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CONTENTS - CONTENIDO - CONTEÚDO
Presentation/ Presentación..........................................................................11
Bibliography - Bibliografía.....................................................................305
10 ·
· 11
The Consultation
La Consulta
abandono y hasta apostasía por otra. Y al ser tan contradictorios los datos
observables, de la situación actual se pueden hacer los diagnósticos más
dispares, y para todos ellos hay datos con los que respaldarlos.
¿Qué está aconteciendo pues en el campo religioso? Creemos
que no hay una respuesta única. Están pasando muchas cosas, se están
dando muchos procesos, complejos, y a veces aparentemente opuestos.
Tal vez, en este peculiar tiempo en que hemos entrado, de libertad
y de pluralismo, de espontaneidad y falta de control social, el mundo
religioso, de alguna manera, se está polarizando en su evolución, contem-
plando en su seno el desarrollo de fenómenos contrarios: por una parte
los revivals, los entusiasmos, los pentecostalismos y las vueltas a modos
y formas del pasado, y por otra una evolución secularizante que nunca
ha revestido tal profundidad, y que parece llevarnos y adentrarnos en una
era realmente nueva, un novum históricum, que algunos están comenzan-
do a calificar como un nuevo paradigma pos-religional.
Academic Structure
This Consultation of EATWOT/ASETT will take place within the IV
International Symposium of Theology and Sciences of Religion, organised
by the Pontificia Universidad de Minas, Belo Hoizonte, Brazil (www.puc-
minas.br/ppgcr/tcr/index_padrao.php). One of its activities will be dedi-
cated to this topic and participation can be made directly by attending
(prior enrolment) or sending a written participation or communication
through the Latin American Theological Commission of EATWOT.
Due date of reception for papers will be August 2011.
· 23
Planteamiento
No hace todavía 50 años, para los ceyentes, la religión era sólo una,
la propia, que era considerada la única que podía traer la salvación al
mundo. Por todas partes la religión era considerada como dotada de un
tipo de preexistencia, proveniente directamente de Dios, como un cuerpo
de sabiduría divina indiscutiblemente necesario para el acceso hacia Dios.
Hoy día, por aquí y por allá, un poco por todas partes, se está
pasando a una visión distinta de la religión. De un tiempo a esta parte,
estamos comenzando a acostumbrarnos a un cierto cambio de discurso.
Ahora es muy frecuente oír hablar de la religión como una «construcción
humana», cultural, finita, contingente... y ambigua, capaz tanto de ayudar
como de dificultar la relación con la transcendencia. Hoy ya es un lugar
común la distinción neta entre religión y espiritualidad, realidades que
antiguamente parecían confundirse. Se reconoce generalmente el carácter
instrumental de la religión en favor de la «religación» profunda, y se da
como por supuesta una minusvaloración intrínseca de la religión... En
muchos lugares, en diferentes sectores de las sociedades, la cultura del
pluralismo ha expulsado a las religiones del trono pretencioso de ser “la
única religión verdadera”, haciéndolas pasar a ser, más humildemente,
una «una religión más entre otras», y de ser una obra divina, un don pro-
veniente de Dios mismo, está pasando a ser vista como una construcción
humana, a veces demasiado humana.
Todo esto hace que subliminalmente vayamos percibiendo a la reli-
gión ahora de manera muy distinta a como la vivieron nuestros antepasa-
dos, o a como la hemos vivido nosotros mismos hasta hace apenas unas
décadas. Una nueva (auto)comprensión de la religión se está abriendo
paso y se está difundiendo lenta pero ampliamente, llegando a estar pre-
sente en una buena parte del escenario –aun en medio de manifestaciones
religiosas masivas conservadoras efervescentes incluso, no obsta-.
Estructura académica
Esta Consulta de EATWOT/ASETT va a ser realizada en el seno del
IV Simpósio Internacional de Teologia e Ciências da Religião, organizado
por la Pontifícia Universidade de Minas, de Belo Horizonte, Brasil. Una
de sus sesiones será dedicada a este tema, y en ella se puede participar
tanto haciéndose presente (previa inscripción), cuanto enviando una
participación o comunicación escrita a través de la ASETT. Portal del
Simposio: www.pucminas.br/ppgcr/tcr/index_padrao.php
Fecha tope de recepción de trabajos: fin de agosto de 2011.
La Consulta misma se realizó en los días 12 a 14 de septiembre.
A continuación se tendría unas jornadas de trabajo con un equi-
po de expertos, para estudiar las ponencias presentadas en la Consulta,
elaborar alguna reflexión pertinente, y trazar las posibilidades de futuro
para la profundización en el proceso de investigación de esta Consulta,
los temas de estudio a proponer, las posibles publicaciones a realizar...
26 ·
Getting the Poor Down from the Cross: still on line digital edition, which was
printed on paper in many places, 314 pp
Bajar de la cruz a los pobres: edición digital en línea, y también una edición en
papel, por Dabar, México 293 pp.
Descer da Cruz os Pobres: edição só em papel, pela Paulinas, São Paulo, 357 pp
Deporre i poveri dalla croce: edizione soltanto digitale, nella rete.
Gilbraz ARAGÃO *
Olinda, PE, Brasil
Resumo:
Como a gente pode ver reflexivamente a própria fé, entre outras
tradições humanas? Como a gente pode perceber que os deuses são
humanos e, o humano, divino? A reflexão deste testemunho se desenvolve
em duas partes. Primeiro, apresenta um relato autobiográfico de como
o autor descobriu, através de uma “goteira” na sua igreja da infância, a
dimensão de “coisa feita” e construída na experiência religiosa: “No que
se transformaram as minhas primeiras e mais marcantes experiências de
gente? E onde foi parar (o) meu Deus?!”. A partir daí, tematiza uma con-
dição pós-religional que está presente entre pessoas que se encontram
na passagem para uma cosmovisão pós-moderna e/ou pós-metafísica,
solicitando a disponibilização hermenêutica das mensagens de todas as
tradições espirituais, para quem delas necessite em seu processo de for-
mação (e transcendência) humana e humanizante.
Palavras-chave: Fenomenologia religiosa, Secularização, Diálogo
inter-religioso.
Abstract:
How could we see reflectively our own faith, among other human
traditions? How could we realize that gods are human and the human one
is divine? This testimony reflection is developed in two parts. First of all,
it - the testimony - presents an autobiographic relate concerning the way
how this author. Has discovered, through a “goteira”2 in his childhood
church building, the dimension of a “coisa feita”3 and built in a religious
experience ”which have turned into first and most remarkable personal
experiences? And where has my god been meant to stop?”. Thenceforth,
it - this testimony - turns into a real thematic a post-religionist condition
* Department of religious studies, Universidade Católica de Pernambuco (Brazil). E-mail:
gilbraz@unicap.br
2 “Goteiras” – drip – a falling, or letting fall, in drops.
3 “Coisa Feita” – sorcery – pretended employment of supernatural agencies.
30 · Gilbraz ARAGÃO
that used to be present among peoples that find themselves in their transit
toward a postmodern and/or a post-metaphysical worldview, demanding
all spiritual traditions messages hermeneutics availability, for those ones
that would need them - the above mentioned messages - in their human
and humanizing formation process.
Key words: Religious phenomenology – Secularization –
Interreligious dialogue.
5 Tupi – plural tupis or tupi – member of any of a group of south american indian tribes.
32 · Gilbraz ARAGÃO
6 It is suitable emphasizing that the verb “to do” can be used in its affirmative form as a rein-
forcing auxiliary verb. T.E.
7 “Mutirão” – task force – joint efforts toward a social enterprise “gratis” joint work, accom-
plished in order to help one person or a whole community.
8 “Novenas” – in the Roman Catholic Church, a devotion consisting of a prayer said on nine
successive days, asking for some special blessing.
9 “Uterus” – symbolical use: the place where everything is engendered or brought into life.
10 “Passion” – an eager outreaching of mind toward some special object, as art, travel etc, as
fervid devotion.
Post-religious Condition in Latin América. A northeaster's vision · 33
14 “Tupiniquim” related to a Brazilian indian group – the tupi (tupis) mostly employed in dis-
paraging sense.
15 “Homão da Galiléia” - Galilea big, great man. “Homão” is a popular euphemistic term rela-
tively, in this Testimony, similar to “the Man upstairs”.
16 Conselheiro, Antônio: the Counselor – A Brazilian layman that acts in his own account,
non-formally, as a priest, a minister, with “de facto” religious great authority and
popular ascendency - this kind of leader is called by “Beatos”, i.e. sanctimonious N.B
this “Testimony” makes a comparison between the “Counselor” and Friar Damien, a
Franciscan popular preacher, had, also as, a saint, in traditional types… but without
direct social preoccupation.
17 “Lavadamente”- whashedly – whasably – “purifyingly”.
18 “Beatas” - churchy cockroaches, commonly had as – dissimulated women, fussy church
attenders.
Post-religious Condition in Latin América. A northeaster's vision · 35
And why the world, which I viewer as bearing good news through
television that reached my home, was prayed here - at church - as a
“tears valley” to be overpassed under suspicion? And why was I obliged
to kneel myself when it was registered “that one” presence, “that one”
who wanted so much being heard, attended in his claim - Let them, the
childish people, come to me - to get me hugged by him, beside the other
children and being given by him a lot of delighted smacks? I have to
confess that from that evening on I can as far kneel myself in the hour
dedicated to pardon, but on account of pure rapture I have never more
kneeled myself in church building.
I was a nearly an adolescent and I have just read in my cousins
books that ”there is more morality in the mountain lake than in the
world’s cathedrals (Rousseau) - even though, in that age, I should be,
by myself secretly convict of this truth: “There is more power in a girl’s
beautiful face than in the universe’s all icons”. But it is occurred in the
evening that the damned “goteira” dragged in a true water torrent my
faith naivety: my universal truths and secure certainties canopy vanished
out and this fact has obliged me studying religion and put it - my faith
- within a context its - my faith one - commandments, but also it - that
event - has emancipated me for broader religious experiences search than
those ones of my parents and for more refined (and sweetly more simple)
religious spaces than those ones of Taquaritinga’s church.
This initiatical way toward the parts where all gods of ours are
forged (and/or with the aim of discovering by ourselves the way how
we have been created for divinity itself) is dangerous and tortuous as it
occurs with any youngster initiation. But this is the doorway for maturity
in order that we should be able to find again our faith experience, as
a confident handing over to reality in a more human and loving - even
though precarious, as it uses to be all human love. In order to allow
ourselves carrying out by the “Sopro da Vida” (life blowing): he permits
us perceiving through ourselves that, within all loving rapport, a deter-
mined word speaks to us processually - revelation - interpretating itself
that makes a difference in life (in such a way that god’s word is not only
present in the “sacred books”, not either only in the Christian literature
in order to rebuild, at last, finally, Jesus movement, departing from our
childwood mountains: now with our flesh walls, for it is in this matter
that Christ’s Spirit likes staying – even tough with the possibility, still, of
more “goteiras”.
I imagine that a lot of you, here, partake of these questions and
imaginations. For, I think that this idea of transforming into a theme,
as religious scientists or lead theologians, a postreligionist (not exactly
post-religious, but post exclamation, this common attitude “if God does
36 · Gilbraz ARAGÃO
“Ex Cathedra” – literally, from the seat: applied to a pronouncement on faith or morals by
the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church. With authority: also used attributively
meaning “officially spoken.
38 · Gilbraz ARAGÃO
References:
AEBISCHER-CRETTOL, Monique. Vers un oecuménisme interreligieux. Paris: Cerf, 2001.
ARAGÃO, Gilbraz. Transdisciplinaridade e diálogo. Revista Religião e Cultura, São Paulo, v.
V, n. 10 (jul./dez. 2006), p. 75-110.
ARMSTRONG, Karen. A grande transformação. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2008.
BANON, Patrick. La révolution théoculturelle. Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 2008.
CASTELLS, Manuel. A sociedade em rede. São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1999.
CORBI, Marià. Para uma espiritualidade leiga. São Paulo: Paulus, 2010.
DUFOUR, Dany-Robert. Os mistérios da Trindade. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2000.
HERVIEU-LÉGER, Danièle. Catholicisme, la fin d'un monde. Paris: Bayard, 2003.
HICK, John, Teologia cristã e pluralismo religioso. São Paulo: Attar, 2005.
JASPERS, Karl. Origen y meta de la historia. Madri: Alianza, 1980.
NICOLESCU, Basarab. Nous, la particule et le monde. Monaco: Rocher, 2002.
PADEN, William. Interpretando o sagrado: modos de conceber a religião. São Paulo:
Paulinas, 2001.
QUEIRUGA, Andrés T. Autocompreensão cristã: diálogo das religiões. São Paulo: Paulinas,
2007.
SMITH, Wilfred C. O sentido e o fim da religião. São Leopoldo: Sinodal, 2006.
VIGIL, José Maria. Teologia pluralista libertadora intercontinental. São Paulo: Paulinas, 2008.
WILBER, Ken. Espiritualidade integral. São Paulo: Aleph, 2006.
· 39
Gilbraz ARAGÃO
Olinda, PE, Brasil
menos, precisa ser dada pela razão: para que o corpo todo não venha a
padecer, os nossos amores – e/ou deuses(as) – e coisas associadas não
venham a, como no meu caso, literalmente, “darem n’água”.
E fiquei mesmo marcado por aquela goteira, a ponto de que o
principal trabalho da minha vida tem sido até hoje decorrência dela
ou ao menos tem inspiração naquele evento: buscar entender o núcleo
dos nossos valores e sentidos, libertar o conjunto ético-mítico da nossa
cultura nordestino-tupiniquim, para que a gente possa saber como se
fez e assim, se for o caso, poder fazer de novo. Ser teólogo – o que eu
tento – é cuidar disto: reinterpretar a experiência do cristianismo, tradi-
cionalmente apresentada em chave mítica, litúrgica e moral, com imagens
mais próximas do divino, com uma santidade mais humana do Homão
da Galiléia. Com santos, mais para Conselheiro do que para Frei Damião,
que não coloquem a dependência de milagres “sobrenaturais” em nossas
promessas desumanas, mas nos ajudem a transformar a vida em um mila-
gre “mais-que-natural”, pelo amor – que é (mais do que) humano. Pois
foi isso, em germe, que aconteceu naquela noite fatídica. E é isso que eu
tento recuperar e desenvolver desde que virei aprendiz de teólogo.
Lembro que passei horas a pensar de onde veio a bíblia – que ali
na igreja, a despeito da sua aura de consagração, corria fragilmente agora
perigo de uma outra calamidade qualquer. Era um livro, foi composto por
gente (inspirada, evidentemente), que poderia ter feito outro, diferente
– como sói fazer alhures (com outras revelações). E quem teria inventa-
do aquela arquitetura sacra que doravante me parecia tão despojada e
“lavadamente” humana? E os sermões moralistas das beatas, por que eu
os necessitava? E por que íamos tão alegres, serelepes, para a missa e ela
era incongruentemente chamada de “sacrifício”?
E por que o mundo, que eu vislumbrava alvissareiro na televisão
que chegou lá em casa, era rezado aí como um “vale de lágrimas” a ser
transposto com suspeição? E por que tinha de me ajoelhar quando se
registrava a presença d’Aquele que tanto queria – “deixai vir a mim” –
abraçar-me junto com as outras crianças e nos dar cheiros bem gostosos?!
Confesso que, daquela noite em diante, até me ajoelho na hora do per-
dão, mas pela elevação nunca mais me ajoelhei numa igreja...
Eu era um quase adolescente e havia acabado de ler nos livros dos
meus primos que “há mais moral em um lago da montanha do que em
todas as catedrais do mundo”(Rousseau?!) – muito embora, com aquela
idade, já estivesse, por mim mesmo, secretamente convicto de que “há
mais poder no rosto belo de uma menina do que em todos os ícones do
universo”. Mas foi naquela noite que a danada da goteira levou de enxur-
rada a ingenuidade da minha fé: o meu dossel de verdades universais
e certezas seguras se esvaiu e isso me obrigou a estudar a religião e a
Condição pós-religiosa na América Latina. VIsão de um nordestino · 43
Referências
Veja-se a bibliografia do texto na precedente versão em inglês, pág. 38.
46 ·
www.unisinos.br/eventos/congresso-de-teologia
· 47
Víctor CODINA
Cochabamba, Bolivia
Resumen:
Comienza el autor centrando el tema afirmando el principio de
que la crisis no es sólo de las instituciones religiosas, sino también de la
religión misma, matizándolo en diversos aspectos. Pasa revista a conti-
nuación al panorama plural religioso del Continente, dando razón de
aumentos y disminuciones, pervivencias y resurgimientos, presencias
minoritarias y sectores religiosos en crecimiento.
Aborda luego la situación específica de la Iglesia Católica en AL y
Caribe. Observa por una parte la pervivencia de una profunda religiosi-
dad en el pueblo latinoamericano, y un debilitamiento general de la vida
cristiana y la pertenencia a la Iglesia: existe una crisis de fe, en la que
la Conferencia de Aparecida funge como una señal de alarma ante las
causas principales de esta crisis: a nivel externo, un verdadero tsunami
cultural global, y a nivel interno, un proceso restauracionista enfocado a
crear una nueva cristiandad.
Abstract:
The author starts focusing the topic by stating that the crisis does
not only belong to the religious institutions, but also to religion itself,
showing various aspects. Next he gives an overview of the plural religious
situation of the Continent, showing increases and decreases, survivals
and revivals, presence of minorities and religious sectors growing.
Then he deals with the specific situation of the Catholic Church in
LA and the Caribbean. He observes on the one hand the survival of a deep
religiosity among the Latin American people and a general weakening
of Christian life and of belonging to the Church: there is a crisis of faith,
for which the Aparecida Conference acts as an alarm signal of the main
causes of this crisis: externally, a real global cultural tsunami, and inter-
nally, a restorative process focused on creating a new Christianity.
48 · Víctor CODINA
1 L.A.Gómez de Sousa, Possível agenda para a Igreja nos próximos anos, «Perspectiva
Teológica», 117 (Mai/Agosto 2010) 247, Belo Horizonte.
Consultation about Religion: Religious Pluralism · 49
recover their original force. For many, this cultural and religious recov-
ery is done from their Christian faith, in an atmosphere of intercultural
and inter-religious dialogue, contributing to what is called indo and afro
Christian theology. But there are more radical minorities who in the pro-
cess of decolonisation wish to abandon Christian faith and return to their
originating religions before evangelisation. On the other hand, originating
culture and religion have also suffered the impact of globalised modern-
ism, with its values and counter-values; the originating religion does not
exist now in its pure state, as Simon Pedro Arnold sustains. 3
4) Minority presence of other non-Christian religious traditions:
Judaism, Islam, Asian eastern religions, some of the esoteric and gnostic
types (Rosicrucians, Acropolis New Age…) that attract many persons who
sincerely look for a spirituality they do not find in traditional and histori-
cal religions in LA.
5) Increase of sectors who do not believe themselves religious but
agnostic, indifferent or even atheist. This group, composed by youth,
intellectuals, professionals, politicians, women, workers, is similar to the
one that is growing in Europe and USA.
This brief exposition is enough to understand that the religious
landscape in LA is a real mosaic, at the same time new and always chang-
ing.
4 L. GONZÁLEZ CARVAJAL, Cristianos sin Iglesia, «Concilium» 340 (abril 2011) 115-121.
52 · Víctor CODINA
Víctor CODINA
Cochabamba, Bolivia
1 L.A.Gómez de Sousa, Possível agenda para a Igreja nos próximos anos, «Perspectiva
Teológica», 117 (Mai/Agosto 2010) 247, Belo Horizonte.
Consulta sobre Religión: Pluralismo Religioso · 55
5 El texto original de la versión episcopal decía «no resistirá». La corrección vaticana cambia
el futuro más realista de los obispos por un condicional.
6 V. CODINA, La agonía de la cristiandad, «Cuarto intermedio», 89 (diciembre 2008) 80-94,
Cochabamba.
60 ·
Vitor CODINA
Cochabamba, Bolívia
Tradução: Rogério Mosimann da Silva sj
I. Colocação do problema
Na atual mudança de época existe, sem dúvida, uma crise não só
das instituições religiosas, como da própria religião. Já não existem os
fortes ateísmos dos séculos XIX e XX, porém, em troca, crescem o agnos-
ticismo e a indiferença religiosa em muitos setores, enquanto que em
outros surge com vigor a valorização de tudo o que seja espiritualidade e
mística, porém à margem de toda religião.
Ante essa complexa situação sobre a religião em geral, podemos
nos perguntar sobre o estado da religião na América Latina. Meu intento
é responder a essa questão, mais concretamente desde a Bolívia.
Pessoalmente, concordo com a afirmação do sociólogo brasilei-
ro Luiz Alberto Gómez de Souza: “Sempre reagi contra a ideia de uma
secularização linear, com o ocaso inevitável do sagrado. O sagrado segue
estando profundamente presente em nossas sociedades, só que em um
mundo pluralista e de pós-cristandade. Não sempre os católicos sabemos
entender estes novos tempos presentes e viver em outro clima” 1.
A matriz religiosa foi muito forte na América Latina e no Caribe,
o povo possui tradicionalmente um grande sentido da transcendência e
de abertura a Deus na vida cotidiana. Isso talvez não tenha sido sempre
compreendido, nem por missionários que procedem de países muito
secularizados, e muito menos pelas ONGs que trabalham no continente.
Contudo, a modernidade secular e a pós-modernidade intimista, a
globalização, o êxodo do campo para a cidade, a industrialização, o desen-
volvimento tecnológico, o impacto dos MCS e da internet, as contínuas
migrações, tudo isso afeta a matriz religiosa da AL e transforma muitos
de seus valores, costumes e comportamentos. Para alguns observadores
atentos, como Bartomeu Meliá, essas mudanças são de tal magnitude que
1 SOUZA, L. A. Gómez de, Possível agenda para a Igreja nos próximos anos. Perspectiva
Teológica, 117, Belo Horizonte, maio-agosto de 2010, p. 247.
Consulta sobre Religião: Pluralismo Religioso · 61
4 GONZÁLEZ CARVAJAL, L. Cristianos sin Iglesia. Concilium, 340, abril de 2011, p. 115-121.
64 · Víctor CODINA
5 O texto original da versão episcopal dizia “não resistirá”. A correção vaticana muda o futuro
mais realista dos bispos por um condicional.
6 CODINA, V. La agonía de la cristiandad. Cuarto intermedio, 89, Cochabamba, dezembro
de 2008, p. 80-94.
L
66 · A ÑO
E SP
AL
O
CI
D John Shelby SPONG
DU
TR
A A NEW CHRISTIANITY FOR A NEW WORLD
Why Traditional Faith is Dying
& How a New Faith Is Being Born
«El único libro que hace actualmente la propuesta de pasar de un cristianismo teísta
a otro pos-teísta, justificándola y aplicándola concretamente a los diferentes compo-
nentes de la visión cristiana (Dios, Jesús, Evangelio, Jesús, Iglesia, oración, liturgia,
misión...)». José María VIGIL.
«In this brave and important book, Bishop Spong continues his lifelong quest for a
living faith and church worthy of the Christ in whom we can find God in our time. His
call for a new reformation is honest, deep, provocative, and needed». Matthew FOX.
† José COMBLIN
Belgium - Brazil
Traducción de Alicia Méndez
Resumen
Se explica en primer lugar el sentido y la justificación de esta
ponencia elaborada a partir de las obras de José Comblin en sus últimos
años, por la voluntad que había expresado pocos días antes de su muerte,
de participar en la Consulta, «sin añadir algo a lo que ya he escrito».
Se aborda en primer lugar la crisis de la religión en función del
surgimiento de nuevas percepciones actuales: la religión como necesi-
dad humana, y como construcción cultural. Se distingue entre Jesús, el
Evangelio y la religión. Se señala los elementos principales de la religión
que están en crisis: la cosmología subyacente, la heteronomía y el miedo.
Se reconoce que la crisis está en su punto culminante en Europa, y en
un nivel alto en América Latina. Se avanza algunas previsiones sobre el
futuro de la religión, y se aterriza tratando de destacar las tareas de la
teología ante esta crisis.
Abstract
Firstly, the meaning and justification of this paper is explained,
elaborated from the works of José Comblin during his last years, since he
had expressed a few days before his death the will to participate in this
Consultation.
Secondly, the crisis of religion is exposed, born from the new per-
ceptions of today: religion as a human need, and as cultural construc-
tion. A distinction is made between Jesus, the Gospels and religion. The
main elements of religion that are in crisis are noted: the underlying cos-
mology, heteronomy and fear. It is acknowledged that this crisis is at its
highest in Europe, and at a high level in Latin America. Some predictions
as to the future of religion are anticipated, and the work of theology fac-
ing this crisis is highlighted.
68 · Jose COMBLIN
and gospel, between a human tendency to religion, and the voices or the
lives of those who wanted to live according to the gospel.” (091124)
“Jesus gospel is not a religion. Jesus did not found any religion: he
did not proclaim a religious doctrine or a mythology, not even a speech
about God, he did not found any cult nor any clerical class. Jesus pro-
claimed and started God’s kingdom on earth. God’s kingdom is not a
religious kingdom, it is a rebirth of all humanity, rebirth that changes the
sense of human history, opening a new era, the last. It is a message for
all humanity in all its cultures and religions. It could be said that it is a
meta-policy message and history.” (091124)
“Many Christians and Christian structures fight against the gospel
without knowing it.” (091124)
“Religion is good if it helps to find the gospel instead of forgetting
it under a religious cover. It is a human need, but has to be investigated
and corrected.” (091124)
La crisis de la religión
en el pensamiento último de José Comblin
† José COMBLIN
Bélgica - Brasil
continente con una juventud sin proyecto ni ideales, una juventud que ni
siquiera quería tener hijos... mientras que en América Latina la religión
no sólo no estaba en crisis, sino que estaba en estado de explosión, con
el surgimiento constante de religiones nuevas, el crecimiento del neopen-
tecostalismo, y el paso de muchos católicos a los nuevos movimientos
religiosos...
Años después, coincidiendo con él en Caracas, en 2007, tuve la
oportunidad de conversar largamente con él y observé un profundo cam-
bio en sus posiciones. No sólo no negaba la crisis de la religión sino que
la afirmaba radicalmente y la fundamentaba con un esquema de ideas
bien desarrollado. Recuerdo que, yendo en carro camino al aeropuerto
para salir ya del país, me decidí a insistirle en que debía escribir siste-
matizadamente aquellas ideas, encargándole formalmente que escribiera
un artículo sobre el tema para la RELaT. Comblin redactó el artículo y lo
publicamos en la RELaT (nº 377), donde todavía está como un auténtico
«texto de referencia».
Pero ya desde algunos años antes estaba incubando ese nuevo
esquema de pensamiento que le hacía interpretar la religión de un modo
diferente al que ha sido la «teología de la religión» tradicional, clásica,
común en las Iglesias cristianas, en la Iglesia católica concretamente.
Considero que es en su libro O Caminho (Paulus, São Paulo), quizá donde
expone más clara y concisamente esta su «reconceptuación de la religión»,
reconceptuación que permite interpretar de un modo nuevo -más libre
y realista- la situación de la religión en el mundo actual. Conferencias
públicas pronunciadas por Comblin en estos últimos años, como la
celebrada en las «Jornadas Teológicas del Cono Sur» (de Amerindia, que
citaremos aquí por su fecha, 091124), así como entrevistas radiofónicas
concedidas en la misma ocasión, que se hicieron célebres por su difusión
a través de youtube, son también documentos que perfilan con claridad
el pensamiento brillante y bien esbozado de Comblin en esta temática. Es
curioso observar que en fuentes tan dispares (un libro, una ponencia, una
entrevista) hay con frecuencia pensamientos expresados con una igual-
dad casi literal; señal de que expresaban ideas clave de su pensamiento
a las que el autor vuelve una y otra vez con seguridad.
Vamos pues a dar cumplimiento al deseo de José Comblin de par-
ticipar en esta Consulta con texto que, efectivamente, no va a tratar de
añadir nada sobre lo que él ya había escrito en los últimos años.
En un primer momento expondremos la crisis o la transformación
de los planteamientos teóricos tradicionales sobre la religión que expe-
rimentó Comblin. En un segundo momento trataremos de reflejar cómo
Comblin describe la crisis de la religión, el contenido de la crisis y el futu-
ro que permite vislumbrar. Donde sea posible reproduciré directamente
palabras de Comblin; cuando sea necesario condensaré el pensamiento.
78 · José COMBLIN
Estado de la crisis
«Dentro de cristiandad la crisis de la religión está llegando a su
punto culminante en Europa, y ya alcanzó un nivel bien alto en América.
Pero esta crisis tiene raíces muy antiguas» (RELaT 377).
«Lejos de traer el fin de la crisis de la religión, la pos-modernidad la
profundizó. En este momento la crisis de la religión es mucho más radical
que en 1970. No sólo en Brasil o en América Latina en general, sino en
todo el territorio de la antigua cristiandad» (ibidem).
«La Curia pensaba -y a lo mejor todavía piensa- que tiene una
alternativa en los nuevos “movimientos”: Opus Dei, Focolares, Comunión
y Liberación, Neo-catecumenado, movimiento de Schönstatt, Legionarios
82 · José COMBLIN
Futuro de la religión
«El siglo XX habrá sido el siglo del pentecostalismo. Éste fue el
gran movimiento religioso que envolvió poco a poco al mundo entero y
a todas las Iglesias y denominaciones cristianas: fue un movimiento de
conversión de cientos de millones de cristianos» (RELaT 377, 5).
«Sobre la religión el hecho impresionante de este sigo es la expan-
sión extraordinaria del pentecostalismo o neopentecostalismo. En Brasil
los sociólogos estiman que en 10 años, mas serán la religión de la mayo-
ría en Brasil. Ya lo son de hecho en América central. Están conscientes
de su gloria futura y son mas arrogantes en la vida pública» (correo-e de
José Comblin del 110313).
«Los pentecostales conservan la cosmología religiosa tradicional:
Dios y Satanás, el cielo, la tierra y el infierno, el pecado y los castigos
divinos, las tentaciones de Satanás, el problema de la salvación como
problema básico de la religión» (RELaT 377, 5).
«La experiencia histórica muestra que la gran crisis de la moderni-
zación se produce en la enseñanza secundaria, alrededor de los 15 años.
La inmensa mayoría de los pobres no llegan hasta ahí, salvo en pocos
países, como Chile o Uruguay. Un día llegará en que los pobres entrarán
La crisis de la religión en el pensamiento último de José COMBLIN · 83
Resumen
El presente trabajo parte de la constatación de que la teología
contemporánea mantiene a grandes rasgos un silencio sobre el hecho
religioso y la coexistencia de una pluralidad de religiones. Esto de debe a
que se considera al pluralismo religioso como amenaza al rol salvífico de
la fe cristiana y un cuestionamiento a la pretensión universal y única del
cristianismo. Para romper con este “silencio”, el autor plantea la urgen-
cia de salir de una concepción monocultural de lo que es “religión” y bus-
car puentes interculturales. Desde el contexto andino, es imprescindible
ampliar el panorama del campo religioso y deconstruir interculturalmen-
te la concentración del mismo en los aspectos institucionales, doctrinales
y escriturales. Como conclusión, el autor plantea que en perspectiva de
liberación, no es la religión que libera o redime, sino la fe comprometida
que se sirve del factor religioso como una mediación.
Abstract
The present contribution starts noting that contemporary theology
keeps in general silence about the religious filed and the coexistence of a
plurality of religions. The main reason for this fact consists in considering
religious pluralism as a danger for the salvific role of Christian faith and
critics of the universal and unique pretension of Christianity. In order to
break with this “silence”, the author suggests that it would be necessary to
break with a monocultural conception of what is conceived as “religion”
and to look for intercultural bridges. From an Andean context, it will be
indispensable to “interculturalize” the religious phenomenon and decon-
struct its concentration on institutional, doctrinal and scriptural aspects
in an intercultural perspective. As a conclusion, the author states that in
the sense of Liberation theology, it is not religion that liberates or redeems,
but engaged faith which recurs to the religious factor as mediation.
86 · Josef ESTERMANN
one side, and the Eurocentrism (or Western Centrism) of the Classical
Sciences of Religion of the XIX and XX centuries, on the other side. In
one way, an overly schematic and monocultural concept of “religion,”
inherited the illustrious debate about the autonomy of the human person
and the alienating and ideological character of that which is religious.
In another way, a very institutional and doctrinal (orthodox) concept
of what is and should be a certain “religion” (above all in the sense of
“church”) is maintained.
An intercultural deconstruction of the “religion” propels, because
the classic parameters of the Sciences of Religion and the mental schemes
and prejudices still present in the “official” and academic theology, do not
reflect the diversity and contemporary complexity of the religious field
and of its manifestations.
• In first place, the dominant concept of “religion” has as a prin-
cipal reference the existence or relevance of certain “universal religions”
established and institutionalized. In the Sciences of Religion the “high
religions” (Hochreligionen) were discussed until recently, a judgement of
unacceptable value that reflects a Eurocentric point of view. This posture
is articulated often with the supposition that monotheism (Christian) was
the evolutionary point more advanced of that which is religious, such as
the so called “polytheist,” “animist” and “natural” religions were relegated
a second or third place.
• In second place, it normally referred to the religions as a total of
doctrinal, ritual and institutional elements, well identified and separable
from the same elements of other religious traditions. In the last years, we
are witnessing a new “syncretization” in the religious field, together with
a “fundamentalization” of beliefs and religious practices. Both tendencies-
although they appear contradictory- are the two faces of the same coin
and reflect the advanced process of cultural and economic “globalization.”
• In third place, the contemporary religious field is characterized
by a diversification of the experiences and manifestations, in the sense of
a “patched religion” in which very distinct elements of religious traditions
are unified. This religious “eclecticism” carries with it a certain “religious
light” that prescinds a defined doctrine, established institutions, deter-
mined norms and visible representatives.
• In fourth place, there is a re surging of ancestral religions made
invisible for much time, from a supposed “paganism” (or “neo pagan-
ism”) inside and at the margin of classic religions, but also of religious
pentecostal and charismatic dissidence, on one side, and conservative
and traditionalists, on the other. Innumerable forms of “double loyalty”
or “birreligiosity” (Sinoquismo), of religious hybridity, of syncretism and
eclecticism, of civil religiosity and esoterisms, of obscurantism and occult-
isms exist.
