the proclamation of the Christian faith. In any case, liberation theology has opened up to this dimension of religious pluralism by insisting more on the dimension of cultural pluralism than by addressing the question of religions directly. This is the interpretation that we can give to the concluding note of the 6th Missionary Congress of COMLA in Parana, Argentina in which the participants write: "From Latin America, we propose an encounter in dialogue with other religions and cultures of the World where the Spirit is already active, and so introduce them into the fullness of the Gospel." (COMLA-6).27 This last consideration "and so introduce them into the fullness of the Gospel" leaves that element quite clear. It was a congress organized by the hierarchy of the Church that followed the orientations given by the Vatican and the Pope, expressed in encyclicals like Redemptoris Missio and that was open to religious pluralism and to dialogue with the other. In the end however, it gives a higher priority to the proclamation of the Christian faith than to dialogue and it considers Christianity to be a superior revelation that should be proposed to non-Christians, though more respectfully. (See RM, 55.) Even in Latin America, most theologians still express this ambiguity. Some recent texts of the Federation of the Bishops of Asia and their general orientation seem much more open to religious pluralism that the documents coming from the Latin American bishops and even from some of our bestloved theologians and missiologists.28 All this leads me to think that the theology of cultural and religious pluralism challenges liberation theology to deepen a new ecclesiology and a new missiology. Outlining some perspectives for change For various reasons already indicated, in Latin America a theology of religious pluralism has to be, in the first place, a theology of inter-cultural pluralism. This widening of the theme does not leave it untouched. It transforms it. It relaQuoted by D. Irarrazaval, idem, 158. See for example the document, "What the Spirit is Saying to the Churches,"fromthe Federation of the Bishops of Asia, May, 1999. Published in SEDOC, July, 2000.
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tivizes the institutional aspect of religion and gives more importance to the cultural element present in all religion. It is as if the split that divides the various instances of the dialogue were rewritten or redesigned. The vertical split that divides each religion into an autonomous column is overcome because in the same column or in the same religion, persons or groups from different cultures act and experience problems that differentiate them from other persons and groups in the same religion coming from other cultures. Here in Latin America this intercultural pluralism can deepen our dialogue with contemporary humanisms that are not religious or are even atheist. At the end of the 1960s, liberation theologians like Hugo Assmann and Franz Hinkelammert, engaged in a profound and positive dialogue with Marxism. In the 1980s Juan Luis Segundo deepened the dialogue with what he called "modern men and women." The present recognition of an immense cultural pluralism leads us to dialogue with wide sectors of the population that, although not situated in a any religious tradition, want to accompany us in the search for peace, justice and the defense of the world. In this sense, the experience of the gatherings at the World Social Forum is fundamental for a new theology of cultural and religious pluralism. In Latin America, apart from the civil war that engulfs Colombia, we do not have a country at war. Still, a number of our countries have almost permanent conflicts between sectors of their population and the State apparatus of repression. In Ecuador, the CONAIE (Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador) has already overthrown one president of the Republic and has had significant influence on other occasions in changing the national conjuncture. The situation of misery to which the neo-liberal political economy has reduced several countries on the continent and which threatens almost all the rest, is generating a state of conflict that constitutes what, at another time, American strategists called "permanent low-intensity conflicts." In this context working sectors are being demobilized, political parties confused and unions weakened. The talk of struggles for liberation that in the 1970's mobilized so many people has no support or roots among the grassroots. We have to find other ways of talking and other strategies for resistance and defense. As in Africa so also here, there are not many groups that have an anti-military awareness and a clear perception of what the arms trade means in this region or how it is tied to drug trafficking. In Brazil and in other countries of Latin America today, some spiritual groups have developed a mystique of peace without linking it sufficiently to the question of justice and solidarity with the oppressed. In most cases a relationship with those groups is enriching for both sides and can bring with it a new focus on the question of cultural pluralism. This sort of connection incorporates elements of transpersonal psychology and of Eastern wisdom; it opens up a therapeutic and artistic sensitivity that is normally not part of our experience. And we can contribute by bringing that richness to grassroots groups and to the work of resistance carried out by those who are

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the poorest. Certainly, more than in other regions of the world, the theology of inter-cultural and inter-religious pluralism in Latin America has to give priority to and to deepen a new and critical theology of peace and active non-violence that is very little developed in Latin America and seldom taken up actively. I think that one of the major challenges of a theology and of a ministry of intercultural and inter-religious pluralism in Latin America is to revive the legacy of certain pastors of the Church who in the 1970's had an original word and a spiritual appeal in Latin America as well as for the whole world based on the fundamental options of liberation theology and with a strong prophetic intuition. Their message is basic for a new cultural and theological pluralism. It is important to remember Dom Helder Camera with his "liberating moral pressure" or other prophetic proposals in the service of the powerless. It is the same for Bishop Oscar Romero, Bishop Leonidas Proano and others. They were leaders in a spiritual and inter-cultural movement for peace, justice and active non-violence in a Latin American style. Liberation theology developed a reflection on justice and solidarity, on the conflict inherent in the Reign of God, but it did not take up themes like peace, non-violence and anti-militarism that are urgent today. The theology of religious pluralism can go back to those topics by putting us in contact with spiritual masters of other religions and of other
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continents. Finally, the most important and decisive angle for me in the theology of religious pluralism in Latin America is that of taking up the way the poorest are pluralist and learning, though that insertion among communities of Indigenous and Black origin, the basic spiritual path for a theology of pluralism, that is to say, its fundamental root: a spirituality open to the other, one that is unequivocally altruistic. The path for a theology of cultural and religious pluralism in Latin America is from the grassroots, from insertion and solidarity. To return once again to a way of speaking that is common when we talk about pluralism, this new theology is not Christ-centered and even less Church-centered. It must be "life-centered," that is to say centered on the project of life for everyone. Therefore it will be linked to a sensitivity to all that we could call "popular and holistic" and that I find present in the beautiful poem of one of our major Brazilian poets with which I conclude this conversation: Beyond the Earth, beyond Heaven in the trampoline of the endless stars in the trail of the heavenly bodies in the magnolia of the nebula. Beyond, way beyond the solar system, Various authors, Helder, O Dom, Vozes, 1999. J. Sobrino, J.M. Barro, R. Cardenal, La Voz de los sin voz, San Salvador, UCA, 1980.

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there where thought and heart reach. Let's go! Let's go to conjugate the essential fundamental word, the transcendent word, above all grammars, and fear and money and politics, the ever-loving word, the multi-loving word, the reason for being and living."
-in

(Carlos Drummond de Andrade) Bibliography Andrade, CD. (1990). Amar se aprende Amando. Record. Barros, M. & Caravias, J.L. (1988). Teologia da Terra. Petropolis: Vozes. Barros, M. (1996). O sonho da Paz. Vozes Barth, K. (1968). Epistle to the Romans. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [originally 1933]. Boff, L. (1985). Church: Charism and Power. Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church, New York: Crossroad. Comblin, J. (2004). The Theology of Religions in Latin America. Quito: AbayaYala. De L'Espinay, F. (1987). Igreja e Religiao Africana do Candomble no Brasil. In: REB 47 (December 1987). p. 870. de Santa Ana, J. (1987). Ecumenismo e libertacdo: Reflexoes sobre a relagao entre a unidade crista e o Reino de Deus. Petropolis: Vozes. Fabri, M. et.al. (eds.). (1997). Teologia Aberta ao Futuro. Soter/Loyola, Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Federation of the Bishops of Asia (1999). What the Spirit is Saying to the Churches. May 1999. Published in SEDOC, July, 2000. Geffre, C. (1999). Profesion Theologien. Paris: A. Michel. Irarrazaval, D. (1998). Inculturacion, amanecer eclesial en America Latina. Puno, Lima: IDEA, CEP. Knitter, P. (1995). One Earth, Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility, Maryknoll: Orbis Lampe A. (1996). Intolerancia religiosa contra el pluralismo religioso. In: Barros, M. (1996). O sonho da Paz. Vozes Lopez, E. (1991). 500 anos de resistencia y de lucha de los pueblos de America contra la opresion. Chiapas, mimeograph 8. C. D. Andrade, Amar se aprende Amando, quoted by C.C. Macedo, Imagem do Eterno, Sao Paulo, Ed. Moderna, 1990.

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Macedo, C.C. ( 1990). Imagem do Eterno. Sao Paulo: Moderna. Miranada, J.P. (1976). El Sery elMesias. Salamanca: Sigueme. Pieris, A. (1988). An Asian Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. Second Vatican Council (1964). Lumen Gentium Second Vatican Council (1965). Dignitatis Humanae Second Vatican Council (1965). Gaudium et Spes Second Vatican Council (1965). Nostra Aetate Segundo J.L. & Sanchos, P. (1969). As etapas pre-cristds da descoberta de Deus. Petropolis: Vozes. Segundo, J.L. (1973). Vatican II and the Redemption of the World. In: Segundo, J. L. (1973). Grace and the Human Condition. Maryknoll: Orbis. [A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity, second volume]. Segundo, J.L. (1973-4). A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity. Maryknoll: Orbis. Segundo, J.L. (1974). Our Idea of God. [A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity, third volume]. Several Authors (1980). La lucha de los dioses (Los idolos de la opresion y la busqueda del Dios Liberador). Costa Rica: DEI/ Managua: Centro Antonio Valdivieso. Sobrino, J., Barro, J.M. & Cardenal, R. (1980). La Voz de los sin voz. San Salvador: UCA. Teixeira, F. (1993). Didlogo de Pdssaros: nos caminhos do didlogo interreligioso. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Teixeira, F. (1995). Teologia das Religides, Uma Visdo Panordmica. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Teixeira, F. (1995). Teologia das Religides, uma visdo panordmica. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Various Authors (1999). Helder, 0 Dom. Petropolis: Vozes. World Council of Churches (1968). 1 Make All Things New. Upsala. World Council of Churches (1961). Jesus Christ, Life of the World. Vancouver.

PART II

Chapter 7 Many Poor People, Many Religions Option for the poor, a privileged place for dialogue among religions
Jose Maria Vigil Panama

The poor need dialogue among religions "Among the many 'signs of the times' that challenge the churches today, there are two than place particularly pressing demands on Christians: the experience of the many poor and the experience of the many religions."* This statement of Paul Knitter in 1986, has today, in the current phase of globalization, become even more evident. Two of the most burning focal points requiring attention by any honest human being who wants to rise to the challenge of these times are, on the one hand, the immense number of poor in the world and, on the other, the plurality of religions (with their common lack of knowledge and of dialogue, their anarchy and self-centeredness, their worldwide failure to take coordinated responsibility and the religious inspiration that some terrorisms claim) are two of the most burning spectacles to be taken into account by any honest human being who wants to rise to the challenge of these times. Only in the secularized "First World" could some scorn religion for the role it could have in favor of the poor. Certainly history is witness ad nauseam to the alliance that religion has established over the ages with the dominant classes. This has gone so far that religion is catalogued in classical terms as one of the "superstructures" that have served to dominate the oppressed classes by putting people to sleep and through promises of another life. Yet a more careful analysis of history, and concretely of Latin American history in the second half of the last century, shows that religion is certainly also capable of the opposite. It can be a leaven of liberation and even of revolution at least as much as it can be and has been an ideological opium. In reality, has there ever existed in history any revolution that achieved victory without the help of religion, either an official religion or a popular alternative one?

* John Hick and P. Knitter (editors), "Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions," in The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1998, 178.

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People can only give their lives for a Utopia when a spark of "mystique," or passion for the liberating Utopia is ignited in the human heart And that passion for a liberating Utopia is certainly the best religion has to offer when it is not used badly and betrayed in an alliance against the poor How can the masses in India manage to live "with less than a dollar a day7" Or those abandoned people in the sunken ship that is Africa, or those who live in some Latm American shantytowns or slums that are "jungles without any law7" Certainly not with that miserable "dollar a day" but with other resources that give them meaning, vision, self-esteem, a project in life and strength That is where religion comes in The world of the poor is teeming with religion Every three days two new Churches are founded in the Christian Third World and there are already more than 25,000 Christian Churches ' India is an huge mass of poverty and religiosity In Africa, secularization can do nothing against animism A religious "revival" is taking place throughout the world For some who are blind religion appears to be shrinking and disappearing In reality it is simply being transformed, subject perhaps to a mutation that we have yet to identify properly Is it possible to imagine the liberation of the poor without religion72 Will there be a "secular," "non-religious" revolution in the future7 Or do we need to ask whether "revolution, that is to say the liberation of the poor in this globalized, neo-hberal world, will be religious3 or not7" The poor, in large part, are still not a historical subject They are dispersed, disunited, without communication among themselves, still taken up with a "syndrome of depression" left over from the last decade of the last century 4 As a legacy from an age-old history, they are separated by an insurmountable gulf of separations that are not only geographical and linguistic but above all cultural And in today's already structurally "globalized" world there is no path to liberation except in a "globalized" strategy Fortunately, "the beginning of the twenty-first century is marked by the emergence of a new liberating subject the social movements for global justice " 5 A new path of hope is Data from Franz Damien, "Sectas," in Mysterium Liberatwnis, San Salvador, UCA Editores, 1991,11,423 445 2 Jose Maria Vigil, "El papel de la religion en la liberacion mundial," Managua, Alternates, 10/25 (June 2003), 77-90 3 What I mean is with the decisive concurrence of religion 4 J M Vigil, "Aunque es de noche Hipotesis psicoteologicas sobre la hora espintual de America Latina en los 90," Envw, Managua, 1996 Also published by Verbo Divmo, Bogota, 1996, by Accion Cultura, Madrid 2000 and as Embora seja noite, Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 1997 5 In this way, Rafael Diaz-Salazar begins his introduction to Justicia global Las alter nativas del Foro de Porto Alegre, Icartia-Intermon Oxfam, Barcelona, 2002 The book presents the results of the 2003World Social Forum in Porto Alegre
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beginning to take shape on the horizon of the poor of the world. Hundreds or thousands of groups in civil society are giving shape to this new global agent that is beginning to oppose neo-liberal globalization with the assurance that "another world is possible." Within civil society religions are also increasingly present. Indeed, in the World Social Forums that have already taken place, there is a growing presence of religions. This is not happening in any official, institutionalized way. Some groups are more aware of the irreplaceable contribution that religions can make when faced with this new path of world liberation. They are taking action. Religions should participate because of their proximity to people, because of their position as supra-national and even supra-continental, and above all because of their special ability to give power6 to the people. It is essential that they participate. For that to happen religions need, above all a "conversion." We need religions to reclaim the best in their spiritual traditions. This inevitably includes mercy, justice and hope for the transformation of the world. Up until now the religions that we identify as "world religions" have attended to what is worldly along the lines of a "spiritual conquest." What is "world" about them has involved only the desire to conquer the world through a missionary effort, to "convert" other religions and to absorb them. Today they are beginning to abandon this "missionary thrust," barely beginning. Religions know that their commitment can continue to have a global dimension but today it is not in view of a missionary conquest but rather of a responsibility for a world ethic. We live in one and the same world and "either we are all saved or we sink together." Above all today, when the structures of oppression have spread throughout the world in one single, united and globalized system, the transformation of the world can only happen through the integrated participation of all oppressed peoples. If these peoples have many religions, the multitude of the poor will only participate in an integrated way when religions dialogue and coordinate among themselves. That is why "a world movement of liberation needs a world-wide interreligious dialogue."7 One of the main preoccupations for today and for the future is precisely this world-wide inter-religious dialogue, that is to say a dialogue among religions. It has become one of the conditions for the very possibility of world liberation. The best service that religions can offer to the world today, and concretely to the poor, is to dialogue and to find a way for positive collaboration in the transformation of society. Without minimizing all their other pursuits, strengths and initiatives, perhaps religions will provide a defini6 7

"darpoder" is an Anglicism used increasingly in Latin America. P. Knitter, "Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions," in Hick-Knitter (editors), The Myth of Christian Uniqueness, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1987, 180.

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tive thrust and an exceptional acceleration toward a world revolution. Paraphrasing a well-known statement of Gandhi that was taken up again by Kiing, I make bold to say: There will only be a liberation of the poor if religions become liberating, and there will only be a union of the poor if religions dialogue. There will be no peace in the world unless the poor are liberated and there will be no world liberation of the poor without dialogue among religions. Poor and religions of the world, unite!

Religions need the poor in order to dialogue Only recently have religions taken seriously the plurality of religions as such. The fact is that each religion has lived its history in isolation, not only in a geographic and cultural way but, above all in a religious and theological sense. All religions have lived in what today is known as "exclusivity," that is to say the theological position that thinks that "only I am right." To think that "outside the Church there is no salvation" is in no way an exclusively Christian attitude. It has been a common guideline for practically all religions. However, at this point there is intense interaction among religions. Through new circumstances that include communications, the growth of international travel and migration, the world "has become a small village" and religions can no longer continue ignoring each other. Modern society is religiously plural and increasingly so. The "other great religions," apart from our own, no longer dwell on distant continents but can be found in our own city. At work, in the communications media or even on the same block in our neighborhood, citizens in every society find themselves confronted with the presence of the great religions. "The United States has become the most diverse country in the world from the point of view of religions."8 In England there are now, in absolute terms, more practicing Muslims than practicing Anglicans.9 The influx of Eastern religions into the West is a well-known fact for some time now. The growing presence of Islam is obvious throughout the Third World, and even in the western part, in Latin America. Living as we all do now in one globalized world, religions cannot draw back from this coexistence with others.

D. Eck, A New Religious America, New York, Harper San Francisco, 2001, 4. Data from the Sunday Times, May 11, 1997.

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This unavoidable co-existence brings with it some challenges that inevitably raise questions for the ordinary believer: Are religions true, valid, saving? What about the absolute character that each religion had assigned to itself until now? Can we continue thinking in exclusivist terms, like "apart from us there is no salvation" or even in inclusivist terms like "the truth that exists outside our borders is a participation in the one truth that is ours?" So then, "to sincerely accept"10 religious pluralism is not a simple ethical decision but rather the entry into a radically new moment, because the whole symbolic patrimony of every religion was developed on the assumption that their religion was unique and absolute. To accept religious pluralism in all honesty brings with it the task of reinterpreting or re-working the whole patrimony. It means reformulating religion itself. Christianity, through the Council of Florence in 1442, said that, We firmly believe, profess and teach that none of those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews, heretics and schismatics, will be able to participate in eternal life. They will go to the eternal fire that has been prepared by the devil and his angels (Mt. 25, 4) unless, before the end of their life they are incorporated into the Church.... Is this the same Christianity as that of those who today take up the position of religious pluralism and who believe that Christianity is one more among the religions and that Jesus is one more among the mediators of salvation? Can we think that the two propositions fall within the same concept of religion? The coherent acceptance of religious pluralism is a "change of paradigm" that goes deeper than it appears. Religions are challenged to recreate their own selfunderstanding and to adjust their interpretation of reality. It is a call to conversion, to die and be reborn. Inter-religious dialogue demands then, more than anything else, a "religious intra-dialogue."11 Before dialoguing with other religions, each religion should have a dialogue with itself in order to question its own convictions. It will need to verify a posteriori the affirmations about its uniqueness and absoluteness that it had considered a priori. If necessary, it will need to change them. Without this prior "intra-dialogue" the other dialogue will be nothing more than a "dialogue among the deaf." On the other hand, religions know how difficult it is to have a dialogue in the field of doctrine and faith. It is easier in the area of ethics and life. Any Agenda Latinoamericana (2004): "Aceptar sinceramente el pluralismo religioso," Managua, 45-47. Tr: An English edition is published by the Social Justice Committee of Montreal. 11 Raimundo Panikkar, II dialogo intrareligioso, Assisi, Citadella Editrice, 2001.

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theoretical, theological dialogue is welcome if it happens. But it can also wait. We do not need an agreement among the specialists on a common text worked out over decades in a process of consensus in order to get moving and to begin the "dialogue of life" at the grassroots. Everything that has to do with theoretical clarifications about orthodoxy can wait. We can live with theoretical doubts but we are aware of the urgency for co-existence in peace and in love. This cannot be put off. It is not a question of trying to discuss theology or to convince one another or even less to "convert" the others. The really urgent dialogue is the one about life, one that produces and multiplies Life as is appropriate for religions that believe in a God of Life. Today religions are also challenged by the sign of the times that consists in "many poor and many religions" and increasingly they are becoming aware of their global responsibility. The "Two-thirds Society," the First and the Third World, the masses of the excluded and the privileged sectors that do the excluding, all have a religious legacy, whatever it might be. In this unique world, religions cannot deny their responsibility. Certainly every one of them has its own independent history but today we all live in "one single world," in a world system that makes us globally co-responsible for everyone. Religions are becoming aware that they cannot fail to take on a global responsibility. It is the "world ethic" that is managing to open a path in the awareness of widening religious sectors. If religions would dialogue and come to an agreement to promote a minimal world ethic that is accepted by everyone, we would discover a strength capable of challenging the structural egotism of financial capital and of imperial military power12 which is, all things considered, public enemy number one of the poor.13 Where do we start? How can we do it? One of the basic principles of any dialogue is "to begin with what unites us and not with what separates us." We put the "ethical capital" of each religion in common in order to strengthen and enrich it and we embrace it collectively as a basis for co-existence and for the transformation of the world. So, what "minimal common ethic" exists in the various religions? In this respect and for some time now the so-called "Golden Rule" is being acclaimed. It seems to be recognized in all religions with almost identical phrasing and it appears as well in the Gospel (Mt. 7, 12; Lk. 6, 31): "Always treat others as you would like them to treat you." By its very nature, we are dealing with a "minimal ethic" that is comparable to the "categorical imperative" of Kant. It is an ethical principle that in itself is self-evident and fundamental and on which the rest of the moral structure can then be built. This basic rule is in reality supra-religious or pre-religious. It is a matter of natural ethics with a primary logical grounding. It can effectively be considered a suitAntonio Comin, "La mundializacion: aspectos politicos," in Varios, Mundializacion o conquista? Santander, Sal Terrea, 1999, 87ff. Richard Horsley, Jesus and Empire, Augsburg, Fortress Press, 2002.

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able foundation to begin a dialogue "on the basis of what unites us." All religions can agree to it. The "Golden Rule" can therefore be a good beginning for dialogue in so far as that means beginning "with what unites us." Through its quality as a minimal basic ethic, the Golden Rule in reality serves as a foundation for every moral principle and is for that reason also an underpinning for the "option for the poor." The option for the poor is an option for the impoverished, for those who in general are treated with injustice whatever kind of "injustice" might be. Don't do to others what you would not want to have done to you, or don't commit an injustice that you would not want to suffer. The Golden Rule, common among religions, obliges them to regard the poor as the principal and most urgent point of reference. There is no greater drama in the world today that that "two-thirds" of humanity that is excluded and oppressed. There is nothing in the world that cries out more loudly in the Golden Rule than the suffering humanity of the poor and of those who suffer injustice. It is precisely as a support for the poor of the earth that religions are urgently called upon to begin their dialogue, a dialogue not of theologians or of orthodoxies but rather a "dialogue of life," of co-existence and of transformation of the world specifically based on the poor as subjects who are empowered by their religions. In the current theology of religions there is a commonly accepted outline of the evolution of the different paradigms in the Christian world: exclusivity (or ecclesio-centeredness) for almost twenty centuries; inclusivity (or Christ-centeredness) for just 40 years; and pluralism (or God-centeredness) that is currently a new and growing model. This God-centeredness, in Christian language has quickly given way to a theologically equivalent "Reign-centeredness." I say it is equivalent because the Christian God cannot be other than the "God of the Reign." However, recently the phrase "Reign-centered" has also given way to another phrase: "salvationcenteredness." This is an attempt to avoid Christian words that could make inter-religious dialogue difficult, for example, with Hinduism in which the concept of a personal "god" is somewhat controversial and where the concept of "Reign" is unknown. The most current proposal in religious language is, in any case, that of salvation-centeredness in which salvation is placed at the center. "La option por los pobres como option por la justicia, y no es preferential. Para una reencuadramiento teologico-sistematico de la option por los pobres." Theologica Xaveriana, 149 (January-March, 2004), 151-166, Bogota. Also published in Christus, 741 (March-April 2004), 41-46, CRT; Sendero XXVI/78 (May-August, 2004) 317334, San Jose de Costa Rica; Ocote Encendido, 32 (May, 2004), 1-17, Zaragoza, Espana; Tiempo Latinamericano, 75 (May, 2004), Cordoba, Argentina.
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This means that religions seek the salvation of human beings. Somehow, different religions have been set loose in the world by an act of God or "Ultimate Reality" (to use universal language). They are paths of salvation, each contextualized in their own geography, history and culture. But, they are all or should all be "paths of salvation" and means for the full realization of human beings. This is their mission, their justification. It is no longer true that "outside the Church there is no salvation" can be applied to every religion. Rather "outside salvation there is no (authentic) Church." And this can be applied to any Church or religion. If religion does not produce salvation, that is to say, if it does not opt for the poor, if it does not join with the other religions in dialogue and cooperation for the transformation of the world, it is a "false" religion, one that is falsified and useless. The criterion that validates the truth of each religion lies in the salvation it communicates and that it places (or not) at its center. If a religion wants to give "glory to God" it has to show that it helps human beings live, especially the poor and those who suffer injustice. This coincides with the saying of Saint Irenaeus that "the glory of God is that human beings live," nuanced today by Saint Romero of America who said that "the glory of God is that the poor live." "Action in favor of justice and of the transformation of the world" is the best field of validation and of inter-religious dialogue. For that reason, during a period of inevitable inter-religious co-existence and dialogue, religions are called upon to become aware that this is the first priority and resolutely to put their hand to the task. The option for the poor as the principal contribution of the Abrahamic religions to inter-religious dialogue Religious pluralism, that is to say the acceptance of plurality, is a particularly difficult challenge for Christianity because its pretension to uniqueness and absoluteness are very well known. Earlier we quoted the Council of Florence that is a culminating point in that attitude of exclusivity. Throughout the world people know that Christianity thinks of itself as "the only true religion," against which all the other religions and gods are "the work of human hands" (Psalm 113B). The history of Christianity is full of arrogant attitudes, including the way in which it allowed itself to be enthroned as the official religion of the Roman Empire even to the point of persecuting other religions. Included also in this attitude are: the constitution of Christianity as Christendom by which the Church placed itself over and above civil power as an absolute power without appeal, the crusades as wars "in the name of God against the infidels," the theological justification of the conquest of America (Don't forget the text of

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the Requenmiento* and the distribution of the "vacant lands" effected by the popes in favor of Christian kings), the Inquisition in which so many "heretics" were tortured and executed, support for or connivance with neo-colomalism, the missionary conviction that Christianity was called to be the only religion in the world "when everything in heaven and on earth are united under one head, Christ" (Eph 1, 10) And we don't have to restnct ourselves to speakingjust of the past Even today the declaration, Dominus Jesus (2000) does not accept the phrase "Sister Churches," haggling over the very word "Church" in the (Christian) ecumenical world It states that even if it is not true that there is no salvation outside the Church, at least human beings find themselves "in a gravely deficient situation" with respect to their salvation (N 22) The Catholic Church is called to a profound conversion in the future if it wants to embark on the path of religious dialogue and sincere welcome of pluralism Nevertheless, if it finally accepts pluralism and enters into mterrehgious dialogue, Christianity is going to have much to contribute In its own symbolic patrimony, in its Scriptures, in its tradition and above all at the root of its own historic origins, Christianity has an image of God and a way of conceiving of religion that coincides with the "basic minimal ethic" that we were speaking of before In this sense its contribution to religious dialogue on a world scale could be decisive Let's take a look Historically speaking (beyond the origin myths that are later creations), the origins of Judeo-Chnstianity go back to the 13th century before Christ, to that agrarian-farmer revolution that had the Hapirus as its protagonists 15 The original God of Judeo-Christiamty was invoked and was experienced for the first time in history during that revolution We don't know if there was ever an atheist revolution in history but this one at least was religious The Hapirus rebelled against the kings of the city-states and against Pharaoh in the name of a God called "El," who figures in the god-bearing name of Isra-El and who was experienced through the ethical indignation of the poor The Hapirus, the marginal and excluded people of the period, had a religious experience, an experience of God This was a God called "El " In that name they could rise up against the religious experience of the society around them and against its dominant classes (the Pharaoh, the local king, local armies, the clergy, and so forth) who were grouped around the god "Baal " The poor, who suffered injustice, had a new religious experience It was based on an "ethical indignation" when faced with the reality of radical injustice that they were suffering They had a passionate conviction that the God of justice and of solidarity, called El, "would fight at their side" (that is what Isra-El means) This way they could Tr A document read in Latin to local leaders by the Spanish conquerors inviting them to accept Christ and his legitimate representatives (the Pope, the Spanish king) or become enemies of God, forfeiting thus their lands and lives 15 See also Norman Gottwald, The Tribes ofYahweh, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1979

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free themselves from that world of oppression and to build a new society. That religious experience in the mountains of Canaan coincided with the equally liberating religious experience of another group of Hapirus who managed to escape the oppression of the empire of the time, namely Egypt. This was the Exodus group. The experiences of both groups melded together and the names of God {El and Yahweh) also became identified. The most genuine and original element in the Judeo-Christian religion is that passion for justice, that imperative to build a society without oppressors or oppressed. Everything else is embellishment or consequence of the original religion or is a deviation from it. In what is at the core of the symbolic legacy of Judeo-Christianity there always remains that option of the poor for God and of God for the poor. This is the covenant between God and the poor. From the point of view of Judeo-Christianity, religion or the fundamental "religious experience" is an experience that makes us able to overcome egotism (including its crassest forms, which are conformity and resignation), to leap beyond ourselves and to be centered in justice and love. It is an experience that can take hold of a person and render him/her passionate for a Utopia of transformation of the world and for building a New Society. This will be a democratic, fraternal and participative society such as God would want, the "Reign of God" itself, as a later vocabulary would say. Theologically, as if taken in an X-ray, the option for the poor is essentially an "option for justice" or, said in a more personal way, "an option for those who suffer injustice. And the God who is experienced in that option is the authentic God of the Bible. If we draw back from this religious experience, we inevitably distance ourselves from the original God of the Bible. This is the "charism of Judeo-Christianity" and it could be its major contribution to interreligious dialogue. So, just as everything else in Judeo-Christianity can be taken to be an addition, a derivation, something accidental or even dispensable in comparison with this essential nucleus, so also Judeo-Christianity can be in communion with all religions that agree to welcome with reverence this experience of the option for a higher Justice that is the option for the poor. On the other hand, Judeo-Christianity can and should open itself up to being enriched by other views and focal points, other perspectives and/or enrichments, based on the "charisms" of other religions. The principal contribution of Judeo-Christianity to dialogue among religions is the view that the very essence of religion is that passion for justice and fraternity. If this "basic minimum in religion" were accepted, the world would move toward a radical transformation. The principal and most urgent task Christianity is facing with regard to the future is not perhaps its own internal renewal (although that is so urgent that in reality it puts its survival in danger). It needs rather to take up its global responsibility for the world and history (in line with the many times it has already done so in its recent history). It needs to support dialogue among relig-

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ions about the core elements of religious experience: the option for the poor as an option for justice and for the construction of a New World. To operate in this sense, Christianity does not have to do anything inappropriate. On the contrary, it need only allow itself to be guided by its own "natural" impulse. In this way it will open the way to its own foundational charism that is embodied in the best of its Scriptures and its tradition, the clearest voice of its prophets and of Jesus. All of these overwhelmingly coincide with this same focus. Latin American theology of liberation, in its branch as "theology of religions" or what used to be called "macro-ecumenism," has already embarked on this line of thinking (in the 70s and 80s). At that time it did not give much importance in theory to dialogue among religions because the experience of pluralism as it exists in our world today had not yet happened in Latin America. But Latin American macro-ecumenism practiced exactly what was in fact a "dialogue of religions" that embraced even the absence of religion: atheism. Liberation theology got along very well with atheists, with the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10, 25) whom it always recognized as being "not very far from the Reign of God" (Mk. 12, 34). It never "discussed religion" with atheists, nor did it engage in a debate about "the true religion" with Indigenous and Afro religions. Instead, it welcomed them convinced of their sacred character and it fervently worshiped with them the "God of all names."16 We might say in that respect that it was pluralist "avant la lettre." It recognized that the most effective religious dialogue consists in building a new world together "where the poor are alive" and that this would be the best worship "in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4, 24). Still, this does not mean that there did not remain a long path to walk. Indeed, we are in "another epoch" and there are new challenges. Let me conclude by pointing out what seems to me to be the principal one among them. Pieris says: But the irruption of the Third World is also the irruption of the nonChristian world. The vast majority of God's poor perceive their ultimate concern and symbolize their struggle for liberation in the idiom of non-Christian religions and cultures. Therefore a theology that does not speak to or speak through this non-Christian peoplehood is an esoteric luxury of a Christian minority.17 Latin American liberation theology had an influence that went well beyond its own continent but it never intended that in any direct way. Its source and its P. Casaldaliga, Missa dos Quilombos, Introit. Pieris, "The Place of Non-Christian Religions and Cultures in the Evolution of Third World Theology," Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology, Virginia Fabela and Sergio Torres (editors) Maryknoll, New York, 1983, 113-114.
17 16

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interlocutor was the Latin American people, a people with a Christian tradition and with a Western view of the world that was imposed on Indigenous, AfroAmerican and rural matrices. They were not concerned about a dialogue with the "great religions." The circumstances of that period did not allow for a broader perspective. In the end, it was certainly enclosed in its own Christian, Western and Latin American frameworks, not out of bad will but because of the lack of other opportunities. In this sense, we offer a fraternal welcome to the criticism of Pieris who, from the privileged vantage point of Asia, has another and broader point of view from which to tell us that our Latin American liberation theology is "the luxury of a Christian minority." In the 70s and 80s it could not perhaps have happened in any other way. Although it did not lack experiences of inter-continental Third-World dialogue, the greater part of Latin American experience stayed at the margin of those explorations. It should not be so now. We are in another point in history, a time of globalization. The liberation theology of the immediate future can no longer be only "Latin American." It has to be a liberation theology that speaks to the world and that is a theology of "world liberation." Even more, in this new stage of liberation theology we need to try to create an "inter-religious theology of world liberation" along with a (Christian) theology of world liberation. This would be a theology that is no longer constructed on strictly Christian foundations. Instead it is a theology that, by pointing to world liberation as its objective, speaks to the subjects of that world liberation who are the "many who are poor." But they are poor who are also of "many religions." We need an inter-religious theology of liberation that perhaps will have to restrict itself to a theology of ethical and religious minimums. Nevertheless, by being "minimal" in this sense it will enjoy a maximum universality by cutting across all religions. Building this new liberation theology is one of the most urgent tasks for a theology committed to the poor. Liberation theology was slow in discovering fields other than the economic, such as culture, gender, ethnicity, etc. The last field that it has discovered is that of religious pluralism. The difference is that this is transversal and not confined to one sector. From that point of view it affects everything in theology and everything has to be reformulated in its light. This is the challenge for a liberation theology of religious pluralism.

Bibliography Casaldaliga, P. (1982). Missa dos Quilombos. Introit. Comfn, A. (1999). La mundializacion: aspectos polfticos. In: Varios (1999). Mundializacidn o conquista? Santander: Sal Terrea. Damien, F. (1991). Sectas. In: Mysterium Liberationis. San SalvadonUCA Editores.

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Diaz-Salazar, R. (2002). Justicia global. Las alternativas del Foro de Porto Alegre. Barcelona: Icartia-Intermon-Oxfam. Eck, D. (2001). A New Religious America. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco. Gottwald, N. (1979). The Tribes ofYahweh. Maryknoll: Orbis. Hick, J. & Knitter, P. (eds.). (1987/1998). Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions. In: Hick, J. & Knitter, P. (eds.). (1998). The Myth of Christian Uniqueness. Maryknoll: Orbis. Horsley, R. (2002). Jesus and Empire. Augsburg: Fortress Press. Panikkar, R. (2001). // dialogo intrareligioso. Assisi: Citadella Editrice. Pieris, A. (1983). The Place of Non-Christian Religions and Cultures in the Evolution of Third World Theology. In: Fabela, V. & Torres, S.(eds.). (1983). Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.. Vigil, J.M. (1996). Aunque es de noche. Hipotesis psicoteologicas sobre la hora espiritual de America Latina en los 90. Managua: Envio. Vigil, J.M. (2003). El papel de la religion en la liberation mundial. In: Alternativas, 10/25 (June 2003). pp. 77-90. Vigil, J.M. (2004). La opcion por los pobres como opcion por lajusticia, y no es preferencial. Para una reencuadramiento teologico-sistematico de la opcion por los pobres. In: Theologica Xaveriana, 149 (January-March, 2004). pp. 151-166.

Chapter 8 Theology of Religions in a Latin American Perspective

Jose Comblin Joao Pessoa, Brasil

Introduction Right off I need to say that I do not pretend here to offer a theology from a Latin American perspective as if it were a particular point of view, one among others with all of them being equivalent and acceptable. What happened in Latin American theology during recent decades is not a particular phenomenon. What came to be is not a particular theology, a circumstantial theology, something local and partial. That is the way they see it in Europe and in that they are totally mistaken. They think they have a universal point of view; they think they represent the universal and that they can judge all the others as if they were particular theologies that do not affect universal theology. It is the theology of the First World that is a circumstantial, local, partial, particular theology because it is a theology of Western Christianity. It has not yet cut the ties with Christendom or with the historical Churches that remain faithful to Christendom. They have not assimilated Vatican II and above all they have not extended it,. They were afraid and they went back to the old ways in spite of all their pretensions to the contrary. I will explain this a little further on. What happened in Latin America? Just the opposite: they expanded the theology of Vatican II in a radical way and abandoned the framework of Christendom. They took what Vatican II said seriously and broke with Christendom, seeking rather the people of God among the poor, something that the Churches of the First World have not dared to do and that the Roman bureaucracy managed to halt by defending its politics of alliance with power in Western society, the heirs to Christendom. Christendom was a united, integrated, unified society in which social classes and categories as such were supposed to become integrated and to disappear. They provided no privileged place for the poor. The keyword always was and still is "unity." For that reason the theology of Christendom is a theology of unity. Inevitably the institutional apparatus stands out as the symbol, the instrument and the image of Christendom when it is not considered to be Christianity itself. In this way the Churches of the First World, who are those that conquered the world, tend to be presented as having a historical role. They don't

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represent the Gospel but rather a historical role that took its legitimacy from the Gospel when in reality it was a religion of Christian inspiration but not Christianity itself. The theology of the First World exercises its judgments from within the institutional Churches as if these were Christianity when really they are historical constructions, localized in space and time, but radically different from Christianity. All the elements of Christianity have been revised and changed to present an ideology of Christendom. Even in the context of secularization they continue to defend and maintain the structures of Christendom, the model consisting in the doctrine, sacraments and organization of Christendom. It is true that since the end of the 19th century certain theologians in the First World tried to open up the official theology. By stages they prepared the Second Vatican Council. Since then some tried to go even further. Those who did so more courageously were condemned. Those who did so and were respected, like K. Rahner, wrote in a style that was so hermetic that only a few could understand them. They were not a threat to the Catholic public in general. In any case, their contributions constitute useful approaches to a theology of dialogue. Of course, within Christendom there were many poor Christians who understood the Gospel and lived it. They were the people of God. But between them and the structure of Christendom there was an abyss almost without communication. The people thought one thing and the system another. In Latin America also, even from the colonial period there are many poor people who understand and live the Gospel and know very well that the true Church is that of the poor even though they don't dare say so because the structure was and still is relatively strong. Few dare pass judgment on a priest in public even though they do so in private conversations. In Latin America there was among the clergy itself and within theology a rediscovery of the poor and the true sense of the good news of the Gospel that is directed to the poor and not simply to all human beings as if everyone were equal. What we find in the Bible is precisely that they are not equal, that in history there are the rich and the poor, the dominators and the dominated, the exploiters and the exploited, the oppressors and the oppressed. And the Gospel takes its meaning from the criticism of that situation, restated, even to their death, by prophets in every age. Latin American theology did not adapt Christian theology to a particular circumstance. It discovered the true theology that had been kept hidden for centuries by the structure of Christendom and its intellectual elite. It rediscovered the essential element of Christianity, its central message. How could it do that? Because it broke with Christendom; it broke with the colonial system and it broke with the ecclesiastical system. They were persecuted even by the hierarchy but they did not give in because they knew that they had discovered a truth, which had remained hidden for centuries.

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That is why this theology will not pass away. It can be cut down by force in the Latin America that gave birth to it but it will pass over into other continents and hopefully open the eyes of some theologians of the First World. They discovered that the real Church is the Church of the poor, the Church that is not recognized or accepted by the system. They broke with the system. Cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and lay leaders broke with the system. And for that reason they knew the true Church. With the poor they discovered that unity is eschatological. It is found only in the final moment. However, they found, at this point we are involved in a history of struggle, the struggle of the poor for their liberation, which is what Jesus announced to the people by opposing all the authorities of Israel including the clergy, doctors and elders of the important families. They discovered that the message of Jesus is hope for a total liberation. By standing with the poor, they understood that liberation does not refer just to a future life. It is not found in an idealized Christendom. Rather, it is present in the constant and perseverant struggle of the poor enlightened by the divine promise of full liberation. This doesn't mean that others are excluded. Jesus gives them a way to salvation: Abandon your wealth and join those who are poor. This is the point of view that allows us to judge and to appreciate the meaning of inter-religious dialogue. Who is dialoguing? Who dialogues with whom ? The question is, if those who dialogue in the name of Christianity are members of the structure of Christendom - clergy, religious - we should be very suspicious. They do not represent Christianity. Instead they are always preoccupied by the fear of stepping outside orthodoxy, that is to say the institutional system of Christendom. In this dialogue, a Hindu or Muslim or Buddhist does not communicate with a Christian but rather with a representative of the Christian system. They would find Christianity if they were to go live in small villages or shantytowns. There they could know what it is all about. Most likely however what is called dialogue in the religious world doesn't refer to that. As a result it is irrelevant. Well then, that was the system presented to everyone for 16 centuries as Christianity. And so we can see that they didn't offer Christianity but rather a version that was incarnated in their cultural, social and political system. Even today most members of the system are saturated with it and can't grasp that they are stuck inside a system. They believe that what they say is Christianity because it is what they learned in their theology. And yet they are just practicing the system.

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A dialogue like this, in which the parties call themselves Christian but are really representatives of a system, is very suspicious. And we can presume that something similar happens in other religions. They are much less institutionalized than the historic Christian Churches and above all the Catholic Church, but they also have their clergy and their orthodoxies. At this point in history, the situation has gotten worse. Official Catholicism is increasingly bureaucratic. The 20th century has witnessed the emergence of a Vatican bureaucracy that has become independent and manipulates the Pope, attributing to itself the powers of Peter. This power of Peter is depersonalized and situated in a bureaucracy that places it at the service of their corporate interests. Peter is now a bureaucracy. It produces documents endlessly to justify its existence. But its raison-d'etre, like that of all bureaucracies, is to increase its power. For that reason only with difficulty can it allow something Christian to shine through in the midst of all that immense production of printed paper. Take a look at the document on Dialogue and Proclamation of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (May 19, 1991). It is a typically bureaucratic document in which all the problems are hidden away and dialogue is situated in an extra-terrestrial world where they speak of entities that do not exist and never refer to what does exist. They never talk about what the Christian Church is or what other religions are. They speak of a fictitious dialogue among fictitious people. We find ourselves in a world of virtual entities and not in the world of real human beings. In that context there is nothing to do except to repeat an endless blahblah-blah with great pleasure and satisfaction for having performed an act of charity and evangelization. Dialogue among bureaucrats provides a raison-d'etre for bureaucrats but doesn't lead anywhere. What is needed is a dialogue among real people that live a real life in this real world and work together with other real people in a real history. With their rigorous criteria, bureaucracy fears nothing more in practice than real dialogue and for that reason will do everything possible to assure that there is never real dialogue. They produce numerous documents, not to promote dialogue, but so that it won't happen since this would endanger the priority of their politics of bureaucratic power. A real dialogue is a dialogue among people when they are starting to share life together, comparing their religions and inevitably influencing one another mutually. Are they going to corrupt Christianity? That isn't possible because clergy are always the heretics and not the laity. In real dialogue the outcome is unforeseeable, but there can be no dialogue if you want to know ahead of time where it is going. All dialogue is a risk because it questions; it upsets the equilibrium of the various parties and obliges them to reformulate their own way of living and thinking.

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The purpose of dialogue I have a suspicion. In today's world all religions suffer from the impact of secularism in the Western, scientific and technological civilization. They all feel threatened. They feel they are increasingly rejected from public life in their different countries. My suspicion is that the representatives of the major institutions imagine a defense line for their specific interests as religions. This would be something like a world union of religions. Something similar already exists in the United Nations where the Vatican has asked for and received support from the Muslim states for its policies regarding sex, demographics and defense of life. Fundamentalism does not of itself exclude this form of cooperation. And at this point we are in a growth phase for the development of fundamentalisms. Fundamentalism is growing in all religions. It wants to entrench doctrines, customs and rituals by adopting certain historical expressions, supposedly considered fundamental, as indisputable. In this way they want to give definitive, unchanging, sacred form to the religious institution. They defend their orthodoxy with the complete intolerance. They repress all tendencies toward modernity or modernization as well as any penetration of a critical spirit or of scientific rationality in religion. In the Catholic Church fundamentalism has grown enormously during the current pontificate.* Opus Dei has become the dominant force in the Vatican, controlling important sectors like finance and communications. It controls most of the Cardinals and Prelates of the curia and is placing its priests as bishops of important dioceses. It has deeply penetrated into the political world of Latin America as also of Spain. Along with Opus Dei, the Legionaries of Christ are already in a phase of rapid conquest of power. Other associations like the Sodalitium in Peru are moving in the same direction. In practice one can see that Catholic discipline is becoming increasingly rigid and irrational during this pontificate. The Catholic Church is becoming fundamentalist. The Pentecostal or Charismatic movements have moved away from their original inspiration, have lost interest in temporal politics and in fact provide a backing for fundamentalism. They have been assimilated by the system. Among Protestants, North American fundamentalism is growing steadily. It has a very large influence in the Republican government of the United States. Islamic fundamentalism has by now achieved a world-wide presence. It is steadily growing in the Muslim world since its origins in the 1920's. There is also a Jewish, a Hindu and a Buddhist fundamentalism in full expansion. They all defend themselves against modernity as incarnated in the scientific, economic and financial power of the West.

