scholarly journals The Solved Conflict: Pope Francis and Liberation Theology

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Jakob Løland
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Pope Francis ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
Global Church

AbstractThe battle for meaning and influence between Latin American liberations theologians and the Vatican was one of the most significant conflicts in the global Catholic church of the twentieth century. With the election of the Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio as head of the global church in 2013, the question about the legacy of liberation theology was actualized. The canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the pope’s approximation to the public figure of Gustavo Gutiérrez signaled a new approach to the liberation theology movement in the Vatican. This article argues that Pope Francis shares some of the main theological concerns as pontiff with liberation theology. Although the pope remains an outsider to liberation theology, he has in a sense solved the conflict between the Vatican and the Latin American social movement. Through an analysis of ecclesial documents and theological literature, his can be discerned on three levels. First, Pope Francis’ use of certain theological ideas from liberation theology has been made possible and less controversial by post-cold war contexts. Second, Pope Francis has contributed to the solution of this conflict through significant symbolic gestures rather than through a shift of official positions. Third, as Pope Francis, the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio has appropriated certain elements that are specific to liberation theology without acknowledging his intellectual debt to it.

scholarly journals PRAISE OF THE CONVERT: BELIEVE AND BELONG FROM THE CATHOLICITY OF LATIN AMERICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 327-339
Author(s):  
Felipe Gaytán Alcalá
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

Latin America was considered for many years the main bastion of Catholicism in the world by the number of parishioners and the influence of the church in the social and political life of the región, but in recent times there has been a decrease in the catholicity index. This paper explores three variables that have modified the identity of Catholicism in Latin American countries. The first one refers to the conversion processes that have expanded the presence of Christian denominations, by analyzing the reasons that revolve around the sense of belonging that these communities offer and that prop up their expansion and growth. The second variable accounts for those Catholics who still belong to the Catholic Church but who in their practices and beliefs have incorporated other magical or esoteric scheme in the form of religious syncretisms, modifying their sense of being Catholics in the world. The third factor has a political reference and has to do with the concept of laicism, a concept that sets its objective, not only in the separation of the State from the Church, but for historical reasons in catholicity restraint in the public space which has led to the confinement of the Catholic to the private, leaving other religious groups to occupy that space.

A Brief History of Theosemiotic

Theosemiotic ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 15-42
Author(s):  
Michael L. Raposa
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
William James ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
Book Of Nature ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
History Of

This chapter supplies a historical survey of theosemiotic, focused less on demonstrating actual lines of causal influence than on exposing the resonance of certain ideas articulated by thinkers sometimes far removed from each other in space and time. It links Peirce’s thought to that of earlier figures (like Augustine, Duns Scotus, John Poinsot, Jonathan Edwards, and Ralph Waldo Emerson), certain contemporaries (especially William James and Josiah Royce), and later thinkers and developments (most notably, H. Richard Niebuhr, Simone Weil, and Gustavo Gutierrez). The chapter begins with an examination of the religious significance of talk about the “book of nature” and concludes with the observation of a certain natural affinity between a theosemiotic inspired by Peirce’s pragmatism and Latin American liberation theology.

scholarly journals The Power of Humanitarian Narratives: A Domestic Coalition Theory of Justifications for Military Action

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 680-695 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Maxey
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Military Intervention ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Military Action ◽  
The Public ◽  
Original Dataset ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Domestic Support

Conventional wisdom assumes the best way to mobilize public support for military action is through the lens of national security. Humanitarian justifications provide a helpful substitute when US interests are not at stake, but are less reliable. However, US presidents have provided humanitarian explanations for every military intervention of the post-Cold War period. What, if any, power do humanitarian justifications have in security-driven interventions? The article answers this question by developing a domestic coalition framework that evaluates justifications in terms of whose support matters most in the build-up to intervention. Survey experiments demonstrate that humanitarian narratives are necessary to build the largest possible coalition of support. However, presidents risk backlash if they stretch humanitarian claims too far. Data from thirteen waves of Chicago Council surveys and an original dataset of justifications for US interventions confirm that humanitarian justifications are a common and politically relevant tool. The findings challenge both the folk realist expectation that the public responds primarily to threats to its own security and the constructivist tendency to limit the power of humanitarian justifications to cases of humanitarian intervention. Instead, humanitarian justifications are equally, if not more, important than security explanations for mobilizing domestic support, even in security-driven interventions.

scholarly journals Global History and International Relations:

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anelise Freitas Pereira Gondar ◽  
Aline Duarte da Graça Rizzo
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Latin American ◽  
International System ◽  
World Order ◽  
Global History ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
American Perspective ◽  
Definition Of

The Post-Cold War world order fueled discussions in the field of Humanities on theoretical and methodological resources in the very attempt to understand and explain the increasingly multi-polarized and complex international system. While considering the field of History — especially in its attempt to theoretically and methodologically cross borders — and while being active in the field of International Relations, we see possibilities of fruitful encounters between both areas of research, particularly when it comes to recent discussions on what came to be called in the 1990s “global history”. The article initially presents a conceptual definition of global history; then moves on to underpin its claim that History and IR areentangled disciplines that, despite different theoretical points of departure, not only share similar basic assumptions (state-centrism and the Western intellectual framework of thought) but also have been sharing similar intellectual preoccupations. In the third part, we explore possibilities of writing global history from the Latin-American perspective by discussing three recent contributions to the field. Finally, the text briefly enunciates possibilities of mutual enlightenment between the disciplinary fields of History and IR based on the idea of Global IR.