Religion Does Not Redeem. Theological reflections on the role of «religion» today · 89
selves, and the pertinence to one or another religion does not carry one
to what the distinct religious traditions call “nirvana,” “classless society,”
“reign of God,” “paradise,” “neti-neti,” etc.
c) As such, the question of “exclusivity” of a certain religion, of the
pretense of having the “absolute truth,” of universal value, is, theologi-
cally speaking, a question of the mediations, and not the objective itself
(the sacred, the divine, the undefined, the mystery). As such exist many
cultural, historical, existential and ritual paths to come close to what is
embraced and what is not at our disposition, also many “religious” paths
exist, that is to say: cultural religious mediation that arrive to the same
reality that has many names and that is reflected in different human atti-
tudes.
d) A liberationist theology of religion (or “theology of the libera-
tion of the religious fact”) part of the religious praxis of the peoples and
those marginalized, oppressed, discriminated, that many times is a non-
orthodox praxis inside the parameters of the religious cannon of the
dominant religious tradition (see the religious praxis of people who Jesus
speaks to) and that is given in all religious traditions, often in syncretic
form. The question behind all of this is not the “orthodoxy” of such a
religious practice, but rather its “orthopraxis,” that is to say: its liberating
and inclusive potential that also it is possible to be given in all religious
traditions (or “religions”).
e) A liberationist theology of religion should be necessarily inter
religious in its directionality, although it comes from a specific religious
tradition. The criticality of said theology consists in the analysis of the
dehumanizing and destructive aspects of the same religious tradition and
the other traditions, but at the same time in the prophetic announcement
of the humanizing and liberating aspects of all liberating traditions. The
inherent ambiguity of each religion requires a critical theological reflec-
tion, in order to not fall into an idolatrization and fetishization of the
same “religion,” as if it were the infinite source of life itself, and not one
of many mediations that are always imperfect.
f) In an intercultural perspective, a new theology of religion should
“deconstruct” the concept of “religion” that the dominant tradition uses,
that is, in the majority of the cases, culture centric and imperialistic in
front of other forms of “religiosity.” While “religion” is defined as a union
of phenomenas and structures that should have institutionality, sacred
texts, holy specialists, an object of veneration and a doctrine, all types of
“religiosity”: ancestral, non-theist, spiritual, animist or pantheist do not
fit into the cannon. As such, one should take into account the existing
asymmetries in the theological speeches between “religion,” on one side,
and “cosmovision,” “spirituality,” “beliefs,” “superstition,” “magic,” etc., on
the other side.
Religion Does Not Redeem. Theological reflections on the role of «religion» today · 93
La religión no redime
Reflexiones teológicas
sobre el rol de la «religión» hoy
Josef ESTERMANN
La Paz, Bolivia
1. El silencio de la teología
Las relaciones entre “religión” y teología han sido, a pesar de un
aparente matrimonio de convergencia, siempre cargadas de mutuas ten-
La religión no redime. Reflexiones teológicas sobre el rol de la «religión» hoy · 95
NOVELTY!
is being translating
into Indonesian language
by
Resumen:
La autora se reconoce como actora participante en la problemática
de la crisis de la religión, siendo ésta no un objeto de estudio, sino un
doloroso renacimiento de la religión a partir de fuentes más creativas y
actuales. Afirma que la cuestión subyacente que habita la crisis de las
religiones es de orden filosófico, desglosándola en varios elementos: la
nueva comprensión del ser humano, nuestra doble dimensión de seres de
naturaleza y seres culturales, la necesidad de ir más allá de un univer-
salismo cristiano, la descentralización del poder, la Biblia como palabra
falible, la inadecuación de la formación teológica actual, la vuelta a
las pequeñas comunidades de sentido, la consideración del cristianismo
como humanismo, así como la aceptación del pluralismo y la diversidad.
Abstract:
The author recognizes herself as active participant in the problem
of the crisis of religion, being this not an object of study, but an ailing
rebirth of religion from more creative and present sources. She states that
the underlying issue present in the crisis of religions is of a philosophi-
cal nature, breaking it down in various elements: a new understanding
of the human being, our double dimension – nature beings and cultural
beings-, the need to go beyond a Christian universality, the decentralisa-
tion of power, the Bible as fallible word, the inadequacy of the present
theological education, a comeback to small communities of meaning, the
consideration of Christianity as humanism, as well as the acceptance of
pluralism and diversity.
104 · Ivone GEBARA
human beings; we are living mortal beings who experience almost at one
and the same time both processes of evolution and regression, of hope
and despair. The crisis of the churches touches our life and mortality, our
future hope and the various ways we create to cope with our finiteness.
form placing the sacerdotal elite in opposition to a lay order having less
and less effective power. This discourse, though still having adherents
among a conservative majority and among masses of the faithful needing
religious consolation and seeking divine care, does not as yet deal with
humankind’s new visage as now being described. The messages being
delivered from the pulpit or other means of communication are sterile
and at times imbecilic. They do not invite us to personal autonomous
growth or ethical commitment. They provide circus for us and offer us
promises of miracles that foster the illusion of magical solutions.
There are multiple and varied reasons for rejecting new thinking
about our contemporary world. One possible reason, at least on the part
of the churches could be because it is difficult for religious power to
undergo change, habituated as it is in perceiving its own power as having
emanated from philosophical, ethical and supernatural theological con-
ceptions. A possible confrontation would lead to change which religious
authority and operative religious tradition do not want nor have at pres-
ent condition to bring it about. One of the changes would have to deal
with the term God Theos, a word coined from a hierarchical and dualistic
conception of the world and which is still very much in use today in our
theology, even in some of the most liberal ones. This vision of a divine
being having proper metaphysical existence, existing outside of creation
and yet somehow within it, still sustains the meaning for Christian belief
today. This vision of God nurtures the image we have of human beings as
being dependent on extra terrestrial and supernatural forces. This depen-
dency in turn not only corroborates social and political dependencies
but also hierarchalizes relationships. Insistence on belief in this model of
God and religion and this model’s pretension of being the detainer of the
only truth has led to a retrogression and a retardation of approaches to
an understanding of humanity as both plural and at the same time unique
and in great part responsible for its own destiny. The old expansionist
claims of the Catholic Church are no longer recognized in a world which
is seen at one and the same time as plural and unified. Yet, in spite of this,
given the continued interventions of conservative groups of bishops and
clergy and even of the pope, this traditional theology and politics remain
in force. This is the paradox in which we live, a paradox recognized by
some and ignored by others.
telling us about the preparations for Vatican Council II, then move on to
consider its effects among various national catholic communities around
the world. They then continue by writing about the evolution of these
communities since the time of the council. They write about betrayals and
wrong interpretations of the council and its documents. These historians
do not seem to perceive that their version offers a very limited key for
interpretation of actual Catholicism’s complexity and its daily observable
diminishing numbers.
Today, though the Council has its importance, it should not be con-
sidered as the most important event. Why not instead refer to the twen-
tieth and twenty-first centuries’ indigenous movements: the afro-descen-
dent movement, the feminist movement, the gay, lesbian and transsexual
movements, and the ecological, technological and scientific movements
of these last years? Why do we not refer to new theologies and biblical
hermeneutics that are appearing on the margin of Catholic officialdom?
Why don’t we talk about the dissenters, the ones who provoke dissention
in face of an officiousness that perceives itself as the representative of a
“perfect world” and as arbitrator of the will of Jesus Christ? Groups that
will not submit to institutional orthodoxy and orthopraxis are more and
more disposed to follow their own lead, facing the fact that their lives
though brief will take place outside the walls of the institutional church, a
church that distances itself more and more from the issues and questions
that are significant for peoples of the world.
radically different from the one our bodies inhabit, no longer allows
the bible to serve as the humanizing tool we so badly need. And even
though there have been great advances made in Bible studies in these
last decades, there still lingers a certain assurance that the Bible contains
superior knowledge and the most normative ethics and this assurance
is presumed to have been derived from the Bible itself. We continue to
sacralize the Bible particularly when being used by the simple people in
our communities.
rect church tradition. These experiments are without a doubt very fragile
and they follow no set rules. The lack of space for experimentation is
notorious. In general, neither parish nor diocese permit experimental
gatherings nor that, celebrations take place within their boundaries. It is
almost as if church buildings themselves have to be obedient to the truly
Christian form and content of celebration.
8) Christianity is humanistic
Diverse groups and many writers have strongly insisted that
Christianity be considered from the viewpoint of humanistic tradition. To
affirm this in a certain manner is to fail to consider Christianity from the
view point of its Christological dogmatic definition and its marialogical
tradition, which in a noncritical way insists on the supernatural charac-
ter of Christianity and in addition, underlines the primacy of masculine
authority in the church. To work along the lines of humanism does not
diminish the religious character of Christianity that is to say the character
of being connected to others, of solidarity and of mutual help that are
present in this tradition. A study of this kind would attempt to avoid the
reduction of Christianity to the mode of first century thinking about the
characteristics of Christianity and most particularly from that thinking
that originated in that centuries’ many conflicts of power. This kind of
study would not at any cost want to reduce Christianity to a canonical
system of law or the observance of precepts. Emphasizing the humanistic
ethical dimension of Christianity, in its concern for the everydayness of
life, in its expression of care and mutual assistance, demands a theology
anchored in the gospel tradition, which looks in fact at the things that
help us to develop and maintain one another’s dignity
8) O cristianismo é um humanismo
Alguns autores e grupos diversos têm insistido muito em conside-
rar o Cristianismo a partir de sua tradição humanista. Dizer isso significa
de certa forma deixar de considerá-lo a partir das definições dogmáticas
cristológicas e mariológicas tradicionais que insistem de forma acrítica no
caráter sobrenatural do Cristianismo. E, além disso, sublinham a primazia
da autoridade masculina na Igreja. Trabalhar na linha do humanismo
não diminui o caráter religioso, isto é, de ligação, solidariedade, ajuda
mútua presentes na mesma Tradição. O que se tenta evitar é a redução
do Cristianismo a uma maneira de pensá-lo característica dos primeiros
séculos do Cristianismo e, sobretudo proveniente de muitos conflitos de
poder. Não se quer reduzir o cristianismo a um sistema de leis canônicas
e de observância de preceitos.
Enfatizar a dimensão ética humanista do cristianismo, a preocupa-
ção com o cotidiano da vida na sua expressão de cuidado e ajuda mútua
necessita de uma teologia ancorada numa leitura da tradição evangélica
a partir das coisas que de fato nos ajudam a devolver e a manter a dig-
nidade de uns e outros.
A collective EATWOT's
work by Michael AMALADOSS
(India), Marcelo BARROS
(Brazil), Agenor BRIGH-
ENTI (Brazil), Edmund
CHIA (Malaysia-USA), Amín
EGEA (Spain), Paul KNITTER
(USA), David LOY (USA),
Laurenti MAGESA (Tanzania),
Jacob NEUSNER (USA), Irfan
OMAR (USA), Teresa OKURE
(Nigeria), Raimon PANIKKAR
(India-Spain), Peter PHAN
(Vietnam-USA), Aloysius
PIERIS (Sri Lanka), Richard
RENSHAW (Canada), Amando
ROBLES (Costa Rica), K.
SESHAGIRI (USA), Afonso
SOARES (Brazil) Faustino
TEIXEIRA (Brazil) and José
Maria VIGIL (Panama)
10. One of the key challenges then is: the "spiritualization" of reli-
gion, i.e. the search for direct and immediate experience of the Absolute.
This also applies to Christianity, and in particular to Catholicism.
This implies the relaxing of those hard institutional spaces, greater
sensitivity to the suffering of others, practical commitment to alternate
ways of life-style: (environmental, vegetarian, non-violent pacifism, spiri-
tual feminism); concretely overcoming ancient religious dualisms (e.g.
the contradiction between body and spirit, personal, collective and politi-
cal liberation etc..), a simple life without hypocrisy, the practice of daily
meditation; learning to remain serene (Stoicism) when encountering the
ravages Life, etc..
Conclusion
The hypothesis of our research would be that religion offers TWO
basic options with their different ramifications:
tions" but does not go deep, does not fulfill, and remains unconvincing.
In a word, that does not transform.
Which of these two options are really making happen in our own
life? Do we have the possibility to change without an intense faith in
a transforming God? Does our religion have a real mystique? Or is it a
mystique without religion?
From my perspective, these are key questions. It would be another
story to develop a holistic spirituality -- something we have been trying to
achieve for quite some time, but here is not the place to take up that task.
· 129
¿Fin de la religión
o nacimiento de la espiritualidad?
Rui Manuel GRÁCIO DAS NEVES
São Paulo, Brasil - Nagpur, India - Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract:
El artículo intenta precisar la diferencia entre las categorías de
´religión´ y ´espiritualidad´, que no son necesariamente lo mismo, aun-
que se puedan entrecruzar. Se centra la cuestión en la predominancia de
una práctica vivencial espiritual frente a la crisis (relativa) de la religión
en nuestros días. Sin esa vivencia espiritual (que el autor cree encontrar
en la espiritualidad holística), la misma religión puede perder su credi-
bilidad, al quedarse en el “cascarón externo” de los dogmas, preceptos
morales, templos, instituciones eclesiásticas, clérigos (masculinos), etc.
Resumen:
The author begins by establishing a decisive difference between
these categories: «religion» and «spirituality», which are not necessarily the
same, even they can interweave. He focuses the issue of the predominat-
ing spiritual practice, in front of the (relative) crisis of religion nowadays.
Without such a spiritual living (which authors find in the holistic spiritu-
ality), the very religion can loss its credibility and contents...
2 Entendemos por ‘crisis cualitativa’ una crisis de legitimidad del orden religioso, es decir,
puede no haber decrecimiento cuantitativo (en número) de miembros, pero se ha per-
dido la “calidad” devocional, el convencimiento, la originalidad, la creatividad, entrando
significativamente en un proceso de masificación.
132 · Rui Manuel GRÁCIO DAS NEVES
Conclusión
Nuestra hipótesis de trabajo de investigación sería que la religión
tiene básicamente dos opciones, con sus diferentes ramificaciones:
(1) apertura a una espiritualidad madura y seria, que sea realmente
una experiencia vital que llene los vacíos de plenitud (‘religión piel de
plátano’);
(2) una religión cerrada en sí misma, eclesiocéntrica, más centrada
en sí misma (en el “ombligo eclesiático”), que provocadora de verdadero
encuentro, significatividad y silencio plenos (‘religión cáscara vacía’).
En nuestra opinión esto es un reto decisivo para el futuro de la
religión como tal. Si no, pudiéramos encontrarnos con una Iglesia que
“funciona”, pero que no ahonda, no llena, no convence. En una palabra,
que no transforma.
¿Cuál de las dos opciones estamos realmente potenciando con
nuestra vida? ¿Tenemos posibilidad de cambiar sin una fe intensa en un
Dios que transforma? ¿Tiene mística nuestra religión? ¿O es una mística
sin religión?
He aquí preguntas esenciales, desde mi perspectiva. Otra cosa sería
ya desarrollar una espiritualidad holística, algo que estamos intentando
hacer desde hace tiempo, pero cuya tarea no es para implementar aquí.
· 135
Abstract
Is not possible understand religion as something static, however
talk of religion is talk of dynamics, relations of interdependence and of
course, changes; nevertheless, every change brings with it challenges and
requires the resignification of the contents. Thus, our interest is to expose
some processes that religion has crossed over his history in the world,
processes that have made it a metaphor able to be interpreted in different
ways and from different specialties.
Say what is now theologically Religion, is to speak not only an
amalgam of qualities of the space reserved for the link between “sacred”
and “profane”, but also a dimension of non-place. Theologically religion
today is the site of the clash, the border’s space between identities, a virtu-
al space in which the political economic and social human being is domi-
nated by the thirdness of his desires and obligations in a flawed world of
capitalism and neoliberalism.
136 · Deivit MONTEALEGRE
Over and over we have heard that human beings are religious
beings, that within us there is a sort of “device” that leads us to pursuit
of transcendence, that one way or another seek the divine, that which
connects us a reality beyond the finite in which we live. However, for
generations the religion step away from being an expression of the tran-
scendent and became institutions of the sacred, a place of power in which
the “enlightened” would developed their desire for transcendence and
mastery, a space in which the divine, although present, was mediated by
an unlimited number of objects and symbols, promising an approach to
God directly.
Religion move from being a part of the re-ligare condition of
human beings - with all that involves and ceases to involves this statement
- and transformed into a set of dogmas, liturgies, doctrines, prayers ... that
made it increasingly absent-present, i.e., religion finished linked to legal
aspects and almost-judicial that move away from the “real” communities’
life constantly changing and got closer to certain areas of society who
were avid support and legitimacy of its structures of thought.
With the preceding we do not mean that religion lost its meaning,
if ever there was a unique sense of religion, rather, we make our readers
understand that there are processes religion has gone through over its
history in the world, processes that have made it a metaphor able to be
interpreted in different ways and from different specialties.
So much that what is now theologically Religion, is to speak not
only of an amalgam of qualities (political, social, cultural, economic...) of
the space reserved for the link between what is considered sacred and
what is considered profane, but also a dimension of other-place, theologi-
cally religion today is the site of mismatch, the boundary’s space between
identities, a virtual space in which economic, political and social human
being’s aspects are dominated by the thirdness of their desires and obliga-
tions in a world tainted by capitalism and neoliberalism.
When we speak of thirdness we are talking about the dimension
of the virtuality, not in the sense of technology, but using its words, but
in the sense of an experience beyond of the concrete or imaginary plane,
the space of virtuality or thirdness is the space now occupied by religion.
The other-place.
Thus, talking about religion nowadays does not imply to belief in
a particular doctrine or in a plurality of them, but talking about a virtual
· 137
Change - Significance and Challenges
place (another) where even, some times, is not necessary to believe, just
to dwell. A space capable of supporting religion’s overwhelming diversity
which at the same time re-builds the identities of the sacred.
Una y otra vez hemos escuchado que los seres humanos somos
seres religiosos, que dentro de nosotros existe una suerte de “dispositivo”
que nos inclina a la búsqueda de la trascendencia, que de una u otra
forma buscamos lo divino, aquello que nos conecte con una realidad
más allá de la finita en la que nos encontramos. No obstante, por gene-
raciones, la religión pasó de ser una expresión de lo trascendente y se
convirtió en la institucionalidad de lo sagrado; un lugar de poder en el
que los “ilustrados” desarrollaban sus deseos de trascendencia y dominio;
un espacio en el que lo divino, aunque presente, era mediado por un sin
número de objetos y símbolos, que prometían acercarnos a Dios de una
forma directa.
La religión pasó de ser una parte de la condición de re-ligare del
ser humano –con todo lo que implica y deja de implicar este enunciado– y
se transformó en un conjunto de dogmas, liturgias, doctrinas, oraciones…,
que la hicieron cada vez más ausente-presente, es decir, la religión termi-
nó vinculada a aspectos legales y casi judiciales que la alejaron de la vida
“real” de las comunidades en constante transformación, y la acercaron a
determinados espacios de la sociedad que se hallaban ávidos del soporte
y legitimación de sus estructuras de pensamiento.
Con lo anterior no queremos decir que la religión perdió su sentido,
si es que en algún momento hubo un único sentido de la religión; más
bien, buscamos hacer que nuestro lector comprenda que hay procesos
que la religión ha atravesado a lo largo de su historia en el mundo, pro-
cesos que han hecho de ella una metáfora capaz de ser interpretada de
diferentes maneras y desde diferentes especialidades.
Tanto es así que decir teológicamente lo que hoy es Religión es
hablar no sólo de una amalgama de cualidades (políticas, sociales, cultu-
rales, económicas…) de dicho espacio reservado al vínculo entre lo consi-
derado sagrado y lo considerado profano, sino además de una dimensión
· 141
Una nueva visión de la religión
available at
http://www.emisoraslatinas.net/en
¿Post-religonal Paradigm?
Towards a complex understanding
of the contemporary religious phenomenon
Alejandro ORTIZ
Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla
México
Intentionality
We would like to propose, in the following lines, the idea of the
existence of civilizational-paradigms, which have guided the historical
walk of humanity, in relation and permanent conflict, coexisting at the
same time, creating alliances, intersections or conflicts between them. And
also, we´d try to erase a vision of lineal and consequent paradigms where
one outdoes the previous one, and where the exceeded paradigm disap-
pears in history over time. This last “modern progressive” vision doesn't
help -in our view- to understand the complexity that is current reality.
That´s why we believe that saying that we live or that we are mov-
ing towards a post-religious paradigm can be an unsuitable way, -for
being fast and simple- to understand the world and the religious role in
the contemporary world. Instead, we locate several civilizing paradigms
that have consequently emerged one after another, paradigms that don´t
completely disappear, but are transformed, or certain expressions of a
paradigm find new ways of expression and to exist from the relations
and/ or the intersections with other existing civilizing paradigms.
In order to better understand these ideas, I will develop in a nar-
rative way a minimal vision of the five civilizing paradigms that in my
consideration I place, if not as the only ones, as the main ones. In the
explanation of each paradigm I will write how the religious phenomenon
lives and develops.
First ideas
In the history of humanity we can point with certain ease five
civilizing paradigms that mutually coexist today creating countless inter-
sections, alliances, contradictions, etc., which in turn create what we call
146 · Alejandro ORTIZ
people; rather, we must understand which strategies and new forms will
be adopted by this civilizing paradigm in its historical expressions to the
new existing paradigms.
Noble has been in charge of clarifying how science is seen as the new
god that will provide us a new world. Others “more atheists” verify God´s
death and postulate how machines with their artificial intelligence in the
year 2040 will become as intelligent as human beings and also as beings
as themselves.
Here we can say in a better way how the cutting-edge, progres-
sive, traditional, religious expressions have linked with this new civilizing
paradigm.
There are more questions than answers. Maybe we can close this
essay asking ourselves, in this new civilizing paradigm which ones will
be the poverties and the new exclusions and how Liberation Theology
will be able to face them?
152 ·
The first and until now unique work addressing the cross-fertilization
between Theology of Liberation and Theology of Pluralism
The five volumes are:
I. Challenges of Religious Pluralism for Liberation Theology
II. Toward a Latin American Theology of Religious Pluralism
III. Latin American Pluralist Theology of Liberation
IV. International Pluralist Liberating Theology
and the last one now also appearing in English:
V. Toward a Planetary Theology
edited by José María VIGIL vwith the collaboration of:
M. Amaladoss (India), M. Barros (Brazil), A. Brighenti (Brazil),
E.K-F. Chia (Malaysia), A. Egea (Spain), P.F. Knitter (USA),
D.R. Loy (USA), L. Magesa (Tanzania), J. Neusner (USA),
I.A. Omar (USA), T. Okure (Nigeria), R. Panikkar (India-Spain), P.C.
Phan (Vietnam-USA), A. Pieris (Sri Lanka), R. Renshaw (Canada), J.A.
Robles (Costa Rica), K.L. Seshagiri (USA),
A.M.L. Soares (Brazil), F. Teixeira (Brazil).
¿Paradigma posreligional?
Hacia una comprensión compleja
del fenómeno religioso contemporáneo
Alejandro ORTIZ
Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla
México
Intencionalidad
Quisiéramos proponer, en las siguientes líneas, la idea de la exis-
tencia de paradigmas civilizatorios -que han guiado el caminar histórico
de la humanidad-, en relación y conflicto permanente, conviviendo al
mismo tiempo, creando alianzas, intersecciones o conflictos entre ellos;
y tratar de borrar una visión de paradigmas lineales y consecuentes
donde uno va superando al anterior, y donde el paradigma superado va
desapareciendo en la historia con el tiempo, esta última visión “moderna
progresista” no ayuda – a nuestro entender- a comprender la complejidad
que es la realidad actual.
Por eso creemos que el decir que vivimos o vamos hacia un para-
digma post-religioso puede ser una manera no apta, -por ser rápida y
sencilla-, de entender el mundo y el papel de lo religioso en el mundo
contemporáneo. Al contrario, ubicamos varios paradigmas civilizatorios,
que si bien han surgido de manera consecuente uno después de otro, los
paradigmas no desaparecen del todo sino que se van transformando o
ciertas expresiones de un paradigma van encontrando nuevos caminos
de expresión y de existir a partir de las relaciones y/o intersecciones con
otros paradigmas civilizatorios existentes.
Para comprender mejor estas ideas desarrollaré de manera narrati-
va una visión mínima de los cinco paradigmas civilizatorio que a mi con-
sideración ubico, si no como los únicos si como los principales. Dentro
de cada explicación en cada uno de los paradigmas escribiré cómo el
fenómeno religioso vive y se desarrolla.
Hacia una comprensión compleja del pensamiento religioso contemporáneo · 155
Primeras ideas
En la historia de la humanidad podemos señalar con cierta facilidad
cinco paradigmas civilizatorios que conviven mutuamente en la actualidad
creando un sinfín de intersecciones, alianzas, contradicciones, etc., que a
su vez crean lo que denominamos realidad. Los zapatistas al mencionar
su utopía de crear “un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos” suponen
de base esta idea: existen en convivencia y en conflicto múltiples épocas
en la actualidad. Que “una” visión epocal dominante y excluyente crea
que su perspectiva sea la mejor y trate de dominar a las otras es parte del
análisis zapatista, pero lo que nos interesa en este momento es la idea
de la existencia de varias “épocas” convergiendo en un mismo tiempo y
espacio. Otra manera de decir lo mismo puede ser: que en las sociedades
actuales, así como en los núcleos familiares contemporáneos, conviven al
mismo tiempo y muchas veces en el mismo lugar tres maneras diferentes
de ver el mundo: la perspectiva premoderna, moderna y postmoderna,
cada una con sus ventajas y valores, así como con sus contradicciones y
negatividades. Las familias se vuelven campos de batallas cuando el diá-
logo y la negociación no prevalecen. Así mismo podemos hablar de otras
“instituciones sociales”.
Llamamos paradigma civilizatorio a esos sistemas colectivos que
rigen –dominantemente- a las comunidades humanas en un tiempo y
espacio determinados, y que desde sus valores centrales construyen sub-
sistemas socio-culturales y económico-políticos que les permiten crear
convivialidad, “culturas” y sociabilidad. Se crean, entonces desde estos
paradigmas, civilizaciones humanas que podrán sobrevivir con los años
en la medida que se van ajustando, a veces de modo muy tenso, con los
nuevos paradigmas que van surgiendo y que van siendo los dominantes.
Parafraseando a Corbí, estos paradigmas civilizatorios son las grandes
“vasijas” donde se moldean de determinadas maneras y formas las civili-
zaciones en cada época.
A continuación describiremos brevemente cada paradigma civiliza-
torio y señalaremos también brevemente cómo las religiones van jugando
un rol importante en cada uno de ellos.
Resumen
El presente artículo aborda algunos cambios que se perciben en
la cultura religiosa de la población, particularmente entre los jóvenes.
El análisis teórico se hace a partir de los postulados sobre teísmo y pos-
teísmo de John Shelby Spong, obispo cristiano perteneciente a la iglesia
anglicana estadounidense, quien ha estudiado las transformaciones en el
sistema de creencias religiosas. El estudio tiene como base empírica una
encuesta que se aplicó a 100 jóvenes estudiantes que habitan en la zona
metropolitana de Guadalajara, y que muestra ciertas tendencias en la
manera de comprender la fe cristiana. El artículo muestra que hay trans-
formaciones en la cultura religiosa y que por lo mismo es pertinente darle
seguimiento a este fenómeno. El trabajo no se sitúa en el campo de la
increencia religiosa, sino en saber en qué creen y cómo creen los jóvenes
que se sienten pertenecientes al catolicismo. Es decir, se trata de compren-
der si efectivamente se está dando un proceso de transición en las formas
teístas de creer, hacia un posteísmo que rebasa el culto tradicional y la
doctrina clásica del cristianismo católico.
Summary
This article discusses some changes that are perceived in the reli-
gious culture of the population, particularly among young people. The
theoretical analysis is based on the tenets of theism and posteísmo John
Shelby Spong, Bishop Christian belonging to the U.S. Anglican church,
who has studied the changes in the system of religious beliefs. The empiri-
cal study is based on a survey applied to 100 young students living in the
metropolitan area of Guadalajara, which shows certain tendencies in the
162 · Juan Diego ORTIZ
Introduction
In these times of globalization and cultural changes, it’s said that
religions and their churches have entered a deep crisis, particularly in
Europe. Opinions and analyses regarding Latin America are diverse, and
not all of them come to conclude that there is a crisis in religions; they
accept, at most, that the crisis is focused in the churches and their hier-
archies, but that it doesn’t show itself in people’s spirituality. In any case,
the subject has become a topic of interest for those who study religious
phenomena because it reaches the vast majority of the population. From
different angles, the impacts of cultural change withheld over the world
are being researched, and they affect religions.
Aside from the different conclusions, the irrefutable fact is that
the youngest layer of society shows a gradual distancing from religious
systems and churches, though this has its differences according to the
region that’s being analyzed. If we choose Europe and Latin America
as a case, we will find contrasts and diverse rhythms in the process of
cultural change, needless to say that this applies too to the Middle East,
central Asia or Africa. Nevertheless, in spite of the contrasts and different
rhythms, a change in religious culture is happening among young people,
and it is there where bigger efforts in research should be layed.
To analyze this topic, people draw from John Shelby Spong’s ideas
on post-theism in the belief system, and how this phenomenon is gen-
erating transformations in the religious field, especially in the Christian
one. Spong’s theory is accompanied by information from a survey that
was applied among young people in Guadalajara, Mexico, which shows
empirical evidence about religious cultural change. Results of the survey
show certain trends, for it is only the opinion of 100 youth between 18
and 30 years old with a strong urban identity, so one cannot say absolute
truths about what goes on in the highly populated and industrial zone
of the state of Jalisco. With all this, the present article has a theoretical
From Theism to Post-Theism: A Change in Religius Culture · 163
basis and field information with which it’s attempted to analyze religiosity
among youths in aims to understand it.
Following the line of a theistic God our author says that religious
beliefs are weakening, and sets other examples: when people say today
that the age of miracles has passed, it doesn’t mean that miracles no
longer happen, but that they never happened at all, because the age
when we perceived some events as miraculous is over (ibid p. 38). What
Spong wants to show is that scientific knowledge has provided a better
understanding of the universe and life in the Earth, which means we now
understand certain phenomena not as miracles of God, but as the result
of workings of nature or of human actions though knowledge.
We used to see God as the prime mover in areas of health and sick-
ness. We thought that illness was a reflection of divine punishment and
health of its blessing. But then we discovered germs and viruses, and we
developed antibiotics, surgical procedures and things like chemotherapy.
With this new knowledge we started to realize that antibiotics, surgeries
and chemotherapy work on sinners as well as on saints. Thus, the realm
of disease as an area of operation of God grew smaller and medicine
made its contribution to the modern development of secularization.
Formerly, we saw God as the cause of climate and we interpreted
floods, droughts, hurricanes and storms as expressions of divine will.
Then we discovered meteorology, weather fronts, high and low pres-
sure systems, the winds of El Niño and la Niña, the climatic effects of
tides and so many other facts that the idea of a supernatural being who
manipulated the weather for moral reasons became untenable.
We believed that if God guided our country in the battle we would
beat the enemy, or if our faithfulness to this God decayed, he would make
us try his divine wrath with defeat… But with the arrival of modern
wars, it seems that God is always on the side of the ones who have the
strongest weapons (p. 39).
Spong states that with the previous examples can prove that God,
understood theistically, is no longer functional in our belief system. He
claims that the God of theism is dying and, therefore, religious beliefs are
changing even if many people try to hold on to that God with supernatu-
ral powers who rules Earth and human life from the outside.
In another set of examples, Spong notes that there are emotional
data that suggest that the role of security provider, attributed to the theist
God in the past, no longer work. He points there are many human behav-
iors that account for the disappearance of this idea of a protecting and
controlling God. Today, many people in the world find self-assurance and
control for their fears and “hysterias” in addictions and use of tranquil-
izers, in the use of violence, in suicide, in racism, even in not complying
with certain commandments of Christian churches, such as not divorc-
ing, not using contraceptives, not having homosexual practices, etcetera,
behaviors that, according to Spong, are emotional proofs of the death
166 · Juan Diego ORTIZ
of the theist God, that is, that God who controlled it all and gave assur-
ance, so there is no longer a supernatural almighty God who intervenes
to solve every personal situation and provide the necessary certainties
for existence.
These quests for assurance are no longer focused on divine inter-
vention, but in the most varied human behaviors. This fix-it-all God is
extinguishing and more so in the conscience of youths, who are finding
assurance in other ways or, put in a different manner, are solving their
insecurities in ways that might not be the most appropriate. Their needs
to believe in a transcendent being or to fulfill spirituality are parts of
a renewed religious culture that is far from the schemes of traditional
Christianity.
In his book A New Christianity for a New World, which we have
been referring to, Spong points that the revolution of knowledge and the
emerging human maturity have conspired to reduce the credibility the old
theist molds. Far from viewing this as a problem, our author comments
that the weakening of theism shouldn’t represent something frightful
and evil, but should be considered as a step towards maturity, towards a
human “coming of age” through which we can stop being those children
relating to and depending on a heavenly father.
Spong claims that this maturity can be the starting point to discover
a new way to understand God, that is to say it represents a transit where
the old myth of theism quickly loses its power to create a new myth,
which is in progress and will be the result of the ways of the new era that
global society is living. The construction of a new myth is not necessarily
held outside the sacred scriptures of Christianity, but in a rereading of
them, where there are, according to Spong, important clues to understand
in other ways the existence of God, and the relationship that a human
being can hold with that “Foundation and Source of all beings”. Following
the crisis of theism, he says no religion can give assurance to a person,
and that when such assurance is looked for though personal religions,
what people find are usually illusions. He explains, on the other hand,
that every true religiosity lets embrace life with all its radical uncertainty
and live it with courage.
This sends us back to the youths, who don’t normally look to any
god to sort out their problems. Young people don’t go to church seeking
for assurance, they manage without religion and that doesn’t mean that
they are not spiritual or they don’t have religious beliefs. The point is they
assume that relationship with the divine in a different way. The following
are the results of a survey where some changes in young people’s reli-
gious culture can be appraised, changes that may be related with Spong’s
post-theism. As it was stated in the beginning, it’s a first explanatory
From Theism to Post-Theism: A Change in Religius Culture · 167
universal energy pervading all around. This can be inferred from the
answers to the next question of the survey.
The question was, Where is God? Participants answered as follows:
Where is God?
In Heaven 16%
In this world's life 60%
Nowhere 10%
I don't know 14%
Total 100%
Again, the most extended answer does not match the idea of a the-
ist God located in the supernatural, outside the human realm, in heaven.
Instead, participants believe in a God located in life in this world (60%),
and therefore it’s not a distant unreachable God, so these answers too add
up to the idea that we are in the middle of a process of change in reli-
gious culture, and there are signs of a rereading of theological teachings.
Moreover, the following answers also reveal that something is hap-
pening in the religious education of young people. The question was,
How do you feel closer to God? The results are:
How do you feel closer to God?
Attending mass 13%
Reading the Bible 1%
Praying 23%
Being loving to the others 63%
Total 100%
The option about feeling closer to God by being loving to others
is the one that convinced the most participants in the survey (63%). The
results reach religious rituality, because according to the sample, now it’s
more important to focus religiosity around the relationship with others
and not attending to mass (13%), reading the Bible (1%) or praying (23%).
This appraisal puts the belief in God in a concrete and human realm, in
the field of the immediate and everyday, in the proximity with the other
one, setting aside the church as an intermediary to reach the divine. This
also represents, in some way, a transformation in the belief system that
breaks with the tradition of emphasizing the rituality of attending mass,
group readings of the Bible or learning and repeating prayers to feel the
transcendent. Nowadays the choice is to practice love unto others, which
has certainly been a substantial part of the deep message of Christianity,
but that was slowly replaced by the strong presence of the church and
its role as a filter to reach God.
From Theism to Post-Theism: A Change in Religius Culture · 169
Conclusion
In these times of accelerated scientific, technological and cultural
changes, the way the world is understood is shifting, and the ways in
which we understand and undertake religiousness are changing too. It
can be said that the transformations that are happening in the 21st cen-
tury and that affect religions are, to a certain point, natural, matching
the development of societies, especially in the western world. The shift
from theism to post-theism, post-religionals approaches that propose the
possibility of believing without a religion, the growing acceptation of
religious pluralism, the massive conversion from one religion to another,
the apparition of new churches, secularization, unbelief and the quest for
spiritual alternatives are nothing but manifestations of a new stage, a new
axial time, as some theologists and philosophers may say, from which
religions will emerge transformed, in the best scenario.
It’s important to conclude saying that nobody has certainty as to
what road religions will take, and even Spong is honest by saying that
with the passing of theist myths new myths haven’t arisen with new ways
to understand God. Only changes are noticeable, deep transformations,
but nothing is set and nobody can define the road religions and spiritual-
ity will take. There is just one certainty left: God is a mystery and nobody
has the absolute truth for his comprehension. Besides, there is another
fundamental fact pointed by theologists and academics: God cannot be
understood by reason, but experience is determinant, and this turns
things even more complex, because the experience of God is personal, it
belongs to each believer, and this narrows down the possibilities of aca-
172 · Juan Diego ORTIZ
References
Lenaers, Roger (2008). Otro cristianismo es posible. Fe en lenguaje de modernidad. Quito,
Ecuador: Editorial Abya Yala.
Ortiz, J. Diego (2011). Encuesta Creencias religiosas en los jóvenes de la ZMG. Guadalajara,
México: Universidad de Guadalajara.
Robles, J. Amando (2001). Repensar la religión, de la creencia al conocimiento. San José,
Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Nacional Heredia.
Royston, Edgar (2005). Diccionario de las Religiones. México, DF: Fondo de Cultura
Económica.
Spong, John S. (2011). Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo. Quito, Ecuador:
Editorial Abya Yala.
Vigil, José María (2006). Teología del pluralismo religioso. Quito, Ecuador: Editorial Abya
Yala.
· 173
Introducción
En esta época de globalización y cambios culturales se llega a afir-
mar que las religiones y sus iglesias han entrado en una profunda crisis,
particularmente en Europa. Con respecto América Latina las opiniones y
los análisis son más diversos y no todos llegan a la conclusión de que
ya se está en una crisis de las religiones, si acaso se acepta que la crisis
se localiza en las iglesias y sus jerarquías, pero que incluso esa crisis no
se manifiesta en la espiritualidad de las personas. De cualquier modo,
el asunto se ha convertido en un foco de interés para los estudiosos del
fenómeno religioso, ya que se trata de un tema que atañe a la mayoría
de la población. Desde muy diversos ángulos se están investigando los
impactos del cambio cultural que se registra en la inmensa mayoría de los
países del orbe, y que en mayor o menor medida afecta a las religiones.
Pero al margen de las distintas conclusiones, lo que es un hecho
irrebatible es que en la capa joven de las sociedades se percibe un distan-
ciamiento gradual, cada vez mayor, con respecto a los sistemas religiosos
y las iglesias, aunque esto también tiene sus matices según la región de
que se trate. Si ponemos como caso a Europa y América Latina, encon-
traremos diferencias y ritmos muy diversos en el proceso de cambio
cultural, y no se diga si se habla de Oriente Medio, Asia central o África.
Sin embargo, a pesar de los matices y los ritmos diferenciados, el cambio
cultural religioso se está dando en la franja de población joven, y es ahí
donde habría que poner mayores esfuerzos en la investigación.
Para realizar el análisis de este tema, se parte de las ideas de John
Shelby Spong sobre el posteísmo en el sistema de creencias, y cómo
este fenómeno está generando transformaciones en el campo religioso,
particularmente en el cristiano. La teoría de Spong es acompañada con
174 · Juan Diego ORTIZ
Spong y el teísmo
Es pertinente comenzar este artículo explicando, aunque sea de
manera breve, quien es Spong, el cual, según algunos, es el autor con más
convicción y valentía que está proponiendo el tema del posteísmo y que
con más insistencia está llamando a realizar toda una relectura posteísta
del cristianismo. Spong es un obispo jubilado perteneciente a la iglesia
cristiana episcopal, que es la versión estadounidense de la iglesia anglica-
na. Nació en Carolina del Norte, Estados Unidos, y ha escrito más de 10
libros, entre ellos, Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo. Por qué
la fe tradicional está muriendo y cómo una nueva fe está naciendo, texto
del cual nos apoyamos para desarrollar las siguientes líneas. Se trata de
un autor poco ortodoxo que ha estado cuestionando las verdades literales
de la Biblia, y que por consiguiente ha recorrido caminos distintos para
comprender, desde otras ópticas, los contenidos y mensajes profundos
del cristianismo. En el prefacio del libro de Spong (2011), señalado líneas
arriba, el autor escribe:
En ese cristianismo volcado al futuro he buscado también evitar
la seudo-seguridad ofrecida por el cristianismo tradicional. El Dios de
los brazos eternos, que está listo para socorrernos cuando nos caemos
(cf. Dt 33,27), y el Jesús a quien llamamos “la Roca Eterna”, a quien nos
agarraremos eternamente, ambos producen –así lo creo ahora- personas
inmaduras, que necesitan los cuidados de una deidad sobrenatural y
paternal (p.18).
Como se puede observar, Spong es un teólogo que está en bús-
queda de nuevos paradigmas para comprender el cristianismo, se trata
de un autor insatisfecho con las fórmulas tradicionales y las verdades de
ese cristianismo ortodoxo y doctrinal, apela más bien a construir un cris-
tianismo “radicalmente reformulado que sea capaz de sobrevivir en este
desafiante mundo nuevo”. Este obispo retirado ha gustado y se ha visto en
la necesidad de dialogar con el mundo académico, por lo que se le puede
leer desde dos aristas: la teologal y la académica, razón por la cual resul-
Del teísmo al posteísmo: un cambio en la cultura · 175
del teísmo no debería representar algo temeroso y malo, sino tiene que
verse como un paso hacia la madurez, hacia la “mayoría de edad” huma-
na, a través de la cual podemos dejar de ser esos niños que se relacionan
y dependen de un padre celestial.
Spong afirma que esa madurez alcanzada puede ser el punto de
partida para descubrir una nueva forma de entender a Dios, es decir,
representa un tránsito en donde el viejo mito del teísmo pierde acelera-
damente su poder para ir creando un nuevo mito, el cual se encuentra en
proceso y será resultado del caminar de la nueva época que vive la socie-
dad global. Pero la construcción de un nuevo mito no necesariamente
tiene que darse fuera de las sagradas escrituras del cristianismo, sino de
una relectura de éstas, en donde existen, según Spong, claves importantes
para comprender de otra manera la existencia de Dios y la relación que
la persona humana pueda tener con ese “Fundamento y Fuente de Todo
ser”. En continuidad con la crisis del teísmo nos indica que ninguna reli-
gión le puede dar seguridad a alguien y que cuando se busca dicha segu-
ridad a través de las propias religiones, lo que se encuentra son ilusiones.
Explica por el contrario, que toda “religiosidad verdadera permite abrazar
la vida con toda su inseguridad radical y vivirla con valor” (Ibidem, 73).
Esto nos remite de nuevo al caso de los jóvenes, los cuales por lo
general no acuden a ningún dios para sortear sus problemas; los jóvenes
no van a la iglesia en búsqueda de seguridad, se las arreglan al margen
de las religiones, sin que eso suponga que no sean espirituales o no ten-
gan un conjunto de creencias religiosas; lo que sucede, es que asumen
de manera diferente esa relación con lo divino. Lo que a continuación se
expone son los resultados de una encuesta en la que se pueden percibir
algunos cambios en la cultura religiosa de los jóvenes, cambios que pue-
den estar en sintonía con lo expuesto sobre el posteísmo de Spong. Como
se dijo al inicio, se trata de un primer estudio exploratorio para detectar
tendencias, por lo que sólo se presentan interpretaciones iniciales acerca
del fenómeno religioso.
¿Quién es Dios?
El creador 24%
Un padre castigador 0%
Un padre amoroso 18%
Una energía universal 46%
No sé 12%
Total 100%
Por otra parte, las siguientes respuestas también revelan que algo
está ocurriendo en la educación religiosa de los jóvenes, la pregunta que
contestaron, fue ¿cómo te sientes más cerca de Dios?, los resultados fue-
ron de este modo:
Conclusiones
Estos tiempos acelerados de cambios científicos, tecnológicos y
culturales están cambiando la manera de entender el mundo, pero tam-
bién están transformando la forma de entender y asumir la religiosidad.
184 · Juan Diego ORTIZ
Se puede decir que las transformaciones que vivimos en pleno siglo XXI
y que afectan al campo de las religiones, pueden ser hasta cierto punto
naturales, de acuerdo al desarrollo que están teniendo las sociedades,
particularmente en el mundo occidental. El proceso del teísmo al posteís-
mo, los planteamientos posreligionales que indican que es posible creer
sin religiones. La aceptación cada vez mayor del pluralismo religioso, las
conversiones masivas de una religión a otra, la aparición de nuevas igle-
sias, la secularización, la increencia, la búsqueda de alternativas espiritua-
les, no son más que manifestaciones de que estamos en una nueva época,
en un nuevo tiempo axial, como dirían muchos teólogos y filósofos, del
cual saldrán transformadas las religiones, en el mejor de los escenarios.
Es importante concluir diciendo que nadie tiene certeza sobre qué
rumbo tomarán las religiones, incluso el propio Spong es honesto al decir
que con la “muerte” de los mitos teístas no han surgido nuevos mitos con
nueva dirección en la comprensión de Dios; sólo se advierten cambios,
transformaciones profundas, pero nada está decidido ni nadie podrá defi-
nir el camino que tomarán las religiones y la espiritualidad. Sólo sigue
quedando una certeza, la de que Dios es un misterio y que nadie tiene
la verdad absoluta para su comprensión. Pero además hay otro elemento
fundamental en el que insisten teólogos y académicos, de que a Dios no
se le puede comprender sólo desde la razón, sino que el terreno de la
experiencia es muy determinante en este sentido, y aquí se vuelve más
complejo el problema, porque eso de experimentar a Dios sólo le perte-
nece a cada persona, a cada creyente, y ahí el análisis académico estrecha
sus posibilidades de descifrar este campo de lo trascendente, de lo divino.
Sin embargo, esto no quiere decir, que la razón tenga que dejar de dialo-
gar con la fe, al contrario, el debate se tiene que profundizar aprendiendo
a ser tolerantes desde las dos dimensiones humanas.
Bibliografía
Lenaers, Roger (2008). Otro cristianismo es posible. Fe en lenguaje de modernidad. Quito,
Ecuador: Editorial Abya Yala.
Ortiz, J. Diego (2011). Encuesta Creencias religiosas en los jóvenes de la ZMG. Guadalajara,
México: Universidad de Guadalajara.
Robles, J. Amando (2001). Repensar la religión, de la creencia al conocimiento. San José,
Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Nacional Heredia.
Royston, Edgar (2005). Diccionario de las Religiones. México, DF: Fondo de Cultura
Económica.
Spong, John S. (2011). Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo. Quito, Ecuador:
Editorial Abya Yala.
Vigil, José María (2006). Teología del pluralismo religioso. Quito, Ecuador: Editorial Abya
Yala.
· 185
A Copernican Shift
of Religion and Theology
J. Amando ROBLES
CEDI, Heredia, Costa Rica
Resumen:
Dado que ciencia y tecnología han comenzando a ser nuestro
paradigma y forma de vida, los grandes cambios ocurridos en ellas
están produciendo cambios profundos en la religión. Concretamente, ha
cambiado la cosmología, la antropología y la historia, visiones cultura-
les marco sobre las que se ha articulado religión y teología. Más grave e
importante aún, ha cambiado la religión como axiología, la transforma-
ción religiosa sin duda más profunda de todas. De esta manera la teolo-
gía está asistiendo al cambio de lo que ha sido su objeto de estudio y la
función de su conocimiento. En esta presentación se postula que si la reli-
gión ha cambiado copernicanamente, del mismo modo tiene que cambiar
la teología, si quiere hacerse creíble hoy.
Abstract:
Given that science and technology are becoming a new paradigm
in our form of life, their implied changes are also producing deep changes
in religion. Up to this date religion and Theology have been built upon
cosmological, anthropological and historical views that are already gone.
Even more, the most profound religious transformation in our days is
the change in the conception of religion as an axiological view. Therefore
Theology is facing a change of what has been so far its object of study and
its epistemological function. The present article postulates that if religion
has experienced such a Copernican twist, Theology has to change in a
similar manner not to lose credibility.
186 · J. Amando ROBLES
destiny, of the unique being that we deeply are. We are now aware of our
integration in a whole, of our interdependence and of the communion
in which we live. But on a background or under a "canopy" that will no
longer be common or sacred, although some individuals and groups still
feel like that.
With cosmology as a cosmos vision, several millennia of cosmic
religion articulated to it ceased to exist; this is a fact for many modern
men and women. . But it is still built-in in current religion and theology
in such a way that in general they think it does not represent a crisis for
them. The same could not be stated for other aspects very tied to that
vision, that certain persons still consider useful.
Even if the cosmos is no longer conceived with a center or origin
from which everything comes about neither is conceived in a causal way,
having a God as its creator and its cause, there still remains some need
for grounding, transcendence and objectivity. A need for a holistic or
vision of wholeness, of communion with the whole... aspects upon which
religion and theology are still trying to articulate, and they do whenever
they can. This need is obvious in a proposal like the one presented by
the "new age", which has also the advantage of being broad, emotive and
flexible, as the "movement" that has taken place and constitutes it.
These ideas are still present, albeit more subtle, when current
theologies feel the theoretical need of reasoning expressed in terms of
"theonomy". This is an attempt to overcome, two antagonistic and as such
not reconciled positions: heteronomy/autonomy, The same need is also
present in the different holistic, cosmological, historical, social and politi-
cal religious and theological worldviews that exist today. They all have
in common their emphasis in deep social and human needs: objectivity,
reasonableness, validity, significance, identity, meaning, value; and offer
a plausible and rational religious proposal.
One could say that cosmology as a cosmic evidence of God dis-
appeared, but not the personal and social functions it fulfilled. Some of
these still remain, and theology, in general, seeks its fulfillment through
new constructions, in general always looking for concordance between
science and religion, reason and faith, relative/functional and absolute
dimension of the world.
And yet the attempt to establish a pseudo-religious or pseudo-
scientific concordance or both at the same time, prompted crisis in
traditional cosmology and continues to do so today. This postulate and
supposed continuity between two human dimensions, and therefore of
reality, even if presented in a manner evolutionary and historical, does
not have neither a scientific nor a religious character. Hence, the fast
developing of crisis in successive religious and theological constructions.
188 · J. Amando ROBLES
History changes
As a consequence of these major changes at both cosmology and
anthropology, it is also changing what has been a product of modernity:
the perception of ourselves in terms of historicity, of history as the human
continuum, culturally and socially necessary for our fulfillment.
190 · J. Amando ROBLES
no longer exist, but also upon those we build today because of their
quality of "constructed", since it can´t build what literally has to be apex,
and crown. Religion will be built upon itself and from itself, as full and
complete human experience, always possible as a dimension that has a
purpose: the full realization of human beings, but not an end; beyond,
therefore, of any use, from all convenience and interest.
Change can't be greater. Religion has been experience and axi-
ological knowledge, built around the axiology of life forms. Over this
conception of religion is that theology has been established and built.
Now religion is to be pure experience, gratuitous, total, without substance
or form, without content, without subject or object, experience and only
experience, no need to ask what or why. And theology can only be found-
ed and articulated about it if it is symbolically expressed and depending
on the experience itself, with no other interest or purpose.
There is a Copernican revolution in religion, there also must be a
Copernican shift in theology.
· 193
Ha cambiado la cosmología
No sólo ha cambiado lo que fue una visión cosmológica plurimile-
naria, sino que los cambios fueron tan profundos y grandes que la cos-
mología como producto de esa visión ha dejado de existir, al menos como
experiencia que lleva a lo trascendente.
