Thesis advisor: Andrew L. Prevot / This dissertation in the area of Christian Systematic Theology offers a critique of the political-economic, philosophical, and cultural framework of neoliberalism through the framework of Ignacio Ellacuría’s liberation theology. The project grounds itself in Ellacuría’s theological vision of historical soteriology, where one understands salvation as the persistence of Christ’s salvific act through history and in which all are called to participate through cooperative grace. It is through this theological lens, in conjunction with Ellacuría’s philosophical and political thought, that a full critique of neoliberalism’s various facets is accomplished. The project offers this critique through an analysis of neoliberalism’s false promises of prosperity, stability, and salvation from impoverishment. Chapter 1 offers a definition of neoliberalism as manifesting in three ways: a political-economic theory that manifested in the policies of the Reagan administration in the United States and the Thatcher Government in the United Kingdom, a philosophical high theory critiqued by thinkers in the Marxist and Foucauldian traditions, and a cultural framework that is open to theological critique. The chapter serves as a survey of significant figures of each facet of neoliberalism. Chapter 2 outlines the focal points of Ellacuría’s philosophical thought, most importantly his theory of historical reality. Using these philosophical tools, Ellacuría is put into dialogue with the philosophical critics of neoliberalism to show the philosophical claims implicit in neoliberal thought are untenable. Chapter 3 explores Ellacuría’s theology with a focus on historical soteriology and engagement with reality. The theory of historical soteriology then serves as a critical tool to examine neoliberalism’s underlying tenets that offer a false promise of salvation. Chapter 4 develops a political theology of dissent drawing from Ellacuría’s work in “Utopia and Propheticism in Latin America,” in which Ellacuría offers one of his strongest critiques of the civilization of capital. The political theology of dissent offers an alternative framework to the contemporary neoliberal conception of political economy, focusing on discernment and community. Finally, Chapter 5 synthesizes the Ellacurían Critique from Chapters 2-4 and puts it into conversation with other theological critics of neoliberalism. This dialogue shows the Ellacuría Critique to be a complimentary to other critics of neoliberalism while adding a unique Catholic liberationist voice to the conversation. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Because of the drastic changes (political, socio-cultural, and ecclesial) in Latin America since the genesis of Latin American Theology in the 1960s and 70s and the persistent and pernicious presence of poverty and injustice, it is imperative for theology to confront the present socio-cultural and ecclesial context. Through the development of a sociological and historical survey of Argentina during the past half-century, this thesis argues that the present holds little hope for a revitalization of the triumphalist, macro-social historical project of Latin American Liberation Theology, but instead demands an informed theological reflection on the micro-social. It also engages various Latin American theological perspectives (Liberationist, Progressive Evangelical, and Pentecostal/neo-Pentecostal) and argues that community is at the centre of their conceptions of transformation and that, accordingly, the local church is a potential transformative historical project. It examines this transformative potential through ethnographic and theological case studies of two local Baptist churches (Progressive Evangelical and neo-Pentecostal) in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, demonstrating that the present ecclesial context is diverse and contentious, but nevertheless a potential location of transformation. It contends that the local church is a fitting historical project for Latin American Theology as it functions as a bridge between the exilic present and the utopia of the Kingdom of God, between individual and social transformation, and between the hermeneutically-focused historical sciences and the emancipatory-focused critical social sciences. It concludes that the local church is a transformative historical project as a gathering community that seeks to be faithful and effective through non-violent confrontation, reconciling unity, and discernment.

