The Routledge Handbook

of Postsecularity

Edited by Justin Beaumont

First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, Justin Beaumont; individual
chapters, the contributors
The right of Justin Beaumont to be identified as the author of the
editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has
been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record has been requested for this book

ISBN: 978-1-138-23414-7 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-30783-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
 Contents

List of illustrations xi
Notes on contributors xiii
Acknowledgements xxii

Introduction1

1 Concepts, processes, and ­antagonisms of postsecularity 3

Justin Beaumont and Klaus Eder

Part I
Philosophical meditations 25

2 Beyond belief: religion as the ‘dynamite of the people’ 27

Bruno Latour

3 The difficulty of unforgiving 38

Martin Beck Matuštík

4 The postsecular c­ ondition and the genealogy of ­

postmetaphysical thinking 51
Eduardo Mendieta

5 Redemptive criticism or the critique of religion 59

Warren S. Goldstein

6 Postatheism and the ­phenomenon of minimal

religion in Russia 73
Mikhail Epstein

vii
Contents

7 The performative force of the postsecular 86

Herbert De Vriese and Guido Vanheeswijck

8 Postsecularism, ­reason, and violence 98

Michiel Leezenberg

9 Theoretical framings of the postsecular 111

Manav Ratti

10 Formations of the ­postsecular in education 124

David Lewin

Part II
Theological perspectives 135

11 Redeeming the secular 137

Matt Bullimore

12 Christianity or barbarism 153

Dritëro Demjaha

13 Postsecular theology 166

Hagar Lahav

14 Political theology and postsecularity 177

Francis Schüssler Fiorenza

15 Postsecular prophets 190

Robert Joustra

16 Anticipating postsecularity 201

Christopher Rowland

17 Pope Francis and the ­theology of the people 212

Rafael Luciani

18 Interrogating the postsecular 223

Elaine Graham

19 Postsecularity and urban theology 234

Chris Shannahan

viii
 Contents

Part III
Theory, space, social relations 245

20 Postsecular plasticity: expansive secularism 247

Gregor McLennan

21 Dialogue with religious life in Asia 258

Lily Kong and Junxi Qian

22 Four genealogies of postsecularity 269

Kristina Stoeckl and Dmitry Uzlaner

23 Beyond salvaging solidarity 280

Umut Parmaksız

24 Christianity and the I­ ndian diaspora 292

Robbie B. H. Goh

25 Resisting the transcendent? 303

Chris Baker

26 Architecture of ­radicalized postsecularism 315

Krzysztof Nawratek

27 Islamophobia, apophatic p­ luralism, and

imagination 325
Giuseppe Carta

28 Some critical remarks on religious identity 336

Peter Nynäs

29 After or against secularism: Muslims in Europe 349

Kasia Narkowicz and Richard Phillips

30 Postsecularity in twenty questions: a case study in

Buddhist teens 360
Phra Nicholas Thanissaro

31 Unofficial geographies of r­ eligion and s­ pirituality as

postsecular spaces 371
Edward Wigley

ix
Contents

Part IV
Political and social engagement 383

32 (Re)enchanting ­secular people and politics 385

Timothy Stacey

33 The Nordic far-right and the use of religious imagery 395

Øyvind Strømmen

34 Postsecularity prefigured 409

Roger Speare

Afterword 423

35 Reflexive secularization 425

Eduardo Mendieta and Justin Beaumont

Index 437

x
 17
Pope Francis and the
­theology of the people
Rafael Luciani

Introduction
To understand Pope Francis’ theological and pastoral options, and the turn of the Catholic
Church during his Papacy, it is necessary to delve into the Theology of the People, born in the
Latin American Church, and known by assuming the centrality of the option for the poor
that comes from the Document of Medellín (the Second General Bishop’s Conference of
Latin America in 1968) though Aparecida (the Seventh General Bishop’s Conference of Latin
America in 2007). This option is practised by Francis through his view of a ‘Poor Church
and for the Poor’, inspiring not only his process of ecclesial reforms but also his geopolitics
(cf. Luciani 2017: Chap. 3). Elements of this theological and ecclesial frame challenge as-
sumptions about postsecular society, while integrating social and civil movements with the
Church’s evangelizing mission in the world. This novelty in Francis’ papacy leads towards a
major dialogue and collaboration between the church and all those people and movements
who struggle for human rights, democracy, and social justice.

