Schedule: CORE367/PHIL368: Liberation Thought

Br. Dennis Beach, OSB

Monday, January 15 (1)

• Please bring a Bible (at least New Testament) to class on Monday. Or, if you don't have one, print out Chapter 1, verses 39-55 of the Gospel of Luke from here: NRSV New Testament.
  • Brief introduction to Liberation Thought.
  • Discussion of the liberation perspective through a reflection on Luke 1:39-55, the "Magnificat" of Mary.

Wednesday, January 17 (3)

• Read the first two chapters (all of Part 1) of Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation (ATL), pp. 1-25. I don't think you need to read the introduction to the revised edition--a lot of it presumes that you know the "lay of the land" a bit in both Theology and the history of the Liberation Theology movement. The first introduction, which is shorter, will be more helpful, so perhaps start with that.
  • Public Folder Assignment #1:You'll find a folder labeled "Who We Are."  Please make an entry here telling us a little about yourself. Anything is fair game--the usual suspects about major, hometown, etc. are fine, but you can also or instead focus more on who you are in a more personal way. You might want to say why you're taking this class (it may have been the only one left!) or what your interest in "Liberation" "Theology" and/or "Philosophy" is. If you have any interest and/or experience in things Latin American, or in other liberation causes, you might want to mention this as well. If you don't and are taking this class to learn about things, that's fine too--just let us know.  Any other quirky things you want to mention to differentiate your unique person from the anonymous mass of humanity would be most welcome!
  • Public Folder Assignment 2: After reading the assignment, focus on Chapter 1 if you were born on an odd day and on Chapter 2 if you were born on an even day. (If you are dying to write about the other chapter, do so; don't die! I won't check when your birthday is to see if you've hoodwinked us or not!)
    Topic: What do you find to be Gutiérrez's main emphasis in this chapter? Try to summarize what you get as his main emphasis in  a couple of sentences. Then mention one or two things that raised questions for you--about what he meant, what terms mean, etc.--explaining what questions they raised.

Friday, January 19 (5):

• Read Gutierrez, ATL, Part 2 (chapters 3-5).
• Please read the Introduction (pp. 11-17) and scan the Table of Contents of the book, Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes. Think about which chapters you'd be willing to work on in a group of 3 persons to present briefly (10-15 minutes) to the class. Post your choices in the sub-folder: "Unexpected News."
  • Here is a guide to the Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third-World Eyes group project.

Tuesday, January 23 (1):

• No new reading. Make sure you bring the Gutierrez book (ATL) to class. We will talk about the Philosophical background of chapter 2, and focus on the "Responses" (Chapter 4) to the "Problem" (Chapter 3) that Gutierrez outlines in part 2.
• Here again is the guide to the Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third-World Eyes group project. We will do these group presentations on Monday and Wednesday, January 29 and 31.

Thursday, January 25 (3):

• Read ATL, part 3, Chapters 6-8.
  • Chapter 6 should be pretty understandable and straightforward, as it is largely an application of the ideas of chapter 2 to the Latin American historical reality.
  • Chapter 7 focuses on how these particular issues have affected the church in Latin America.
  • Chapter 8 states the questions that Gutierrez believes arise from this situation of Latin American Society and Church.
• Please pick out two or three themes from Chapter 7 that seem to you of the greatest interest or importance for your understanding. Be ready to identify these themes in class.
• Public Folder: No Public Folder entry assigned.

Monday, January 29 (5):

• Groups presenting chapters 6, 4, 7 of Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third-World Eyes.
• It is likely, since Group 9 had to move to Friday because of one member's jury duty, tat we'll us the last half hour of class to make more progress in the Gutiérrez book (ATL). Bring your texts to class.

Wednesday, January 31 (1):

• Groups presenting chapters 3, 1, 10, 8, 2 of Unexpected News: Reading the Bible with Third-World Eyes.
• If we have time, we will continue discussing chapters 3-8.

