THE CONTEXT OF THE CRISIS
Liberation theology was born as a theology that focuses on the situation of injustice and exclusion lived by the poor, claiming the necessity of praxis of transformation of the socio-economic and political capitalist structures that create poverty. It was born as a critical reflection on praxis in the light of the Word of God.1 The influence of this theology started at the beginning of the 70’s and reached its peak in the middle of the 80’s.2 However, a decline in its influence, particularly in its stress on praxis of creation of new structures—a new man within a just society, began at the end of the 80’s.
In the Latin American theological context, there is a tacit—and sometimes explicit—general acknowledgment that there is a turning point on liberation theology. Certain concrete situations, historical events and authors’ interpretations demonstrate the influence of this theology—particularly of its first generation with its aim of structural transformation— decreased in the Latin American Church context.
By the end of the 70’s, the Church had several concerns about the way Marxist tools were used in liberation theology. These concerns were present in texts like the conclusions of the Third Latin American Episcopal Conference (Puebla, 1979)3, the Instruction Libertatis Conscientia (1986)4 and the Encyclical Centesimus Annus (1991).5
In this context, the paradigmatic text of these concerns is the Instruction Libertatis Nuntius (1984): it focuses on the risks of deviation from faith in liberation theology because of an insufficiently critical use of Marxist tools.6 In short, it claims that it is not possible to separate the parts from the complex Marxist epistemology, and then, even if theologians only take the analysis, they end up having to accept the entire ideology (as opposed to the core of the faith and the Church).7
Another situation that led to the decline of the influence of this theology was the lack of support of the pastoral praxis of liberation and Base Ecclesial Communities in the dioceses8. The bishops who led this pastoral practice in their dioceses—like Helder Camara (Recife 1964-1985), Leonidas Proaño (Riobamba 1954-1985), Pedro Casaldaliga (Araguaia 1971-2005) and Oscar Romero (San Salvador 1977-1980)—were replaced and the new ones did not continue the liberating concerns and practices of their predecessors.9
Later, and regarding the same concern about the lack of support of pastoral praxis, Pedro Trigo wrote a book with a suggestive title: Is Liberation Theology Still Alive? Its purpose was to explain the origin of what he calls the crisis of liberation theology in the middle of the 80’s and also to assess the influence that this theology still has in the context of Latin American Church and social reality. For Trigo, the crucial point in liberation theology crisis was not the fall of the Berlin Wall, but the decrease of pastoral agents and liberationist bishops due to Roman Curia policies against the influence of this theology in Latin America.10
The lack of influence of the former liberation theology at the end of the 80’s was interpreted by theologians in two ways: as a general crisis of liberation theology or as a decline—or even a positive evolution—of this theology.
Theologians like Jung Mo Sung and Carlos Angarita hold that there is a general crisis in liberation theology. They claim the fall of the Berlin Wall was the starting point of this crisis. However, their main contribution is to describe the broad spectrum of alternatives proposed by theologians and Christian liberation movements in Latin America.11
There are current theologians who also hold a more nuanced interpretation of the decline of liberation theology. A vindication of Latin American theological tradition that did not explicitly support the socio-economic and political approach of the first generation was present in the environment of the Latin American Continental Congress of Theology12, which was held in 2012 with the presence of the most representative figures of liberation theology.
The decline of the influence of former liberation theology in Latin American Church can be seen in two striking facts present in this Congress. The first was the introduction of new topics related to theologies of genre, black, indigenous, eco-theology and even postmodern liberation theology.13 The second can better explain the first. The fact that most of the speakers avoided relating Latin American theology to Marxism and some of them even avoided the title liberation theology when they were naming the Latin American theological tradition. Such was the case of outstanding theologians like Jorge Costadoat, Luis Carlos Susin and Leonardo Boff.14
One may wonder if this behaviour was related to a conscious concern of the speakers about possible Roman Curia warnings for the use of Marxist categories in the Congress. However, if they were not afraid of these pressures in the past,15 why would they be afraid at that point? It seems the rise of new topics and the dismissal of Marxism is due to something more than a simple concern about possible retaliations.
In sum, Vatican warnings, the lack of support of pastoral liberation praxis and the same liberation theologians’ concerns about the use of Marxist tools and instrumentals had an impact on the decline of influence of the former liberation theology. However, none of them were so crucial to explaining the origin and the nature of the ongoing crisis of this theology.
