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 2

"AXIAL SHIFT" INSTEAD OF "PARADIGM SHIFT"

Twenty years after the first Meeting on liberation theology organized

Europe in El Escorial (1972), a second such meeting was held in the
same place, in 1992 1• 1 participated in both meetings, and a comparison
illustrates at least an "axial shift" (desplazamiento de eje) from
socio-economic to the socio-cultural perspective, without, however,
ne.!~le(;tinlg the former 2 • At the occasion of El Escorial II, Rosino Gibellini,
editor of important works on liberation theology in Italy, told me, "You
be pleased to see that other positions have come closer to that
of Argentinean theology". He was refening to the importance given in
this meeting to cultural analysis, popular wisdom and religiosity, and
symbolic reasoning. Does this shift deserve to be called, in the line of
Thomas Kuhn' s terminology, a change of paradigm?
In this presentation, 1 will first treat the Argentinean cunent of libera-
tion theology, which from the very beginning attached importance to the
historical-cultural analysis, and influenced on its adoption in Puebla,
contrary to what happened in Medellín. Next, 1 will show why and how
the axial shift refeITed to aboye took place within the main stream of
Latin-American liberation theology. Lastly, 1 will point out how, in my
opinion, the future of this theology is linked to this shift 3, insofar as it
cOITesponds to a transformation in the reality of the poor and in the real
possibilities of their liberation.

1. THE ARGENTINEAN CURRENT OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Gustavo GutiéITez refers to this CUITent - not too well known outside
Latin America - as "a cunent with its own features within liberation

1. See the acts of both meetings: INSTITUTO FE y SECULARlDAD, Fe cristiana y cambio

social en América Latina. Encuentro de El Escorial, 1972, Salamanca, Sígueme, 1973;
J. COMBLlN, J.1. GONZALEZ-FAUS & J. SOBRINO (eds.), Cambio social y pensamiento cris-
tiano en América Latina, Madrid, Trotta, 1993. (1 will refer to these as: El Escorial 1 or II).
2. Cf. P. RICHARD, La théologie de la libération. Themes et défis nouveaLLY pour la
décennie 1990, in FD 199 (1993). This is a partial translation of an article tbat appeared
in Pas 34 (1991).
3. In September of 1996, when 1 had already written tbe first version of this paper,
1 asked Gustavo Gutiérrez about his opinion on whether or not a paradigm shift took
place in Latin-American Liberation Theology. His answer was that he preferred not to
speak about a paradigm shift, but merely about a shift in emphasis, given the fact that the
concem about culture had been present from the beginning.

J.e. SCANNONE
theology"4. Roberto Oliveros, the historian of the origins of liberation
theology, calls it "populist", while Alberto Methol Ferré, an opponent of
mainstream liberation theology, has terrned it "national and popular"5.
Juan Luis Segundo, for his part, called it: "theology of the people"6.
In a characterization that was later taken up by others, I called it, many
years ago, "theology with its roots in the praxis of the Latin-American
peoples" and "theology of popular pastoral ministry"7. Sorne question
the inclusion of this current within liberation theology8.
From the very beginning this current highlighted the importance
historical-cultural analysis without denying the value of structural socio-
economic and political approaches. It gave preference, in its contextual-
ized theological reflection and reading of the signs of the times, to the
mediation by human sciences of a more synthetic and herrneneutic kind
than are the social sciences, e.g. historical, cultural and religious sciences.
Thus, it understood the people especial1y from the perspective of a
shared historical memory, consciousness and project, and of culture, or
common lifestyle, al1owing, of course, for the importance of the leading
role the poor and popular culture play in all this. So, special importance
was given to the "religio17 of the people" as the incarnation of the faith
in Latin-American culture, and which this theological stream saw as the
new outcpme of a cultural synthesis of the indigenous and the Iberian
cultures (and, in many parts of Latin America, of the African cultures as
well). Hence, in the confrontation with the socio-economic, political and
cultural threats of a capitalist or commullist modernization, alld aboye all
with secularism that goes hand in hand with them, special importance
was given to the problem of the evangelization of culture, to popular
piety as an inculturation of the GospeI, and to popular pastoral ministry9.
4. Cf. G. GUTrÉRREZ, La fuerza histórica de los pobres, Lima, CEP, ]980, p. 377.
5. See, respective]y, R. OLIVEROS, Liberación y teología. Génesis v crecimiento de
una l'eflexión 1966-1977, Lima, CEP, 1977, p. 338; A. METHoL FERRÉ, Da Rio de Janeiro
a Puebla: 25 anni di storia, in 1ncontri 4 (1982) 22.
6. J.L. SEGUNDO, Liberación de la teología, Buenos Aires, Carlos Lohlé, 1974, p. 264.
7. See my work: Teología de la liberación y doctrina social de la Iglesia, Madrid,
Cristiandad, 1987. Therein, 1 take up again and re-elaborate on a study carried out in
] 982. See pp. 6] -74. See also J.B. LIBÁN 10, Teología da libertat;do. Roteiro didático para
um estudo, Sao Paulo, Loyo]a, 1987, p. 260.
8. Cf. A. QUARRACINO, Celam. Diálogo fraterno, Bogotá, CELAM, 1984, pp. 54-69. On
the other hand, in his presentation of the first Instruction on Liberation Theo]ogy of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the actual Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos
Aire~, ~hen a.leading figure of CELAM, had included it within that theo]ogy, without any
restnctlOn (cí. L'Osservatore Romano [weekly edition in Spanish] Sept. 9, 1984).