Friday, February 2 (3):

• Finish Bible groups: Group 9 and any group left over from Wednesday.
• ATL: Chapter 9: "Liberation and Salvation," pp. 79-105.

Tuesday, February 6 (5):

• Please make a Public Folder Entry on one of the following topics:

1. Gutiérrez says liberation theology involves a shift from a quantitative notion of salvation to a qualitative notion (83-85). What has been your own experience with religious ideas of salvation--has it been mainly a qualitative or a quantitative emphasis?
2. History, Creation, Eschatology (discussion of the "last things" or end times): how does salvation link these terms together for Gutiérrez? (This is his topic on pp. 86-97).
3. Salvation usually has something to do with sin and traditionally calls Jesus the "Savior" who saves us from our sin. How does Gutiérrez transform the meaning of sin and of Jesus' role in salvation?

Thursday, February 8: (1):

• Read ATL: Chapters 10-11, on History and Politics, pp. 106-140.

Monday, February 12 (3):

• Reading the Bible with Third World Eyes paper due.
• Continue discussion of ATL, chs. 9-11

Wednesday, February 14 (5):

• Read: We'll only read part of Chapter 12, and then all of Chapter 13:
  • ATL: Section 2 Intro, pp. 141-2;
  • Plus: from Ch 12: "The Church: Sacrament of History," "Eucharist and Human Fellowship," pp. 148-155 (top). (Stop at "It would be naive...."). The first part of chapter 12 establishes that sacrament was a translation into Latin of the Greek word mystery. A sacrament was a sign of the mystery of God, present in the world, in history. In other words, through some concrete thing (or event) in history, the mystery of God and God's plan of salvation is revealed.
  • Read all of Chapter 13: "Poverty: Solidarity and Protest," pp 162-173, and the one page Conclusion to the book, p. 174.
• Public Folder: Choose on of the following:
  • If sacraments are supposed to call us to participate fully in God's plan of salvation, how is the Eucharist supposed to do this? What does it call us to? In your experience/opinion, how does/should the Eucharist do this?
  • As Gutiérrez discusses the relationship between the two different kinds of poverty, material and spiritual, it seems that the relation is somewhat ambiguous. Is material poverty good or bad? Is spiritual poverty good or "overly spiritual"? Is there any way of reconciling them?
  • Any other aspect of the chapters you are interested in...

Friday, February 16 (1)

• Read the Handout: "Instruction on Certain Aspects of the 'Theology of Liberation'" (1984) by the Vatican office of the Doctrine of the Faith. The author was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
• As you read, think about your response to the Vatican critique. Does it seem a fair critique? Are there elements you question the fairness of? Are there responses you'd like to make, questions you'd like to ask, of either the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or of the Liberation Theologians it critiques?

Tuesday, February 20 (3)

• Go back and read Gutierrez's "Introduction to the Revised Edition," ATL, pp. xvii-xlvi, focusing on the following pages/sections:
  • xvii-xxviii (the first part of the Intro plus the section entitled "A New Presence").
  • "Friends of Life," pp. xxxvi-xliv
  • "Conclusion," pp. xliv-xlvi.
  • In essence, you're skipping the "Reflection" part; I think we already covered this idea fairly well.
• Make a Public Folder entry addressing where you stand on the question of how well Gutierrez's overall approach harmonizes or does not harmonize with the view represented by the 1984 "Instruction."

Thursday, February 22(5)

• I have to be in Minneapolis at 1:00 PM for a SJU Board of Regents Executive Committee Meeting (sound impressive???  It's not!). I will post here Friday something about what we'll be tackling after break. It will be Paulo Freire, but we'll not have reading over break. Have a good one.

Monday, March 5 (1)

• Here is a writing assignment due Friday. Note that class will not meet on Friday.
• We will spend the class looking at an article by Enrique Dussel. You can preview it here: Europe, Modernity, and Eurocentrism, but I will pass out a copy in class.
• It might be helpful to note that the philosophical concept of "modernity" means from the Enlightenment on, that is, from approximately the early 16th century when scientific advances in thought weakened the dominance of religious control over universities and academics. Galileo, who challenged the church's teachings about the nature of the universe, would be a watershed figure--as he was disciplined by the old religiously-dominated thought. Those who came after emphasized human reason and inquiry in science as well as in philosophy.