For most theologians, pastoral agents and ecclesiastical authorities, the collapse of historical Sovietism was the main influence in the development of this crisis.16 Theologians who speak about this crisis agree that this idea is commonplace in the diverse Church contexts.17
Certainly, the collapse of historical Sovietism is an important influence on the crisis of former liberation theology; however, its influence is not central but attached to the main cause of the crisis: a naïve trust in the human praxis as a teleological process of creation of ideal worlds. Thus, the origin and nature of the crisis is not mainly caused by an external event, but by the naïve utopian rationality which is present in liberation theology. A critical analytical approach to the theoretical and methodological elements present in liberation theology will contribute to the subsequent development of this affirmation.
THE DIALECTICAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SALVATION AND HUMAN LIBERATION
In 1971, Gustavo Gutierrez wrote his book Teología de la Liberación: Perspectivas.18 It is the cornerstone of liberation theology according to its main theologians.19 In this book there is a crucially famous question that is fundamental in order to understand the epistemology of this theology: “What has been the relationship between salvation and the process of human liberation throughout history?”20
According to Gutierrez, there must be a connection between both of them—final salvation and human liberation. This intuition of the dialectical relationship between salvation and human liberation is present in the writings of the first generation of liberation theologians. However, there would be two complementary and sometimes intermingled positions about this relationship:21 there is an affirmation of the pre-eminence of the final salvation over any historical experience of liberation in the first one—supported by authors like Marc Luyckx, Vincent Cosmao, Juan Carlos Scannone and Leonardo Boff22—whereas the second one—supported by authors like Clodovis Boff and Gustavo Gutierrez—holds that a historical structure of liberation, related generally to historical socialismo, is a necessary process towards the final salvation.23
There are three striking points in these texts of the first generation of liberation theologians: the first one is that all of them were written before the fall of the Berlin Wall and the worldwide imposition of Neoliberalism. The second point is that all of them were written into a certain kind of millenarian theology influence, which implies a teleological expectative of both a final salvation and a human liberation.24 The third point is that the obligatory liberation throughout human history was not carried out. And then, liberation theologians from both positions—arguing the pre-eminence of the final salvation over any historical experience of liberation or claiming the need of a historical structure of liberation—were expecting the arrival of the Kingdom of God into history and a neoliberal worldwide order arrived instead.
The first element to understand these striking points is the teleological character of the former liberation theology. The connection between final salvation and human liberation suggests that the traditional trust in the unfailing salvific plan of God is made equivalent to the trust in human praxis as a teleological process of liberation of human history. Thus, in this context, the human history of liberation is understood in teleological terms.
At the beginning of this article, when assuming Mo Sung and Angarita’s proposal, we described the alternatives taken by liberationist groups and theologians after the fall of the Berlin Wall.25 In general terms, some alternatives preserve a teleological point of view about liberation throughout history, whereas others try to avoid a critical analysis of the disconfirmation of the traditional liberation teleology by assuming new topics and theological perspectives. Nevertheless, neither in any of these second alternatives to the crisis of liberation theology, nor in the first ones, is there a concrete critical approach to the original teleological point of view of liberation theology.
Considering the fact that both alternatives to the crisis of liberation theology uphold the final redemption of history, it is therefore necessary to make an analysis of the main and most important influences in the development of this teleological thought, so as to later understand its influence on the present crisis of liberation theology.
For the first purpose, there are certain elements that could lead us to understand the usefulness of further elaboration of the teleological perspective in liberation theology: the particular kind of millenarianism of liberation theology and the emergence of liberation theology into a modern inductive method.
Liberation Theology and Its Particular Kind of Millenarianism
To start with, the answer to the question “What is the relationship between salvation and the process of human liberation throughout the history?” in liberation theology was carried out by assuming certain kind of millenarian teleological eschatology which took final salvation in history for granted.26 Certainly, there is an undeniable relationship between millenarianism and liberation theology. Both systems claim that there will be, sooner or later, an unavoidable presence of the Kingdom of God in history.27 In both of them, there are different emphases on the active or passive role of the human praxis in the emergence of this Kingdom. However, the link between millenarianism and liberation theology is more of a correlation than a link of causality.
On the one hand, millenarian movements, millenarian theologians, and even the paradigmatic text of Rev 20:1-6, do not play a direct role in the elaboration of the main liberation theology thesis about historical liberation throughout history.28 On the other hand, this lack of direct influence is due to the different rationalities that are present in the origin of each one of them. Millenarianism, in its premillennialist approach, is focused on a supernatural action of God in history that will inaugurate a thousand years of God’s Kingdom,29 and then, it is mainly an apocalyptic thought in which God is expected to perform explicit actions in the world and in human history.30 On the contrary, in liberation theology there is an active role of the human being in the emergence of the Kingdom of God in history: the human praxis.
