Liberation Theology after the End of History: The refusal to cease suffering (Routledge Radical Orthodoxy)

223 Pages·2001·3.57 MB·English

by  Daniel Bell

“This book, with Bill Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist, represents a more chal-
lenging stage of and for liberation theology. Bell’s extraordinary analysis of the
capitalist captivity of Christianity makes chilling reading,but at the same time he
helps us see how what appear to be weaknesses may represent the gift God has
given us to resist the powers.”
Stanley Hauerwas,Gilbert T.Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics,Duke University
“Christians have often naively ignored the powers and principalities that shape our
actual desires. We have too often imagined that it is easy to learn to desire, love
and know God. In this powerful, stimulating and insightful book, Dan Bell
demonstrates the challenges that capitalism presents to Christian faith as an extra-
ordinarily powerful force shaping our desires and distorting understanding of God.
Bell’s constructive theological confrontation of Christianity and capitalism engag-
ingly challenges us all to more rigorous thought and faithful living.”
L.Gregory Jones,Dean of Divinity School and Professor of Theology,Duke University
“Dan Bell’s book launches an incredibly serious theoretical and practical challenge
to the direction of ‘liberation theology,’but a challenge that is at every turn against
capitalism and for the poor.In Augustinian fashion the technology of desire that is
capitalism is opposed to the shaping of desire for God that is Christianity.From this
opposition – supported by discussion of a host of figures from Bernard of
Clairvaux to Foucault – Bell argues for the profoundly political character
of Christianity itself.The logic of forgiveness is then read as central to the politics
that is Christian life and as founded in trinitarian theology.
The combination of the theoretical and the sheerly ‘practical’is one of the great
strengths of the book – Dorothy Day out-thinks Marx and Adam Smith! The
book should – if possible in combination with Bill Cavanaugh’s Torture and
Eucharist– be compulsory reading not only for all who are concerned with politi-
cal theology or liberation,but also for all concerned with ecclesiology and the very
nature of desire.”
Lewis Ayres,Assistant Professor of Historical Theology,
Candler School of Theology,Emory University
“This book is an important entry into a major debate and even those who disagree
with Bell will not be able to ignore his argument.”
William T.Cavanaugh,Assistant Professor of Theology,
University of St.Thomas,St.Paul,MN

LIBERATION THEOLOGY
AFTER THE END OF HISTORY
What has become of Latin American liberation theology in the wake of capital-
ism’s triumph? What has happened to the “irruption of the poor”? More
importantly,has Christianity been exhausted as a font of resistance to capitalism?
What resources of hope remain?
Liberation Theology After the End of History assesses the pathos and promise of Latin
American liberation theology’s vision of Christian resistance to global capitalism.
Drawing on the postmodern critical theory of Gilles Deleuze and Michel Foucault,
Daniel M.Bell,Jr.casts capitalism as a discipline of human desire.In this situation,
argues Bell,Christian resistance must take the form of a counter-discipline,and in
defense of this claim he takes up the liberationists’ vision of the Church of the
poor, arguing that, ironically, it is a refusal to cease suffering that portends the
liberation of desire from its capitalist captivity. The result is the most thorough
account to date of the rise,failure,and future prospects of Latin American liber-
ation theology.
Daniel M.Bell,Jr.is Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at the Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary. He has previously published articles on Latin
American liberation theology in Communio, Modern Theology, Journal for Peace &
Justice Studies,andJournal of Religion &Society.
RADICAL ORTHODOXY SERIES
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RADICAL ORTHODOXY
edited by John Milbank,Catherine Pickstock and Graham Ward
TRUTH IN AQUINAS
John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock
LIBERATION THEOLOGY AFTER THE END OF HISTORY
The refusal to cease suffering
Daniel M.Bell,Jr.
LIBERATION THEOLOGY
AFTER THE END
OF HISTORY
The refusal to cease suffering
Daniel M. Bell, Jr.
London and New York
First published 2001
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane,London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street,New York,NY 10001
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
© 2001 Daniel M.Bell,Jr.
The right of Daniel M.Bell,Jr.to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical,or other means,now known or hereafter
invented,including photocopying and recording,or in any
information storage or retrieval system,without permission in
writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Bell,Daniel,M.,1966-
Liberation theology after the end of history:the refusal to cease suffering/
Daniel M.Bell,Jr.
p. cm.– (Radical orthodoxy series)
Includes bibliographical references.
1.Liberation theology.2.South America – Church history.I.Title.II.Series.
BT83.57.B445 2001
230′.0464′098–dc21 2001019310
ISBN 0-203-19244-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-19247-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–24303-3 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–24304-1 (pbk)
To the community of Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction:the end of history 1
1 The infinite undulations of the snake:capitalism,desire,
and the state-form 9
Savage capitalism 10
Three theses on contemporary capitalism 10
Capitalism and desire 12
Politics and ontology 13
Desire,capitalism,and the state-form 15
Governmentality and technologies of the self 19
Beheading the king:power beyond the state 19
Technologies of power 21
Pastoral power 21
Reason of state 23
The science of police and the disciplines 24
Economic government and the rise of liberalism 26
Civil society and government through freedom 29
Societies of control 30
Beyond madness? 32
2 The Church of the poor in the wake of
capitalism’s triumph 42
The crisis in Latin American liberationist thought 43
Before the revolution:New Christendom in Latin America 45
The origins of New Christendom in Latin America 45
Distinguishing the spiritual and the temporal 46
Politics and the state 48
From reform to revolution:the rise of liberation theology 51
The crisis of New Christendom 51
A theology of liberation 55
The autonomy of the temporal 56
vii