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Document Details : Title: Nieuwe Latijns-Amerikaanse beelden van Jezus Subtitle: Een christologische benadering Author(s): BRINKMAN, Martien E. Journal: Tijdschrift voor Theologie Volume: 49 Issue: 3 Date: 2009 Pages: 273-286 DOI: 10.2143/TVT.49.3.3203474 Abstract : In four steps, this article addresses the shifts in the conceptualisation of Jesus in Latin America. Paradoxical as it may seem, the article first considers the a-contextual character of Christology in the Latin American liberation theology of the 1970s and 1980s. It then argues that Latin American Mariology ushered in the breakthrough in a new christological reflection. The third step offers several examples. As conclusion, the article provides a framework for assessing new images of Jesus. Before starting on these four steps, the article first discusses the sweeping religious changes that have taken place on this continent. One of the most salient changes involves Pentecostalism. While it was initially an a-political, religious revivalist movement under heavy North American influence, one that turned away from liberation theology as well as from the many types of popular religion, today we see many Pentacostal theologians expressly sharing the lot of the poor and seeking contact with local religious awareness and the related rituals. A second eye-catching facet is liberation theologians’ new attitude toward religión popular. For decades, liberation theologians disregarded images, rites and symbols borrowed from their own cultural contexts and totally ignored the emancipatory aspects of the Marian devotion so prevalent in Latin America. A third facet that should not be omitted is the coming-out of Latin America’s women theologians. There was little place for them in the strongly masculine liberation theology of the 1970s and 1980s; if their voices were heard it was often in close association with what their male colleagues had already articulated in greater detail. That picture is changing rapidly. We now hear women theologians arguing for more attention for popular religion and drawing attention to the crucial role of Marian devotion. A fourth facet is the internal reflection going on within classical liberation theology. It is often observed that this theology has been in a state of crisis since the 1990s. The need for political and social changes remains the same in most Latin American countries, but the broad range of instruments for change have become a subject of more urgent discussion. |
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