* [Tr: He is writing at the end of the pontificate of John Paul II.]

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You might think that the fundamentalists have no interest in a dialogue that threatens their certainties. It is clear that they have no religious interest, but there can be a political interest and it has already become evident. Dialogue can be the machine for a world alliance of fundamentalisms to promote the political, social and cultural importance of religion. This would be a dialogue of leaders of different religions without any popular participation. With an alliance like that the poor would be the victims of an inquisition in which they would be the first targets. Dialogue can also be a smart move to get followers from other religions. When those who are dialoguing belong to a clergy or to a religious leadership, it helps to be suspicious in order to avoid the tendency to allow proselytism to take over. Secretly or publicly many religions have a project to convert all of humanity to their religion. Even in official Catholic theology dialogue is presented as a prior step to proclamation, that is to say, to the invitation to conversion. Dialogue is not taken as a good in itself but as a step prior to conversion. It is clear that dialogue can lead to conversion but conversion cannot be the direct goal of dialogue. Otherwise dialogue loses its advantage, which is the gratuity of a relationship between people. It seems obvious that all parties can have the same intention, above all if they belong to the clergy and if everyone tries to hide that intention. But will anyone take the game seriously? It is obvious that such a dialogue is pure manipulation, pure appearance. If conversion is the goal then it is better to speak frankly without making dialogue a pretext. The dialogue will be more sincere when those involved have no position in a religious hierarchy. The goal of dialogue is a common search for the ultimate truth about life, about being human and about reality. In fact, experience shows that all religions twist their origins, corrupt their original message and become fixed systems of belief, ritual or organization. This is how they turn into powerful forces in society. At that point religion serves as a means to achieve power. We saw this during millennia when States and Empires were dominated by the functionaries of religion. For millennia it was taught that it was God who gave victory in war and so priests considered themselves the most important people in society because the success of war depended on them. Catholic theology still taught this right up to Vatican II. This is what sustained Christendom and the position of the clergy as the highest rank in society. It was what legitimated the conquest of America. God had given victory to the Spanish armies and this was the ideological fundamentalism of the Spanish domination. A religion is not capable of correcting itself. It needs the critique and the stimulation of other people situated outside it, that is to say other religions. So it is that some say heresies are necessary because they allow the search for truth to let go of conventional and fixed formulas. For Christianity this work is particularly necessary because there is an abyss between the historic comportment of the Church and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Dialogue will allow all the

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corruption in a religion to be corrected because comparison with the others will reveal its deficiencies. Together they will seek the truth. For Christians the truth is Jesus Christ. But Christians don't know Jesus Christ. He has been replaced with theologies or mythologies. Through critique from other religions they will have to seek a way to know him as he wants to be known. The dynamic of Romans 9: 11 is still valid for us: Those who think they are heirs to the Reign, depositories of the truth, are those who do not know the Reign and who betray it. Others from outside, the Pagans, are going to discover it. They will reveal to the traditional Christians what the Gospel really is. What is religion ? Once we speak of religions in the plural, we identify religion as community organizations, as a defined system of beliefs, symbols, rituals, and social ways of expressing oneself. But Christianity goes beyond all those exterior and symbolic forms that have been grafted by history onto the simplicity of the Gospel. True Christianity is found in the action of Christians following the practice of Jesus. All the rest consists of symbols that help or impede the search for the truth in any given case. The truth of religion is what is beyond religion, namely the search for Jesus Christ, for God, not through symbols and symbolic acts, but in the reality of life. What advantage would there be to compare symbolic systems? It would be a hindrance precisely to the essential, the common search for the truth that is beyond all that. Otherwise, dialogue could be reduced to a presentation of symbolic systems, a big international Fair of symbolic systems in which each person could choose what she or he prefers or likes best. A religion could pick up symbols from the others because they appear to be more effective instruments. Christians have done that constantly, precisely because Jesus didn't give them a system of symbols. They believed they needed them and they stole them from the agrarian religions of the Middle East and the Mediterranean region in order to construct their own building. Look at the robes of a bishop. They are a combination of symbols coming from the religions of Persia and Egypt, from the German peoples and others. Everything was picked up in the market of religions. The missionaries to America went looking for symbolic systems in India, which is rich in symbols, or in China and they brought that to the American Indigenous peoples who were delighted. So then, as in all markets, the market of religions is unequal. The strongest take all and the poorest end up with nothing because their whole cultural heritage has been taken from them. In America we do the same thing today by using the symbols of the Indigenous or African religions. It is religious imperialism! The truth of religion is what is beyond all religion. That is the problem with religious dialogue. We are all called to help one another go beyond our

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frontiers, our fixations and our idolatries because it is idolatry to consider religion as an end in itself. It is to make religion the goal and not the means that should step aside for what is beyond it. The purpose of dialogue Discernment of religions Religion can be the best or the worst of things. It all depends on how it is used. In America, this contrast shows up tragically. Religion justified, provoked and encouraged the destruction of the cultures of the Indigenous people and of the African slaves. It legitimated and consolidated the conquest, the extermination and quasi-slavery of the Indigenous peoples. It justified importing millions of slaves from Africa and the whole system of slavery that lasted centuries. All this happened with the blessing of official religion, its ministers and representatives. All religions are guilty of similar horrors, although perhaps not so widely. Religions are conservative to the extent that they identify with a system of symbols. For that reason they are opposed to cultural, social or political changes that could threaten their status. They want to defend what they have. When a cultural crisis of major intensity happens, religions fall into fundamentalism. And then they continue to support traditional injustices, the most primitive forms of human life and forms of oppression that are established in society. In those circumstances religions are opposed to social or political reforms that move toward a larger personal emancipation and better living conditions. On the other hand, religion is indispensable for giving meaning to life. Without religion human life goes nowhere, has no thrust and becomes a succession of facts without meaning. It is possible to live without religion for a time because one can pass from one activity to another without stopping, moved along by the mechanisms of the culture. However, in that case there is no power to think since thinking leads us to discover the void. So then, religion is indispensable as we can see from the example of contemporary people who have no religion. Those people are condemned to disappear because they have no more reason for living or transmitting life. The drama of monotheisms In today's world monotheisms are passing through a major crisis. Those that have survived are Christianity, Islam and Judaism. They are in crisis. In Christianity many people have abandoned traditional practice and forgotten the traditional dogmas. In the Western world, the majority still says it is Christian without knowing very well what that means. Still, people feel that it is a necessary reference in life to have a religion and Christianity is the only one they know. The fact that Christianity is in crisis is clear, for example, from the decreasing numbers of clergy and the lack of religious vocations.

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In Judaism the crisis is immense and the vast majority of Jews do not practice They don't even hold to the beliefs Many continue to identify themselves as Jews, but more for racial, cultural and political reasons than for anything religious Islam is defending itself from a tremendous trauma caused by the fundamentalist movement It is inevitably also going to be in crisis because contact with the new Western culture is inevitable and that is what provokes the crisis What has protected Islam from being in crisis because of fundamentalism is the policy of the First World that maintains the most corrupt elements in power in Muslim societies so that they do not modernize and are not transformed into economic and political rivals A fundamentalist Islam is not really dangerous for the West because it will never threaten its economy It is useless to bring together all the monotheists to share their distress and their defeats They won't provide any solutions We need to look at the meaning of monotheism It is a religious system that sprang up across the world basically in the last centuries before Christ, especially in the 6th and 5th centuries before Christ One monotheism arose in Egypt with Akenaton A more important god appeared in the monarchies and empires of Mesopotamia as creator or organizer of the world Buddhism cast traditional Indian polytheism into crisis This is a masqueraded monotheism because it prefers to give no name to the one god who is behind the system In Greece the philosophers launched a rational, metaphysical monotheism that ended up discrediting the ancient agrarian religions In Israel, after the exile, a rigorous orthodoxy was set in place that eliminated what was left of polytheism in Israel In America the evolution happened later because of lack of contact with other continents The quasi-monotheisms of the Incas and of the Aztecs were developed in order to legitimate their empires Monotheism came about as a response to an anthropological change Cities, states, commerce, industries arose It was a very complex and diversified world, different from the previous agrarian world in which human beings lived in small self-sufficient communities In small villages their gods gave them life, rain, sun, harvest, animals and remedies against diseases In the new context they needed to organize the complex society of the urban world The family and the clan that functioned automatically in the rural areas no longer worked in the city A principle of unity was required This unity was imposed by force much more than by spontaneous submission There was need for a concentration of divine power in one person with power delegated from god The principal attribute of the monotheist god is power He is the all-powerful who legitimates the absolute rule of the king, of the governor of the city or of the Empire over many cities Monotheism is fundamentally political because it responds to the challenge of a complex society and its driving force is unity The unity of God creates the unity of the people It's true that this doctrine is complemented by a call to solidarity or compassion because solidarity is no longer spontaneous as is the case in the

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family A commandment is required All monotheism preaches love of neighbor (of members of the community) and compassion for the weakest A commandment needs to be laid down because solidarity is not evident On the other hand, that principle of compassion is secondary The principle of obedience is always stronger, except in Buddhism In Buddhism the role of a god of power is extinguished or almost extinguished and the role of compassion is primordial Still, this is almost the only exception m the universe of urban religions Monotheisms can have various ways of behaving In principle they are conquerors Monotheist peoples have been and still are imperialist, conquerors, dominators Their god is a powerful god who wants to conquer all humanity and submit it to his rule That imperialism can lead to fanaticism When a monotheistic religion feels attacked, it reacts in a fundamentalist way hoping for a miracle from god to recover the advantage At this point monotheisms are in crisis Fundamentalism is the response to this crisis (The current success of fundamentalism in the Catholic Church is a sign of a profound crisis ) Monotheism can also be a factor in resistance to change It can become conformist Everything that happens is the will of God It is useless to want to change things because everything is already determined Monotheism can lead to fatalism, inertia and flight from global or personal challenges It is the way out at the opposite pole from that of the imperialist conqueror On this point we need to look at Christianity It is a special monotheism, above all if we understand it in the Gospel sense The monotheism of a significant part of the hierarchy, above all of the Roman Curia, is clearly a political monotheism in which every Christian is recast in terms of a political monotheism God is the God of power and what he is seeking is power This is the real doctrine of movements like Opus Dei with its dominant influence in the Roman Church It doesn't yet hold all the power There are some institutions that still maintain a relative openness to the world For example the Council for Inter-religious Dialogue* is more open to the world of religions than the Congregation of the Defense of the Faith or the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples The Pope has shown, through some significant gestures that he wants to take steps in dialogue But, at the same time, his functionaries condemn Father Dupuis who tried to open theology to dialogue If we consider Jesus (the real Jesus) and the documents of his movement, we are given a different the impression First of all, the unique God does not have power as a principal attribute but rather a combination of compassion, * Tr Unfortunately, early in 2006, this Council was placed under the Council for Culture by a decree of Benedict XVI Tr Once again, the Pope here is John Paul II, the principal functionary involved in condemning Jacques Dupuis was Cardinal Ratzinger

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indignation and will to act. This is strengthened in the person of Jesus who, far from appearing as a powerful God, is a weak, impotent God reduced to the limitations of a human being, dominated, exploited, excluded. In second place, after the death of Jesus, the role of God who takes the lead is the Spirit which is an immanent force and which introduces into Christianity the other traditional role of religion, the immanent god. The Christian God is at the same time transcendent and immanent but always weak, without any manifestation of power of imposition and coercion. We will return to this. Secondly, Jesus situates himself in the front line of the struggle of the poor and those who are subjugated. The Christian God is not a cosmic God who represents the unchanging character of the universe but rather a God who enters into history not to justify power but rather to contradict power. This is a monotheism that stands up against established society, against the powerful, that refutes the lies of political monotheism. It is a different monotheism. It was precisely Latin American theology that freed Christianity from its traditional political monotheism. Until now the Churches were ruled by the Roman Church that was and still is the incarnation of political monotheism. They have not dared take up the position of Jesus on the side of the oppressed. The God who struggles with the poor is a different God, unique in the history of religions and who constitutes a huge challenge for traditional monotheist Christianity as well as all other religions. Dialogue has to take up the question of domination and oppression of the poor as its theme. This is not the poverty that is the result of the limitations of the species but rather the poverty created and maintained by society and human power. In this the Christianity of Jesus has a radical word to say to humanity. In the Christianity of Jesus, poverty is not simply a "social" or "political" problem as if it were a technical problem to be resolved by rational, scientific, technological human means. In liberation theology it is always stressed that the hunger of the other is not a technical problem but a religious problem because that is where God is found. For this reason Chapter 25 of Matthew is so important. It presents the final judgment of God, his final word. That word determines the fundamental content of the biblical message. It defines the way in which the true God takes an interest in religion and what is meant by religion. Similarly, paying attention to power is not an appendix, a corollary, one part of human compassion or solidarity. It is not a part of the virtue of justice. Domination, exploitation and the exclusion of the poor is the drama of creation. The true God is involved in the liberation of the poor and is not involved in religion. God detests temples, priests and sacrifices. True religion is active love of the poor who are oppressed in order to free them from their oppression. True religion - if we have to use that ambiguous word - is the struggle of the poor for their liberation. So, it doesn't matter what name we give to that God. God does not have a name. It is human beings who are interested in

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religion, not the God of the Bible. This inversion of religion, totally deformed by Christianity and by the institutional churches, constitutes the basis for dialogue. If we don't talk about that then we are not talking about Christianity but about an idolatry that uses Christian words in order to set up a machine for domination. The liberation of the poor is not only a political problem even though that has to be the essence of politics. In addition, concretely in history, it is common for politicians to show no interest in the poor except in their rhetoric. Those who take up the cause of the poor do so because they have heard the word of the Gospel. It's not just a case of compassion but of struggle. Compassion presupposes a society that is united and in solidarity. If we are aware of poverty, we see that the so-called unity in society is a lie. The poor need liberation and not just compassion. The question is: Who will speak in the name of the Christian God at the moment of dialogue? Will the Christian side speak of the God of Jesus or of the God of the Roman Emperors, including those who are their heirs? Who will dialogue with the Indigenous peoples and the Blacks of America? Who will speak to them about Christianity? The nature of the dialogue depends on the reply since the Christianity of those who speak can be the monotheism of the conquerors or it can be the message of Jesus Christ. The huge crisis in religion today Crisis doesn't mean decadence or danger but rather change and radical transformation. There is no danger for religion; its future is guaranteed today as in the past. There is no decadence in religion but only decadence in specific forms of religion and specific religious institutions. The Catholic Church itself went into crisis in spite of the efforts of a whole pontificate to avoid it. The fact is we are going through a change similar to what happened at the time of the emergence of monotheism in the first millennium before Christ, above all in the 6th and 5th centuries before Christ. This crisis has been brewing for some time but became visible in the great cultural revolution of the West during the 1960s and 1970s. This major crisis is about monotheisms. The Oriental religions resist better because they adapt more easily to today's cultural change. They suffered during the monotheistic period when monotheistic religions conquered the world. A typical case was the conquest of India, the origin of so many Oriental religions, by Islam that governed it for 800 years. Monotheisms, as I said, were born at the time when cities and urban culture were formed. They developed to provide a religious foundation for the new type of society that was emerging. That culture remained the same (or almost so) until the end of the 20th century. The triumph of monotheistic religions in the world lasted 25 centuries. But recently things have begun to change.

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The world is becoming globalized. Its characteristics are the following: The national States, with their personalized power, are wiped out. Only one empire persists although it is quite depersonalized. Political life and so-called democracy are increasingly a farce, a total comedy whose purpose is to distract citizens so they won't see reality. Youth participate less and less because they see reality more clearly. Two phenomena appear: 1) a critique of institutionalized personalized power (but not of the impersonal power of the large financial institutions); 2) techniques of communication that permit the broadcast of millions of messages to millions of persons and to concoct opinions and reactions among the masses. Power has not disappeared and is stronger than ever. It has been concentrated but in anonymous institutions and so has little visibility. Power is in the hands of financial institutions like Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley that control the banks and the multinationals and these hold sway over nation states whose power is symbolic. The great financial powers directly or indirectly control the communications media and broadcast their ideology. Social and political life has become depersonalized. Hidden, anonymous groups make all the decisions and manufacture everything, including the social consensus, the applause of public opinion and the satisfaction of consumers. There are no more citizens; there are consumers who consume what they are told they have to consume. Everything is planned anonymously. People are submerged in an composite, an immensely complicated net in which their personality is lost. A society like this needs a new religion and it looks like this is happening in many places in the world. It will be a religion with a very distinct role from the primitive pre-monotheistic religions and also very distinct from monotheisms. It is already present in many phenomena that allow us to get a glimpse of what religion could be tomorrow. The new God is not personalized. Since religion is always at the service of the powerful, the new globalized society does not want to appear powerful. It does not want us to see the powers that direct it. It denies that there are still powerful people. It says that everything follows natural laws and that it is the market that rules. This is a law that is present in every individual, a law that is not a law in the sense of power because it is the expression of everyone's desires. Nevertheless it imposes obligations. What the new society asks for is a God who would be an immense energy that includes the whole of the universe, a force that moves everything. It is a force of sympathy, happiness and harmony because society today does not accept suffering. The market only wants happiness. It engenders suffering but does not recognize it. In this religion there are endless recipes for happiness, well being, peace, harmony and joy. It is a religion without stable beliefs. There is continual change in beliefs. But it is not a religion without rituals for all rituals are methods for providing happiness, balance and joy. No organization is necessary because the media look after that. Men and women submit

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voluntarily because they don't want to be excluded from the march of the universe and the media tell them how to remain integrated in the whole. It is an experimental religion because it provides an experience of God, of a God imminent in the universe in multiple ways. Everyone can have that experience of God or of those divine powers. Many elements are similar to the older religions, for example those of India or the Orient in general or even similar to pre-monotheist African or Indigenous-American religions. For that reason, as a first stage, they turn from the West toward the East, or toward what are called primitive religions. Nevertheless those older religions will have to adapt to new technologies of health and of happiness; they will have to take into account the world of communications and learn to manage them. Nevertheless they will not experience a major rupture such as that experienced by the monotheisms. In that context how will dialogue happen? With whom will the dialogue take place? Who will represent the new religions or the old ones that have modernized? For the Christian Churches there are three alternatives. The Churches can shut themselves up in fundamentalism, define their identity in terms of symbolic systems and cling to their theology, their catechism, their rituals, their organization and their clergy. In the end it is a desperate solution because in the long run it cannot win. 2. Or the Churches can adapt and offer a religious program that responds to the expectations. This was the initial program of the Pentecostal Churches and of the new Catholic charismatic movements. They wanted to be a religion for the poor that would express the most authentic religious experiences of the poor in a climate of freedom. Nevertheless, the current situation reveals that those movements have failed to attract people through marketing. They have increasingly engaged in manipulation of religious feelings and in practice reinforced the institution. These two responses are present in the Catholic Church today. There is a third that is trying to find a place but without the support of the hierarchies because it puts the established structures at risk. 3. This third solution consists in taking up the theme of the liberating God once more in the current context. Today the oppressors are not persons, landowners, presidents, political parties. The oppressor is the whole system that constitutes one single force that dominates the entire world. The response is to reply to the global system as such, to confront the whole structure just as the first Christians confronted the Roman Empire for 250 years even though they were not successful, or at least not until after 250 years. 1.

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The oppressed are not only those who are hungry. It is quite possible that paternalistic policies resolve the problem of hunger. The oppressed are those who have no voice, the anonymous people who have to accept the role that society gives them or end up with no function at all. In the meantime they cannot intervene in anything. They are dispossessed of their human dignity even though they can increase their buying power in order to survive physically. They can be the most favored consumers in some parts of the world. But they are individuals who are used, who do not count, who are taken advantage of when they are needed and who are rejected when they cease to be useful. The new society manipulates every human being. The response consists in struggling against the system. Early Christianity defended poor rural people at the time of Jesus because at that time the oppressed were rural people. Today the oppressed are all those who are without work, practically or virtually. They include those who look for employment in society as a favor and those who will never have the possibility of participating. In all religions there are minorities that have the same aspirations and so are the authentic parties to an inter-religious dialogue. The system can improve the situation of hunger in Latin America but it cannot restore dignity to the huge majority of the population that knows it is a toy in the hands of anonymous forces. This is the place for Christians. However, there is a price because many will want a more immediate victory. Everyone wants a rapid change. But a study of the world shows that it is useless to hope for the impossible. It will be a long struggle in which Christian communities will have to offer the world another way of living until, in the end, the system recognizes that it has failed. So then, with whom will we dialogue? With all those who also do not accept the system and are determined to struggle against it, not only with words and symbols but with their lives, with their way of life, as islands in the midst of a world that does not understand why people are not happy with simply being a consumer. Dialogue with other religious groups will not make much difference. Dialogue with monotheist fundamentalisms does not lead anywhere. There can be dialogue with other religions if they are willing to join the fight against the existing system. If not, it's not worth dialoguing and there is nothing to talk about. It is obvious that history is much broader than Christianity. But we are all called to participate in the same history. God does not ask whether someone is Christian or Muslim or Hindu or Confucian.... None of that is of any interest. God wants to know who is engaged in the birth and growth of the people of God, the poor. It happens that human beings have religions and need religions to live. Today thousands of new religions spring up because the old ones appear to be out of date. Human beings need religions for their personal security, for their mental and emotional balance in the midst of an absurd world. They need relig-

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ions to maintain unity and solidarity among themselves. Without religions everyone is alone in the world, alone in face of destiny and unable to count on anyone's help. Religion is at the center of culture and creates unity in a culture. Religion is also the center of politics and of social life. For that reason religion cannot be taken away from people without destroying them. Christianity turned itself into a religion that the Protestants changed somewhat while keeping the essential. They took their religion from the Roman Empire of Neo-Platonism and from the popular religion of the Mediterranean. At the end of the 2nd century Christianity was already a religion. Religion is a vial necessity and so it has to be preserved, but without thinking that religion can have the final word on human life. For example, it does not liberate. For that reason inter-religious dialogue exists to allow us to talk about what is beyond religion, to search for life beyond religion. It is possible that one day the Gospel of Jesus will set itself up in another religion, different from the current one, or invent another religion in another context. It is not tied to its religion of the Roman Empire. Of course, currently there is no glimmer of a future like that, but it isn't impossible. Liberation theology will not have much difficulty with the positions of Knitter or John Hick. It just tends to relativize the importance of the considerations on religion. Jesus did not talk about other religions. There isn't much to learn about them in the Bible. If Jesus had been interested in that question he would have taken it up. He never alluded to the question of the Greek religion that was present in the Greek cities of Palestine just a few kilometers from Nazareth. He never showed any interest in knowing what went on in that religion. So we won't find incontrovertible arguments in the sources for the message of Jesus. We can engage in speculation but they will never provide definitive judgments. On the other hand, the other religions are not interest in knowing whether we grant them our salvation or not. It is useless to promote the resurrection among those who hope for reincarnation. Our salvation is of no interest to them. They have other messages of human wisdom that they can share with other human beings from all religions. Religion is a common necessity. We have it and we can share ideas with all those who have a religion. I don't think much can come out of that. It isn't a dialogue about the ultimate things because the ultimate is beyond religion in the history of the people of God. The scandal of Christianity is that it affirms a truth that is valid for all human beings but that is not a "religious" truth. In fact, there is a difference here with all other non-monotheist religions. Historically Christianity has been the religion that is most unfaithful to its origins to the point of demanding the contrary of what the Gospel says. If we take it as it is, as we find it in the New Testament, it would be the least religious religion of them all. In practice it has become perhaps the most religious. But we need to determine well what is universal, what is valid for everyone. In secular terms I would say that there are

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human rights that are valid for everyone. There is a human dignity that is valid for everyone. But this doesn't prevent the fact that in practice those rights are not respected. That doesn't take away from their value. In the message of Christ, the opposition between the ideal of human rights and the current reality as we live it is the space where human truth is located. Because that space is there, a trek or journey of reconstitution and of global transformation is happening right now all across the whole history of humanity. The theology of pluralism of religions insists on difference. Liberation theology insists on what is the one thing common to everyone. We can propose two basic topics for a theology of religions. The first is the theme of history. In general, religions are not interested in history. In the Bible the important thing is history, the real, material, historical journey followed and created by humanity that is called to freedom by Yahweh. This history involves all women and men of every religion. All are called to put their energy at the service of this immense journey of humanity toward its liberation from a huge sin that is the domination of human beings by other human beings. In second place, there is the theme of idolatry which is also basic in the Bible. Idolatry is not a question of religions but of the use of religions in order to serve power, wealth and domination. The gods that the prophets attacked with such force were the gods that ruled the empires, the gods that exploited the poor, the gods of wealth and of power. It was religion at the service of sin. In the same way, the prophets condemned the people of Israel who abandoned their vocation in order to adore idols. Jesus ended up defining idolatry in the same way when he identified it with submission to money. In the Christian vision there is a profound dualism although it is not definitive because in the end unity does happen. However, that unity is achieved only at the end. In history there is a permanent struggle between the true God and idols, between what is false and what is true. Jesus would say between the Father and money. That is why the word "God" doesn't seem to me very appropriate and causes a lot of confusion these days. This word is cultural and not primary. In the Bible, God does not have a name, not even the name "God." God is "El" (Yahweh), the one who has no name being beyond all cultures and representing the universal. Who is that "El?" The voice that calls everyone to freedom, a voice that is interior, of course but that the events of human life are always actualizing. That "God" is not a god in the sense that there is no role involved. There is pure call, pure plea to human beings to build a humanity redeemed from sin, that is to say from the forces of destruction. This "El" stands above all representations because they all tend to set limits, to place him/her inside a system of symbols, within a mythology. That is why the Jews refused to provide a name. "El" is the one who has no name because she/he cannot be contained in any partial representation. "El" is pure freedom that calls for freedom.

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From the moment that this unique history and this unique struggle began religions have been challenged because they are all inside the struggle. They are all crossed with duality. They participate in good and in evil and are all called to free themselves. For the Christian religion, the challenge is huge because the distance between reality and the message of Jesus is huge. Daily practice of the Christian religion is so far away, so distant from the voice of "El" that a permanent conversion is required, a conversion all the more necessary when we discover the size of the abyss between reality and the final goal. All religions need to help one another mutually so that each can free itself from its sin and be converted. There are some expressions that stir up fear. One example is when we say that "all religions are paths to salvation." It's true that they can all be a path to salvation or to perdition as Jesus pointed out to the religious elites of Israel of his time. The religion of the priests in Jerusalem, of the doctors or of the elders was a path to perdition. The important thing is precisely the discernment between good and evil so that all religions can turn and help one another to change direction. For that reason, along with dialogue between religions, it is essential to maintain dialogue with atheists because that dialogue will help us and will help all religions to be preserved from idolatry. We really have to keep the doors open for dialogue with atheists. The first Christians were condemned as atheists. Dialogue with atheists is as important for us as dialogue with religions. We have to keep a balance between the two because truth lies in the middle between the two or rather at a higher level at which we no longer notice the different between religion and atheism.

Chapter 9 Macro-ecumenism: Latin American Theology of Religions

Jose Maria Vigil Panama

Introduction A "Latin American theology of religions" has never been spoken of before. There has never been a theology that bore that name on our continent. Nor did liberation theology have time to work on such a discipline among the many that it developed in its first 25 years. Nevertheless, even without that name, was there not something in liberation theology that was truly the equivalent of what today we call "theology of religions?" If there was, it would have been "Latin American macro-ecumenism" that played the role, avant la lettre, of what today we call "theology of religions." This book attempts to respond to the challenges that a pluralist theology of religion places before Latin American liberation theology. At this moment, then, I want to show how, in its own way, Latin American macroecumenism of liberation theology was a real theology of religions within liberation theology and that the response to the current challenges of a pluralist theology of religions must come from deepening and broadening that same classic macro-ecumenism in the current conjuncture of the continent and of the world through a serene continuity that does not turn back. Origin The term "macro-ecumenism," as a significant feature in liberation theology, has a registered date of birth: September, 1992, during the celebration of the First Assembly of the People of God in Quito, Ecuador. There in his various interventions, Pedro Casaldaliga announced and provided the arguments for this concept. These were then laid out in detail in his book Spirituality of Liberation,1 which was also launched during the course of this same Assembly.2 So it was during this event that the term "macro-ecumenism" really acquired its citizenship card and became a "registered trademark" in Latin American

Co-authored with Jose Man'a Vigil, the book was published in most countries of the continent. See the list of editions in http://serivicioskoinonia/Casaldaliga/obras 2 In the third part of the book there is an entire chapter, entitled "Macroecumenismo," devoted to this topic.

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theology and spirituality The path of this journey can be easily followed in written publications since that date 3 Content By "macro-ecumenism" the authors refer to "a temperament, a spirit" that characterizes liberation theology and that they describe in the book just mentioned as an "integral ecumenism" present in God him/herself and in the Christian mission From this macro-ecumenism there flows a series of basic attitudes that become apparent above all in the relationships of Latin American Christianity with Indigenous religions, Afro religions and the "non-believing" Latin American militants who participated in popular struggles of that period on the continent Latin American macro-ecumenism is therefore pnmarily a spirit, a way of acting and a practice in life Behind it, however, there also lies a theology4 that is more or less consciously developed even though in that first period they did not explicitly use those names that are ordinarily employed today to identify the same contents In that theological reflection we can find the evidence that shows how Latin American macro-ecumenism acted as a Latin American theology of religions Interlocutor The interlocutor of Latin American macro-ecumenism, the reference that Latin American liberation theology has in mind and that is present in matters relating to theology of religions is not the so-called "great world religions" (Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc ) but rather the Indigenous religions and the Afro religions of the continent as well as the "atheist or non-believing" militants of the Latin American popular movements As we will see, this explains why many topics and concepts that are in style today in "inter-religious dialogue" were absent from Latin American macro-ecumenism in the initial period Basic Principles of Classic Latin American Macro-ecumenism as a Theology of Religions One basic fact that affected the whole development of Latin American macroecumenism in a positive way is the concept, so human and so "un-churched," that liberation theology has of spirituality Indeed, it is not necessarily devel-

F Teixeira, Teologia das rehgoes, Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 1995, 194 We are dealing here with liberation theology in which theological reflection is always a "second act" that follows on life and practice "All theological reflections are not worth one concrete act of charity," says Gustavo Gutierrez

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oped using ecclesiastical categories,5 nor even as something explicitly religious, but rather as something quite human, profoundly human, as a depth of being human itself, a way that every human being axiomatically has spirituality and is, by nature, spiritual. That is why we refer to "spirituality 1" (El).* It is a mystique and a Utopia that happens in the simple, daily life of human beings who might see themselves outside official religions or who might even consider themselves atheists. It is a spirituality that can be found in so-called atheism. The presence of the Spirit is not necessarily tied to or monopolized by explicitly religious or ecclesiastical expressions. What is profane or what is simply human, daily life and so on are adequate vehicles for the spirit and for spirituality. Besides, this is exactly what was meant by the famous saying of that period, "There are not two histories," one profane and the other sacred. Profane history is the body whose soul is religious. History is one, unique and simultaneous even though it has levels and facets susceptible of a differentiated consideration. This suggestion makes possible a theological and spiritual principle in liberation theology that is, finally, key to a theology of religions: the universal elevation of all human beings into the order of salvation. Today this might seem to us a more or less evident statement that is firmly secured. However, at the time Latin American macro-ecumenism had to defend it against a whole secular tradition that thought that only Christians were "raised to the order of salvation." Authoritative voices like that of Saint Thomas had tremendous weight in the tradition: Christian virtues are infused and essentially distinct, through their formal object, from the highest acquired moral virtues described by the famous philosophers.... There is an infinite different between Aristotelian temperance, regulated only by right reason, and Christian temperance, regulated by divine faith and by supernatural prudence.6 Against this ubiquitous, and much romanticized, presence in classical theology of the continent, liberation theology dared to defend the avant-guard position that all human beings are elevated to the order of salvation.7 Overall, missionaries from the 16th century on were firmly rooted in this earlier tradition. They thought that as missionaries they brought salvation to a continent

In the classical sense, "spiritual theology" is understood as the science of the supernatural life, of Christian perfection, of asceticism and mysticism. * Tr: In North American circles we would probably refer to "Spirituality 101." "Saint Thomas, as cited by Garrigou-Lagrange, Perfection chretienne et contemplation, Paris, 1923, 64. See also Danielou, Le mystere du salut des nations, Seuil, Paris. 1946, 75. This was extensively developed in the first chapter of Espiritualidad de liberacion.

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lacking that element and so their theology of religions was in fact a "demonology of religions " 9 It is obvious that this principle of the universal elevation to the order of salvation has direct and decisive relevance for a possible theology of religions Even more, it is already, in itself, a theology of religions This common elevation to the order of salvation does not in itself say anything about the theological status of religions (Latin American macro-ecumenism never explicitly made this point) Still, it does presuppose a basic and fundamental equality among all human beings, whatever their religion In this sense and thanks to this first intuition that was laid out as a basic principle, Latin American macroecumenism, upheld a position that was much more advanced than what, several decades later, would be a regression in stating that enormous masses of humanity were in a "gravely deficient condition with regard to salvation " For Latin American macro-ecumenism there is no one in the world who is in a situation with regard to salvation that is structurally seriously deficient since God does not abandon anybody or render them incapable of walking along the path (the level) of salvation 10 According to this principle, each (non-Chnstian) religion is a "people of God" formed by the collectivity of its members and they are all elevated to the dimension of salvation This people cannot be without salvific value even though we were to suppose that they did not have their religion We have then a premise for a theology of religions that, while lacking the name, was already present in Latin American macro-ecumenism Another major and basic principle of decisive important from the point of view of a theology of religions was the theological distinction between the order of salvation and the order of knowledge of salvation This distinction was a highly useful theological tool that introduced a light that was uncommon unThe first catechism was written in America (between 1510 and 1521) by Peter Cordoba It begins with the revelation of "a great secret that you have never known or heard " that God made heaven and hell In heaven are all those who were converted to the Christian faith and live well In hell are "all those among you who died, all your ancestors fathers, mothers, grandparents, relatives and all those who existed and passed through this life And you will go there too if you do not become friends of God and if you are not baptized and become Christians, because all those who are not Christians are enemies of God " See the conversations of the twelve apostles in Monumenta catechetica hispanoamencana, vol I, Buenos Aires, 1984, 215 "Know and hold it for certain that none of the gods that you adore is God or giver of life They are all hellish devils " So spoke the "twelve apostles of Mexico" to the surviving Aztec elders and priests after the Spanish invasion Monumenta, ibid, 187 "The non-Christian is in not substantially in an inferior position for realizing the great mission of being human Could a just God place the vast majority of his/her sons and daughters in unfavourable or precarious circumstances of salvation''" "Espintuahdad de hberacion," Envio, Managua, 1992, 220

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til then It would make possible some later developments, which were unimaginable at that point For centuries or even perhaps during most of the 500 years of theology and of European Christian presence in Latin America, that distinction did not exist Indeed, the dimension of salvation was confused with the dimension of its knowledge Whoever did not "know" the salvation provided by Jesus (and his Church) was considered as "sitting in the shadow and darkness of death " ' Spontaneously and with complete ingenuousness, the circle of those who participated in the knowledge of salvation (evangelizers or members of the Church) was thought to coincide with the circle of those who were saved without any further distinction They did not imagine that there could be salvation that was not mediated by the explicit knowledge of the Christian message The lack of this distinction is what placed the theology of evangelization structurally within an exclusivist paradigm Its most characteristic symbolic expression was found in the saying that "outside the Church there is no salvation," which perhaps reached the height of its official recognition precisely at the moment of the first evangelization of America 12 The Second Vatican Council was an ecclesial moment that marked the rupture and discontinuity with 19 centuries of exclusivity Latin American Macro-Ecumenism, as its child, disavowed that exclusivity from the beginning and began its journey following the path of the inclusivity found in Vatican II It is well known that the theology of religions began formally at the same time as Vatican II That is why the Council does not reflect in its texts the name or the concepts that are considered and explained in the theology of religions 13 Latin American macro-ecumenism was mclusivist in its concihar point of departure but not in any self-conscious way It had within it options and potential that were going to make it able to go much further, as we will see shortly Latin American macro-ecumenism and liberation theology are generally characterized by a determined reaffirmation of the primacy of salvation
To use the words of Psalm 106, 10 which for so many centuries was traditionally interpreted as a reference to the "pagans" and the "infidels " Indeed, 50 years earlier, in 1442, the Council of Florence agreed on that lapidary statement with reverberating echoes by which it confessed "to firmly believe, profess and teach than none of those who are found outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews, heretics and schismatics, will be able to participate m eternal life They will go to the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels (Matt 24, 4), unless, before the end of their life, they become members of the Church No one, however great his alms or even if he should shed his blood for Christ, can be saved if he does not remain in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church" (DS 1351) 13 In all of liberation theology, during its first three decades, it is practically impossible to find any explicit reference to the concepts of "theology of religions," or of inclusivity, pluralism in principle, etc
11

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over the knowledge of salvation Once again that might seem an obvious statement today, one that could not be otherwise, but we know well that the classical tradition took other detours What was most important to them was "to die as a faithful son of the Church," to be in the circle of the knowledge of salvation that was the principal guarantee without which one fell outside the circle of salvation The tradition valued above all the need for orthodoxy (knowledge of salvation), the practice of the sacraments and freedom from errors and heresy All of that was in the order of the knowledge of salvation Liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism, as I have said, reaffirmed the primacy of the practice of salvation, that is to say the primacy of the importance of being coherently within the boundaries of salvation over and above the salvific meaning of the knowledge of salvation This is not just an abstract statement but rather one charged with practical consequences What liberation theology and Latin American macroecumenism say is that what really saves is salvation and that human beings appropriate this by the moral practice of love and justice 14 This criterion is of capital importance for its ecumenism and macro-ecumenism It is available to any human being in every hemisphere of the earth and under the sign of any religion Knowledge of salvation can only be extended and communicated or acquired through the slow and complex epistemological (and physical) processes of human communication Knowledge of salvation requires centuries or millennia to reach new human groups, while salvation is always already present and is permanently available 15 The disparity between the two dimensions (that of salvation and of its knowledge) is not symmetric but rather ends up with a balance enormously tipped in favor of the order of salvation This is what is important, decisive It is what determines salvation The other dimension has its meaning but it is an almost arcane meaning, submerged in the mystery of God What did God want in establishing the current state of the dimension of salvation 9 Why did God not create the world and human beings a different way with another sort of revelation and communication of its salvific knowledge 7 Those mysteries remain to be resolved perhaps in another life Meanwhile, what serves as a point "Explicit faith raises one's consciousness - conscientizes a person - with respect to the objective salvation/perdition that become and are reality even without anyone's consciousness of it Salvation/perdition are appropriated, assimilated to oneself, via (good or evil) moral practice, even in the absence of any awareness of one's orientation to salvation or perdition " C y L Boff, Salvation and Liberation, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1985, 52-53 "The missionary always comes late The Holy Trinity has already arrived, ever revealing itself in the awareness, the history, the societies, the deeds, and the destiny of peoples" L Boff, New Evangelization, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1992, 70 Hence the famous statement that the missionary never goes anywhere where there is a "vacuum in salvation "

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of reference for us now is the dimension of salvation that is so ubiquitous and universally available. I said at the beginning that a basic element influencing the whole structure of liberation theology is the way in which it conceives of spirituality as "so human and so unchurched." Something similar can be said of its way of conceiving salvation. It is not seen as something merely spiritual or eschatological. It is not something nebulous that we could never speak about, something that is in the end cryptic or esoteric. In liberation theology we can say that there are two veins16 in the way salvation is conceived with respect to the classical conception. One the one hand there is a horizontal vein along the lines of time and that responds to the question of whether Christian salvation is just an eschatological salvation after death or a salvation that is already present and active. Is it a hazy salvation or can it be visualized in some way through signs and values that are also human and historical? Liberation theology has in its mind and eye a salvation that is not just eschatological but that is also present, historical and available to human beings, as I have said, through the moral practice of justice and love. It is a salvation that is often brought about historically through the passage from conditions that are less human to those that are more human. The glory of God - and human salvation - is the human being fully alive. On the other hand there is a vertical vein along the line of corporality or materiality and that provides a response to the other question about whether salvation is only "spiritual" or whether it is integrally human. In counterpoint it also addresses the question about whether sin is only "spiritual" or whether it is also reflected in oppression, in social egotism, in the exploitation of human beings by other human beings and in social, economic and political structures. Can grace also be made visible in history and be crystallized in social structures? We know the positive character of the response that liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism gives to these questions. And it is that way of conceiving salvation as something concrete and realistic that makes them able to bypass the classical principle of exclusivity. If it was said that "outside the Church there is no salvation," liberation theology succeeded in

J. M. Vigil, La politico de la Iglesia apolitica, Una aportacion a la teologia politico desde la historia, Edicep, Valencia, 1975, 219-221. 17 Medellin, Introduction, 6. 18 St. Hilary and Bishop Romero. This is a theology and a spirituality that is "Reigncentered" and "salvation-centered."

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saying something that went far beyond a merely apparent verbal contradiction: "Outside salvation, there is no Church "19 What this means is that outside the commitment to liberation,20 outside love that becomes history, outside a commitment to human rights, to the struggle for justice and the integral proclamation of the Gospel there is no Church, that is to say there is no authentic "Church of Jesus," even though there might be an institutional Church in a state of incoherence or of sin with respect to the Gospel Contemporary Anglo-Saxon pluralist theology of religions still has to deal with this new principle and give it a place among the overall paradigms of modern theology of religions To say that "outside salvation there is no Church" is a profession of salvation-centeredness,21 one that, in the mind of those who proclaimed it, was deliberately Reign-centered and, by all evidence, was in no way Church-centered This has already introduced us into the field of theologizing that liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism undertook regarding the "order of the knowledge of salvation " How did liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism develop their theological reflection on this dimension^ In the first place, it has already been said that, in the whole question of salvation, the order of the knowledge of salvation as a whole was determined to be of lesser importance than the order of salvation itself This latter is what brings about and is decisive in salvation while the order of the knowledge of salvation is only instrumental or mediatory of the former If it is there and helps, fine If it is absent, salvation is not automatically absent Having said that, I need to add that, from the Christian point of view, the dimension of the knowledge of salvation has two basic areas Christian knowledge of salvation and non-Christian ways of knowing salvation How do liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism conceive these two ideas theologically7 With respect to the first, namely Christian knowledge of salvation as described in the Christian churches, liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism said the following basically

Pedro Casaldahga, Yo creo en la justtcia y la esperanza, Desclee, Bilbao, 1977, 160 Casaldahga-Vigil, Espirituahdad de la liberacwn, Envfo, Managua, 1991, 238 in the chapter entitled "Nueva eclesiahdad " 20 Obviously we need to introduce the qualification that we are speaking of an integral liberation and not of one that is reductionist 21 P Kmtter-J Hick (editors), "Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions" in The Myth of Christian Uniqueness Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, Maryknoll Orbis, 1987, 187ff

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This is certainly a dimension of salvation that is of lesser importance than salvation itself. This inferiority in importance reflects the relationship between the Reign and the Church itself. The Reign is the symbolic reference for salvation and the Church is the reference for the order of the knowledge of (Christian) salvation. The classical relationship of equality or of comparison between the two dimensions is what really caused church-centeredness in that the Church ended up being given equal standing with the Reign. The new relationship is that of Reign-centeredness, that is to say, of the absolute primacy of the dimension of salvation over that of its knowledge. This means that, from the point of view of liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism the most important thing for Christians is not the order of knowledge of salvation but rather that of salvation itself. Concretely, it is not the Church but rather the Reign that counts. And when this is applied to non-Christian religions, the most important thing for Christians is not to bring our (Christian) knowledge of salvation to other peoples. We need rather to place ourselves at the service of salvation itself, which will no doubt already be present among those peoples, instead of putting all our energy into extending Christian knowledge to other peoples as if they had no valid knowledge of salvation.