We could even say that liberation theology is closer to millenarianism in its postmillennialist approach and its idea that the Kingdom will come gradually by the use of human instrumentalities. In fact, the Christian hope focused on a final judgement (Matt 25:31-46) and the emergence of a “new heaven” and a “new earth” (Rev 21:1) were taken by liberation theology from a postmillennialist perspective in terms of a theology that considered both, God and men’s salvific and liberationist actions, as necessary and complementary.
However, there is a methodological inversion between both approaches—the postmillennialist approach and liberation theology approach—in their starting point. On the one hand, the starting point of postmillennialism is a theological approach to the final salvation by the human action which would be secularized by modern political and philosophical thoughts.31 On the other hand, the starting point of liberation theology would be the reality of the poor and the use of the instrumental of social sciences in order to elaborate a critical theological reflection on the praxis of transformation of that reality.
Liberation theology was born into the context of the Modern rationality of social sciences.32 Its research method is inductive and its point of departure is the concrete experience of the human being in a situation of poverty, marginalization and exclusion in Latin America.33 Thus, its eschatology of the advent of the Kingdom of God throughout history is closer to the teleological perspective present in the modern reason than to the millenarian hopes in a supernatural advent of the Kingdom of God in history. In this sense, we could say that, methodologically, if millenarian thought was secularized by modern social thought,34 liberation theology was a new theologization of the teleological thought that was present in modern social thought.
In sum, liberation theology contains a certain kind of millenarianism that would believe in a human liberation in history and which would be influenced by the teleological perspective, which is present in modern social thought.
Liberation Theology and Its Inductive Method
Gutierrez’s liberation theology emerged out of the same inductive method of the Second Vatican Council,35 but it also offered some particular developments in order to show the intrinsic link between sacred and profane histories.36 Whereas the Council stressed the idea of communion by the analysis of the relationship between revelation and salvation in a humanist perspective,37 Gutierrez stressed the idea of liberation by the analysis of the relationships between creation-liberation-salvation into the perspective of the dialectic God38 and human action.39
In this dialectic praxis, final salvation and historical liberation are necessarily intermingled. In fact, final salvation is not just related to a new “real life” after this historical life, but it is an intrahistorical reality of liberation from any alienation, which transforms and brings plenitude to human history.40 Accordingly, human history becomes the process towards the fulfillment of the divine promise of salvation.41
Both liberation theology as well as Latin American pastoral theology incorporated the “see, judge, and act” method42 in their analyses of the socio-economic and political causes of the situation of exclusion and poverty suffered by vast amounts of people in the continent.43 The point of departure of this theological method is the “see” moment that focuses on the description of the structural socio-economic and political situation of injustice lived by the people in Latin America. Meanwhile, the “judge” moment relates to the interpretation of this Latin American situation of injustice in the light of the Word of God. Finally, the “act” moment focuses on pastoral orientations for the transformation of these situations of poverty and exclusion according to the perspective of the faith.44
The particular contribution of liberation theology was to appropriate this method in a more complex way by using what Clodovis Boff calls “mediations”: the socio-analytical, the hermeneutical and the practical mediations.45
Certainly, the particular tasks of each one of the different mediations consider the same ones of the other Latin American approaches to the method. For Boff, the socio-analytical mediation is focused on the reality of the world of the poor and oppressed,46 the hermeneutical mediation is a reading of this structural situation to the light of the Word of God,47 and the practical mediation is related to the transformation of the world of the poor, in order to create a new liberated world. However, in liberation theology there is an intermingled relationship between the three mediations of the liberationist method. This implies that there must be a relation between the structural description of reality (socio-analytical mediation), the interpretation of this reality in the light of the Word of God (hermeneutical mediation), and the praxis of transformation of this reality (practical mediation).