The theology of the people

The theology of the people, also called theology of culture, is a branch of Latin American
­liberation theology developed in Argentina by theologians Lucio Gera and Rafael Tello. After
the conference of Medellín in 1968, the Argentine bishops adopted this way of doing theology in
1969; however, its origins date back to 1966, with the creation of ­COEPAL (Comisión Episcopal
de Pastoral), which coined the term ‘people’ as the existence of a common culture, rooted in a
common history, and one committed to the common good. ­COEPAL proposed internalizing the
spirit of Vatican II and assumed the task of centralizing a common form of being in the church by
promoting collegial structures (cf. Conferencia Episcopal ­Argentina 1966) that favoured the defence
of human dignity and the promotion of a liberated religion. Following the spirit of the Council’s
aggiornarmento (‘bringing up-to-date’), the bishops committed themselves to creating a reform of
thought and the rules ­governing the structures of the church. In the end, they hoped for a ‘more
lively self-knowledge, reform, dialogue with our Christian brothers and sisters, and openness to
today’s world: the four aims of the Council’ (cf. Conferencia Episcopal Argentina 1966).

212
 Pope Francis and the t­ heology of the people

Lucio Gera (1924–2012), author of Sobre el misterio del pobre (see Azcuy et al. 2007), among
many other writings, was the one who shed light on this branch of Latin American theology.
For him, the theology of the people did not seek to change social and political structures
themselves, but as a consequence of the discernment of the mission and identity of the ec-
clesiastical institution from an option for the poor, expressed in a strong religious discourse
that would drive the socio-political dialogue and promote a pastoral praxis. It is a theology
informed by the praxis of social justice as the value of those faithful to Jesus (cf. Politi 1992).
In that way, Gera understands culture as a place of meditation, for knowledge of reality, and
specifically, popular or poor people’s culture, an environment where you can meet the poor
and share their lifeworlds.
Gera thinks of the poor as a people (‘pueblo’), as a collective subject of history, with its
own cultural ethos, whose soul, or religious heart, always focuses on hope, from the limited
experiences and material deprivation in which they live (Gera 1998). This notion demands
an insertion in the world of its own values of popular life, for its later theorization and evan-
gelization. The latter, evangelization, will not be reduced to its social promotion, and not be
understood as merely doctrinal formation, but implies, above all, those actions of inculturation
in the world as it is, social recognition, and promotion of the cultural richness of each people-culture. This
commitment will result in the integral promotion of the human subject, the promotion of
socio-political dialogue, and the practice of social justice within the framework of a religion
that frees people to show them the blessed face of history.
Since the 1970s, the future Pope Francis has had a very clear image of this vision, com-
bined with an understanding of unity between the Christian political tradition, the secular
dimension of the world, and the pastoral action of the church. His understanding was made
clear in his opening speech of the Jesuits’ provincial congregation in 1974 (Bergoglio 1982),
where he explained how the Christian praxis—as much religious as socio-political—must
focus on fraternal solidarity, social justice, and the common good, rather than notions of
homeland, revolution, conservative or liberal that are exclusive to any dissent or alternative.
Thus, his theological-pastoral option could not be reduced to an analysis of the economic
and socio-political in light of a Marxist method, as occurred in other branches of liberation
theology (cf. Scannone 2014). He understood that the point of departure had to be the real
connection with the people and the study of their culture or common ethos. This identity
or ethos is found both in what appears to be de facto, an obstacle for the integral develop-
ment of the people (socio-economic, political, and religious), and must be safeguarded in
the face of all external influences, such as new forms of economic and cultural colonialisms.
One opts for the poor from the poor themselves, respecting their own culture and way
of being, to recognize it effectively and affectively as a true subject of a historical process of
development and liberation. It is precisely their way of being, their cultural autonomy and
newness that can evangelize us. It is as the theologian Víctor Fernández states:

We can see in poor some deeply Christian values: a spontaneous attention to the other,
an ability to devote time to others and come to the aid of another without calculation of
time and sacrifices, as illustrated, with a more organized life, difficult to give in to other
time, attention and resignations spontaneously, willingly, and selflessly.
(Fernández 1998: 139)

To know this reality, theology of the people assumes four instances to take into c­ onsideration
in order to discover the very ethos of the popular reality: ‘The revaluation of popular
­Catholicism, the contributions of the social sciences and humanities, the experiences of