9. See F. BOAsso, ¿Qué es la Pastoral Popular?, Buenos Aires, Bonum, 1974; G. FAR-
REL, J. GENTICO & L. GERA (eds.), Comentario a la Exhortación apostólica de Su Santidad
Pablo VI Evangelii Nuntiandi, Buenos Aires, Bonum, ] 978. Regarding the Argentinean
AXIAL Sl-IlFr 89
difference in focus from other currents of liberation theology can
explained, at least in part, by Argentina's history and the social situ-
that this country lived after the Council. During this period, the
ArgeJltiJle21l1 people placed their socio-political hopes in the Peronist
m(we:m(~nt due to the take over of the military regimes. On the one side,
Peronist movement - which had given self-consciousness to the
working class and Argentinean unionism -, the revisionism present in
ArgeJltiJle cm historical studies and the influence of the so-called "Cáte-
dnls Jla(;lOnaLes de sociología" (opposed to both liberal capitalism and
Marxism) given at the University of Buenos Aires, and, on the
side, a renewed anaJysis of the texts of the Council, especially
Gaudium et spes, and of Medellín (1968) undertaken from their proper
context, caused the Argentinean theological reflection to put an emphasis
on categories like people-nation, culture, and popular religiosity, along
lO
with the existing themes of poverty, dependency and liberation .
As early as 1969, the Argentine episcopate applied Medellín to
Argentina, using the focus sketched aboye, as it had been elaborated. by
the theologians of the COEPAL (Comisión Episcopal de Pastoral) [l.e.,
Episcopal Pastoral Commission], led by Lucio Gera. They published the
so-called Documento de San Miguel, in which special importance was
aiven to the chapter referring to Popular Pastoral Ministry which was no
longer viewed, as it had been in Medellín, from the opposition "elites-
masses", but from an understanding of a people-nation based on culture
and on justice towards the poor! l.
strain, see aIso my books: Teología de la liberación y praxis popular, Salamanca, Sígueme,
1976, Ch. 4; Teología de la liberación y doctrina social de la 19lesio, mentioned aboye;
Evangelización, cultura y teología, Buenos Aires, Cristiandad, 1990 (with bibl.); Weisheit
und Befi'eillng. Volkstheologie in Lateinamerika, Düsseldorf, Steyler Verlag, 1992, esp.
Chapters 3, 4 and 5. , .
10. eL S. POLIT!, Teología del pueblo. Una propuesta argentina a la teologza latll1o-
americana 1967-1975 Buenos Aires, Castañeda, 1992. See also my article, 'Pellple' et
'poplllaire'. Réalité s;ciale, pratique pastorale et r~tlexion théologique en Argentina, ~n
NRT 108 (1986) 860-877, and C. GALLI, La encarnación del Pueblo de DIOS en la Iglesia
ven la eclesiolooía latinoamericanas, in Sedoi-Documentación, ]994.
- 11. Cf. DOCl;~nento de San Miguel: declaración del Episcopado Argentino sobre la
adaptación, a la realidad actual del país, de las conclusiones de la 11 Conferencia Gen~­
ral del Episcopado Latinoamericano (Medellín), especial1y, VI. Pastoral Popular, I.n
Documentos del Episcopado Argentino 1965-1981. Colección completa del lnaglSteno
postconciliar de la Conferencia Episcopal Argentina, Buenos Aires, ~EA, 1982, pp. 66-
101, plu·ticularly pp. 84-87. Among the numerous works by L. GERA, cí. Cultura y depel;-
dencia a la luz de la reflexión teológica, in Stromata 30 (1974) 11-64; Pueblo, re[¡glOn
del pueblo e Iglesia, in CELAM, Iglesia y Religiosidad Popular en América Latin~,
Bogotá, CELAM, 1977, pp. 258-283; and final1y, Evangelización y promoción humana, m
C. GALLI, L. SCHERZ (eds.), Identidad cultural y modernización, Buenos Alres, Boum,
1992, pp. 23-90, etc.

90 l.e. SCANNONE
These perspectives, together with those of African and also Asian
bishops and theologians, later inf1uenced on the Synod of 1974, and
through it, on the Exhortation of Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, especially
with regard to the themes of the evangelization of culture and popular
religiosity. Thus, it is not surprising that sorne time later, both themes
were taken up again in the Puebla Document, as the intervention of
Lucio Gera was decisive in the drafting of the chapter on the evange-
lization of culture, while that of the Chilean pastoral theologian, Joaquín
Alliende (who was of the sanle mind with what he himself called the
"Argentinean school of popular pastoral ministry"I2), carne to bear on
the elaboration of the chapter on popular religiosity. In my opinion, it
was at this particular point that the perspectives of Puebla - where the
historico-cultural was taken into account, without abandoning the social -
were decisively enriched and influenced by Gera's thought as wel1 as by
the theological insights that had been growing in Aro-entina
b ~ , and , in dia-
logue with these, in other parts of Latin America.
In passing; it should be mentioned that, parallel to the theological cur-
rent outlinecf aboye, the problem of culture also received a lot of atten-
tion within the Argentinean philosophy of liberation. This is especially
true because Enrique Dussel had introduced the Heideggerian theme .
of "world" in the Latin-American historical and cultural context and
because Scannone, and with him, Dussel had applied to the poo~ the
Levinasian phenomenology of ethical alterity, understood not only socially
and structurally, but also culturallyI3. In this way, and coinciding with
earlier works of Rodolfo Kusch 14, they discovered the philosophical
(and even theological) relevance of popular wisdom and that of the
Latin-American cultural ethos and their religious and cultural symbols,
- those which "set us thinking (Paul Ricoeur) and tell us what to think".
Moreover, at the time liberation philosophers were already speaking
about "postmodemity", not exactly in its current understanding, but
12. Cf. J. ALLIENDE (ed.). Diez tesis sobre pastoral popular, in Religiosidad Popular,
Salamanca, Sígueme, 1976, p. 119.
13. See the two joint works of the first group of philosophers of 1iberation: Hacia una
.filosoFa de la liberación latinoamericana, Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI Ed., 1973, and Cul-
tura Popular y Filosofía de la Liberación, Buenos Aires, Siglo XXI Ed., 1975. Cf. A1so
my artic1e, Liberación. Un aporte original del cristianismo latinoamericano, in J.G. CAF-
FARENA (ed.), Religión (tomo 3 of the Enciclopedia Iberoamericana de Filosofía), Madrid,
Trotta, 1993, pp. 93-105.
