Along the many paths of God

276 Pages·2002·15.37 MB·English

by  Jose M. Vigil (editor)

Interreligious Studies
Jose M. Vigil, Luiza Tomita, Marcello Barros (Eds.)
Along the Many Paths of God
Foreword: Pedro Casadaliga
LIT
Along the Many Paths of God
Foreword: Pedro Casadaliga
edited by
Jose M. Vigil, Luiza Tomita
and Marcello Barros
LIT
Cover Picture: Photographer: Jan Gilhuis
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ISBN 978-3-03735-892-4 (Schweiz)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword 7
Introduction 11
PARTI 13
Chapter 1 Religious Intolerance versus Religious Pluralism in
Latin American History
Armando Lampe 15
Chapter 2 Theology within a plural indigenous faith
Diego Irarrazaval 31
Chapter 3 Religious Pluralism and the Afro-American Religious
Traditions
Antonio Aparecido da Silva 43
Chapter 4 The Challenge of Religious Pluralism for Latin
American Theology
Faustino Teixeira 53
Chapter 5 Spirituality of Religious Pluralism: an Emerging
Spiritual Experience
Jose Maria Vigil 71
Chapter 6 Cultural and Religious Pluralism: A Pivotal Point for
Liberation Theology
Marcelo Barros 85
PART II 103
Chapter 7 Many Poor People, Many Religions. Option for the
poor, a privileged place for dialogue among religions
Jose Maria Vigil 105
Chapter 8 Theology of Religions in a Latin American Perspective
JoseComblin 119
6 CONTENTS
Chapter 9 Macro-ecumenism: Latin American Theology of
Religions
Jose Maria Vigil 137
Chapter 10 The Church of the Poor, Sacrament of the People of
God: Towards a Macro-ecumenical ecclesiology of
liberation
Francisco de Aquino Junior 153
Chapter 11 Liberation Christology and Religious Pluralism
Jose Maria Vigil 173
PART ffl 181
Chapter 12 Secret and Sacred: Revelation and Black Theology
Silvia Regina de Lima Silva 183
Chapter 13 One and Many. God in a pluralist perspective
Marcelo Barros & Luiza E. Tomita 195
Chapter 14 Ecclesiology in a time of religious pluralism
Faustino Teixeira 207
Chapter 15 There is Salvation Outside Religions. Salvation in a
Pluralist Perspective
Etienne A. Higuet 223
Chapter 16 Toward a Pluralist Spirituality of Liberation
Jose Maria Vigil 243
Chapter 17 Contributions of a Pluralist Theology of Liberation to
Building a World Ethic
Joaquin Garay 259
Chapter 18 The Missionary Task: Based on a pluralist theology of
liberation
Cristian Tauchner 271
Authors 287
Foreword
All believers are more or less in agreement that, in believing, we refer to one
Supreme Being. Many of us would agree also that we are referring to the same
God using different names: "the God of all names" proclaimed during the First
Macro-ecumenical Congress of the Assembly of the People of God on the
highlands of Quito.
But when it comes to systematize and to organize intellectually, cultur
ally and morally the relationships or links (re-legar = religion) with this one
God, we separate, take our distance and easily confront one another as enemies
and in the name of God. God would unite us; religion separates us.
Recently, after many centuries of distancing and of quarrels, some sec
tors of humanity are waking up, with a sense of guilt for our actions and omis
sions, to the evil that troubles religions and so there arises, like a human and
divine vocation, the unsettling wish, tentatively but hopefully, to accept,
through dialogue and collaboration, the global challenge to transform the evil
of misunderstanding and religious wars.
It is a challenge that affects practically all religions, but most con
cretely the Christian Churches because of its history of mission that was fre
quently colonizing and because of its traditionally exclusivist theology and its
dogmatism. The same accusation of "Christian arrogance" that is made against
biblical and ecclesial theology with respect to the ecological crisis can all too
frequently also be made with respect to dialogue with other religions and with
religious pluralism on the basis of a past that even today persists in many
Christian minds.
The Second Vatican Council finally managed to accept freedom of
conscience and recognized salvific spaces in other religions. This began an era
of dialogue, not only within the Church or ecumenically but also between the
Churches and other religions: a macro-ecumenical dialogue. It happened still
quite modestly and with much hesitation but in generalized declarations and in
solemn sessions rather than in a quite natural experience of fraternal inter
change.