Wednesday, March 7 (3)

• Read the author's Preface (not the editor's introduction) and Chapter 1 (pp. 35-70) of Pedagogy of the Oppressed. You will immediately notice vocabulary that will need to be deciphered, although some of it might be a little familiar to philosophy majors or minors, even even they will have to understand the terms in this new context. Other terms, such as the Portuguese conscientizaçao (conscientization, "counsciousness-raising") was introduced to us by Gutiérrez.
• There are also two passages left at least partially untranslated, one in Spanish (51), and one in French (52). Here are two full translations of those passages; note, however, that Freire himself does translate and explain the key parts of the quotations in the paragraphs that follow each foreign citation.
• The chapter makes the case that pedagogy is a necessary task of humanization. Why? (Be ready to discuss this; you don't have to write.)

Friday, March 9 (5)

• Class will not meet because I have to attend Board of Regents/Trustees meetings.
• Please turn in your writing assignment by 5:00 PM. I'd prefer a paper copy--drop it off in the Philosophy office (Quad 362); I will place a box on the table in the outer office for turning in papers.

Tuesday, March 13 (1)

• Read Freire, Chapter 2 (pp. 71-86). You won't need any pointers to the key point(s) of this chapter. We will discuss what you think of the two models of education Freire identifies.
  • Translation of French quotation from Sartre on p. 81: "Consciousness and the world are given in the same stroke: essentially exterior to consciousness, the world is [thus] essentially related to it." [I have added the "thus," which is part of the sentence's sense, even though the French equivalent, donc, does not appear.] The first phrase of this sentence is repeated on p. 82: "Consciousness and the world are given in the same stroke."
  • Remember, conscientização is Portuguese and can be rendered "conscientization" or "consciousness-raising" in English.

Friday, March 16 (3)

• Read Freire Chapter 3, pp. 87-109, end. We'll focus for Friday on Freire's analysis of 1) dialogue; 2) what it means to be human as opposed to being animal; and 3) what he means by "generative themes" and "limit situations."
• Public Folder entry--choose one option:
  • Freire starts with a theoretical meditation on the concept of dialogue. Some of you may have encountered other theories of dialogue, say in a Communication class or elsewhere. What is most insightful, important (or even difficult to understand0 in Freire's thoughts about dialogue?
  • This thinking leads Freire to the animal-human distinction, starting on p. 97. What do you think of his differentiation between humans and animals? Choose some point he presents and reflect on it in the public folder--you can explain it in your own words, question it, think further with it, etc.
  • Freire first introduces the "generative themes" idea on p. 96, then resumes it (after the human-animal discussion) from p. 101 onwards in the chapter. What do you understand him to mean by "generative themes"? Before we ask what the generative themes of an oppressed group might be, what generative themes do you think might be operative in your own world--for surely Freire believes all humans live in a "thematic universe"?

Sunday, March 18: 7:00 PM, SJU Art Auditorium: film: Rodrigo D: No Futuro

• Rodrigo D: No Futuro is a film by Victor Gaviria who will speak to us in class March 22.
• Please view this or The Rose Seller (La Vendedora de Rosas) before class on Thursday. They are both on reserve in Alcuin Library, and The Rose Seller is also on reserve at Clemens. You have to view them in the library since they are on reserve.

Tuesday, March 20 (5)

• Finish Freire, chapter 3, pp. 100-124. These pages describe an educational project that he believes can help people own their own experience, participate in fashioning a "critical consciousness" of their lives.
• optional: The Rose Seller film Wednesday 5 PM AV2 - Alcuin Library, with Corey Shouse's class.