14. For an almost exhaustive bib1iography of this author, cf. M. MUCHIUT, G. ROMANO,
M. LANGON, Bibliografía de Rodo(fiJ Kusch (1922-1979). in E. Azcuy (ed.), Kusch y el
pensar desde América, Buenos Aires, Castañeda, 1989, pp. 185-194. It must be noted 'that
Kusch collaborated from the very beginning in the joint works 01' Argentinian philoso-
phers 01' liberation.
AXIAL SHlFT
91
that modemity's Ego cogito and its "1 conquer" were dislocated
Latin-American difference (Heidegger) and alterity (Levinas),
llncjerstoO G from the perspective of the wisdorn of a pOOl' people. .
Ne,edl,ess to say, the "Argentinean school" has also been chang~ng
the last decades, not only because of other currents of liberatIOn
but also, and more importantly, because of the changing his-
circumstances. For instance, faced with the crisis of the modero
N~ltlrm-;)Uile, it has increasingly taken into account the phenomena of
i>Q(lot,aliz atIOn and regionalization (e.g. the Mercosur), although it hado in
standing tradition always brought up the ideas of a "Great LatID-
Arrleril:an Mother Land", of the "People of God" and of "all the peoples
the earth". However, this new agenda does not diminish the impor-
of cultural analysis; on the contrary, it restates the issue of the
rel:aüc)ilshlP between universal culture in the age of globalization and the
various cultural worlds l5 • Along tbis line, in the Santo Domingo Document,
atements have been formulated not only on Latin-American culture (as
st . d
in Puebla), but also, taking account of a kind of cultural umty un er-
stood analogicallyl6, on the cultures (in the plural) of Latin America and
the Caribbean Islands.
n. THE SHIFT OF EMPHASIS (ACCENT) IN THE MAIN CURRENT OF
THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION
1. Foreshadowings before 1989
Factars, other than those pointed to aboye also played an important
role in the shift of emphasis in Puebla. For example, there were those
who attempted to use the new focus ushered in by Argentinean theolo~y
pastoral ministry, as well as by Evangelii Nuntiandi, not so muc~ ID
arder to enrich mainstream liberation theology, but rather to go agaIDst
it. Nevertheless, 1 think that the document of Puebla itself, while not
failing to integrate the structural analyses of Medellín, sheds a new li!Sht
on the preferential option for the poor and their liberation,. by fraI~IDg
them within a theological interpretation of the history of Latm-Amencan
15. As an examp1e 01' the new 1'ocus on cultural ana1ysis: s.ee the thi:d part ("Dimen-
sión sociocultural: nuevos tiempos, nuevas lógicas") 01' the Jomt, mterdlsClplmary wor~:
D.G. DELGADO (ed.), Argentina. tiempo de cambios. Sociedad. Estado y Doctrina Soczal
de la Iglesia, Buenos Aires, San Pablo, 1996. . .' .
16. See my work: La inclllturación en el Documento de Santo Domll1go, In Su omata.
49 (1993) 29-53.

92 J.e. SCANNONE
evangelization, as well as in the pastoral mission to evangelize culture.
Furthermore, it takes into account cultural changes I7 .
In the discussions that were provoked first by the Preparatory Docu-
ment forPuebla, and later by the interpretation of the Document of the
Conference, the dialogue and interaction between the various currents of
liberation theology became evident, especially between the Argentinean
and. ~e mainstream currents, the latter represented, among others, by
GutIerrez and Leonardo Boff. This explains that in writings of this period,
Gutiérrez explicitly analyses the notion of people elaborated by Gera on
the basis of the conjunction with "people-nation-culture"18. Boff, refer~
ring to Scannone, accepts the importance given to cultural analysis when
d~aling with the Latin-American reality, thus explicitly affirming that in
thIS way "merely sociological analyses have to be transcended"19.
As for the issue of popular religion, intimately linked with that of cul-
ture, undoubtedly sorne liberation theologians have criticized with sorne
reason, as also Puebla does, its negative or alienated aspects. Neverthe-
l~ss, ~ready tb.e first Meeting of El EscOlial (1972) had pointed out its
bberatlve .aspec~s. In the particular case of Gutiérrez, he had clearly
shown dunng thIS encounter his preoccupation with a popular spirituality
of liberation 2o, characteristic of a poor, religious and believing people.
Hence,; there appeared in liberation theology, including in its main
cUlTent, an ever growing interest in popular religion, departing from the
M~xist characterization of its being intrinsically "opium of the people".
T~1S can already be noted in the works of Gutiénez' disciples, like Raúl
V1dales and Tokihiro Kudó, who discover an authentic, liberative reli-
giosity in the "emergent popular class"2t, and most especially in the
works of José Luis González, disciple of both Gutiénez and the Peruvian
cultural anthropologist Manuel Marzal, a specialist in Andean reliaios-
ity. However, whereas social analysis is still exclusively used in thebfirst
17. Cf. CELAM,.~ej7exiones sobre Puebla, Bogotá, CELAM, 1979. See a1so Ch. 2 of my
book, EvangehzaclOn, cultura y teología (n. 9).
18: Cf. G. GUTIÉRREZ (n. 4), p. 196-212. (An article 1'irst published in 1978, on the
occaSlOn 01' the Consultative DOCllment 1'or Puebla).
19. C1'. L. BOFF, Cristo liberador. Una visión cristológica a partir de la periferia in
Sr 14 (1978) 365-379.
20. Even i1' later surpassed by his own discip1es, the Aruentinian A1do Büntiu ta1ked
a1ready, then, in his article Dimensiones del catolicismo p~pular latinoamerica~1O v su
lI1serClOn en el proceso de liberación. Diagnóstico y rej7exiones pastorales, of the "!ibe-
ratIVe va1ue.s of the peop1e which they express in sacra1 gestures 01' popular catholicism".
m El Es~onal 1(n. ~): pp. 146-157. See a1so: S. GALILEA, LaJe como principio crítico de
promoclOn de la rehglOsldad popular, ibid., pp. 151-158. The work 01' Glltiérrez is entit1ed
Evangeho y praxIs de liberación, ibid., pp. 231-245.