Pioneering theologians appeared. They were sometimes misunderstood
and even censured by official instances because the institutions always are re-
sistant to freedom and novelty. The texts, gatherings and declarations on the
theme multiplied. Inter-religious dialogue, macro-ecumenism and religious
pluralism became a discovery or a subject recognised as needing attention.
Whether it was with the early enthusiasm or under suspicion, the topic found a
place that is irreversible. There are those who even think that it is the topic of
the day for theological reflection because of its intrinsic implications, because
the matter is complex and new and upsets all the traditional schemes. You only
have to read the index of an article in a theological journal to find the major
questions of religion and of society set out there, relativizing what is relative
and absolutizing what is absolute. God is God and humanity is God's 'prob-
8 FOREWORD
lem' and 'dream ' Religion, we are reminded, is a simple mediation Michael
Amaladoss, currently the director of the Institute for Dialogue between Cul
tures and Religions in Chennay, Madras (India), insisted recently on an axiom
that is fundamental for mter-rehgious peace "Religion is for human beings and
not humans for religion "
Along that line of thinking, this book, which is a compilation of a se
ries of books initiated by the Theological Commission of the Ecumenical As
sociation of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) in Latin America, comes to
us It reflects a search for "a liberating theology of religions " It is a book of
initiation "to wet our appetite " From a Latin American perspective of libera
tion theology, it sets forth the following major points for reflection
• Religious intolerance versus religious pluralism,
• Religious pluralism as experienced by Indigenous, Afro-
American and Feminist theologies,
• Dialogue between theology of religion and that of religious
pluralism,
• Liberation of the poor as a hermeneutic cntenon,
• The new emerging spirituality of religious pluralism,
• Pluralism in principle or by right and not just de facto,
• A new missionary spirit
It seems to me both elemental and fundamental in religious dialogue always to
emphasize the content and objective of the dialogue It isn't always a matter of
sitting the religions down in a social gathering in order to discuss more peace
fully about religion while turning in on themselves narcissistically Both as
content and as objective, true dialogue among religions should focus on the
interests of God which are those of humanity itself and nature In the case of
humanity, the priority is the large mass of those who are impoverished and ex
cluded In nature, the earth, water and the air are polluted There is the question
of justice and ecology, freedom and peace Life' Inclining his head and his
heart deeply toward reality, Marcelo Barros writes, in his article that,
The path for a theology of cultural and religious pluralism in Latin America is
from the grassroots, from insertion and solidarity To return once again to a
way of speaking that is common when we talk about pluralism, this new the
ology is not Christ-centered and even less Church-centered It must be "life
centered," that is to say centered on the project of life for everyone
This shouldn't sound new to those of us to try to follow the One who came so
that "all might have Life and Life in abundance " Religion is for Life The true
God is justice and liberation and love
FOREWORD 9
In a timely way, we repeat along with Hans Kiing that today more than
ever, there will be no peace among nations if there is not peace among relig
ions and that there will be no peace among religions if there is no dialogue
among them. We need to add that this dialogue will be useless and even hypo
critical and blasphemous if it does not concern itself with Life and above all
with the poor, with human rights that are divine rights as well. Bishop Henri
Tessier of Algiers says, "Religions have to be subjected to the judgment of
universal conscience in its effort to discover human rights and to promote
them."
Committed and politicized by God and by God's poor, this book tries
to be the echo and the voice of a fruitful marriage that is beginning to be cele
brated between theology of religious pluralism and liberation theology. "Many
poor people, many religions" was the title given by Jose Maria Vigil to his arti
cle in the journal Exodo that singled out the thread. This "married" theology, is
the appropriate and urgent theology of the Third World, the theology of a
world that is globalized both for evil and for good, the theology of a living and
life-giving God and of our unique, lost and saved humanity.
Truth is in the journey, as are people, history and the living God who
accompanies us. It is not mine or yours; it is ours or rather we belong to it. An
tonio Machado warns us, "Your truth? No. The Truth. Come with me to search
for it..."
Along the many paths of God in which God comes across humanity -
creating it, welcoming it, searching for it - we advance with religious plurality,
sons and daughters of the one God, brothers and sisters in God's human family.
Let us be ever more conscious of our fundamental unity and of the enriching
plurality with which we can and must live it, moving along toward to our
shared Paternal/Maternal home. For that caminhada1 this book is a useful
guide.
Pedro Casadaliga
Sao Felix do Araguiaia, Mato Grosso, Brazil
[Tr: The word literally means a walk or stroll. However in the Brazilian context it
refers to the long journey of the dispossessed toward "another world that is possible."]