Thursday, March 22 (1)

• Class visit by Colombian film director Victor Gaviria.
• Please post to the public folder questions you would like to ask the director. Keep in mind that he is not a professor, but a poet (published four books of poetry) and a film director. I don't know that he has read Paulo Freire, and so he can't comment directly on what we've been reading, but we can ask about topics that we are interested in that would allow us (not him) to make some connections. See the email I sent with the quote from an interview with him.
• In another part of the interview, he describes how he allows the children to give all sorts of direction to the plot--all the little details that make it realistic he takes their advice about, goes to visit places they say to film, etc.
• Don't feel too constricted about questions--ask what you're curious about.

Monday, March 26 (3)

• Follow-up discussion on class with Victor Gaviria.
• Please post to the Freire Public folder your reaction or further questions or observations--some response to our class on Thursday--you can connect this to Freire if you would like, or just make observations about Mr. Gaviria and his films/discussion.

Wednesday, March 28 (5)

• read Marx, German Ideology (handout), Preface and Part I.A (pp. 1-19).

Friday, March 30 (1)

• No new Reading. We will continue our discussion of Marx, The German Ideology.

Tuesday, April 3 (3)

• Make a Public Folder Entry (Marx folder) on the following:
   
  • Marx writes, "Consciousness is, therefore, from the very beginning, a social product, and remains so as long as men [and women] exist at all" (13).
    
    What does Marx mean by this? Why does he consider consciousness a "social product"?
    
    Keep in mind that by "consciousness" here Marx is not indicating the mere state of sentience in contrast to "unconsciousness" but something that has more content. It includes both awareness and some kind of understanding, not just bare sentience. So why should we think that our consciousness, our understanding awareness, is a "from the very beginning" a social product?

Tuesday, April 10 (5)

• Read Marx, The German Ideology, section I.B: "The Illusion of the Epoch"," pp. 19-30, and I.C: "The Real Basis of Ideology," pp. 30-43.
  • REVISION OF SECTIONS YOU CAN SKIP:
    • Do read pp. 22-26, [you can skip the last two ¶¶ on p. 22). These sections take up the themes from the preface and very beginning of the essay.
    • SKIP the section on "Ruling Class and Ruling Ideas," pp. 26 (bottom) through p. 29.
    • We will not worry about the details of section C: "The Real Basis of Ideology," but focus on the overarching ideas Marx and Engels seem to be illustrating with this historical survey of productive forces and division of labor.
    • You should also pay attention to what seem like key points in the development of this history, such as when they say that the work of the modern worker "is a matter of indifference to him" (33).

Thursday, April 12 (1)

• Read Marx, The German Ideology, section I.D: "Proletarians and Communism," p. 43-58.

Monday, April 16 (3)

• Read James Cone, from God of the Oppressed, Chapter 6: "Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?" (pp. 99-126). Photocopied handout.

Wednesday, April 18 (5)

• In class: continue discussion of James Cone's "Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?"
• Paper 3 due: Freire/Marx assignment: choose one of the following:
  • One of the core hopes of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed is to promote a new approach to education that is not only “for” the oppressed, but “of” the oppressed. Colombian filmmaker Victor Gaviria’s process of making movies, while not intended to be an application of Freire’s philosophy of education, nevertheless seems to echo some of Freire’s primary concerns and beliefs. Write an essay that explores possible correlations between one or more of Gaviria’s films, as well as the process he used to make them, and Freire’s beliefs about education as outlined in Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Among other things, you might consider how well one of Gaviria’s films might serve as a “codification” that could allow subjects to understand critically some of the “generative themes” of their world (Pedagogy, ch. 3).
     
  • One of the advantages to reading Karl Marx’s own writings is that one can begin to separate the thought process and questions that animated Marx and Engel’s research from the use that was made of them by various political regimes, especially those of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and China. One can discover Marx’s philosophical principles freed from the baggage of later, warped, political developments. And this can help us understand how some aspects of Marxist thought might have inspired liberation theology and philosophy. Write an essay in which you explore connections you see between Marx’s examination of historical materialism in The German Ideology and either Gustavo Gutierrez’s A Theology of Liberation or Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. (You may also do both; if you do this, however, make sure your paper maintains a unity of focus.) Your explorations could include discussing where you find that they part company, though this aspect is optional.
     
