Rewriting Liberation Theology. Ignacio Ellacuría’s Theology of Liberation in Conversation with Decolonial and Postcolonial Feminism

• Applicant: Dr. Jan Niklas Collet
• Subject Area: Roman Catholic Theology
• Term: from 2023 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 537919092

The epistemological interest of this study consists in reflecting on a possible shape of liberation theology in Europe at the height of contemporary theoretical debates. Therefore, it draws on the ‘classical’ hermeneutics of 20th century liberation theology. The main constellation of problems that arises from this concerns, above all, the complexity of power/domination/oppression as well as of resistance/liberation. It thus includes both the socio-theoretical framework of analysis, which in large parts of classical liberation theology was shaped by the reception of (Marxist) theories of dependency, and the model of critical praxis advocated by liberation theology. In order to satisfy the aforementioned epistemological interest, these criticisms of liberation theology are to be examined and, on the basis of this examination, further perspectives are to be developed. Methodically, this leeds to a comparative approach, in which a certain draft of liberation-theological hermeneutics (Ignacio Ellacuría SJ) is subjected to a critical reflection in discussion with decolonial feminism (María Lugones) and postcolonial feminism (Chandra T. Mohanty). This examination shows that the view that liberation theology, due to its reception of Marxism, inevitably represents a unidirectional understanding of power/domination/oppression is not correct at least in this generality, even though it certainly has points of reference in the material elaboration of concrete theological topoi. On this basis, the study concludes with three further perspectives regarding a possible shape of liberating theology in the European context: First, starting from the conception of theological hermeneutics as a trigonal structure proposed by Ellacuría, a promising perspective for the reflection on the status of religious beliefs in post-secular Western societies can be developed, which combines anti-fundamentalist motives for the separation of (autonomous) justification and (religious) interpretation with decolonial motives for the relativization of this separation itself. Second, the approach of a ‘decentralized materialism’ that distinguishes and mediates different forms of power/domination/oppression suggests itself for the social-theoretical framework of analysis. Third, European liberation theology should understand itself as a theology in movement and accordingly pay special attention to the critical accompaniment of the practice of Christians in different social movements in their intersectional interplay.

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants