DOMINATION AND LIBERATION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ANADIALECTICAL METHOD OF ENRIQUE DUSSEL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE

ROBERTO SEGUNDO GOIZUETA, Marquette University

Abstract

Emerging from the experience of the Latin American poor, particularly as that experience has found articulation within the basic Christian communities, Latin American liberation theology is currently undergoing a maturation process. Central to this process has been an increased concern for methodological issues. Unfortunately, much of this methodological work has gone unnoticed in the English-speaking academy--as well as in other "Europeanized" theological circles. Whatever the reasons for this oversight, it has resulted in a seriously distorted view of liberation theology on the part of some critics. This dissertation represents an attempt to move North American theological scholarship towards an understanding of Latin American liberation theology on this latter's own terms. As such, the dissertation focuses on an analysis of the method formulated by Enrique Dussel, perhaps the foremost Latin American methodologist. That analysis then serves as the basis for the second part of the dissertation, where it is argued that Dussel's method is fundamentally open to the possibility of an analogical, North American liberative method. Such an analogical relationship, in turn, suggests the possibility of genuine theological dialogue, beyond mere mutual recriminations. In order to make this argument, Bernard Lonergan's meta-method is put forward as an example of such an analogically liberative North American method, and several prominent critiques of liberation theology are examined as examples of the dangers of distorted interpretations. While these distorted interpretations perceive liberation theology as reductionist and secularist, an appreciation of the work of Dussel, Gutierrez, Segundo and others reveals such a conclusion to be unwarranted. In fact, as presented in the first part of the dissertation, Dussel's method is self-consciously non-reductionist. Genuine dialogue between North and South cannot take place, therefore, as long as influential critics of liberation theology continue to misrepresent the liberation theology movement as reductionist. Hopefully, this dissertation will, in some small way, help stem the tide of misinterpretation and advance the cause of dialogue. At least, that is its intent.

Recommended Citation

GOIZUETA, ROBERTO SEGUNDO, "DOMINATION AND LIBERATION: AN ANALYSIS OF THE ANADIALECTICAL METHOD OF ENRIQUE DUSSEL AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL DIALOGUE" (1984). Dissertations (1962 - 2010) Access via Proquest Digital Dissertations. AAI8500547.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/dissertations/AAI8500547

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