  • Marx and Engels make the case in The German Ideology that our human lives and human history itself is dictated by the configuration and dynamics of the “forces of production,” which, at least in large part, become increasingly international in their scope. Use the method of thought you find in The German Ideology to examine how the forces of production operating in our own world might be determinative for our lives, for our self-understanding, for our situation of alienation or non-alienation, and/or for our conception of what it means to be human. Of course you are free to be critical of these tools of thought, but you should also show that you understand Marx’s basic “historical materialist” method of thinking.

Friday, April 20 (1)

• Read Elsa Tamez (ed.) Through Her Eyes: Women's Theology from Latin America, "Introduction: The Power of the Naked" (by Elsa Tamez) and Chapter 1, "Women and the Theology of Liberation" (by Ana María Bidegain).

Tuesday, April 24 (3)

• Read Jon Sobrino, chapter 8: "'Bearing with One Another in Faith': A Theological Analysis of Christian Solidarity" from The Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified People from the Cross, pp. 144-172 (handout).
• Public Folder Reflection: Sobrino's goal in this chapter is largely to help people from the "first world" understand "missionary work" in a updated perspective, one that looks realistically at the inter-relationship of the "sending church" and the "receiving church." Sobrino traces out several characteristics of the older theology of mission, and does so critically, suggesting a model that he considers better and more accurate.
  • Choose something that Sobrino writes about that you find of interest, either because it seems a needed critique of an older (liberation unfriendly) understanding of mission, or because you think it contributes to a healthy new (liberation-friendly) understanding of mission/solidarity. Make a posting in the public folder in which you present and discuss the idea you've chosen to highlight.

Thursday, April 26 (5)

• Read Elsa Tamez, "Three Biblical Reflections for Our Time" from Hope and Justice for All in the Americas: Discerning God's Mission, ed. Oscar L. Bolioli, pp. 134-151; also Tamez's article "Confession" from The Other Side, Sept-Oct 1998, pp. 43-45 (handouts).
• Make a Public Folder entry that reflects on either one (or both) of the Tamez articles. You might consider how the Biblical Reflections one connects or doesn't connect with Sobrino's ideas about Solidarity.

Monday, April 30 (1)

• Read Sobrino, Chapter 4: "The Crucified People: Yahweh's Suffering Servant Today," pp. 49-57 (handout).
• We will also read an article by John Allen in the National Catholic Reporter about the recent "Notification"/Warning concerning Sobrino's writings by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the official teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
• The actual Vatican notification is available here: CDF Notification on works by Jon Sobrino, SJ.
• A further commentary by John Allen, claiming that "Liberation Theology" is only indirectly the target of this Vatican critique, is here: "All Things Catholic" by John L. Allen (3/16/07) on Sobrino Notification.

Wednesday, May 2 (3)

• Group Presentations 1 on issues of Concilium dealing with contemporary themes of liberation theology. Consult Library shelves for particular issues:
  • CSB Clemens Library: BX1751.2.A1 C6
  • SJU Alcuin Library: BX880.C68
• Note: focus on the journal Concilium that is published several times a year and contains 8-12 articles by different authors, all clustered on a theme. Choose an issue that has articles clearly related to the Theology of Liberation.

 Friday, May 4 (5)

• Group Presentations 2 on issues of Concilium dealing with contemporary themes of liberation theology. Consult Library shelves for particular issues:
  • CSB Clemens Library: BX1751.2.A1 C6
  • SJU Alcuin Library: BX880.C68
• Note: focus on the journal Concilium that is published several times a year and contains 8-12 articles by different authors, all clustered on a theme. Choose an issue that has articles clearly related to the Theology of Liberation.

Wednesday, May 9 (Exam Day 1)

• Final paper due: