The Eucharist as a Source of Political Action: Dorothy Day as a living example of Johann Baptist Metz’s “Dangerous Memory”

Attending Mass and helping the suffering are not two separate things. In Christian life, the former should directly lead to the latter. In order to clarify this deep connection, first I will turn to Johann Baptist Metz, especially the centrality of the concept of anamnesis in his theology and hence how his political theology is deeply linked with or actually grounded in the Eucharist and liturgy, for which anamnesis is an essential concept. Metz points out the centrality of the “dangerous” memory of the crucified Lord for the Christian faith and suggests that when we remember the suffering of Christ we also remember all of the victims of history. Further, this memory of accumulated suffering should prepare us for socially emancipatory action. Thus, through the concept of anamnesis, we can see how participating in Mass should directly lead to political action on behalf of the suffering. As a concrete example of this connection realized, I will look at Dorothy Day in the second half of the paper. The Eucharist was central to her conversion, her spirituality, and her Catholic Worker Movement. In her, we can see a concrete example of the living memory of the suffering constantly nourished by the Eucharist and realized as a socially emancipatory action. Thus, by looking at Day through the lens provided by Metz with a focus on the living memory of suffering, I will stress that the Eucharist, “the source and summit of the Christian life,” is the key to bring theology into action.

A “Liturgical Mysticism of Open Eyes”: Johann Baptist Metz, Caryll Houselander, and Pandemic Liturgy

The German theologian Johann Baptist Metz (1928–2019) called for a spirituality that sees more suffering, not less, the more liberated it is; he has described this as a “mysticism of open eyes.” This theological vision involves all people, living and dead, becoming free to stand as subjects before God. Caryll Houselander (1901–1954), an English author, developed a liturgically infused mysticism focused on seeing Christ in each person. Her vision of Christ in others was rooted in creatively portraying the particularities of human life in the great “rhythm” of the Christ-life lived in the Mystical Body and expressed in the liturgy. This article proposes that juxtaposing these two authors reveals a “liturgical mysticism of open eyes,” playing off Metz’s initial phrasing. The work of Metz and Houselander together presents a fruitful liturgical theology for Christian communities during and in response to the pandemic as they engage questions of suffering, justice, and responsibility. By rooting our decisions about liturgical and social lives in a “liturgical mysticism of open eyes,” the church may remain rooted to a liturgical spirituality, while also recognizing and being open to the suffering of individuals and communities while liturgies are altered, moved online, or postponed altogether.

Von contemplatio zu actio. Das Christentum nicht als Privatsache, sondern als Ausdruck von Mit-den-anderen-zu-sein bei Johann Baptist Metz

This study is a pastoral and theological text. It presents the concept of Christianity and Christian identity, according to John Baptist Metz. The article is divided into three main parts. After a short presentation of the German theologian, the first part discusses the necessity of de-privatization of religion, which is necessary in order that the experience of the world would become the experience of believers. The second part is a challenge to combine contemplatio with actio. Consequently, the third part presents the Christian identity as an actio, warning against the private, passive, and bourgeois religion.

A teologia política de Giorgio Agamben

Diferente do judaísmo e do islamismo, que resguardam a dimensão soberana de Deus, o cristianismo se compôs na forma de oikonomia, cujo centro se encontra no aparato eclesiástico: o messias anunciou o reino, o que apareceu foi a Igreja. Nesse sentido, o texto apresenta uma perspectiva de teologia política de caráter econômico, a partir da visão do filósofo Giorgio Agamben (1942-). Será preciso, primeiro, apresentar, resumidamente, as discussões teológico-políticas do início do século XX, a partir dos debates entre Erik Peterson (1890-1960) e Carl Schmitt (1888-1985), e a contribuição oferecida por Johann Baptist Metz (1928-2019), que conduziram G. Agamben a uma arqueologia do conceito de oikonomia e das figuras angélicas, na história do pensamento ocidental.

“Our Tongue-Cut God, Respond to Us”: Prayer of Righteous Anger and Communal Lament as Theology of the Oppressed

This article offers a theological reflection on prayer of anger and lament as a formative source for the oppressed in constructing and embodying their own theology. For this purpose, particular attention is paid to Kim Heunggyum’s scandalous prayer-song “The Father of Minjung,” which was widely sung by Korean minjung amid their political resistance against the authoritarian regimes in the 1980s. This article historically traces this prayer-song’s original context and developmental stages and analyzes its use of cross-genre that blends the styles and structures of the minjung-gayo and the lament psalms. Theological reflection on this prayer-song focuses on particular religious affections, righteous anger and communal lament, shaped by the Korean minjung’s collective performance to sing this prayer-song as a means of political resistance. By drawing on Audre Lorde, Johann Baptist Metz, and Emmanuel Levinas, this article points out limitations of Barth’s theology of prayer and presents how Kim’s prayer-song that evokes righteous anger and communal lament served as a formative source for the Korean minjung in doing their own critical and incarnational theology.