213
Rafael Luciani

popular-pastoral, and academic theological reflection that accompanies and guides the
­pastoral praxis’ (Galli 1991). Many misunderstandings and critics from enlightened socio-­
cultural contexts or from high-income Western industrial countries tend not to understand
nor accept that the meaning of the notion of culture in Latin America is different; it cannot
be separated from a spirit of transcendence and religious meaning that is related to daily life.
Here, again, Víctor Fernández explains:

It is customary to say that a theology of the people opts for the ignorant masses, lack-
ing of culture and critical thought. That which the theology of the people defends is
very different. It means to consider the poor not as the mere object of a liberation or an
education, but as individuals capable of thinking with their own categories, capable of
legitimately living faith in his/ her own way, capable of creating paths for popular cul-
ture. Additionally, that they express or view life in a different way, does not mean that
they don’t think or have a culture; it’s simply a different culture.
(Rodari 2014: 65)

By assuming a shared life with the people, the church in Latin America gains its credibility
in the midst of the present world, and is able to contribute to the processes of global change,
because :

together with the various sectors of society, she supports those programmes which best
respond to the dignity of each person and the common good… convictions which can
then find expression in political activity.
(Francis 2013: 241)

People and culture: a popular and relational option,

but not populist
This experience and bond with the daily world of popular life has no connection to populist,
nationalist, or localist visions. Following Latin American theology, ‘poor is a theological
category’ (Francis 2013: 198). And specifically, it is Christological, because in the poor, ‘we
see the face and the flesh of Christ, who became poor to enrich us with his poverty (2 Co
8, 9)’. The poor are the flesh of Christ (Francis 2015a). This option is thus a condition, sine
qua non, for the Christian life because the proposal of Jesus, which is the Kingdom of God,
is not that of a private relationship and intimacy with God (Francis 2013: 183) but that of a
relationship with the others and in the world of the others as it is, because its society is the
setting to build fraternity, peace, justice, and dignity for all (Francis 2013: 180).
The option for the poor is not a choice only for each poor individual whom we meet on
the journey; it is also a structural option, which brings with it a socio-economic transformation
and a change of mentality of the whole of Christian life. It is a position which undertakes the
defence of the planet, starting with the most vulnerable people and those suffering; a know-
ing of the people-as-poor as a whole, because ‘people in every nation enhance the dimension
of life by acting as committed and responsible citizens, not as a mob swayed by the powers
that be’ (Francis 2013: 220). As Pope Francis reminds us, isolated individuals are not saved.
but by ‘the social relations existing between men’, that each one is in relations with the people where
they live (Francis 2013: 178).
When Francis uses the notion of the people, he does so in three ways: people-as-poor,
people-as-nation, and people-as-faithful. The people-as-poor are the marginalized and

214
 Pope Francis and the t­ heology of the people

excluded, in the gutters of socio-political and economic participation. In the 1970s in

­A rgentina, the ‘shirtless and workers’ would fall into this category. Such a notion belongs
to those who do not have real possibilities for development, and whose life conditions are
marked by misery and exclusion. These conditions constitute the majority of humanity and
the most affected by the present system of global development.
The people in this understanding are situated in the place for the interpretation of its culture,
not the reason of an illustration studied from other forms of thought or external ideologies
to its own lifeworlds and beliefs. This analytical approach from socio-cultural hermeneutics
understands popular religion as a suitable means for the understanding of its struggles, hopes,
and desires, like the strength that accompanies and gives meaning to its day to day. The re-
source of agency of the historical-cultural analysis, and not just the social-analytical, benefits
this aspect of Latin American theology. Hence, for Latin Americans, popular culture obtains
a theological status, because the ‘way we listen to God the Father is how we should listen to
his faithful people. If we do not listen in the same way, with the same heart, then something
has gone wrong’ (Francis 2015d).
This understanding is not to idealize the life of the poor, but to recognize their extreme
suffering, the fruit of injustice caused by socio-economic structures that are undesired by
God. The aim is to commiserate, affectively and effectively, and to assume the struggle
for the cause of a better, more humane, and inclusive world. The poor live a daily, mental
sorrow, as a consequence of exclusion and the powerlessness that they are subject to, which
are not even the results of frustration or violence but from an experience of religion. These
people, mostly poor, want to become people-as-nation but they live and understand, above
all, as people-as-faithful because religion gives meaning and hope, while encouraging a con-
tinual fight against the dominant culture. Assuming the paradigm of popular culture, where
even human interdependence is preserved, is to capture the lifeworld that flows forth. It is a
­socio-cultural approach that can be described as:

rootedness in the barrio, the land, the office, the labor union, this ability to see your-
selves in the faces of others, this daily proximity to their share of troubles – because they
exist and we all have them – and their little acts of heroism: this is what enables you
to practice the commandment of love, not on the basis of ideas or concepts, but rather
on the basis of genuine interpersonal encounter. We need to build up this culture of
encounter. We do not love concepts or ideas; no one loves a concept or an idea. We love
people.
(Francis 2015a)

Popular culture is the fruit of an ongoing process that has been built by a massive exodus
from the countryside to the cities. From this process of rural to urban migration, in this pro-
cess itself, people have formed their own distinctive cultural traits. However:

This has not been a planned exodus. Each one left on his/ her own account. Each had
to raid a piece of land to build their house, to find a job, to arrive at a place of relative
stability and specialization, fought for basic needs, sought to bring their family forward,
even putting some of their children through university, found loyal friends, and little by
little built an understanding of what had happened of what was happening, and through
general concepts of the world and life. Does this way, of tangible, human production of
life, not constitute a culture?
(Trigo 1985: 90–1)

215
Rafael Luciani

This option for the people-as-poor is that which permits the construction of the true com-
mon good and achieves the necessary momentum to reach a superior unity at the national
level. It is at this national level where the influence of extreme ideologies, including Marxist
and liberal, socialist and capitalist, can be surpassed. These extreme ideologies only seek to
destroy memory and identity and homogenize societies, failing to take into consideration
the cultural differences that exist as true values of humanization, of development (Francis
2013: 220).
Francis is not posing populism. We are not facing a populist theologian, since, ‘the term
people is distinguished from the word mass because it presupposes a collective subject capa-
ble of generating its own historical processes’ (Rodari 2014: 65). As described by O’Farrell
(1976: 17), to speak of people ‘represents a concrete entity or, better put, a historical subject
and collective or political, able to take the good of all as a common value and enduring’.
And as subject, ‘each people is the creator of their culture and the protagonist of their his-
tory’ (Francis 2013: 122). It is not, therefore, about taking a populist attitude of distributing
handouts and converting the people-as-poor into an object; not political nor pastoral. As the
Venezuelan Jesuit Pedro Trigo SJ sustains, ‘the theology of liberation proposes, as a historical
novelty based on the Gospel, the constitution of the people as a historical subject both in society
and in the Church’ (Trigo 1985: 89), because people is that which shares a way of life and a
political project that longs for the common good (Scannone 2015).
It is understood, then, for ‘people’, a group of people, a collective subject that shares a
common culture, that is united by the same history, and that has a project of shared life (Díaz
2015); this is their way of life despite the negative socio-economic conditions they suffer
and the historical forces that are still causing poverty and misery inspired by the fetishism
of the markets (Francis 2013: 204). The option for the poor involves building the common
good and fighting against poverty, in all its causes. It is a choice that springs from the Golden
Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would like others to do to you’ (Mt 7:12). Or, as Francis has
explained:

Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be
treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities, which we seek for ourselves. Let
us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want
security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities,
let us provide opportunities. The measure we use for others will be the measure which
time will use for us.
(Francis 2015c)

Called to be citizens in the womb of the people

In the 1970s, Argentina lived between socio-political conflict and severe divisions on the
inside of the Catholic Church due to Peronism. Bergoglio proposed the promotion of a
greater unity at this juncture, understanding that the common good is more important than
each position and each individual option, which he refers to as the ‘parts’. Absolutizing the
individual vision destroys dialogue and all possibility of reaching the common good, leaving
out the possibility of a real option for the poor and for their development. In this context,
he is building the theme of greater unity of the people-as-nation, starting with the common
good. This appears to be central in the theology that inspires him and in his p­ astoral practice.
But this implies that the church should incarnate herself in the reality of the people-as-poor,

216
 Pope Francis and the t­ heology of the people

to know their culture and understand and respect their religiosity, to let herself be ­evangelized
and changed by them, and to bet on their cultural recognition and socio-­economic
­development. Inspired by Mons. Pironio, Bergoglio also understood that ­‘evangelization
is in direct relationship with the human promotion and the full liberation of all peoples’
­( Pironio 1975: 169). But the first step was to capture the essence of popular culture, to
­understand their lifeworld. That weight of the culture is its soul:

Our people have soul, and because we can speak of the soul of a people, we can speak
of a hermeneutic, of a way of seeing the reality, of an awareness. Today, in the midst of
conflict, this people teaches us not to pay attention to those that seek to distil reality in
ideas, not to serve intellectuals without talent, nor ethicists without kindness, but we
must appeal to the depths of our dignity as a people, appeal to our wisdom, appeal to
our cultural reserves.
(Bergoglio, 2005: 6)

