Abstract
Influenced by Marxism, liberation theologians focused on denouncing the idolatrous nature of the market and the structural sin inherent in the center-periphery relationship of the capitalist world system. It is true that both the concepts and the Marxist categories enabled liberation theologians (F. Hinkelammert, H. Assmann, J. M Sung, among others) to unveil, grasp and explain the fatal dynamics of capitalism. However, as new collective subjects (peasant, indigenous people, women, environmental activists, Afro-Indigenous activists, LGBT groups, etc.) started to raise new questions related to other forms of domination, theologians of liberation have developed new perspectives. Thus, during the 1990s, some theologians developed the category of victim—in the Benjaminian sense—to show the different forms of domination that exacerbate the oppression of creatures. On the other hand, liberation theologians also developed a very interesting critique of hegemonic education. From the contributions of Paulo Freire to those of Jung Mo Sung, we note an interest in issues related to popular education.
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Notes
- 1.
The term conscientização refers to learning to perceive social, political and economic contradictions, and to take action against the oppressive elements of reality (Freire, 2000, p. 35). This term plays a structuring role in this tradition. Although it became famous in the work of Paulo Freire, especially in Pedagogy of Oppressed, it was a term used in the processes of grassroots formation by the team of the Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara. In Paulo Freire, conscientization is not only the purpose of educational practice, but also its process, that is, the act by which human beings and social structures are transformed.
- 2.
Despite the abundant presence of messianism in the formulations of liberation theology, some authors insist on differentiating Christianity from classical messianism. For instance, José Comblin affirms that in messianic logics, the final victory of the Messiah is the guarantee of his legitimacy and divine mandate. However, for Comblin, the victory is not proof of any justice, which must be founded not on final power, but on the lives of the poor. Comblin stated that: ‘Christianity is not messianism: it uses themes of messianism to say something else’ (Comblin, 1968, p. 80). Jung Mo Sung, Brazilian theologian, incorporates this perspective into his analysis of liberation theology (Sung, 2015, p. 66).
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Universidade São Francisco (Itatiba) through the Visiting Professor Program during the second semester of 2022.
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Andrade, L.M., Coelho, A. (2023). Liberation Theology, Marxism and Education. In: Hall, R., Accioly, I., Szadkowski, K. (eds) The Palgrave International Handbook of Marxism and Education. Marxism and Education. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37252-0_7
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