21. Cf. R. VIDALES & T. KUDO, Práctica religiosa y proyecto histórico, Lima. CEP
1975, pp. 111-116. . ,
AXIAL SHIFr 93
[Vidales and KudóJ, in the second case [GonzálezJ, due to the in~u-
of Marzal, special attention is given to cultural-anthropolog1cal
Thus, González recognizes - here he converges with Argentinean
<ln:alvses _ the role of historical and cultural resistance played by the
T:hirFP,nl lencan religion of the poor people, first against imperialist and
against capitalist oppression. For it [religion] helped the .peo~le
disappear as cultural actors, and it even served as a veh1cle tor
F:XIDre:sSJmg alternative historical projects. It must be noted that such
cttltllra1 nn,,,l,,~P< of the religion of the people are in line with the the-
22
OH)l!.lLOUl and social importance given, from the outset , by Gutiérrez, to
l;h"r",j'iVPspirituality from the people. .
compounding these infiuences were the comments recelVed
Latin-American theologians at the meetings of the EATWOT (Ecu-
Association of Third World Theologians) - from the theolo-
of Africa (especially in relation to culturéS) and Asia (with regard
religion)23. Due to aH this, attention was increasingly focused on cul-
analysis, without neglecting socio-economic analyses.
On the other hand, one can neither underestimate the infiuence that
Church documents, from both the Latin-American Episcopate as weIl
as from Roman and Papal sources (e.g., the two Instructions of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: Libertati~ Nuntiu.s [1984J
and Libertatis Conscientía [1986]), exercised on Latm-Amencan the-
ologians, so that they tried not to give the least bit of an.i~pressi~n of
socio-economic 01' political redllctionism. 1 think that It 1S unfmr to
attribute the said redllctionism to the leading liberation theologians,
74 h t'
with the exception, fOl' example, of Hugo Assmann- , w o was ac 1ve
in a more radical theological current. However, becallse of the suspi-
cions, even theologians who had not gane to such extremes, could not
but state explicitly that they were talking of integral liberation, and
only of the oppressed classes, but also of the oppressed r~~es,
sexes, nations, and cultures. Hence, the theme of culture was expbcltly
present.
22. Cf. J.L. GONZALEZ, Teología de la liberación y religiosidad popular, in Pos?
' (1982) 4-13. Among the numerous works 01' Marzal,. one can c~nsult .La transformaclOn
religiosa peruana, Lima, CEP, 1983. Gn popular spmtuahty 01' ]¡beratlon,cf. G. GUTIER-
REZ, Beber en su propio pozo. En el itinerario espiritual de wz pueblo, Luna, CE;, 1983.
23. The acts of the variolls Congresses have been published. See a1so Teolog lO desde
el Tercer mundo. Documentos .tlnales de los cinco Congresos intel'llacionales de la Aso-
ciación Ecuménica de Teólogos del Tercer mundo, San José, DEl, 1982.
24. His main work is Teología desde la praxis de liberación, Salamanca, Síguem~,
1973 (the main part 01' the book had a1ready been pub1ished in Montevideo, 1971). In tl1lS
paper 1refer to the position Assmann held then, not to hIS actual convlctlOns.
 94 J.C. SCANNONE
2. The Paradigm of "Classic Liberation Theology"
Lastly, another factor that favored the axial shift can be located on a
~ee~er level, i.e., on the level of the paradigm of understanding of real-
lty ltself and even of theology. Is the paradigm of liberation theology
modem or postmodem? Does it surpass modemity?
Even if 1 agree with G. De Schrijver on various modan characteristics
of what he calls "classic liberation theology" and with the reasons that
he g~:es, 1 find positions like that of Juan José Tamayo, cited also by De
~c~Jver: more congenial to my thought, because he [Ta.rrül)'o] disCClVefS
m hber~tlOn theolo~y a kind of dialectical surpassing of modemity. 1 also
agre~ wlth Franz Hmkelammert in that the said theology is not postmod-
em .(m.the sense that this word currently has), even if it cliticizes not only
capltahsm but many features of Westem modemity25.
As a matter of fact, 1 especially agree with the analysis of Antonio
González - an outstanding disciple of Ignacio Ellacuría - regarding what
h~ c~ll.s "theph~losophical meaning of liberation theology". In Gon-
zalez mterpretatlOn, liberation theology does not move in the ambit of
clas~ic theologi~al categories (the paradigms of substance and subject),
but m the amblt of contemporary philosophy, which could be called
postmodem, in the sense that "it consists, to a larae extent of a dialoaue
w~th. the intellectua.l situation in which Hegel ha~ left us ;'26. Eviden7ly ,
thlS lS ~ot a c~ns~lOus philosophical choice of liberation theologians;
rather, 1t only mdlcates the intellectual and cultural horizon in which
they move.
On .a cultur~l and philosophical level, this horizon is characterized by
the p~macy gl:,en to praxis, difference, alterity, reality, having or being
a~ pn~r to th~lf understanding from the perspective of the logos. Gon-
zalez lS conv1.nced t.hat this characterizes liberation theology more pro-
foundly than ItS typlcally lTIodem features. In this way one understands
better liber~ti~n ~eology's optionfor the pOOl' and the world ofthe pOOl',
the emphas1s lt glVes to praxis, its understanding of theology as a "second
act of liberative praxis" (Gustavo Gutiérrez), or, finally, as "intellectus
amoris et misericordiae" (Jon Sobrino), the practical transcendence of
the other, the radical experience of evil "beyond being", etc.