To be able to walk in this direction, Bergoglio knew that he needed a change of certain
‘mentalities’. He proposes the following. First, and with all realism, he understands that we
will not arrive at unity while there still exists the temptation to forget disputes and not accept
them. This type of attitude he calls ‘abstract spiritualism’. Second, unity will not be achieved
if economic and public policies are applied to Christian ends, as an example of the ideolog-
ical visions that want to be imposed on the most poor and vulnerable, for those groups that
are in power, whether political, economic, or religious in nature. This mentality is given the
name of the temptation of ‘functionalist methodologism’ and ‘abstract ideologies’. Third,
the position of ‘ethicists’ or moralizing should be avoided, or to say that ‘they isolate the
conscience of processes and make formal rather than actual projects’. This type of mentality
he called ‘the moralizing of the priests’. This is how it was explained during his exposition
in the VIII Jornada de Pastoral Social in Buenos Aires in 2005.
Bergoglio adds to these criteria that which would speak to the processes of participation
in the public life and appear in the mid-1970s. At that time, Bergoglio claimed that ‘unity
prevails over conflict, the whole is greater than the part, and time is greater than space’.
­A lmost 40 years later, in 2010, as the Cardinal of Buenos Aires, he returned to these criteria
at the conference he gave on the bicentennial of Argentinian Independence and there added
a fourth criterion for discernment: ‘reality over idea’. At that conference, he maintained the
treatment of these ideas because ‘they help resolve the challenge of being citizens and be-
longing to a society’ (Bergoglio 2010). Now, as the Pope he returns to this vision as much
in the encyclical Lumen Fidei (nn. 55.57) as in the apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium
(Francis 2013: 217–37).
His invitation is as such to re-establish social bonds and generate a culture of e­ ncounter
capable of resisting the increasingly fragmented culture, promoted by globalization. But
the ‘re-establishment of social bonds’ becomes a choice for the majority of humanity,
even those living in poor conditions, because in order to solve the problems of the world
there must be a solution for those in poverty. The option is thus to build citizenship and
democracy. The conversion of the church springs from its commitment to promote and
build citizenship and democracy in the world, making it so that each individual and in-
stitution commits itself to the development of the poor (people-as-poor) so that all may
be subjects (people-as-nation) and not objects or recipients. The role of the church in
this process answers that she is the ‘People of God incarnate in the peoples of the earth’
(Francis 2013: 115).

217
Rafael Luciani

A peripheral hermeneutic of social processes and movements

The option for the poor is a structural element or ongoing condition in the life and mission
of the entire church, and hence capable of bringing about ‘real changes’ (cf. Francis 2014)
in society. Such a stance necessarily affects relations between the centre and the peripheries,
between Rome and local churches, between the church and society at large. Under this
scheme, changes of whatever nature cannot be driven from the centre but rather must come
from the peripheries, whether existential and social or political and religious. Francis explains
it in the following terms:

the great changes in history were realized when reality was seen not from the center
but from the periphery. It is a hermeneutical question: reality is understood only if
it is looked at from the periphery, and not when our viewpoint is equidistant from
everything.
(Spadaro 2014: 3)

This means a shift from the security of our comfort zones towards the place where the ex-
cluded, the discarded of society, are living. It is from there and with people that the truth
of reality can be understood. The displacement required implies a conversion, going to and
being with the poor, where they live, knowing first-hand what people are experiencing,
and not letting ourselves give in to the temptation presented by the prevailing system which
permits us to think about the reality of others but without knowing them or experiencing
their lifeworlds, their conditions. Nominalism that pervades academia brings such a tempta-
tion to bear, producing specialists who have never had a real connection with the persons or
the situations about which they write. Such was the explanation given by Francis in a 2014
interview with the Jesuit Antonio Spadaro:

It is not a good strategy to be at the center of a sphere. To understand we ought to

move around, to see reality from various viewpoints. We ought to get used to think-
ing. I ­often refer to a letter of Father Pedro Arrupe, who was General of the Society of
Jesus. It was a letter directed to the Centros de Investigación y Acción Social (CIAS). In this
letter, Father Arrupe spoke of poverty and said that some time of real contact with the
poor is necessary. This is really very important to me: the need to become acquainted
with reality by experience, to spend time walking on the periphery in order really to
become acquainted with the reality and life-experiences of people. If this does not
happen we then run the risk of being abstract ideologists or fundamentalists, which is
not healthy.
(Spadaro 2014: 4)