Words Are Not Enough

2020 ◽  
pp. 62-111
Author(s):  
Vanessa Walker
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Latin American ◽  
First Year ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Human Rights Advocacy ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Cold War

This chapter analyzes the early development of the Carter administration's human rights agenda, built in tandem with a new approach to U.S.–Latin American relations during its first year in office. From the outset, the Carter administration envisioned a human rights policy that would simultaneously mitigate human rights violations abroad, build U.S. credibility and stature in the international sphere by reasserting a moral and ideological pole of attraction, and signify a move away from the excessive secrecy and power of the Cold War presidency at home. Although Carter largely shared the premises of the Movement's vision, differences over the implementation and signifiers of this policy in high-level diplomacy created rifts between like-minded advocates and policy makers. Carter found himself grappling with the legacies of both U.S. intervention in the region and also congressional and public distrust stemming from past excesses of the Cold War presidency. The administration's options in implementing its policy were bounded by both past regional relations and human rights advocacy itself.

Theologies of Liberation

2015 ◽  
pp. 802-819
Author(s):  
Roberto Goizueta
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Catholic Action ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Early Influences ◽  
Do So

The term ‘theologies of liberation’ refers to a global theological movement that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s among Christians working for justice among the poor of the Third World. Most systematically articulated, initially, by Latin American theologians such as the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, liberation theology is rooted in the Gospel claim that Jesus Christ is identified in a special way with the poor and marginalized of our world. Early influences on the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America included: the Catholic Action movement, base ecclesial communities, Vatican II (especially Gaudium et spes), and the Medellín Conference of 1968. The central insight of liberation theologies is that, because God makes a ‘preferential option for the poor’, we are called to do so as well; if Christ is identified with the marginalized, the lives of the poor is the privileged locus for practising Christian theological reflection.

Church as Sacrament: Gutiérrez and Sobrino as Interpreters ofLumen Gentium

Horizons ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-95
Author(s):  
Todd Walatka
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Social Teaching ◽  
Basic Point ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Instrument ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Jon Sobrino ◽  
The Church

Vatican II'sGaudium et Spes(GS) has had an unmistakable and demonstrable impact on Latin American liberation theology. Likewise, any sufficient account of the impact of GS on the wider church would need to attend to liberation theology. This article affirms this basic point, then explores the often-underappreciated relationship between liberation theology andLumen Gentium(LG).In particular, it investigates how Gustavo Gutiérrez and Jon Sobrino interpret a fundamental ecclesiological affirmation of LG: the church as a sacrament of salvation and unity. Gutiérrez's early work provides, and Sobrino deepens, the basic point that the church's work as a sacrament inherently demands an option for the poor. Rather than being simply part of its social teaching, this option is at the heart of the churchquachurch. It is essential both for an adequate interpretation of LG and for a church seeking to be a credible sign and effective instrument of salvation and unity in the world.

Are Digital Technologies Transforming Humanity and Making Politics Impossible?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
Jonathan O. Chimakonam ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Space ◽  
The People ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Digital Identities

My question in this paper is whether digital technologies transform humanity and make politics impossible. Digital technologies, no doubt, are revolutionary. But I argue that what they have done in the Post-Cold War era are: (1) to further contract the spaces between politicians and the people; (2) transform actors from subjects to objects, such that we may in addition to social identities, talk about digital identities; (3) relocate the public sphere from squares to ilosphere where individuals are granted enormous expressive powers but at the same time become vulnerable to large scale manipulations; (4) and escalate the tools of politics. My argument will be that digital technologies in a subtle way are transforming humanity in the digital space and that this might have costly moral consequences not only in politics generally but specifically in liberal democracy. However, I will contend that this transformation of humanity does not make politics impossible; it only escalates it with troubling consequences like those we saw in the 2016 American presidential election.

Old and new questions for the public sphere: historicizing its theoretical relevance in post–Cold War South Korea

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-170
Author(s):  
Jiyeon Kang
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Public Sphere ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Public Spheres ◽  
The Public ◽  
Essential Components ◽  
Global North ◽  
The Public Sphere

In this article, I reflect on the theoretical rise of the public sphere in the 1990s from the vantage point of South Korea, connecting this approach to the broader context of the global post–Cold War transition. The case of South Korea – a postcolonial, authoritarian country with deep geopolitical connections to the West – offers a node of the global embrace of the public sphere in the 1990s for theorizing the transformation of authoritarian countries into liberal capitalist democracies, elevating the distinction between state and civil society as a prominent focus. However, the establishment of authoritarian public spheres in Asia and the illiberal turn of public spheres in the Global North in the 2010s call upon scholars to identify relevant questions regarding current public spheres while addressing what essential components define the public sphere. Here, I call for critical attention to the loci of power and oppression, to the production of critical practices within a particular social configuration, and to coexistence within a civil society. I end the article by proposing a set of suggestions for reading, theorizing, and teaching public sphere theories.

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