Certainly liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism have not explored the efficacy for salvation that such knowledge might have among those other peoples. They restricted themselves to some intuitions that were later shown to be in perfect consonance with the evolution of a subsequent theology of religions. On this topic of the theological evaluation of the dimension of the knowledge of salvation, there is an important point to be made regarding committed atheists. I have said that they constitute one of the principal interlocutors of liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism. Often they identify themselves as atheists. However they feel they are "companions in the struggle and in hope" along with militant Christians. And they are received as such. In practice they struggle for the same objectives and believe in similar Utopias. How does liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism evaluate this atheism theologically? Theologically, this atheism has to be placed on the level of the dimension of the knowledge of salvation. Apparently it is a matter of an "absence of knowledge." Those militants find it difficult to speak of "salvation" and of

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other explicitly Christian concepts but have no difficulty in speaking of and in accepting the translation of what Christians call salvation into realistic concepts such as life, truth, justice, peace and love along with all that set of salvific issues that we designate as the Reign I would say that when salvation is translated into these more concrete categories, they feel perfectly at ease in the dimension of salvation It is in the dimension of the knowledge of salvation that they feel unable to accept the knowledge This is more often because of philosophical difficulties, although sometimes it is also because of scandals suffered at the hands of religious professionals In this case, liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism apply the same basic theological principles that have already been cited, namely that what is really important is salvation with or without the label attached As Christians we have no problem in changing the name or in placing a provisional bracket (an epoche) around our knowledge and our vocabulary for salvation in order to have a relationship with someone who uses other names or other references For us names are less important than the realities We feel that we are in communion with all those who struggle for the same causes and who act on behalf of what we, m our more transcendental language, call "salvation " We share the struggles and work with them as authentic "companions in hope " Even more, liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism feel and express on this point something that surprises and scandalizes not a few of those on the official ecclesiastical (Church-centered) levels "We feel closer to those who, without any reference to Jesus Christ, struggle for the liberation of the people and who come together with us in the struggle for the cause of Jesus than we do with those others who, even in the name of Jesus, are opposed to that liberation and are an obstacle for that cause " This might appear very hard-line and it is It is as hard as it is real and logical But it is nothing more than the application of theological principles and it is perfectly orthodox in a Reign-centered orthodoxy This relationship between Christianity and the "religion" that Latin American militant atheism was in those decades, 22 truly constitutes a "theology of religions" even though it was obviously not called by that name nor held as such in that period From the current point of view of the theology of religions today, there is no doubt How do liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism develop their theological reflection on the order of the knowledge of salvation What appraisal do they make of non-Christian religions9 It is well known that on our continent the so-called "great religions" did not have the significant presence a few decades ago that would have alA typical example of this can be found in the case of the question of God and the revolutionaries, with Cuba as the background, in El Vuelo del Quetzal, Panama, Maiz nuestro, 1988, 87-100

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lowed them to be considered interlocutors with liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism Perhaps today that is beginning to happen Liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism were more concerned with the Indigenous and Afro-American religions present on the continent More than once it was said that Christianity should dialogue not just with the "great" religions but also with the "small ones " When the Little Sisters of Jesus came, a little more than 50 years ago, to the territory of the Tapirape , the people there were reduced to only about 50 persons From that moment on a path of recovery was started Is it because they are few or have been reduced in numbers that their religion is less worthy of consideration and dialogue 7 The dignity and the salvific status of a religion are not a function of the number of its adherents That is clear and m Latin American we took note of it decades ago Several times I have called attention to the fact that it is in 1982 that the emblematic book of John Hick, God Has Many Names23 was published in North America and it was also in 1982 that the Missa dos Quilombos 4 (Mass of the Quilombos) was produced by Pedro Casaldahga and Milton Nascimento in Latin America It is a Mass that begins with the verse "In the name of the God of all names " The coincidence is almost literal By different paths and without mutual knowledge, the intuition appeared in two theological branches that were walking in the same direction by different paths A God who is recognized as having many names is a God known in a different way than when known with one Christian name When many names are recognized, and not just the Christian name that we have always given to God, there is a change in our knowledge of God Now we recognize that God is known in other ways and that it is nevertheless the same God who is embraced m all those several ways of knowing Through the concentration of a title or of a first verse, is encapsulated a synthesis of a "theology of religions," quite consciously in the title of Hick's book and implicitly in the Missa dos Quilombos What is the assessment of Indigenous religions offered by liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism 7 An example can be found in the distinction that was used extensively in those years between religion and faith It was frequently emphasized that faith, as a deep relationship with God, had to be distinguished from religion as a set of practices, rites, rituals and beliefs Religion is in large part a cultural expression developed according to categories that are proper to the culture of each people Christianity should not impose its "religion" on other peoples because, ultimately, that is unnatural Philadelphia, The Westminster Press, 1982, 140 Also Britain's New Religious Pluralism, London, Macmillan, 1980 Quilombos were the localities formed by escaped Black slaves in places that were inaccessible to Whites This way they could live in freedom In Spanish they are called "palenques," but the word has become Hispanic

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Each people can only meaningfully practice a religion that is understandable to them in their own culture Christianity should not scorn the religions of others but rather should be inculturated in their culture and be "m-rehgioned" in their religion Christianity might be happy to bring the good news of the Gospel to other peoples but it should not impose, nor should it even propose, a "foreign culture "25 This distinction does not in itself imply an mclusivist or a pluralist position It is rather and quite simply a remarkable advance in understanding of the nature of religion It distinguishes between what makes up the system of symbols, categories and mediations through which what is religious is expressed as opposed to what is the very core of the religious experience, abstraction made of all those mediations As you know, the play of these distinctions was much developed in succeeding years In a theology of religions, can we go beyond liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism^ I will try to state the limits that are acknowledged today The limitations of liberation theology and Latin American macroecumenism as a "theology of religions" They did not develop a "theology of religions" under that name It is clear that there were no publications with that name nor was the concept used In those years the concept was just beginning to emerge in the universal theological world So there is nothing strange about the fact that liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism did not use it Besides, they were too busy and too absorbed with other topics and other urgent preoccupations to develop a theoretical theology about religions They had an intuition of pluralism in principle but they didn't succeed in formulating it or developing it The appraisal of religions that is reflected in the writings of those years showed a very positive evaluation of the religions in question The spirit that breathes through them was already "pluralist." They were not trying to convert or baptize other religions They considered them a gift from God that had to be contemplated with respect and admiration They were one step removed from what could have been the formulation of a "pluralism in principle" that states that all religions are revealed, are true and are wanted by God Still, we cannot deny that they did not succeed in formulating this or developing it

"Unfaithful to the Gospel/ of the Incarnate Word/ we gave you as a message/ a foreign culture," Penitential Rite of the Missa da terra sem males (Mass of the Earth without Evil), Declee de Brower, Bilbao, 1980, 43 Western Latin religiosity was the foreign culture for the Indigenous or Afro-American peoples

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In broad strokes, they stayed within the boundaries of inclusivity. It was a moderate inclusivity, at times fearful and insecure. It seemed to intuit its insufficiency but it was in the end inclusivity. They always continued to think of Christianity as a "higher light" 26 that we Christians have for understanding the meaning of life and of history. We knew that the Spirit was active in every people and religion and in every man and women, and could Jead them to intuit the great values of existence through the voice of their conscience. But we did not dare abandon the atavistic conviction that the perspectives of other religions remained small in comparison with the explicit revelation of the plan of God with its own name, the Reign, as expressed in the Gospel of Jesus. Still, I believe that it can be said that, of all the inclusivists of the period, the most respectful and least chauvinistic was undoubtedly liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism. Christ-centeredness still remains unquestioned. It was a Christ-centeredness that was very tempered by Reign-centeredness but nevertheless in the end it remained a Christ-centeredness. In those years it wasn't possible to imagine the possibility that a few decades later the great Christological questions like the incarnation, divine filiation, uniqueness and redemption would come up for question. Indeed, it is possible to say that the accent that Christology of liberation gave to the historical Jesus served to attenuate the difficulties that those major dogmatic affirmations represented on other latitudes. Considered from a global perspective, it is still "the luxury of a Christian minority, " as Pieris later noted. The continent and the projections of solidarity that have extended literally across the whole planet seemed to us in those days a distant and unattainable world. But the jolt given us by the words of Pieris made us aware of the illusion. A liberation theology for Latin America with a half-billion inhabitants seemed to us a huge adventure. Still, as viewed from a world perspective, that is to say from the perspective of the poor who are mostly in Asia and in Africa and who are not Christians, it certainly is "the luxury of a Christian minority." The limitation here was in not discovering much earlier the perspective of globalization and the necessity for a liberation theology that is no longer Latin

In the work already quoted, Espiritualidad de liberacion, it must be recognized that here and there affirmations appear that refer to the light of faith or of Christian revelation as a "higher light" (ibid, 30-31) or to the Church as "necessary for the full knowledge of salvation in this world" (238). 27 Pieris, "The Place of Non-Christian Religions and Cultures in the Evolution of Third World Theology, an Irruption," Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology, Virginia Fabela and Sergio Torres (editors), Maryknoll, Orbis, 1985, 113-114.

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American (and Chnstian) but rather lies in "an inter-religious theology of world liberation " In a parallel way, it has to be said that we need an mterrehgious macro-ecumenism with a global perspective Current challenges and steps to be accomplished As I have already said, classical liberation theology did not posit the need for a theology of religions and yet today it is a tact that most liberation theologians areoccupied and preoccupied, even if quietly, with the topic of a theology of religion or a theology of pluralism We are drawing up the balance sheet of Latin American macro-ecumenism and we all take it for granted that this task has a great future ahead What are the more immediate tasks that remain7 Let me list a few We need to go into the field of the theology of religions fully and explicitly Here we have tried to rescue what liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism had of a theology of religions But the time has come for these branches and contents of liberation theology to be made explicit with full awareness and development Now is the time to confront and to respond, in the framework of liberation theology, to the most elemental questions These are questions that in Latin America are not posed by the population because society is still not markedly pluralist However, it is soon going to be They are questions like If God is one, should there not be only one religion7 Who was God revealed to really9 Are all religions true7 Are they all the same1?28 The mission ad extra needs to be rethought This is the mission to other religions The praxis of the Church of liberation went beyond the classical mission but we need to deepen and elaborate on the new theology of the mission ad gentes Liberation theology and Latin American macro-ecumenism has to go into the thorny field of the Chnstological questions already mentioned and which are currently being debated A Latin American expert in Chnstology tells us that this is a "nest of wasps " And it is, on the one hand, because one can imagine how serious the looming reinterpretation really is On the other hand, given the central nature of the Chnstological themes, these questions are of the utmost gravity at least according to traditional, classical parameters No doubt, the construction of a new and non-absolute Chnstology30 is the most difficult question at this point Paul Knitter No Other Name ? Maryknoll, Orbis, 1985, 1 The official missionary congresses do not touch the topic They confine themselves to repeat constantly the theology of the universal mandate of Christ See in this same volume the work of Marcelo Barros on "Afro-Indigenous Chnstology A discussion with God "
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In this new stage of globalization, liberation theology has to posit the need and the urgency of being reformulated as an inter-religious theology, which is to say as a theology of a "globalized liberation." This is necessary, first of all, in order to avoid being "the luxury of a Christian minority. " Secondly, it needs to adapt to the times we are living in. This is a time of globalization and a period of a necessarily globalized liberation. In the future development of contemporary liberation theology we have to take into account everything that theology proposes regarding "World Theology" or an inter-religious theology that speaks of a religiously pluralist society, such as we find in contemporary societies. We need to embrace and to deepen the theme of the nature of religion itself by drawing on anthropology, the religious sciences and philosophy. We need to dialogue also with agnosticism. We have to reconsider the ingenuous and uncritical - really pre-enlightenment - preoccupations on which popular religion was traditionally established. Theology of religions needs to work out those foundations and liberation theology has not yet done that work in order to build its own theology of religions.

Bibliography Boff, L. (1985). Salvation and Liberation. Maryknoll: Orbis. Boff, L. (1992). New Evangelization. Maryknoll: Orbis. Casaldaliga, P. & Milton Nascimento, M. (1982). Missa dos Quilombos. Latin America. Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1991). Espiritualidad de la liberacion. Managua: Envio. Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1994). Spirituality of Liberation. Tunbridge Wells: Burns & Oates. Casaldaliga, P. (1977). Yo creo en lajusticia y la esperanza. Bilbao: Desclee. Casaldaliga, P. (1980). Missa da terra sent males.Bilbao: Declee de Brower. Casaldaliga, P. (1988). El Vuelo del Quetzal. Panama: Maiz nuestro. Danielou, J. (1946). Le mystere du salut des nations. Paris: Seuil. Duran, J.G. (1984). Monumenta catechetica hispanoamericana, vol. I. Buenos Aires. Garrigou-Lagrange, R. (1923). Perfection chretienne et contemplation. Paris: Desclee. Hick, J. (1980). God has Many Names: Britain's New Religious Pluralism. London: Macmillan. Hick, J. (1982). God has Many Names. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. Knitter, P (1985). No Other Name? Maryknoll: Orbis. Knitter, P. & Hick, J. (eds.). (1987). Toward a Liberation Theology of Religions. In: Knitter, P. & Hick, J. (eds.). (1987). The Myth of Christian

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Uniqueness: Toward a Pluralistic Theology of Religions. Maryknoll: Orbis. Pieris, A. (1985). The Place of Non-Christian Religions and Cultures in the Evolution of Third World Theology, an Irruption. In: Fabela, V. & Torres, S. (eds.). (1985). Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology. Maryknoll: Orbis. Teixeira, F. (1995). Teologia das religoes. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Vigil, J.M. (1975). Lapolitica de la Iglesia apolitica, Una aportacion a la teologia politica desde la historia. Valencia: Edicep. Vigil, J.M. (1992). Espiritualidad de liberacion. Managua: Envio.

Chapter 10 The Church of the Poor, Sacrament of the People of God: Towards a Macro-ecumenical ecclesiology of liberation
Francisco de Aquino Junior Ceara, Brazil

Introduction Religious pluralism is a fact! There is no doubt today. It is also very complex and challenging for religions. There is no denying that there are many religions in the world and also many religious experiences that are more or less institutionalized. There are many ways of speaking about them and many religious symbols. This is increasingly so even in the same geographical-cultural space. We are barely aware of the existence of many traditions or religious groups in our world as we are also hardly aware of the fact that these various groups and traditions coexist in the same space. That coexistence has direct and immediate consequences in the life of each group or religious tradition. This is so, first of all, because of pluralism in itself. There are many religious experiences. One can come to God by many paths. God is greater than any religion. No experience exhausts His Mystery.... Secondly, diversity can mean a collapse of religious domination. Suddenly in one same space, new traditions or religious groups begin to emerge. A few grow, welcoming new followers, carving out a place in society and breaking with the hegemony of the dominant group or tradition. Thirdly, this coexistence provokes questions and reshapes the very identity of each group or tradition. Encounter provokes crisis and the crisis is creative. For better or worse, encounter always shakes us up, rattles our identity. We are never the same after an encounter. Finally, there is a new shared responsibility for everything to do with the values, practices and orientation of a common life that is the domain of religious traditions and groups in a special though not exclusive way. It is here especially that proximity to the great Horizon that frames our historical practice is cultivated, although from a distance. At the same time it becomes relative and kept always open. Whether just because of its existence or more because of its consequences, religious pluralism is one of the major challenges today for the various religious groups and traditions. That challenge becomes even greater and more urgent with the actual situation of misery, exclusion, oppression and vio-

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lence suffered by most of humanity. If the existence of religious traditions or groups presupposes the existence of humanity, then the destruction of humanity is ultimately the destruction of the religious traditions or groups themselves. But there is more to it than that. If religious traditions or groups are bearers of humanizing values, customs and practices, they cannot stand by passively or even less collaborate actively with the death of so many daughters and sons of God. The very identity of each religious tradition or group, its ultimate reason for being, is played out through the destiny of humanity incarnated in the destiny of the poor of this world. For all of the above reasons, inter-religious pluralism and dialogue have a growing place in the various religious traditions and groups. For Christians of the Roman Catholic tradition, that reality was officially recognized by the Church during the Second Vatican Council. Even so, in Latin America, in the Church of the poor, while praxis and dialogue among the Christian Churches and also among different religious traditions is fairly well established, the situation at the level of theory and of a more developed reflection and thinking in theology is still only incipient. Only recently has liberation theology shown a more explicit and direct interest in the question. The challenge to develop a liberation theology of religions is increasingly evident and urgent. It is in this context that our reflection is situated. While it is a modest contribution to "a Christian and Latin American theology of religious pluralism," I think it is nevertheless quite a propos and fundamental. It is a propos because it addresses itself to a specific "area" of theology: ecclesiology. It is fundamental because it addresses an area that cuts across all theology. Finally, even if it is true that ecclesiology is not the whole of theology - for there are many other "areas" of theology - nevertheless all theology is ecclesial, and not only because it is an ecclesial "product" but above all because it deals with the faith of the ecclesial community. So here we will explore one "area," (ecclesiology) and one "dimension" (the ecclesial character) that are fundamental to Christian theology. In this chapter we will try to see how being the Church of Jesus Christ opens up for us a humble and fraternal dialogue with other religious traditions and groups. In other words, we will see that the very identity of the Christian Church maps out its limits and its borders since the Christian Church is macroecumenical by its very nature. For this reason I will consider those aspects or characteristics of the Church that seem to me more fundamental to the constitution and assertion of its identity. It seems to me that it is here that the Church's openness to a relationship with religious pluralism has to set down its roots. The macro-ecumenical character of the Church cannot disregard the fact that it is Christian. On the contrary, it is in being Christian that the Church will be really and truly macro-ecumenical.

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Church: a community of followers of Jesus Christ and of those who extend his mission The first and most fundamental characteristic of the Christian Church is its reference and historical-theological relationship with Jesus Christ. It is Christian precisely because of its link to Jesus Christ. This is a link that is both historical and theological. It is historical because it refers to Jesus of Nazareth and to the movement he initiated. It is theological because the Church is born out of the confession that this Jesus of Nazareth "who went about doing good" (Acts 10, 38) is the Christ of God and because it is nourished by faith in Jesus Christ and is configured historically in that faith. The radical connection of the Church to Jesus Christ was, for a long time, silenced and hidden by the concept of the Church as a perfect society. This idea prevailed right into the first decades of the twentieth century. An important step in overcoming this ecclesiology, which touched on the jurisdictional, societal, organizational and hierarchical aspects of Church, was without a doubt the rediscovery of and return to a biblical and patristic theology of the Church as "Body of Christ," that culminated in the publication of the Encyclical, Mystici Corporis of Pius XII in 1943.1 In spite of the ambiguities and the limits of this new ecclesiology and although even today theology has not discovered all the implications of this Pauline image of Church as "Body of Christ," I believe it is very important for explaining the identity of the Church. This is so as much for what is implied in its being "body" as for what is implied in its being "of Christ." To be the Body of Christ implies, according to Ellacuria, "that in the Church the reality and the action of Jesus Christ take on a body so that the Church brings about the embodiment of Jesus Christ in the reality of history."2 The "taking of a body" has to do with how the Word of God "became flesh" in human history, a fundamental condition to "be able to intervene in a fully historical way in human activity." The embodiment has to do with the action of "taking a body" as the leaven and the salt of the earth in the material history of human beings. "Embodiment thus presupposes that, in taking a body, the accent is on the unique body of history."3 As Body of Christ, the identity of the Church is defined therefore by its double reference and pertinence to Jesus Christ who took a body in it and also to the material history of human beings through which Jesus Christ is "embodied." The Church is the visible and operating presence of Jesus Christ in history. In the words of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the Church is ' See J. Comblin, O Povo de Deus, Sao Paulo, Paulus, 2002, 52-87. I. Ellacuria, "La Iglesia de los Pobres, Sacramento histdrico de liberation," Escritos Teologicos II, San Salvador, UCA, 2000, 453-485. The quote is from page 456. 3 Ibidem, 457.

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the body in which Christ makes his own life and personal mission present through the centuries. ... The Church can only be Church to the extent that it continues to be the Body of Christ. Its mission can only be authentic to the extent that it is the mission of Jesus in new situations and in new circumstances of history.4 Understood in this way, the Church as the Body of Christ is, in the well-known formulation of liberation theology, the community of the followers of Jesus (where he takes a body) and those who prolong his life and mission (through which he continues to be embodied in human history). It is by following Jesus Christ and his mission in the world that the Church becomes Church. This is its most fundamental reality. If you take away the following of Christ and his mission in the world, there is no Christian Church. Even though all this might seem quite obvious and unnecessary, in the context of the reflection we are engaged in here we believe that this explanation is of fundamental importance. Finally, if there exists any openness in the Christian Churches to other religious traditions or groups or any demand for welcome, dialogue and communion with them, this cannot happen at the price of being Christian within the Church. On the contrary, it is in being Christian that ecclesiology is able to be macro-ecumenical. And that is what we will try to show by examining the most fundamental attributes of Christian ecclesiology. The central character of the Reign of God If there is anything Christian exegetes and theologians agree on it is the central character of the Reign of God in the life and mission of Jesus. There is no question that the central point of the preaching of Jesus was the lordship of God or the Reign of God (basileia tou heou). The lordship of of God can literally be considered the centre of his activity. It is the central point around which everything is organized, not only his message but also his activity of healing the sick and doing miracles. It is his ethical imperative.5 In the words of Rinaldo Fabris: "The nucleus around which the teachings and historical activity of Jesus move and gravitate is the Reign of God."6 The Reign of God is therefore the central and fundamental concept, as well as the reality of the life and mission of Jesus to the point that "whoever is devoted

Oscar Romero, A Igreja, corpo de Cristo na historia: Segunda Carta Pastoral in J. Sobrino et al., Voz dos sem voz'- A palavra profetica de D. Oscar Romero, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1987, 105. 5 J. Gnilka, Jesus de Nazare:Mensagem e historia, Petropolis, Vozes, 2000, 83. R. Fabris, Jesus de Nazare: Historia e interpretagao, Sao Paulo, Loyola, 1988, 104

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to Jesus, is devoted to the Reign of God This is inevitable because the 'cause of Jesus' was and is the 'Reign of God '" Now, if Jesus did not put himself at the centre of his life and mission, if he never preached himself, if the Reign of God was at the centre of his life and mission, if he lived radically and fully in pursuit of that Reign of God,8 to the point that his existence was lived as a pro-existence, that is to say as an existence in pursuit of the Reign of God ,9 then the Church, as his "body," as his "visible and operating presence" in history, will also have to be centered and lived in pursuit of the Reign of God if it wants to be the Church of Jesus Christ, the "Body of Christ" in history This is the first and most fundamental characteristic of the Christian Church its radical de-centering It cannot live to serve itself It cannot act on its own behalf It has to be entirely in pursuit of and at the service of the Reign of God, which is its ultimate reason for being and its ultimate criterion for discernment and legitimacy That is why I am insisting so much on the fact that the Christian Church cannot be "Church-centered," that is to say centered on itself Nor can it be "Christ-centered," that is to say centered on Christ, at least if the emphasis is placed on Jesus Christ abstracting from or hiding the mission for which he lived and acted the Reign of God 10 Nor can it be God-centered, that is to say centered on an abstract god who has nothing to do with human history It cannot be centered on an absolute reality that is without historicity If it wants to be Christian, that is to say the Body of Christ in history, it has to be centered on the Reign of God in history, as was Jesus Christ It will have to be Reign-centered '' It is precisely in the centrahty of the Reign of God that the Christian Church finds its identity, whether because of its reference to and relationship with Jesus Christ in whom it becomes embodied or through its mission and relationship with the world as the embodiment of Jesus Christ in history So it
J Moltmann, Quern e Jesus Cnsto para nds hoje, Petropohs, Vozes, 1997, 11 Some of the principal characteristics of the Reign of God can be found, in summary form, in I Ellacuna, "Recuperar el reino de Dios deshumamzacion e histonzacion de la Iglesia," in Escntos Teologicos II, op cit, 307-316 See J Sobrmo Jesuscristo hberador Lectura histonca-teologica de Jesus de Nazaret, UCA, San Salvador, 1991, 121-127 9 1 Ellacuna, op cit ,3\l 10 In the second volume of his Chnstology, Jon Sobnno shows how the Christology of the first centuries was constantly constructed as a "radicahzation of the mediator, Jesus Christ, and a weakening of the mediation, the Reign of God" and he notes the negative consequences of this fact on the whole of subsequent theology (J Sobnno, La fe en Jesucnsto Ensayo desde las victimas, Trotta, Madrid, 1999, 317-464) II A good summary of the current debate over the theology of religions can be found in J Dupuis, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism Maryknoll, Orbis, 1997 More specifically, on the centrahty of God's Reign see 453 488

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IS that being Reign-centered, such as we understand and propose it, does not silence Jesus Christ or move him to the margins or undervalue the Church, even though this is what the encyclical, Redemptons missio of John Paul II feared (RM, 17-19) Quite simply, in all honesty and fidelity, it speaks of Jesus Christ from what he knew and in favor of what he experienced Consequently, it speaks of the Church out of the reality that grounds it and constitutes it as such Finally, as the encyclical itself recognizes, the Church "is not an end in itself, given that it is ordained toward the Reign of God" (RM, 18) This de-centralizing of the Church points, on the negative side, to the fact that the Church is not unqualifiedly equal to the Reign of God We all know, deep down, that there is, in fact, much that is contrary to the Reign of God, including situations, relationships and structures of the Church We know that it is not in fact the Reign of God But, this also points, positively, to the necessity of a "center outside itself," a horizon beyond its institutional frontiers, in order to orient its mission and to direct its structural formation "12 In other words, it is necessary to "separate the Church and the Reign of God in order that the former be configured to the latter, so that the Church might find itself ever freer in its version of the world through an authentic conversion to the Reign of God" 13 Ignacio Ellacuna calls attention to the existence of "a long theological tradition that finds its principal expression in Saint Augustine and that tends to identify the Church with the Reign of God " For him, this is the result "as much of a defective reading of the New Testament as of specific historical demands"14 whose consequences are terrible for the Reign of God and for the Church itself Jacques Dupuis, for his part, states that not even the Second Vatican Council managed to liberate that identification of the Church with the Reign of God "In the dogmatic constitution, Lumen gentium, the Church and the Reign of God continue to be identified both in their historic realization and in the eschatological consummation of both "15 Nevertheless, the pastoral constitution, Gaudium et spes, gives the impression that it has overcome that identification Number 39, in fact, speaks of the growth of the Reign of Christ and of God in history and of its eschatological consummation without referring to the Church but including all humanity Gaudium et spes itself says that 'the Church Ellacuna, op cit, 312 Ibidem 1 Ibidem, 311 "The Reign of God is converted into a setting 'separated' from the Reign of Satan and the existence of a civitas sancta is established beside that of a civitas mundana He conceived of the former as a perfect society and State (sic) with the aggravating political circumstance that it ended up subordinating the civic and political setting to that of the ecclesial" (Ibidem, 31 If) 1 Dupuis, op cit, 461
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marches toward a single goal: the coming of the Reign of God and the salvation of the whole human race' (GS, 45)."16 According to Dupuis, the encyclical Redemptoris missio (1980) "is the first document in the Roman magisterium that clearly distinguishes the Church and the Reign of God in its pilgrimage through history while still keeping them united. The Reign of God as present in the world is a wider reality than that of Church. It extends beyond the borders of the Church and includes ... not only members of the Church, but also 'others.'" In emphasizing and insisting on the indissoluble unity between the Church, Jesus Christ and the Reign of God, the encyclical clearly states, although with caution and apprehension, that the Church is "distinct from Christ and the Reign of God" (RM, 18), that "it is effectively and concretely at the service of the Reign of God" (RM, 20). It recognizes that "the incipient reality of the Reign of God can be found also outside the confines of the Church, in all humanity, to the extent that it lives 'evangelical values' and is open to the action of the Spirit that breathes wherever and however it wishes" (RM, 20). Prior to this encyclical a document of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC), published in 1985, stated: The reign of God is the very reason for the being of the Church. The Church exists in and for the Kingdom. The Kingdom, God's gift and initiative, is already begun and is constantly being realized, and made present through the Spirit. Where God is accepted, where the Gospel values are lived, where the human being is respected..., there is the Kingdom. It is far wider than the Church's borders. This already present reality is oriented toward the final manifestation and full reflection of the Reign of God. (11,1)18 Later, in November of 1991, this same Federation explains more fully and in a better way both the distinction between the Church and Reign of God and also the universality of the latter: The Kingdom of God is therefore universally present and at work. Wherever men and women open themselves to the transcendent Divine Mystery which impinges upon them, and go out of themselves in love and service of fellow humans, there the Reign of God is at work.... 'Where God is accepted, where Gospel values are lived, where the Ibidem, note 18. Ibidem, 467. 18 Final statement of the Second Bishops' Institute for Interreligious Affairs on the Theology of Dialogue (Pattaya, Thailand, 17-22 of November, 1985) in Rosales and Arevalo, 1992, 252. Quoted in Dupuis, op. cit., 341.
17 16

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human being is respected... there is the Kingdom.' In all such cases people respond to God's offer of grace through Christ in the Spirit and enter into the Kingdom through an act of faith.... This goes to show that the Reign of God is a universal reality, extending far beyond the boundaries of the Church. It is the reality of salvation in Jesus Christ, in which Christians and others share together; it is the fundamental 'mystery of unity' which unites us more deeply than differences in religious alliance are able to keep us apart. (30)19 We could go further in this direction but, for now, it is enough to take note of that radical de-centralization of the Church. It is sufficient to recognize that the Church does not exist for itself, cannot configure itself at its own service. It exists in pursuit of something that establishes its framework and that is even the criterion for its legitimacy or falsehood. It exists at the service of something that is present also in other religions and in people and groups that do not consider themselves religious but that defend and promote life. This is the presence, action, intervention, lordship and governance of God in history through and in favor of the poor, of the excluded, of the oppressed and marginalized of our society, beyond the borders of the Christian Churches, and of other religious groups and traditions. It is there, in the most fundamental nucleus of its identity that the Church is revealed as macro-ecumenical and the encounter, the dialogue and the communion with various religions and groups is imposed as a Gospel imperative. The establishment of the people of God The concept of the people of God is very close to and is related to the concept and reality of the Reign of God. "They are concepts and realities that move absolutely on the same plane. The Reign of God will come about when there are the people of God and to the extent that they exist."20 According to Ellacuria, "The Reign (of God) and the people (of God) are an immediate reference to the full historicity of the relationship between God and human beings and between human beings and God."21 Above all it is important to single out the relationship between God and the people. They are so joined that one cannot be thought of without the other. The people are always of God and God is always of the people. Normally it is the "ecclesial sense" of the people of God that is emphasized (being people, the conditions for being people of God) more than its "theological Final conclusions of the theological consultation organized by the Office for Evangelization of the FABC, "Evangelization in Asia," ibidem, 468. 20 I. Ellacuria, "Iglesia como pueblo de Dios," in Escritos Teologicos II, 317-342. The quote here is from 321. 21 Ibidem, 322.
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sense" (God as referred to a people, his history with this people) In reality both aspects are intimately related There is a people of God because there is a God of the people, and there is a God of the people because there is & people of God A comparative study of religions allows us to see that "all people seek their own God as an essential constitutive piece of their own condition as a people, so that in the consciousness itself of each member, above all among primitive peoples, it is the integration of a God or of particular gods that explains and at the same time reflects the specific characteristics of God and of the people in question " 22 In the specific case of the people of Israel this relationship is made explicit in the fundamental affirmation "You are my people and I am your God " Being "of God" is constitutive of the identity of the "people" of Israel and being "of the people" is constitutive of the identity of "God" who is revealed, experienced and known by Israel But it is not enough to affirm that the people are the people of God and that God is the God of the people We need to see how the relationship between these two exists historically The relationship between God and the people and above all between the people and God is a historical relationship that happens in history and that makes history In the case of Israel this relationship is directly linked to the liberation of the Hebrew people "I am the Lord, I will release you from your labors in Egypt I will rescue you from slavery there I will redeem you with arm outstretched and with mighty acts of judgment I will adopt you as my people, and I will become your God " (Exod 6, 6-7a) The historicity of the relationship between God and the people implies "a historical project of life for the people that must be people of God God has projects and plans in the human history whose full realization will be nothing other than the Reign of God on earth " 23 Here is where the close relationship between the people of God and the Reign of God ocurrs and becomes explicit The people of God are the people over whom God reigns, the people who are at the service of the Reign of God and who struggle to bring about its historical realization In the formulation of Ignacio Ellacuna, "the Reign of God is for the people and only when the people of God have been constituted

Ibidem, 319 Ibidem, 322f "I do not mean here that the Reign of God would be nothing more than the reign of this world nor do I mean that the Reign of God must be reduced to a limited reign in space and time and even less do I mean that obsolete forms of theocracy and of hierocracy are necessary for God to enter history among human beings But I do indeed mean that, although the Reign of God transcends history, that transcendence does not presuppose that God's Reign ignores the historical destiny of human beings On the contrary, the connection becomes quite necessary if faith is not to end up reduced to an fleeting dream without any verification "

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will the fullness of the Reign of God happen." These are two distinct concepts but they are complementary. In one case, being people is emphasized. The Reign of God is not reduced to a personal and subjective dimension of the relationship of a human being with God. Always it has a communitarian and collective dimension and in Israel this stands as a priority. In the other case, the Reign of God over the people is emphasized. Their fulfillment will not happen "until all humanity is converted into something like a single people with their differences preserved and their enriching peculiarities respected." 25 Finally, it is important to affirm and to insist that just as the Reign of God is not equal to the Christian Church in the Roman tradition, neither it is equal to the sum of the Christian Churches. This is so for two reasons. Negatively, it is true because the Christian Churches do not entirely live according to the design of God nor do they always do His will, nor do they live always in accord with His Reign. Not uncommonly, as history shows, they reject and deny the Reign whether by omission, naivete or bad faith or through complicity with the structures, values and groups holding power. Positively, it is true because to the extent that the Reign of God makes itself present in various ways and by many paths, with a range of intensities and in many peoples and religions, the people of God also are constituted in many peoples and in many religions as a people of many peoples. Borrowing a much discussed and rich conciliar expression, we might say that the people of God subsists in various peoples and in various religions to the extent and in proportion to the way in which the Reign of God becomes a reality there. The Second Vatican Council took important steps in that direction. If the Constitution Lumen gentium speaks of the people of God in the context of the Church - as a people believing in Jesus Christ - the way in which it is treated goes beyond the limits of the Church itself. The People of God has in its nature "the dignity and the liberty of the children of God; its law is "the new commandment of love" and its goal is "the Reign of God" (LG, 9). Even more, it is "for all humanity the sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation" (LG, 9). In various ways "all human beings" belong to this people (LG, 13). No doubt an important step was "the recognition of the Christian and ecclesial value of other communities or Churches that declare that they belong to Christ." 26 This appears above all in the controversial and much discussed affirmation that the Church of Jesus Christ subsists in the Catholic Church. 27
24 25

Ibidem, 325. Ibidem, 326. 26 J. Comblin, op. cit., 34. 27 With respect to the meaning of the discussion of this conciliar affirmation, see F. A. Sullivan, "The Significance of the Vatican II Declaration That the Church of Christ 'Subsists' in the Roman Catholic Church" in R. Latourelle (edit.), Vatican II: Assessment and Perspectives (1962-1987), Volume 2, Ny, Paulist Press, 1989, 272-287.

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Instead of affirming that the Church of Jesus Christ is the Roman Catholic Church, as theology and the first schemas of the document on the Church had regularly done, the Council stated that it subsists in and, in addition, recognized that "outside its visible structure could be found various elements of sanctification and truth" (LG, 8) This expression caused, and still causes, a great deal of discussion 28 To this one must add the fact that Lumen gentium (LG) which deals with the Church, and Unitahs redintegratw (UR) which speaks of ecumenism, were published on the same day, November 21, 1964 Also, according to Paul VI, the doctrine regarding the Church (LG) must be interpreted in the light of ecumenism (UR) "29 In any case, as Sullivan says, "the only thing that is absolutely certain is that the decision to not say that it already 'is' is a decision to erase that absolute and exclusive identity between the Church of Christ and the Catholic Church that was maintained in the preceding schema?, "30 As a result, he continues, "No further interpretation can be a correct interpretation of the thinking of the Council if it implies a return to the exclusive claim according to which only the Roman Catholic Church has the right to call itself a Church "31 Another important step with respect to ecumenism in a broad sense is what in liberation theology we have called "macro-ecumenism," that is to say, the dialogue among all religions On this point, the Council was even more timid and apprehensive In spite of that, it took important steps The declaration Nostra Aetate, on the relationship between the Church and non-Christian religions, begins with the principle that all peoples "comprise a single community" that "have a single origin" and "one also is their final goal God," and that "men look to the various religions for answers to those profound mysteries of the human condition which, today even as in olden times, deeply stir the human heart" (NA, 1) It declares that "The Catholic Church rejects nothing which is true and holy in these religions" (NA, 2) It recognizes that they "reSuffice to look at the notification of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith regarding the book of Leonardo Boffin dealing with this question and its consequences for ecclesiology and for ecumenism in general (L Boff, Church Charism and Power, New York, Crossroads, 1986, 121-155) See especially the documents of the controversy with Cardinal Razinger, 268-367 The same controversy can be found in the Declaration Dominus Jesus, published by the same Congregation, in the chapter that treats of the "uniqueness and unity of the Church" (n 16) It even makes explicit reference to the notification about the book of Boff (Note 56) In one article, among many others from a variety of authors, Boff reacted to the interpretation of Cardinal Ratzinger in Dominus Jesus (See idem, "Respuesta al Cardenal Ratzinger a proposito de Dominus Deus," in the Revista Electromca Latmo-amencana de Teologia (http //servicioskoinoma org/relat/233 htm) 29 See F A Sullivan, op at,&\4 30 Ibidem, 813 31 Ibidem, 824

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fleet a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men" and "has this exhortation for her sons[:]... acknowledge, preserve, and promote the spiritual and moral goods found among these men" (NA, 2). Finally, it recognizes that "we cannot in truthfulness call upon that God who is the Father of all if we refuse to act in a brotherly way toward certain men, created though they be to God's image." (NA, 5). As Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga prophetically states, "Vatican II was an initial leap." Nevertheless, he continues, "the Church must also step beyond itself, and Vatican II is not the last word.'"2 So more than just sticking to the letter (text) of the Council (without discarding it obviously) we need to allow ourselves to be guided by its spirit so that, passing through the letter, we may be led to the mystery of the Reign of God in this world and to the building up of His people in history. This goes beyond the limits and the borders of the Christian Church of the Roman tradition and indeed the sum of all the Christian churches. All this leads us to affirm with Comblin that "the people of God subsist (subsistit) in the Church but are not identical with the Church.... They are a people among the peoples,"33 of many religions. Speaking of the characteristics of the true people of God, which includes the preferential option for the poor, the struggle for justice and freedom and persecution for the cause of the Reign of God,34 Ellacuria states that one of the "ways" or "forms," or "modes" ... of making these characteristics a part of real history (of putting them into practice) is to be found in what was promoted by Jesus throughout his life, his word and his grace in announcing and bringing about the Reign of God."35 This continues in history through his Church. Even though it isn't the people of God without qualification, nevertheless, to the extent and in the measure that it is given over to the service of the Reign of God, the Church is the people of God. As such it is for all humanity "sure seed of unity, hope, and salvation," "instrument of redemption." In addition it is sent forth "into the whole world as the light of the world and the salt of the earth" (LG, 9). Here the identity of the Church is once more shown to be open and in communion with various religions and religious groups. Finally, as Ellacuria says, the "the union between the people and the Reign of God is not effective in the Church in a way that is full and total.... The Church is an exceptional instrument whose mission consists in inaugurating the Reign of God among human beings so that, through this beginning, P. Casaldaliga, Na procura do Reino: Antologia de textos (1968-1988), Sao Paulo, FTD, 1988, 139. 33 J. Comblin, op. cit., 283. 34 I. Ellacuria, "Iglesia como pueblo de Dios," Escritos Teologicos II, 327-337. See also idem, "El verdadero pueblo de Dios, segiin Monsenor Romero," 357-396. 35 Idem, "Iglesia como pueblo de Dios," op. cit., 332.

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what was not a people beforehand becomes constituted as people of God Of them, it can quite properly be said 'I will be your God and you will be my peopie '" 36 The Church of Jesus Christ as Church of the Poor Pope John XXIII, in his message to the world on December 11,1962, at the very beginning of the Second Vatican Council, made a statement that didn't have much resonance in the Council He pointed to a fundamental truth of the Church and prophetically anticipated what would happen through the action of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, above all in Latin America The Church in underdeveloped countries is and wishes to be "the Church of all and particularly the Church of the poor " 37 During the Council itself some prophetic voices echoed the statement of John XXIII Cardinal Lecaro, in an intervention that became famous and that provoked a timid mention of the mystery of the Church of the poor (LG, 8), prophetically argued that "the mystery of Christ in the poor does not appear in the doctrine of the Church about itself in spite of the fact that it is an essential and primary truth in revelation It is our duty to place the mystery of Christ in the poor and the evangelization of the poor at the centre of this Council " 38 On October 4, 1963, the bishop of Tournai, Charles-Mane Himmer, speaking in the concihar aula, said that "primus locus in Ecclesia pauperibus reservandus est" (the first place in the Church is reserved for the poor) 3 9 During the Council a number of meetings were held by a group of bishops who wanted the Church to become the Church of the poor Unfortunately this did not happen and it is certainly the major lacuna in the Council In the end, says Ellacuna, "Vatican II was a universal council but from the perspective of the rich countries and so-called Western culture " 40 We cannot go deeper here into what the Church of the poor is or into its characteristics and its historical embodiment I simply want to affirm that I Ellacuna, op cit, 326f John XXIII, "Ecclesia Chnsti," in P C Cipohni, "Povo de Deus e Corpo de Cnsto Imagens complementares na abordagem do mistenor da Igreja " in J Trasferreti and L Gonsalves (editors), Teologia na pos-modernidade Abordagen epistemologica, sistematica et teonco-practica, Paulinas, Sao Paulo, 2003, 247, note 84 38 Lecardo as quoted in the work mentioned m the previous note, 235, note 49 39 C M Himmer, in I Ellacuna, "El verdadero pueblo de Dios, segun Mons Romero," op at,361 4 I Ellacuna, "Pobre," Escritos Teologicos II, op cit, 171-192 The citation is from page173 1 See I Ellacuia, "Las bienaventuranzas, carta fundamental de la Iglesia de los pobres," Ibidem, 417-427, Idem, "El autentico lugar social de la Iglesia," in Ibidem, 439 451, Idem, "La Iglesia de los pobres, sacramento histonco de hberacion, in Ibidem, 453-485, Idem, "Notas teologicas sobre rehgiosidad popular," Ibidem, 48737 ib

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being "of the poor" is one of the fundamental characteristics of the Church of Jesus Christ. This is not another pastoral question that in the end does not affect the nucleus of the faith. It is a question of ecclesial "orthopraxis" and of theological orthodoxy. After all, if the Church is the "Body of Christ" in history, if Matthew 25 is not - as John Paul II said in the Apostolic Letter, Novo Millennio Ineunte, 49, "a simple invitation to charity but rather a page of Christology which sheds a ray of light on the mystery of Christ." so that "by these words, no less than by the orthodoxy of her doctrine, the Church measures her fidelity as the Bride of Christ," then being "of the poor" is constitutive of the Church of Jesus Christ. It is clear that being "of the poor" does not exhaust the identity of the Church. But it is one of its fundamental characteristics. Without it the Church is not Church, so that the Church of Jesus Christ is the Church of the Poor. It is the Church that is established on the foundation of the poor and that finds in them the source of its structure, organization and mission. When the poor become the centre of the Church, they provide direction and give meaning to everything that makes it legitimate... and ... this necessarily constitutes the concrete reality of the Church: its preaching, its action, its administrative, cultural, dogmatic, theological structures and so on. The poor are not in any way a "reduction" in the reality of the Church. On the contrary, they are the source through which the whole ecclesial reality is "concretized."42 Besides being one of the fundamental characteristics of the Church of Jesus Christ, being "of the poor" places it in a privileged position for encounter and dialogue between religions. This is so for two reasons: negatively, the poor are the most radical expression of the sin of this world and its rejection of God. They are the principal victims of the forces of the anti-reign or of the reign of evil and they are, by their very existence, its most real and prophetic condemnation. Positively, they are the most radical call to conversion to the Reign of God and to the restoration of the people of God in this world. If the Reign of God is fundamentally and in first place directed to the poor who are the victims of the anti-reign, then the establishment of the people of God begins and comes about always and necessarily through the poor. If it is in the poor that the plan of God is rejected and denied, then it is in the poor that His plan can be welcomed and historically realized. So, the Church of Jesus Christ is the Church of the poor. As such it is open and convoked by the Gospel to dialogue and communion with all religious traditions and groups, always on the basis of and in service of the poor.

498; J. Sobrino, "A Igreja dos pobres como verdadeira Igreja," in Resurreigao da veredadeira Igreja, Os pobres, lugar teologico da eclesiologia, Sao Paulo Loyola, , 1982, 9,3-133; L. Boff, E a Igreja se fez povo: Eclesiogenese. A Igreja que nasce dafe dopovo, Petropolis Vozes,; J. Comblin, op. cit., 88-114. 42 J. Sobrino, op. cit., 103.

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We have been saying since the beginning of this reflection that it is in being Christian, that is, in being at the service of the Reign of God and consequently being people of God - that the Church is macro-ecumenical. In other words, the Church is open and is called by the Gospel to dialogue and communion with all religious traditions and groups on the basis of that very element that makes it Christian, that is to say the centrality of the Reign of God and the establishment of the people of God. Now, we insist on the fact that, in this world of "Lazaruses" and "opulent rich people," the Church of Jesus Christ is configured and makes history as "Church of the poor." The Church of the poor is the place and leaven of the Reign of God The Church of the poor becomes a privileged place for the inauguration of the Reign of God and consequently its historic "leaven" in the world to the extent that, at the centre of its preoccupations, of its organization, of its life and mission stands the life of the poor who are victims of the interests and of the forces of the anti-reign, and to the extent that it condemns the evil and sin in the misery and exclusion in which so many brothers and sisters live, and by this condemnation is confronted with the forces of the anti-reign, to the extent that it situates itself completely on the side of the poor and at their service by taking up their causes and their historic struggles in spite of the ambiguities and contradictions that this implies. As such it is constituted then as privileged historic "place" and "leaven" for encounter, dialogue and communion with other religious traditions and groups. An inter-religious dialogue that happens on the margin of God's plans for this world, that is to say the historic realization of His Reign, is nothing less than a trap of the forces of the anti-reign to maintain and perpetuate its supremacy in this world. So then, if the denial of the basic material conditions of survival, as negation of life at its most primary and fundamental level, is the most radical expression of the denial of the world and the designs of God for this world (sin), it follows that the satisfaction of those basic material conditions (as affirmation of life in its most primary and fundamental level) is the most radical expression of the preservation of the work of God and of fidelity to His design for this world (grace). Thus, inter-religious dialogue has to be carried out around the theme of and in concern for the life of the poor, beginning with its most basic and fundamental level, the materiality of life. In this sense, the Church of the poor is established as real place and leaven, not just an ideal, of inter-religious dialogue. The Church of the poor is a sacrament of the universal people of God To the same extent and in the measure that the Reign of God in this world is linked (either through rejection/negation or through welcome/affirmation) to the life of the poor, so also the formation of His people is linked to the life and

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destiny of the poor. If the Reign of God is of the poor (Lk. 6, 20; Matt. 5, 3), so also the people of God is of the poor. "The people of God are preferentially a people of the poor, a people established in favor of the poor, a people whose preferential option is the liberation of the poor."44 And this is realized historically in a privileged way in the Church of the poor. For that reason we can quite properly say that the Church of the poor is the people of God and. as such is sacrament of the universal people of God. In it is anticipated, though still only partially and with ambiguities, what the whole people are called to be: the people of God, people over whom God reigns. As sacrament, visible sign and eschatological anticipation of the universal people of God, the Church of the poor is a privileged place of encounter and dialogue among religions. It is the life of the poor, their liberation, in the last instance, that unites or separates religions in our world, which is so divided between rich and poor, oppressors and oppressed and, even more, it is what defines the condition of the people of God in each religious group or tradition. Definitely, the Reign of God and the establishment of the people of God in this world happen in and through the life and destiny of the poor of this world. This is why the Church of the poor is sacrament: a prophetic witness, an effective leaven. As a result, inter-religious dialogue is realized and conceived on the basis of and in light of the coming about of the Reign of God and the establishment of the people of God and it exists in and through the life and destiny of the poor of this world, finding in the Church of the poor a privileged place for its realization. Conclusion Our intention in this chapter was to show that the Church of Jesus Christ in its central and fundamental core is not a closed, self-centered and self-sufficient reality but rather is characterized by the centrality of the Reign of God in order to live, struggle and spend itself in the bringing about the Reign of God in this world. And, to the extent and in proportion as it does so, it becomes the people of God in this world, the people over whom God reigns and the people who work for the Reign of God. The Church exists in service of something - the Reign of God - and is in process of becoming something - the people of God without being such as yet. It is not identified entirely with its historical configuration and in addition has other historical configurations that go beyond the borders of Church. This makes the Church not only a decentralized, open reality but also a reality in communion with other religious traditions and groups.