Como lo ha advertido reiteradamente Raimon Panikkar, el ser
humano moderno es un ser humano sin cosmología. En su lugar lo que
tiene es una visión cósmica hecha de elementos científicos o, más bien, la
proyección de estos a nivel del cosmos, cosa muy diferente de una visión
cosmológica. La prueba es que una visión cosmológica tradicional es por-
tadora de trascendencia, social y culturalmente compartida, o lleva a ella,
y una visión cósmica de naturaleza más bien científica o no lleva del todo
o solo de manera individual y atomizada, precisamente porque no existe
ya una visión cosmológica común, y por ello, tampoco la posibilidad de
una teología articulándose sobre ella.
194 · J. Amando ROBLES
Cambia la historia
Consecuencia de estos grandes cambios a nivel tanto de la cosmo-
logía como de la antropología, está cambiando también lo que ha sido un
producto de la modernidad, la percepción de nosotros mismos en térmi-
nos de historicidad, de la historia como el continuum humana, cultural y
socialmente necesario de nuestra realización.
Esta manera de percibirnos, como gusta denunciar una y otra vez
Raimon Panikkar, es un producto relativamente reciente, de la moder-
nidad occidental, pero al que hemos adherido como algo esencial.
Pensándonos necesariamente históricos, no se nos pasaba por la mente
que pudiéramos no serlo. Necesitábamos seguir nuestra pretendida orien-
tación teleología y, siguiéndola, realizarnos en la historia como individuos
y como sociedad. Aunque por su misma estructura histórica ello sea una
contradicción y tal realización resulte imposible.
Hoy, en virtud de los cambios reseñados afectando en la forma en
que lo hacen nuestra percepción de espacio y tiempo, nuestra percepción
moderna occidental de la historia está cambiando también profundamen-
te. Lo que parecía una percepción llamada a ser universal y condición
sine qua non de nuestra realización humana, en tanto individuos y en
tanto sociedad, ahora resulta ser local, y dentro de su localización en
Occidente, no la única, sino una de las muchas o al menos varias que ha
habido, en otras palabras, temporal. Tan temporal que, pasada la moder-
nidad de la primera revolución industrial, ella misma entra en crisis, se
desmorona como interpretación calificada del tiempo, y se muestra mítica
como es, el mito de la historia de Occidente.
El tiempo, como el espacio, es una “cualidad” correlativa a la per-
cepción que tenemos de la realidad, y de acuerdo a nuestro paradigma
representacional y a la que es nuestra forma de vida, nosotros, hombres
y mujeres occidentales y modernos, no necesitamos concebirlo ni pen-
sarlo como historia. La realidad cósmica, la vida humana y la historia no
tienen teleología, no están sometidas a ella, sólo tienen el propósito que
nosotros podamos descubrir y con él como recurso, el sentido y valor
que nosotros les queramos y podamos dar. No hay un Dios, o algo así,
dirigiendo la historia del universo ni del mundo, tampoco la historia
humana en nuestro planeta. No hay tampoco leyes cósmico-universales
cumpliendo esa función, aunque así lo parezca. Cada vez más se nos
198 · J. Amando ROBLES
Abstract
The self-referencial attitude of the Church, expressing itself through
concepts by revelation, in dogmatics positions based on the super-evalua-
tion of the instituctional and autoritative dimension and in the church-
centrism, is brought into question by the new cultural moment and by
the new inter-relationality paradigm. This text analyses the actual situa-
tion of the Church and points out all challenges proposed to the Catholic
Church in Latin America.
Resumen
La actitud auto-referencial de la Iglesia, que se hace visible en con-
ceptos como revelación, en posturas dogmáticas basadas en la súper-valo-
ración de la dimensión institucional y autoritativa y en el eclesiocentris-
mo, es puesta en cuestión por el nuevo momento cultural y el paradigma
de la interrelacionalidad. El presente texto analiza la actual situación
eclesial y apunta algunos desafíos que se proponen a la Iglesia Católica
en América Latina.
The cultural changes that we are living, drive the structural changes
at all levels: political, economic, social, cultural and religious. Reference
models of some years ago are in crisis and enable to satisfy any new
requirements. We live in a time of instability, which becomes stronger in
the field of politics and economics. The centrality of the economy reveals
the fragility of the current political system, that being based on participa-
tory democracy, can not guarantee indistinctively to everyone, the funda-
mental rights. The market economy, based on "the calculation of utility,"
fails to satisfy the greed of a market that reveals all its indifference in rela-
tion to social, material and ecological matters. These elements, combined
202 · Luigi SCHIAVO
New Paradigms
Beyond the items mentioned in the introduction, what is happen-
ing, in the opinion of many, it’s a paradigm shift whose consequences
are quite profound. The paradigm of modernity supported science and
was legitimized in the philosophical thought, had its rationale in the
subject-object dualism and ended by emphasizing the former over the
latter. The subject, from his ability to think, learn and formulate, becomes
the reference point of all. Thus, the thinking subject and his reason
became the decisive impulse of the scientific progress and of the modern
development system. Through reason and its scientific and technologi-
cal production, everything could be objectified and transformed starting
from the interests of the human subject. The philosophical reflection, ori-
ented as well to the study of being, just putting its emphasis on it, giving
legitimacy to such ideological paradigm, which asserts the superiority of
the one over the other: in the field of science, as well as in that of the
social, religious, cultural, relations, and so on. That kind of thinking is at
the origin of the systems of domination such as patriarchy, eurocentrism
and capitalism, to quote some ones. The emerging paradigm proposes
another type of approach: from the bipolar dualistic system that preferred
Catholic Religion and Cultural Changhes in Latin America and Caribe. · 203
one of the two elements to against the other, to a view where everything
is related to everything: the interrelationality. The discovery of quantum
physics where matter is energy, resulting from exchange, caused a revolu-
tion in science, in thought and in the various fields of social, political and
cultural life. The overcoming the dualistic opposition: subject x object,
leading, for example to understand that there is something (an object)
outside or separated from the subject as something static that can be
known, otherwise there is a vital link between the two, by which, we not
only know each other, as we interact and this interaction is the beginning
of a continuous transformation. The subject is not one to be defined once
for all, but is constantly transforming itself: the result of its relationships.
It is a statement of fundamental importance, leading to the reformula-
tion of key concepts such as truth, identity, and the review of relations
nowadays essential, for example, the relationship with others (be they
individuals, peoples or nations), with nature and the cosmos.
with all human problems, both social and cultural getting from the "evan-
gelized" cultures. There is, to understand the mission a serious mistake:
the conception of the gospel as something superior to the cultures, which
is above, and that is good for everyone, without distinction. The gospel
is considered as a metaphysical body of values, applicable equally to all
peoples and cultures. Without denying the validity of the Gospel ethics,
that position also forgets that the gospel is the result of a cultural pro-
cess, and an expression of a historically and sociologically contextualized
situation. So the gospel is also related to its time, its society and culture.
To universalize it, it must be inculturated as: translated into the symbolic
systems and the languages typical of cultures with which it comes into
contact. To do that without obstacles, you have to put on an equal situ-
ation and discuss equally with other "gospels", expressions of other cul-
tures and religions.
- The result of these medieval conceptions is a church closed in his
temple, looking for its center, concentrated on internal issues rather than
on dialogue with the world. Ecclesiocentrism prevalence is on a more
dialogic, missionary, transforming and liberating model. Thus, the Church
focuses on a sacramental pastoral and doctrinal, ritual where the function
gets a central importance. The worship and the observance of ecclesi-
astical norms (for that is the canon law!) guarantee the faithful correct
interpretation of the gospel and, ultimately, salvation. The world is always
seen as something negative, you need transformation, and God is far from
that reality, being put out of this world, considered unworthy of him. The
sky is transformed into the reference to God, to which rising the incense
smoke of religious celebrations, whose languages and symbols are no
longer understood by the people, because they are not expressions of
his life. Life, faith and celebration have no harmony between them, not
being expressions of the same outlook on life, God and religion. The cur-
rent closure of part of Latin-American church to the social question, the
poor and the transformation of reality, can only be understood with the
advance of ritualistic and sacramental model of the Church.
start from the historical-critical method, not legitimizing history but being
reference of a cultural construction of the text, and giving value to the
immense contributions of biblical Latin-American hermeneutics. In par-
ticular the popular reading of the Bible that gets more easily than other
methods, establishes the relationship between life, truth.
- The word has in itself the option for the poor, the impoverished,
"subjects denied", the "excess mass" as privileged theological place in a
continent scarred by a history of colonization and spoliation. The invita-
tion to resume the mission made at the Conference of Aparecida, is an
invitation to leave the temples, and internal problems to return to the
streets, squares, where are the people, especially those that are suffering.
The credibility of the Church depends on its prophetic ability and on his
desire to be again leaven in society. A neutral church, committed to the
excluded is not a true Church of Jesus Christ.
- The consequence of these choices lead to the centrality of com-
munional look, to an inclusive attitude from the excluded, to the priority
of the relational element of the institutional. In a society marked by great
migrations, products of individualism and social exclusion the commu-
nional inclusive attitude may be interpreted as a prophetic element of
the Church, expression of the project of Jesus of the shared bread. The
possibility of inclusion in relational communities, will enable the emer-
gence of new subjectivities and social and political projects that are truly
alternative, because their subjects are different. The relational element is
not opposed to the mass: the two are complementary. But the Church
must avoid the temptation of mass not to keep as central the question of
primary relationships.
- It is necessary a reflection to obtain a more inclusive understand-
ing of the ministry, involving women and other categories of people
so far excluded. This goes beyond the internal democratization of the
Church: it means the overcoming of a patriarchal conception of authority,
for the expression of power really understood as a service to all existing
subjectivities. It also involves the assumption of the relationship as basic
category that governs not only the institutional and power relations, but
also relations from which depends the hermeneutical process of defini-
tion of truth, identity and mission of the Church itself.
- Finally, it is necessary a reflection on faith in different cultures,
being more concerned with fidelity to the values rather than with history
of the definitions and doctrinal formulations. Inculturation means recog-
nizing that the Spirit becomes before the missionaries, and is expressed
by an attitude of appreciation of difference and otherness, and being less
concerned with ourselves. One of the great challenges of Christianity is
to get over the fear of others (be they religious denominations, other
Catholic Religion and Cultural Changhes in Latin America and Caribe. · 207
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208 ·
El cambio cultural
Los cambios culturales que estamos viviendo, impulsan a cambios
estructurales a todos los niveles: político, económico, social, cultural y
religioso. Los modelos de referencia de algunos años atrás están en crisis
y no satisfacen más las nuevas exigencias.
Vivimos un momento de inestabilidad, que se hace más notoria en
el campo de la política y de la economía. La centralidad de la economía
revela las fragilidades del sistema político actual, que, incluso estando
fundado en la democracia participativa, no consigue garantizar, a todos y
todas indistintamente, los derechos fundamentales. La economía de mer-
cado, establecida sobre “el cálculo de la utilidad”, no consigue satisfacer
la voracidad de un mercado que revela toda su indiferencia en relación a
los problemas sociales, materiales y ecológicos. Estos elementos, y otros,
generan una profunda crisis del modelo de desarrollo, por lo demás,
dependiente del capital y del mercado.
En el campo social, las grandes olas migratorias de estos últimos
años, del sur a norte del mundo y del este a oeste, están rediseñando el
panorama social mundial. El contacto, no siempre pacífico, entre culturas
diferentes, genera problemas de inestabilidad social que pueden engen-
drar actitudes de intolerancia y etnocentrismo, como pueden también dar
vida a experiencias interesantes de encuentro y apertura. Si por un lado
la globalización económica ve con simpatía esa apertura al pluralismo y
al multiculturalismo, como instrumentos de su expansión económica, por
otro lado, hay culturas y pueblos, sobre todo los autóctonos, indígenas y
africanos que resisten con todas sus fuerzas a la homogeneización cultu-
ral y económica, que los llevaría a desaparecer o a ser reducidos a mero
folklore cultural.
En ese mismo contexto hay que situar la crisis de la religión, sobre
todo de las clásicas y más institucionalizadas, mientras que los nuevos
grupos religiosos, florecidos numerosos en toda América Latina y Central,
Religión católica y cambio cultural América Latina y Caribe · 209
Nuevos paradigmas
Más allá de los elementos señalados en la introducción, lo que está
ocurriendo, en la opinión de muchos, es un cambio de paradigmas, cuyas
consecuencias serán bastante profundas.
El paradigma de la modernidad servía de base a la ciencia y se
legitimaba en el pensamiento filosófico: tenía su razón fundamental en el
dualismo sujeto-objeto y acababa enfatizando el primero sobre el segun-
do. El sujeto, a partir de su capacidad de pensar, conocer y de formular
se transformaba en el punto de referencia de todo. De esa forma, el sujeto
pensante y su razón se convirtieron en el impulso decisivo del progreso
científico y del sistema de desarrollo moderno. A través de la razón y de
su producción científica y tecnológica, todo podía ser objetivado e trans-
formado a partir de los intereses del sujeto humano. La reflexión filosófi-
ca, ella también orientada al estudio del ser, acababa poniendo su énfasis
en el mismo, dando legitimidad ideológica a ese tipo de paradigma, que
afirmaba la superioridad del uno sobre los demás: en el campo de la cien-
cia, como también de las relaciones sociales, religiosas, culturales, etc. Ese
tipo de pensamiento está en el origen de sistemas de dominación como el
patriarcado, el eurocentrismo y el capitalismo, por citar algunos.
El paradigma emergente propone otro planteamiento: del sistema
bipolar dualista, que privilegiaba uno de los dos elementos en perjuicio
del otro, se pasa a una concepción en la que todo está en relación con
todo: la interrelacionalidad. El descubrimiento de la física cuántica de que
la materia es energía y que ésta es fruto de interrelaciones, desencade-
nó una verdadera revolución en las ciencias, en el pensamiento y en los
varios ámbitos de la vida social, política y cultural.
La superación de la oposición dualística: sujeto versus objeto, lleva,
por ejemplo, a entender que no hay algo (un objeto) fuera o separado
del sujeto, como algo estático que se puede conocer; sino que existe una
relación vital entre los dos, por la cual, no sólo nos conocemos recíproca-
mente, sino que interactuamos y esta interrelación es el principio de una
continua transformación. El sujeto no es un ser definido de una vez por
todas, sino en constante de-venir: es el resultado de sus relaciones. Es una
afirmación de fundamental importancia, que lleva a la reformulación de
conceptos clave, como el de verdad, el de identidad... y lleva también a la
210 · Luigi SCHIAVO
y culturas. Sin negar la validez ética del evangelio, esa posición olvida
que también el evangelio es fruto de un proceso cultural, y es expresión
de una situación contextualizada tanto histórica como sociológicamente.
Entonces, también el evangelio es relativo a su tiempo, a su sociedad y
a su cultura. Para universalizarlo, tiene que ser inculturado, quiere decir:
traducido en los sistemas simbólicos y en los lenguajes típicos de las cul-
turas con las cuales entra en contacto. Sin embrago, para hacer eso, hay
que ponerse en una situación de igualdad y dialogar de par a par con
otros “evangelios”, expresiones de otras culturas y religiones.
- El resultado de esas concepciones medievales es una Iglesia
cerrada dentro su templo, que mira para su ombligo, preocupada por sus
cuestiones internas más, que en dialogo con el mundo. Es la prevalencia
del eclesiocentrismo sobre un modelo más dialogal, misionero, transfor-
mador y liberador. De esa forma, la Iglesia se concentra en una pastoral
sacramental y doctrinal, en las que la función ritual adquiere importancia
central. El culto y la observancia de normas eclesiásticas (¡para eso está
el derecho canónico!) garantizan a los fieles su correcta interpretación del
evangelio y, al final, su salvación. El mundo es siempre entendido como
algo negativo, que necesita de transformación, y Dios está alejado de esa
realidad, es puesto fuera de este mundo, considerado indigno de él. El
cielo es transformado en la referencia de Dios, hacia el cual se elevan
los humos de incienso de las celebraciones religiosas, cuyos lenguajes y
símbolos ya no son entendidos por el pueblo, porque no son expresiones
de su vida. Vida, fe y celebración no tienen ya sintonía entre ellas, no
son expresiones de la misma visión de la vida, de Dios y de la religión.
La actual actitud de rechazo de parte de la iglesia latino-americana hacia
la cuestión social, del pobre y de la transformación de la realidad, sólo
puede ser entendida con el avance del modelo ritualista y sacramental
de Iglesia.
Bibliografía de referencia
Bauman, Zygmunt. La sociedad individualizada. Cátedra, Madrid 2001.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Confianza y temor en la ciudad. Vivir con extranjeros. Arcadia, Barcelona
2006.
Boff, Leonardo – Muraro, Rose Maria. Femenino y Masculino. Una nueva consciencia para
el encuentro de las diferencias. Trotta, Madrid 2004
Capra, Fritjof. El punto crucial. Creencia, Sociedad y Cultura naciente. La necesaria visión de
una nueva realidad. Una reconciliación entre la creencia y el espíritu humano para hacer
posible el futuro. Integral, 1985.
Capra, Fritjof. La trama de la vida. Una perspectiva de los sistemas vivos. Anagrama,
Barcelona, 1998.
Capra, Fritjof. Las conexiones ocultas. Implicaciones sociales, medioambientales, económi-
cas y biológicas de una nueva visión del mundo. Anagrama, Barcelona 2002.
Díaz-Polanco, Héctor. Elogio de la diversidad. Globalización, multiculturalismo, etnofagia,
Casa de las Américas, La Habana (Cuba) 2008.
Hinkelammert, Franz. La maldición que pesa sobre La ley. Las raíces del pensamiento crítico
en Pablo de Tarso. Arlekín, San José, Costa Rica, 2010.
Levinas, Emmanuel. La huella del otro. Taurus, México 2000.
Maturana Humberto. El sentido de lo humano. Dolmen, Santiago de Chile, 81996.
Najmanovich, Denise. El juegos de los vínculos. Subjetividad y redes: figuras en mutación.
Biblos, Buenos Aires 2005.
Vigil, J.M., Teologia do pluralismo religioso. Para una releitura pluralista do cristianismo. São
Paulo, Paulus, 2006.
· 215
Religion in a Thecno-centric
and Market-Based World
Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
ISTA, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil
Abstract
We live, today, under the hegemony of a techno-centric and mar-
ket-based paradigm. It is the authentic horizons, in the interior of which
are uncovered all of the scopes of the human experience. That said, what
does human kind and religion become in this new era? Techno-science
has become a horizon of comprehension of man regarding the world and
himself. Not only our lifestyles, and our way of life and work, are condi-
tioned by technology, but also our deeper identity is lost by the technical
difference. We are still victims of the “absolutization of the market”: an
authentic mercantilization of life and, therefore, culture and religion.
The market presents itself as the only setting of our present civilization’s
story line. Our vital fluctuations, as well as the values and religious and
cultural symbols become merchandise to consume and discard. This has
been the price that religion decided to pay in exchange for the right of
citizenship in a world dominated by techno-science and by the market.
Resumen
Vivemos, hoje, sob a hegemonia do paradigma tecnocêntrico e mer-
cadológico, que se constituem em autênticos horizontes no interior dos
quais se desvelam todos os âmbitos da experiência humana. Isso posto,
o que o ser humano e a religião se tornam nessa nova situação epocal?
A Tecnociência tornou-se horizonte de compreensão do ser humano em
relação ao mundo e si próprio. Não apenas nossos estilos de vida, nosso
modo de trabalhar e viver, são condicionados pela técnica, mas também
nossa identidade mais profunda é dada pela diferença técnica. Somos
ainda vítimas da “absolutização do Mercado”: uma autêntica mercanti-
lização da vida e, portanto, também da cultura e da religião. O mercado
vai se impondo como único cenário de nossa trama civilizacional atual.
Nossos fluxos vitais e também os valores e símbolos culturais e religiosos
se tornam mercadoria de consumo e de descarte. Esse tem sido o preço
que a religião decidiu pagar em troca do direito de cidadania em um
mundo dominado pela tecnociência e pelo mercado.
216 · Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
knowledge, and of the world in which man finds himself inserted, then it
is also true that technology has become a sort of atmosphere in which—
and by means of which—humans perceive, think, and express their basic
relations: with himself, with his peers, and with the world in which he
lives. In this context, situations emerge that would be characterized as
true symptoms of that new environment promoted by the techno-science.
The culture of narcissism, for example, is where the liberty of self-real-
ization is confused with the impossibility of leaving the plane of the “I”.
Another example would be the situation of monologue produced by the
media language of today.
In this new configuration, the existence of people taken as indi-
viduals would only be justified on the basis of the technical ability and
productive capacity of that same individual. In that case, the identity of a
person would be reduced to his functionality. In other words, a person’s
value would reside in their own competence and professionalism. And
this is because technology recognizes efficiency as the only value.
The conception of truth is found, in the world of technology, condi-
tioned by the notion of efficacy. The truth of technology is, for all effects,
functional. True is what is effective in real terms and nothing else. It no
longer interests us to search for pure knowledge, but instead utilizable
knowledge. It is an issue of the reduction of the logos to its technological
dimension. We witness, therefore, the hegemony of instrumental reason;
reason that, in its time produces a simultaneous dual trial of dehumaniza-
tion of the human and the denaturalization of nature. In the exercise of
reason the result is the translation of the ends to results, rewarding the
“be like this” over the “should be like this”; the reduction of the unknown
to unknowable mathematical and, finally, the submission of the novelty
to the order of prediction.
On the basis of what was said up to here, technology is found free
of any ties. It is presented, for all effect, as being “ab-solute”, in the ety-
mological sense of the term, solutes ab, “free of any tie”, where tie can be
understood as horizon of ends, output of meaning, limit or conditioning.
We would be able to conclude saying that, in the age of technology, no
end justifies the means, given that only the means justify the ends. It is
what G. Anders bluntly affirms:
“For a long time now we’ve been preparing the degeneration of
the double concept ‘means to an end.’ Any of the phases of that process--
means and ends—have changed roles: the fabrication of means becomes
today, the end of our existence. And it searched frequently (in all coun-
tries, because the evolution is general) things are justified that before had
value as an end (purpose), showing that they can be used, doubtless, as a
means to itself with great results (for example: distraction and love, and
even religion). […] What we cannot try to prove is that a means does not
222 · Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
have access to the modern cosmos of objects. By that: The exact reason
they are not means, the ends are considered to be without any objecti-
ve. The objective of the objectives consists, today, in being means of the
means. It is simply a point of fact and the formulation is paradoxical,
only because the fact is paradoxical”.
Assuming this, we would dare to formulate the following question:
In our days, would the religions be to a great extent witnessing that sin-
gular paradox set out above? Would they not be swallowing the bait that
is thrown by our techno-centric civilization subjecting themselves to the
conditions that are offered, restricting themselves to the narrow limits of
mere functionality?
sidered too hard. Desired now, in this new reference chart, is a lighter
religiosity of character where the individual needs and short-comings
begin to occupy a place of prominence.
This situation is aggravated still more when considered in its con-
sumer society. Witnessing this sort of “consumerist instrumentalization of
religion” are so many initiatives proposed with frequency in such envi-
ronments. It isn’t by chance, and has been said with enough frequency,
in the last times of the “religion of the market”.
The media has performed a very important role in the process
of fetish-ization of religions products. And the media, as we know, has
stopped being a simple means to become a world outside of which we
are no longer able to live. We can no longer separate ourselves from a
media-driven world since it has become impossible to have an experience
except for the proposal made by the media. The media-driven description
of the world constructs the facts based on the information, and not to the
contrary as one would think. And the combination between market and
media has been revealed as very efficient with regard to the unseemly
interests of the market.
The market seems to have discovered, finally, an immense virgin
land. By that, with unheard-of voracity, the market has invested in the
fetishism of the symbolic-religious good, exploring (to the maximum) the
deep religious desire of immense majorities of the population. A large
part of the religious leaders have let themselves be seduced by the offer-
ings of the market, believing they will be the protagonists of an authentic
religious revival. It seems to us the grand illusion. Instead of protagonists,
they are being submitted, knowingly or not, to the seductions of a market
that reduces religious symbols to mere goods of consumption, obeying
the unseemly interests.
A Religião em um mundo
tecnocêntrico e mercadológico
Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
ISTA, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil
1 U. Galimberti, Psiche e techne. O homem na idade da técnica, Paulus, São Paulo 2006,
383.389.391.393.
230 · Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
2. A absolutização do Mercado
Somos vítimas, atualmente, um processo que poderia ser descrito
como “absolutização do mercado”, vale dizer, uma autêntica mercantiliza-
ção da vida e, portanto, conseqüentemente, da cultura e da religião. Isso
significa que o mercado vai se impondo como único cenário de nossa
trama civilizacional atual. Nesse contexto, nossos fluxos vitais e também
os valores e símbolos culturais e religiosos se tornam mercadoria de
A religião católica em um mundo tecnocêntrico e mercadológico · 233
qual não se pode mais viver. Não se pode mais prescindir desse mundo
midiático uma vez que tem se tornado impossível uma experiência dife-
rente da proposta pela Mídia. A descrição midiática do mundo constrói
os fatos pela informação e não o contrário, como comumente se pensa.
E a combinação entre mercado e mídia tem se revelado profundamente
eficiente com respeito aos interesses escusos do mercado.
O mercado parece ter descoberto, finalmente, um imenso terreno
virgem. Por isso, com inaudita voracidade ele tem investido no fetichismo
das mercadorias simbólico-religiosas, explorando ao máximo o profundo
desejo religioso de imensas maiorias da população. Grande parte dos
líderes religiosos tem se deixado seduzir pelas ofertas do mercado, acre-
ditando serem eles, os protagonistas de um autêntico revival religioso.
Grande ilusão, segundo nos parece. Em vez de protagonistas, eles estão
se submetendo, conscientemente ou não, às seduções de um mercado
que reduz os símbolos religiosos a meras mercadorias de consumo, obe-
decendo a interesses escusos.
5 A. Gorz, “A crise e o êxodo da sociedade salarial”, Cadernos IHU. Idéias 31, São Leopoldo
2005, 20; cf. ainda A. Gorz, O imaterial, Annablume, São Paulo 2005.
6 Cf. as importantes obras do antropólogo N. García Canclini, Consumidores e cidadãos,
Editora UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 2008; Diferentes, desiguais e desconectados, Editora
UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 2007;.
7 Cf. P. Sibilia, O Homem Pós-Orgânico. Corpo, subjetividade e tecnologias digitais, Relume
Dumará, Rio de Janeiro 2002, 156-202
8 J.B. Libanio, A religião no início do milênio, Loyola, São Paulo 2002, 152-159.
236 · Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
9 Cf. L.A. Luz, Carnaval da Alma: comunidade, essência e sincretismo na Nova Era, Vozes,
Petrópolis 2000; J.B. Libanio, A religião no início do milênio, Loyola, São Paulo 2002.
· 237
2. PROFUNDIZACIÓN Y RELANZAMINETO
de la Consulta
2.1. Para una Teología Crítica.
Aportación desde Asia
2.2. Elementos Constitutivos
del Paradigma Posreligional
2.3. ¿Hacia un Paradigma Post-Religional?
Propuesta Teológica
2.4. Propuesta práctica de trabajo.
Posibles proyectos de investigación.
238 ·
· 239
* The text has been reduced, by reasons of space. Thanks to the author by his approval.
240 · Tissa BALASURIYA
which Christian Churches have divergent views; e.g. the nature of original
sin, grace and redemption. There can be fundamental differences in the
interpretation of commonly accepted texts such as the Bible. Many theo-
logical debates of the 4th and 5th centuries or in the Reformation debates
related to different interpretations of texts of the Bible, chosen according
to the interests of the disputants.
More profound issues arise when different religions present totally
different sets of propositions based on different presuppositions. There
may be a similarity at certain levels – as in the core values or in their
applications to a concrete situation, but the overall thinking within one
religion may be organized in a different manner from the thinking in
another. Thus Christian theology and Buddhist religious thought or phi-
losophy may agree on certain common values and applications, but the
construct of thinking and their expression are quite different from each
other.
So long as these religions are practiced by people in different
contexts, there may be no issue concerning their inter relation. But when
they are lived by different groups within the same country or region their
interaction is important. As history shows us, the claim of one religion
that it is the unique and privileged path to salvation, and that it has a
right to dominate the others, can lead to much inter-religious conflict.
As religions are based on different presuppositions we need to
develop criteria and methodologies for their inter-relation. The presup-
positions of one religion are not necessarily more valid than those of
another. Both may be assumptions about things concerning which there
can be no proof. They can have a significance within a cultural matrix. We
can of course see from their impact whether and how far each leads to
human fulfillment. In such a context we should not compare the theory
of one with the practice of another, or the best of one with the worst of
another. The saintly mystic of one religion should not be compared with
the evil doers in another.
We must recognize presuppositions as assumptions and hence
valid only to those who accept them. We can however study the implica-
tions of different sets of assumptions or theological positions. A religion
which acknowledges the equality of all races before God would have
a different impact on history from one which has a concept of being
a chosen people who are favored by God, especially if such favors are
understood as a right to domination. Naturally in such a study it would
be necessary to see the impact of an ideology which may Influence the
interpretation and living of the core values of a religion.
Can we have some common critical principles for evaluating all
presuppositions and consequently all theologies that depend on them? Or
242 · Tissa BALASURIYA
at least within each tradition can such principles be evolved. Within the
Christian tradition it is possible to evolve a critical principle that would be
valid at least in its application to elaborations of Christian theology? Such
a principle, if it is rationally convincing or consonant with the core values
of other religions and persuasions, may have a validity for them also.
1 Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, Scribner’s, New York, 1964.
2 Op.cit., p. 194.
For a Critical Theology. A contribution from Asia · 245
there is more room for the influence of ideology. Then what is taught as
faith may coincide with the interests of the powerful.
When theology advances and propagates doctrines with an ideo-
logical bias, there is a tendency for them to get ingrained in a people to
the extent of becoming a prejudice and a stereotype for evaluating situ-
ations. This can be clearly seen from the impact of the garden of Eden
story on the attitude of society towards women.
a) Negatively
Any theology authentically derived from God in Jesus must be lov-
ing, respectful and fulfilling of all sections of humanity of all places and
times. This is the nature of the just and loving God revealed in the basic
(and better) inspiration of the Bible specially by Jesus. Hence any ele-
ment in a theology that Insults, degrades, dehumanizes and discriminates
against any section of humanity of any time or place cannot be from
5 George Soares Prabhu: Communalism and the Role of the Theologian, MS New Delhi, 1987.
For a Critical Theology. A contribution from Asia · 247
b) Positively
Since all good comes from God, everything truly humanizing and
ennobling in any religion or ideology is also ultimately from the divine
source, and must be respected as such. As God wills the happiness and
fulfillment of all persons and peoples, the more a theology leads to genu-
ine human self-realization of all persons and peoples, the closer it is to
the divine source.
This principle of critique is a rational and an ethical one. It can be
applied to any religion or ideology. It is based also on the central teach-
ing of Jesus Christ. It makes the core message of Jesus the touchstone
of good theology. Should not Christian theology have this as its guiding
principle? It affirms God in Jesus Christ as a God of love who cares for
all irrespective of any divisions even of creed. It affirms the centrality of
universal love which is made a measuring rod of the authenticity of any
sacred text, church teaching or practice.
It will seem both simple and exacting. But so is the Gospel of
Jesus. He himself purified the religion of the day. He struggled against the
wrong interpretations of the Law and the Prophets that imposed unnec-
essary burdens on the people in the name of religion. The teaching of
Jesus is very much concerning the moral life inspired by the love of God.
The dogmatic definitions of later Christianity are not found as such in his
teaching. But the evangelical teaching of Jesus was neglected in church
dogma and catechisms used for teaching religion. 6
6 cf. The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No. 2; Catholic Book, Publishing Co. N.Y.
1962. The U.S. Baltimore Catechism had three parts: the creed, the commandments,
and the sacraments and prayer; the emphasis was on the life of the church; less on the
core message of Jesus of love of neighbour and its implications in the world of the time.
“Everyone born into the world had original sin on his soul and was therefore a slave of
the devil. p. 36.
248 · Tissa BALASURIYA
Constituent Elements
in the Post-Religional Paradigm *
Marià CORBÍ
CETR,
Centre of Study of Traditions of Wisdom
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
* This paper was published originally in the HORIZONTE, Journal of PUC-MINAS, Belo
Horizonte, v. 9, n. 23, p. 821-838, out./dez. 2011.
252 · Marià CORBÍ
The paradigm must be adjusted to the new industrial societies of innovation and
permanent change.
The new paradigm cannot be dependent on any system of beliefs,
neither religious, nor lay. We could say it is a non-believing paradigm.
Societies that live by continually changing the interpretation of reality due
to the transformation of our scientific knowledge, in all areas of human
life, that live under a permanent technological creation that change con-
tinuously our way of living, of working, of organisation and, therefore,
our systems of cohesion and of objectives. cannot be believers, because
beliefs are fixed, and new societies survive by changing all their patterns
of life.
If members of the new societies must be always ready to change
all aspects of their lives, and hence, cannot be believers, they will not be
able to be religious, because religion comes conveyed by beliefs. The new
paradigm is neither based on religion nor beliefs.
Consequently, this cultural paradigm cannot be presented or expe-
rienced as exclusive and unique. New societies are aware that beliefs do
not come from gods and are not in the nature of things, they know they
are human creation, conditioned by ways of survival and by globalisation.
The post-religious axiological paradigms will vary according to the state
and development of techno-sciences and their consequences.
That non-exclusivity will be the base of an intercultural dialogue
and of a full ecumenism.
The collectives of the new societies must be aware that they are the
creators of their own axiological principles and their own collective proj-
ects. And they must be aware that they should be alert to change them
to the rhythm of accelerated growth of our techno-sciences and of all the
consequences that the transformations of our techno-scientific equipment
will bring to our ways of life and organisation.
They must be aware that they live under the influence of their own
constructions, conditioned and changeable.
The traditional principle of revelation should radically change.
Revelation will be understood through human constructions; therefore,
it will have to be understood as spirit (according to the expression in
the gospels), not fixed to the word or any type of fixed formulas; revela-
tion will have to be understood as a profound human quality proposal,
expressed in human words but absolutely independent from them.
The new paradigm must create awareness that without the explicit
cultivation of the free absolute dimension of reality, there is no respect
for the environment nor a sustainable culture.
None of these things, gratuity, equality, justice, true love, respect
for the environment, creation of a sustainable culture, can be obtained
with voluntarism; all that is just the fruit of the cultivation of the absolute
dimension of what is real and of the human quality that it generates.