As Latin American evangelical theologians awoke to dependency on the North in the post-war period, they set the trajectory for a new contextual brand of evangelical Christianity. Ecuadorian Protestant theologian C. René Padilla (b. 1932) coined the term misión integral (integral mission), which first appeared on a public stage in Lausanne at the influential International Congress on World Evangelization of 1974—signalling both the rise of leadership from the Global South and a wider turn toward holistic mission within the global Protestant evangelical community. The concept of misión integral is an understanding of Christian mission that synthesizes the pursuit of justice with the offer of salvation. Padilla utilized the kingdom of God as the central theological motif in this synthesis. The thesis explores the dynamic interplay between Padilla and the global evangelical networks that formed, developed, and diffused misión integral. This first critical study of Padilla is structured thematically in order to provide a more detailed focus on each stage of this process. Earlier studies have largely framed misión integral as responding to Catholic theologies of liberation, beginning in the late 1960s or early 1970s. In contrast, I demonstrate that the origins of misión integral are found within a cluster of political and social forces reshaping post-war Latin America: rural-urban migration flows, the resulting complications of urbanization, and the rapid expansion of the universities, where Marxist ideas of revolutionary change presented a growing appeal to students. When Padilla became convinced of the inadequacy of his received North American evangelical theology of mission to meet such challenges, he began a search for theological materials with which he could address the Latin American context. In doing so, he sought to widen the parameters of an evangelical understanding of Christian mission. Padilla’s response was not purely Latin American nor driven by exclusively Latin American concerns. However, Padilla’s theology developed through a multidirectional and international conversation with a wide variety of interlocutors. Padilla became a metaphorical sponge—appropriating new theological perspectives from his undergraduate and graduate studies at Wheaton College in Illinois, his doctoral work in New Testament at the University of Manchester, the Presbyterian missionary-statesman, John A. Mackay, and the holistic tradition of American women missionaries through his closest colleague and wife Catharine Feser Padilla. This thesis explores these multidirectional conversations that shaped the concept of integral mission, and in doing so provides a corrective to current historiography. The process of developing the contours of integral mission would continue over the next two decades in a further series of transnational theological conversations. Particularly important were those Padilla conducted with the Peruvian Baptist Samuel Escobar and the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (Latin American Theological Fraternity), the British Anglican John R. W. Stott and the global evangelical movement, and the Argentine Methodist José Míguez Bonino and the ecumenical movement. Padilla’s theological networks cut both ways— influencing him and diffusing his influence to a wider Christian constituency. In focusing on these interlocutors, this thesis provides an assessment of the nature of Padilla’s influence upon the growing acceptance of integral mission within global evangelicalism. Today, the language of integral mission is being increasingly adopted by evangelical mission and relief organizations, evangelical political activists, official congress declarations, and Protestant ecclesial movements around the world.

Submitted by Erika Demachki (erikademachki@gmail.com) on 2018-05-25T19:58:52Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Jacqueline Siqueira Vigário - 2017.pdf: 24150856 bytes, checksum: c8ae8db0716639e9c932177fb18bc61a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2018-05-28T11:37:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Jacqueline Siqueira Vigário - 2017.pdf: 24150856 bytes, checksum: c8ae8db0716639e9c932177fb18bc61a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-28T11:37:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Tese - Jacqueline Siqueira Vigário - 2017.pdf: 24150856 bytes, checksum: c8ae8db0716639e9c932177fb18bc61a (MD5) license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / The research proposes to investigate the appropriattion of the artistic thinking of the italian painter Frei Nazareno Confaloni (1917-1977) and his proceding in the context of modernity in Goias from the 1950's, observing it's relation with the scholars linked to the cultural institutions of the state and, consequently, with the projects of renewal who were typical of the artistical environment of the early 1950's in Goias. From the understanding of how art criticism construes the work of the italian artist based in Brazil, this work investigates the appropriation of Confaloni as an icon of modernity and associates him with the founding myth of the city of Goiania. The paper deals with the issues of modernity, modernization and modernism as bridges for the understanding of the modern project of Brazil, considering as the main point the concept of conservative modernization with emphasis on cultural. To achieve this goal, it observes the context of modernization of the city of São Paulo during the first half of the twentieth century so that one can rethink how Goias assumed the demands of modernization during the 1950's and the 1960's. It analyzes the fortuity