I. Ellacuria, "Las bienaventuranzas, carta fundamental de la Iglesia de los pobres," in Escritos Teologicos II, 417-437. 44 Idem, "Iglesia como pueblo de Dios," op. cit., 327.

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As a criterion for inter-religious dialogue as such, we have the communion that is achieved on the basis of and in light of the Reign of God and that causes the many churches, the many religions and many religious or even non-religious groups to be the people of God in this world to the extent that they are faithful to the Reign of God and in that measure. The people of God in this world are a people of many peoples and of many religions. Finally in a lucid and prophetic way Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga says that in inter-religious dialogue, We are not trying to get religions together in a meeting so that they can peacefully discuss religion (themselves) narcissistically. True interreligious dialogue has to have, as its content and objective, the cause of God that is humanity itself and the universe. For humanity the priority issue is the huge mass of the impoverished and excluded, and on the planet the issue is the contaminated earth, water and air.... Dialogue will be useless, hypocritical and even blasphemous if it does not focus on the life of the poor and on human rights that are also divine rights.45 Thus, to bring about the Reign of God and to form the people of God means that the Church is a decentralized reality and, in communion with other religions, one that is macro-ecumenical by its very nature. In addition it is constituted as a place and criterion of inter-religious dialogue itself. Both realities, the Church and inter-religious dialogue, find in the Church of the poor a suitable place and an effective leaven for its historical realization.

Bibliography Boff, L. (1986). Church, Charism and Power. New York: Crossroads, pp. 121155. Boff, L. (1986). E a Igreja se fez povo: Eclesiogenese. A Igreja que nasce dafe dopovo. Petropolis: Vozes. Boff, L. (2000). ^Quien subvierte el Concilio? Respuesta al Cardenal Ratzinger a proposito de Dominus Deus. In: Revista Electronica Latinoamericana de Teologia (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/233.htm) Casaldaliga, P. (1988). Naprocura do Reino: Antologia de textos (1968-1988). Sao Paulo: FTD. Casaldaliga, P. (2003). Prologo. In: Tomita, Luiza A. (ed.). (2003). Pelos muitos caminhos de Deus I : Desafios do pluralismo religioso a Teologia da Libertacdo. Ecuador: Abya Yala. P. Casaldaliga, "Prologo," Pelos muitos caminhos de Deus I : Desafios do pluralismo religioso a Teologia da Libertagao, Ecuador, Abya Yala, 2003, 7.

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Comblin, J. (2000). O Povo de Deus. Sao Paulo: Paulus. Dupuis, J. (1997). Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll: Orbis Ellacuia, I. (2000). El autentico lugar social de la Iglesia. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. pp. 439-451. Ellacuia, I. (2000). La Iglesia de los pobres, sacramento historico de liberation. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. pp. 453-485. Ellacuia, I. (2000). Las bienaventuranzas, carta fundamental de la Iglesia de los pobres. In: EUacuria. I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. pp. 417-427. Ellacuia, I. (2000). Notas teologicas sobre religiosidad popular. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. pp. 487-498. EUacuria, I. (2000). Iglesia como pueblo de Dios. In: Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. EUacuria, I. (2000). El verdadero pueblo de Dios, segun Monsehor Romero, p. 357-396. EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. EUacuria, I. (2000). La Iglesia de los Pobres, sacramento historico de liberacion. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. pp. 453-485. EUacuria, I. (2000). Las bienaventuranzas, carta fundamental de la Iglesia de los pobres. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. pp. 417-437. EUacuria, I. (2000). Pobre. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. p. 171-192. EUacuria, I. (2000). Recuperar el reino de Dios: deshumanizacion e historizacion de la Iglesia. In: EUacuria, I. (2000). Escritos Teologicos II. San Salvador: UCA. Fabris, R. (1988). Jesus de Nazare: Historia e interpretacao. Sao Paulo: Loyola. Gnilka, J. (2000). Jesus de Nazare:Mensagem e historia. Petropolis: Vozes. John XXIII (2003). Ecclesia Christi. In: Cipolini, P.C. (2003). Povo de Deus e Corpo de Cristo: Imagens complementares na abordagem do misterior da Igreja. In: Trasferreti, J. & Gonsalves, L. (eds.). (2003). Teologia na pos-modernidade, Abordagen epistemologica, sistemdtica et teoricoprdctica. Sao Paulo: Paulinas.. Moltmann, J. (1997). Quern e Jesus Cristo para nos hoje. Petropolis: Vozes. pp.317-342. Romero, O. (1987). A Igreja, corpo de Cristo na historia: Segunda Carta Pastoral. In: Sobrino, J., et al. (1987). Voz dos sem vov A palavra profetica de D. Oscar Romero. Sao Paulo: Paulinas.

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Sobrino, J. (1991). Jesuscristo liberador: Lectura historica-teologica de Jesus de Nazaret. San Salvador: UCA. Sobrino, J. (1999). La fe en Jesucristo: Ensayo desde las victimas. Madrid: Trotta Sobrino, J. (1982). A Igreja dos pobres como verdadeira Igreja. In: Resurreigdo da veredadeira Igreja, Os pobres, lugar teologico da eclesiologia. Sao Paulo: Loyola. Sullivan, F.A. (1989). The Significance of the Vatican II Declaration That the Church of Christ 'Subsists' in the Roman Catholic Church. In: Latourelle, R. (ed.). (1989). Vatican II: Assessment and Perspectives (1962-1987). Volume 2. New York: Paulist Press, pp. 272-287.

Chapter 11 Liberation Christology and Religious Pluralism

Jose Maria Vigil Panama

The point of this book is an attempt to address the challenges posed for liberation theology by the plurality of religions as such as well as a "pluralist" theology of religions. Concretely, this chapter intends to deal with those challenges to the extent that they touch on the area of Christology. I have to say from the outset that this topic is difficult, dangerous and in any case extremely sensitive. "The confession of Jesus of Nazareth as Son of God, Lord and Christ is today as it has been for 2000 years, the hallmark of Christianity."' To touch, reconsider, submit to examination, review, reinterpret, etc., even only a portion of what constitutes the core of the Christological dogma is a very risky venture and one that instills respect or even fear. Sometimes it also provokes angry criticism. We asked a number of Latin American theologians for a reflection on the "challenges of pluralism" for a Christology of liberation theology. Several refused the offer. One of them told me, "That topic is a wasps' nest." He was expressing not so much the difficulty inherent in the topic as the fear of possible reprisals that could beset a theologian who dealt with it creatively or even just with freedom and sincerity. Others made it clear to me that they had not devoted enough time to a study of the difficulties presented by the topic for a theology of pluralism and that they would need more time to go into it. Another spoke to me of his confusion between pluralism and ecumenism. So then, it is a theological topic that is somewhat new and that needs to be approached with a sense of responsibility and prudence. For that reason, I am going to embark on it with a warning, right from the start, that I am not giving ready-made or definitive answers to these challenges perhaps simply because such responses don't exist. This is a time for searching, for recognizing the challenges, a time for making the first attempts at explanation and of restating the traditional formulas. We are just at the beginning of this process, especially in liberation theology. This is something we have to acknowledge, quite honestly right from the start. On the other hand, as has quite rightly been said, what we need today is not to formulate new responses in addition to those that already exist but

McDermott, "Jesus Christ in faith and current theology," Concilium 173 (March, 1982), 3-10.

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rather to "re-write of theology"2 (and Christology as part of that) This is clearly a gigantic task, one of epic proportions and could take a whole generation or more It is abundantly clear that it would be meaningless to want to do more in this chapter than to point out briefly what appear to be the problems and to indicate in all humility the paths that could lead us toward solutions An Enclave of Fundamentalism The core of the Chnstological dogma has some really striking peculiarities that we are frequently not conscious of This is quite exactly a "dogmatic" nucleus and as such, it is an ecclesiastical construction formulated by the first four so-called "ecumenical councils " However, in the overwhelming majority of Christians perceived this dogmatic core of Christology as part of Revelation, of the New Testament and of the Gospels themselves This reminds me of something that was said partly in jest, namely that in the fifth century the Church replaced the four Gospels with the four ecumenical councils 3 Several concepts employed in this Chnstological core have become part of Chnstian understanding to the point that certain expressions are inescapably "occupied" by a dogmatic Chnstological meaning so that when they are read or heard those who are listening understand them in that sense even though in reality their original literal meaning was entirely different Such is, for example, the case of the way Christians always read or hear the title "Son of God" in the Gospel What they understand in fact is "God the Son" (the second person of the Trinity who has taken over the meaning of that expression in Christian thought) In this way, it has come to have a meaning that is fundamentally different from the same expression in most of the Gospel passages This dogmatic, Chnstological bottom line has really come to situate itself at the central core of Christianity Nothing is considered so central, so essential, so identified with the very essence of Christianity Indeed praxis, love, the Beatitudes, the Gospel itself etc , have been subordinated to this dogmatic core in ordinary Christian awareness Blind and unswerving adherence to the Chnstological dogma has served for centuries as the most important component of Chnstian life and faith Christianity has subjected the Bible to comparative and critical histoncal study The same is true of the Church institution and the Gospel itself Yet, The expression comes from Paul Tilhch, in the last conference given a few days before his sudden death It conveys his desire to rewrite all his theology from the point of view of the new dialogue with the religions of the world 3 In fact this has a very real basis Pope Gregory the Great (+605) did not hesitate to compare the four councils with the four Gospels See Luis M Bermejo, "La supuesta infalibilidad de los concihos," Seleccwnes de teologia, 69 (1979), 78

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even the possibility of subjecting the formulas that express the Christological dogma to examination is considered taboo. For some people, doing so appears to be an explicit expression of a lack of faith or perhaps of taking a position against the faith, almost a blasphemy. I would go so far as to suggest that in some ways the Christological dogma, understood quite literally and preserved as the official doctrine elevated practically to the level of revelation and superior to all the other elements of the Gospel, acts in some ways as a "fundamentalist enclave" within Christianity. So then, liberation theology at the end of the twentieth century was constructed on acceptance of this dogmatic core, without casting any doubt on it or submitting it to the slightest critique. The theology of religious pluralism, however, asks for a re-consideration, a re-examination of that bottom line. This is the first challenge that the theology of pluralism directs at Christology in liberation theology. Moreover, it is a challenge that needs to be taken up. Going beyond inclusivity We all know that liberation theology is the daughter of the ecclesial renewal set loose by the Second Vatican Council. In fact, it is a result of implementing the Council in Latin America, an implementation carried out by the General Assemblies of CELAM in Medellin (1968) and Puebla (1979). So then, the Second Vatican Council meant overcoming 19 centuries of Christian exclusivity, expressed in the symbolic phrase, extra ecclesia nulla salus (outside the Church there is no salvation). Exclusivity is the theological equivalent of church-centeredness. It takes the position that salvation is mediated exclusively by the Church. The paradigm that substituted that multi-secular exclusivity/Churchcenteredness was inclusivity. In this latter paradigm, salvation was believed to occur also outside the Church but not outside Christ. Christ had achieved salvation, all salvation, and even though it reaches human beings that are beyond the borders of the Church, that salvation was nevertheless "achieved by Christ." This was a salvation that could reach the most remote human beings "in a manner known only to God."4 Thus, it is said that inclusivity is the theological equivalent of Christ-centeredness. The Church then is no longer at the center, as in the case of exclusivity, but rather Christ. Classic Latin American liberation theology was built on the paradigm of Christ-centered inclusivity. If you glance through any treatment of Christology in liberation theology, you will see that, though it never falls into the paradigm of exclusivity, neither does it question the paradigm of inclusivity. It is true that liberation theology is very generous in recognizing the presence of God and of salvation outside the borders of the Church. In this sense, it is close Gaudium et Spes, 22.

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to what might be a pluralist position However, that salvation is always considered definitively "Christian," that is to say achieved by Christ The members of other religions are saved in those religions but they are saved by the salvation of Christ who is the universal savior, superior not only to the Christian Churches but also to all religions What is at stake here is the universal mediation of Christ, on the one hand, and his uniqueness, on the other Classical Latin American liberation theology 5 takes both for granted without paying much attention to this assumption and without submitting it to the needed critique It was simply not critically aware of this legacy So then, pluralist theology consists precisely in overcoming mclusivlty It moves toward a paradigm that would replace it and takes a step toward the paradigm of pluralism That pluralism recognizes the presence of salvation in other religions independently of Christian salvation and sees no need for the universal mediation of Jesus Thus, the meaning of the unique mystery of Christ comes up for re-examination As has been said, the transition to pluralism is a "Copermcan revolution " 6 It moves from the "Ptolemaic" 7 theological perspective (mclusivlty/Chnst-centeredness) in which Christ occupies the center of the universe and around whom religions turn, toward a Copermcan perspective 8 In this new paradigm, God occupies the center while Christ, along with other religions, turns around God You can see that in going beyond mclusivity the major theological change is precisely in the Chnstological dimension It is the transition from an mclusivist (and therefore Christ-centered) Chnstology to one that is "pluralist " 9 It is a "Copermcan revolution" in Chnstology So then, we have here another major challenge that a Chnstology of liberation has to confront As in the earlier case, it is a challenge that has still to be accepted and assimilated

Refinements could and indeed have been introduced in Afro American and Indian theology At this point, I am dealing with classical Latin American theology of liberation John Hick, God and the Universe of Faiths, Essays in the Philosophy of Religion, London, MacMillan, 1973, 131, God has Many Names, The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1982, 69ff This is a reference to the geocentric astronomical theory of Ptolemy where the Earth stands at the center of the planetary orbits as well as that of the sun, all of which turn around it This refers to Copernicus, the first modern scientist who proposed the heliocentric astronomical theory where the sun is at the centre of the planetary orbits in the solar system We state this as a theological "paradigm" in counterpoint to the exclusivist and mclusivist paradigms

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Examining the "Story" of the Incarnation The story of the incarnation, as incarnation of the second Person of the Holy Trinity, is another of those pieces that has to be placed at the center of the Christian nucleus to the point of situating it in fact at the center of Christianity itself In popular Christian thinking and for the general public including nonbelievers, the story of the incarnation constitutes the very core of Christianity It is the essential Christian story (or meta-narration), the axiom or basic postulate As such, centuries have passed without it being questioned, without critical revisions or re-examination on a theological plane, although it has to be recognized that the uninterrupted succession of "heresies" produced through successive attempts to explain the incarnation have always constituted an indirect critical questioning Something is not going well when 1,500 years of attempts to explain a doctrine end up being disqualified one after the other as heretical10 The Christology of liberation theology is not in any way ingenuous regarding biblical literary genres and specifically with respect to the infancy narratives " Still, it never felt the need to review this "mega-narrative" of the incarnation Liberation theology became famous for its "hermeneutic of suspicion," that is to say, for its capacity to critically intuit the hidden ideological interests that hide behind the most religious or sublime theories Yet, the liberation Christology did not apply that critical attitude or that "hermeneutic of suspicion" to the story of the incarnation 12 Anglo-Saxon theology of pluralism had to come along to make us aware of the many instances throughout history when the Christian story of the incarnation was used prejudicially as an instrument of domination 13 In fact, some of those historical "utilizations" of this doctrine took place specifically m the history of Latin America and although liberation theology is very aware of those "bad fruits that cannot come from a good tree," it did not subject the doctrine that could be their cause to examination There is no doubt that Anglo-Saxon theology initially confronted the question Nevertheless, this is a challenge for which Latin American liberation Christology has a special responsibility

For John Hick this is a proof of the implausibility of the incarnation taken in its literal sense, an implausibility that ends up totally eclipsed when taken in a metaphorical sense See The Metaphor of God Incarnate, Christology in a Pluralistic Age, Westminster/John Knox Press, Louisville, 1993 See Leonardo Boff, Jesus Christ Liberator A Critical Christology for Our Time, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1978, chapter 9 12 Paul Knitter, No Other Name ? Orbis Maryknoll, 1985, 163 See for example John Hick, The Metaphor of God Incarnate, op cit, chapter 8, pages 80ff

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The proposal of the so-called "Hickean pluralism" to re-examine the story of the incarnation in order to redefine its character as either truly metaphysical and literal or as symbolic and metaphoric represents a challenge to which liberation theology has not paid attention as yet. Nevertheless, it cannot remain deaf any more. Probably the earlier lack of attention was for lack of time and because of the "natural priority" of what have been the major preoccupations of liberation theology up until now. Notwithstanding, now that the challenge has been set out on a platter by another theology and placed on the table, it is no longer possible to continue without finding time to confront it. "Jesus Son of God" The re-evaluation of the expression "Son of God" or the profound meaning of the affirmation of the divinity of Jesus is another of the unresolved challenges of a Christology of liberation and another challenge to be taken up. By way of apology on behalf of this liberation Christology, I need to say here also that with just 25 years of existence it is too young to have taken up every topic. Understandably, as I said, it concentrated on more core and urgent topics, leaving the discussion of other disputed or sophisticated points for quieter moments, even though they were no less decisive. Such is the case of the divine sonship of Jesus. Having made this qualification, I need to make it clear that this challenge does not really originate in pluralist theology since it has always been present throughout the history of Western theology though often discretely and reserved somewhat to specialists. To give an example, number 173 of Concilium (March 1982) is entirely devoted to this topic and insists that the problem is neither Latin American nor liberationist. Nevertheless, it has to be recognized that the theology of religious pluralism has provided a strong thrust to this question and that it has become a turning point for a series of key questions about pluralism such as the uniqueness of Jesus, the universal mediation of Christ, the absolute character of Christianity and so forth. That is why we have to include this perennial challenge in a theology of pluralism. The effort of welcoming and assimilating the challenge is multiple and interdisciplinary. In the first place there is an obvious substratum that is simply historical since are dealing with a re-examination of the process of building the Church itself. Included here are the environment, the context, the legitimacy, the participation of the actors ... in the "four councils" that, as has already been pointed out, were the framework of this dogmatic construction.

14

Ibid.

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At the same time, we need to re-read the nature itself of the "dogmas" and of the "hermeneutic" dimension or interpretive element of all theology, 15 so that we can get beyond the rigid and unhistorical trauma of some classical theological viewpoints that are still present in Latin American theology. Finally, we need to have the courage to deal with this topic right where it stands at the core of dogmatic Christology. We cannot confuse the Christological dogma with the content of revelation itself nor is it right to repeat old formulas without analysis or renewal. Neither can we be content simply to adopt once more the reflections offered by the great medieval classics. We need to provide a new word, an up-dated and courageous re-interpretation that finally accepts the relativity of what is relative in order to defend better the legitimacy of what is genuinely absolute. Some attempts, like that of Robert Haight, 16 have already been tried in other geographical regions. Nevertheless, at this point Latin American liberation Christology has not made any explicit and systematic effort. This is a challenge that should not continue to be avoided just because the theme is in fact a "wasps' nest" of censures. 17 To conclude, we can say that only out of anti-intellectualism or a marked pragmatic utilitarianism could it be said that these challenges are "abstract theoretical questions." The reality is that they are charged with enormous practical repercussions. They are delicate points whose modification or reinterpretation will, in practice, set loose a real reinterpretation of all Christianity. There is nothing that more affects practice than a really lucid and profound theoretical transformation. Nor is it possible to neglect these topics by saying that they do not preoccupy our Christian people today. This "appeal to the masses" should be discarded by simply referring to the anticipatory role that theologians have with respect to the people of God. They walk ahead, raising whatever questions need to be adressed without fear of "scandalizing" and trusting rather in a pedagogical prophetic spirit that helps open hearts and minds to new horizons. To sum up, Christology of liberation, as I have said, needs to start taking these challenges seriously but without fear in spite of the threats of fright-

Claude Geffre, El cristianismo ante el riesgo de la interpretation, Cristiandad, Madrid, 1984. Juan Jose Tamayo, "Horizonte hermeneutico," Chapter 5 in Nuevo paradigma teologico, Trotta, Madrid, 2003. 16 Jesus, Symbol of God, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1999. The central idea here focuses on the humanity of Jesus that, in the opinion of the author, constitutes the key to an openness of Christianity to other religions. This is a Christology from below that grows out of the need to take hold of and to confront the doubts of so many Catholics, above all young people, who find themselves faced daily with cultural and religious identities other than their own. 17 In fact, Haight's text of is already being studied in the Holy Office and they have already forbidden him to teach theology.

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ened censors. As Christian Duquoc says, Christologies are not just "temporary constructions that use fortuitous conceptual instruments." They are not external constructions nor do they provide replies to external questions. Such questions do not exist in any case because the people raising them are actors in history. We always have to force ourselves to carry our faith response to the river of history that will be vibrantly traditional to the extent that it gives life to tradition. This is our historic duty, here and today. Let us do it. Tomorrow, others will have the word and will, in their turn, have to make the best contribution can. However, this is our hour. Evidently, there are many other challenges. The few that I have listed are no doubt the heaviest and they lead to others as well. They are like the roots of challenges that are mutually related. The important thing is to begin now to provide a response.

Bibliography Bermejo, Luis M. (1979). La supuesta infalibilidad de los concilios. In: Selecciones de teologia 69(1979). Boff, L. (1978). Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time. Maryknoll: Orbis. Geffre, C. (1984). El cristianismo ante el riesgo de la interpretacion. Madrid: Cristiandad. Haight, R. (1999). Jesus, Symbol of God. Maryknoll: Orbis. Hick, J. (1973). God and the Universe of Faiths, Essays in the Philosophy of Religion. London: MacMillan. Hick, J. (1982). God has Many Names. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press. pp. 69ff. Hick, J. (1993). The Metaphor of God Incarnate, Christology in a Pluralistic Age. Westminster: John Knox Press. Knitter, P. (1985). No Other Name? Maryknoll: Orbis. McDermott, B. (1982). Jesus Christ in faith and current theology. In: Concilium 173 (March, 1982). pp. 3-10. Second Vatican Council (1965). Gaudium et Spes Sobrino, J. (1985). Mesianismo de Jesus y discrecion de Dios. Ensayo sobre los limites de la cristologia. Madrid. Tamayo, Juan Jose (2003). Horizonte hermeneutico. In: Tamayo, Juan Jose (2003). Nuevo paradigma teologico (Chapter 5). Madrid: Trotta.

Jon Sobrino, Mesianismo de Jesus y discrecion de Dios. Ensayo sobre los limites de la cristologia, Madrid, 1985, 11.

Part III

Chapter 12 Secret and Sacred: Revelation and Black Theology

Silvia Regina de Lima Silva Costa Rica- Brazil

Entry into the world of the sacred It is a major challenge to deal with the topic of revelation in Black theology. This is so first of all because of the theme itself. The world of concepts and particularly of theological concepts is very narrow. Concepts sometimes fall short, are limited and are difficult to adapt to other cultural and religious contexts. The concept of revelation is one of those. The second challenge lies in the methodological and epistemological perspective. Black theology and Feminist Theology insist on a reflection and a theological production based on the concrete experiences of the communities we come from and on the bodies that experience those realities. I chose this path because the knowledge found there is charged with a passion nourished by daily experience that plunges its roots into historical memory. From this point of view, working the topic of revelation meant something more... It meant becoming aware that "constructing the plural" has deep roots that reach back to ancestral experience. To write in this way is almost a ritual. We have to ask permission and blessing. Things come to light but not totally. The hidden and the unspeakable are much more than what is said, written or revealed. When I was writing, I found myself with many people, authors of books, masters and mistresses of life who told me a lot of things. I relived my history. I felt nostalgia and sadness. I was surprised to find that I had a knot in my throat and that I wanted to relive past experiences, to meet with people that have already passed on... and yet they survive in the pages of this essay. The result of that effort is a reflection in a text that is a witness. It is closer to the world of wisdom literature, to spirituality and to mystique than to the analytical language of systematic theology.' Behind the text lies the experience of a group of Black men and women, who met up with Afro religions when they tried to search for their identity. They wanted to Blacken their experience of faith and to "Blacken the Church" (as we used to say some years

See Alfonso de Ligorio Soares, Interfaces da Revelagdo - Presupostos para um theologia sistemdtica de sincretismo religioso no Brasil, Sao Paulo, Echoes Paulin 2003 for a reading on the theme of revelation and its relation to Black theology, including an analysis of systematic theology.

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ago) 2 It was an encounter motivated initially by an interest in knowing more about our roots However what in reality happened was that we also recognized that we ourselves were part of those roots, of that tradition I don't know if we Blackened the Church, maybe and maybe not But I have no doubt that we were surely transformed and that we transformed much of the space in the world in which we live through that Blackness What seems to be a special experience here is at the same time common in the life of faith of many of the "Christians" of Brazil and it is repeated in a similar way in groups in other Latin American and Caribbean countries I would go further and say that to discover part of a faith experience in one religious tradition and part in another is a common experience among Aboriginal peoples and even in the relationships between Protestants and Catholics Who confesses a pure faith7 How can we speak of revelation "on borderlands9" Where is God revealed7 On which side is God, here or there9 We are not talking about seeking the truth about God or the God of truth but of insisting on a search for the God of life Can God not be revealed in different places and on different paths or simply be there in the borderlands9 With those challenges, Black theology is the starting point for this reflection on revelation that seeks to share the different faces of God revealed through Black theology In a special way it seeks to do so in an encounter with Afro religions This is a path and one that is unfinished very provisional, full of assumptions, of sniffing around, of intuition The location of the word For Black theology, reflection on revelation begins with a fundamental affirmation It seeks to say something about God's revelation, from the position of Blackness, walking hand in hand as we search for a word about ourselves, a redefinition of Black identity Latin American Black theology emerges as a challenge for Black women and men who try to rediscover their identity in a discriminatory and racist society Among those discriminations can be found religious discrimination From the start Black theology took on a double task The rediscovery of God had meant, on the one hand, a struggle against racism, a recovery of history told from the perspective of Black people, drawing a new Black portrait, freeing it from the prejudices imposed by society and interionzed by Blacks themselves That was a labor carried out together with groups from the Black movement Part of the theological effort is the commitment and the search for dignity and relationships of justice in the Black community It meant denouncing a hidden political violence in the denial of full citizenship to people of AfI use the term "Afro religions" as a broad concept that includes various expressions of religions with an African origin on the Latin American continent and in the Caribbean

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ncan descent Together with racism went the denunciation of sexism that had specific ways of subjecting and exploiting Black women This movement/process, meant un-veiling ourselves as persons, as subjects, as a Black people It was no longer a matter of having an identity that was defined from outside - not as "how they see me" - but rather a definition of ourselves from within, from history and from the memory that is recovered in the Black community itself Within this project of searching, on this path of re-encounter with our own identity, comes the second step The desire and the necessity arises to rediscover, and to re-draw the different Black portraits of God Revelation and rebellion: theology as a search for meaning Black theology is part of the movement of Latin American liberation theologies The search for a doctrine regarding the revelation of God is supported by the experiences lived by the Black community in Latin America and the Caribbean As I have mentioned earlier, in these contexts, being Black, male and female, implies engaging in a process of constructing identity In a world that denied that Blacks were human beings, this led to a denial of self in order to affirm oneself3 For a long time the denial of being Black was taken as a path of recognition by Blacks themselves Thus the need to dismantle the ideology of Whitening and to try to be Blackened, to be established in the world as a Black-subject The deconstruction of the ideology of Whitening implied dismantling as well a theology that was developed from the image of a White, masculine, ethnocentric, exclusive God who denied other cultures and religions Thus there arose the need to deconstruct discriminatory images4 relating to Black religious experience and to search for new horizons of meaning for the religious experiences and the life of the Black community For God to be revealed, meant and means for us to reveal ourselves, to go against ideological concepts and images of God that are racist, patriarchal and imposed by theology and religious power Blackness leads us to take insurrection and insubordination as the starting point for theology We reject the place that has been set aside for us historically This location of exclusion even within theological discourse becomes a theological location, a place for protest and demands, a location for demonstrations and for encounter with a deity who is an accomplice on the road to liberation Revelation, as conceived in this location, points to a spirituality, to a mystique that is always connected with an ethic of commitment and of hberaRoberto Zwetsch, "Axe Malungo" in Existe um pensar theologico negro, Antonio Aprecido da Silva (organizer), Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1998, 138 4 See Debann in the Revista biblica cubana, 3/1 (2004), 4-8 for a discussion of the deconstruction of imagery and racial discrimination

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tion This is a spirituality of surprise, of apprehension, of the unheard of , of going toward the encounter with God in unexpected places, in ways that were not known before, in people and events that are condemned and excluded by traditional theology If liberation theology proclaimed a world of the impoverished as a location for the revelation of God, we discover here the Black body and Black history as locations where God is denied and that therefore need to be rescued in order to become locations for affirmation and for the manifestation of a particular face of God Revelation ceases to be an ecstatic concept and becomes part of a movement It is a constant exercise of crossing borders, a coming and going in history, searching to put together fragments of the faces of God that were destroyed by the Church and by the dominant theology that taught us to put our confidence in one God the White, individualistic, patriarchal God who is the friend of "beautiful women," the judge of the behavior of Black women and who is indifferent to the needs of the majority of women Religious ethnocentnsm made it impossible for theology to analyze religious differences and facilitate an encounter with the other 5 But tenacious Black and feminine resistance was able to preserve that experience of divine complicity It was able to recover those fragments of God, to reassemble those scraps and to try to give them form, a face or various faces Putting together those fragments of the experience of God is also a recovery of our remnants, a mending of the broken, scratched photographs, it is setting disconnected histories right and making sense of them giving a meaning to life Revelation and Blackness Blackness is thus a location for revelation and encounter with God It is a different God, a God with our face who was present in Black history, a history of suffering and pam, of resistance and hope I am not quite sure if it is God or Goddess That experience of God/Goddess who is an accomplice was preserved in the deepest part of the history of the Black people The complicity of God did not come to those of African descent through the official religion Christianity Rather, that Deity of complicity was hidden in the popular customs and traditions and in Black religions Examining history and daily life attentively, we encounter divine sparks of that tradition which, even though broken into pieces and scattered, retains the deep meaning of an original and particular experience of God And what is more important, that experience of encounter with God, of a revealed God, is not exhausted by words and rituals, but remains a possibility in other encounters, a possibility of surprises in other places in the twists and turns of life This is revelation as it happens in history
5

Heiter Fnsotti, Beber no pogo alhelo, Centra de evangeliza^ao da pentena de Salvador, Salvador, 1988

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This is the Deity that we are discovering on our journey: living experiences, reflecting, looking back, discovering our roots, remembering, recovering history. The many locations of the revelation of God The encounter with God in history, and especially in Black history, opens us up, and opens theology up, to "many and different locations for the revelation of God." Thus we find God in moving back and forth from one experience to another. We get used to discovering a revelation of God with many names, with different faces. It is a God who is always present and who watches over and protects. And so, the history of Black people is being recovered, transmitted and invoked as a history of salvation, as a presence of God in the struggle and in the life of ancestors, in blood and in faith.6 Afro Religions as a location for encounter with God The encounter with a community/terre/ro is always revealing for anyone who wants to have ears to hear and eyes to discover, for anyone who wants to discover and contemplate another face of God, to accept it and to participate. 7 (Heitor Fristotti) That history of Black salvation is guarded and cultivated in a special way in Afro religions. We are dealing here with the religious experience of Black ancestors. They are like a spring, living water that rises up, feeding various streams and experiences in the daily life of the Black people and also of people who are not Black. In Brazilian reality, those experiences are lived out in the communities of axe, in the terreiros* We are not trying to understand revelation as a concept within Afro religions, in the first place, because the question of revelation is not part of that religious universe and secondly, because if it were, other people would be better prepared and authorized to present the reflection. For us Black women and men who try to rescue our identity and history, this has been a space for the

Ibid, 118. Heitor Frisotti was a companion in the reflections of Black theology. I believe he is one of the people who best drew close to the heart of the Black God and knew how to express that closeness of God with a life of commitment to the Black cause. He died in August, 1998. * Tr: These two terms are explained elsewhere in these volumes. For an explanation of axe, see note 16 below. In summary one can say that axe is "the vital sacred force that is present in everything that nature produces" and the terreiro is the Black faith community that practices Afro-American religion, specifically Candomble.
7

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revelation of God. This location, historically, has made it possible for Black people to move from a history and identity that was denied to a history and identity that are reaffirmed. In that sense, there is no doubt that Afro religions were an important space for resistance that preserved Black dignity and that showed the commplicity of the God of life. After the arrival of Blacks on the American continent, slave society, as a mechanism of domination, tried to deny, destroy and eliminate all the elements that linkedBlacks with their history, with their past and with their African roots. The level of denial was so deep that it reduced Black men and women to a commodity within the economic relations of the period.8 Religious space was a space for the affirmation of the Black subject. Black religion was the only space for the affirmation of identity and for being a person. The terreiros were in practical terms places for the promotion of life, dignity, community life and social organizations as well as for the struggle fro the transformation of the structures and of personal relations. Now, in a different historical context, but one that is still marked by the aspirations and deficiencies of those of African descent, Afro religions continue to be a space for rescuing identity, a space that preserves the loving and committed presence of a God/Goddess who cares for his/her sons and daughters. So, we take it back as a place of epiphany, a theological location, a location of God-Revealed. I want to point out some elements that are part of Black religion, always being careful to speak from a position on the border, from withinwithout, respecting what can be said and keeping silent about that is unspeakable. Let me share with you some aspects of the faces of this God-Revealed, of God-Discovered. Ancestors A first surprise for anyone who comes close to Afro religions is the discovery of the position and the importance of ancestors. They are part of history and are at the origin of the history of the faith of the terreiros. Ancestors are not only behind us, in the past. They are part of the community right now. They continue their history today in our histories. They are present at the beginning of each period of worship. No ceremony happens without invoking them. A special place is dedicated to them, a house in every terreiro. We are heirs and heiresses of the ancestors. One way of participating in history is to take on a responsibility, a service in the community, because that responsibility was earIn the second half of the 19 century, in the Constitution of the Civil Laws of the imperial government, there appears a definition of a slave as "a movable good considered semi-living" (art. 42), making them equal to animals. Eunice Aparecida de Jesus Produente, Preconceito racial e igualdade juridica no Brasil, 88. Quoted by Heitor Frisotti, op. cit., 114.

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ned out by someone else earlier We appropriate spintual legacies as a way of fulfilling and realizing continuity in the extended family Even the intercessions, the prayers, the experience of the wisdom of those who are no longer present in a physical way, are a way of appropriating history 9 The ancestors, the Orixds, accompany their sons and daughters on the path of life Every person is born under their protection and carries them throughout life with a permanent presence of the Divine in their body, in their head The Deity made known through the Onxd has its own history that always returns us to the encounter with Mother Afnca It is a history of exile, of leaving one continent for another And in crossing the seas, this Deity makes its commitment known, its involvement in the life of its daughters and sons In the Orixds we find the expression of a God who accompanies, a God who dances, who eats, who is revealed in our bodies, who dwells with us Through them, a closeness to God is experienced that we could call God-Protection, Friend, Consoler, God who Heals, Cares for and Accompanies This is the Mother but it can also be the Father, the Godmother, the Auntie or whoever is near to help, to take care Community The encounter with Afro religions represented an encounter with a large family The family, in its broad sense, the family-community, is an important space for the affirmation of Black identity In Brazil during the Colonial period the destruction of identity was experienced through the splitting apart of family groups This had the effect of dispersing the Black community-family In those circumstances, Blacks sought out other modalities of family like that of consensual mamage, extended family relations and the institution of the Godmothers and Godfathers who were socially recognized as family members Another custom associated with this appreciation and extension of the family is the dedication of children to Saints, a ceremony that occurs at the moment of baptism That was also a way of extending the family and even of taking the Saints as Godparents I0 This extended family reached as far as the Orixds who were also considered as part of the large Black family-community In the everyday life of the terreiro, the community is an open family It is a community that extends even to visitors The relationships are that of mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, etc They are recognized and they are related in this way The family-community is a place of sharing, of interceding, of working together In the community the children have their place and the elderly are respected and appreciated for their wisdom Around them and the memory that they assemble and represent, knowing is recovered, affirmed and preserved The place occupied by women as religious leader needs

10

Heitor Fnsotti, op cit, 119 Heitor Fnsotti, op cit 116

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to be pointed out in these communities as well as their function or mission to preserve the collective memory. The people who gather there come moved by a need. These are needs very concretely related to life like searching for health, solutions for family or economic problems or difficulties in love relationships.... They are communities that in one way or another search for life and believe in the God who is Life. Food I believe the most surprising thing about the encounter with Afro religions was the recognition of the relationship between God, community and food. Food is part of the rituals of various religions. In the case of Afro religions, particularly that of Candomble, the Deity eats. Food is the location for the encounter of the divine with a human being. To provide food for the Orixd is in reality to nourish oneself, to nourish the force that is in us, to strengthen the body, the spirit, the relationship with nature and with the community. We share food with the deities. It can be said that the Gods eat what the people eat.11 A few testimonies reveal this closeness between the human and the divine that turns around the question of food: The Orixas will participate in the food of the slave. They will eat the flour meal and the dry flour with them. And they will never throw them out. They will know the misery, the hunger and the horrors of slavery.12 I was born in Bahia and know exactly what hunger is. For that reason I know the precise meaning of placing food at the feet of the Orixd.13 Sharing food is sharing life In Candombe, humans and deities sit at the table together in times of abundance and in times of scarcity. They share the food and the anguish.14 To enter a community of the terreiro is to journey through a world of flavors and fragrances where every taste, every plate, every spice has a history. Each plate has a meaning, a history in which the human being is merely a col-

Pai Cido de Osiin Eyin, Acaga-onde tudo comegou: Historia, vivencias e receitas das cocinas de Candomble, Sao Paulo, Arx, 2002, 52. 12 Idem, 32. 13 Idem, 16. 14 Ibidem.

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laborator. The great teacher is nature.15 The meaning of food begins at the moment of going to the market to buy the foodstuffs that will be used. In times past and even today in some places, special markets still exist where one can find the products used in the preparation of the meals, the clothing and the utensils used in the celebrations and the rituals. "The market is the main door into the sacred world of the Orixas, a place of devotion and perplexity."16 Candomble has a gift for bringing in the sacred at any time and in any place, even in the market. Food is essential; it is a link in the transmission of axe.17 Food is the space for the transmission of flavors and knowledge; it is a space of transformation, devotion and invention.18 Revelation and surprise It was a surprise to encounter God revealed in the midst of the paella and the food, the animals and plants, the wide variety of fragrances and flavors, to discover that in feeding the deities I am nourishing myself and being strengthened. It was a surprise charged with joy to rediscover that close link that unites us to nature, a privileged place and a house where the God revealed is also hidden. Sacred and secret I am coming to the conclusion that revelation, in the experience of those of African descent and in dialogue with religions of African origin, is part of those things that are not fully understood. The God who is made known, revealed, is also a hidden God and we find God where we had not imagined. It would help here to return to an important principle, present in the community of axe. In these communities, the time of understanding, of comprehension, of access to knowledge, is different from what Western Christianity is used to. One always hears talk of the secret. Knowledge is not a property that one acquires, but rather a wisdom that is learned in daily living. One could say that God or the Goddess who is revealed has his or her own time, a proper moment. Revelation, if we want to call it that, happens along the way, in the approach, in daily experience. Revelation always refers us to the memory of the past, to God in Black history. For the Black community much of this history of the relationship-presence-revelation of God/Goddess remains hidden and continues to be a secret, a sacred secret. In preserving with loving care and

Vilsom Caetano de Souza Junior, "Para que a comida nao se estrague," in Antonio Aparecido da Silva, op. cit., 129-130. 16 Pai Cido de Osun, op. cit., 25. 17 Axe is the vital sacred force that is present in everything that nature produces. It is the major source of power that is sustained, extended and renewed through the rituals that take place in Candomble. See Pai Cido de Osun, "Glosario," op. cit., 202. 18 Pai Cido de Osun, op. cit., 26-35.

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zeal the mysteries of the revelation of God, we found out how to survive culturally and religiously as a people of African descent. Among those secrets is the very special way Afro religions and Christianity related and still relate. For some, it is syncretism and for others parallelism. Who knows if it is not to live faith in a borderland territory, to cross over different experiences and religious heritages and to hear the many and different ways that God is revealed. It would be good if we came out of our narrow views based on exclusivity, on the certainty of possessing the unique truth, and admit that God does not contradict himself, that he speaks under forms that are quite different and that complement one another and that each religion has a sacred deposit: the word that God has spoken to it. Here is the real richness of ecumenism that should not be restricted to a dialogue among Christians.19 For Black theology the challenge remains not to stray, to keep ourselves close to that sacred deposit that preserves the word that God spoke to us through the faith of our ancestors. Revelation is a permanent process. It is not finished. It is a surprise that reveals itself on every corner: a surprise and fearful. Revelation is part of a dynamic and creative movement, an exercise of breaking through barriers, passing over borders and welcoming God/Goddess in various manifestations. So it is that being attentive to the Revelation of God ought to be an ecumenical exercise that leads us to reinterpret history, where the faith of the oppressed contributes to the establishment of new social relations and a new way of understanding and welcoming the Reign of God.20 As Heitor told us: To the extent that our faith knows how to recognize in what is different a word of God him/herself, it can move and strengthen us to journey together into a truly plural and participatory society.

Bibliography De Ligorio Soares, A. (2003). Interfaces da Revelagao - Presupostos para uma theologia sistemdtica de sincretismo religioso no Brasil. Sao Paulo: Edicoes Paulinas. De Souza Junior, Vilsom Caetano (1998). Para que a comida nao se estrague. In: Da Silva, A.A. (ed.). (1998). Existe um pensar theologico negro. Sao Paulo: Paulinas, pp. 129-130. Francois L'Espinay, "A religiao dos orixas, outra palabra do Deus unico," REB 47/187,649. 20 Heitor Frisotti, op. cit., 125.

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Eyin, Pai Cido de Osun (2002). Acaca-onde tudo comegou: Historia, vivencias e receitas das cocinas de Candomble. Sao Paulo: Arx.. Eyin, Pai Cido de Osun (2002). Glosario. In: Eyin, Pai Cido de Osun (2002). Acaca-onde tudo comecou: Historia, vivencias e receitas das cocinas de Candomble. Sao Paulo: Arx. p. 202. Frisotti, H. (1988). Beber no pogo alhelo. Salvador: Centro de evangelizacao da periteria de Salvador. L'Espinay, Francois (1987). A religiao dos orixas, outra palabra do Deus unico. In: REB 47/187. p. 649. Prudente, Eunice Aparecida de Jesus (1989). Preconceito racial e igualdade juridica no Brasil: a cidadania negra em questao. Campinas: Julex. Ventura, M.C. (2004). Deconstructing Imagery, a proposal for the reconstruction of a world without racial discrimination. In: DebarimRevista Biblica Cubana. 3(2004-1). La Habana: Red Bfblica Cubana. pp. 4-8 Zwetsch, R. (1998). Axe Malungo. In: Da Silva, A.A. (ed.). (1998). Existe urn pensar theologico negro. Sao Paulo: Paulinas.

Chapter 13 One and Many God in a pluralist perspective

Marcelo Barros & Luiza E. Tomita Brazil

Introducing the topic One of the most complex tasks of theology is that of reflecting on the relationships that we human beings have with God. The origin of that complexity lies in the contingency of language, symbols and metaphors as well as of the traditions that are the basis of our symbolic universe. When we become aware of so much social inequality, hunger, violence of all sorts, poverty, struggles for power and wars right now in the 21 st century, we wonder whether some of our models of God (which are historical constructions) do not legitimate that situation of social misery. In spite of the variety of approaches, the prevailing model in our Judeo-Christian tradition is still that of militaristic sovereignty. God is king, head of armies, conqueror. These are images that are favored in a patriarchal settingt that legitimizes authoritarianism, slavery, racism and sexism. It was this model that allowed colonialism to continue for the last five centuries during which peoples of various continents were colonized and some were enslaved. The model imposed a color, a culture, a gender and a social class on the Deity. For women, the masculine form of God that dominates the JudeoChristian tradition led Mary Daly to state that "If God is male, the male is God,"1 in this way she pointed out that the masculine image of the Deity has been one of the major factors in making women inferior and subordinate. In setting down the foundations for a Black liberation theology, James Cone had already stated that "God is black." Cone took a political stance by insisting that God is not indifferent to color and that there is no place for a colorless God. He wrote, "Blackness means that God made the situation of the oppressed his/her own situation."2

Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father, Boston, Beacon Press, 1973, 19. James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, Second Edition, New York, Orbis, 1986,55-81.

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We can know the social structure of a society through its concepts of the sacred, through its images of the divine and finally through the way these images and concepts relate to humans. The ceremonial ritualizing of this interaction between the gods and humans also shows how society is structured. Often the Deity is a reflection of our notion of human beings. Thus the image of the Deity is in reality a reflection of the power exercised by women or by men. In ancient cultures where women had an important ritual function (as in the religions of the first in habitants of the Americas), gods and goddesses lived together in harmony. Carol Christ, the American theologian, speaks of the importance of religious symbols and of rituals in human life, mainly in limit situations. "Religion," she says, "satisfies deep psychic needs by offering symbols and rituals that allow people to confront limit situations in human life like death, evil and suffering...." 3 Clifford Geertz has also written on the special meaning of symbols in religion as a basic piece for the construction of an ethos. "Sacred symbols," he says, "serve to synthesize the ethos of a people - its tone, character and the quality of its life, its style and moral and esthetic dispositions - and its vision of the world... ."4 It cannot be denied that when we speak of God we are building images for identifying the Deity. Even more, those images or metaphors are largely adverbial, that is to say, they show the way we relate to God more than pretending to define his/her nature. So it is that no model can be crystallized or reified to the point of excluding others. And here we have to make a distinction between model and metaphor. A metaphor is an image that is transferred to another context in an inappropriate way. We speak, for example, of the legs of a table, the arms of a chair, the body of a text. And when that metaphor is fully established, it becomes a model. A metaphor is transformed into a model when it achieves a broad stability so that it can explain, fully and coherently, an idea that was previously inappropriate. 5 An example would be the model of God as father. The problem of the model of God as father is that it excludes the idea of God as mother and leads to the exclusion of women in the image of the Deity. Although some theologians try to deny it, the simple fact of the exclusion of

Carol Christ, "Por que las Mujeres necesitan a la Diosa," in Mary Judith Ress et aliae (org.), Del Cielo a la Tierra: Una Antologia de Teologia Feminista, Santiago, Sello Azul, Editorial de Mujeres, 1994, 159-173. 4 Clifford Geertz, A interpretacao das Culturas, Rio de Janeiro, LTC, 1989, 104-105. 3 Sallie McFague, Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age, Philadelphia, Fortress Press, 1987, 31-40.