The new paradigm should allow us to inherit all the wisdom of
religions and spiritual traditions of our ancestors in all humanity, without
incurring in our becoming believers, religious and compliant.
We have stated that the new paradigm cannot be religious, or based
on belief and, consequently, cannot be founded on complacency or on
imposition. With these characteristics it will not need to rely on power,
and power will not see any utility in something that does not give rise to
its legitimation, to the exercise of complacency and coercion.
Can we describe, although very generally, the features of the axi-
ological paradigm post-religions? Can we briefly describe a paradigm
adjusted to societies that live in a continuous creation of scientific and
technologic knowledge and, through them, a permanent innovation of
products and services in globalised conditions?
In very general terms we could say that the new societies live and
prosper through constant investigation and mutual service. That is to
say, spirituality, deep human quality, should be conceived as a road of
continuous enquiry, communication and service: constant enquiry of the
legacy of wisdom from our ancestors in all traditions and of our own
deep interior and permanent communication with the teachers of the past
and with our travelling companions and service to our adventure peers
and to all humanity. There cannot be a constant enquiry without a fluid
and complete communication; and this quality of communication does
not exist without interpersonal service in the act of enquiry.
Without deep communication there is no constant enquiry and
without mutual service there cannot be communication, and therefore,
nor can there be enquiry.
Enquiry, communication and mutual service are three aspects of a
same attitude that cannot be separated.
This triad can adopt countless different forms, but it will always
be free enquiry, not submissive; of immediate inheritance, according to
possibilities, without any hierarchical mediation; and of mutual service,
if possible, unconditioned.
· 255
* This paper was published originally in HORIZONTE, Journal of PUC-MINAS, Belo Horizonte,
volume 9, n. 23, p. 821-838, out./dez. 2011.
256 · Marià CORBÍ
1 We try not to emphasise a concrete characterisation of the new culture or society being
born, so as not to introduce a debate that could distract us from the central debate. Our
preference goes along the denomination of “society of knowledge”, not in the sense of
an educated or wise society, but in the sense that probably knowledge will be its “axis
of accumulation and production”, that is, societies living (eating even) from knowledge
production. Independently of that characterisation, the important for our goal is to look
after the epistemological structure of such a society.
2 We use the neologisms “religional” and “post-religional” as technical concepts absolutely
different from “religious” and “post-religious”, as explained later.
262 · Theological proposal
3 With suspicion and resignation we accept the word “spirituality”, trying to overlook and forgive
its obvious connotation which is etymologically dualist. It is a word established by usage,
which we know we do not accept as referring to a “spirit” as opposed to a supposed mat-
ter which is not spiritual… Obviously, we postulate a more adequate conceptualisation
of what is meant by spirituality: that profound dimension (Tillich), that need to frame our
lives in wider contexts (Armstrong), the profound human quality (Corbí), the last moti-
vations, the mystic by which a person lives and fights and with which he infects others
(Casaldáliga-Vigil)… To remember this limitation of the word spirituality we have tried to
put it together with synonyms and parallel expressions even if unnecessary sometimes.
4We talk of “agrarian” society or age not in the sense of rural society or society of agriculture,
dedicated to the primary sector of the economy, but we refer from a more anthropologic-
cultural perspective, to the human society post the “Neolithic-agrarian revolution”, as
listing globally a period that would reach its present dissolution.
We call it “agrarian” in the widest sense, including cattle breeding societies, that share epis-
temological structures belonging to all this neolithic time after a socio-cultural revolution
that started with the discovery of agriculture. The scientific revolution (from the XVI
century) and the industrial revolution (from the XVIII century) and their several waves,
could be considered as the first moments of a breakdown of the Neolithic or “agrarian
age”, breakdown that is currently undergoing its final phase.
These categories and the statements need much clarification; we pedagogically adopt this
simple terminology to make possible a simple “presentation” of this paradigm.
264 · Theological proposal
has been the engine of the “operating system” of societies. Except the
last two centuries, since the agrarian revolution up to now, we have not
met any big social movement or society, not even revolutions, which are
non-religious; it is clear that their motivations were also, and mainly, eco-
nomic and political, but through the religious these social impulses were
managed. Religion itself –with an almost divine prestige, unquestionable
authority, beliefs, myths, dogmas, laws, moral… even its inquisitorial
instances- served as the programming software of each society. This has
been so throughout all the Neolithic –or agrarian in a broader sense-
which now the CA claims is perishing.
• Through which internal mechanisms religions have exercised
their controlling and programming capacity in society? Through:
- the creation and imposition of their own view of the cosmos on
society: religion has told humanity, in each society, what reality is, its
origin, sense and moral requirements;
- the main beliefs conveyed through the sacred myths, that have
given society its assumptions, axioms and postulates… unverifiable, but
which had been believed without doubt;
- a mythical epistemology” that attributes to God its own elabora-
tions, to present them as revelation or God's will, and thus make them
absolute in order to give safety to human society;
- a radical imposition of submission (islam means submission), of
faith (a foremost imposition in Christianity), of believing what cannot be
seen (or not even understood);
- managing all these mechanisms as an operating system of society
(evidenced in the social systems of empires with their religion of the
State, (the “society of Christendom” or “theocratic regimes” in other reli-
gions, for example).
ordinary meaning of the dictionary, we will call “religious” all that relative
to the spiritual dimension of the human being and of society, in general.
In this sense, it should be noted that the paradigm we refer to is
called “post-religional”, not “post-religious”, because it will continue to
be “religious” in the normal sense of the dictionary, as “related with the
spiritual dimension of the human being and society”; we call it post-
religional because it will establish itself once the religious configuration
is overcome (those ways of functioning we will refer to as pertaining to
the religions we call “agrarian” –including cattle breeding and more spe-
cialised ones”.
The prefix “post” does not refer literally to time (as “after”) but in
a meaning that generically is overcoming: “further”. Therefore, it would
be valid to say “a-religional”, with no confusion with the temporal dimen-
sion. “Post-religional” does not mean then “post-religious” nor “post-spir-
itual”, but, strictly, beyond the “religious”, marginal to “what the agrarian
religions have been”, or a religiosity without religions, a spirituality with-
out “religious systems”, without dogmas, social control, submission… Of
course we will rely on other mediations, gestures, symbols, institutions or
"systematisations" of different types, because human spiritual experience
cannot be presented in a void…; but this is not the moment to discuss
this issue 5.
5 These semantic precisions can explain why it is necessary to create this non-technical
neologism –well within the etymological rules of the language-, to avoid ambiguity, be it
to equate it to the “religious” in the common sense of the dictionary, or to unduly confuse
it with the “anti-religious” or the atheist.
In any way: Is the adjective “religional” the most appropriate to define this paradigm?? We
think it is correct, it is adequate, and it is useful (due to plasticity and effect), but we
also think it is not absolute, and may be improved, because it does not come from the
essence of the phenomenon nor recalls what could be its material foundation or its epis-
temological specificity. Therefore, we humbly propose it as provisional and improvable
266 · Theological proposal
himself, what would make them the sole means of access to revelation
and of the relation to the Mystery. Religions –always in the specific sense
we are giving to the word- are, rather, a historical phenomenon, a con-
crete socio-cultural dress that the permanent deep dimension of human
beings has given it in a specific historic period; they are not “religiosity
itself”, nor the same as the human spirituality of all times.
Religions are forms, historical, contingent, and changing, while
spirituality is a dimension that constitutes humanity, permanent, and
essential to the human being… Spirituality may be experienced within
or outside religions. We could do without religions, but we will never be
able to dispense with human being's dimension of trascendence.
4. Religions are not, by nature, eternal, for ever, the only ones to
know the beginning of times and the end of the world… Now we know
they are temporal, recent, contingent, very limited in time, and we know
it is not absurd they might disappear. They are not essential to our nature,
nor indispensable in time.
Moreover: Neolithic religions are bound to the Neolithic age: we
could say they were born to make the human species viable in that new
era, the one subsequent to the agrarian revolution. But it is precisely that
era that specialists say is presently coming to an end. What future can we
see for religions in a time of transition that announces the end of the era
that gave birth to them? The hypothesis that religions (we insist we refer
to the religions of that time, not to religiosity itself, the deep dimension)
may disappear is very plausible. It does not appear as impossible in itself,
nor should it be necessarily an important historical disaster. We have
lived most of our history “without religions” (all the Paleolithic), and it is
evident this did not prevent our deep quality, our spirituality from being.
spirituality, just some socio-cultural ways the same can be dressed in,
even frequently a brake and an obstacle for it. Religions and spiritual-
ity are perceived today as realities of a totally different kind: religions
would be a specific socio-cultural configuration in which the spirituality
of human beings has been expressed for some time, while spirituality
would continue to be an essential dimension and a characteristic of the
human being, that permanently and inevitably accompanies him since its
emergence as a species. The words religion, religious, religions, which
traditionally were embracing indiscriminately all that referred to spiritu-
ality, today should scrupulously go through the screen of the distinction
between the religious (what has to do with that mysterious dimension of
the human being) and the religional, which belongs simply to the field
of socio-cultural configurations and institutions we have called Neolithic-
agrarian religions. This distinction allows us to separate religious realities
from the religional: non-religional experiences of the religious. The new
paradigm has in this distinction one of its fundamental basis.
With the end of the agrarian age, all these ancient structures of
thought, axiological and epistemological, are stopping to be viable with
the emergence of the new society. They were a great human invention.
Thanks to them, the nomadic bands of gatherers were able to find the
way to coexist in a city, regulated by law, joined by a religious conscience
of membership to a collective whose identity was given by the gods… The
present crisis is not due to secularisation processes, or to a loss of values,
or to the dissemination of materialism or hedonism, (blaming interpreta-
tion usually held by religions' officers), neither to the lack of testimony or
to the moral scandals of religion, but to birth of a new cultural situation,
that puts an end to the radical transformations of the knowledge, axiolog-
ical and epistemological neolithic structures, transformation that started
with the scientific revolution in the XVI century, the Enlightenment of the
XVIII century and the various waves of industrialisation. The symptoms
that this gradual transformation produces appear in ways such as certain
diffuse agnosticism, loss of epistemological ingenuity, a more accentu-
ated critical sense, a more utilitarian conceptualisation of religions as a
service to the human being instead of receptors of full loyalty from their
members, the disappearance of the idea of a “unique true religion” and
a revealed moral.
We are not facing a really new phenomenon, just only its radicali-
sation. And we are not dealing with a radically new interpretation (this
post-religional paradigm), but with an awareness that the accumulative
axis of the change Is mainly epistemological, and that it radically trans-
forms everything.
Two warnings:
A) As already mentioned at the beginning, we are not trying to
say that this is the only thing happening in the religious field, as if all
the scenery were now occupied by this transformation of the agrarian
religions paradigm into a post-religional paradigm. There are many other
phenomena taking place in the field of religion simultaneously, even
Towards a Post-religional Paradigm · 271
is trying to rise, and finds It difficult to rise, and we wish to help it rise.
Religions will find themselves in the need to reinterpret and
reconvert their symbolic patrimony, created under the epistemological
conditionings of the agrarian times. It would be a re-elaboration, a "re-
ception" (Congar) of all its patrimony, created initially millennia ago, and
historically sustained under an ignorance and inculturation of which we
have recently emerged, thanks to the ample display of sciences. Religions
will have to find how to re-understand, and what is left -if something- of
the various beliefs, dogmas, heteronomous moral, agrarian rites… among
this new situation of knowledge and the new frames of Interpretation.
Many human beings, when they see themselves unable to continue
leaning on religions to spiritually survive, will experiment serious difficul-
ties in the spiritual integrity of their lives. As when the airplane takes off
and abandons the support system of its wheels, having to support itself
on a new system, totally different, that of its wings, most of humanity will
have to undergo moments of difficult balance in the transit from one to
another axiological system, so different and to some extent incompatible
and without automatic change.
What comes is a tsunami. Risks are serious on all grounds. The
duty of a responsible theology is to foresee these problems and try to
accompany the inevitable "transit" in which we already find ourselves.
Both In the theoretical aspect as in the practical aspect, the subject
deserves much more attention than what we are giving it In this simple
"theological proposal". We leave it here, and we deliver it to consultation
and debate, hoping It will be corrected and improved. Could we offer,
by the end of this year, an ample book, with the reflections, insights and
debates that this simple presentation of the POST-RELIGIONAL paradigm
arouses? You are all cordially invited.
274 ·
· 275
Estas precisiones de vocabulario pueden explicar por qué se hace necesario acudir a este
artesanal neologismo –perfectamente dentro de las reglas etimológicas de la lengua-,
para evitar el equívoco, tanto de equipararlo con lo «religioso» en el sentido normal del
diccionario, como de confundirlo indebidamente con lo «anti-religioso» o lo ateo. De
todas formas: ¿es el adjetivo «religional» el más adecuado para calificar este paradig-
ma? Creemos que es correcto, que es adecuado, y que es útil (por plástico y efectista),
pero creemos que no es absoluto, y que puede ser mejorado, porque quizá no proviene
de lo esencial del fenómeno al que se refiere ni tal vez evoca lo que pudiera ser su
base material o su especificidad epistemológica. Por eso, nosotros lo proponemos con
humildad como provisional y mejorable.
280 · Propuesta teológica
ciertamente por la fuerza del misterio divino que nos invade, pero según
nuestras posibilidades y con nuestros condicionamientos muy concretos.
Las religiones se absolutizaron a sí mismas al atribuir su propio
origen a Dios. Fue un mecanismo que sirvió para fijar y dar consistencia
inamovible a las construcciones humanas que ellas eran, en el afán de
asegurar las fórmulas sociales de convivencia con las que la humanidad
había logrado dotarse. Hoy estamos perdiendo la ingenuidad, y ese carác-
ter absoluto de las religiones, que durante milenios fue un componente
esencial de las sociedades humanas, que nos hizo más fácil y más pasiva
la vida de los humanos, se nos evidencia como un llamativo espejismo
epistemológico, que habíamos asumido por vía de una creencia, pero que
hoy ya no nos resulta ni necesario, ni deseable, ni soportable.
Dos cautelas:
A) Como ya señalamos al principio, no estamos queriendo decir
que sólo esto es lo que acontece en el campo religioso, como si todo
el escenario estuviera actualmente ocupado por esta transformación del
paradigma de las religiones agrarias en un paradigma pos-religional. En
el campo religioso tienen lugar muchos otros fenómenos, simultáneamen-
te, incluso caóticamente, ya que son en algunos aspectos, contradictorios.
Junto a esta crisis de la religión, decimos que se dan efervescencias reli-
giosas y revivals, retrocesos y fundamentalismos. En esta propuesta teoló-
gica nosotros hemos centrado nuestro foco selectivamente en un aspecto
concreto de la transformación en curso, que no niega todo el resto de
elementos presentes. Ocurren otras cosas en el campo religioso, pero
también ocurre ésta, y esta propuesta teológica quiere llamar la atención
sobre ella, a pesar de su carácter difícilmente perceptible y todavía mino-
ritario que reviste en muchas regiones.
B) Lo que venimos diciendo tampoco se puede aplicar, indiscri-
minadamente, a TODAS las religiones. Porque no todas las religiones
286 · Propuesta teológica
(“See”)
(“Judge”)
need for a "local theology” to respond for every religion, but shouldn’t
theology be remade with a focus that is beyond “the local”, towards a
pluralistic, inter-religious, multi-religious, trans-religious ...a planetary
theology? Can we move towards a global theology?
- If a post-religional paradigm transforms the conceptualization of
religion itself, forcing us to come up with a new, completely different face
for religion, won’t a "new theology of religion" also be necessary?
("Act")
(«Ver»)
(«Juzgar»)
(«Actuar»)
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308 ·
Pazzini Editore
Villa Verrucchio RN, Italia
2011
www.pazzinieditore.it
pazzini@pazzinieditore.it
Contenuto:
La teologia del Pluralismo Religioso in A.L., Faustino TEIXEIRA
Molteplici appartenenze: il pluralismo che verrà, Marcelo BARROS
Salvezza indigena e afroamericana, Diego IRARRÁZAVAL
Pluralismo e missione. Per un'ermeneutica dell'alterità, Paulo SUESS
Cristologia nella teologia pluralista, José COMBLIN
Valore teologico del sincretismo, Afonso Mª Ligório SOARES
Identità cristiana e teologia del pluralismo religioso, José Maria VIGIL
Teologia asiatica e pluralismo religioso, Edmund CHIA
Teologia del pluralismo religioso in Asia, K.C. ABRAHAM
Dialogo con lo Shintoismo, Ismael GONZÁLEZ FUENTES
Dalle cristologie europee alle teologie asiatiche, Jonathan TAN YUN-KA
L'interpellanza del pluralismo religioso, Raimon PANIKKAR
Perché una cristologia pluralistica in Asia, Tissa BALASURIYA
Teologia del pluralismo religioso in Africa, Mari GETUI
Relazioni inter-religiose in Sudafrica, Ramathate DOLAMO
Salvezza e guarigione, Mari GETUI
La liberazione del popolo a partire delle minoranze degli USA, Dwight HOPKINS
Teologia del pluralismo religioso in Europa ed in Occidente, Carlo MOLARI
Voci di chi abita sulla frontiera, Lieve TROCH
La Terra: riferimento primordiale per la teologia delle religioni, R. RENSHAW
Epilogo. Teologia pluralista: i dati, i compiti, la sua spiritualità, J.M. VIGIL
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