Without this view from the periphery, the proclamation of the gospel will be unsub-
stantial, unattractive, unable to get to the root of the true problems in order to remedy
them ­( Francis 2013: 199). It is a matter of changing our location, of opting to live on the
peripheries, and assuming the world as it is. This option does not consist of providing
instruction and religious formation or setting up charitable works of social assistance. It
requires going beyond mere assistance to establishing a loving attention that regards poor
people as subjects in a horizontal relationship, treating them equally. The loving atten-
tion that Francis talks about entails a change in life-direction, of the way everything is

218
 Pope Francis and the t­ heology of the people

done, so that others—the poor—may have a decent life. We see this kind of attention
being given by those:

priests and pastoral workers [who] carry out an enormous work of accompanying
and promoting the excluded throughout the world, alongside cooperatives, favoring
businesses, providing housing, working generously in the fields of health, sports and
education.
(Francis 2015a)

Their incentive is not from an ideology or social programme, but from the heart of the gos-
pel, from the right that we all have to live well.
This theologico-pastoral path calls to live the Church’s mission from within the new his-
torical processes of social change that serve the struggles of the poor majorities for a better world, one
that is more brotherly/ sisterly and liveable here and now. We are not talking about processes
offered by the ecclesiastical institution through its pastoral action. What is being proposed
is that the ecclesial institution recognize, take on, and promote those processes—including
those of non-Christian persons and groups—that have a humanizing aim in society as a
whole, and that are moving against the tide of the contemporary process of financial and
cultural globalization. One of the most novel and specific modes for embodying this vision
is put into practice when Francis invites, accompanies, and promotes social movements
that are leading processes in history. He said as much at the First World Meeting of Popular
Movements:

Such proactive participation transcends the processes of formal democracy. Moving

­toward a world of lasting peace and justice calls us to go beyond paternalistic forms of
assistance; it calls us to create new forms of participation that include popular move-
ments…They are a real sign of the inclusion of the excluded in the building of a com-
mon destiny.
(Francis 2014)

These movements, many of them secular, reveal that ‘the poor not only suffer injustice,
they also struggle against it’ (Francis 2014: 1), and the duty of the church, in fidelity to the
Reign of God, lies in ‘accompanying them suitably on their path of liberation’ (Francis
2013: 199). Indeed, the Church must do so from within the particular ways in which these move-
ments understand and carry out their struggles. This is where the primacy of the periphery over the
centre becomes real: in the transition from one model of church that has been accustomed
to determining the directions and modes of change to another model of church—people
of God—that recognizes what already exists in secular history in order to take it on and
strengthen it. In other words, Francis recalls that ‘the Church cannot and must not remain
aloof from this process in its proclamation of the Gospel’ (Francis 2015a), because ‘re-
spectful cooperation with popular movements can revitalize these efforts and strengthen
processes of change’.
Popular or social movements show us that the church ought to be at the service of every-
one, not only of its members, for if it wishes to really foster a culture of encounter it cannot
limit itself to gathering those who are already part of its structure, nor believe that anyone
who is not in it must eventually become part of it. The periphery has its own life, its own
particularity and dynamic, which must be respected as something that contains the presence

219
Rafael Luciani

of the Word. At the First World Meeting of Popular Movements, Francis expressed this insight
in the following terms:

I know that you are persons of different religions, trades, ideas, cultures, countries,
continents. Here and now you are practicing the culture of encounter, so different from
the xenophobia, discrimination and intolerance that we witness so often. Among the
excluded, one finds an encounter of cultures where the aggregate does not wipe out the
particulars.
(Francis 2014)

The fundamental soteriological principle of a church going out of itself lies in understanding
that ‘those who enter into communion with God are those who are in communion with
human beings’ (Gutiérrez 1988: 65). It does not go out to occupy new spaces; we are not in
a situation of initial evangelization. The reason for going out is to bring about new alterna-
tive and horizontal processes in history, and to do that by first going where people are and
becoming familiar with their lifeworlds. This thinking lies at the heart of a proper Latin
American theology of processes in history (Gera 2005) which seeks to identify the major
events of an era, those that mark its historical direction, and to discern in them certain signs
of the times that reveal the meaning of salvation (ibid.: 270), guiding people toward universal
brotherhood and sisterliness. These new processes are being led authentically by the social
and popular movements that struggle for the ‘active participation of great majorities’ (Francis
2014)— something very actual and needed today.
Just as for John XXIII, in Pacem in Terris, these processes included those promoting work-
ers and women, decolonization and peace between peoples, for Francis these are all move-
ments that, in the face of the current prevailing direction of globalization, denounce its
consequences—that is, exclusion and inequality—while at the same time propose a more
humane world, an alternative to the current system. This mediating, socio-political role of
popular movements, is what the church had lost sight of during the so-called ecclesial winter
before the arrival of Francis.