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women from priesthood in the Catholic Church shows undeniably that this exclusion is not just a flight of imagination By establishing the divine image as masculine, patriarchal ideology makes the masculine gender normative for humanity In the same way, the divine image as White made the White race normative for humanity In most Western languages and especially in the Latin family of languages, what is human is genencally masculine and White In addition, the "paternity" of God refers to a social structure that is dominated by the paterfamilias as a patriarch who governs with absolute power By consecrating masculine domination in this way, all the forms of oppression exercised by a powerful "head of the family" are legitimized including power over slaves (ot various races and colors), women and the poor The head of the family is the owner of all members of the extended family and of all its goods In Greek and Roman families of the classic period, the authority of the paterfamilias was so extensive that it implied power over life and death This patriarchal structure was adopted up by the primitive Christian church when Constantine proclaimed Christianity as the religion of the Roman Empire It took on a hierarchical and centralizing power that legitimized the hegemony of the White race over other races, as well as servitude and slavery In this sort of structure, God is believed to determine who has the authority and power that is exercised over those who are subordinate in the name of God himself The colonialism, militarism and religious intolerance that have reigned during the last seven centuries are graphic examples of this sort of ideology We cannot engage here in an exegetic or detailed study of how the Bible gradually attached various images and attributes to the figure of a patriarchal god, Some of the ancient feminine divinities were syncretized in the image of the Tent of Witness (Shekina) that is a presence of God as womb, in the image of Wisdom and also in the image foreign divinities such as the ancient Egyptian goddess Maat (See Prov 8, 22) The prophets also provided various images of the Deity In Hosea and Jeremiah God is represented in the metaphor of a husband (see Jer 2, Hos 1) The relationship between God and Israel is presented as a wedding, the union between persons who love one another In this parable, the woman represents the community but is seen in a negative way as a prostitute That prostitution is, in turn, a metaphor for the infidelity of Israel to God, the faithful husband In Isaiah there are other images For example, the Deity is presented in various ways as maternal love In 42, 14 God is represented as a woman who gives birth, in 49, 15 as a mother who loves her son with all her being, in 63, 15 as a heart moved by compassion, in 66, 13 as a mother who consoles The Song of Songs has a woman as its main protagonist and, even though it may be a collection of love songs, the Jewish and Christian spiritual tradition quickly saw the image of the covenant between God and humanity in the sexual and loving relationship of man and woman, presented as equals

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A text like Exodus 34, 6-7 presents a collage drawn from different periods and theological reflections. It reveals contradictory qualities of God. As we have it today, the text appears to be a hasty synthesis of two ways of speaking about God. First of all, it is compassion or "love that comes from the maternal womb and from loving fidelity" that keeps its love for a thousand generations and does not punish anyone. (This can be found in verses 6 and 7a.) Then, recalling another version that reflects a different way of speaking of God, the text continues by saying, "but one who punishes sons and grandsons to the third and fourth generation for the iniquity of their fathers" (7b). The Christian challenge: to think of God in a pluralist model Currently there is a line of sociological and theological thinking that is turning its attention to the crisis of religions in this shift of civilization that is in some way experienced in the West but that has repercussions in other parts of the world.6 In a way the distinction between spirituality (as a search and a path for human encounter with the Deity) and religion (as an institution, which for centuries monopolized the offer of this path) is a reproduction of the ancient and established distinction between faith and religion with only a few differentiations. Since the first years of the 20th century, theologians like Barth began to speak of the "opposition" between faith and religion. This question led to many debates and object of whole generations studied it. At the end of the 1960s, it provoked a critique of popular religions in Latin America. Nevertheless, critique like that not only did not favor a revision of Christian authoritarianism and triumphalism but made an opening to pluralism even less possible. The perspective of a liberation theology open and committed to cultural and religious pluralism required a reopening of the discussion about faith and religion as well as of the distinction between religion and spirituality. In the Roman declaration, Dominus Jesus and in certain theological affirmations, we see that what stands out is the antithesis between faith and religion. Religion is identified as a human and natural phenomenon present in religions that are human paths to God or peoples' intuitions. This is contrasted with faith, identified as Christian faith and considered an expression of divine revelation, a transcendental experience, an experience of grace. Religions are seen as human experiences that search tentatively and almost blindly for the divine. Christianity, as an expression of revealed faith, and not simply as a religion, would come "directly" from God. It is seen as representing, not the human path of a search for God, but rather the gratuitous movement of God who comes to
6

See Mariano Corbi, Religion sin Religion, Madrid, PPC, 1996, quoted by J. Amando Robles y Robles, Repensar la religion: la religion ante la cultura actual, www.servicioskoinonia.org/relat/344,htm

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seek the human being. It is clear that such poorly disguised exclusivity has to be surpassed and overcome if we want to reconsider God from a pluralist and above all a liberation perspective. In order to think of God in a pluralist way, a prior task is to become aware that God has innumerable paths for revelation and that every religion is a human and cultural institution. At the same time, religion is called to be a channel for divine revelation so that people can learn through it to live a happier human life, one that is more whole. Christianity is not superior to any other religious path. Like all the others, it tries to respond to the divine call and is organized on the basis of the cultural temper in the identity of its members. In Latin America, the theological and spiritual task of speaking of God out of a pluralist theology of liberation presupposes that we are willing to refashion our explanations of God in order to maintain our identity. This identity is deeply anchored in the indigenous cultures of our continent. At the same time we need to be faithful to the spirit of Jesus Christ in the sense of maintaining a universal openness and broad disposition to receive the word that God directs to us through the thousand ways that the divine mystery is recognized and revealed in the plurality of human cultures and religions. This work of reconstructing the very foundations of our faith will be the basis for the possibility of a deeper inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. Exclusivity versus pluralism: How can we understand monotheism? We cannot identify monotheism with theological and ecclesiological exclusivity and then polytheism with pluralism. Both monotheism and polytheism, like exclusivity and pluralism are evidently quite inadequate and inexact terms for a more relevant analysis of this question. It is true that in the history of Christianity faith in one God has often generated, almost automatically, intolerance and persecution against those who thought in a different way. In the final decades of the 20th century, Jurgen Moltmann stated several times that he did not like the term "monotheism" because, in the history of Christian society, faith in Eis heos [one God] frequently went hand in hand with political oppression and totalitarianism (monarchism) while a more trinitarian vision seemed more respectful of a complex and differentiated model of human society.7 In ancient cultures, religion was so intimately tied to the politics of the kings and emperors that monotheism arose in fact as a result of what could be called "a struggle of the gods," which at bottom masked human struggles for power. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh Amenofis IV (1379-1362 BCE) promoted the worship of the sun as an improvement over earlier cults of a variety of gods See Geoffrey Wainwright, "Dio," in the Dizionario del Movimento Ecumenico, Bologna, EDB, 1994,411.

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of the old empire. Many scholars of the history of religions consider him to be the strangest and most singular personality of antiquity. He is revered as a "monotheist before Moses." His doctrine was a revolution that still astonishes us. Even as king, he acted as an ascetic and a revolutionary. In the rigid structure of that time he set in motion a theocratic and social revolution that shook civilization. He pulled down the old religion that had been corrupted at that time by power-hungry priests and he promoted the worship of Aton as the only God. He changed his name to Akhenaton ("spirit in action of Aton"). This decision reveals his intention to mark the beginning of a new era. The same phenomenon occurred among the monarchs of India and Persia. In the Bible, monotheism also arose, though much later, as a liberating movement for a society that perpetuated injustices by giving official approval to the prevailing social order. The biblical prophets did not substitute a new god for the gods of Egypt and Canaan. They questioned the very notion of God. "You shall not pronounce his name... You shall not have images... God dwells behind a dark cloud." In the Middle Ages, Master Eckhart stated, "I beg God to free me from God." In the Christian tradition an affirmation like that corresponded to the well-known Buddhist saying that, "If you meet Buddha on your path, grab him and kill him." In one as in the other, what is at stake is the image of God. We can immediately recall the commandment of God in the Torah: "You shall not make a carved image for yourself nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below..." (Exod. 20, 4; Deut. 5, 8). If a Christian liberation theology is to talk about God in a pluralist paradigm, the first and most important challenge does not appear to be so much that of abandoning its monotheist faith or relativizing monotheism. It certainly does need to revise the dogmatic and intolerant character that is behind its monotheistic image of God. It is not just a matter of discussing terms like monotheism or polytheism. These concepts always end up defining faith and religions externally on the basis of their ethnocentric cultural context. These concepts do not come out of Indigenous, Black or Indian communities. They came from the Western Fathers of the Church, from their Platonic and Aristotelian interpretation of the Christian faith and their struggle against the gods of the empire. One historian has said, "Imperial Rome was a macro-ecumenical city open to all the religions of the period. Even today in Rome there still exist ruins and traces of more than 3,500 different religions. There you can visit the remains of Buddhist, Taoist and Persian temples as well as those of all the people who had contact with the Romans. This diversity was wiped out by the Christians when they became the official religion of the empire beginning with the reign of Theodosius.

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A Jesuit missionary accused a Guarani in the 16' century of adoring corn. The Guarani responded by saying, "And don't you adore bread?" If we want to maintain this way of speaking, we have to recognize that Jesus of Nazareth was profoundly monotheist. He lived in intimacy with the Father as a communion with all humanity and with deep respect for all human journeys. The problem of monotheism is not so much the question of whether there is one god or many but whether the one God in whom we believe is a kind of god over all the gods who reproduces in heaven the political system by which a king rules with authority over all the lords of the city-states and whether we project on him the authoritarian and arbitrary reactions of the emperors of this world. Monotheism is pernicious when it believes in a patriarchal god who punishes the disobedient and rewards the faithful, providing health, home and a good life to whomever flatters him, because it prevents human beings from being free and constructing their own autonomous history. At this point, several intellectuals denounce the "God factor" as responsible for or guilty of the violence and crimes that afflict society. In a message to the 2nd World Social Forum, the writer Jose Saramago said, We will always die of something, but we have already lost count of the people who have died in the worst ways that human beings were able to invent. One of them, the most criminal and the most absurd, the one that most offends reason itself, is the one that since the beginning of time and of civilizations has ordered murder in the name of God.8 This idea that God could be in agreement with assassination or war is not unique to the so-called "Abrahamic religions" (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Still, throughout history these religions have accepted it and developed it at various moments. Among the Abrahamic religions, the one that has the most violence and intolerance in its history is unfortunately Christianity. This history of specifically Christian violence can be explained by many sociological and political factors but certainly one of the sources is the traditional Christian idea of a God linked to power who rewards the good and punishes those who are supposedly evil. Throughout Latin America, the process of colonization imposed Christianity and presented the God of the Christian faith as superior to the gods of the Indigenous and Black population. It was a God who guaranteed the victory of the colonial system and was favorable, or at least condescending, to the slavery of the Indigenous and Black people. Missionaries like Bartolome de las Casas, Antonio Montesinos, Jose de Anchieta and the Jesuits who established the Reductions to defend the Indigenous people fought against what they conQuoted by Faustino Teixeira in "Dialogo Inter-religioso: o desafio de acolhida da diferenta," Perspectivas Teologicas (July/August, 2002).

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sidered the inhumanity or abuses of the colonial system. However very few were able to denounce the system itself. The reason for this incapacity lay in the fact that, at the foundation of their faith, their image of God permitted and even legitimized that model of society. It is important to recall this in order to be clear about what has already become today a refrain in pluralist theology, "Tell me in what God you believe and I will tell you your vision of the world and of history." Challenges for a liberating and pluralist discourse about God The efforts to understand our faith, which we call theology, are intimately tied to the questions that life puts before us and the challenges that the Christian community confronts in its witness to the Reign. (Gustavo Gutierrez)9 All over the world, but above all in Latin America and the Caribbean, one of the most terrible challenges for speaking about God is not only the question of evil but of an evil that seems to prevail in history and to "go for more." The Bible itself had asked why the just suffer. Apart from the discussion opened up by the book of Job, psalms like 74 try to respond to this question. Throughout history, Jewish communities had to reshape their image of God when faced with the persecutions and exiles they suffered. In the 20th century, Hans Jonas was right when he said that all humanity feels obligated to reconsider the question of Job once again and to find a new response: "Since then [World War II] we should certainly take a vacation from the title, "Lord of History." What God is this who allowed an Auschwitz to happen?"10 This Jewish philosopher and theologian, who was a specialist in the Christian Gnosticism of the first centuries, sought a response to this problem in a different reading of the creative act: In order to create, the deity has to accept being totally annihilated so that the world might exist in a time and a space that would have an immanence undisturbed by the incursion of transcendence. Creation begins with a renunciation of divinity in order to permit the appearance of many and diversified creatures. At the end of this cosmic, natural and human process, the same Deity achieves an enrichment of his/her fullness - or as Hans Jonas says - his/her own redemption.... The con-

Gustavo Gutierrez, "Situation y tareas de la teologfa de la liberation," Pdginas, 16 (February, 2000), 6. 10 Hans Jonas, Le Concept de Dieu apres Auschwitz, Paris, Payot et Rivages, 1994 (French translation of a German text published in 1984), 13.

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cept of God contained in this vision has three major predicates: (divine) suffering, progress and caring. These qualities of divine impotence are even more accentuated in the creation of human beings who are gifted with freedom and conscience. What God can do is to be inserted into our suffering, to be Emmanuel, God with us. It is this that is part of the word of Moses, "I am the One, I will be with you" (Exod 3, 14). Omnipotence is no attribute of God but rather humility and impotence. For those who are engaged in Christian theology it is not difficult to see the relationship between the burning bush and the cross of Jesus. They reveal how divine presence and love are strong in their impotence and in God's decision to give us life. Evil is more than just inevitable because of human liberty. It is transformed into the location for the "supreme revelation of love."12 In Latin America, the history of colonization was interpreted as a struggle of the gods in which the Indigenous deities were overthrown. Many of the colonized people felt betrayed by their Deity and obliged to submit to the cruel god of the conqueror. For that reason, more in Latin America and the Caribbean, but also in other places in the world, an important macroecumenical and liberating task is that of bearing witness that we recognize the divine presence and love more in the Indigenous and Black images of the deities than in the orthodox and traditional expression of a patriarchal god who legitimates colonial oppression. In the recent history of Latin American and Caribbean Christian communities, the story of many men and women who were martyrs in the liberation movement reveals the solitude and the lack of comprehension not only of the oppressive system responsible for their deaths but also the difficulty the Churches have in supporting their struggles and taking up their defense. Bishop Oscar Romero lived this to the extreme. In Brazil, 2005, Luiz Cappio, bishop of Barra, decided in conscience to begin a hunger strike to prevent the criminal diversion of the Sao Francisco River. In Brazil and also in Rome, the highest levels of the Catholic hierarchy joined government authorities in an attempt to dissuade the bishop. A letter written in the name of the Pope textually forbad him to continue with his hunger strike, qualifying it as a "suicide attempt." In a case like this, we grasp the challenge involved in the need to change our image of God and our responsibility to speak of God from the vantage point of dissidence and subversion. In this area of dissidence and subversion, one challenge is to avoid continuing to bind God to moral or religious law and order. In developing a Catherine Charlier, "Dieu sans puissance" in Hans Jonas, Le Concept de Dieu apres Auschwitz, Paris, Payot et Rivages, 1994, 52-53. A. Torres Queiruga, Creo en Dios Padre: El Dios de Jesus como afirmacion plena del hombre, Santander, Sal Terrea, 1986, 138.

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morality constructed on the fundamental criteria of life and love and yet concretized always in conjunctural elements of reality, there arises the challenge for a kind of pluralist and liberating interpretation of morality that reveals a plural and liberating image of God. Where does all this leave us? The first attitude is to adore and respect the mystery, even to stand in admiration of ourselves, as Jewish mysticism suggested, or better yet to be silent, as the mystics of all generations have recommended. Still, an attitude like that of silence or of refusal to speak is impossible for us as Christians committed to liberation and to respect for difference. To do so would be another omission or even, in certain cases, a crime given the idolatrous and perverse models for speaking of God that pervade many ecclesiastical institutions and that continue to legitimize wars in Iraq, destruction of the environment, misery and hunger of more than two-thirds of humanity. We can obey this recommendation for an apophatic theology, by not keeping silent and by trying to be humble in our way of speaking, aware that our discourse is approximate, analogical and lacking an adequate model for speaking of the other that allows the other to go deeper in a positive way. This puts us in a context of speaking about God that is a liberating pluralism. This sort of vision should open us to dialogue in order to hear sacred stories from one another. Discovering how other communities and groups live their experience of intimacy with God helps us renew and deepen our growth in love. It is biblical faith itself that teaches us and insists that God is mystery, at the same time one and many, who always comes to meet us through the other. In this sense, the Deity is permanently a stranger and is revealed always through what is different. To take this to the ultimate consequence means more than respecting and welcoming the spiritual experience of the other. It also means remaining open and integrating into our own spirituality something of what is learned from the experience of the other that can reveal a new element in the divine mystery. Perhaps those who are reading these pages will ask us what conclusion we are proposing about God as seen from a pluralist and liberation perspective. For us, the conclusion is that we should give up the dogmas that pretend to say more than we can or should. We are discovering that we have not yet even brushed up against the mystery. What is urgent is to commit ourselves to continuing the search. As the Hindu mystic Radhakrishnan said, The paths that we tread, the names that we give, fall into insignificance when we are face to face in the radiant light of the Divine. When we

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touch the flame of the Divine there emerges a generous hospitality for the various creeds and paths. 13 Paul Tillich, one of the greatest Evangelical theologians of the 20 th century said, The name of the depth and of the infinite, inexhaustible ground of all being is God. This depth is the very meaning of the word God. If you were to understand what is the most important and profound in culture and in the life of any people, you would be touching the very mystery of the presence of God. 14

Bibliography Charlier, C (1994). Dieu sans puissance In: Jonas, H. (1994). Le Concept de Dieu apres Auschwitz. Pans: Payot et Rivages. Christ, C. (1994). Por que las Mujeres necesitan a la Diosa. In: Ress, Mary Judith et al. (eds.). (1984). Del Cielo a la Tierra: Una Antologia de Teologia Feminista Santiago, Sello Azuk Editorial de Mujeres. Cone, J (1986). A Black Theology of Liberation. Second Edition. New York. Orbis. Corbi, M. (1996). Religion sin Religion. Madrid: PPC. Daly, M (1973). Beyond God the Father. Boston: Beacon Press. Dufrasne, D. (1969). Celebrer les evenements salutaires d'autrefois ou d'aujourd'hui? In: Paroisse et Liturgie 3(1969). Geertz, C. (1989). A interpretacao das Culturas. Rio de Janeiro: LTC. Gutierrez, G. (2000). Situacion y tareas de la teologia de la liberacion In: Pdginas 16(February, 2000). p. 6. Jonas, H (1984). Le Concept de Dieu apres Auschwitz. Pans: Payot et Rivages (French translation of a German text published in 1984). McFague, S. (1987). Models of God: Theology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age. Philadelphia: Fortress Press. Puthiadam, I. (1980). Fe e vida cristas num mundo de plurahsmo religiose In. Conchum 155(1980-5).

S Radhaknshnan, Occasional Speeches and Writings, May 1962 to May 1964, 178 Quoted by Ignace Puthiadam, "Fe e vida cristas num mundo de plurahsmo rehgioso," Conchum 155 (1980/5), 103 14 Paul Tillich, The Shaking of Foundations, New York, C Scnbner's Sons, 1948, 63 Quoted by Dieudonne Dufrasne, "Celebrer les evenements salutaires d'autrefois ou d'aujourd'hui7, " m Paroisse et Liturgie 3 (1969), 221.

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Radhakrishnan, S. (1962-4). Occasional Speeches and Writings. May 1962 to May 1964. Robles y Robles, J. Amando (2002). Repensar la religion: la religion ante la cultura actual, www.servicioskoinonia.org/relat/344.htm Teixeira, F. (2002). Dialogo Inter-religioso: o desafio de acolhida da diferenta. In: Perspectivas Teologicas (July/August, 2002). Tillich, P. (1948). The Shaking of Foundations. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. Torres Queiruga, A. (1986). Creo en Dios Padre: El Dios de Jesus como afirmacion plena del hombre. Santander: Sal Terrea. Wainwright, G. (1994). Dio. In: Various Authors (1994). Dizionario del Movimento Ecumenico. Bologna: EDB.

Chapter 14 Ecclesiology in a time of religious pluralism

Faustino Teixeira Brazil "My heart is open to all the ways: It is pasture for the gazelle, It is a cloister for the Christian monks, a temple for the idols, the Caaba of the pilgrim, the Tables of the Torah, and the book of the Qur'an. I profess the religion of love, In any direction that its camels go, the religion of Love will be my religion and my faith." Ibn al-Arabi

Introduction It is no easy task to respond to the challenge to rethink ecclesiology using the paradigm of religious pluralism. That was the proposal the Latin American Theological Commission of EATWOT placed before me. In this way it continued the important effort to promote a dialogue between liberation theology and religious pluralism. The objective of this brief essay is much more modest. I will try to point out some studies and also some doubts that have appeared in the long circuit of investigations into the question of a Christian theology of religions, inter-religious dialogue and the challenge represented by religious pluralism. The article below should not be considered a fully developed study but rather one that is open to dialogue and to learning. Mine are in fact doubts and preoccupations rather than a finished systematization. The work of building an ecclesiology based on the challenge of religious pluralism is still to be achieved. What I am trying to do here is merely to lay some matters and questions out so that might serve for future reflection. The ecclesiological unease What one sees in the various publications on the theme of a Christian theology of religious pluralism is a certain ecclesiological unease. It is really difficult to advance a theological reflection that would go beyond the limits defined by the

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traditional magistenum The arguments coined by tradition are so decisive and binding that they inhibit the necessary hermeneutical work Another important aspect that has to be taken into account and that poses an obstacle to or hinders the free exercise of theological reflection in Roman Catholic circles is the constant control exercised over the activity and academic production of theologians who work in theological institutes and Catholic universities within the "mandate from the competent ecclesiastical authority "' There is a heavy and dangerous threat "to the freedom of investigation and of teaching" hanging over this question as was shown by a group of European theologians in a declaration issued in 1989 Quite a few Roman Catholic theologians have been investigated or have gone through a trial in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith as a result of their reflections on inter-rehgious dialogue and religious pluralism In a book published in 2001, Jacques Dupuis advocated keeping a space for a innovative theological reflection that could give expression to freedom and creativity of thought about faith and theology in a world characterized by religious pluralism The reality of religious plurality leads to a new way of doing theology and the desirability of having "different perceptions" and articulations of the same Christian faith Clinging to theological reflections marked by the exclusivist dynamic creates considerable difficulty in the current inter-religious context From Dupuis' point of view, "absolute and exclusivist statements about Christ and Christianity that make claims to the exclusive possession of the self-manifestation of God or the means of salvation, distort or even contradict the Christian message and the Christian image " 3 In general, the argument is that what has made it difficult for the theology of religious pluralism to have a greater openness to the uniqueness of other religious traditions is the way of understanding Jesus Christ 4 This judgment cannot be ignored Equally however, it has to be noted that the understanding of Church has given rise also to countless difficulties for dialogue with other religions Among Roman Catholics a sort of understanding is still around that expresses an restrictive centralism An example of this can be found in a passage from the Declaration of the Second Vatican Council on Religious Free-

Code of Canon Law, 2 ed, Umone editon cattohci ltahani, Roma, 1984, can 812 In another Canon it is clearly stated that the competent authority has the right to remove professors who deviate from the "integrity of doctrine" envisioned in their teaching in a Catholic university (Canon 810) 2 Declaracao de Colonia, Revista Eclesiastica Brasileira, 49/193 (March, 1989), 180 Jacques Dupuis, // cristianesimo e le rehgoni Dallo scontro all incontro, Quenmana, Brescia, 2001, 485 See also page 484, [Tr There is an English translation Christianity and the Religions From Confrontation to Dialogue, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2002 ] 4 Paul Knitter, "Christianity as Religion True and Absolute9" Concilium (1980), 1221.

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dom It says "We believe that this one true religion subsists5 in the catholic and apostolic Church, to which the Lord Jesus committed the duty of spreading it abroad among all men "6 Historians of the Second Vatican Council note that this comment was introduced into the Declaration through the pressure of a minority of the council members in order to balance the statement of religious freedom with that of traditional Catholic doctrine The traditionalists mustered all their forces in order to reaffirm the rights of Roman Catholicism as a revealed religion and to resist the challenge of religious freedom, which for them meant the right to an "erroneous conscience "7 This traditional view was taken up again in the Declaration Dominus Jesus issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith It speaks of the uniqueness and the salvific universality of Jesus and of the Church In this Declaration it is reaffirmed that "this one true religion continues to exist in the Catholic and Apostolic Church," (DI, 23) and that the followers of other religions "objectively speaking are in a gravely deficient situation in comparison with those who, in the Church, have the fullness of the means of salvation " (DI, 22) 8 The strength and the weight of the traditional doctrinal affirmation regarding the Church end up sowing fear and blocking a more open ecclesiological reflection on religious pluralism The search for fidelity to the past ends up being weightier and the "fear of the risk inherent in any interpretation leads to a repetition of the traditional formulas "9 In theological circles a terminology is still very much alive that is indebted to a problematic Church-centeredness For Jacques Dupuis there still exists a harmful vocabulary with respect to "others," which shows the fundamental importance of a "purification of theological language "10 Some expressions in the ecclesiological repertory discourage dialogue with other religions Terms like "people of God" have a negative effect This is a phrase that points to God's special choice of the people of Israel, which was broadened and applied to the Church To speak today of a people chosen by
In the original Latin the expression used is subsistere, which for some theologians already meant a opening larger than the ecclesiological view, which had prevailed earlier and that simply identified the true religion with the Catholic Church Dignitatis Humanae on religious freedom n 1 7 The group of bishops that met at the Coetus Internationahs Patrum included the most conservative circles at the Council It reacted very strongly to the question of religious freedom See Nicia Buonasorte, Tra Roma e Lefrebvre II tradizionahsmo cattohco itahano e il Concilia Vaticano II, Ediziom stadium, Roma, 2003, 68-75 8 The document can be found on the Vatican web site http //www Vatican va/roman_cuna/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc _20000806_dominus-iesus_en html Cntian Duquoc, "Credo la Chiesa," Precarieta instituzionale e Regno di Dio, Quenmana, Brescia, 2001, 190 Jacques Dupuis, // cristianesimo e le rehgioni, op cit, 24

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God as if other peoples were excluded from that choice becomes very problematic It is not without reason that some theologians have suggested abandoning this terminology in order to safeguard against discriminating in love n As the declaration of the First Encounter of the Assembly of the People of God, in Quito (Ecuador), 1992 stressed, the "people of God are many peoples " l 2 Another problematic expression is the one that speaks of the "ordering" of non-Christians to the people of God This term, present in Lumen Gentium 16, and is a reference from Thomas Aquinas 13 It reappears in the texts of inclusivist theologians who work on the topic of a theology of religious pluralism 14 The definition of the Church as "universal sacrament of salvation" can also be mentioned It is present in Lumen Gentium 48 as is also that of the "necessity" of the Church for salvation (LG, 14) It needs to be pointed out that inclusivist ecclesiological thinking in the Roman Catholic camp is linked to the ecclesiological position taken in the Second Vatican Council and in particular to the reflections in Lumen Gentium It is clear that important and significant efforts are happening, even in the circle of the inclusivists, in order to broaden the interpretation of the Council and to guarantee the suitability of a hermeneutic and inter-religious opening This is, for example, what Jacques Dupuis attempted to do in reflecting on the question of the sacramentahty of the Church From his point of view, there is no way to guarantee the perspective of dialogue while maintaining the idea of the Church as universal mediation of grace In point of fact, the salvific action of God is much broader and multifaceted The Church is a sacrament, a sign and instrument of the Reign of God, universally present in history But this does not imply that it is the "universal mediation of grace" since the grace of God is

This is the case of Andres Torres Queiruga for whom anyone who honestly tries to relate to God "has the right to feel that he or she is unique for God and in that sense chosen " This same theologian points out that the category of "election" is "dangerous," since it not only discriminates in love but also tends to reinforce "pride and the will for power in order to use it against others " See Andres Torres Queiruga, Um Deus para hoje, Sao Paulo, Paulus, 1998, 35 12 "Mamfiesto del I Encuentro de la Asamblea del Peublo de Dios," in Faustino Teixeira (org), O dialogo inter-rehgwso como afirmagao da vida, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1997, 149 Thomas Aquinas, Suma Theologiae III, q 8, a 3, ad 1 The expression ordinantur (ordained) appears even before Lumen Gentium in the enclychcal Mysticis corporis of Pius XII (1943) It is meant to emphasize that those who do not belong to the living organization of the Church are ordered to the mystical body of the Redeemer See Denzinger-Hunermann, DH 3821 14 Claude Geffre, Crer e interpretar, Vozes, Petrdpohs, 2004, 159, Jacques Dupuis, II cnstianismo e le rehgwni, 395

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always revealed in the affirmative response to the invitation of God that occurs in the practice of faith and love of each religious tradition 15 An open path for Reign-centeredness An important step in the search for a way to overcome Church-centeredness m Christian theology of religions occurred with the affirmation of Reigncenteredness With this new perspective there was an attempt to show "how Christianity and the other religious traditions are co-participants in the universal reality of the Reign of God in whose construction they are called to collaborate until it achieves its eschatological fullness " I6 By affirming the universality of the Reign of God, the theology of religions could recognize a response to the call of God in the sincere practice of religiosity wherever this is found Christians and the "others" thus share the same mystery of salvation even though along different paths In the Christian optic, it is legitimate to affirm that participants in other religious traditions are effectively "active members of the Reign," with a singular presence in its construction since the Reign is revealed "wherever obedience to God occurs in grace as the acceptance of God's selfcommunication " The choice of the expression "Reign of God" is circumscribed in a very limited space It is an expression that has some value in the circle of Judeo-Chnstianity l8 Thus some authors raised the question of its appropriateness in the area of the theology of religious pluralism and of inter-religious dialogue Christian Duquoc indicated that the metaphor of the reign provoked
Jacques Dupuis, Rumo a uma teologia crista do plurahsmo religioso, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 1999, 485 There is an English translation Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, Maryknoll, Orbis ], Pontifical Council for Interrehgious Dialogue, Dialogue and Proclamation, n 29 (1991) See http //www Vatican va/roman_cuna/pontifical_councils/interelg/documents/rc_pc_inter elg_doc_ 19051991 _dialogue-and-proclamatio_en html 1 Jacques Dupuis, Rumo a uma teologia, op at, 526 "The recognition of the other religions as significant and positive elements in the economy of the desire of God for the salvation introduced a new paradigm that is Reign-centeredness and is oriented toward the future and is Trinitarian " FABC, "Thesis on Inter-rehgious Dialogue," (3 2), Sedoc 33/281 (July/August 2000) 59 See also Pedro Casaldaliga and Jose Maria Vigil, "Reinocentnsmo" in Espirituahdad de la hberacwn, 17 Karl Rahner, "Church in the World," Sacramentum Mundi I, New York, Herder and Herder, 1968, 348 18 But one has to recognize that the expression "Reign of God" (malkuta jahweh, basileia tou theou) "is not original nor specifically Israelite It existed throughout the Ancient East What Israel did was to make the notion of God-King a historical term in accord with its basic faith that Yahweh intervenes in history " Jon Sobnno, Jesus o hbertador, Vozes, Patrdpohs, 1994, 110
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reservations There is no way to avoid it in the Bible It is an expression that "has the strength of a minor universality since it is inserted in a very well defined space " 19 A similar difficulty is noted by Miguel Quatra Even while recognizing the importance of this expression, since it is one of the "greatest religious symbols of humanity" he states that "the language through which it is being communicated is likely to be foreign, incomprehensible and thus not effectively communicative, especially in the Asian context " 20 We need to be very aware of this fact when working with something so fundamental to Christian theology of religions It is a basic category in Christian interpretation and remains valid in this area of interpretation For a more extensive reflection on inter-religious dialogue we need to look for new and broader categories with a greater capacity for becoming universal Taking Christian interpretation as our base, the expression "Reign of God" is a religious symbol that aspires to the transcendental sphere Insofar as it refers to God's reign, it is reality effected by transcendent power that cannot be circumscribed by human imagination and cannot be defined in precise or factual terms The kingdom of God is eschatological, it encompasses the future, the end-time, the completion and fulfillment of history Such a kingdom is utopic, and to think of its arriving at a certain time and place is to misconceive the symbol 2 1 Nevertheless, the Reign of God does not mean an eschatological event exclusively It is not just a reality that still is in the future Rather it is the expression of the sovereignty of God who draws close to humanity to the extent that an effort is made to bring about a more just, fraternal community in solidarity The Reign is also brought about "wherever God is ruling through his grace and love, wherever he is overcoming sin and helping human beings to grow " 22 It is therefore a reality that is also experienced outside explicitly ecclesial practices and in the circles of other religious traditions as well The Reign of God constitutes the central nucleus of the prayer of Jesus of Nazareth The foundation of his message was geocentric Christcenteredness came later with the ecclesiastical process

Christian Duquoc, L unique Christ, La symphonie differee, Cerf, Paris, 2002, 123 Miguel Marcello Quatra, O M I, At the Side of the Multitudes The Kingdom of God and the Mission of the Church in the FABC documents, Quezon City, Philippines, Claretian Publications, 2000, 202 (Tr The original is, Regno di Dio e misswne delle chiesa nel contesto asiatico Uno studio sui documenti della FABC (1970-1995), Dissertatio ad Doctoratum Facultate Missiologiae Pontificiae Universitatis Gregonanae, Roma, 1998, 497 Jacques Dupms also recognizes that this expression creates problems in the context of a theology of religions and of inter-religious dialogue See Rumo a uma teologia, 456 21 Roger Haight, Jesus, Jesus, Symbol of God, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2000, 79 80 22 Puebla and Beyond, Maryknoll, Orbis Press, 1979, n 226
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Jesus, did not preach himself; his person and work did not appear as the focus of his own teaching. He spoke rather of God, whom he called Father. God, God's will, God's values, God's priorities dominated all that was remembered about what Jesus said and did.23 The whole life and activity of Jesus was oriented to the Reign of God as a reign in which life is affirmed. For him, the reign symbolized the new lordship of God over history that renews everything and reestablishes distinct and fraternal relationships between human beings as well as a new perspective of welcome and hospitality. Through its vital dynamic, Jesus pointed to the presence of God in the world and showed in a unique way the intense and surprising reality of his transforming and liberating will. Thus, just as the Reign-centered perspective coincides with the heart of Jesus' message, so it is also essential for ecclesial life. The Church exists in the dynamic of following Jesus and the reason for his coming into the world is to be the sacrament of the Reign of history. In a very accurate way, this idea was expressed by the Consultative Theological Commission of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences, in the Thesis on inter-religious dialogue: The objective of the evangelizing mission of the Church is to build the Reign of God and fashion the Church to be the servant of the Reign. The Reign is thus broader than the Church. The Church is the sacrament of the Reign, making it visible, ordered to it, promoting it, but not identified with it.24 In his valuable work on the question of the Reign of God and the mission of the Church in the documents of the Asian bishops, Miguel Quatra has shown that the reign cannot be a chapter in ecclesiology but rather "the heart and the reason for existence of ecclesiology." For him, the Church cannot be understood by and in itself alone. Rather it always exists in reference to the broader and evolving horizon of the Reign of God. In counter-position to the encyclical Redemptoris mission (1990) of John Paul II,25 which states that the Reign of God cannot be separated from the church (RM, 19), Quatra indicates that it is Roger Haight, Jesus Symbol of God, op. cit. Edward Schilkbeeckx, Umanitd, storia diDio, Queriniana, Brescia, 1992, 152ff. 24 FABC: Tesis sobre o dialogo inter-religioso (6.3). Sedoc, 33/281 (2000) 67. See also, FABC, Documenti della chiesa in Asia, Federazione delle Conferenze Episcopali Asiatiche (1970-1995), EMI, Bologna, 1997, 412 (Una teologia della missione per l'Asia). It seems the document was published in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 13(3) Jul 1989, 108-110. John Paul II, Sobre a validade permanente do mandato missiondrio, Vozes, Petrdpolis, 1991 (enclyclical letter: Redemptoris missio). [ Tr.: The encyclical will be indicated here as RM. For the English version, see http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0219/_INDEX.HTM.]

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even more true to say that the Church should never be separated from the Reign 26 The Reign-centered perspective that is common in Asian and Latin American theological reflection has caused considerable bewilderment JohnPaul IF s encyclical Redemptons missio on the permanent validity of the missionary mandate expresses some preoccupations about the Reign-centered perspective Most particularly there is a fear that reflection on the Reign would go against the sense of the Church either by emphasizing a humanized and secularized understanding of the Reign or in marginalizing and undervaluing the Church (RM 17-18) Equally, there exists a fear that the central character of the Reign and emphasis on a proclamation of Gospel values would end up putting the explicit announcement of Jesus Christ on a secondary level and would replace the missionary effort for the plantatio Ecclesiae (implanting of the Church, RM 44 and 4 8 ) 2 ? What is really happening is that they suspect that the opening to Reign-centeredness could threaten or relativize the traditional conviction regarding the necessity of the Church for salvation and the sense that she possesses the "fullness of the means of salvation " Christian Duquoc has pointed out that the Reign, toward which the Church moves, constitutes also its "anguish," since the Reign relativizes what has become established and leads it toward the necessity of new life and reform 28 The violence that often accompanies church administration is an expression and consequence of a rigid conviction of possessing a monopoly on the truth and of the difficulty of understanding and living with what is provisional From the point of view of Duquoc, censures, inquisitions, excommunications, crusades and religious wars are not accidental but rather a logical consequence of the institution in light of its singular and authentic relationship with the Word and Holiness It is the institutional inscription of the Absolute in social contingency that has provoked the violence of a doctrine and an authority consecrated, by vocation, to non-violence 29

Miguel Marcello Quatra, op cit, Regno di Dio e misswne delta Chiesa, op cit, 313 One of the clearest expressions of this fear can be found in the document of the Synod of the bishops during the Special Assembly for Europe Testemunhas do Cnsto, Petropohs, Vozes, 14 28 Christian Duquoc, "Credo la Chiesa,"o/7 cit, p 24-25 Ibidem, 155 Duquoc calls attention to what is considered a serious problem the "administrative handling of the truth" in the Church that is "removed from the control of the faithful and transformed into the property of scrupulous and ambitious bureaucrats " In the view of the author, this is the management of the truth that produces the problem of totalitarianism in the Church See. ibidem, 119-120
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To understand the Church as sacrament of the Reign is to grasp the permanent movement of the pilgrimage of the Church, its path toward what precedes and finalizes it, the broadening of its horizons, its openness to challenge, to otherness. This important concept of sacrament does not "sacralize the institution but rather opens up its ambiguous form toward what, at heart, surpasses and relativizes it."30 In the area of a Reign-centered perspective a decisive space also opens up for the recognition of the salvific action of God in other religious traditions once the reality of the Reign acts equally outside the confines of the Church wherever authentic values are in play. The Reign of God comes before all process and relationship. It provokes and brings about openness, contact, empathy, encounter, hospitality and inter-religious courtesy. All the religious traditions participate and share the involvement of the Reign but none can attribute to itself an exclusive relationship. What becomes evident is an "interreligious symbolization of the Reign," that is more adequate for an awareness of its real universality. 31 The new perspective favors an ecclesiogenesis:* a Church that recognizes itself as with the others and for the others. Religious pluralism is not only recognized as an essential value but comes also to be part of the very intelligibility of the Church.32 What has been lacking is a radical transition from an ecclesial model, from a Church-centered perspective, toward another that is turned outward and is dialogical. Mission does not lose its meaning but ends up focused around the Reign. The witness and promotion of the values of the Reign become decisive as shared participation in the experience of Jesus understood above all as a mystery of love that produces and brings about life in abundance. The missionary motivation ceases to be an obligation or commandment and is transformed into the sharing of a gift that is a convocation to love. Masters of dialogue, the Asians have well understood that the proclamation of Jesus is made clear above all in dialogue and in acts, in the exercise of the following of the values he announced such as the promotion of justice, peace, charity, fraternity, hospitality and compassion. In a Reign-centered perspective, the mission of the Church cannot become a thirst to extend one's territory or to increase the number of Christians. It has rather to advance a vigorous witness to the Reign that is coming in dialogue with all those generous men and women who may or may not belong to various religious traditions.

Ibidem, 179. Miguel Marcello Quatra, At the Side, op. cit., 208 and 202. * [Tr: The word is taken from a book with the same name authored by Leonardo Boff. It refers to the way in which authentic Church comes into existence.] 32 Ibidem, 520.
31

Oia/Tenges for Ecctesiofogy in a worid that is ren'gious/y pfura/ This is a moment characterized by an ever clearer awareness of the rich patrimony of religious diversity. It is no longer possible to continue to maintain the acceptability of a de facto pluralism only and the conviction that religions achieve their purpose or finishing touch in a specific religious tradition. On the contrary, there is a growing perception that religions are not only genuinely different, but that they are also truly precious. One has to honor this otherness and this irreversibility of religious traditions. Honoring otherness means being able to recognize the value and praiseworthiness of a religious pluralism in principle (not just de facto). Religious diversity has to be recognized not as an expression of human limitation or the result of a passing circumstantial reality but as a sign of worth and richness. As Roger Haight points out, "the recognition and positive valuation of other religious faiths, the study of other religions, and the practice of interfaith dialogue have stimulated the deeply engaging issue of the Christian theology of religions."33 The growing historical awareness, the sharpness of the perception of the world of otherness and the improvements in critical instruments have given rise to quite decisive intellectual problems and to a growing resistance to the standard ways of explaining traditional Christian affirmations regarding Jesus Christ and the Church. A certain way of speaking about sensitivity to plurality is becoming increasingly obtuse or dissonant. One example of this can be found in universalizing affirmations like: "Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and humanity," "only the Church possesses the fullness of the means of salvation," "the Church is the normal path to salvation," etc. In spite of the well-known positive efforts among inclusivist Christian theologians, it is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain the acceptability of certain theoretical constructions or ways of juggling things in order to safeguard a traditional doctrine that demands a new qualitative leap and openness to new horizons. Current theological literature on the question of religious pluralism shows the insufficiency of the exclusivist and inclusivist positions and the importance of a major theoretical boldness without pretending that this entails a surrender to relativism. It is worth noting the important effort make by Jesuit theologian Roger Haight in proposing a positive development of religious pluralism based on a fresh theological perspective. He defends the thesis that "the normative character of Jesus does not exclude a positive evaluation of religious pluralism and Christians are able to view other world religions as true in the sense that they are mediations of the salvation of God."34 Religious pluralism constituted a fundamental challenge for the selfawareness of the Church. The uniqueness of the Church and the value of the Roger Haight, Jesus, Symbol of God, op. cit., 319. lb idem, 405-410.