25. Both authors are cited by De Schrijver, pp. 17.
26. C.f. A. GONZÁLEZ, El significado filosófico de la teología de la liberación in
El Escon.aln (n. 1), p. 153. Without even referring to liberation theology, Marco Oliv'etti
agrees wIth. Gonza1ez t? a l~rge extent with regard to the latter' s characterization of the
three para.dIg~s; see hIS artIc1e, El problema de la comunidad ética, in J.C. SCANNONE
(ed.), S~blduna popular, símbolo yfilosofía. Diálogo internacional en torno de una inter-
pretaclOn latlllOamencana, Buenos Aires, Siglo )OG Ed., 1984, pp. 209-222.
AXIALSHIFT 95
If this is so, then the axial shift (i.e., shift of emphasis) towards a
greater consideration of Latin-American cultural alterity, so framed that
it does not lose the practical and material (i.e., socio-economic) perspec-
tives, as well as towards a more radical understanding of the pOOl' and
world (social as well as cultural), and the emphasis placed, not
only on the basic ecclesial communities but also on basic neocomuni-
tarianism in general (where people live in a "post-traditional" way the
gratuity, the alterity and the sense of communities that are traditionally
, would be no other than radicalization s of the foun-
dational paradigm, in the face of the changes in historical reality and
new signs of the times. In this serise, the shift toward cultural analysis,
without neglecting social analysis, would correspond to the deeper logic
of liberation theology.
Hence, although one can speak of a shift of emphasis or axial shift, in
my opinion, this is occurring within the radicalization of the same horizon
or radical paradigm in which liberation theology from the very begin-
ning had been moving, as far as its basic options are concemed, in spite
of its other, clearly modem characteristics which it shared with other
postconciliar theologies and with the dependency theory.
3. Changes after 1989
All the circumstances enumerated aboye contributed to this aforemen-
tioned displacement, but the decisive factor or the proverbial straw that
broke the camel's back was the implosion of real socialism, as symbol-
ized by the fall of the Berlin Wall. De Schrijver alludes to this, referring
to the expressions used by Frei Betto and Leonardo Boff after the collapse
of communism, pointing in the direction of the new approach 28 .
This shift in perspective can be perceived more clearly in utterances
other theologians, also infiuenced by the events in Eastem Eurape
and the apparent non-viability of the socialist utopia on a short term
basis. Kg., Pablo Richard, who had been an active member of the Chris-
tians for Socialism in Chile, coined the term already cited: "axial shift"
27. Concerning "basic neocomunitarianism", see D.G. DELGADO, Las contradicciones
culturales de los proyectos de modernización en los 80, in Le monde diplomatique 27
(1989) 15-16, and its continuation: ibid. 28, pp. 17-18. On the "post-traditional" mode of
assuming traditions, cf. A. GIDDENS, Más allá de la izquierda y la derecha. El futuro de
las políticas radicales, Madrid, Trotta, 1996.
28. Cf. F. BETTO, El fracaso del socialismo alemán y los desafíos a la izquierda lati-
noamericana, in Pas 29 (1990) 1-7; ID., A Teología da Libertar;do ruio com o Muro de
Berlim?, in REB 50 (1990) 922-929; L. BOFF, A implosdo do socialismo autoritário e a
Teología da Liberta~'do, ibid., pp. 76-92.
 96 J.e. SCANNONE
from the socio-economic and political to the cultural. He admits the rev-
olutionary value today of reformism, and affirms that the "power of the
?oor i~ history" - which was previously conceived of as pri~arily polit-
Ical - IS, befare all else, ethical, religious, and cultural 29 . Only with this
power can the people face up to today's strong neoliberalism.
The same perspective has been taken in several of the contributions
to El Escorial n. In that meeting, social scientists like Manuel Antonio
Garretón gave a positive appraisal of the actual cultural shift towards
the valuation of everyday life and its joys (so different
idealis~ of Che Guevara). Or like Xavier Gorostiaga, they engaged in a
self-cntlque of the Sandinista strategy for liberation - a strategy more
focused on the accession to political power than on cultural transforma-
tion. Por their part, theologians like Diego Irarrázaval proposed a theol-
ogy starting from the popular wisdom of Latin America, and others, like
Víctor Codina, gave primacy to symbolic reason over modern, enlight-
ened reason. Still others like Pedro Trigo outlined the new alternative
collective imaginario, about which I wil1 speak shortly3o. Gibellini was
right in noting the rapprochement of these theologians to the positions of
Argentinean theology on popular culture.
It seems to me that Pedro Trigo has been one of the liberation theolo-
gians wh~ has best outlined and continues to outline the future of this
theological perspective which, without abandoning the essence of liber-
ation theology, situates itself in what Richard describes as an axial shift.
Par Trigo, the culture in the barrios of the big Latin-American cities
exhibits a newness that the theologian has to consider; furthermare, this
has to. be i~t~rpreted as the action of God's Spirit among the poor, and
as theu pOSltlve answer to it 31 .
Here a new collective imaginario is surging as an alternative not only
to the status qua of late capitalist consumerist culture, but also to the
politicized, revolutionary and socialist imaginario of the 1960s and
1970s. It revolves around everyday life, interpreting it not as a private
29. Cf. P. RICHARD (n. 2).
30. 1 refer, respectively, to ilie following contributions to El Escorial n (n. 1): M.A. GAR-
RETON, Transformaciones so~io-políticas en América Latina (1972-1992), pp. 17-28;
X. GOROSTIAGA, La medzaclOn de las CIencias sociales y los cambios internacionales,
pp. 123-144; D. lR~RRAzAVAL, Repercusión de lo popular en la teología, pp. 181-197;
V. CODINA, Fe latllloamerzcana y desencanto occidental, pp. 271-296; P. TRIGO El
futuro de la teología de la liberación, pp. 297-317.
31. Cf. P. TRIGO, La cultura en los barrios, and El concepto de marginado. Sus usos
y su ;'ealzdad, .m J.C. SCANNONE & M. PERINE (eds.), Irrupción de! pobre y quehacer
fzlosófz~o. HaCia una nueva racionalidad,. Buenos Aires, San Pablo, 1993, respectively,
pp. 13-_6 and pp. 45-70, and ilie theolog1cal works mentioned in ilie notes that follow.
