liberation theology Flashcards
Orthodoxy
- correct thought
- official teachings of the Catholic Church
Orthopraxis
- correct practise
- right action needed to bring about justice for the poor and marginalised
Praxis
- a cycle of thought and action
- proposed by marx
- a process in which people identify conditions of a situation -> take steps to change, and reflect
Leonardo Boff
- three mediations
- attempting to put liberation theology “into practise”
Three mediations & define
- socio analytic mediation
= analysing society, using Marxism to see and understand the problems within society
-hermeneutic mediation
= using the bible to judge society, figure out if it fits God’s standards/ plan
- practical mediation
= literally just acting upon the things you observing -> usually done within base christian communities
Gustavo Gutierrez
- divided praxis into two
- first step praxis -> experiencing poverty and oppression and siding with them
- second step praxis -> actively engaging theologically and trying to being about transformation
Orthodoxy vs orthopraxis essay plan
Para one - if orthodoxy is given priority, then christianity loses sight of what its for —> entire bible is about acting like jesus, not thinking like jesus
Para two - if orthopraxis is given priority, the there is nothing distinctively Christian about what is being done
Para three - they work better together
Para four - orthopraxis = more suitable using utilitarian theory
Christian thinkers should not engage with the ideologies of atheists such as marx
Para one – should not engage -> religion = stability, not something that should engage with athiest ideologies
Para two – should not engage, but should resist temptation of athiest ideologies.
Para three – should not engage -> marx falsely critiques and attacks religion
Para four – should engage! Many things in common
Discuss the claim that Christianity should not show preference to the poor and oppresssed, but should treat everyone equally
Para 1 – YES financially well off ≠ spiritually well off, which is what christianity aims to do – so no.
Para 2 – NO equity vs equality -> equity needed, once everyone starts at an equal point, then equality can flourish – this is our responsibility
Para 3 – NO if christianities last point is heaven, then must ensure financial set backs are not a problem, people who work more have less time to build relationship with God, must be taken into consideration
Para 4 – YES christianity shouldn’t be the one treating the poor differently, the poor must overthrow those in power via violent revolution (marx)
Christianity is better than Marxism at tackling social issues. Assess this claim.
Para one – marx = violent revolution, religion = slow journey of the inner self
Para two – focus of the social issue? Marx = focused on helping the victim, christianity = focused on reforming the perpetrator
Para three – end goal? Marx = kingdom on earth, religion = heaven difference in individual liberation vs. Societal liberation
Para four – religion = excuses the poverty on earth, with an uncertain promise of an afterlife, stance on religion? So more helpful to secular individuals
Liberation theology has not engaged with Marxism fully enough. Discuss.
Point one – Engages enough! There’s common ground between the two already
Point two – it hasn’t, and it shouldn’t, they don’t believe the problem stems from the same place, so engaging with each other would do no good
Point three – should engage in conscientization more
Point four - hasn’t engaged, and shouldn’t – would lose theological aspect
Discuss critically the view that liberation theology would be more successful it became more marxist in its outlook.
Para 1 – Marxism believes social sin, but fails to acknowledge it stems from personal sin -> so wouldn’t be more successful.
Para 2 – conscientization = persuasive
Para 3 – should engage -> bible also suggested revolutions
Para 4 – would lose theological aspect
Does Marx provide us with a satisfactory solution for the problem of exploitation of the poor?
Para one - no, his root of disliking religion is wrong -> Jesus was nice to the poor
Para two - orthopraxis = satisfactory, has an active impact on peoples lives -> Boff = three mediations
Para three - socialist revolution = good
Para four - socialism however is not as good as he makes it out to be -> many socialist states collapse.
Marxism
- posits the struggle between social classes
- bourgeois vs proletariat = communist revolution
- conscientisation
- abolishment of capitalism
- social sin
Conscientisation
- process of becoming more aware of power structures in society
- so that they can go about challenging them