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specific commitment of the faithful with respect to their faith remain irrefutable facts But at the same time there is a stronger awareness of the provisional character of the Church The Church belongs to the dimension of time and, as such, is subject to the ambiguities of history However, in time it takes on the important function of being the "human sign of the invariably contemporary gift of the Spirit " 35 The Church and the other religious traditions are "varied fragments found in an invigorating dynamic in history " Among the fragments there exists an interdependence and a mutual enrichment that can be captured and expressed in the dialogical dynamic However, there is no way to foresee exactly and clearly the desired way forward in the "fraternal journey " Each fragment has to be respected for its unyielding quality Any attempt to appropriate it would be meaningless To make this idea clear, Christian Duquoc relies on the metaphor of the differed symphony (symphonie differee) For him, religions represent "places of multiple composition" that express the richness, originality and mystery of each fragment, even if the result of the symphony remains obscure until some future, unknown date No one is master of the way the symphony will finally be played nor can anyone grasp its specific content except in hope % For one of the great exponents of the Sufi mystical tradition, the great teacher from Andaluz, Ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240), the multiplicity of the fragments has its roots in the mystery of God There is no created reality that is outside the "Breath" of the Compassionate One Each belief constitutes a "link," a "node" that reveals a dimension of the merciful mystery of God 3 7 Each link is a "language of God," a way of expressing the understanding of God's ever immense mystery From his point of view, the definition of God includes the understanding of each one of the forms of God's theophanies in history 38 These theophanies are many and multilaceted They happen conChnstian Duquoc, "Credo la chiesa," op cit, 23 Christian Duquoc, L'unique Christ, op cit, 235-248 In Duquoc's open perspective, the Spirit occupies a decisive position as responsible for the matunty of each fragment in deep respect for the singular identity of each His proposal does not suppress the significance of the witness of the Church Rather it forestalls the risk of any totalitarian pretension taking over the otherness Under the inspiring presence of the Spirit, the Church ceases to take on the problematic vocation of "integrating everything" by rec ogmzing that the divisions continue to be "paradoxical places of hope " Ibidem, 240 and 247-248 37 Another great mystic in the Sufi tradition, Al Hallaj (857-909), expresses the value of the plurality of religions in a similar way "I discovered that they are numberless branches of a single Source " Al-Hallaj, Diwan, Manetti Genova, 1987, 84 {diwan 62) 38 Ibn al-Arabi, Le hvre des chatons des sagesses, tome premier, Al Bouaq, Beyrouth, 116 (le chaton d'une sagesse transcendante dans un verbe de Nuh-Noe) For Ibn al Arab! all the religious forms constitute a "language of God," ibidem, 118 A good synthesis of the reflection of Ibn al-Arabi regarding the argument on the diversity of be36

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stantly and are continually changing They all reveal an aspect of what is Real, of Truth in its totality For Ibn al-Arabi there is an enormous richness in the variety of beliefs Those who do not know that variety end up conditioning God by their particular connection and refuse to grasp the fundamental dimensions of God's mystery They are stuck with the "deity of their dogmatic convictions and prisoners of its limitations " They do not see the "absolute Deity"
39

whom no one can contain This tendency to want to link or tie Ultimate Reality (the Real40) to categorical forms can have serious consequences as the scholar Michael Sells has pointed out There is a tendency to affirm a "god of a particular belief," which excludes or reduces his/her manifestation in other systems of belief The reality of a world marked by confrontation and violence among different beliefs lies precisely in this linking operation We cannot deny the true manifestation of the Real in the various particular connections, but to want to limit the real to a particular form and to deny its other manifestations leads to the denial of the Real in its infinity These paths opened up by the reflection of Ibn al-Arabi are very encouraging for the openness of ecclesiological reflection They are reflections that strengthen the idea of the singularity and provisional character of the Church as also the importance of its ever greater openness to the mystery of the liefs can be found in the work of William C Chittick, Mundos imaginales Ibn alArabi y la diversidad de las creencias, Alquitara, Seville, 2003, 253 294 and 321-325 [Tr The original version is The Sufi Path of Knowledge Ibn al 'Arabi s Metaphysics of Imagination, Albany, State University of New York, 1989 39 Ibn al Arabi, op cit, second volume, 713 (le chaton d'une sagesse incomparable dans un verbe de Muhammad) From the point of view of the Andalusian teacher, those who succeed in going beyond the limits of dogmatic convictions can be open to the absolute and unconditional mystery God They are able to recognize and appreciate God's presence in all the forms his/her theophames take Ibn al-Arabi, op cit, tome premier, 316 317 (le chaton d'une sagesse du cceur dans un verbe de Shu'ayb) See also, in the same chapter of the book, the commentaries on this proposal given by Charles Andre Gills, ibidem, 330-331 40 It is not easy to find an analytic category that explains the great mystery and that possesses a more significant level of universality Earlier we spoke of the limitations of the category "Reign " Some religious traditions, like Buddhism, prefer "to maintain the mysterious condition of the ultimate" and to work with negation as the code for transcendence The "silence of God" is privileged Some authors, like J Hick, have preferred to work with the category of the "Real" since this is a term that has a connection with Christian language (where God is defined as "the one who is " (See Ex 3, 14 ) In Hinduism one finds the sat of Sanskrit and in Islam the Arabic expression al-Haqq or also wujud that express the absolute and unlimited reality of God 41 Michael Sells, "Tres seguidores de la religion del amor Nizam, Ibn'Arabi y Marguerite Porete," in Pablo Beneito, Lorenzo Piera and Juan Jose Barcenilla (Editors), Mujeres de luz, Madrid, Trotta, 2001, 141 and 152

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Real, that is to say, to "all the riches of the infinite and multifaceted wisdom of God"42 Today the relationship between Christianity and other religions should be conceived in the organic framework of universal reality in terms of a "relational interdependence" and of an "inter-religious hospitality." We need to recognize the existence of different and unique modalities of encounter of the human dynamic with the divine Mystery or the Supreme Dimension. The new way of being Church in this time of plurality must necessarily be turned outward and be dialogical. The identity of the Church is affirmed as an identity in process, as a "living reality: and one that is available to all the gifts of otherness. The Church has no other way out except through the path of dialogue: dialogue in order not to die or to allow to die. The dialogue is a "fraternal journey" that is of interest to those who conduct their search in the various religious spheres. They are challenged to broaden their beliefs, to lengthen the cords of their tents, to break the "knots" that obstruct their hearts and to share the participation in a vision and experience of the Real that is the only one that saves.

Bibliography Al-Hallaj (1987). Diwan. Genova: Marietti. Assembly of the People of God (1992). Manifiesto del I Encuentro de la Asamblea del Peublo de Dios. Buonasorte, N. (2003). Tra Roma e Lefrebvre: 11 tradizionalismo cattolico italiano e il Concilio Vaticano //.Roma: Edizioni stadium. Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1992). Reinocentrismo. In: Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1992). Espiritualidad de la liberation. Satander: Sal Terrae. Chittick, William C. (2003). Mundos imaginales: Ibn al-Arabi y la diversidad de las creencias. Seville: Alquitara.. [Tr.: The original version is The Sufi Path of Knowledge: Ibn al 'Arabi's Metaphysics of Imagination, Albany, State University of New York, 1989. Declaracao de Colonia (1989). Revista Eclesidstica Brasileira 49/193 (March, 1989). Dupuis, J. (1999). Rumo a uma teologia crista do pluralismo religioso. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. [English translation: Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll: Orbis]. Dupuis, J. (1999). Rumo a uma teologia. In: Dupuis, J. (1999). Rumo a uma teologia crista do pluralismo religioso. Sao Paulo: Paulinas.

Secretariat for non-Christians, A igreja e as outras religioes, Sao Paulo, Paulinas, 2001, 41 (The document is Didlogo y Mision).

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Dupuis, J. (2001). // cristianesimo e le religoni. Dallo scontro all'incontro. Brescia: Queriniana. [English Translation (2002). Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue. Maryknoll: Orbis.] Duquoc, C. (2001). Credo la Chiesa. In: Duquoc, C. (2001). Precarietd instituzionale e Regno di Dio. Brescia: Queriniana Duquoc, C. (2002). L 'unique Christ. La symphonie differee. Paris: Cerf. Eagleson, J. & Scharper, Ph. (eds.). (1979). Puebla and Beyond. Maryknoll: Orbis Books. FABC (1997). Documenti della chiesa in Asia. Federazione delle Conferenze Episcopali Asiatiche (1970-1995). Bologna: EMI FABC (2000). Tesis sobre o dialogo inter-religioso. In: Sedoc 33/281(2000). FABC (2000). Thesis on Inter-religious Dialogue. In: Sedoc 33/281 (July/August 2000). p. 59. Geffre, C. (2004). Crer e interpretar. Petropolis: Vozes. Haight, R. (2000). Jesus, Symbol of God. Maryknoll: Orbis. Ibn al-Arabi & Gilis, Charles-Andre (trans.). (1997) Le livre des chatons des sagesses, tome premier. Beyrouth: Al Bouaq. John Paul II (1991). Sobre a validade permanente do mandato missiondrio. Petropolis: Vozes. (enclyclical letter: Redemptoris missio). [ Tr.: The encyclical will be indicated here as RM. For the English version, see http://www.vatican.va/edocs/ENG0219/_INDEX.HTM.] Knitter, P. (1980). Christianity as Religion: True and Absolute? In: Concilium (1980). pp. 12-21. Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue (1991). Dialogue and Proclamation n. 29 Quatra, Miguel Marcello, O.M.I (2000). At the Side of the Multitudes: The Kingdom of God and the Mission of the Church in the FABC documents. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications. [Original (1998): Regno di Dio e missione delle chiesa nel contesto asiatico. Uno studio sui documenti della FABC (1970-1995). Dissertatio ad Doctoratum Facultate Missiologiae Pontificiae Universitatis Gregorianae, Roma] Rahner, K. (1968). Church in the World. In: Rahner, K. (1968). Sacramentum Mundi I. New York: Herder and Herder. Schillebeeckx, E. (1992). Umanita, storia di Dio., Brescia: Queriniana. Second Vatican Council (1965). Dignitatis Humanae Secretariat for non-Christians (2001). A igreja e as outras religioes. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. (The document is Dialogo y Mision). Sells, M. (2001). Tres seguidores de la religion del amor: Nizam, Ibn'Arabi y Marguerite Porete. In: Beneito, P., Piera, L. & Barcenilla, J.J. (eds.). (2001). Mujeres de luz. Madrid: Trotta. Sobrino, J. (1994). Jesus o libertador. Patropolis: Vozes. Synod of the Bishops (1992). Testemunhas do Cristo. Petropolis: Vozes.

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Teixeira, F. (ed.). (1997). O didlogo inter-religioso como afirmacdo da vida. Sao Paulo: Paulinas. Torres Queiruga, A. (1998). Um Deus para hoje. Sao Paulo: Paulus.

Chapter 15 There is Salvation Outside Religions Salvation in a Pluralist Perspective

Etienne A. Higuet Brazil

Religion and Pluralism We begin with the distinction, formulated by Paul Tillich, between religion in a broad sense and religion (or religions) in the strict sense. As a primary experience, religion is the encounter with the divine, or the transcendent, or the absolute whose manifestation irrupts into human existence producing a supreme preoccupation, an "ultimate concern," an opening to the absolute and to the infinite. The supreme or ultimate concern is expressed in cultural ways that are receptive and transparent to that manifestation. In the existential situation of alienation from its divine grounding, human beings try to reconnect with their essential being through the production of specific religious models: beliefs, myths, organization and theologies. This is the way different religions, including Christianity, come to be along with their representations or symbols of transcendence. In all, the manifestation of the divine is never totally absence from the profane or secular forms of culture that have a basic capacity to express the absolute. Salvation is "a meaningful life," a fulfilled life. Tillich calls those profane or secularized ways of accessing the divine or the transcendental quasi-religions: In the secular quasi-religions ultimate concern takes, as its object, the nation, science, certain particular forms or specific stages of society, or even the supreme ideal of humanity. Such an object is then considered divine. ' To the extent that human beings enter into the dynamic of salvation, the specifically religious dimension at the heart of culture tends to be unnecessary or superfluous since the whole culture becomes transparent to ultimate reality. The disappearance of religions will then be an eschatological dimension of salvation since God will be all in all. This way of looking at things allows us to reconnect faith (as total surrender to the salvific irruption of the absolute to which we give the name God) with religion (as supreme transparency to the Paul Tillich, Le christianisme et les religions, Paris, Aubier, 1968, 66. [Tr.: There is an English translation: Christianity and the Encounter of World Religions, New York, Colombia University Press, 1963.]
1

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unconditioned in action and contemplation). In the same way, this also allows us to speak of a "Latin American pluralist theology of liberation" as a theology that is Christian and non-Christian, religious and non-religious, a theology that could even dispense with the gods and goddesses of religion, including Christianity. In the results of the last census in Brazil (2000), in the section dealing with religious affiliation, we can see the distribution of the population among the different Christian churches and denominations as well as other religions. In other words we can get a picture of religious plurality in Brazil. 7.26% of the population have "no religion" (as against 1.64% in 1980).2 According to the written and oral commentaries, that significant and fast-growing proportion of the Brazilian population is not, by and large, made up of atheists or agnostics, who are far fewer, but rather of people with a fuzzy religiosity (including remnants of popular Catholicism, syncretic magic, the esoteric, the occult, New Age, theosophy, anthroposophy, Masonic, etc.). They are people who, in one way or another, don't identify with an institutionalized religion, church or denomination. In any case, by drawing on the media, printed material and audiovisuals, anyone can piece together his or her own religiosity "a la carte" or "made to measure" by freely choosing whatever is offered from the booths in the huge religious supermarket. Each individual builds his or her own religious identity. Pierre Sanchis offers four characteristics of today's religious pluralism: Existence, in the same space, of various "religions" as an institutional syntheses indicated by the adherence of potential faithful.... A multiplicity of groups within each of these institutions based on the selective character of the allegiance of the faithful. These "tribes" of select composition produce the adherence of each individual to a spiritual family. Belonging is mediated by true "emotive communities" that are inscribed within the institutional space of a "church" or organized tradition without ever being confused with it. Outside the institutions (and often in opposition to them) there exist at the same time "de facto or intentional communities" that allow individuals to come together in a minimally defined social space with characteristics that are freely chosen by them from the various traditions.. . and to have a common experience on that basis.

The statistics for all of Latin America in 200 are 3.1% non-believers and 0.5% atheists. See Franz Damien in the Latin American Agenda (2003), p. 34. Also http://latinoamericana.org/2003/textos/castellano/Damen.htm; Leonildo Silveira Campos, 2006, pp. 174 ff.; IBGE, Censo demogrdfico (2000). caracteristicas gerais da populagao, resultados da amostra, Rio de Janeiro.

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Perhaps even more radically, there is a pluralism within each of these groups through the modalities of the act or process of participation which, in an unsynchronized way, tends toward an individual construction, a do-it-yourself effort that is permanently considered provisional due to a relativizing both of the "truth" of the object of belief, or of the ethical principle that results from it, and of the finished or synthetic character of the construction.3

From a "normative" theological perspective, pluralism, in these circumstances, would be the tacit or explicit recognition of the legitimacy of diversity or of religious and (as understood in the census) "non-religious" plurality in society and in the culture. It could also include a new appreciation of mutually provocative and complementary differences without establishing a hierarchy among the multiple constructions of meaning, in all its forms, that attempt to indicate paths and to provide a support for the difficult pilgrimage of existence. And what is salvation? This is an extremely complex notion that has numerous connotations in the history of religions and in the secularized world. There is always a negative aspect: to be freed or liberated from something that oppresses or is simply unsettling. It can mean escaping material or temporal evil like pain, set-backs, one's own death or that of others. The escape can also be spiritual: from the demon, lack of meaning, limitations on freedom, sin and everything that contradicts ethical principles or karma, or simply the negative consequences of our acts. There is, then, an original fall, a primordial split that includes everything about the human relationship with God, with neighbour and with the cosmos. In short, it is a matter of being free from what hinders our self-realization. On the positive side, it consists in obtaining or receiving a desired good such as power, riches, comfort, peace of soul or, what is the same thing, the unum necessarium*, an identification with the "oceanic" totality of Brahman or the eternal life of God. To be saved is to be freed from a situation of death (understood not as physical death but as a situation of physical, moral and spiritual misery) and to be introduced into life and even the hope of eternal life after death. Nevertheless, salvation as "fallen from the sky" or blessed immortality, is not credible to modernity or post-modernity. It has to be viewed as a myth or symbol of the mystery and not as the center of a radical experience of encounter. Even if it is eschatological, salvation has to be apparent in this life, in the form of a promise, an anticipation, a pledge or incipient realization. It can have to do with di3

Pierre Sanchis, 1995, 83. * [Tr: "the one thing necessary"]

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vine "favors," like a healing or a job or a state of peace and happiness brought about by a "sense of having done one's duty " It can require the intervention of one or several "saviors," but, in general, the collaboration of a human being is considered essential Thus the "saint" (who might be a holy lay person like the judge invented by Camus in The Plague) is dispossessed of every necessity or interest ("Look at the lilies of the field ") and is united to the mystery in an attitude of radical passivity or of active asceticism (with mortification and purification of the body and the spirit) He may even dedicate his/her entire life to alleviating the suffering of others In many cultural and religious contexts, salvation is more communitarian than individual For example, the Jewish people or the Muslim Umma hoped and still hope that God will save their entire community This salvation would free them from great dangers and in the midst of the great challenges of their history "God visits and redeems his people" (Lk 1,68-75) The socialist movement hoped for the same thing in the revolution for the liberation of all the oppressed that was to be unleashed by the proletariat In order to reach their definitive salvation, human beings (whether an individual or a community) need to pass through a long history of beginning again, of conversions (or "reincarnations" in the symbolic sense of "beginning anew") in order finally, at the end of a wandering existence, to meet up with the goal of that journey So, in the perspective of salvation, nothing is without a remedy, a solution or a way out Everything can always begin again, be taken up again, can be saved Thus the struggle against violence, corruption exploitation and injustice is not In vain "Another world is possible " "Eschatological" salvation pertains, by definition, to an indeterminate or absolute future (as the Reign of God or as the Reign of Liberty), but the today's salvation is a sign, a guarantee, a sacrament of future salvation In current experience, salvation is a limit case, an ideal that can, in spite of everything, be experienced in contemplation and in action, for example, in the first realization of a piece of work, an artistic production or a moral action, a expression of citizenship or the struggle for liberation Out of that comes a sense of fullness, of participation, of being together and of communion Salvation is a "meaningful life," it is a full life as a person or in society It is what Tilhch called the "transcendent unity of faith and love " 4 Even though it is always fragmentary in our existential condition, salvation consists in overcoming the ambiguities of life including those of religions idolatry or profanation It is a question of permanently maintaining the tension between absolute meaning and its concrete expression in finite, religious or secular forms Religions and quasi-rehgions are full of ambiguities On the one hand they are victims of idolatry by making absolutes of their be4

See J Pepin, 1989, A Gerche, 1995, Chapter 1 "Topiques de la question du salut", P Tilhch, 1966, passim

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liefs, their rituals and their organization or through the identification of their particular approaches with the absolute itself. On the other hand they can be completely emptied of their ultimate meaning in a process of reduction to the profane. Idolatry is the materialization, the fixation or the "conditioning" of the "Unconditional."5 By making an absolute of their organization, religions become mere administrators of access to God and of the sacred. It is interesting to note that many Catholics who discover New Age feel relieved as if they were freed from a constraint. They felt that the Catholic system was an imposition without meaning, without purpose, because the mediations (sacraments, worship, doctrine, clergy, moral precepts) do not lead to an experience of God, do not offer anything to people and seem to operate magically or, in any case, purely in an administrative way, as if salvation followed upon a series of formalities.6 Salvation and secularity7 To have "salvation," understood this way, we don't need "religion." It is possible to encounter the divine beginning and end without reference to religions. Perhaps in this way it might be possible to fight against human misery without calling on the gods and goddesses. It would be enough to have a sense of gratitude, of the gift received and repaid. It would be sufficient to know that there is something that went before us. Philosophers like Franz Rosenzweig and Emmanuel Levinas figured out how to give an anthropological meaning to the religious categories of creation, revelation, election, covenant and redemption. Gratitude is essential as is also the recognition of "salvation" received without merit on the part of the one who receives it. Salvation is grace or free gift directed to the entirety of all human beings beyond religious expressions and particular cultures. It is a personal, social, cosmic and transcendent humanization. The desire for humanization present in the heart of all human beings, a desire for peace and freedom ... is a gift of God, a salvation that is present in the world. It is found in the deepest roots of every culture .... The many and diverse ways of being human, integrated into history ... all constitute, in the best of what they are, effective forms of salvation. It is a radical perception of the free gift of all that a human being is and is called to be .... Salvation would be completely empty were it not understood as touching every human being without any limitations of time or space, of historical period or of culture.8

5 6

P. Tillich, ibid. J. Comblin, 1996,327. 7 See: Francois-Andre Isambert, 1998; Etienne Higuet, 2002, 140-153. 8 F. Catao, 1996, 18 and 20.

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What matters is what is lived out love is communion, people living together in freedom, a reality that is stronger than death Being saved consists in accepting that one is accepted in spite of being unacceptable (justified like the publican in the parable) by radical otherness or by the "God beyond God" (Paul Tilhch), the "nameless," the "unnameable" (Knshnamurti, Jung, Lacan) or by the "different" (Jean-Luc Nancy), since there is no need to name God the way the religions name him God, is "without a name" (the God of a thousand names, which amounts to the same thing,9 or the "unnameable) "10 "God" does not need an established religion m order to show or reveal himself The unconditioned reveals itself freely, as exterior, as otherness, without being called forth The unconditional demand is also a gift Finally, if God did not exist, the idea itself would be enough Even if faith and religion had merely introduced the idea of God or of the Infinite, they would have created a way for human beings to understand themselves by placing themselves in contact with limits " By even proposing the hypothesis that a human being invented God, even if it were therefore merely an idea, it would still be true that we would have thus invented a "beautiful risk" of thinking for ourselves And that, in this way, we would have been gifted with something that gives meaning to our life We would be animated by a mystery, a risk, a possibility of "no-place" (u-topia, without a place) This is a mystery, a depiction, a possibility that would make and does make us bemgs that go beyond the immediate and the factual in what constitutes perhaps our most fundamental definition 12 Salvation always happens through another, through otherness All the paths of saving ourselves are idolatrous Sin is to want to be saved without relying on others Otherness includes all the others, including the absolutely transcendent other who does not need to be named or who can receive a hundred different names We are nothing without others, including those who are the most lacking in qualities Our life depends on them on the riches and the life that was denied them, taken from them And they live through resistence to the life that kills them Otherness is a constitutive factor of identity (Levinas, "According to the teaching of the prophet Mohammed 'there exist 99 names that pertain only to God The person who learns, understands and lists them enters into paradise and reaches eternal salvation ' In any case, the names of God are not God but rather a mere symbol of the divine reality, adapted to the limits of human reason " Vigil and Casaldahga, Agenda Lahnoamencana, 2003, 167 http //latinoamencana org/2003/textos/castellano/DiosEnEl Coran htm Especially in Hinduism and Yoga 11 A Gesche, 2003, 161 12 Ibid, 172
9

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Kristeva). "The other is the one who calls to me by that very otherness. The other convokes me, makes me come out of my self-cloistering and in this way allows me to have access to myself. In this way it becomes grace and salvation for me."13 The greater the transcendence, the greater is the grace and salvation. Human beings measure themselves by the incommensurable. Just as the other saves me from my solitude with my own self, so the Other-among-humans saves us from our shared solitude, from our collective narcissism. The human is a being "visited" by something unhoped-for, unexpected, outside the ordinary and, nevertheless, written in him. He needs to recognize himself and be recognized by something "exteriorized," not by mere immanence but by a "strangeness" (that would be God, but not necessarily), by a visitation. Human beings only begin to be saved when they feel called by the infinite that dwells in them and, at least as a question, constitutes them.14 The otherness that constitutes and saves the identity of those who are called, of those who are spoken to, is different from the otherness of the colonizer who destroys the identity of those colonized: Even today there are many who want to convince the Afro-Brazilian people that they can only attain salvation by ceasing to be who they are: by forgetting their memories, their values, the riches of their culture and even the color of their own skin, by humiliating themselves and shaming themselves over their origin, their nature and all that God gave them.15 Salvific otherness opens up the identity of those called to an unprecedented vastness, to be able to take up and to administer multiple and syncretic identities consciously and autonomously, on their own. As a result, a practice - religious or lay - is demanded of faith and "obedience" to the other, of hope and of love: "the salvation announces to human beings, at one and the same time, the free sovereignty of faith, free humility of service and free patience of hope."16 That practice doesn't necessarily express itself in an institutional religious way. A profane or "anthropological" faith would be sufficient. The universal tendency to complete our experience through experience borrowed from others - identified as "referential testimonies - can be called faith. It is an anthropological dimension that is absolutely universal. We see these witnesses in religious as well as profane faith, so that, from an anthropological point of view, we cannot establish a significant different between "believers" and "non-believers." We can say that faith structures
u

A. Gesche, 1995, 44. Ibid, 56. 15 O. Serra and M. Martinelli, 1996, 27. 16 A. Dumas, 1989,542.
14

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all experience around a determinate meaning, or from a supreme point in terms of value and of ought-to-be. Anthropological faith is characterized by its way of placing what we call "values" in a hierarchy until one arrives at one to which all the others are subordinate. We say that this value is absolute, not because it has been achieved or because it is an absolute being but rather because, in the person who chose it, it is not subordinated or conditioned by any other value. It is just the opposite.17 We could identify that absolute with salvation as we understand it. According to Paul Tillich, faith is present in the "latent Church" as a community of those chosen, of those who accepted the call given to all, through their very existence or through their living out of faith and love. The spiritual community exists in a latent form in all humanity.... Elements of faith are in it in the sense of an ultimate reality that is unconditioned and there are elements of love in the sense of a transcendent union with what was separated.18 Human beings are beings with faith, beings that dare, risk, invent, go beyond the evidence and the immediate. Faith - including profane faith - gives us the security of salvation in opening us up to discover it and to desire it. Human beings discover themselves through transcendence "north of the future" (Paul Celan). The fruit of salvation, for Paul, includes love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5, 22-23). Today we would add: justice, freedom, the struggle against exclusions, forgiveness and compassion. Even in the case of hope for the other life, religion in a strict sense can be set aside. The encounter with the divine does not need religion. It "irrupts" from outside. Should religion now accept being secularized or cease to exist in order to give place for faith? It should at least be laicized, which is to say, to stop exercising any guardianship, to stop defending any hierarchy among religions, even as far as those "without religion" goes. Laicity also saves, especially from the domination of religious institutions (through liberty of conscience and tolerance of life held in common) against the fanaticisms and fundamentalisms, violence and totalitarianisms (into which it can, in the end, also fall). The regime of the lay State saves to the extent that it avoids heteronymous or clerical interventions on the political level. Religion can tend to use its sacred power to direct an autonomous creative area of law in an abusive way and this would be a form of idolatry. That does not mean that the State cannot be an object of criticism from the point of view of salvation, or that free institutions cannot make up for the social failings of the State. Laicity also avoids illegitimate in17 18

J. L. Segundo, 1983, 117. P. Tillich, 1966, 181.

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terventions of the State in religion in order to domesticate it in its own favor (by suffocating any critical voice) or to give a religious legitimacy to the position of the dominant group by using civil religion, for example, to underpin the going set of morals. In summary, it permits religious freedom for all: beliefs, exercise of worship, organization and peaceful co-existence of religions with atheism. The civil peace that comes out of such an institution can be considered a symbol of salvation. Atheism cannot but be included in the great range of concepts of salvation present in a pluralist context. Theology of liberation raised the question of atheism in connection with idols and the transformation of the God of the Christians into an idol. Of which God should we be atheists? Look at what Pablo Richard said about Marxism more than twenty years ago: On the theological level, there is, no doubt, an atheism that is contrary to Christian faith. But on the political level, there is a different atheism that is contrary to domination.... As a political problem atheism is, for Christians, a positive act since it implies the negation of domination. Since it is the affirmation of human freedom, it offers a context for a possible act of faith in God.... Marxist atheism, as a political problem, arises due to fetishizing or divinizing the dominant capitalist system.... All practice of liberation is, in itself, anti-fetishist and antiidolatrous.... Atheism, as an anti-fetishist and anti-idolatrous practice, not only is not opposed to Christian faith but is rather the required path (the condition for its possibility) in order to rediscover the Christian and Gospel meaning of faith in God.19 The most profound root of atheism is perhaps the introduction of a God who is an idol, a reflection of our fantasies. Every idol reduces God to a false visibility, an Explanation, to a meaning that is a given at the same time as it continues to be a mystery, that is to say, a question. Contemporary atheism rejects a God that it considers an assault on what is human, a God who challenges human autonomy. The idea of God is thought to pose an obstacle to being fully human in and of ourselves. That is an atheism that is the result of a misunderstanding since, as we have seen above, God is the otherness that constitutes our identity. On the other hand, an absolute God, disconnected from ourselves, hides our grandeur, paralyzes us with his "gaze" and burns us with his luminosity. We cannot see God and continue living. We have to be atheists of that God, as opposed to the God of the kenosis, of the "Tsim-Tsum" (self-shrinking in order to give us space, according to the Cabala), of a self-emptying even of being God. This is the God of gratitude

19

P. Richard, 1982, 101-102.

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and of gift, of life and of super-abundance In this way we are freed even of God To a certain extent, we can say that this atheism is engraved in Christianity You know the famous statement of Ernst Bloch, "The Christian is the true atheist, the atheist is the true Christian " More recently, Marcel Gauchet presented Christianity as the religion that draws away from religion The "theology of the death of God" understood the Gospel as an atheism since it announced the good news of the death of the Father and installed fraternal love as the horizon for humanity "There is always in Christianity a certain reserve, a holding back with respect to God a latent seed of atheism As Jacques Lanan says, 'There is a certain atheistic message in Christianity '"20 We find in Christianity a sort of atheism "in suspension points" or "in proximity " Specifically, this is the case for negative or apophatic theology Of God we can only know what he is not since he is the Un-nameable, the Unknowable, the Incomprehensible 21 God, in the Christian tradition, does not impose himself but rather, within the terms of a free covenant, proposes himself "Atheism remains as a (pending) possibility internal to faith in God since faith depends on a choice and a human decision that could, in the same way, exclude it "22 Salvation and the new religiosity On the other hand, sociological analysis of "new religious movements" points to a harmonizing or rather, a resolution of the tension between religion and seculanty, the sacred and profane, At the beginning of this new century, we see a growth of sacred and magic phenomena xamamc* and initiation rites, practice of magic, use of objects to which power is attributed (crystals, pyramids), communication with spirits (trances, channeling* ), contact with extraterrestrials, belief in magical beings (spirits, angels, fairies, gnomes, dwarfs), "baptisms in the Spirit," speaking in tongues, exorcisms and spiritual healing through the imposition of hands On the other hand, these new movements also include solid lines of continuity with modernity such as the centrahty of individualism with all its corol-

A Gesche, 2002, 193 194 He cites E Bloch, Atheismus im Chnstentum Zur Religion des Exodus und Reichs, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp, 1968, A Gauchet, Le desenchantement du monde une histoue politique de la religion, Paris, Gallimard, 1986 21 For exemple J-L Nancy, 2005, passim ID , 2002 22 Ibid, 205 * [Tr An esoteric tradition based on ancient Mayan culture] *2 [Tr The process of receiving messages or inspiration from invisible beings or spirits ]

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laries: personal election, free choice, self-consciousness and "intimism."* Another characteristic of their affinity with modernity is the appeal to the logic of science through experimentation and systematization of "pedagogy" and of "techniques of reasoning."23 We are faced with two co-existent realities that cannot be set against one another: the persistent presence of the religious phenomenon in the modern world and the established autonomy of a civilization founded on principles of laicity. Marcel Camurca says: Weber called attention to the rise of "substitute religions" in modern societies, including science, the arts, eroticism, which, without reference to gods and spiritual beings, support the human need to give meaning to daily life without changing the social structure.24 In order to interpret these phenomena, some sociologists are interpreting "religion" broadly as a universe of fundamental meanings whose function allows humans to live in society by making sense of their daily experiences. For the Brazilian sociologist Antonio Flavio Pierucci, the current religious revival points to a strengthening of secularization as religion is replaced by science in the task of social structuring. For him, the current buildup of religious trends, far from weakening the process of secularization, is strengthening it. The plurality of the forms in which the religious factor is disseminated ... leads to more autonomy for the individual who is now a "wandering religious person," freed from ties to traditional religious culture. The achievement of religious freedom functions as an alternative and guarantee against imprisonment in any major enchantment, traditionalism or fundamentalism and is a path for recognition of a socially legitimate attitude at the boundary of what is secular. In other words, the freedom to opt for one religion instead of another, also provides an opportunity to opt for no religion.25 Finally, according to Daniele Hervieu-Leger, secularization should be understood as a reactive process that includes socio-religious positions that go against instrumental reason and the bureaucratization of techno-industrial society as well as a modern recourse to narratives, myths and rituals of religious traditions by individuals and groups: appreciation of subjectivities, individual freedom and pragmatic selection of what meets particular needs of a religious tradition. In the complex dynamics of culture, secularization combines the loss [Tr.: A twentieth century artistic and literary tradition of with attention to the personal, to self.] 23 M. Camurca, 2003,49-50. 24 Ibid., 51. 25 Ibid, 54-55.

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of control of the major religious systems with the regrouping of religious systems (under a new form).26 From the perspective of "salvation, a theological evaluation arises at this point that is positive in part" since what is being rejected is not the religious factor but rather the traditional religious models. What is the "salvific" potential of this phenomenon? We begin with what Tillich called "Protestant secularity." According to the Protestant principle, grace operates transparently in the secular world without being tied to a finite model, not even in its religious version as, for example, in the churches. During some periods God spoke more powerfully through non-religious and even anti-Christian movements. For Tillich, Marx and Nietzsche were the real prophets of the 19th century that was so dominated by bourgeois religion. In the same way "Protestantism, by its very nature, requires secular reality. Concretely, it requires a protest against sacred institutions and against ecclesiastical pride."27 As a result, "the religious factor has to be related to the secular in all Protestant models and it has to let itself be questioned by autonomous creativity" (Ibid). "The Protestant gestalt of grace is dynamic and flexible."28 In attempting a theological reading of secularized religiosity, Tillich also speaks of "quasi-religions" in a way that is largely pejorative except perhaps in the case of humanism that allied itself to the Protestant reform in order to constitute modernity and give it meaning. From a theological perspective, a close relationship has already been pointed out between the search for meaning and salvation. In the same way that the lose of meaning is seen as a dimension of evil or alienation, so also the recovery of meaning appears as salvation in so far as it implies a coming together of what was separated. Contemporary philosophy also has a secular conceptualization of grace and gratuity: 1. Could not the appearance of being in the later Heidegger be an expression of salvation? The thought of Being is revealed to the human being. Instead of saying that the human being questions, Heidegger speaks of "the one who questions in the human being," (Es fragt in Menschen). For him, there is a voice and a revelation of Being in the silence of all human words. The poet who uses the language of being, grasps existence in what has no name. He/she can name the sacred thanks to the poetic and religious symbols used. Like the rose of Sile-

Zb 27

Ibid., 59-60. P. Tillich, A Era protestante, Ciencias da Religiao, Sao Paulo, 1992, 230. [Tr.: There is an English translation, The Protestant Era, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1959.] 28 Ibid, 231.

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sius, Being is without a "why," without ground, pure emergence from itself, an arrival, a dawning. It is incommensurable. Being, as ground, is the dwelling place, the homeland, the hearth, to which we return, after forgetting Being, since modern humans are heimatlos, without a home. In the last stage of his hermeneutic Heidegger insists on the ineffability of the ultimate ground, in the incomprehensibility of the intention of Being and in the total otherness of its range of revelation. This prophetic-kerigmatic message announces publicly the coming of an unknowable being as an attempt to prepare us for its arrival. And what is this "without a why?" A game. Without a ground (Ab-grund, abyss) Being plays with us the game of our destiny.29 2. Salvation also includes the ability to "re-create" what was lost, to "raise up the dead" (Moltmann).30 In Walter Benjamin we find a secular version of resurrection: the recovery of sinners, of the vanquished, of those who died before their time, of lost lives. This happens through active remembering: in memory and in struggle. It is the exclusive privilege of the historian to have the gift of awakening sparks of hope in what is past. He is convinced that not even the dead will be safe if the enemy triumphs. And that enemy continues to

31

win ... Historic materialism recognizes (in the structure of a historic moment) the sign of an unchanging, messianic quality of events. Or, put another way, the sign of a revolutionary opportunity to struggle for a past that was oppressive. It takes advantage of that opportunity in order to extract a specific era out of the homogenous course of history.32 ... a fact ... becomes a historical fact posthumously thanks to occurrences that can be millennia apart. A historian who is aware of this ... grasps the perfectly determined configuration by which his own era enters into contact with an earlier one.... In that way a concept of the present is established as a "now" in which the fragments of the messianic infiltrate.... Past time is lived in memory. It is known that it was forbidden for Jews to look into the future. On the other hand, the Torah and prayer are taught by remembering. For the disciples, remembering disenchants the future that subjugated those who turned to diviners. But, this does not meant that the future becomes a homogenous and [Tr.:Angelus Silesius (1624-1677): "The rose is without an explanation; it blooms, because it blooms..."] 29 See T.R. Giles, 1975, 250-257. Also: J-L. Nancy, 2002 & 2005. 30 For exemple: J. Moltmann, 2006,76-84; 1999, 774-784; 1989. 31 W. Benjamin, 1986, 224-225. 32 Ibid., 231.

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empty time for the Jews since every second of time was a narrow door through which the Messiah could arrive.33 3. Utopias also are the expression of a profane and secular hope for salvation. This is the opinion of Ernst Bloch. For him, reality is objectivity becoming; it is real possibility. In order to give expression to present reality, Block formulates the category of the "not yet. (noch-nicht), that is the underlying "utopia" and that comes about in the interiority of occurrence. The "not yet" is linked to the objectivity of the world understood as a laboratorium salutis [laboratory of salvation]. It is the Utopian-dialectical negation that emerges in every occurrence under the pressure of ultimate fullness that is not yet achieved and where it will find its rest. Possibility, injected into reality, reveals its true nature thanks to human intervention that arises as a possible concept of salvation or of perdition due to the ambivalence of the "ability-to-act-orcome-to-be-in another-way" implicit in it. This is the socialist possibility in history, the reign of freedom or salvation or the fascist explosion underlying late capitalism as a reign of oppression and perdition. The real-possible is the definitive (ultimate) totality in permanent development. The content of the ideas for the future is what makes a better life possible. They announce happiness. The content of ideas also makes possible a being in perfect social living together. The content of the symbols, finally, makes possible a non-alienated identity of existence and essence in nature. Symbols point to the unity of meaning by being a fundamental reference to the unum verum bonum [one true good] of essence. The divine is incorporated into the material totality. It is the power inherent in its own matter. The final objective of its intention is the highest good, paradise. At the same time the future is anticipated by seeing and recuperating the traces of the future that existed in the past. These are the anticipations and seeds of the future present in the past and in the present. At the end of time the identity of the subjectobject or human-nature will be attained. The "journey toward the end" is present in religions and in words of art. Every work of genius has seeds of Utopia. It is possible to track the "future of the past" in them. The left-over content is the capacity and tension for what is an unum necessarium [one thing necessary] that has not yet happened. Supreme Good or Summum bonum is the formula that expresses the Utopian ocean to which the river of hope leads. It coincides with the realization of fullness, an event that has not yet occurred and that cannot happen now since it is permanently submerged in the unknown.34

Ibid., 232. J. M. G. Gomes-Heras, 1977, passim.

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Even we, to whom the Spirit is given as first fruits of the harvest to come, are groaning inwardly while we wait for God to make us his sons and set our whole body free. For we have been saved, though only in hope. Now to see is no longer hope (Rom. 8, 23-24). I want to suggest the hypothesis of a secularized or lay concept of "incarnation." In that concept the body would be, at the same time, the path of God to us and our path toward God (whatever God's name might be). Thus, veneration of the body in diffuse syncretic religiosity that is expressed especially in touching images and relics, could mean the "humanization of God" or of the divine. The God who saves becomes "real presence" and is incarnated in the body of others. "The body continues to be still and always, under a new image, the key, the hinge of salvation." 35 The body is also the place for community or social reciprocity: "We contemplate what we are and we are what we contemplate. It is our body that we receive" (Ruysbrock). Our bodies are visited by God. Given and consecrated to life, they are open to excess and to the infinite. It is not sacrifices and "religion" that lead to God. Rather the body is the true path" "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire but you have prepared a body for me" (Heb. 10,5). We have heard it; we have seen it with our own eyes; we looked upon it, and felt it with our own hands; and it is of this that we tell. Our theme is the word of life ... What we have seen and heard we declare to you, so that you and we together may share in a common life" (I Jn. 1, 1 and 3). What is said of Christ can be extended to all humanity. The images of the saints (the Risen Christ, Mary and even the great figures of human culture) are images of life in its fullness or of "saved life," where the physical is a symbol of the spiritual; the visible is symbolized and makes the invisible present. 36 Salvation is revealed also in the health of the body. It is not by chance that the root of the Latin and Germanic words for health and salvation are identical (salvus, Heil).37 The savior is presented as a kind of doctor. Jesus himself says that he came not for those who are saved and in good health, but for those who see themselves as sick, broken, undone. Life is a unity with many dimensions A. Gesche, 2004, 184. Cfr. J.B. Libanio, 1977. See: E. Higuet, 1999, 75-86; also: SOTER, 2005, passim.

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and must be saved at all levels Overcoming the dualism of body-soul, in health as in sexuality, is a symbol and an anticipation of salvation It is with the totality of our being that we experience anguish, insecurity and loss of meaning It is in the totality of our being-body that we need health and salvation since we are alienated from ourselves in our wholeness, in contradiction with our very selves We are united and divided, creative and destructive, in grace and in guilt, intact and disintegrated Just as a human being cannot be divided into parts, neither can salvation be divided The same natural/divine force acts through the mediation of all sorts of therapies so that each one can remain within the limits of their own capacity 38 Salvation and Cosmos The cosmos is also, in some way, our extended body "We know, the whole created universe groans in all its parts as if in the pangs of childbirth" (Rom 8, 22) The body of this earth has a resurrection structure The cosmos bears in its being our being-destined and associates itself m this way to salvation In providing us with a body, the cosmos provides us with the elements for the structuring of our destiny There is a secret that needs to be discovered in the paths of the cosmos a secret of its constitution and autonomy in relation to humanity and a secret of salvation 19 By its very constitution, the world is able - of itself - to sing the glory of God The heavens and above all the earth celebrate on their own account and without any need of human beings The early Fathers of the Church took up part of paganism as pertaining simply to our humanity In that sense, the cosmos contains a secret of salvation "By penetrating what is in itself ineffable, every human being discovers the symbol of the Father in the whole universe" (Proclos, a Neo-Platonic philosopher) Every human being, even one "without religion," discovers salvation in the mystery of the world The cosmos saves by being space It provides us with an identity and a place from which to orient ourselves In order to find our identity, we need travel, initiation rites, the labyrinth, hopscotch (See Julio Cortazar, Eljuego de la rayuela*) By placing our feet on the ground and walking, we overcome our fear of freedom This is the meaning of all the promenades, marches, walks, excursions and pilgrimages Everyone knows about the "Long March" of Mao Zedong or the odyssey of the Prestes column * Today we have the "Pilgrimage Cfr SOTER, 2005 Also E Higuet, 1999, pp 75 86 A Gesche 1989 * [Tr The Game of Hopscotch] * [Tr During a military uprising in Brazil (1924), the Prestes Column, named after the romantic revolutionary Luis Carlos Prestes, marched across Brazil until it gave up and entered Bolivia in 1927 ]
39 J!i

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of the Earth," the march that carries the "Cry of the Excluded" and there are so many others. Human beings need a house in which to live, a space where they can mark their existence, a home or private place there they can find intimacy. In order to encounter the other, they need a dwelling from which to go forth and to which they can return. Thus, Utopias (to borrow from the Odyssey of Homer) are travels to the "fatherland of eden*ity" (Ernst Bloch). Time itself needs space. To visit is to receive in one's own space the visit of salvation. This is what the angel announced to Mary. We find it also in Jesus' words to Zaccheus: "Salvation has come to this house." Turned toward the future of salvation in history, let us scorn the time of cycles and turnings, of rituals and rests (of the Sabbath) and let us lose patience in waiting for the Kairos. Kairos brings together chronos and kyklos. They are simultaneously the moment of opportunity, the time of the visitation (of God) and a time of celebration and oasis. We find our salvation in quiet and rest, in an ecology (from oikos, dwelling place) of time by opening our eyes to the immensity of the ocean, of forests, of the plains, who knows perhaps also the "concrete jungle." Love is also a place, a space, a dwelling place, a home and warmth. Art presses us to pass through the appearances of the senses and opens us up to the mystery of things, the sacred quality of the universe, the pulse of being. Art reveals the invisible that is the fabric of the visible and prior to it. Art helps us see the invisible life of the visible. Because art reveals the invisible in us and does so with absolute certainty, it constitutes salvation. And in a society like ours, that rejects life ... it is the only salvation possible.40 Along with art, rhythm, ritual and myth, the cosmos can be seen to be receptive to delight and to suffering. It reveals tenderness, compassion, pardon... "The cosmos teaches us the ways of a life that goes before calculations and that still knows how to experiment, to receive, to welcome. Now, those words are not far from grace and salvation" (Gesche, 30). The cosmos is our place of salvation and its principle mediation. Independently of God and of ourselves, the cosmos also shows us our separation, our dignity, our radical difference, our a-theism, all of which mean space and freedom. The cosmos becomes, in this way, an open field for salvation. Conclusion: the pluralism of those "without religion" A pluralist vision of salvation should remain open on two levels: that of the content of salvation to be achieved and that of the means, or better, the path that leads to salvation. To speak of salvation "outside of religions" would be heard as a rejection of all religion or as going beyond the traditional instituM. Henry, Voir I'invisible - Sur Radinsky, Paris, 1988, 41.

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tional religions. We are trying to consider the two hypotheses while recognizing that the second is much more widely practiced, especially in Latin America. In any case, a broader vision of salvation such as that presented here allows us to "save" the two options. What is called atheism does not include refusal to identify an absolute - with or without a name - or to symbolize the hope for salvation. The rejection of traditional religious institutions does not imply abandoning all forms of religiosity. What would be the conditions for a co-existence of the multiple religious and non-religious options in society? In the first place, it seems fundamental to me that the State adopt an attitude of constructive insertion in a regime of positive laicity without privileges or exclusions, accepting in good will the contribution of its citizens in everything that has to do with the common good, that is to say, universal salvation. All tendencies and, above all, each person, should be able to co-exist, with equality, with recognition of differences and with the right of each to occupy the space needed for his/her development in life. Religious institutions would be distanced from any social or political power. In the dialogue that would be set up and sustained, everyone would be disposed to give a hand to defining secondary elements in his/her own identity. Responsibility for the permanence of the dialogue and of a peaceful solution to conflicts cannot be handed over exclusively to official representatives of religious organizations or political offices.41

Bibliography Benjamin, W. (1986). Obras escolhidas: Magia e tecnica, arte e politica. 2 ed. Sao Paulo: Brasiliense. Camurca, M.A. (2003). Novos movimentos religiosos: entre o secular e o sagrado. In: Estudos de Religido, ano XVII, no. 25. pp. 48-64. Catao, F. Gratuidade (1996). Universidade e espiritualidade. In: Tempo e Presenga no. 289 (1996). pp. 16-22. Comblin, J. (1996). Cristdos rumo ao seculo XXI. Sao Paulo: Paulus. Dumas, A. Salut (1989). Controverses autour du salut chretien. In : Encyclopaedia Universalis. Paris, v. 20. Gesche, A. (1989). Un secret du salut cache dans le cosmos? In : Various Authors (1989). Creation et salut. Bruxelles: Facultes Saint-Louis. Gesche, A. (1995). Dieupourpenser. [Vol 5: La destinee]. Paris: Cerf.. In the Latin American Agenda for 2003, 223, Marcelo Barros mentions the annual meeting of "Nueva Conciencia" [New Awareness] organized by a lay team. It brings together more than 3,000 persons from a wide variety of spiritual paths. The participants come as people who are searching and not as representatives of their religion or tradition. See http://latinoamericana.org/2003/textos/castellano/Barros.htm

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Gesche, A. (2002). Le christianisme comme atheisme suspensif: Reflexions sur le 'Etsi Deus non daretur'. In: Revue Theologique de Louvain 33(2002-2). pp. 187-210. Gesche, A. (2003). Dieupourpenser. [Vol. VII: Le Sens]. Paris: Cerf. Gesche, A. (2004). L'invention chretienne du corps. In: Revue Theologique de Louvain 35(2004-2). pp. 166-202. Giles, T. (1975). Historia do existencialismo e da fenomenologia. Sao Paulo: EPU/Edusp. v. 1. Gomez-Heras, J.M.G. (1977). Sociedad y Utopia en Ernst Block, Salamanca: Sfgeme. Henry, M. (1988). Voir Vinvisible - Sur Kandinsky. Paris. Higuet, E. (2002). Evolutions recentes du catholicisme au Bresil : un rapport ambigu a la modernite. In : Mutations religieuses de la modernite tardiv: Actes du XlVe Colloque International Paul Tillich, Marseille, 2001. Hamburg/Munster/London: Lit-Verlag. pp. 140-153. Higuet, E. (1999). Saude, cura e salvacao no pensamento de Paul Tillich. In: Estudos de Religiao 16(June 1999). Sao Bernardo/Sao Paulo, pp. 7486. IBGE (2000). Censo demogrdfico (2000). caracteristicas gerais da populacao, resultados da amostra. Rio de Janeiro. Isambert, F.A. (1998). Secularisation. In: Encyclopaedia Universalis, CDROM Universalis No 4. Paris. Iulianelli, J.A. & Bittencourt, J.F (1996). A realidade misteriosa. In: Tempo e Presenga no. 289(1996). pp. 5-10 Libanio, J.B. (1977). O problema da salvagao no catolicismo do povo. Petropolis: Vozes. Moltmann, J. (2006). Ressurreicao da natureza. Um capitulo da cristologia cosmica. In: Concilium 318(2006-5). pp. 76-84. Moltmann, J. (1999). Ressurreicao - Fundamento, forca e meta da nossa esperanca. In: Concilium 283(1999-5). pp. 774-784. Moltmann, J. (1989). Der Weg Jesu Christi. Christologie in messianischen Dimensionen. Miinchen: Kaiser. Nancy, J-L. (2002). La creation du monde ou la mondialisation. Paris: Galilee Nancy, J-L. (2004). La declosion [Deconstruction du christianisme, 1]. Paris: Galilee. Pepin, J. (1989). Salut. In: Encyclopaedia Universalis. Paris, v. 20. Richard, P. (1982). A igreja latino-americana entre o temor e a esperanqa. Sao Paulo: Paulus. Sanchis, P. (1995). O, campo religioso sera, ainda hoje, o campo das religi5es. In: Hoornaert, E. (ed..) (1995). Historia da Igreja na America Latina e no Caribe: 1945-1995, Debate methologico. Petrpopolis: Cehila/Vozes.