Conclusion
To conclude we must say that the Latin American theology of the people or theology of
culture accepts that

the world has a specific secular dimension, which has its own consistency and relative
autonomy. The secular dimension finds expression within the common notions of civ-
ilization or culture. It is in this secular realm that the Spirit of God acts and is present,
not only in people of good will be taken individually, but also in society and in history,
peoples, cultures, religions.
(Gera 2005: 265–6)

To take on secular history with all its depth and truth means believing that the Spirit is pres-
ent in it, in all these movements, forces, and processes in history, beyond the institutional
church, and that it bears in itself a saving orientation greater than that which is immediate
and palpable.
Such a vision helps convert the church, helps it to go out of itself and accompany these pro-
cesses of humanization or growth in humaneness. In other words, the vision is to work together

220
 Pope Francis and the t­ heology of the people

towards achieving concrete expression of the universal brother/sisterhood of all peoples and
their cultures, able to look beyond beliefs and creeds. This effort implies joining forces to
demand better democracies, social inclusion, and respect of human rights. Francis assumes
these efforts by supporting social and civil movements, because these movements collaborate
to build a more inclusive and just society. His Papacy, inspired by a Latin A
­ merican ecclesial
and theological identity, is a testimony of how secular society and religious institutions can
join forces for the common good of all people, based on an ethics of democratic citizenship,
ecclesial sinodality and social participation.

Further reading
Berryman, P. E. (1973) ‘Latin American liberation theology, Theological Studies, 34: 357–95.
The author presents the social, ecclesial, and theological debates that gave birth to liberation
theology, developing its key notions and initial contributions of the involvement of the church in
the changes of society.
Boff, L., Elizondo, V. and M. Lefébure (1984) The People of God Amidst the Poor, Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clark.
This volume of the Journal Concilium presents a series of articles, written by some of the found-
ers of liberation theology, on the notion of ‘People of God’ as understood by Catholic theology
after the Vatican II Council.
Comblin, J. (2004) People of God, New York, NY: Orbis Books.
This Latin American theologian explains how the church as ‘People of God’ is the most striking
image to emerge from Vatican II, opening the church to the role of the laity, the dignity of the
poor, and the political changes in our history.
Cox, H. (2016) The Market as God, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Inspired by Pope Francis’ Evangelii Gaudium, Harvey criticizes the business theology of supply
and demand in our globalized world. In continuity with Latin American liberation, he explains
how the market is omniscient and omnipotent, and in which sense it proposes a secular theology.
Metz, J. B. (2007) Faith in History and Society, New York, NY: Crossroads.
Metz articulates the emerging social and political issues that have arisen from current techno-
logical and economic processes. He deals with the question of whose progress and at what cost. He
­proposes a political theology for our times, engaging religious beliefs with the struggle for a just
world.
Pasquale, F. (2015) ‘The concept of periphery in Pope Francis’ discourse: a religious alternative to
globalization?’ Religions, 6: 42–57.
Pasquale analyzes the role of religions as agencies that defend the common good, questioning
political nationalisms and universalisms. The author uses the concept of periphery, as understood
by Pope Francis, to look into the world from the edge, from the poor, rather than from the centre.
Scannone, J. C. (2016) ‘Pope Francis and the theology of the people’, Theological Studies, 77: 118–35.
This important Latin American theologian presents the influence of the Argentine theology of
the people in Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, and how this helps to under-
stand Francis’ view on people, church, the poor, and the common good.
Xavier, J. (2010) ‘Theological anthropology of gaudium et spes and fundamental theology’, Gregorianum,
91: 124–36.
Xavier shows how the Vatican II Council relates theology to anthropology and history, where
anthropology plays a mediatory role in a dialogue between faith and reason in our modern world.