Introduction
This book gathers an anthological selection of the first three volumes of the
series, Along the Many Paths of God, of the Latin American Theological
Commission of EATWOT (the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theo
logians).
The series was conceived of in Quito (Ecuador) during the 2001 cele
bration of the General Assembly of EATWOT. In that assembly, that gathers
representatives of the EATWOT members from around the "Third World"
every five years, the theme of religious pluralism powerfully emerged before
our eyes. Religious pluralism has always existed, but until then it seems that
the time to theologically reflect about that plurality had not arrived. Now the
hour of the "kairos" could be heard and before us appeared what we thought to
be not a new sectional theme, not an additional chapter to the theology that we
had traditionally been doing, but a new "paradigm", a macro horizon in which
to "re-situate and re-understand" all theology until then done among us.
We were not referring to just any theology, but to the Theology of Lib
eration, in any of its branches. During decades, without confessing it, we had
considered that the liberating theology we were doing was "insurmountable".
In that assembly, as if "falling of the horse", not just a few of us, understood
that a paradigm shift was necessary. We were in need of a "pluralistic re
reading" of the classic Latin American Liberation Theology. This theology,
that we so loved, and thought of as so advanced, was the child of the inclusive
proposals of the second half of the twentieth century, but now we noted a need
to take a step forward, and the need to elaborate a theology of liberation that
would be "pluralistic", a step beyond "inclusive".
The need was not to do a "Theology of Religious Pluralism" as a new
subject or as a new chapter to be added to the usual theology. It was about -as
we certainly said in Quito- "doing a crossing between the Latin American Lib
eration Theology and the Theology of Religious Pluralism". This moved us to
follow a road that we gathered could take us to a future "Latin American Plu
ralistic Liberation Theology". This was the goal that we recognized would not
be immediately achievable.
The Theology of Religious Pluralism already on in years, decades
even, - from the end of the 80's - had functioned and had been developed in
various places of the world, but not in Latin America. As a theology it had not
yet started in other places. In those years, we in Latin America were absorbed
by other chores that were not to be delayed. Now at the beginning of the 21st
Century, when we found ourselves with a North Atlantic, Anglo-Saxon, Theol
ogy of Religious Pluralism, we found it lacked a liberative dimension.
It was time for Latin America, now in a more peaceful historical mo
ment and with fewer urgencies and emergencies, to assume the theme of the
Theology of Religious Pluralism, but that it do so with its own style, its own
liberative "charisma", the spiritual gift that enriched the entire world through
12 INTRODUCTION
Liberation Theology. Should the future Latin American Pluralistic Theology
not also deliver the same charisma?
In that assembly, this intuition jumped out like a spark and this lit the
willing spirits of the Latin American Theological Commission, made up of
Luiza E. Tomita, Marcelo Barros and Jose Maria Vigil, who had been elected
precisely in that General Assembly to encourage this.
Soon the Commission started working right away, and called together
the theologians that were interested in the topic. The result was three volumes,
with a total of 43 articles, by 30 theologians women and men in their majority
Latin Americans. Of this grouping we have put together the volume that the
reader now has in hand. It is an anthological selection made possible by the
support of the Nijmegen Institute of Mission Studies (NIM) of the Radboud
University of Nijmegen. The NIM assumed generously the commitment to
make this volume accessible to the international community by translating a
careful selection of the most significant texts of these three volumes into Eng
lish, and by publishing them in its new book series Interreligious Studies. We
have not given up on seeking a way to make the other texts of the three vol
umes accessible in the English language. The current publication, however,
will play the role of presenting a synthesis of the vision, the initial vision of the
future of that "Latin American Liberative Pluralistic Theology".
We wish to thank the Nijmegen Institute for Mission Studies, and ex
plicitly Frans Wijsen and Jorge Castillo Guerra, for this generous service
through which the word and the theology of EATWOT, the Association of
Third World Theologians, in its Latin American section will be able to be
heard practically in all continents.
Additionally a word of very special thanks to Richard Renshaw, a col
laborator and friend of the Latin American EATWOT, he has been for a long
time a Canadian missionary in Peru. His enthusiasm for this new theological
paradigm led him to generously translate the texts. This new diffusion of the
texts, now in English make us all equally glad, and show the world that Latin
American Theology has notably widened the fan of its classic themes during
the last decades, without abandoning, but rather deepening and that way mak
ing more fecund its liberating "charisma".
Jose Maria Vigil
Coordinator of the EATWOT's International Theological Commission.