AXIAL SHIFT 97
but rather in social and public dimensions, as it involves the
crE:atl.on of culture and a new social fabric 32 . This imaginario is the out-
of a new cultural synthesis, the subjects of which are many of the
sut.urt)an poor of our subcontinent, - a synthesis of traditional Latin-
A.nlerlcan values and modern and postmodern contributions, which tends
shape within different free organizations of the people 33 .
could call this new cultural "mestization", following Anthony Gid-
descriptions, reflexive and post-traditional, because it takes up
. . trleLatin-Ame:ric:an communitarian tradition as a free, responsible and
M,l1lrlm'V response to the crisis provoked by the neo-liberal exclusion of
majorities of people from the socio-economic system, and because,
within traditional popular wisdom, it takes up (modern or post
criteria for efficiency, organization and flexibility. To Trigo,
is the communitarian emergence of a new type of human being,
whose structural axis is the option for life, and a dignified life for aH.
Life is being created amidst death. Dignity is being lived out in situa-
tions of humiliating injustice. Joyful celebrations take place in spite of
extreme poverty. There is hope in God, against aH hopeo People live the
gratuity of communitarian relations, even in the midst of social exclu-
sion and competitive individualismo Institutions of freedom are created,
even amidst oppression. In all of this and in the light of faith, one gets a
glimpse of the creative and regenerative presence of the Spirit of God,
and of the seed of a real1y possible future liberation34 .
According to Trigo, the Latin-American novel had already in sorne
way, fareshadowed this, in literary figures like the Christ of the poor, in
Hijo de hombre of the Paraguayan novelist Augusto Roa Bastos, or in
outstanding characters like Rendón Wilka, the culturally mixed indio, in
Todas las sangres, and in other urban, mestizo characters in El zorro de
32. Cf. P. Trigo's artiele in: El Escorial II (n. 1); id., Imaginario alternativo al ima-
ginario vigente y al revolucionario, in RT 3 (1992), pp. 61-99. .•
33. Cf. J. SEIBOLD, Imaginario social, religiosidad popular y transformaclOn educa-
tiva. Su problematica actual en medios populares del Gran Buenos Aires, in D.G. DELGADO
(n. 15), pp. 323-388. See also my contributions: Nueva modernidad advenzen:e y cultura
emergente en América Latina. Reflexiones filosóficas y teológico-pastorales, m Stromata
47 (1991) 145-192; Les défis actuels de l'évangélisation en Amérique Latll1e, m NR! 1.14
(1992) 641-652; El debate sobre la modernidad en el mundo noratla~tlco
yen e! tercer mundo, in Concilium 244 (1992) 1023-1033; La nueva c:ultw.'a advenze.nte
y emergente: desafío a la doctrina social de la Iglesia en la ArgentIna, m Argentllla,
tiempo de cambios, pp. 251-282. . ' .
' 34. See the description of these phenomena and their theologlcal (or phI1osophlcal)
interpretation in R. MUÑoz, El Dios de los cr!stian~~, Madrid, Cristiandad, 1987:
P. TRIGO, Creación e historia en e! proceso de llberaclOn, Madnd, Cnstlandad, .198~,
J.e. SCANNONE, La irrupción del pobre y la pregunta fllosóflca en América LatIna, m
Irrupción de! pobre (n. 31).

98 J.C. SCANNONE
arriba y el zorro de abajo, - both novels from the Peruvian writer José
María Argüedas 35 .
For Trigo, the future of liberation theology is linked to this cultural
shift of the collective imaginario and to the alternatives of the future
which, within it, are being created among and for the pOOL Nevertheless,
the poor, even if they have to be the principal actors of their liberation,
cannot liberate themselves by themselves alone. Rather, they have opted
for life and the dignity of the human being in umon with all those of other
Continents, and with those belonging to different social strata. In this
age of globalization, the network that they and their organizations form
can become a new historical agent: the international of life 36 .
m. THE AxIAL SHIFT, THE HISTORICAL V1ABILITY OF LIBERATION
AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERAT10N THEOLOGY
The axial shift in liberation theology is intimately related to the change
in the cultural imaginario referred to, which is currently taking place
among the people of Latin America, especially among the pOOL Theol-
ogy bears this in mind with the help of cultural analysis, when it reflects
on today's;signs of the times. However, it does not forget that this alter-
native imaginario takes shape in an alternative social phenomenon:
basic neocommunitarianism. Hence, it does not give up social analysis
either, even if certain overly rigid approaches inspired by Marxism have
been abandoned.
Faced with globalization, structural unemployment and the crisis of
the Welfare State - socialist, social democratic or populist - and faced
with the failure of the self-regulated market to adequately answer the
demands of human dignity and justice, a new event is occurring in all
parts of the world: the emergence of civil society, as different fram the
State as well as fram the market. This society organizes itself to carry
out its objectives 37 , without expecting to receive everything fram the State
or the market.
35. Cf. P. TRIGO, La institución eclesiástica en la nueva novela latinoamericana (doc-
toral thesis), Madrid, Cristiandad, 1980; ID., Argüedas. Mito, historia v religión, Lima,
CEP, 1982, as welI as his lectures. . Academia de Humanismo, 1984-1985-1988; ID. (eds.), Las organizaciones económicas
36. See his works cited, in Note 35. His frameworks seem to coincide with sorne of
Anthony Giddens and of Ulrich Duchrow. See his presentation Dios o Mamón: economías
en conflicto, held at the IX Asamblea de la IAMS (Asociación International de Estudios
Misionológicos), Buenos Aires, April 10-19, 1996.