References
Azcuy, V. R., Galli, C. and M. González (eds.) (2006) Escritos Teológico-Pastorales de Lucio Gera II: de la
Conferencia de Puebla a nuestros días, Buenos Aires: Ágape.
——— (eds.) (2007) Escritos Teológico-Pastorales de Lucio Gera I: del preconcilio a la Conferencia de Puebla
(1956–1981), Buenos Aires: Ágape.
Azcuy, V. R. and P. Scervino (eds.) (1998) ‘Ministerio peregrino y mendicante: Lucio Gera 50 años de
sacerdocio’, Nuevo Mundo, 55: 37–63.

221
Rafael Luciani

Bergoglio, J. M. (1982) Discurso de Apertura de la Congregación Provincial XIV: 18 de febrero de 1974.

­Meditaciones para religiosos, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Diego de Torres.
——— (2005) Ponerse la Patria al Hombro, Buenos Aires: Claretiana.
——— (2010) ‘Hacia un bicentenario en justicia y solidaridad 2010–2016: nosotros como ciudadanos,
nosotros como pueblo’ (‘Towards a bicentennial in justice and solidarity 2010–2016: we as citizens,
we as a people’), speech, Buenos Aires, 16 October.
Conferencia Episcopal Argentina (1966) Declaración “la Iglesia en el período postconciliar”. See www.
episcopado.org/documentos.php?area=1&tit_gral=Documentos%20históricos, accessed online
29-05-2018.
Díaz, B. (2015) ‘Alberto Methol Ferré: una influencia fundamental en el pensamiento del papa
­Francisco’, Cuadernos del Claeh, 101: 63–85.
Fernández, V. M. (1998) ‘El sensus populi: la legitimidad de una teología desde el pueblo’, Teología, 72:
133–64.
Francis (2013) Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” of the Holy Father Francis to the Bishops, Clergy,
Consecrated Persons and the Lay Faithful on the Proclamation of the Gospel in Today’s World, Vatican City:
Vatican Press.
——— (2014) Address to the Participants in the First World Meeting of Popular Movements, Rome, 28
October.
——— (2015a) Address to the Participants in the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Bolivia, July 9.
——— (2015b) Apostolic Visit to Paraguay, July 11.
——— (2015c) Apostolic Visit to the U.S., Washington, September 25.
——— (2015d) Meeting with Clergy, Religious, and Seminarians, Bolivia, July 9.
Galli, C. (1991) ‘Evangelización, cultura y teología: el aporte de J. C. Scannone a una teología incul-
turada’, Teología, 58: 189–202.
Gera, L. (1998) ‘Entrevista al cumplir sus 50 años de sacerdocio’. In Azcuy V. R. and Scervino P., (ed.),
Ministerio peregrino y mendicante. Lucio Gera 50 años de sacerdocio, Nuevo Mundo 55: 37–63.
Gera, L. (2005) ‘La teología de los procesos históricos’, Revista de Teología, 87: 259–79.
Gutierrez, G. (1988) Líneas Pastorales de la Iglesia en América Latina, Lima: CEP.
Luciani, R. (2016) ‘Los signos de los tiempos como criterio hermenéutico fundamental del quehacer
teológico’, Atualidade Teologica, 52: 37–57.
Luciani, R. (2017) Pope Francis and the Theology of the People, New York, NY: Orbis Books.
O’Farrell, J. (1976) América Latina: ¿cuáles son tus problemas?, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Patria Grande.
Pironio, E. F. (1975) ‘La evangelización del mundo de hoy en América Latina: exposición presentada
en el Sínodo Episcopal de 1974, Teología, 25–26: 155–65.
Politi, S. (1992) Teología del Pueblo: una propuesta argentina a la teología latinoamericana 1967–1975, Buenos
Aires: Ediciones San Antonio de Padua.
Rodari, P. (2014) ‘Conversaciones con Víctor Manuel Fernández’, Iglesia Viva, 259: 55–68.
Scannone, J. C. (2014) ‘Papa Francesco e la teologia del popolo’, La Civiltà Cattolica, 3930: 571–90.
——— (2015) ‘La teología argentina del pueblo’, Gregorianum, 96: 9–24.
Spadaro, A. (2014) ‘Wake up the world! Conversation with Pope Francis about the religious life’, La
Civiltà Cattolica, 2014-I: 3–17.
Tello, R. (2008) La Nueva Evangelización: escritos teológico-pastorales I, Buenos Aires: Ágape.
——— (2011) Pueblo y Cultura Popular, Buenos Aires: Ágape.
Trigo, P. (1985) ‘Teología de la liberación y cultura’, Revista Latinoamericana de Teología, 4: 83–93.

222