of the first decades of the construction of the city, the activities related to the creation of the Escola Goiana de Belas Artes (EGBA) and the debate of scholars and artists around a modernist campaign, in which Confaloni is a fundamental piece in the construction of the reasoning of the new, founded on cultural bases. From an idea of the sacralization of the human and the humanization of the sacred in the artistic thinking of Nazareno Confaloni, this paper makes an analytical interpretation of his works based on historical events, exploring the tensions between his religious and artistic formation, confronting them with artistic movements from Europe and Brazil, Besides the religious and socio-political thinking in Latin America. In addition to its construction as a modern inaugural artist, the research points to Confaloni's appropriations of the Brazilian and Latin American conjunctures, evaluanting them as fundamental for their constitution as a religious and as an artist. / A pesquisa propõe investigar apropriação do pensamento artístico do pintor italiano Frei Nazareno Confaloni (1917-1977) e sua atuação no contexto da modernidade em Goiás a partir da década de 1950, observando sua relação com os intelectuais ligados às instituições culturais do Estado, e consequentemente com os projetos de renovação artística, característica do ambiente artístico goiano do início dos anos de 1950. Parte do entendimento de como a crítica de arte interpreta o conjunto da obra do artista italiano radicado no Brasil, investiga a apropriação de Confaloni como ícone de modernidade e o associa ao mito fundador da Cidade de Goiânia. O trabalho aborda as questões que tratam de modernidade, modernização e modernismo como pontes para o entendimento do projeto moderno do Brasil, considerando como ponto principal o conceito de modernização conservadora com ênfase no cultural. Para tanto, observa o contexto de modernização da cidade de São Paulo durante a primeira metade do século XX para que se possa repensar a forma como Goiás assumiu os reclames de modernização nos idos dos anos de 1950 e 1960. Analisa a conjuntura das primeiras décadas da Construção da cidade, as atividades relacionadas à criação da Escola Goiana de Belas Artes (EGBA)e o debate de intelectuais e artistas em torno de uma campanha modernista, na qual Confaloni é peça fundamental na construção do discurso do novo fundado em bases culturais. A partir de uma ideia de Sacralização do humano e humanização do sagrado no pensamento artístico de Nazareno Confaloni faz uma interpretação analítica de suas obras baseada em acontecimentos históricos, explorando as tensões entre sua formação religiosa e artística, confrontando-as com os movimentos artísticos europeus e brasileiros e o pensamento religioso sociopolítico na América Latina. Para além de sua construção como artista inaugural moderno, a pesquisa aponta as apropriações de Confaloni da conjuntura brasileira e latino-americana, avaliando-as como fundamentais para sua constituição como religioso e como artista.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A teologia latino-americana tem sua história e seu lugar na história. Suas intuições fundamentais significaram o assumir do caráter interpretativo da realidade a partir da cruz de Jesus. Tendo sua história e nela o seu lugar, a teologia desenvolvida neste continente necessita ser retomada, a partir de diversos ângulos. Uma nova releitura, com outros pressupostos, à luz da hermenêutica recente com a contribuição específica do pensamento de Theodor Adorno, vem ao encontro da linha de pesquisa Teologia contemporânea em perspectiva latino-americana. Adorno não é hermeneuta, tampouco, denomina sua filosofia como hermenêutica. Certo é que sua filosofia é filosofia interpretativa. Isso, porém, não significa que seu programa seja desprovido de elementos hermenêuticos, ou que não tenha contribuições significativas para esse campo e, especialmente, para a teologia latino-americana. Adorno, para além da hermenêutica recente, ajuda a compreender que o texto a ser interpretado não possui a verdade absoluta, tampouco é a coisa última, a última palavra. É antes inconcluso, quebrado, paradoxal e em grande medida entregue a cegos demônios. A ideia teológica aqui perseguida é, portanto, que ela é interpretação da realidade danificada, sem chave interpretativa segura, enquanto esperança em meio à desesperança. Isso significa, em primeiro lugar, assumir seu caráter interpretativo, enquanto denúncia e suspeita da realidade e do fazer teológico em sua completude, no anseio de se chegar, em segundo lugar, a um pensamento correto e justo, na perspectiva das vítimas inocentes da história, que clamam serem acordadas e restauradas em suas vidas fragmentadas. A teologia desde a América Latina é, neste caso, negativa ou inversa, desde o seu contrário, desde as vítimas, dos rebaixados e condenados. Se há alguma positividade, esta há de aparecer sob o signo da total negatividade, preservada, tão somente, no ato da negação. Este ato, por sua vez, requer uma verdadeira ascese, a fim de que a tentação da palavra positiva não seja mais uma vez dita, preservando o próprio de Jesus, profetizado pelo justo e piedoso Simeão: ele será um sinal de contradição (Lc 2,34). Teologia desde a América Latina é sinal de contradição que se dá na sombra da cruz, da hora sexta até a hora nona. A cruz de Jesus é também a cruz da teologia e, se há alguma luz teológica, esta deverá ser projetada em forma de faíscas a partir da escuridão da cruz. Portanto, a desesperança do escândalo da cruz, levada à completude, ou torna a teologia impossível, ou possível como teologia genuinamente interpretativa, com