Christ among the rubble (tags)
"Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me." So said Jesus according to the Gospel. Now the people in Gaza are not to be underestimated. But from a Christian perspective, they are our brothers and sisters. So why are large parts of the "Christian West" not coming to their aid, not even raising a timid voice of protest?
The Legacy of Liberation Theology (tags)
Liberation theology was the theological promise of Latin America and sounded like a more colorful, people-friendly church. The Vatican saw things differently....Pope Francis is seeking dialogue and he also comes from Latin America.
Astonishment. The Beginning and End of Theology (tags)
Happy are those who can still cry in this world. Happy are those who dare to be defenseless. Happy are those who know and recognize their poverty. Only they are capable of truth, peace and common interests. These words refute everything served up to us as true.
Critique of religion and market religion and Post-colonialism (tags)
Critique of religion as critique of fetishism is a critique of earthly gods, which are false gods. "Man is the highest being for man." Marx develops it further in other words and formulates his idea of the liberation of man in the Communist Manifesto.
We need an Enlightenment 2.0: Misguided Colonial and Gender Policy (tags)
Colonial knowledge was imposed by force. The West has set our planet on fire. To extinguish it, we need all archives of knowledge with their different references to the world. We cannot do it any other way. Therefore, it is urgent to initiate a paradigmatic change in education.
Falling into the Spokes of the Wheel. Critique of the New Right (tags)
Why theology needs to be political again. Defunding the post office and threatening critics with jail time are perverse, signs of the security state or the authoritarian state.
The Political Theology of the New Right (tags)
The new right-wing movements try to create a state of emergency with the help of apocalyptic rhetoric. Apocalypticists long for the final struggle between good and evil. Eschatologists are driven by a theology of hope.
This economy kills!: Pope Francis (tags)
The Cold War in internal church policy may be coming to an end. A religion without mysticism is merely a philosophy. Mysticism is a specifically modern form of faith. God's presence is no longer self-evident or plausible to the entire world. Francis' church is a hospital under the open air.
Vatican Changing of the Guard (tags)
Vatican
European, US, and Canadian Government Funding Behind Anti-Israel Activism in Mainline Churches
"Only the one who cries for the Jews may sing Gregorian" (tags)
Crying and singing, ethical engagement and praising God belong together. The great events of world history should be seen from below, from the perspective of the dismissed, suspicious, mistreated, powerless, oppressed and mocked. God's honor is the person who lives.
The Prophet and the Professor (tags)
Liberation theology insists the poor are our teachers and the church is not an end-in-itself. The church that serves itself is different than the church that serves the world. The church that wants to return to the 19th century with little interest in social issues is a caricature.
Theology of liberation understands itself as an historical and contextual theology, an alternative to European theology which is an imperialist theology for Latin American peoples. Liberation theology emphasizes structurally anchored sins like oppression and impunity.
The Financial Crisis in Biblical and Theological Perspective (tags)
The owners of capital started to create a bubble in the financial markets through various kinds of speculation in order to drive up the returns by derivatives, options etc, creating Casino Capitalism, de-linked from the real economy.
"Sighs, Signs and Significance: A Theological Hermeneutics of Nature" (tags)
How exciting to hear Prof Moltmann describe nature as a language and partner!
Christianity without Christ (tags)
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) sought to introduce Christianity into Christendom when the state religion had become confortable and indistinguishable from the world. Kierkegaard like Boff calls us to authenticity in a world of reversible cups and self-righteousness.
A Missionary of Ignorance (tags)
The king of arrogance and the missionary of ignorance are part of a frozen elite consciousness of fear and indifferent reason where there are no alter-natives and bankruptcies are just normal business practice. Another world is possible of open arms, not clenched fists!
A Theological Balance by Dorothee Soelle (tags)
Believing in love is more than worshipping the heavenly button-pusher.. Our way of life and politics separate us from Jesus' life, not what happens in the bedroom.. Learning to share is a feminist project annulling the oldest injustice.
The weakness of God is stronger than men (1Cor1,25). The soft will overcome the hard (Lao-Tse)..What is usually regarded as important in the world fades into insignifi-cance. Here tenderness is subversion! The last becomes first and the first becomes last
Freedom: A Christological Contribution (tags)
Christmas is a revolution, a new beginning and a change of loyalties where weakness becomes strength and power is seen as blindness. Poverty of spirit keeps us from the idolatry of riches and power as ends-in-themselves.
Against the Despisers of the Body: Dietrich Bonhoeffer Today (tags)
We need Bonhoeffer's earth piety today. A new ecological theology must oppose religious and practical world denial. We humans came from the earth and belong to this earth. There is no salvation for humans without the salvation of the earth.
