A spirituality which facilitates authentic liberation is one which intuits the evolutive nature of human development. Justice and compassion are biblical descriptions of a liberation effected by the Holy Spirit in and through persons. The development of persons towards being able to embrace such qualities is set within three interconnected paradigms: a theological paradigm, a psychological paradigm, and a socio-historical paradigm. The theological paradigm sees the creative process as continuing an evolutive movement towards the wholeness of persons, society and the cosmos. Within this, persons are defined as created co-creators with God, and are given the responsibility of participating in the process which will achieve this goal. This paradigm is reflected in the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin concerning the evolution of consciousness within each material form, towards union in God. The psychological paradigm suggests that the evolution of consciousness within persons gives rise to the probability of the emergence of levels of consciousness capable of initiating and sustaining the manifestation of justice and compassion. In this evolutive process a boundary is perceived by persons between the ego-body as 'self' and the environment as 'not-self'. This boundary prohibits the emergence of the qualities of justice and compassion in human consciousness. The developmental process is constituted by the integration of the 'not-self' into the 'self' at each stage, facilitating the emergence of a consciousness which takes responsibility for the environment as 'self'. The socio-historical paradigm is defined by the perspectives on the world held by the poor. The spirituality emerging from within this paradigm is initiated through encounter with Jesus. It is concretized in a preferential option for the empowerment of the poor, which facilitates and sustains the integration of 'self' and the environment. An examination of the Latin American base Christian communities shows the characteristics of Church life and structure which facilitate the Church becoming the locus of development towards authentic personal and social liberation. The structure of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa is evaluated in this light, in order to encourage clergy and laity to rise towards their full personhood in God.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:27:20Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Malaspina.pdf: 1994330 bytes, checksum: d860fc294df66ef6a36b32728f2df77b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-10 / Such an essay proposes an angle for reflection upon Catholic Church documents about ecclesiastic life and communication. The theme brings out a reflection moment from the Tridentin Period (Post-Reform and Against-Reform) and goes through the Conciliar period (Vatican II Ecclesial Council) and directly influences upon Latin American and Caribbean Church with CELAM documents about communication. Through a critical historic analysis based on interdisciplinary interaction main modern and post-modern cultural aspects could be pictured, and thus enlighten a smoother path which led to a better understanding on the existing disruption and continuity expressions before theological and ecclesiastic questionings in the scope of communication. Modern times and post-modernity both have caused enormous changes in people's way of thinking, acting and living, in social groups as well as in Church. In a fast changing world, communication ways also do change so rapidly and influence forming a rather complex global society. In the evangelization process, communication is surely a big concern, especially in the aspect of striving to look for means to keep providing people with the right feedback within such a challenging 'theological place' which is nowadays media society / Esta dissertação apresenta uma reflexão à luz dos documentos da Igreja Católica sobre vida eclesial e comunicação. O trabalho resgata, à largas pincelas, uma linha de reflexão que parte do período Tridentino (Pós-Reforma e Contra-Reforma), invade a época Conciliar (Concilio Vaticano II) e repercute na Igreja da América Latina e Caribe na forma dos documentos do CELAM ao apresentar a temática sobre comunicação. Através de uma análise históricocrítica, servindo-se da interação dialógica interdisciplinar, colhe e destaca os principais traços característicos da cultura moderna e pós-moderna e oferece chaves de maior compreensão das expressões de ruptura e continuidade diante das indagações teológicas e eclesiológicas no âmbito comunicacional. Tanto a modernidade, como a pós-modernidade acarretaram grandes transformações na forma de pensar, agir e viver das pessoas, dos grupos sociais e da Igreja. Em um mundo em transformação, mudam as formas de comunicação e a sua influência na complexa sociedade globalizada. Na agenda das questões a cerca da evangelização, a temática da comunicação ocupa um lugar substancioso, sobretudo como maneira de encontrar respostas pastorais por parte da Igreja, dentro desse lugar teológico que é a sociedade midiática