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Segundo, J.L. (1983). Fe e ideologia. Sao Paulo: Loyola, v. 1: "As dimensoes do homem." Serra, O. & Martinelli, M. (1996). Cultura e salvacao: o ponto de vista do povo de santo. In: Tempo e Presenqa no. 289 (Sept-Oct. 1996). v. III. p. 2627 Sociedade de Teologia e Ciencias da Religiao - SOTER (ed.). (2005). Corporeidade e Teologia. Sao Paulo:Paulinas. Tillich, P. (1966). Systematische Theologie. vol. III. Stuttgart: Evangelisches Verlagswerk. Tillich, P. (1968). Le christianisme et les religions. Paris : Aubier. [English (1963). Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions. New York/London: Columbia University Press]. Tillich, P. (1992). A era protestante. Sao Paulo: Ciencias da Religao. [English (1948). The Protestant Era. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press]. Tillich, P. (1994). Heil und Heilen. In: Dialog, Mitteilungsblatt der Deutchen Paul-Tillich-Gesellschaft, Neue Folge 18(Feb 1994). p. 2-4. Vigil, J.M. & Casaldaliga, P. (eds.). (2002). Agenda latino-americano: 2003. Chile/Brazil. Published in almost all american countries.

Chapter 16 Toward a Pluralist Spirituality of Liberation

Jose Maria Vigil Panama

The goal of this book is to prepare a first draft of a "Christian pluralist theology of liberation " In that context, the purpose of this chapter is to analyze theologically1 the topic of a possible "pluralist spirituality of liberation " Obviously, until now, Christian spirituality has been either exclusivist or inclusivist At this point, a pluralist spirituality of liberation is less a reality than an exploration Still, it is a new spirit that is germinating and quietly but surely growing,2 even though it has not yet arrived at a complete formulation and expression Nor are we are going to attempt that adventure here It remains to be done and calls out for someone to take it on I am only going to suggest some approaches, broad strokes and intuitions that speak to me of that pluralist theology of liberation whose explicit formulation is increasingly drawing closer Starting point We start with a statement of principle Spirituality of liberation and Latin American theology of liberation have clearly been inclusivist Nevertheless, here we want to speak of a "pluralist" spirituality of liberation It is logical that between inclusivist and pluralist spirituality there should be marked differences Those differences are the object of our study I don't think that the differences are minor or that they consist in small additions or marginal touch-ups that don't affect the main substance, considered identical in both kinds of spirituality No Inclusivity and pluralism are different "paradigms" and, as such, are distinct over-all concepts They involve different worldviews and different basic structures of thought There are no major differences greater than differences of paradigm3 The data, words, cate-

The approach is not in a spiritualist or wisdom vein I have already referred to this "spirituality of religious pluralism" in the first volume of this collection published by EATWOT For los muchos caminos de Dios, "Espintualidad del pluralismo rehgioso una expenenceia spiritual emergente," Quito, Verbo Divino, 2003, 137-155 3 1 remember the words, almost a last testament, of Paul Tillich, a few days before his death, when he expressed his desire to "re-wnte all his theology" in the light of the new paradigm of religious pluralism that was barely glimpsed at that time See "The Significance of the History of Religions for the Systematic Theologian," in Geschichte der Rehgwsen Ideen, (Hrsg Von J C Brauer), New York, 1966

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gories... might be the same but their organization, structuring and meaning ... are profoundly different. In this sense, I will concentrate on two elements that I believe constitute the major differences between pluralist spirituality of liberation and the older, classical inclusivist spirituality of liberation. I will also add a final reflection on the "Christian" character of such a pluralist spirituality of liberation. These will be the three part of my study. A more humble view of itself It was Clodovis Boff who, in the 1980s, renewed that brilliant distinction between "the order of salvation and the order of the knowledge of salvation."4 What clarity and optimism became possible for liberation theology in taking up this way of looking at things! God seemed to be operating far beyond the circle of those we believed had received his message (the order of the knowledge of salvation). The small size of the Christian Churches was not an impediment to a universal presence and action of God, whom we really felt then was "always greater."5 But that didn't prevent us from continuing to speak naively of "the" order of knowledge of salvation. If there was "an" order of salvation, it seemed clear that there would also have to be "one" order of the knowledge of salvation. We took it for granted that there was only one order. This was not an explicit denial of the existence of others. It was a lack of sophistication, a matter of ignorance that was perhaps "invincible." And if there was only one order of the knowledge of salvation, it logically had to be ours. (Even here, there was no bad will or exclusivist pride. It was just pure, invincible ignorance.) Christian faith constituted that "order of knowledge;" it was "the order of the knowledge of salvation." No doubt there could be an abundant presence of salvation outside the Christian churches, but the question was whether there could be "knowledge" of it. Something very deep in the temper of the macroecumenism of classical spirituality prevented a negative response to the question. How could we not recognize in the other religions their ability to transmit and even be "knowledge of salvation?" (In Latin America these religions were above all Indigenous and Afro-American.) On the other hand, there was still the tradition and official theology that said that Christianity was the only revealed religion, the one that explicitly handed on the Good News that Jesus had given us. How could we reconcile our intuition with official doctrine? The solution was found in considering Chris4

Clodovis Boff, Teologia de lo politico, Salamanca, Sigueme, 1980, chapter 6, 182ff. This distinction has already led to insights that today we see quite clearly were the seeds of a pluralist perspective: "Christianity is an interpretation of the salvation of the world, not salvation itself. It is not even its exclusive instrument. See, Ibid, 193.
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tian faith as a "special light". 6 It is not the only light because there are others. They are like many flashes from the light of God. But the Christian one is the major light, the explicit one, the definitive and unsurpassable one that comes to complete and bring to perfection all the others. Other religions know salvation in some way but they don't have the fullness of knowledge that only comes through Jesus. In the context of this thinking, the Church is not "necessary for salvation" but certainly for the "fullness of the knowledge of salvation" in this world. In Jesus, God has revealed the fullness of his plan of salvation. That is what allows us to know, in faith, what so many men and women, as individuals and as peoples "longed for without knowing." 7 In some way, in those approaches, we were indebted to the "theology of completion or of conclusion" that was spoken of in the pre-conciliar years 8 and that was a totally Christo-centric, inclusivist position, in which we confessed Christ as explicit savior even of those who were not Christians. 9 It was an approach that was not specifically considered in the classical spirituality of liberation. We thought it was enough to think and to feel that the one God who is the "God of all names," 10 was operating in all religions. (There was then a God-centeredness that was not Christ-centered. However, this was by omission rather than though a positive negation.) Today, at this point in the evolution of Christian spiritual awareness, we believe that we can no longer speak, as we did then, of "the order of the knowledge of salvation," that is to say of "knowledge" in the singular. Clearly we have to speak of the order of "knowledges" of salvation. ' It is not just the Christian knowledge of salvation that exists. There also exist many others, at least as many as there are religions. We do not have an "exclusive monopoly" on salvation or on its knowledge. We can still continue moving forward with our question. If we admit that there are ways of knowing salvation - in the plural - we can ask whether our knowledge of salvation is just "one more" or whether it is a special light that is the fountain the others share in. It would then contain all the others in

Casaldaliga- Vigil, "Espiritualidad de la liberation," Envio, Managua, 1992, 37. Ibid., 238. 8 F. Teixeira, Teologia de las religiones, Quito, Abya Yala, 2005 in the Tiempo Axial Collection, no. 4, 44. Chief among the representatives of this theology were J. Danielou, H. de Lubac and H. Urs von Balthasar. This was the position of the Second Vatican Council. See Gaudium et Spes, 22. 10 This is the title given by Pedro Casaldaliga to the Missa dos Quilombos, Sao Paulo, 1982. [Tr: Mass of the Quilombos - hinderland settlements established by run-away slaves, or, today, any remote, abandoned community.] " We are not discussing grammar. We can continue speaking of the order of the "knowledge" of salvation as long as the singular noun is understood in a generic sense as representative of the many different and reasonable understandings.
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itself and would by that fact be called to flood all the other lights in order to complete them and bring them to fullness One the one hand, it is clear that a spirituality is pluralist to the extent in which it goes beyond the "theory of completion or conclusion " If we continue thinking that the light of the Christian faith is "the particular, special light called to absorb into itself all the others," then we are clearly situated within the framework of mclusivity The pluralist paradigm implies acceptance of a real plurality of autonomous ways to salvation without there being one that includes and locks in the others On the other hand, the pluralist paradigm does not require absolute symmetry as if all the ways of salvation were equal, entirely comparable, and interchangeable without distinction The pluralist theologians today - practically all of them - propose a pluralism that they call "asymmetric " They consider all religions as unequal in fact Some have achieved a depth or a greater height than others Their specific models, categories and vocabulary have "incommensurable" standards so that it is not always possible even to compare them (In some cases, nevertheless, it can be done ) Let us review the questions and summarize the replies Is our knowledge of salvation "one more among many 7 " In one sense, yes it is Is our light a "special light 7 " Yes, certainly But it is not the only special one All the lights of the many-colored rainbow that God projects on this world are special Each one of them has its special uniqueness Each is "unique" in its own way Do all the other lights participate in ours 7 We respond that the source from which our light comes is the same as that of all the other lights However, the other lights do not proceed from ours but directly from the source Is our light called to complete the others and bring them to fullness 7 Yes, it is called to that but it is not the only light called to that This is the vocation of all the lights Given that all the lights are unique and

We take the position that the passage from mclusivity to pluralism is a modern ver sion of the Filwque controversy According to the view of Latin Catholics, the Spirit is subordinate to the action of both the Father and the Son This implies that the mediation of Christ becomes indispensable For the Orthodox, on the contrary, the Spirit proceeds (and acts) directly from the Father according to the expression of San Irenaeus "Christ and the Spirit are the hands of the Father " See J Mellom, El Uno en lo Multiple, Santander, Sal Terrae, 2003, 108ff

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that their uniqueness is incomparable and incommensurable, it is logical to think that they can all contribute to the many-colored rainbow of the full light All are called to make their contribution And they are all called to be enriched by welcoming outside contributions Let's go even further Is there one among them that has nothing to learn from the others because it already has everything m itself7 No, there isn't Dupuis tried to justify this view by distinguishing between a quantitative and a qualitative fullness13 Based on the facts, we recall the contribution that Christianity is receiving from Eastern religion in recent decades, as is evident in the boom of publications in this re-

Is there "one" light that "has the duty to evangelize the others," due to its superiority as a light that completes the others * We respond by a > qualified 'yes' and 'no ' Yes, because all religions should "evangelize" the others, all should make an effort to offer their riches to the others in a spirit of freedom, respect for difference and welcome of another identity But also no, because axiomatically, from the point of view of pluralism, none should think that its light is superior to the others

It is obvious, in this context, that the Christian view of "mission" needs to be reconsidered, to be brought up again Here again it is a matter of 'yes' and 'no ' Yes, it continues to be meaningful to go and to share the riches of one's own spirituality with other religions (and very much so, fully so) But, at the same time, the former "mission" has to die because it has become evident today that conquest, imposition and undervaluing of what is different, understood in the classical sense, is no longer relevant No light should be offered as if it were the only valid light, as if it were the light that should necessarily displace the others, as if it were a light that has nothing to learn from any other spark or that cannot be enriched by the others Paul Knitter says that "to be profoundly religious is, and should, mean to be broadly religious "15 Today, in the new socio-religious context, and with our
Verso una teologia Cnstiana del plurahsmo rehgioso, Quenmana, Brescia, 1997, 336ff [Tr See Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1997] 14 This is the case for the innumerable works published by Fr Anthony De Mello In this regard, see the evaluation of Torres Queiruga on the phenomenon of the penetration of Hinduism in Christian spirituality in El Dialogo de las religiones, Santander, SalTerrae, 1992,30 5 Paul Knitter, "Religiones, misticismo y hberacion," in Por los Muchos Caminos de Dtos II, Ecuador, Abya Yala, 2004, "Tiempo Axial" Collection, no 3, 92ff

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closeness to religions and their availability, we cannot be profoundly religious if we deepen only our own tradition vertically. Someone who searches deeply for religious experience cannot be anything less than open to the many religious experiences that surround us, draw our attention and are and close to us. The movement for the "inculturation of the Christian faith," which was the final cry of something new in Latin American theology, 16 is beginning to show how evidently insufficient it is, not so much because we discover today how it is an approach that is still imperialist 17 as because, from current perspectives, what is needed is not inculturation but rather "inreligionization." 18 This is a view that the IV Conference of CELAM did not even imagine. In summary then, this current transformation of perspective and of awareness is a bridge over which we are passing from the classical inclusivist spirituality of liberation to a pluralist spirituality of liberation. Christian spirituality is trying to step out of the middle; it is drawing away from the centre and moving off to one side in order to leave place in the centre for God alone. That is God's place. The other religions do not circle around us; we, along with the other spiritualities, circle around God. 19 We are letting go of that attachment to a subconscious assumption that we are with God in the centre and destined to radiate salvation to all humanity as the instrument chosen by God to save it, a mentality in which humanity would not have access to salvation except through us. We are at the point of abandoning the "Christo-centrism" that we have been dragging along unconsciously for the last several decades. We knew that we were not the center but we believed that we were the immediate companion of the one who stood in the centre so that we also held a central place. If we stop believing we are in the center, it is going to require some humility to regard religious plurality not from the stage but from the orchestra pit, not from the order of "the" knowledge of salvation but sharing fraternally with others the many ways of knowing salvation.

This was the major theme of the IV General Conference of CELAM in Santo Domingo [1992]. 17 Raul Fornet-Betancourt, "De la inculturacion a la interculturalidad," in RELaT (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/355.htm). See also Jorge Pixley, "<<,Es posible una evangelizacion no imperialista?" in RELaT, no. 71 (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/241.htm). 1 In this regard, see the work of A. Torres Queiruga, who has been at the forefront of this proposal, in "Cristianismo y religions: 'inreligionacion' y cristianismo asimetrico," Sal Terrae, 997 (January 1999), 3-19; RELaT, no. 071 (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/241.htm). 19 We are alluding here to a "Coperaican Revolution" that pluralism is said to presuppose.

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De-absolutizing Christ-centeredness This is the other major characteristic that marks the difference between a pluralist spirituality of liberation and the classical (inclusivist) spirituality of liberation Obviously, this theme cannot be spoken of with precision or security We are just at the beginning of a new period As I have said, this experience of religious pluralism, so contemporary and so new, implies a change of paradigm, a global change that can only be a matter of constant discernment and can only be expressed by "trial and error " No formulation should be presented precipitously as mature and without room for correction 20 No doubt, the expression "de-absolutize Christ-centeredness" could appear strange to someone who is not up to date on current movements in theology It is open to misunderstanding or could even appear provocative for those who make no effort to understand what it might mean The task of de-absolutizing Christ-centeredness corresponds - negatively - to that movement in which, during the genesis of the New Testament, the messenger of the Reign ended up becoming the message,21 the "autobasileia "22 The preaching of the Reign, that was the preaching of Jesus himself, was replaced by the preaching of the Risen One An annoyed A Loisy once said, "Jesus announced the Reign but what came about was the Church "23 A Chinese proverb also says, "Every time I point to the moon, somebody ends up looking at my finger " If Jesus were to return, perhaps he would offer the same reproach as Loisy and the Chinese proverb Somebody needs to give Christians a good shake so that they wake up to something enormously staking The main statements that make up the nucleus of Christianity not only are foreign to Jesus but, in some sense, are contrary to his words and even his actions u These affirmations are not something that Jesus said but rather something that we say

"The current situation has implications for a revolution of considerable dimension in relations among religions and the problem is so new and so deep that, in my opinion, we do not yet have the proper means to respond to the challenge " A Torres Queiruga, Dialogo de las rehgwnes y autocomprension cnstiana, Santander, Sal terrea, 2005, 71 "La terminologia esta evolucionando todavia," ibid, 92 Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament, New York Charles Scnbner's Sons, 1951,33 22 Ongen, Mt Horn , 14, 7, PG 13, 1198 BC 23 L Evangile et I Eglise, Pans, 1902, 153 24 "Since the 19th century modern Chnstology is dominated by the complaint about the gulf that exists between what we can know scientifically about the history of Jesus or the preaching of the Apostles and what the dogmas of the Church deduce from it " J Moingt, El hombre que venia de Dios, vol 1, Desclee, Bilbao, 1995, 8 [L'Homme qui venait de Dieu, Le Cerf, coll Cogitatio fidei n 176, 1993 ]

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that he thought even though he didn't say it. Or, it is something that we can attribute to him even though he never brought it up. For example: Jesus was not a priest, nor a Levite but a simple layperson. Still, we have no difficulty in considering him as High Priest. The fact that we add "of the New Covenant" seems to give us the right to set aside his clear, prophetic, lay and anti-clerical attitude. Jesus was poor, one more among the poor, an enemy of all posture of power. Still, that hasn't prevented us from declaring him King of the Universe. Once again, theology says that this is to be taken in another sense. Yet, in the Christian imagination we end up dressing him up as a real king, with a throne and scepter. He is "Christ the King," the Pantocrator. However much, as I say, the first communities situated Jesus through the content of his preaching, "Jesus - like Buddha or like Mohammed - never preached himself. He pointed us always to the Father, to God and His/Her Reign. Jesus was, without any room for doubt, "God-centered.25 This remains true even though, out of twenty centuries of Christianity, nineteen have been characterized by an exclusivist Christo-centrism and only one is marked by an inclusivist Christo-centrism, at least officially and for the most part. Jesus very probably never admitted being God or the metaphysical Son of God, or "God the Son," or the second person of a Holy Trinity. At this point, I am not going to explain those topics related to the "difficult expression of his divinity."26 Let me merely state that the process of making Christ absolute occurred long after the historical Jesus and that it involved very different stages. In this process Christologies that were quite varied and even partly contradictory were set forth.27 It was a process, a collective reflection, a theological development which witnessed the intervention of established powers, games of influence and struggles for hegemony from the different forces and social groups. It even led to problems and plans that were quite human and unacceptable. The historical process led to the exclusion of some theological positions and the choice of others. And this was the concrete result of a process that came to an end in the fourth and fifth centuries. And yet, why - contrary to all the laws of history - do we think that process is a closed case and declare that "the end of history," as far as theological discernment goes, happened at that point? Why make a theological conclusion sacred? Why refuse to take up the perennial responsibility of scrutinizing the signs of the times28 in order to advance theo-

Torres Queiruga, op. cit., 90. Ibid, 92. 27 Roger Haight, Jesus, Symbol of God, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2000, 178. 28 "[Yjhg church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them...." Gaudium et Spes, 4.
26

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logical discernment9 Just as those early Chnstian generations took up their job of discerning theologically, we have to take up ours today We are coming into a curve at the brow of a hill as far as the future of civilization goes New horizons, never before experienced, open up a path for us and lead us to address once again the earlier classical theological opinions, including those of Chnstology "The change of attitude with respect to other religions that has been gaining strength since Vatican II implies a doctrinal reevaluation of the main nucleus of Christianity Chnstology "30 Some years ago, Christian Duquoc wrote a theology that was very well received in the theological community Today he recognizes that the Chnstological view of his most recent book "hardly corresponds to what he wrote in 1968-1972," and that this new Chnstological approach "is now facing a more radical question the central character of Chnst, which has been called into question by religious plurality " For this reason what is needed now is not an "updating of the earlier work,"31 but a new exploration 32 It is not a matter of updating the approaches but of changing the paradigm33 The absolute Chnstology, such as our generation knew it, is in crisis "There is no longer any place for a simple 'Chnstocentrism' without nuances or reservations "34 It is absolutely urgent to overhaul rt" 35 All this leads us to say that it should not surprise us that, in the field of Chnstology, pluralist theology of liberation is bringing about a transformation of classical liberation spintuahty Pluralist spirituality of liberation is eliminating the absolute character of Chnsto-centnsm (It could not be otherwise if we insist that it is not inclusivist but rather pluralist) However, it is not in any way setting Jesus aside On the contrary it is turning more and more to Jesus and, with renewed strength and awareness, taking up again his God-centeredness and his Reign-centeredness, his macro-ecumenical openness, the ngor of his
As Geffre says, "Scripture is already interpretation Theology is an endless movement of interpretation in which the originality of the questions formulated regarding the text necessarily carries with it the risk of unforeseeable responses," El cnstianismo ante el riesgo de la interpretacwn Ensayos de hermeneutica theologica, Madrid, Cnstiandad, 1984,39 Christian Duquoc, El umco Cristo La sinfonia diferida, Santander, Sal Terrea, 2005, 17 [L Unique Christ La sympthome differee, Pans, Editions du Cerf, 2002 ] 31 Ibid, 26 32 J M Vigil, "Nao se trata de atuahzar, mas de mudar," in Vanos, Vaticano II40 anos depots, Paulus, Sao Paulo, 2005, 89-92 33 J Dupuis insists that models can be integrated and are mutually complementary while paradigms are in some way exclusive of one another See Verso una teologia Cnstiana del pluralismo rehgoso, Quenman, Brescia, 1997, 242f [Tr Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, Maryknoll, Orbis, 1997 ] 34 Torres Queiruga, ibid, 90 35 Ibid, 92

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God-praxis and anti-cultism, his overcoming of Church-centeredness and his desire to lead us even "beyond religion itself " 36 We continue to turn to Jesus, a treasure chest of endless surprises that, in this new "axial time" 37 in which we live, overwhelms us with a message that is fully compatible with the pluralist paradigm and with inter-religious dialogue 38 To conclude the discussion of this second point, 39 1 would say that pluralist spirituality of liberation appears to be evolving toward Undoing the metaphysical character of Chnstological spirituality It can be Christian without being Aristotelian or Thormst Like the men and women of this "post-metaphysical" culture or a culture that is simply not Western, it can even set aside belief in metaphysics Removing dogma from Chnstology This also means removing the absolute character of dogmas and keeping open the constant reinterpretation that is part of theology and the life of faith Demythologizmg Christianity m general If we know today that there was no original sin, there cannot have been redemption from it and nor could there have been a "Redeemer" in that specific mythical sense Besides, humanity does not require it 4 0 Pluralist spirituality of liberation is a spirituality for this pluralist period, for a time in which a new cosmology and a new worldview have emerged for today's men and women, for a society that is no longer agrarian and does not need (or accept) "beliefs " 41 For that reason it is does well in purifying itself of mythological accretions (This is another topic but one that is ancillary to pluralism ) Surpassing Chnsto-centnsm and moving toward a "centering on God as modeled in Jesus " 42

These are the characteristics of the "Jesus-ism [Jesuanismo] that I develop fully in the 10 lesson of the Curso de teologia del plurahsmo rehgioso, Quito, Abya Yala, 2005 and Cordoba (Espana), El Almendro, 2005 37 J M Vigil Ibid, chapter 19, 253 38 J M Vigil, Ibid , chapter 10, 111 39 See the texts of Marcelo Barros and Jose Maria Vigil on Chnstology in the previous volume of this series Por los muchos caminos de Dws II, Quito, Abya Yala/ASETT, 2004 40 Cietus Wessels, Jesus in the New Universe Story, Maryknoll, Orbis, 2003, 186ff 41 Mariano Corbi, Religion sin religion, Madrid, PPC, 1996, Amando Robles, Repensar la religion De la creencia al conocimiento, San Jose de Costa Rica, Editorial de la Universidad Nacional, 2001 J Moingt says that the current theological and Chnstological debate "is developing within the cultural horizon of an eclipse of belief in God," ftid, vol 1,8 42 [teocentnsmo jesuanico], Torres Queiruga, Ibid, 80ff

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Turning toward Jesus Pluralist spirituality of liberation continues the turn toward Jesus that classical spirituality of liberation had already effected with approaches and dimensions that seemed disconcerting to us at that time (Jesus was viewed as the "non-founder" of a religion, as one who went beyond religions themselves, as a "non-founder of the universal mission ") This is a turning toward Jesus that is at the same time a true "conversion" to the real Jesus

The pluralist paradigm and Christian identity The theme I want to address in this final section is not reserved exclusively to pluralist spirituality of liberation but rather to all pluralist theology If I raise it here, it is in order to willingly take up a thorny shared responsibility The problem can be stated in this way Not a few theologians are afraid of the pluralist paradigm because, they say, "It's a theological position that goes too far, it ends up outside the limits of the essence of Christianity If a theology thinks that Christianity is not "the" (only) revealed truth and that the other religions are not simply participation in Christian salvation (since this is the only real salvation m which all the others are subsumed), that theology is not Christian "43 So they say In discussions of theology, the accusation of remaining "outside the Christian faith" is not always present It happens when we touch on those transformative moments that demand a general restructuring of the nucleus of Christian thought that, up till then, has been held traditionally as essential and nonnegotiable, beyond whose limits one would fall into a "transgression of identity " This is typical in the case of "changes of paradigm," and in the contemporary move from inclusivity to pluralism we are involved in a change of paradigm That is why it is absolutely normal that thinkers who are anchored in the old inclusivist view feel that the new pluralist paradigm "goes too far" beyond the framework of what "up till now" were the limits of the Christian identity and beyond which "we can no longer properly speak of Christianity " As I have said, this is happening today at a moment when we are passing from inclusivity to pluralism and it is happening not so much, or primarily, in the field of spirituality as much as in all branches of theology The most serious case of this phenomenon is the warning, which I have already indicated, from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (historical and legitimate heir to the Inquisition) to pluralist theologians At this point, it considers them its worst enemy (having displaced the theology of liberation of prior decades in Dupuis, for example, considers an "inclusive and open Christ centeredness" and not pluralism to be the only adequate path for a theology of religions that wants to continue being "Christian " Gesii Cnsto incontro alle rehgioni, Assisi, Citadilla Editnce, 1991 146

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that position) However, this is natural, inevitable and as old as the history of religions itself We are dealing with Christian identity or the "essence of Christianity ,,4A We were taught that this is a defined essence, one that is stable45 and even "immutable," 46 However, today we recognize that in reality the opposite is true It is a historical, evolutionary essence, in continuous and unceasing transformation And we are referring to the essence and not to accidents These are dimensions or affirmations that at one time in the past were considered "essential" (beyond which one could not really speak of Christianity) For trespassing them, people were anathematized In a still later period such people were abandoned One explicitly refused even to have anything to do with them There are many such cases in history of the Church They should lead us to reflect on how to avoid repeating today the same lamentable spectacle of conflicts, anathemas and useless suffering There was a time when the affirmation that "outside the Church there is no salvation" was considered so certain and essential that it was solemnly and formally declared that "all those who are outside the Catholic Church, not only pagans but also Jews or heretics and schismatics" were beyond salvation Using the maximum authority of the Church, it is said of them that they "[They] will go into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels, unless they are joined to the Catholic Church before the end of their lives [NJobody can be saved, no matter how much he has given away in alms and even if he has shed his blood in the name of Christ, unless he has persevered in the bosom and the unity of the Catholic Church " 47 And then, in the second half of the twentieth century, this statement was first considered obsolete and then clearly false The limitations that were set around what was "essential" to Chnstian salvation - so clear in the Middle Ages - suffered a notable shift48 to the point of including within Christianity the contrary affirmation, namely that even outside the Church there is salvation Galileo was taken to court for holding a scientific opinion that was then clearly contrary to Biblical revelation and incompatible with Christian truth This was considered more than enough to anathematize him and declare that he was outAnd of Christianities See A Fierro, Teona de los cnstiamsmos, Verbo Divmo, Estella, 1982 One book that is representative of this way of thinking is F Mann-Sola, La evolucion homogenea del dogma catohco, Madrid Valencia, BAC, no 84, 1962 Denzinger, 1351 47 Denzinger, 1351 [Tr The English translation is from P Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed Norman ] Christian Duquoc shows what happened in this abandonment of Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus as a case of "dis-inhenting," that is to say of non-reception of this official magistenum among the people of God See Creo en la Iglesia Precariedad institucional y Reino de Dios, Santander, Sal Terrae, 2001, 92 93

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side the borders of Christianity. And the Cardinals were right. From their point of view (within their paradigm) what Galileo maintained was incompatible with "revealed Christian truth" such as they understood it. Later, the same affirmation of Galileo "fit within Christianity." How? By stretching the limits of that supposedly immutable essence. When, in the 1950s, the Church was going through a period of the "end of a pontificate," with all the storm clouds and paralysis that such periods usually bring with them, the best European theologians were discredited, silenced, persecuted and exiled. Their opinions were considered heretical, incompatible with the "teaching of the Church" and gravely prejudicial to the Christian faith. Just ten years later, they were rehabilitated and recognized as masters of the theological thinking of the Church. Their theology - the very same one that had been condemned - became part of the theological thinking of the Second Vatican Council. What had before been considered gravely contrary to the Catholic faith, in a few years became its best exponent. This is not the time to make a catalogue of many other affirmations that, for long periods in the history of Christianity were held as essential and immutable and that, with the passing of time became obsolete or, as I have said, were even set aside and replaced by contrary opinions. This is surely the moment to observe that the same thing should not happen to us in the new change of paradigm that we are currently going through, the passage from a paradigm of inclusivity to that of pluralism. Applying this to our case, it is logical, from the classical inclusivist viewpoint, that whoever is anchored in that narrow vision will conclude that pluralism is "outside the framework of the Christian faith." The same thing happened with inclusivity, today the official position of the Church, during the period when the intransigent exclusivity of the Council of Rorence dominated the Church.49 Exclusivist Christianity did not recognize inclusivity as Christian. And inclusivist Christianity will not immediately recognize pluralism as Christian. It is a normal evolutionary process. And today we are at a point in history during which, for the first time, we are able to look at the question from the viewpoint of a critical hermeneutic awareness and understand it without being scandalized. There was an exclusivist Christianity (that today we remember with horror) and today there is an inclusivist Christianity (that is deeply unsatisfying for many). I have no doubt at all that the future is going to be pluralist even though many of today's inclusivists may regret that. This means that a new shift in the "essence" of Christianity is going to happen. Given that the Christological faith is the most sensitive point affected by this passage from inclusivity to pluralism, some will logically declare pluralist Christianity to be "post-Christian." (Obviously, this sounds much worse, even though it is much In the year 1452.

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less serious than considering it "outside salvation" or anathematizing it as happened historically in similar situations of transition.) In any case, "everything takes the color of the lens with which one views it." In other words, everything depends on where we place the limits of Christianity, a limit that is in constant historical movement even though many may not be aware of it. There are going to be tensions - or there are already - in the Inquisition of the day. We are living out days similar to the last days of Pius XII. In a short time what is persecuted and exiled today will be rehabilitated and recognized. Each moment has its own time. Meanwhile, those who do not have a historical view and a sufficiently broad regard are going to suffer and make others suffer. To conclude: Liberation theology and the spirituality of liberation are seeking to cross a threshold in civilization that all humanity is experiencing as it enters a new pluralist paradigm at all levels. This is inevitable in a period of history characterized by an accelerated process of globalization, unification and encounter among all the identities that, until now, always lived in isolation and set themselves up as superior. This is not just any moment; it is not a "normal" period in the process. Rather it is a change within a change, a change of epoch, an "axial time," a change of paradigm, a threshold for civilization, a qualitative leap, a mutation, a global metamorphosis. Identities that had already been evolving historically are also going to suffer serious and accelerated transformations. Perhaps these mutations will touch on essential identities. Those who think that they are going to hold back the Sun like Joshua are mistaken. Those get it right who, instead of kicking against the goad, decide to mount this challenging stallion and try to see, from the view offered by their group, where it is taking us in order to better adjust to the direction and move ahead into the future; in order also to make, if possible, our humble contribution to it.

Bibliography Boff, C. (1980). Teologia de lo politico. Salamanca: Sigueme. Bultmann, R. (1951). Theology of the New Testament. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Casaldaliga, P. & Vigil, J.M. (1992). Espiritualidad de la liberacion. Managua: Envio. Casaldaliga, P. (1982). Missa dos Quilombos. Sao Paulo. Corbi, M. (1996). Religion sin religion. Madrid: PPC. Denzinger [English translation by Tanner, Norman P. (ed.). (1990). Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils.]

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Dupuis, J. (1991). Gesu Cristo incontro alle religioni. Assisi: Citadilla Editrice. Dupuis, J. (1997). Verso una teologia Cristiana del pluralismo religioso. Brescia: Queriniana. [Translation (1997). Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism. Maryknoll: Orbis]. Duquoc, C. (2001). Creo en la Iglesia: Precariedad institucional y Reino de Dios. Santander: Sal Terrae. Duquoc, C. (2005). El unico Cristo: La sinfonia diferida. Santander: Sal Terrea. Fierro, A. (1982). Teoria de los cristianismos. Estella: Verbo Divino. Fornet-Betancourt, R. (2005). De la inculturacion a la interculturalidad. In: RELaT (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/355.htm). Geffre, C. (1984). El cristianismo ante el riesgo de la interpretation: Ensayos de hermeneutica theologica. Madrid: Cristiandad. Haight, R. (2000). Jesus, Symbol of God. Maryknoll: Orbis. Knitter, P. (2004). Religiones, misticismo y liberacion. In: Vigil, J.M. (ed.). (2004). Por los Muchos Caminos de Dios II. Ecuador: Abya Yala. [Tiempo Axial Collection, no. 3]. Loisy, A. (1902). L'Evangile et I'Eglise. Paris. Mann-Sola, F. (1962). La evolution homogenea del dogma catolico. Madrid/Valencia: BAC, no. 84. Melloni, J. (2003). El Uno en lo Multiple. Santander: Sal Terrae. Moingt, J. (1995). El hombre que venia de Dios. vol. 1. Bilbao: Desclee [L'Homme qui venait de Dieu, Le Cerf, coll. Cogitatio fidei n 176, 1993.] Origen (1198 BC). Mt. Horn., 14, 7; PG 13. Pixley, J. <^Es posible una evangelizacion no imperialista? In: RELaT no. 71 (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/241.htm). Robles, A. (2001). Repensar la religion: De la creencia al conocimiento. San Jose de Costa Rica: Editorial de la Universidad Nacional. Second Vatican Council (1965).Gaudium et Spes. Teixeira, F.(2005). Teologia de las religiones. Quito: Abya Yala. [ Tiempo Axial Collection, no. 4]. Tillich, P. (1966). The Significance of the History of Religions for the Systematic Theologian. In: Brauer, J.C. (hrsg.). Geschichte der Religiosen Ideen. New York. Torres Queiruga, A. (1992). El Didlogo de las religiones. Santander: Sal Terrae. Torres Queiruga, A. (1999). Cristianismo y religions: 'inreligionacion' y cristianismo asimetrico. In: Sal Terrae 997(January 1999). pp.3-19; In: RELaT, no. 071 (http://servicioskoinonia.org/relat/241.htm). Torres Queiruga, A. (2005). Didlogo de las religiones y autocomprension cristiana. Santander: Sal Terrea.

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Vigil, J.M. (2005). Nao se trata de atualizar, mas de mudar. In: Varios Authors (2005). Vaticano II40 anos depots. Sao Paulo: Paulus. Vigil, J.M. (2005). Curso de teologia del pluralismo religioso. Quito: Abya Yala. Vigil, J.M. (ed.). (2003). Por los muchos caminos de Dios. Espiritualidad del pluralismo religioso: una experienceia spiritual emergente. Quito: Verbo Divino. Wessels, C. (2003). Jesus in the New Universe Story. Maryknoll: Orbis.

Chapter 17 Contributions of a Pluralist Theology of Liberation to Building a World Ethic

Joaquin Garay Germany (El Salvador) Along the many paths of God in which God encounters humanity creating it, welcoming it, searching for it - we advance with religious plurality, sons and daughters of the one God, brothers and sisters in God's human family. Let us be ever more conscious of our fundamental unity and of the enriching plurality with which we can and must live it, moving along toward our shared Paternal/Maternal home. Pedro Casaldaliga

The title of this small study asserts the existence of a pluralist theology of liberation. I am aware that this pronouncement is pretentious. That is why I want to begin with some nuances. It is a fact that the theology of religious pluralism1 and the pluralist theology of religions2 are receiving their citizenship card and their recognition in world theological circles. Nevertheless, the title of this article is intended to place the accent specifically on a pluralist theology of "liberation." In this sense, it expresses more a desideratum: the desire to become involved in theological reflections that look for more adequate interpretations of religious pluralism, but linking them inherently with another undeniable fact in our world: poverty and misery as the consequence of unjust socio-economic structures that condemn immense majorities to live in inhuman conditions. Drawing on the rich tradition of Latin American liberation theology, I wish only to indicate possible contributions for a positive and enriching interpretation of religious pluralism that might at the same time deal with the demand to provide adequate and effective responses to the poor of this world. My starting point is the evidence that religious pluralism exists "de facto." In order to become aware of the rich pluralism that the Mystery of beginnings and the ultimate guarantee of life in its totality reveals in its "epiphanies" and glimmerings, one has only to look at the immense variety of religions in Africa, Asia and in the Indigenous religions of Latin America, whose specific expressions abundantly surpass the efforts to classify them. At the same
1

For example, see the Christian theology of religious pluralism based on the inclusivist paradigm in Jacques Dupuis. 2 As developed by theologians who have adopted the pluralist paradigm.

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time, we can note the rich and varied pluralism of the human responses to this Mystery expressed in complex or less complicated ethical-religious systems. I want to reflect on religious pluralism of the human spirit in its search for, dialogue with and/or encounter with the Absolute, the Mystery of Origins and Ultimate Ends, accepting this reality not as an undesirable sub-product that is condemned or persecuted by one's own religion or, in the best of circumstances, perhaps merely tolerated in good will. I want to accept a pluralism "in principle," that is to say a pluralism that embraces valid and desirable ways through which the One we call a personal God and that, in other traditions is called the Absolute, Reality in Itself, and so on, has revealed itself and made itself known to every people, human group and religious/cultural tradition. The fact that all people or religious traditions have grasped the beginning and end of life in its totality in ways that are very concrete and specific and that they have translated this discovery into rituals of worship, sacred writings, ethical-moral rules, artistic expressions, social systems, etc., does not lead us to affirm an amorphous relativism. Rather, it invites us to take very seriously the will of God to be known to human beings. Similarly we are encouraged to take very seriously the richness of the concrete ways in which different peoples have expressed and structured that divine will in religious forms. Thus, to attempt a pluralist theology is a very serious and delicate undertaking. From the point of the view of the pluralist, the pluralist position raises the question of the nature of religious truth in its human reception. It leads us to affirm, on the one hand, a partial truthfulness without going to the extreme of diluting it by reducing it to merely human constructions. I begin by offering an introductory comparison between the religious phenomenon and aesthetic experience. As we all know, aesthetic experience in general, that is to say the perception of the beauty of a concrete object whether by an individual or a group, as a consideration and appreciation of beauty in itself, is always a human experience that is mediated by a series of conditions (family traditions, views on life, social structures, cultural, religious and educational traditions, etc.). The point of departure and the nature of aesthetic truth cannot be constructed through objective affirmations that are universally valid for all human beings in every time and place. Their starting point is always contextual and the contexts that make them possible have to be taken into account. Still, they are not less true. What is beauty? Can there perhaps be a "beauty in itself?" Questions like these lead us to ask what should be the criterion for considering, for example, that one woman is more beautiful or less beautiful than others. Or based on what parameters can or should we value art? Thus, we try to provide responses and to develop a kind of aesthetic philosophy that reflects on the foundations,

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origin, evaluation of the aesthetic experience, and takes into account the diversity of perceptions. The fact is that it is impossible to find unique and univocal criteria that standardize the experience of beauty for every human being in any part of the world. Even more, it would be tremendously impoverishing to do so. It is only possible to find approaches for understanding the aesthetic experience of others. When we take this into account, we are faced with the impossibility of identifying beauty in itself. It is an undeniable fact that, in every ethic group, people and culture, criteria exist for measuring aesthetic experience and for appreciating beauty, decoration, make-up, music, poetry, cuisine, the plastic arts, and so on. Through these criteria, each group, people or culture expresses itself and is known in its specific and collective identity. Given that uniformity in this field is impossible, inter-cultural encounter can become a reality only through interest, observation, sharing and respect for the opinion of the other. In speaking of this, one of the approaches to aesthetic experience is the perception of its negation. Just as each group has its criteria for appreciating beauty, it also has, consciously or unconsciously, perceptions of what is ugly, repugnant, of what provokes a reaction contrary to the experience of beauty. I think that aesthetic experience is comparable to religious experience in the sense that it is also plural and contextual. I believe it is always useful to insist on the nature of religious experience in order to become aware of its truth. One of the most profound roots of the religious spirit can be found in the human search to understand the ultimate origin of personal and collective life as well as the whole. Human beings are aware that their life is contingent and that it is always search for a way to give meaning to being and acting and to respond to the fact of death. All religions are instances of a response to this search for ultimate meaning. They are collective constructions that make it possible for their members to achieve harmony with themselves, with others, with the world and with the Absolute by offering a basic orientation in life. But what makes religious experience different from the aesthetic is that, while recognizing its grounding in conviction as a believer, we can, at the same time, say that all religions are instruments, mediations through which the unique Ultimate Mystery called God offers humans a path to life, reconciliation, a path of salvation. This is the ultimate foundation of religious truth. The offering of salvation and life by God is taken up in each religion through a variety of socio-cultural and historical parameters and is shaped into a set of images of paradise that include a mythology about the origin and, above all, the purpose of life so that each member can find an orientation in time and space. Every religion attempts, at the same time, to explain the origin of evil, of suffering, of disease, of the limitations of human life, of bad behav-

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ior, of cruelty, of the possibility of condemnation through a bad use of freedom, etc. Along with the imagery of paradise there is also the imagery of hell. The postulates of judging individual and/or collective behavior derive directly or indirectly from these two sets. Here lie the ethical foundations (commandments/norms and prohibitions/condemnations) included in every religion or religious experience. These offer the framework for an orientation that makes life in common possible. This is the material available to dialogue and inter-religious encounter. Accepting religious pluralism means not beginning from one concrete religion in order to defend its absolute truth apologetically but rather to be disposed to an openness to discover the truth in each religion. It is precisely through this imagery of paradise and hell that each religion expresses the concepts of salvation/condemnation, the value of the beautiful and the horrible as well as the principles that orient human conduct according to good or evil in their ethicalreligious consequences. Theological reflection is called to inquire about the foundations and ultimate goal of every religion as mediator of salvation that offer a path so that human beings can be good if they are faithful to its religious and ethical principles. But then, is every human action justified by taking refuge in the truth of its own religion? Does religious pluralism in itself imply relativism in world ethical values? Or are there perhaps universal values that are valid everywhere and acceptable by every religious system, that could lay the foundation for a minimum necessary for peaceful co-existence and make inter-religious encounter possible? Liberation theology can make a valuable contribution through its arrangement of criteria. While it is clear that it arose in the lap of the JudeoChristian faith, its task as theological reflection does not start with the truth-initself of Christianity in order to engage in apologetics with believers of nonChristian religions. It begins rather with an analysis of reality (see/judge/act) and allows itself to be challenged by the ignominy of misery and poverty. It places its theological task at the service of the poor. Out of an option for the poor it invites us to judge this reality with Christian principles, to confront the truthfulness and the credibility of the Christian faith with the reality of suffering and so rediscover its vocation. From the theological tradition it is possible to find criteria that are clearer for the elaboration of a pluralist theology that does not fall into the tendency to be fashionable and that does not dilute itself by declaring that every religion is the consequence of pure human subjectivity.

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Reality needs to be seen and analyzed from the reference point of the lot of the poor. Every religion should base its reflections on the ugly, the evil and what can be condemned in this world Honesty about reality, that is to say, acceptance of reality such as it is, seen and analyzed from the option for the poor, is part of the mind-set of liberation theology This is one of its most valuable contributions and one that can be taken up by any religion I want to point out some current points of reference Ever since the roundness and finiteness of the earth was recognized, there has been a qualitative movement forward toward a planetary awareness Humanity has had to go through long years of wars of conquest, demarcation of borders, ethno-centnc aggressions, annihilation or submission of the "other" in order to come to accept that we are all human beings with the same rights to live on our planet The Darwinian hypothesis of the survival of the strongest in the struggle for life seemed to be correct and to be confirmed in human society However, the awareness that we are all a single humanity living in a single world has finally triumphed Much has been written and analyzed lately about the negative aspects of the process of globalization The basic criterion for studying and analyzing world reality and the process of globalization should always be the lot of those condemned to live in extreme poverty We all agree that we need to adopt a planetary, global, holistic point of view The fundamental problem has to do with what it is that is being globalized, that is to say neohberal capitalism as the only model, monopolizing and directing the world with its driving principle, namely global competition Franz Hmkelammert believes that neocapitahsm is a messianism of egotism, of self-interest, that is dressed up as the supreme expression of love of neighbor, when in reality, by its own logic, this system has generated, generates and will continue generating exclusion since it is based on making profits To do that it separates politics and economics from ethical, moral and religious principles. The misery generated in recent decades is growing instead of diminishing and has concrete faces illiteracy, high rates of infant mortality, a low level of life expectancy, malnutrition in poor countries, and so on. New factors make the statistics on poverty even more Dantesque and apocalyptic demographic expansion continues acting as a time bomb, AIDS has now a Black-African face, etc The arms race continues to be a mortal danger for humanity3 Octavio Paz described quite accurately the destructive logic of modernity "The first consequence of technology is the destruction of the image of the world [The existence of nuclear arms] constitutes, all by itself, an argument that literally vaporizes the

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Since 1980 genetic research has advanced at increasing speed We have seen the decoding of the human genome Achievements in the technology of cloning cells have forced us to raise profound ethical questions since this knowledge demands a new awareness of responsibility before the world and an attempt to define its possibilities and its limits The global bodies that are concerned with ecology do not agree on how to face the threats and the catastrophes posed to all humanity by climate change It is obvious that we need to come to a global consensus about a minimum set of fundamental values with universal validity Unfortunately, we hear a political discourse promoted by the great powers calling for the creation of a "New World Order " The world order of the Cold War years was based on a balance of power for the defense of each one's interests through a play in the correlation of forces With the fall of the Socialist Block, the tension between East and West was lowered In passing, it needs to be said that this had been the justification for the arms race Unfortunately, the change has not led to a stable peace The model of exclusion has continued in the concept of a new international world order Today the president of the United states uses a political and pseudo-religious discourse through which he divides humanity and peoples into the good and the bad, between people who enjoy human rights and "terrorists whose fundamental rights are not recognized because of their satanic character On the other hand, some try to defend themselves from the unilateral influences of this globalization led by the interests of the great economic powers Their responses unfortunately generate no less danger polarization and brutahzation in all manner of political-religious fundamentalisms and aggravated nationalisms In this way, such movements reproduce the neohberal system in the most negative and perverse way Convinced that their truth is the only and absolute one, they are essentially excluding and do not tolerate the existence of the other Intolerance and elimination are only steps apart Samuel Huntington stirred up a lot of discussion and controversy with the book in which he presented his thesis of a "clash of civilizations " We don't need to accept his thesis in order to be aware that this theme puts its finger on one of the burning torments affecting humanity today

idea of progress whether as a gradual evolution or as a revolutionary leap It is true that until now we have managed to ward off the slaughter But, that doesn't matter because our idea of time loses its consistency before the mere possibility If the bomb has not destroyed the world, it has destroyed our idea of the world " Octavio Pax, El signo y el garabato, Barcelona, 1991, 12 13

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Filtering our own religious experience through the screen of criteria that are based on the option for the poor. Life presented with an eye to the poor: the beautiful, the good. Faced with this world-wide reality, questions about the future of humanity necessarily arise: Is not struggling for a more just and humane world like touting windmills? I think not. There is a large potential in religions that is still not being utilized in this matter. In the first place, there is not the slightest doubt that we should promote a planetary responsibility based on shared ethical values in relation to the earth, the atmosphere, the universe. In other words, humanity has reached a level of awareness in which it recognizes the vital need to come to a consensus about a world ethic. All the relevant social bodies need to take up this fundamental question and try to give adequate and effective responses. Evidently religions are being questioned in a very specific and direct way as institutions that are guarantors of fundamental values, that give reasons for hope and that provide the sense of ultimateness in human conduct (to the extent that they deal with salvation or condemnation). There are many theologians who see a privileged field for interreligious encounter in the struggle for justice. This work does not amount to each religion renouncing its fundamental principles, nor is it the objective of inter-religious dialogue to create a type of meta-religion. That is not desirable and further I do not believe it is possible. The objective of dialogue will consist in searching for a consensus that would permit steps toward an awareness of a world ethic. In second place, it seems to me that this consensus should be based on a positive vision of being human and on respect for fundamental human rights. The bishop of Angers, Henri Tessier, says that, "Religions need to subject themselves to the universal conscience in its effort to bring human rights to light and to promote them." It is very difficult to find consensus for a world ethics without taking the human person as a being who is free before others, a being for others (the political vocation), as a moral subject and as an incarnated spirit with basic material and bodily needs and with a capacity to transcend that is open to the Absolute, a subject that raises the question of the origin and the finality of personal and all life. Every human being, by the very fact of being human, possesses fundamental and inalienable rights that must be respected by all States and at

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every level In this sense, each religion needs to rediscover the divine in struggling for human rights and become a social conscience 4 It is a fact that every religion has a conception of what it is to be human In the cosmogonal stories or those of creation there is an outline of a vision of the "human condition " In each religion there is a dream for a new world, another humanity where evil, disgrace, shame, egotism and death no longer exist These concepts should be screened, rediscovered, perhaps corrected and enriched through intra- and inter-religious dialogue Christianity, for its part, has developed a view of the human person created in the image and likeness of God This confers on humans an inalienable dignity by the very fact of being a human person, independently of their social, cultural, religious, economic or other condition Toward a liberating religious aesthetic In antiquity the aesthetic expenence was bound intrinsically to religious experience What was true had to be good and what was good was, for that reason, beautiful In the religious spirit everything was considered a spark of God and participation in the Beautiful par excellence, in the Ground of all Unum, verum et bonum [one, true and good] were considered attributes of God, of the Divine By reflecting theologically on religious pluralism and struggling for an encounter in inter-religious dialogue, it should become possible for human beings to be able to experience the beauty of life and the joy of being alive, to experience how pleasant it is to build a more human world in which diversity is not excluded but enriches

There are already classic catalogues that are the result of world wide consensus and that should serve as a foundation for intra religious discussions and for inter-religious dialogues These include the Magna Carta Libertatum (1215), the Declaration on Habeas-Corpus (1679), the Bill of Rights (1689), the Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776), the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789, 1791), the Declaration of Human Rights in the French constitution (1793), the Fundamental Rights of the German People (Paulskirchen Verfassung, 1848) The declarations and international conventions include the Declaration of Womens' Rights of 1848, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950), the conventions of human rights of the United Nations including economic, social and cultural rights There is also the agreement on the rights of citizens and politicians in the final document of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki, 1975) as well as the Charter of Pans for a new Europe (1990), and so on

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Thus, the liberating effort is an effort to reveal and eliminate the structures that promote evil, it is the "negation of the negation" of human dignity But it needs also to be understood in a very positive sense For liberation theology the poor represent not only the oppressed who need liberation but also a source of spirituality in so far as the will of God, the dream of the Creator who does not wish exclusion, becomes transparent in them In every religion there is also recognition of evil, of sin, of redemption or expiation of harm done We urgently need inter-religious dialogue that would help better clarify the mechanisms that justify the structures of sin that create inhumanity Toward a liberating world religious ethic: a commitment for a world ethic Religions offer reasons for ultimateness in human conduct They offer unconditional grounding for human conduct and thus they offer the best principles for grounding an ethic for human self-realization For that reason undoubtedly no world ethos will be achieved without mter-rehgious dialogue Furthermore, this dialogue is not possible unless a prior or simultaneous internal dialogue takes place in each religion This internal dialogue in each religion would be much more productive if it were always motivated by the reality of the suffering of the poor Hans Kung, the Swiss theologian, is a pioneer in this reflection through his Weltethos project I will just make one reference here to his books and invite you to read them since his reflections and contributions continue to be as valid as they are necessary Kung calls for a dialogue about the minimum/maximum that would make co-existence possible in cultural-religious dialogue This would happen by determining the maximum elements for a basic humanity and taking the "Golden Rule" - Do not do to anyone what you would not wish for yourself - as the fundamental ethical imperative Expressed in a positive way it says Do to others what you would like to have done to you, treat others as you would like to be treated The well-being of a human being is based then on an acceptance that has a quality of ultimateness in dignity and human rights The essential components of the Weltethos Project were integrated and accepted in the Second World Parliament of Religions (1993) whose final version came out of the "Assembly of religious and Spiritual Leaders" as a complement to the Human Rights document of the United Nations and integrated as well the Declaration on Welethos of Chicago (1993) Other initiatives, like those that come from the "InterAction Council" (1997) and the Third World Parliament of Religions (South Africa, 1999), have moved this project to greater maturity

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Concretely, this search for a world ethos brings with it demands that need to be taken up. On the intra-religious level: Faced with the problems that affect humanity and in the struggle to establish a just and equitable world, we should not begin with pretensions about absolute and specific truths that are at the heart of many religions. Every conception of divine revelation brings with it the latent tendency to exclude others. The affirmation that is common to many religions to consider themselves the "chosen people" of God needs to be constantly monitored. The foundation and origin of the salvific will is not in religion as such (that is to say in its contents, truths, liturgies, etc), but rather in the origin itself of religion: in God, the Absolute, the Creator, the One who Shapes, or however it is named. Therefore, election should not be conceived as "over against," by excluding the other. Each religion should go through the process of becoming aware of being a path to salvation, a concrete offering of life by God in service of all humanity, and should take up its responsibility in face of the pain that exists in the world as ethical-moral bodies. This will not be possible without openness to internal dialogue, to the internal prophetic voices, to allowing oneself to be questioned and sensitized by the reality of poverty and marginalization. On the inter-religious level: Religions need to be critical and prophetic places in society in opposition to all the initiatives and laws inspired by Machiavellian principles, which say that we should act morally when it is possible but immorally when it is required. Democracy itself, in all its forms, will have no future without mutual respect among believers in different religions and between believers and non-believers. Every believer needs to confront his/her own praxis of faith with reality as it is and above all with the lot of the impoverished. In every society there should be places where there is a preoccupation for watching out for the participative distribution of riches and for the application at the grassroots of the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity. Religions have a mayeutic* vocation to be the matrons and the midwives that help the Great Mother give birth to a new world. They will grasp their vocation to the extent that they stop centering in on them{Tr.: a word coined by Socrates to describe his dialectic method of teaching. The word is used more in Spanish than English.]

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selves and occupying the Center. They will rather allow that place to be occupied by the one who is the origin of all Life. All religion that preaches itself betrays in some way its fundamental mission: to help God so that all human beings are saved!

Chapter 18 The Missionary Task: Based on a pluralist theology of liberation

Cristian Tauchner Austria/Ecuador

In February, 2004, a symposium on missiology took place in Costa Rica on the occasion of the publication of the Conclusions of the most recent Latin American Missionary Congress that had taken place in Guatemala in November, 2003. At one point in this symposium there was a discussion about ways to encourage formation for mission. In this discussion the fact stood out that no church, no bishop, had financial or personnel problems for anyone in their diocese to study canon law or liturgy. However there was always a lack of personnel and finances for someone to study missiology.1 I take this as a sign of the seriousness given to the axiom that the Church is missionary by nature (AG 2): current practice largely contradicts the statement. So it is that one can see how mission and missiology have a marginal life in the Latin American Church, even though the discourse continues to affirm its essential missionary character. The discussion about understanding religious plurality in Latin American cannot but sharpen this problem. If mission was marginal in the "good times" of Christianity - in fact of Catholicism in Latin America, questioning the dominant position of Christianity, or the Church, renders the possibilities of mission even more difficult In order to approach the topic of this reflection, let us (1) look at the current practice and what is meant by mission. This examination will show (2) how little relation mission has within the larger context of society in Latin America and its dynamics. In this section we will have also to situate the broader panorama of religion in Latin America. Finally, (3) we will look for avenues in Latin American practice and reflection that refer to the missionary task. I hope these might serve to provide a foundation for that task. The main focus is therefore on Latin America. It seems to me that it is important to insist on this limitation from the beginning because it is apparent that the theology of religious pluralism in Latin America situates itself in a broader field. In fact, if inter-religious dialogue pretends to address the major

By way of example, the Faculty of Nossa Senhora da Assuncao in Sao Paulo (Brazil) has the only school of missiology in Latin America that offers a doctorate in that field. In that school there are now more postgraduate students in canon law than in all the other fields of theology combined.

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religions of Asia, there wouldn't be much to do in Latin America 2 However, this would seem to be too easy a way out If, on the other hand, we situate ourselves within the specific discussion happening in Latm America, the problem sharpens considerably, as we will see I believe it is also important to note that I situate myself on the Catholic side because it is my context and the one I know best 3 Mission in Latin America: marginality and exhaustion Latin America has been identified as a receptor of mission This no doubt comes from the colonial structure and the configuration of the Church in that context For a long time it was impossible for Latin Americans (Indigenous, Blacks and most of the Mestizos of various shades) to have access to ordained ministry The missionaries were always Europeans The faithful received "popular missions " It remains to be seen if independence and the republic modified this structure and to what extent the entry of Mestizos into the Church brought about significant changes 4 Pastoral and ecclesial marginality At this point there are a number of missionary Congregations working in Latin America Some have a long history It is basically these Congregations that have taken responsibility for carrying out and channelling the missionary effort of the Church Their structures have allowed Latin American missionaries, women and men, to go at first from one country to another in an exchange within the continent, and little by little also outside it The missionary effort within our countries and on the continent was inspired by an appreciation of "missionary situations" that exist in many countries Indigenous 5 and Afro ru2

See, in the first volume of this series, 2003, the statistics offered by Franz Damien on the presence of religions in Latin America 3 In editing the review Spintus, we have an on-going conversation with a group of mis siologists and scholars of religion who meet every three months Participating n this group are Doctor Susana Andrade, an anthropologist, Fathers Antonio Carlos de Meira, M S C and Pedro Torres In our group we have discussed the theme of this article on various occasions and I want to recognise and thank the observations of my colleagues 4 The example of "Romamzation" coming from the Council of Trent and as a project of the Church in the Amazon region of Brazil during the middle of the 19th century leads us to suspect that a greater participation of local perspectives in Latin America would run up against a very cautious reaction See Arenz, 2003, 73-96 I believe we can see the same mistrust of a more home-grown point of view in what happened to CELAM in the 1970s through to the 1990s and more recently, after a brief period of recuperation, in the second half of the 1990s 5 Many Congregations were devoted to these tasks See, for example, the Launtian Missionaries [Tr Missionaries of Mary Immaculate and of Catherine of Siena, foun-

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ral sectors without (sufficient) pastoral attention have attracted many Congregations, especially since the 1960s when the demographic explosion in Latin America was first noted The example of my own Congregation is typical At the end of the 19th century the Divine Word Missionaries came to Brazil, then Argentina and later Chile and Paraguay In somewhat different circumstances it also went to the United States to accompany the German immigrants In this process some parishes were established as well as many schools that even today have a level of prestige in these countries A second wave took place in the 1960's (Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico), once again in order to establish schools and provide to attend to marginal rural sectors The personnel for this mission always came from Europe 6 But, during this period there also arose an interest in having Latin Americans go as missionaries to other countries 7 However, this movement in Latm America to go abroad is still weak and suffers from many difficulties The dominant characteristic continues to be a strong dependence on personnel coming from Europe Many Congregations show a similar dynamic Personnel circulate within Latm America and the preference is placed on replacing the ordinary pastoral workers in parishes, communities and in primary and secondary schools 8 Clerical Congregations in particular have managed to achieve a certain autonomy in the management of their works The bishops generally are happy to have someone who working in their territory and often this provides

ded m Colombia in 1914 by Mother Laura Montoya Upegui ] We can also include here the project of the Sister Churches in Brazil that provide help from southern Brazil to those in need in the Amazon region See Krautler, 1998 6 The dynamic in the United States developed very differently with a very interesting thrust toward Blacks in the South and many missionaries also for Africa and Asia See Brandewie, 2000 7 According to the most recent statistics of my Congregation, of 450 members who were born in Latin America, 13 work in Europe, 11 in Asia, 8 in Oceania, 29 in Africa, 16 on the American continent but outside Latin America However there are 373 in Latin America itself To complete the picture, the total of 892 Divine Word Missionaries who work in Latin America include 373 from Latin America (plus 5 countries on the American continent that are not Latin American), 287 from Europe, 209 from Asia, 15 from Africa and 3 from Oceania 8 The "Obras Pontificias del Ecuador" [Pontifical Works of Ecuador] claims that there are 280 Ecuadonans of whom 15 are men who work in missions ad gentes ad extra [outside their homeland] See Lehane, 2004 Regarding financial support for missions, according to the Obras Misionales Pontificias de Quito [Missionary Works of Quito], Ecuador contributes $250,000 to the DOMUND collection [TR the annual collection for missions in parishes around the world] but receives much more in projects that are financed from outside Ecuador The ratio is 1 7 (for every dollar given, they receive seven)

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access to resources to build up the infrastructure of their diocese This Congregational autonomy also leads to a certain parallelism in the Church and to a weak integration with the diocesan clergy In this way, the missionary Congregations end up in a pastoral work that is not very different from that carried out by other Church workers At times it appears they are fulfilling their particular chansm the Combonian family w orks with those of African descent, Divine Word with the Bible and so on with the others, according to the chansm of each Congregation However, little is done in the sense of a "mission" outside the Church Rather the mission is directed to strengthening the structures of the established Church (attention to parishes, courses for pastoral agents, etc ) There is no lack of groups that devote themselves energetically to the spread of popular devotions, saints and chansms Many "missionary" groups also fall into this category, especially those of laypeople who set themselves up inside the Churches and promote their particular interests (John XXIII, Charismatic and Neo-catechumenal groups, just to mention a few) They are groupings with a strong missionary sensitivity based on strong identities and that work with great dedication In some cases their fundamentalist and sectarian orientation also needs to be pointed out Their integration or connection with the work of the Church is often partial and weak There is no lack of projects promoted by the Bishops' Conferences and other official entities that, at significant moments, call for a "large mission" oriented to bring nominal Christians back to the parishes The goal is clearly that of strengthening the institutional space of the Church 9 In the end, the lm pression is given that "everything is 'mission,'" everything that is geared so that the Church recovers something of its influence in society, an influence that is increasingly attenuated The theological perspective is perhaps that of the plantatw Ecclesiae [establishment of the Church] The theory of marginality The discussion during the Symposium on Missiology in Costa Rica, mentioned at the beginning of this reflection, focused on the need for formation for mission and formation in missiology This need has been reiterated for some time now m the conclusions of the different Latin American Missionary Congresses (COMLA's) The theological and pastoral onentation of these "missions" are normally set in a preVatican II context They encourage a sense of sin, the central character of the Church (in a crass ecclesio centnsm), an absence of any perspective of the Reign of God and disconnection from the social context and life of the people All this can be found, for example, in the proposal for Mission proposed by the Bishops' Conference of Ecuador

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The fact is that missiology has a marginal life in the programs of theological formation In the university programs it is normally an elective chosen to raise the mark average There is no integration in the programs in the sense that mission would be a transversal perspective (like contextual theologies, contextual biblical readings, etc ) Mission or missiology is something added on and exotic 10 We need to remember that this transversal integration of programs of study is something that has not been achieved at any level Cardinal Tomko, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, complained on occasion that, in this area, he was not able to convince his colleagues m the Vatican who were responsible for organizing the programs of theological studies There are few centers for advanced formation in missiology in Latin America For a long time there were only the post-graduate programs of Cochabamba (an ecclesiastical licentiate) and Sao Paulo (doctorate). Other institutions proclaim an orientation toward mission but offered no degrees in missiology n However, they do try to take mission more seriously in the curriculum There are also some notable efforts at courses in missiology with various modalities 12 Generally these are organized by the Obras Pontificias in the different countries To this picture we need to add the tremendous lack of literature on the topic 13 above all of works grounded in Latin American experience and practice I remember the comment of the dean of a theological faculty who denied the importance of missiology in the program because "our students stay here, they don't go to the missions " '' This is the case of the Intercontinental University in Mexico, D F There might be others 12 There is the well-established course on missiology related to the Obras Pontificias in Argentina, which is perhaps the oldest And there is the summer course in missiology organized by the Obras Pontificias of Mexico There are other similar courses at the local level 13 In Latin America there are few explicitly missiological journals There is Spiritus, published in Quito There are other journals that treat of topics in missiology and mission with some frequency Voces at the Intercontinental University (Mexico), Revista de Cultura teologica at the Faculty of Theology ot Nossa Senhora da Assuncao, Sao Paulo, Espacos at ITESP, Sao Paulo, Yacha at the Catholic University in Chochabam ba, Senderos in Costa Rica Finally there is a collection of magazines devoted more to missionary animation and information These are often connected with various Congregations and provide missiological reflections, generally in a more popular style for easy reading The publication of books is sporadic and very local due to the complicated distribution system in Latin America This whole field is another indication of the tremendous dependency the mission in Latin America has on the exterior with regard to its concepts and reflections The most systematic treatment of missiology from a Latin American perspective is that of Bishop Luis Augusto Castro (1994) There is now also the text of David Bosch (2000) thanks to the translation by the Kairos Group

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In spite of this, the weight of some missiologists in Latin America and internationally is impressive The presidents of two missiological associations work m Latin American Paulo Suess is the president of the Ecumenical Association (IAMS) and Juan Gorski is president of the Catholic Association (IACM) 1 4 This is even more impressive since the Latin American membership in both organizations is not that outstanding I5 It is clear then that there is a systematic absence of missiological reflection in the sum of Latin American theology and pastoral efforts The missionary congresses (COMLA's) are taking place more and more m a festive context, one of celebration and sharing of experiences that are increasingly local and that bring in their own participants ' 6 From the missionary congress m Guatemala (2003) it would be difficult to try to point out any contribution that clarified the mission There were many elements that were very important martyrs, local spirituality and openness to other religions and spiritualities in a context of sharing creation l7 However, in the conclusions, mission is reduced to evangelization of the context itself and the reality of the in Buenos Aires and the publication of "Libros Desafio"[Challenge Books] in the United States For more information consult the bibliography prepared by Father Juan Gorski and that is probably very complete It is available at www sedos org 14 Since these lines were written both associations held their world assemblies in 2004 and the presidencies were renewed 15 IAMS currently has 515 individual members, 20 associate members and 79 organizational members of whom 13 (and possibly one institution) work in Latin America There are 11 members who have their home country in Latin America (without being able to identify whether this means people resident there or originally from there) In the last international conference (South Africa, 2000), less than 10 persons from Latin America participated and some of them were not even Latin Americans as is the case of Paulo Suess and myself The IACM currently brings together 352 missiologists from Africa (29), Asia (41), Oceania (4), Europe (120), North America (23) and Latin America (135) This large Latin American group includes 30 who are not of Latin American origin apart from the 100 Latin American missiologists This result is no doubt due to the serious efforts of Juan Gorski to bring them together (From data in the IACM Bulletin #3 and personal communication with Fr Juan Gorski) 16 At the Congress in Lima (1991) there was already a good presentation of missionary experiences perhaps in the classical sense of the ad gentes mission In Belo Honzonte (Brazil) these experiences became more Latin American (pastoral work with Indige nous and Afro people and things like that) In Parana (Argentina, 1999) a program of doctrinal presentations was imposed and later on this had a difficult landing in concrete reality In Guatemala the experiences moved on to other areas (like spirituality, prayer and martyrdom) though not without conflicts 17 This was corrected immediately In this context one needs to consider the enormous reticence of the presidents for each day in face of Mayan prayer and their tacit correction of the points made by Joaquin Garcia (2003) who had opened the door to dialogue and a more open missiology

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context ends up quite restricted and with little impact on the formulation of mission. 18 The Latin American context of religious pluralism Sometimes one hears it said of Latin America that it is the Catholic continent and that is has a foundation of (Catholic) Christianity in its culture. This claim to deep Catholicity is directed, in the first instance, against the presence of the Protestant and Evangelical Churches that would then have no right to invade this occupied territory. This is a very restricted way of situating a monoreligious presence, one that has no difficulty in disregarding the great diversity within Catholicism itself in order to asset its dominant position. The fact is that there are many forms of "popular religiosity" which, at first sight, have little to do with Catholicism. They are understood to be religious practices affected by a dose of syncretism that could probably be healed through a better catechesis, popular missions, a closer adhesion to the Magisterium (It is in this context that we can understand the publication of the Universal Catechism.) and the "purification" of popular religiosity, to use the words of Puebla (for example, 457ff).19 In connection with the 500 years' anniversary and now more and more in the New Age context, there is a kind of renaissance of autochthonous religions. Shamans rise up everywhere claiming an ancient Indigenous religious tradition. On the one hand, it would appear certain that many religious practices have survived centuries of catechizing, conversion and extermination. The original religiosity of the people knew how to adapt to the new religious ways and many Andean huacas* have changed their name to Saint Anthony, Saint Isidore, and so on, in order to continue exercising their role as protector. It would also appear that some of these practices of accommodation were known earlier on and tolerated. Above all Catholicism was able to accept many more external elements in its religious practice than other forms of Christianity. From this also comes the traditional accusation of idolatry of saints, etc. 20 See Meira 2004. For a reflection on the missionary task of the local Church grounded in the local Church, see the conferences in the symposium on missiology in Costa Rica that were published in Spiritus (Gorski, 2004; Masserdotti, 2004) and some reflections about the conclusions in Spiritus 45/2 (June, 2004). 19 1 believe it was Diego Irarrazaval who first raised the question, a long time ago, of "popular religiosity" as a religion that merited a different treatment, not as a subsystem of Catholicism. For his later reflections see, for example, Irarrazaval, 1999. * [Tr.: An Indigenous name for a terra cotta figure.] Anthropologist Susana Andrade has followed these processes of transformation and identity of the religious system in the highlands of Ecuador. See Andrade, 1998, 2002, 2004. She tells the interesting story of a celebration of Carnival organized by a mayor in an Evangelical community that, centuries after its conversion to Catholicism, was

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This raises a question about the reality of Indigenous religion In some places surely it is alive and well Guatemala, Mexico, Bolivia and the Amazonian jungle The rest of the continent has suffered serious interferences in this original religion, ruptures of its structure and loss of important parts of its system It appears also that many religious elements have borrowed forms of expression from the dominant religion baptisms, saints, prayers, etc Another difficulty in approaching this religion is its strictly communitarian character Foreigners are not allowed to participate in or observe the most important rituals and, sometimes not even those who practice it provide, or can provide, much of explanation about what they are doing 21 Thus there arises an initial challenge to know and approach Indigenous religions so that we can begin a dialogue and have a pluralist conversation of religions, 22 and this is a initial missionary task However, the projection of a plural religious vision implies more than relating to Indigenous religions A large part of the Latin American population lives in cities and has left behind its rural and ancestral connections These people have an important relationship with earlier religious practices of pilgrimages, sacraments and certain devotions, for example, but they are less integrated into a coherent world and global view The urban environment and its post-modern characteristics, including a gap in the stones and the impossibility of coherence in the long term, necessarily leads to a search for new reference points that offer minimal possibilities for giving meaning to life. Do we need to speak of religion when referring to soccer or consumerism, with their rituals and other elements that are close to being religious 9 What is the religion of youth in the cities 9 What occupies the place taken by religion in earlier generations 7 What exactly is religion in Latin America 7 Added to all this is the irruption into Latm America of post-modern breakdowns The (religious) institutions can no longer provide coherent visions of meaning The pressure leads to individualism and to the immediate satisfaction

converted to Evangelism in the 1960s, to the true Gospel and Spirit in the 1990s and more recently to neo-Pentecostahsm To the surprise of all, this had not erased the cus toms and practices of Taita Carnaval, although it must be said that the connection and the practice of the customs suffered a serious interruption and discontinuity See Andrade, 2003 21 I am grateful to Fr Pedro Torres for many of these observations For example, that the Indigenous place a certain kind of stone or the hair of animals in a certain place at the proper time and so also a large number of "customs" or rituals It is well known that baptism in the Indigenous community includes a long list of ceremonies of which only a small part take place in the church and the Catholic ritual The community celebrates these other parts in their own setting and without the presence of strangers (above all the Catholic priest and those who are close to him) 22 1 believe the situation in Brazil and the religions in that setting is different

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of desires This also implies a reconfiguration of religion according to molds that are more or less constructed to fit the user The new religious movements and the most recent generation of Churches have a large capacity to fill these vacuums that the traditional Churches are abandoning at an accelerated rate (See Combhn, 2000) Faced with these developments, the historical Churches reacted with a manner of withdrawal This is obvious in the case of the Catholic Church which, in the last twenty years, has been abandoning the public sphere Perhaps this corresponds to the decision to compete with other ideologies and so to submit to the rules of the market and of marketing But it also has to do with a loss of a Utopian perspective that had marked the earlier decades and that produced liberation theology with its options and social projects The delay in the arrival of the hoped-for parousia of liberation caused confusion and a drawing back, no doubt also animated and compensated by the figure of the Pope as a great leader So, the contribution of the Catholic Church to society m terms of proposals for meaning is ever less creative and ends up more and more being a repetition of principles which, unfortunately, seldom have any practical usefulness in real life 24 In this change of discourse there is a tacit erasure of perspectives that were once quite fundamental the "option for the poor" in Puebla becomes, in Ecclesia in America, 58, 18, 67, a "preferential love for the poor", the local Church gets lost in the "Church on pilgrimage," the "people of God," the central reference in Vatican II, is pushed back to a marginal position It's worth remembering all this forty years after Lumen Gentium Given weak identities and multiple belongings, some levels of the Church see the need for ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue But the accent is placed on their own strong identity Once we have a clear Catholic identity, they say, we can enter into discussion They insist that we can dialogue only from our own identity If this is true to some extent, the identity in question is generally understood to be stable and fixed and without any possibility of modification In this way the very nature of dialogue is falsified since dialogue necessarily implies the possibility of modifying one's own point of view

See ' La fe en una sociedad de gratificacion instantanea," Concilium, 282, September 1999 24 A symptomatic case can be found in the field of communications Up until the middle of the 1980s, the Latin American church was a reference point for alternative and popular communication, both in its theoretical orientation (with its clear and strong position in favour of a new order of communication, NOMIC) as also in the practice of popular communications and even alternative communication with the masses Since then, the Church has less and less to say in dns field that is ever more complex but that also is increasingly central to the configuration of society It seems to me that it is not without interest that the figure of the "Communication Pope" was established during this same period as a reference point for discourse

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It seems to me that we would have to situation the desire for a pluralist coexistence in this context of a religious bricolage* in Latin America Evidently it is more pleasant to dialogue and live pluralistically with religions like Buddhism or Islam, which are unfortunately quite far from where we are, than with the followers of a certain soccer team or with people who at this point find their supreme religious satisfaction m sensing the energies of the pyramids of Cochasquf,25 a form of religiosity that is, unfortunately (*>), all too close to us The institutional weakness of the Churches and the muddled strength of post-modern New Age religiosity bring with them the danger that the fundamental options of liberation theology will be sidelined For inter-religious dialogue and plural co-existence this complicates the perspectives Perspectives for the task A few years ago, the editors of Spiritus raised the question about the future of mission To do that they asked a number of religious missionary institutes about the way youth understand their service m mission The mam theme of the journal was developed on the basis of fifty responses that came in to the editorial team The interesting point was to see that the young missionaries centered their ministry on witness, dialogue and fraternal service 26 It seems that the responses gave no importance to explicit proclamation, the extension or implantation of the Church, the establishment of institutions, the construction of infrastructure (See the evaluation of the questionnaires in Lefebvre, 1999 ) This indicates that in the practice of mission many people situate their mission within perspectives that are open to pluralism Many testimonies and theoretical articles of Spiritus take this missionary orientation into account The most recent (Latin) American Congress in Guatemala also showed at least some openness in this sense During the Congress there was obviously a lot of insistence on the central character of Christ and the Church We even had the impression that the perspectives more open to pluralism were immediately corrected 27 However, the Conclusions of the Congress that were delivered in Costa Rica in February, 2004, open the field up again 28 There it is

* [Tr French for a do-it-yourself piece of work ] This is a place north of Quito, Ecuador where pre-Columbian people had observatories and places of worship 26 This is also the title of the monographic issue of Spiritus 40/'4 (157, December, 1999) "Misioneros hoy Testimomo, dialogo, servicio fraterno " For example the conference of Joaquin Garcia (2003), already mentioned, on the context of creation and prayer in a Mayan style For evaluations of the COMLA of Guatemala see the most recent issues of Spiritus (173-175) For elements in the evaluation of these Conclusions see various reflections in Spiritus, 175 (June, 2004)
25

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stated that the strength of the Latin American Church, which make its mission possible, are the option for the poor, popular religiosity and inculturation (Mira, 7). These three elements are probably not all that characteristic of the entire Latin American Church. But it is remarkable that smallness, poverty and martyrdom are emphasized by COMLA as the three strengths that make mission possible. Nevertheless, the Conclusions of COMLA do not, on the other hand, go beyond the central focus on the institution and so in the end we have some statements that are very exclusivist and even bizarre. 29 We probably cannot imagine the missionary task being carried out in the absence of a definition of our own identity. But this missionary identity would be expressed not in terms of the universal catechism or of theoretical fundamentalism, but rather in the authenticity of witness as a religious person. I remember the much commented intuition of Paul VI in Evangelii Nuntiandi about the central character of witness. 30 It is a matter of co-existence in solidarity, intimacy, fraternity and service of the power that allows itself to be questioned about its deeper motivations. The theoretical perspective for grounding mission, and so also missiology, should be shifted away from the biblical field of the classic texts about the "sending" at the end of the synoptic Gospels and toward other perspectives. 31 One could think of a grounding based on the responses asked of witnesses to hope as in I Peter 3, 15 that has its backdrop in the vision of the prophet, Zechariah 8, 23. Here we have the life of someone who certainly placed his hope in Yahweh but who did not come to proclaim his doctrines. Rather, he situated the meaning of his life in faith and could provide responses to those who questioned him. It seems to me that this new grounding of mission is still pending. Another perspective comes from a new configuration of the connection between contemplation and mission. In Europe since the time of the Benedictines, contemplative life has had an important mission, one that is civilizing. For their contemplative life, the Benedictines set themselves up in remote areas and, while there, came to be important nuclei for a civilizing development. ToFor example: "God wants everyone to come to be His sons and daughters in Christ and He wants everyone to be converted into the image and visible sign of the Trinitarian community" (Oye 3), as if human beings were not sons and images of God since creation. But this creational perspective was precisely the battlefield during COMLA. "As we said recently to a group of lay people, 'Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses'" (EN, 41). 31 One possibility can be found in the image of the sower, not in identifying the missionary as sower but through the disciple who sees and collaborates because the harvest is abundant. It is someone else who has sown. See Masserdotti, 2004. This article of Bishop Masserdotti is very interesting because at least it leaves open many pluralist perspectives. Bishop Masserdotti is President of the Mission Department of CELAM.

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day we can make a new connection between contemplation and creation, in a missionary perspective that is less monastic, certainly not removed from the world and that searches precisely for a location in the center of this world and of society. The theoretical perspective would be the missio Dei that has recently been brought up again with great force. The missio Dei does not situate the agency of mission in the human actor but returns it to God. In this perspective the conduct and action of the missionary is not the focus but rather the religious person who contemplates what is happening in creation and in history. Thus the element of discernment of spirits comes in and this immediately refers us to a long spiritual tradition and to a communitarian context that, in the tradition of Latin American theology, is the very common methodology of "see, judge, act." The perspective of missio Dei emphasizes then that missionary action is, from beginning to end, a collaboration with what God is already bringing about in creation and history. For this action, the Church is obviously an appropriate context but not the only one. God certainly works through the Church, but with the same certainty we can say that he also works outside its boundaries. The disciple of God has a commitment with God and collaborates with God and with God's Spirit inside and outside the Church. The attitude of dialogue is obvious and necessary because it is part of the need to discern the action of God in others. That same discernment is the dialogical process that tries grasp what comes from God in myself and in others. This perspective of missio Dei is turning into a theoretical questioning of mission,32 but it has also made its entry into programming texts of missionary Congregations like the Divine Word Missionaries. The last General Chapter of Divine Word in 2000 adopted this perspective explicitly as its missionary orientation. Now it is very interesting to note that this change in perspective has been difficult for missionaries, especially in Latin America. It can be shown that the members of Divine Word in Latin America have hardly adopted this point of view. Rather, they stayed with the consequences that in this document are presented as a prophetic "fourfold dialogue" and that opens a back door so that missionary activity centered on the missionary and the Church can once again return. For that reason, dialogue is having little effect because the underlying vision has not been understood and much less adopted. Missionary practice would then, in the first place, consist of approaching in order to listen, see and to try to understand the religious practice of the people and so enter into dialogue. For this one has to accompany and to be present. There is always the danger of approaching what is folkloric or ingenuous when people do not allow us to share in their religious experience. In this field, above all in the cities, all sorts of people are sought out for religious experiences. However, the "experts" in this field (who could be priests and religious) See a series of articles by various authors in journals like Missiology, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Exchange, Spiritus or Mission Studies.

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are not sought out and might even have little credibility as people with a religious experience. To sum up, the missionary task is presented then from practice of a life inserted in the society (in opposition to any fuga mundi as the Church is once more presenting it) and in its conflicts, participation in public life (See Trigo 2002/2003), as a witness, fraternal service and dialogue. But this practice is understood and illumined in theoretical perspectives like offering explanation and response and in the contemplation of the action of God. Concrete practice is multi-faceted and blurred, but I believe there are many paths toward a pluralist direction that is respectful and in dialogue. The difficulty lies in the theoretical reflection and articulation of this praxis. 33 We have to hope that intuitions like that of the Conclusions of COMLA will prevail in the orientation of the missionary task of the Church in Latin America. These point to the smallness, poverty and martyrdom (as an extreme form of witness) of a Church that is aware that it is characterized by an option for the poor, that it is inculturated and living in base communities. Probably there will be attempts to impose a narrow missionary orientation on the tasks of institutional maintenance and ecclesiastical expansion. However, the more open and pluralist perspective has in its favour the beginnings of a praxis among the missionaries and a respectable ally in the Holy Spirit. This ally will surely cause a lot of confusion in the organization of the tasks of mission. However, it is worth betting on her protagonism.

Bibliography Andrade, S. (1998). Del paganismo al protestantismo: Algunos apuntes sobre el proceso de reinterpretacion de lo sagrado en los indigenas de Chimborazo - Ecuador. In: Angelina, Pollak-Eltz y Yolanda Salas (ed.). (1998). El pentecostalismo en America Latina entre tradition y globalization. Quito, Col. Pluriminor: Abya Yala. Andrade, S. (2002). El despertar politico de los indigenas evangelicos del Ecuador. In: Signos de Vida 23(March 2002). pp. 34-37. Andrade, S. (2003). Gobiernos locales indigenas en el Ecuador. In: Revista Andina 37(2003-2). pp. 115-136 Andrade, S. (2004). Protestantismo indigena. Procesos de conversion religiosa en la provincia de Chimborazo. Ecuador: Abya Yala.

In this context the exclusion of Paulo Suess from his faculty of theology in Sao Paulo is not irrelevant. Obviously this happened on orders from ecclesiastical authority that pretended not to know the work of Suess and to blame the action on a bureaucratic slip that, nevertheless, up to now has not been corrected.

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Arenz, Kart Heinz (2003). Sao Paulo e Salvo, A pajelanca da populacdo riheirinha do Baixo Amazonas como desfio para a evangelizacdo. Quito: Abya Yala. Bosch, David J. (2000). Mision en transformacion. Cambios de paradigma en la teologia de la mision. Grand Rapids: Libros Desafio. Brandewie, E. (2000). In the Light of the Word, Divine Word Missionaries of North America. [American Society of Missiology Series 29.] Maryknoll: Orbis. Castro, Mons. Luis Augusto (1994). El gusto por la mision. Manual de Misionologia para Seminarios. Col. Textos basicos para Seminarios Latinoamericanos III. Bogota: CELAM. Comblin, J. (2000). Nosotros y los otros, Los pobres frente al mundo globalizado. In: Spiritus 41(161, Dec. 2000-4). pp. 127-140. Comblin, J. (2002). O povo de Deus. Sao Paulo: Paulus. Damen, F. (2003). La pluralidad religiosa actual en el mundo y en America Latina. In: Vigil, J.M. (ed). (2003). Por los muchos caminos de Dios, [Tiempo Axial Collection no. 1]. Quito: Verbo Divino. pp. 19-23. Garcia, J. (2003). La mision, testimonio de la creacion. Conference at COMLA7-CAM2, 2003. Girardi, Mons. Victorino (2004). La mision ad gentes en nuestras iglesias particulares. Como aportar desde la pobreza, la pequefiez y el martirio. In: Spiritus 45/1 (175, March 2004). pp. 172-183. Gorski, J. (2004). Espiritualidad misionera ad gentes. Desde la Iglesia particular. In: Spiritus 45(175, March 2004-1). pp. 172-183. Gorski, J. (2004). Sabiduria indigena y tradition patristica. In: Spiritus 45(175, June 2004-2). Irarrazaval, D. (1999). Simbolos y conceptos de Dios. In: Inculturacion 5 (Jan.-Jun. 1999-1). Chuchito-Lima: IDEA/CEP. pp. 27-44 Krautler, E. (1998). Caracter misionero y solidaridad entre las Iglesias del Brasil. In: Spiritus 39(152, Sept. 1998-3). pp. 121-132. Lefebvre, J. (1999). Misioneros y profetas, Hermanos y hermanas. In: Spiritus 40(157, Dec. 1999-4). pp. 85-96. Lehane, T. (2004). Como esta respondiendo la Iglesia ecuatoriana a la mision. In: Tauchner, C. (ed.). (2004). Tres santos para la mision. Quito: Verbo Divino. Masserdotti, Mons. Franco (2004). Nuevos caminos en el anuncio del evangelio: desaffos para nuestras Iglesias particulares. Reflexiones a partir del CAM2-COMLA7. In: Spiritus 45(175, June 2004-2). Meira, Antonio Carlos de (2004). El camino se hace al andar. In: Spiritus 45(175, June 2004-2). Trigo, P. (2002). Perfil del sujeto eclesial evangelizador de la gran ciudad. El caso latinoamericano (I-III). In: Revista Latinoamericana de Teologia

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19, n. 56 (May-Aug. 2002), pp. 121-144; n. 57 (Sept.-Dec. 2002), p. 253-279 and 20/58 (Jan.-Apr. 2003). pp. 93-114. Vigil, J.M. (ed.). Sobre la opcionpor los pobres. Quito, Col. Iglesia, Pueblos y Culturas, Abya Yala. pp. 50-51.

Authors
BARROS, Marcelo, Goiania GO, Brazil. National Councilor of pastoral action in rural areas and of Christian Basic Communities. CASALDALIGA, Pedro former bishop of Sao Felix do Araguaia, in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Emblematic symbol of Latin American Church of the Poor, engaged in Liberation Theology and Spirituality. Former nomenee candidate for the Peace Nobel Prize. COMBLIN, Jose, Joao Pessoa PA, Brazil. Theologian, author of many books, with an outstanding Latin American leadership. DA SILVA, Antonio Aparecido, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Theologian and Catholic priest, leader of Afro-american pastoral action and theology. DE AQUINO Junior, Francisco, Ceara, Brazil. Professor in Ceara Pastoral Institute of Theology. Conducts pastoral activities with people of the street in Belo Horizonte, and rural evangelization in Limoeiro do Norte. Currently writing a doctoral thesis of theology in Westfalischen Wlhelms-Universitat of Miinster, Germany. GARAY, Joaquin, Germany - El Salvador. Works on his doctorate in theology in Germany. HIGUET, Etienne A., Sao Paulo SP, Brazil. Doctor in Theological and Religious Sciences in Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Professor in PosGraduate Program in Religious Sciences of Methodist University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. President of Paul Tillich Association of Brasil. IRARRAZAVAL, Diego, Santiago, Chile. Professor in the Catholic University (Silva Henrfquez) and vicar in San Roque Parish, Santiago, Chile. LAMPE, Armando, Aruba, Caribbean. Historian, member of CEHELA. Currently member of the Senate of Aruba. SILVA, Silvia Regina de Lima, Costa Rica - Brazil. Afro-latin-american theologian. Profesor in Biblical School of UBL, Universidad Biblica Latinoamericana, San Jose, Costa Rica. Member of DEI, Ecumenical Department of Investigations, San Jose, Costa Rica. TAUCHNER, Cristian, Austria/Ecuador. Missiologist, ex-director of Latin American edition of French review of Missiology Spiritus, in Quito, Equa-

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tor. Currently director of Stadt Gottes, missionary review of Divine Word Congregation in Wien, Osterreich. TEIXEIRA, Faustino, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil. Profesor of post graduate studies of Science of Religion, University of Juiz de Fora, and active in the area of theology of religions, dialogue among religions and spiritualities. Member of research team in the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development (CNQ), and councelor of ISER-Assessoria (Rio de Janeiro). TOMITA, Luiza E., Sao Paulo SP, Brazil. Executive Secretary & Treasurer of EATWOT (www.eatwot.org). Master in Biblical Studies and Doctor in Systematic Theology. Professor of Feminist Theology in several theological Brazilian institutions. VIGIL, Jose Maria, Panama City, Panama. Theologian and Psychologist. Coordinator of the International Theological Commission of EATWOT (www.eatwot.org/TheologicalCommission). Chief editor of the Latin American Agenda (latinoamericana.org), published since 1992 in 17 countries and 6 languages.

Latin American theology is associated with liberation, basic Christian communities, primacy of praxis and option for the poor. The present volume shows that Latin American theologians added new themes to the previous ones: religious pluralism, inter-religious dialogue and macroecumenism. It is the fruti of a programme of the Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) in Latin America, to work out a liberating theology of religions. TOMITA, Luiza E., Sao Paulo SP, Brazil. Executive Secretary & Treasurer of EATWOT (www.eatwot.org). Master in Biblical Studies and Doctor in Systematic Theology. Professor of Feminist Theology in several theological Brazilian institutions. BARROS, Marcelo, Goiania GO, Brazil. Benediktine Monk. National Councilor of pastoral action in rural areas and of Christian Basic Communities. Councilor also of several rural, landless and peasant organizations. Prolific writer in realms of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue, Spirituality, Ecology. VIGIL, Jose Maria, Panama City, Panama. Theologian and Psychologist. Currently coordinator of the International Theological Commission of EATWOT (www.eatwot.org/TheologicalCommission). Chief editor of the Latin American Agenda (latinoamericana.org), published since 1992 in 17 countries and 6 languages. Coordinator of www.servicioskoinonia.org, a website on Liberation Theology and Pluralistic Theology.

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