Interview with Jurgen Moltmann (80) (tags)
Hope is a power in this life to begin life again, to be reborn in an affirmation of life from deep depression.. Hope continues like a star over our life.. We developed political theology to break through this prison `religion is a private matter'.
Symbiosis: Religion and the State (tags)
Furthermore, theology induces passivity to authority – there is no better method of creating compliance than theology. Who else would quietly accept injustice, various forms of deprivation and huge disparities in the distribution of wealth than those who imagine it is the result of demerit, sin or the will of some God? Many extremely intelligent and capable people become observably handicapped when the subject/spectre of religion rears its illogical, paralysing and fear-inducing head. Never doubt the power that is born of theological indoctrination (child abuse) and the resultant fear that it engenders (usually for life).
Rebellion of the Spirit against Disorder (tags)
Liberation theology as a protest against suffering is not limited to one region.. Solidarity is really a basic quality of a person but is gradually lost in a culture of material values. We must hear the cry of our earth and the cry of the poor.
"The US is a Terrorist State": Leonardo Boff (tags)
Everyone feels we are on a wrong track because we do not have a social contract any more..The US is a terrorist state. The US acts with violence, crushes human rights and tortures Americans and foreigners.. As humanity, we stand at a crossroads.
Liberation Theology and Globalization (tags)
Economic globalization leads to the exclusion of the masses..When world hunger increases, we must change the nature of the world economy to survive..We are all enslaved by a paradigm that makes us enemies of nature.
Resistant Chrisianity by Dorothee Soelle (tags)
Resistance is part of our nature as antibodies are part of our bodies. If Christianity is conformist and not revolutionary, it is only a caricature. Dorothee saw Christianity as ecumencial, feminist and mystical and as passion for justice.
"The social state is dismantled in favor of the globalization of industry..The democratic idea of equality is incompatible with ever-greater inequalities..If globalization produces third world conditions, theology of liberation logically becomes universal.."
Mysticism and Resistance (tags)
Mystical experience cannot be separated from social relations.. The land that was once home became a place of homeless-ness, a land of culprits that saw itself as a victim and only rarely accepted responsibility for what happened.
Rebellion of the Spirit (tags)
"For me, this triad (justice, peace and preser-vation of creation) is a little summary of the good news of the gospel. Even if the nature of utopia is never to be completely fulfilled, it shows us the way like a compass."
Pope a War Criminal and Hypocrite for Bush (tags)
The torment of the Pope - or else a grand act of hypocrisy - can be seen in the pope's focus on the Culture of Death: Modernity. He opposed birth control, abortion, homosexuality and women in the church because he (Unlike anyone we know of on the left or right) understood that these were band-aids
UN calls for probe of US Proxy Colombia's Massacre of Children (tags)
U.N. calls for probe of Colombia massacre
A World Civil Society is Arising: Leonardo Boff (tags)
In porto Alegre spiritual, human and ethical values were central..Everyone senses that we are on a wrong way since we don't have a social contract any more. This wrong way only leads to ears as in Iraq.. Relying on force for world order is very dangerous.
The Cry of the Subject: Book Review (tags)
The institution of modern universal competition is elevated into a law by the ideology of practical necessities..Every insti-tution dies when its preservation is made an end-in-itself..The totalitarianism of the market threatens the destruction of humanity.
Can the Militarist See Outside the Box? (tags)
Liberation theology and the theology of hope can give us strength against fundamentalism intolerance and jingoism generated by hyper-materialism. False consciousness can be replaced by exchanging roles and egalitarian passion.
The search for the true meaning of Christmas (tags)
Each year, I continue my tradition of writing critical commentaries targetting important religious celebrations, and so as to not break with established tradition, this year is no different...
Of God and Man, in the Oval Office (tags)
"In the nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft. It is apocalyptic in its implications." Rev. Fritz Ritsch is pastor of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church.
Of God and Man in the Oval Office (tags)
In a nuclear age, American triumphalism may not only be spiritually bereft, it is apocalyptic in its implications.
Of God and Man in the Oval Office (tags)
"In a nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft, it is, quite possibly, apocalyptic in its implications." Rev. fritz Ritsch is pastor of the Bethesda Presbyterian Church.
The male God of the desert (tags)
Judaism, Christianity and Islam are all desert religions, brother-faiths that are male in imagination and tradition, writes PNS editor Richard Rodriguez. Eventually, their masculine principle will be challenged by a feminine spiritual force that is gathering strength behind veils print article