pretensão de verdade, sem chave hermenêutica segura. / Latin American theology has its history and its place in history. Its basic notions are founded on the interpretation of reality from the perspective of the cross. Presently it is in need of being resumed and actualized, especially in the light of recent hermeneutical debates. Our proposal here is that this be done from the point of view of specific contribution of Theodor Adorno to these debates. Adorno is normally ot considered a hermeneutical philosopher. He does not name his philosophy hermeneutic; but he would insist that his is an interpretative philosophy. His project is certainly not devoid of hermeneutical elements. It is our contention that it has a significant contribution to Latin American Theology in its quest for present relevance. Adorno's philosophy can help to understand that the text to be interpreted does not hold any absolute truth. The text is anything but unconcluded, broken, paradoxical, open to blind demons. The texts that try to capture it must be an interpretation of a damaged reality, with no light and no hope, in a no hope environment. This means, first, to maintain the interpretative character from a perspective of suspicion, with the expectation to, second, get to a thought of right and justice, guided by the perspective of the victims of history. Theology from Latin America is, in this case, negative and reverse, from its very opposite, from the victims, the demoted and condemned. If there is some positivity, it will appear under a sign of total negativity, preserved only on the negation act. This thinking act needs a really true asceticism, so that the temptation of positive words may be resisted, in line with the words about Jesus in Luke 2, 34: a sign of contradiction. Theology from Latin America is a sign of contradiction emerging from the the shadow of the Cross, from the darkness of the sixth to the ninth hour. Jesus' cross is also theology's cross. Any possible light in theology shall have the form of sparks through the cross's darkness. The desperation of the Cross's scandal, taken to completeness, may turn in it's opposite. This is the only hope for theology as genuine interpretative theology, with no hold on claims of absolute truth, with no secure hermeneutical key.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / Introdução: A teologia da libertação assinalou o comprometimento teórico com a prática comunitária da desprivatização da fé cristã na América Latina, subsidiando a ideia de libertação e suas implicações holísticas. Em consequência, a noção de libertação correspondeu ao equivalente oposto de dependência dentro do quadro metodológico de abordagem bíblico-teológica. Dessa forma, consiste em apresentar, a pesquisa agora submetida à avaliação, a relação conceitual existente entre a teologia latino-americana e a crítica à estrutura teórica do subdesenvolvimento, qual seja, a teoria da dependência. Objetivo: Compreender o significado da correlação oposta da libertação à dependência desde suas especificidades de acordo com a visão dos intelectuais da libertação, e identificar a forma pela qual a dependência foi apropriada para responder ao quadro teórico responsivo socioanalítico destes intelectuais, bem como perceber até que ponto representou essa maneira de labor teológico um tipo epifenomênico identitário. Métodos: Pesquisa históricosistemática, de caráter exploratório, com orientação analítico-descritiva, organizada a partir de esquemas classificatórios cuja disposição busca indicar a evolução no nível de interação social dos intelectuais latino-americanos de disputa pelos bens simbólicos dentro do campo religioso, a bem dizer, a interpretação teológica. A interpretação dos textos reunidos seguiu um esquema hermenêutico compreensivo pressuposto no pensamento fraco e na antilogia teológica latino-americana. Resultados: É partindo da constatação da refração teórica da dependência pela libertação que se poderá ver claramente tanto a concepção epifenomênica de uma intelligentsia teológica latinoamericana, quanto à recepção da crítica ao subdesenvolvimento, à da dependência enquanto unidade hermenêutica correlativa ao labor teológico sobre a libertação, que deve ser aprendida por um critério dialético-conflitivo. O conceito de libertação aparece assim como a interpretação teológica de todo um campo teórico tomado indistintamente, a saber, a teoria da dependência. Conclusão: Nada mais errôneo, então, do que tomar a correlação oposta entre dependência e libertação como constatação de semelhança entre o real teorizado (dependência) e a conceitualização hipotética de máximas de ação (libertação), uma vez que a opção pela tese de uma teoria geral (a do antiimperialismo) foi recebida dentro do fazer teológico em nome da interdisciplinaridade. O resultado implícito foi prescindir da empiria interpretada de forma autônoma em favor do móvel moral humano sob a recuperação da tradição profética. / Introduction: Liberation theology signaled a theoretical commitment to the community practice of de-privatizing the Christian faith in Latin America, supported by the Idea of liberation and its holistic implications. Consequently, the notion of liberation corresponded to the opposite equivalent of dependence within the methodological framework of the Biblical-theological approach. Thus we present in the research now submitted to evaluation, the conceptual relation that exists between Latin American theology and the criticism of the theoretical structure of underdevelopment, that is, the theory of dependence. Goal: To comprehend the meaning of the opposite correlation of liberation with regard to dependence from its specificities according to the perspective of the liberation intellectuals, and identify the way in which dependence was appropriated to respond to the socio-analytical responsive theoretical framework of these intellectuals, as well as perceive up to what point this manner of theological labor represented an epiphenomenal identity type. Methods: Historicalsystematic research of an exploratory type with a descriptive-analytical orientation, organized on classificatory patterns the layout of which seeks to indicate the evolution within the level of social interaction of the Latin American intellectuals who are disputing for the symbolic goods within the religious field, which is to say, the theological interpretation. The interpretation of the texts gathered here followed a comprehensive hermeneutical pattern presupposed within the weak thought and in the Latin American theological antilogy. Results: Stemming from the observation of the theoretical refraction of dependence toward liberation one can clearly see the epiphenomenological. concept of a Latin American theological intelligentsia as well the reception of the criticism of underdevelopment, of dependence as a hermeneutical unit correlating with the theological work on liberation, which should be learned through a dialecticalconflictual criterion. The concept of liberation thus appears as the theological interpretation of a whole theoretical field assumed indistinctly, that is, the theory of dependence. Conclusion: There is nothing more wrong, therefore, than to assume the opposite correlation between dependence and liberation as an affirmation of similarity between the theorized real (dependence) and the hypothetical conceptualization of the action maxims (liberation) since the option for a general theory (that of anti-imperialism) was received within the theological work in the name of interdisciplinarity. The implicit result was to dispense with the interpreted empiricism in an autonomous way in favor of the mobile human moral in order to recover the prophetic tradition.

The author strongly holds- in the thesis- that the Theology of liberation can inspi re the poor of South Africa to uproot the post-1994 socio-economic and political evil structures which continue unabated to impoverish them. The introductory chapter studies the reasons which motivated the author to write the thesis. It further discusses the method, the format and the limitations of the thesis. Chapter one focuses on the author's understanding of the Theology of liberation, and its historical background. Chapter two discusses the relationship between the Theology of Liberation and black theology, while chapter three contemplates on the possibility of the creation of what the author calls, An African Theology of Liberation. Chapter four studies the relationship between the Theology of liberation and the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church as taught by the pope and his council. The study of this relationship is extremely difficult because of the on-going, and seemingly insurmountable ideological differences between the two parties. The author suggests, as a solutio n, that each party seriously considers and recognizes the contextual limitations of its theology. Chapter five focuses on the implementation of the Theology of Liberat ion into the South African situation. The author highly recommends the inclusion of the veneration of the ancestors of Africa, as a perfect instrument by means of which the Theology of Liberation can succeed in achieving one of its major aims, which is to convert the poor to be leaders of their own liberation. The concluding chapter suggests concrete ways through which the Theology of Liberation can be kept alive and relevant within the South African situation. / Philosophy, Practical & Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theological Ethics)

The author strongly holds- in the thesis- that the Theology of liberation can inspi re the poor of South Africa to uproot the post-1994 socio-economic and political evil structures which continue unabated to impoverish them. The introductory chapter studies the reasons which motivated the author to write the thesis. It further discusses the method, the format and the limitations of the thesis. Chapter one focuses on the author's understanding of the Theology of liberation, and its historical background. Chapter two discusses the relationship between the Theology of Liberation and black theology, while chapter three contemplates on the possibility of the creation of what the author calls, An African Theology of Liberation. Chapter four studies the relationship between the Theology of liberation and the Social Teachings of the Catholic Church as taught by the pope and his council. The study of this relationship is extremely difficult because of the on-going, and seemingly insurmountable ideological differences between the two parties. The author suggests, as a solutio n, that each party seriously considers and recognizes the contextual limitations of its theology. Chapter five focuses on the implementation of the Theology of Liberat ion into the South African situation. The author highly recommends the inclusion of the veneration of the ancestors of Africa, as a perfect instrument by means of which the Theology of Liberation can succeed in achieving one of its major aims, which is to convert the poor to be leaders of their own liberation. The concluding chapter suggests concrete ways through which the Theology of Liberation can be kept alive and relevant within the South African situation. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Theological Ethics)