The Hope of Liberation in World Religions

Notes

279 notes Introduction 1 Rachel L. Swarns, “Lack of Basics Threatens World’s poor,” The New York Times, August 29, 2002. 2 Neoliberalism is a relatively new economic term, coined in the late 1990s to describe the social and moral implications of global market liberalism (capitalism) and its free-trade policies revived (hence “neo”) since the collapse of the eastern bloc. 3 prosperity theology, like neoliberalism, plays on the greed of people. God, the abundant giver, will provide a life free of sickness and poverty for those whose faith is strong as manifested by how much they give to the church. The popularity of prosperity theology among the poor of the world is based on the belief that poverty can be eradicated for the individual , inconsequential to the global causes of poverty. 4 Nations starving for credit but unable to compete in the global marketplace ,canturntointernationalfinancialinstitutions,specificallytheWorld Bank and the IMf, for help. These institutions represent the economic interests of First World nations, reflecting its foreign policy (specifically that of the United States) by making loans contingent on “structural adjustments” (here understood as cuts in health, education, and social services) for member states. The main goal of structural adjustments is to open markets to the centers of financial capital, specifically by turning national enterprises over to private international investors (usually from the first World). privatization of national economies shifts the global emphasis from achieving social goals to profit-making at the expense of workers who faced massive wage cuts and layoffs as private owners seek to improve their bottom line by cutting labor costs. The impact of structural adjustments is the reversal of the sovereign nation task of setting economic and development policies. Now it is the market that dictates how the state is to be run. And what if nations refuse to open their markets? Then “hostile takeovers”—read military operations conducted covertly or overtly—become justified (De La Torre, 2004a:81–82). Chapter 1 1 See Galeano, The Open Veins of Latin America, 1973. 2 The most denunciatory Vatican document was Libertatis Nuntius, 1984. Vatican documents in 1986 are more conciliatory. See hennelly, Liberation Theology, 1990. Juan Luis Segundo responded with a book-length critique of the 1984 Vatican encyclical: see his Theology and the Church, 1985. 3 See Cox, The Silencing of Leonardo Boff, 1988. 4 Among protestants that early contributed to liberation theology are Rubem Alves, whose Theology of Human Hope appeared in 1969; Julio de Santa Ana, and José Miguez Bonino. 5 for the critique of these claims of the “death” of liberation theology from the radical orthodoxy movement, see specifically Finnish student of liberation theology elina Vuola, “Radical eurocentrism,” Interpreting the Postmodern, 2006:57–75. 6 for a good account of ellacuría’s life and thought and the effects of his death on forcing an end to the civil war, see Whitfield, Paying the Price, 1994. 7 for ellacuría’s Zibirian philosophy of liberation, see the article by Gandolfo , “Ignacio ellacuría,” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, www.iep.edu/e/ellacuria. 8 The english translation of this essay is found in Mysterium Liberationis, 1993a:580–603. 9 The concept of the Reign of God is basic to ellacuría’s theology; for discussion of it see “Utopia y profetismo desde América Latina,” Escritos Teológicos, vol. 2, 2001g:234–35; also “El Desafio cristiano de la teología de Liberación,” Escritos Teológicos, vol. 1, 2001a:23–24. 10 In April 15, 1990, Mirian Davidson wrote in her review of paul Sigmund ’s Liberation Theology at the Crossroads, that “fr. ellacuría was one of several Central American theologians who advocated revolutionary counter-violence to the poor and oppressed of el Salvador” (Whitfield , 1994:454n67). 11 The english translation is found in Mysterium Liberationis, 1993b:289– 328. 280 — Notes to pp. 14–27 12 It was published in english as Out of the Depths: Women’s Experience of Evil and Salvation and in Spanish as El Rostro Oculto del Mal: Una Teología desde la experiencia de las mujeres. 13 Speaking from daily life or lo cotidiano, is a typical theme in Gebara and in Latin American feminism generally; see her Intuiciones ecofeministas , 2000a:38–42. 14 forGebara’sviewsonGod,seeLongingforRunningWater,1999:101–35; also Intuiciones ecofeministas, 2000a:133–49; and El Rostro Oculto del Mal, 2000b:185–220. 15 See also Teología a Ritmo de Mujer...