Sof 60 June 2003 Bluffer’s Guide to These movements of post-colonial theology of South America and Asia begin with people’s experiences of suffering.
They are also born from a belief that theology needs to be locally developed in response to a particular historicaland _ ultural context. Christians in these post-colonial contexts had inherited a Western-style theology, with its due 70 reek metaphysical philosophy and of a history of serving the interests of the powerful. These are theological movements and not sets of ideas: they do not pursue timeless and universal Truth, after the manner of Western t but respond to the reality of oppression. a...
The movements are political and are theologically syncretistic to some extent. Each movement reflects on its own _ socio-political context, while recalling its own rich cultures of indigenous philosophies, religions and traditions which _ _ were displaced by Western forms of Christianity. Within each movement there are many differences; differences between | the poor who have no formal education and those who are academics, those who come from protestant traditions and - those from Catholic reforms, men and women, etc. ee - Together, these movements all question the idea of the context-less theology of "Greek" thinking; even the speculative theology of the SoF network. | oo.
Latin America Gustavo Gutiérrez says liberation theology begins with the reality of the ‘premature and unjust deaths of many people’. Although the term ‘liberation theology’ was first used in 1973 by Gutiérrez, the movement was born of Catholic and Protestant missions to the poor that recognised that hunger couldn’t be addressed without addressing the causes of hunger. This meant that the church should be involved in the struggle for economic and political justice, in which others were already involved (like Che Guevara, in the late 1950s). Catholics were encouraged in the early 1960s by the Church’s apparent openness at Vatican II to dialogue with both Protestantism and with society about the role of the church in the world. After the Second Latin American Bishops’ Conference, held in Medellin, Colombia (1968), the movement brought poor people together in Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (base ecclesial communities) to study the Bible and to fight for social justice, bringing together theology and socio-political concerns. Where radical political theology was largely individualist in the West, this was a theology born of sharing reflection. The movement came to believe that the Christian Gospel demands "a preferential option for the poor", noting that the God of liberation from Exodus is the God who lifts up the poor of Mary’s ‘magnificat’ and it considered the social situation in the light of such reflection.
As an intellectual movement, its leading thinkers were from both the Catholic tradition-such as Gutiérrez (Peru), Leonardo Boff (Brazil), Juan Luis Segundo (Uruguay)—and some protestant churches—including José Miguez Bonino (Methodist), Rubem Alves (Presbyterian), and Emilio Castro (WCC General Secretary, an exile of Uruguay). Gutiérrez defines theology as "critical reflection on historical praxis". This involves a political analysis, indebted to Marx, who had once noted the failure of reason: "Hitherto philosophers have explained the world; our task is to change it." The purpose of this theological method is to make a change.
Philippines Theology of Struggle It has often been noted that the Filipino people have been "liberated" four times: "liberated" by Spain from paganism and the devil, by the United States from Spain, by Japan from the United States, and from Japan by the United States.
The language of national liberation (as Iraqis might note) can be the language of the victors and their dominating ideology. One needs to ask not only what one is liberated from, but also what one is liberated to. A history of feudalism, of colonialism, and of later economic neo-colonialism defines the historical context of the Filipino people today, but what form will future democracy in a global economic market take?
The Filipino ‘Theology of Struggle’ seeks a democracy in which all people participate: the peasantry, workers, urban poor, students, middle class, mountain tribes, Muslims, and women, while these categories represent differences in transition, that is, groups that are themselves involved in an ongoing struggle for change. The theology emphasises an incarnational Christology, God’s identification with a suffering humanity. The Filipino poor identify with this suffering Christ whose suffering and struggle pave the way to eventual liberation and victory. However, by concentrating on struggle rather than liberation, there is also the recognition that the struggle may be a protracted one, a living in transition rather than an expectation of arriving. 60 June 2003 7 South Korea Minjung Theology The name of this movement comes from the characters ‘min’ (people) and ‘jung’ (masses). It is a theology of those who are politically oppressed, economically exploited, and deprived of intellectual and cultural education. Unlike Latin American theology, which was largely born from a popular movement, some liberals started this movement in the 1960s and 1970s, though it too became a people’s movement. It began in response to the so-called "success" of protestant missions, which preached a theology of prosperity and the healing and charismatic works of the Holy Spirit (a ‘wealth and health’ theology) to massive churches of up to many hundreds of thousands of people. Other protestant theologians, Methodist and Presbyterian, were critical of this identification of the Christian God with wealth. Moreover, these churches made little response to the dictatorship of Jung Hee Park and the socio-political situation of Korean society in the middle of the 1970s.
Korea has a history of shamanism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. The shamanic culture has been present for five thousand years, from Altai, the father of shamanism in Asia. In Korea, shamanism connects with material blessings and healing for the sick. It was this background that had enabled pentecostal missions to gain converts. Minjung theologies are syncretistic and some draw on shamanism, but before the arrival of Christianity to Korea in the 19th century, Buddhism was the predominant religion, though it had faced oppression. Sun Whan Pyun (a Methodist) insisted on the need for Christian-Buddhist dialogue, but after many years of struggle was accused of heresy (1982) and later expelled by his church (1993). While the church was happy with a naive syncretism, so long as it seemed ‘orthodox’ and was successful, it was not willing to be deliberate and ‘heterodox’ about it.
Later generations of Minjung theology embrace a wide variety of interests, from feminism to unification with North Korea.
India Dalit Theology The word ‘Dalit’ comes from the verb ‘Dall’ (meaning, to hang down, to be languid, to be weakened, be low, be feeble) and means the poor. It was first used by a 19th century Marathi social reformer and revolutionary, Mahatma Jyotirao Phule, who used it to describe the "outcastes" and "untouchables" of the Brahmanic-Hindu caste system. They are also known by other names, e.g., Gandhi called them the "Harijan," meaning ‘children of Han [God]’. The Dalit, ‘untouchables’, include some 20% of the population of India.
This movement begins with the recognition that Christianity in India had included the British and those rich people who supported the British occupation of India. It did not include the poor. Where Christianity related to Indian ideas, these were from the philosophical tradition of the Brahmin caste. The presumption was that even if Christianity may relate its ideas to another philosophy, the model was still of a faith centred round ideas.
Dalit theology is the theology of these marginalised people, for Christianity offered a religion with egalitarian ideals and the new start of conversion. It uses a ‘bottom up’ model, beginning with human experience, rather than philosophical speculation. However, Latin American Liberation Theology’s critique of socio-economic and political oppression excluded other forms of oppression such as race, gender, culture or religion. The exclusion of Dalits from society is akin to that of women, involving every level of consciousness. Dalit theology therefore involves a search for identity, and it is important to some that the Dalits in India are believed to be the ancient Dravidian race, the original people of India.
Taiwan Homeland Theology The context of liberation theology in Taiwan is its one-party dictatorship. The Taiwanese theologian Choan-Seng Song draws on Asian traditions of stories and poems that speak from experience, and from Buddhism, with its concern for suffering. This was not only a passive acceptance of suffering, for Buddhists in South Vietnam in the 1970s took part in political protests which involved self-immolation. These truths of suffering and struggle are more important than a rationalistic approach to "the Truth". Song found, in the cross and the lotus, symbols that must meet, the lotus symbolizing peace in the midst of unrest rather than rest after the end of struggle.
If there is not much that can be said here, it’s because Homeland Theology is written in Taiwanese. And rightly so, it is the theology of the Taiwanese! Why should a Westerner rationalize these systems into a theoretical conceptual whole, like this guide does.