37. See the work already cited, Argentina. tiempo de cambios (n. 33), and also
D. DELGADO, Estado y Sociedad. La nueva relación a partir del cambio estructural,
AXIAL SHIFT 99
also in Latin America, new multi-sectoral social movements
to those of the First World (for human rights, "green" spaces,
of life, justice in cases of concrete crimes, anti-corruption, etc.)
being born. But, aboye all, among the poor is emerging the so-called
as:wc'ial'iOlúsl'n, or neocomunitarianism. This, and all the other move-
referred to, are at the same time cause and effect of the above-
alternative cultural imaginario, and they nourish it socially
materially.
religious sphere, we are no longer referring merely to basic
ec\;le:;íal communities, as was the case for Puebla, but also to all kinds
religious groups that are not vertically structured. In these gro~ps
youth, adults, women, men, prayer groups, and also Blble
study graups38. And the same phenomenon is happening at the econom~c
level, both in the formal and the informal economy: popular economlC
organizations, micra-entrepreneurships, pre-cooperativas, small enter-
prises established by the workers themselves, co~munitarian v~getable
gardens, "joint purchase" schemes. People orgamze tl~ems~lves morder
to survive in the most dignified way possible, generatmg Jobs and even
producing for the market 39 . In the social sphere, there .are neighbOl:h~od
initiatives (for health, road construction, town lightmg, etc.), dImcs,
school cooperatives, soup kitchens for children or the elderly, mothers'
associations, committees for the retired or the unemployed, and various
kinds of free popular organizations. In the strictly cultural sphere, we
come across not only with folkloric peñas or sports associations, but
also with a wide variety of local community FM [frequency modula-
tion] radios, and different forms of both formal and non-formal popular
Buenos Aires, San Pablo, 1994; P.H. ORDELAS, La sociedad civil: su verdad y sus retos.
La tercera revolución planetaria. in St 62 (1995) 6-15. See also the entire issue of ¿lter-
ni1tiVeS Sud 1 (1994): on "Les movements sociazu en Amérique Latine". In BraZl!, the
"Acción de la Ciudadanía" has been instituted: cf. Instituto políticas Alternativas para o
Cone Sul, Aq6es cidadás no Brasil. Relato de Experiencias de Comités da Aqáo da
Cidadania contra a Miséria e pela Vida, Rio de Janeiro, CESEP, 1995.
38. See my article, La religión en la América Latina del Tercer milenio. Hacia una
utopía realizable, in Stromata 51 (1995) 75-88.
39. On these popular economic phenomena, their interpretation, and the consequent
reshaping of the economy and economic science, see especially - among the many ~orks
of L. RAZETO _ Economía de solidaridad y mercado democrático, 3 Vols., SantIago,
populares 1973-1990, Santiago, Academia de Humanismo, 1990; ID., Empresas de
trabajadores y economía de mercado. Para una teOl:ía del fenóm~no cooperativo y de
la democratización del mercado, Santiago, AcademIa de Humamsmo, 1990. See also
F. FORNI & J.J. SANCHEZ (eds.), Organizaciones económicas populares. Más allá de la
informalidad, Buenos Aires, San Pablo, 1992; H. ORTIZ R., Las organizaciones económi-
cas populares. Semillas pequeiias para grandes cambios, Lima, CEP, 1993.
 J.e. SCANNONE
education40 . In this manner, a new social fabric is being woven, evi-
dencing a shift in mentality and attitude towards the State and the market,
and, therefore, a cultural change corresponding to the new imaginario.
Even if various authors differ in their interpretation of this phenome-
non, not a few see in this cultural and social shift a viable alternative of
liberation. Hence, economists like Luis Razeto and José Luis Coraggio
see in the popular economy (the former, especially in the popular econ-
omy of solidarity) an alternative, not only for the micro-, but also for an
important sector of the macro-economy (which would interweave with
the capitalist and State sectors), constituting together as it were, a
"democratic market"41. Razeto is rethinking economic science itself and
development strategies from the perspective of the economic relevance
of factor "c" ("community factor"), considered not only in the ethical
and cultural dimension, but also as a factor of economic efficiency. It
should be noted that the way this problem is set out is an example and
an outcome of the emergent cultural synthesis discussed earlier. And this
dovetails wit~ other attempts in different parts of the world, and even
with those of the UN, of an alternative human development, often emerg-
ing from the local and the small ("small is beautiful ")42.
These popular organizations tend to link up in the form of a network,
i.e., baseg on a flexible, participative and self-reliant coordination. This
seems to correspond to the new "postmodern"43 cultural sensitivity, and
seems to reinterpret the traditional values of solidarity in a post-tradi-
tional form (following the expression of Anthony Giddens already
referred to). Well then, if in the past century, individual workers did not
40. On the topic of popular education, cf. J.L. CORAGGIO, Desarrollo humano, eco-
nomía popular y educación, Buenos Aires, San Pablo, 1995; O. MONTES, C. LORA &
R. BURNS, Una experiencia de educación popular. La gestión del circuito metodológico
en SEA, Lima, Universidad de Lima, 1993.
41. Aside from the works of Razeto and Coraggio cited in previous footnotes, cf:
L. RAZETO, Propuestas de respuesta a la luz de la encíclica (SRS) a nivel socioeco-
nómico, in CELAM-CLAT, Nuevo desarrollo con justicia social, Bogotá, CELAM, 1990,
pp. 349-396; Para una proyección política del proceso de formación y desarrollo de la
economía popular de solidaridad, in F. FORNI & J.J. SANCHEZ, Organizaciones económi-
cas populares, pp. 57-75; Sobre el futuro de los talleres y microempresas, in RET 2
(1994) pp. 51-75; J.L. CORAGGlO, La construcción de una economía popular: vía para el
desarrollo humano, ibid., pp. 29-48.
42. Cf. A. CAFIERO (ed.), Desarrollo humano: un diálogo con la filosofía, Buenos
Aires, Castañeda, 1995, and the corresponding Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano of the
Honorable Senate of Argentina in the context of the PNUD (Procrrama de las Naciones
Unidas para el Desarrollo) [= United Nations Programme for Dev~lopment].
. 43. Cf. T~e ".net~ork" metapho.r corresponds to the new, more flexible and participa-
tIve type of mstltutlOnal orgamzatlOn, and to lateral (neither vertical nor hierarchical)
post-modern thinking. Cf. B. WALDENFELS, In den Netzen der Lebenswelt, Frankfurt,
Suhrkamp, 1985.
AXIAL SHIFT 101
political power until they united in unions and federations of
nrl1fTrll;. so in the same manner, the networking of these organizations
with the NGO' s and others in the different continents and social
can yield political power in order to dialogue, from a position of
OClWC;l, both on the national level as well as on the regional and interna-
level, and so obtain a greater equity in an age of globalization.
would involve what Pedro Trigo calls - as 1 have mentioned - the
intl;:rn,aticmal of life.
the preferential option for the poor, foundation of liberation
is more vigorous than ever because .the structural poor to
ranks have been added the "new poor", or the impoverished mid-
c1asses, are facing the threat, no longer of exploitation, but of exclu-
in the fonn of marginalization and unemployment in a society
and more dichotomized between the included and the exc1uded, the
winners and the losers, and fragmented by competitive individualismo
On the other hand, the poor are developing a new cultural consciousness,
"mestizising" their values with the contributions of modernity and post-
modernity and creating a new cultural imaginario and a new social
fabric, which is spreading, in the form of networks (in this society of
communication), to other social sectors and geographic areas. All this
cannot leave liberation theology indifferent. So, this theology is discov-
ering here the liberative action of the Lord of history and that of the men
and women who respond to Him with an option for life. And alife with
dignity, to be sure.
Furthermore, in line with a revaluation of cultural pluralism (and the
postmodern appreciation of heterogeneity and difference) Indio and Afro-
american theologies of a different type are surging. There too, liberation
theology feels itself questioned and the need to open itself more and
more to cultural and psycho-social analysis and to the anthropologico-
study of the ancestral myths of these peoples and cultures, as
well as of the forms of syncretism that have appeared in history and/or
are existing today. Not a few of these forms - according to important
theologians and pastoralists - have been more or less successful attempts
at an inculturation of the Gospel, made, not by the missionaries but by
the indigenous peoples themselves 44 .
Hence, the shift of emphasis in liberation theology is in basic agree-
ment, as much with its hermeneutical and theological foundation in the
44. Cf. M. MARZAL (ed.), O Rosto Indio de Deus, Sao Paulo, CESEP, 1989, pp. 11-33.
On Indio theology itse1f, see among other works, Primer Encuentro de Teología India:
Delegación mexicana, Teología maya. Conceptos fundamentales, in Christus 58 (1993)
22-27.
 AXIAL SHIFT 103
102 J.C. SCANNONE

option for the poor and of the poor, as with its goal of "critical reflection Hence, with Pedro Trigo, I also think that the future of Latin-Ameri-
on the historical praxis in the light of the Word"45, and with the essence can liberation theology depends upon its ability to move within this new
of its method (elaborated through the mediation of the cultural and altemative, cultural horizon. This implies a continued deepening involve-
historical sciences, without neglecting the social sciences). As I have roent in the axial shift from the socio-economic to the cultural, such that
already repeated many times, the cultural shift has a social, and consist not of a mere substitution, but of a deepening and
economic base, even if it does not limit itself to this. enrichment of perspectives. For liberation theology must not forget - as
These displacements in approach and in the elaboration of the method De Schrijver indicates - that the cultural is sustained by the socio-eco-
exercise an influence not only in the first phase of the hermeneutic circle nomic, even if the cultural transcends the economic.
of liberation the010gy, i.e., in its critical interpretation of historical real- way, Latin-American liberation theology will be able, in the light
ity and praxis in the light of Revelation, but will also certainly have an of faith, to respond theologically to the world of the poor, and contribute
influence on its rereading of Revelation, from the context interpreted in to its transformation in the love and justice that spring forth from the
this way, i.e., in the second phase of the theological hermeneutic circle46 • Gospel47 .
As the Instruction Libertatis conscientia No. 70 says, "a theological
Facultades de Teología y Filosofía Juan Carlos SCANNONE
reflection developed from a particular experience can constitute a very
positive contribution, for it permits to give witness to sorne aspects of Av. Mitre 3226
the Word of God, the full richness of which has not yet even fully been San Miguel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
perceived". Well then, the new, altemative cultural imaginario and the
neocomunitarianism in which it finds its social expression, constitute a
new particular experience, which, moreover, in my opinion, is being
fostered by the action of the Lord of history.
In this sway, the new cultural awareness links universal globalization,
a new appraisal of particular cultures, and the simultaneous experience
of particular, living communities influenced by the vigorous effect of
factor "C". AIso, because of its active, coordinating role in regional and
intemational networks, it may contribute - in the light of the gift of the
Spirit at Pentecost - to rethink not only the ecclesiology of communion,
the Mystery of Trinitarian Love, its gratuitous communication in Christ
or its concrete shape in the human being renewed by the Spirit of com-
munion, but all and every single of the key theological realities, from the
perspective of communion, community, and conU11Unication, in accordance
with the new social context and the new emerging cultural imaginario,
especially among the poor - the privileged of the Kingdom.

, 45. Cf. G. GUTIÉRREZ, Teología de la liberación. Perspectivas, Salamanca, Sígueme,

-1972, p. 38.
46. On the hermeneutic cirele in liberation theology in general, see my book Teología
de la liberación y doctrina social de la Iglesia (n. 7). On the second phase of this same
cirele after the axial displacement, see my artieles: Situación de la problemática del
método teológico en América Latina. Con especial énfasis en la teología de la liberación
después de las dos Instrucciones, in Medellín 20 (1994) pp. 255-283; and Elfuturo de la
reflexión teológica en América Latina. El comunitarismo como alternativa viable, to be
printed in the forthcoming publication of the Actas del Encuentro del CELAM sobre, El
futuro de la reflexión teológica en América Latina, Vallendar, CELAM, Septiembre, 1996. 47. This artiele has been translated by M.R. Pajarillo.