La dimensión anamnética de la fe: un diálogo entre memoria histórica y escatología después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

El objetivo de este artículo fue iniciar un diálogo entre historia y escatología desde la experiencia del sufrimiento humano en Dios. Por tanto, se abordará el método dialéctico para establecer una reflexión hermenéutica que permita comprender el sufrimiento del presente desde la fuerza del pretérito y el compromiso con el futuro. Para ello, será fundamental el pensamiento teológico de Johann Baptist Metz y de otros autores, quien desde su propuesta teológico-política y desde la memoria provocadora en el contexto de un mundo altamente globalizado reivindica el problema de la teodicea desde la experiencia del hombre que sufre y reclama a Dios el fin inminente de este. Ahora bien, dentro del mundo académico de la teología, se han realizado varios esfuerzos por estructurar una teología política que mire al mundo, pues la fe cristiana es fe con los ojos abiertos, pero no ha obtenido la recepción necesaria dentro del mundo académico ni en el contexto eclesial formal. Los esfuerzos realizados después del auge del Concilio Vaticano II despertaron en 1968 un clamor del oprimido, del pobre y del sufriente, que aún se desconoce tanto en el contexto latinoamericano como en el europeo. En consecuencia, nace este diálogo entre historia y escatología, en el cual se abordará, primero, la singularidad de la fe en el contexto de un nuevo nominalismo; segundo, la secularización del fruto del hombre burgués ilustrado y la modernidad, y, finalmente, se esbozará concretamente la relación entre memoria y esperanza en el contexto de Auschwitz.

My Friend Johann Baptist Metz

Johann Baptist Metz died on December 2, 2019. He and Jürgen Moltmann shared a theological and personal friendship marked by affection and respect. It was an honest friendship and it lasted for over fifty years. It started when two texts met: Metz’s essay “God before Us” and Moltmann’s essay “The Category of Novum in Christian Theology.” Both were published in the volume To Honor Ernst Bloch (1965). This article is a personal reminiscence.

Theodicy, Undeserved Suffering, and Compassionate Solidarity: An Interdisciplinary Reading of Hwang Sok-Yong’s The Guest

The author explores theological questions regarding the Korean novelist Hwang Sok-yong’s The Guest from interdisciplinary perspectives. This paper analyzes the novel in relation to the emotional complex of han as understood in Korean minjung theology, the political theology of Johann Baptist Metz, and Ignacio Ellacuría’s liberation theology. Drawing upon the perspectives of Korean, German, and Latin American scholars, this approach invites us to construct a discourse of theodicy in a fresh light, to reach a deeper level of theodical engagement with the universal problem of suffering, and to nurture the courage of hope for human beings in today’s stressed world. Contemplating the concrete depiction of human suffering in The Guest, the paper invites readers to deepen their understanding of God in terms of minjung theology’s thrust of resolving the painful feelings of han of the oppressed, Metz’s insight of suffering unto God as a sacramental encounter with God, and Ellacuría’s idea of giving witness to God’s power of the resurrection in eschatological hope. The paper concludes that the immensity of today’s human suffering asks for that compassionate solidarity with the crucified today which can generate hope in the contemporary milieu.

The Accra Confession as Dangerous Memory: Reformed Ecclesiology, the Ecological Crisis, and the Problem of Catholicity

This study presents the Accra Confession as a theological response to the ecological crisis from a Reformed perspective while also addressing its critical weakness, namely the problem of universality in both Reformed ecclesiology and global approaches to ecological destruction. Because of a fragile universality, both Reformed churches and global institutions find it difficult to agree on a concrete plan to address climate change. Theologically, this difficulty arrives not primarily from disagreement with the existence or causes of climate change but how Christian theological values translate concretely to acts of justice. This study proposes a way to ground these discussions on the concept of dangerous memory by resourcing the theology of Johann Baptist Metz. Dangerous memories allow stories of the suffering vanquished to be constitutive to the construction of caritas, which in turn serves as a suitable theological foundation for addressing differing approaches to engaging climate issues. Reading the Accra Confession as dangerous memory, then, provides a valuable resource to the Reformed community by allowing the testimonies of those affected adversely by climate change to substantially inform theological discourses on climate justice.