The liberationist approach to the structural situation of poverty and exclusion is already present in the three moments—or mediations—of the method, whereas the approach to the structural situation of poverty, in the traditional uses of the method, is mainly carried out in the “see” moment. The reason for an approach to the reality of poverty and exclusion in structural terms relates to the specific use of the instrumental of the social sciences in its inductive approach to reality. If in the traditional “see, judge, and act” methodological structure the “see” moment focuses on a description of the environment in which the person is living, in the liberationist method the “see” moment is based on a socio-analytical approach to reality in structural terms by using the tools of Dependency theory and those of a Marxist analysis of reality. There is a general acknowledgment between liberation theologians about the use of these two tools of the socials sciences in the socio-analytical mediation of the method of liberation theology. This acknowledgement is explicitly present in authors like Clodovis Boff and Enrique Dussel.48
As a result, the praxis of liberation theology also entails the structural approach to the situation of poverty in Latin America. In this sense, this praxis must be political and also implies a faith, which leads to political commitments.49
Dependency theory was the first instrumental of social analysis of the Latin American actuality used in liberation theology.50 This theory was used by Latin American scholars51 as an adequate instrument for analyzing the conflicting relationships that were present in the structural situation of poverty and exclusion experienced in Latin America.52 Liberation theologians used the tools of analysis of Dependency theory to assert the Latin American situation of poverty and exclusion was caused by structures of dependency; and so then, the character of liberation theology was introduced as a proposal for the liberation of the poor from this situation of dependency.53
The use of Dependency theory, with its emphasis on the structural analysis of the nations’ dependency as a theoretical framework in liberation theology, explains why the praxis of the political level of liberation was privileged to the praxis of the anthropological and theological levels, as explained by Gutierrez.54 However, Dependency theory does not offer a clear proposal about how a new kind of Latin American society could be.55
The dialectical and conflictive analysis of reality in Dependency theory would lead liberation theologians to the dismissal of any capitalist system, but it was necessary to look for an alternative to the current system and its internal logic and historical unfolding. Together, the analysis of the structures of dependency, the critical reflection on the social exclusion and the commitment to a praxis of changing structures, would motivate the approach of liberation theology towards Marxist instruments.56
The main distinction in the use of both tools of analysis—Dependency theory and Marxist analysis—is related to their particular influence over the liberationist method. Liberation theologians used Dependency theory to explain the position of Latin America in the world economy, and then, this tool of analysis was reduced to the sphere of the analytical mediation of the method. On the other hand, they would complement Dependency contributions by using insights from Marxism about praxis, class struggle, and the role of ideology as per their inner national situations.57 Moreover, these insights of Marxism would be present in the theoretical development of the three mediations of the liberationist method in some of the most important liberation theologians.58
In sum, the tools used to analyze the Latin American situation, borrowed from the social sciences, led liberation theology to the proposal of a necessary praxis of transformation of the structures of injustice and exclusion by the creation of a new kind of social and political structure. On the one hand, Dependency theory shows the need of structural liberation from the economic structures of dependency in which the Latin American society is immersed by creating a non-dependent society—even if this theory does not explicitly mention how this society should be. On the other hand, the Marxist analysis of reality shows the need of changing the current capitalist society of exclusion through the creation of a new kind of socialist Latin American society, where a new man would emerge.
As a result of the intermingled relationships between analysis of reality and praxis, the liberationist praxis of transformation of the socio-economic and political structures led to a latent teleological perspective, which is similar to the one that is already present in modern social thought. A teleological perspective by which this thought proclaims the advent of ideal worlds that would be “incarnated” in the society of free men, the anarchist society of spontaneous order, and the perfect bourgeois society. Consequently, the former liberation theology not only possessed the same advantages, but also the same limitations of modern social thought.
LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND MODERN UTOPIAN THOUGHT
Taking into account the last affirmation, we will first analyze the naïve utopian rationality present in modern social thought, and subsequently the utopian crisis present in this thought and in the former liberation theology.
Modern Social Thought and Its Utopian Crisis
There is a certain utopian naivety that covers modern social thought—like the liberal, anarchist and soviet ones, the belief that the emergence of ideal and perfect worlds into concrete history will be carried out.59 This veil of utopian naivety dismisses the limitations of the empirical approach to reality.
For Hinkelammert, human beings approach reality from their experience—which is a product of their action. Through this experience, humans realize that reality transcends one’s action, and then, that one’s actions are limited. Thus, the knowledge obtained by the experience of human action is always limited, and thusly, the only way one can attempt to grasp the totality of reality is by using abstract and symbolic knowledge which is based on a principle: the impossibilities of human action.60
However, the problem with empirical sciences and modern social thought is that when they dismiss the fact that abstract and symbolic thought departs from the impossibilities of human action, then they claim that they can reach teleologically ideal realities (the perpetuum mobile, the immortal man, unlimited knowledge, and so on) and ideal worlds (the perfect bourgeoisie society, the anarchist society of spontaneous order, the communist society of free men) by this action.61 And then, the naivety of empirical sciences and modern social thought is to dismiss the limits of concrete human reality in exchange for trusting in scientific instruments or in the institutionalized relationships of the market or the state.
In this context, the anti-utopian reasoning of neoliberal thought emerged as a threat to utopian reasoning. This thought moves from the modern teleological vision of ideal worlds that will advent in the future, to the claim that the definitive world is already present in the worldwide neoliberal order as end of history. The first step of development of this anti-utopian thought was present in Weber’s naturalization of the market by reducing the economic relationships to the means-end rational action related to the connection between practical and formal rationalities.62
The further elements of this anti-utopian thought are present in Karl Popper and Francis Fukuyama.63 In Popper’s thought, the anti-utopian stream has two moments.
In the first moment, according to Hinkelammert, Popper considers the economic planning of socialism as the utopia of an infinite progress which is impossible,64 and then, as an attempt to make heaven on earth that finally leads to the destruction of society.
In the second moment, the only rational and logical alternative to this socialist utopia is an anti-interventionist policy that could potentially offer theories and techniques as the only approach to perfect economic equilibrium.65
In short, for Popper anti-utopian thought is not against thinking of ideal worlds as criterion for the analysis of concrete worlds, but it is against thinking about socialist worlds, which are considered as non-logical, irrational and destructive worlds.66
The final and definitive step of this anti-utopian thought arises with Fukuyama’s vision of the economic and politic liberal system as the end of history. Fukuyama sees this system as the most democratic and peaceful in the history of humanity and, therefore, as the final advanced state of humanity.67
However, Fukuyama’s proposal is not based on a claim of the end of violence and problems that are still present in democratic liberal systems around the world, but on the naturalist fallacy: the claim that the state has a nature like the human one and in which plenitude would be liberal democracy68—in its politic and economic sphere. This is the final step of the teleological process of naturalization of the neoliberal system. There is no future world; the only new different world is already present with the emergence of the liberal democracies and the free market relationships.
In sum, the main consequence of the last part of this process of naturalization of liberal democracy and liberal economy in Fukuyama is the attempt to destroy utopian reason. The end of history is the denial of the imagination of ideal worlds and, therefore, the prohibition of possible worlds that could lead to better assurances of basic human needs. This threat to the utopian reason of modern social thought would also be present in the former liberation theology.
Liberation Theology and the Utopian Reason
Taking into account that liberation theology emerged in the context of modern social thought, we realize the main methodological element of this theology: the emphasis on praxis, is understood from the perspective of the tools of social sciences—and therefore, from the perspective of the necessary transforming experience of human action. In this sense, liberation theology, like modern social thought, is focused on a promethean image of the human being as one who is able to set up new and ideal worlds in history.69 Thus, what is at stake with liberation theology is a kind of utopian thought, in teleological terms, which has its roots in the rationality of the Enlightenment, in the same way that liberal capitalism and historical soviet Marxism do.
There are some clues to the presence of this modern pretention of the emergence of ideal worlds and ideal human beings in history in Gutierrez’s former thought in Teología de la Liberación: Perspectivas. He takes on the modern vision of man as master of his own destiny and he tries to support this vision by mentioning authors such as Kant, Hegel, Marx, Freud, and Marcuse.70 Thusly, Gutierrez approaches the rationality of modern social thought by claiming that the human being, by his social praxis, can face the social injustices and can participate in the transformation of the social structures.71 This transformation of structures, according to him, implies a radical break from the status quo (capitalist society) and the option for a new socialist society.72
Some other clues are present in the analysis of the liberationist praxis by Juan Carlos Scannone.73 According to him, there have been four streams of action in this theological moment of the praxis:
Theology from the pastoral praxis of the Church through a liberating evangelization focused on the biblical and spiritual bases of liberation.
Theology from the praxis of the revolutionary groups, which uses Marxist analysis of reality—whose rallying call was “historical materialism”—, in order to support the revolutionary action (present in authors like Hugo Assmann and Christians for Socialism).
Theology from the historical praxis, which looks for the transformation of Latin American society, taking into account the Church’s teachings and theological tradition (present in Gustavo Gutierrez’s “a theology of liberation” and its further tradition74).
Theology from the praxis of the Latin American people, which understands the people in an historical-cultural perspective, instead of based on class, in order to look for the fulfillment of justice.75
These streams of action are related to two modes of articulation: sacramental76 and scientific.77 And even if the first and fourth streams of action are more related to the sacramental articulation, and the second and third streams of action are more related to its scientific articulation, there is a common teleological perspective in all the streams of action: the belief that human praxis can lead us to the creation of a new man in history.78
Considering this naïve idea of a praxis that claims that it could create perfect realities, we can assert that the former liberation theology suffered not only from the flaws of a modern teleological pretention: the certitude that the utopia of ideal worlds will be realized within human history, but also the threats of neoliberal thought to utopian reason.79
Daniel Bell holds that Fukuyama’s proclamation of “the end of history”, as the assertion of the unabashed victory of economic and politic capitalism over socialism, has had two consequences in liberation theology. Firstly, it leads liberation theology into the denunciation of the brutal and oppressive consequences of the hegemony of this worldwide system;80 secondly, it has mainly led liberation theology into a crisis that Bell considers a consequence of capitalist technologies of desire that co-opt all human desire—which, for him, are visible in those of the liberationist’s such as the protection of rights and the discipline of politics as statecraft.81
According to Bell, liberationist theologians like Leonardo Boff, Jon Sobrino, Pablo Richard and Franz Hinkelammert realized the unpleasant reality of the crisis of former liberation theology: the triumph of savage capitalism.82
Finally, and considering the hegemony of the neoliberal system, the main challenge of liberation theology is not to face a disjunction between a naive utopia of a perfect society without classes or a realistic democratic Capitalist society; it is to face the presence of the anti-utopian reason present in neoliberal thought, in ways that are easier to see in liberation theology than in European traditional theological endeavours.
TOWARDS POSSIBLE WORLDS
At the beginning of this article, we brought up Mo Sung and Angarita’s analysis of the alternatives taken by liberationist groups and theologians after the crisis of liberation theology which, according to them, were made more evident with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Socialist Bloc. They described the transcendental critique of modern utopian reason by members of the Departamento Ecumenico de Investigaciones (DEI) as the third alternative to the crisis. In this context, the main work of this alternative was Hinkelammert’s book Crítica a la Razón Utópica (Critique of Utopian Reason).
We already considered two main contributions of Hinkelammert’s book to the analysis of utopian reason.83 For the purposes of the final part of this article, we would like to depart from his delimitation of utopian reason.
According to Hinkelammert, a critique of utopian reason does not imply a dismissal of utopian thought and its proposal of ideal worlds—as set forth by the neoliberal anti-utopia; on the contrary, it implies a reappraisal of this thought in order to realize how these ideal worlds guide and orient the possible worlds we can create in human history.84 This critique is important as a means to overcoming this neoliberal anti-utopia, which is the main threat to the development of the utopian reason of socialist and even liberal thought.
Therefore, we can assert that a transcendental critique of utopian reason in modern social thought can offer us certain elements in order to understand how this modern utopian rationality works, and then it will offer some other elements to liberation theology, to theologically reappraise the relationship between final salvation and the process of human liberation throughout history.
However, this critique, which is focused on the institutionalized human relationships of modern social thought, cannot go beyond the boundaries of human possibilities. Even if the ideal worlds are part of utopian reason, this transcendental critique is not able to say anything about the world of human impossibilities.
Yet, the world of human impossibilities is still present. In this context, the role of theology emerges as the revelation of God’s salvific action that lets us know the possibilities of liberation throughout history, in spite of our human impossibilities and teleological expectations.85
This revelation of God’s salvific action arises in the sphere of liberation theology as human relationships of liberation throughout history that reveal the presence of God. On the one hand, Hinkelammert sees liberation theology’s contribution as a transcendental imagination of the relationships of mutual acknowledgement of our sensual reality as subjects of material needs.86
On the other hand, it is only by the grace of God that we can carry out what is impossible for us as human beings: a relationality of liberation from the tendency of human relationships that so often lead to conflict and violence, in an attempt to protect human institutions—as can be seen in socialist and neoliberal systems. Thus, it is only by God’s grace that we can orient these relationships towards two essential pillars: the love of one’s enemy and the sacrificial offering of our lives for the sake of others.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to break away from trusting in the teleological character of modern social thought and its emphasis on the emergence of ideal worlds. This rupture can be carried out by orienting utopian thought towards an eschatological reflection, which above all, places humans into the perspective of already/but not yet presence of the latter times of our human history.
Therefore, some elements of liberation eschatology can be hermeneutical criteria for the vindication of humanity. It is in this sense that the human person can become the subject of praxis in the process of utopian reflection of the possible worlds that can be realized in human history.