Voices 2012 1 PDF

Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians
Asociacin Ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo

Toward a Post-religional Paradigm?
EATWOT's Latin American Consultation on Religion
Hacia un Paradigma Posreligional?
Consulta Teolgica Latinoamericana sobre Religin
Para um paradigma ps-religional?
Consulta Teolgica Latino-americana sobre religio
Issue Edited by EATWOTs Latin American Theological Commission
Volume XXXV N 2012/1 New Series January-March 2012
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For some readers, it could be useful to jump
directly to the theological proposal about the Post-
religional Paradigm (pp. 239ss), to motivate and
to put in frame the reading of the whole issue.
Para algunos lectores puede ser recomenda-
ble pasar a leer en primer lugar la propuesta teo-
lgica del Paradigma pos-religional (pp. 253ss),
para enmarcar y motivar la lectura del nmero
entero.
Toward a Post-religional Paradigm
EATWOT's Latin American Consultation on Religion
Hacia un Paradigma Pos-religional
Para um Paradigma Ps-religional
Consulta Teolgica Latino-Americana sobre Religio
VOICES
Release 1.3.2
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http://InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
Advertisements' pages
- Getting the Poor Down from the Cross, 26
- Along the Many Paths of God (Book), 28
- Congresos Teolgicos de Amerindia, 46 (Spanish)
- Spong, A New Christianity for a New World, 66 (English - Spanish)
- Roger Lenaers' book translated into Indenesian Language, 102
- Toward a Planetary Theology, 122
- Another God is Possible! 144
- Latin American Agenda'2012, p. 304
- Along the Many Paths of God (Series), 152 (Spanish), 153 (English)
- XIII Simpsio Internacional IHU, 192
- Biblical Liturgical Calendar, 214
- Latin American Agenda 2012, 282
- Per i molti cammini di Dio IV, 286 (Italian)
Toward a Post-religional Paradigm
EATWOT's Latin American Consultation on REligion
Hacia un Paradigma Pos-religional
Para um Paradigma ps-religional
Consulta Teolgica Latino-Americana sobre Religio
Asociacion Ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo
Association Oecumenique des Theologiens du Tiers Monde
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VOICES
Theological Journal of EATWOT,
New Series, Volume XXXV,
Number 2012/1, January-March 2012
Toward a Post-religional Paradigm.
Issue edited by
EATWOT's Latin American Theological Commission
and International Theological Commission,
Free Digital Printable Bilingual Edition
Release 1.0 of March 20, 2012
Current version 1.3.2
ISSN: 2222-0763
- EATWOT's Theological Consultation, physically held at PUC-Minas, Pontifical Catholic
University of Minas, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil, September 2011.
- Cover and lay out: Lorenzo Barra.
- Special thanks to all the collaborators,
principally to Alice Mndez and Justiniano Liebl for translations.
If you want to print this whole Journal on paper for a local edition,
please, contact the Latin American Theological Commission
at its web, Comision.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org
asking for full resolution printable originals.
All the articles of this issue can be reproduced freely,
since given the credit to the source.
You can download VOICES freely, at::
EATWOT's web addresses:
www.eatwot.org
www.InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
www.Comision.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org
www.Comissao.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org
www.tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths
www.tiempoaxial.org/PorLosMuchosCaminos
www.tiempoaxial.org/PelosMuitosCaminhos
www.tiempoaxial.org/PerIMoltiCammini
E A T W O T
Ecumenical Association Of Third World Theologians
Asociacin ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo
A S E T T
CONTENTS - CONTENIDO - CONTEDO
Presentation/ Presentacin..........................................................................11
1. The Consultation at Belo Horizonte/ La Consulta en Belo Horizonte........15
1.1. The approach to the Consult / Planteamiento de la Consulta.................17
1.2. The papers of the experts / Las ponencias...............................................27
Post-religious Condition in Latin America. A northeaster's vision............29
Condio ps-religiosa na Amrica Latina. Viso de um nordestino.......39
Gilbraz ARAGO, Olinda, PE, Brasil
Consultation on Religion: Religious Pluralism............................................47
Consulta sobre religin: Pluralismo religioso............................................54
Consulta sobre religio: Pluralismo religioso............................................60
Vctor CODINA, Cochabamba, Bolivia
The crisis of religion on Jose COMBLIN's last thinking.............................67
La crisis de la religin en el pensamiento ltimo de Jos Comblin...........76
Jos COMBLIN
Religion Does Not Redeem...........................................................................85
La religin no redime..................................................................................94
Josef ESTERMANN, La Paz, Bolivia
8
Suspicions and Philosophical Reflections on Religion's crisis......................103
Suspeitas e reflexes filosficas em torno da crise da religio.................113
Ivone GEBARA, Camaragibe, PE, Brazil
The End of Religion or Birth of Spirituality?............................................123
Fin de la religin o nacimiento de la espiritualidad?...............................129
Rui Manuel GRCIO DAS NEVES, Brazil - India - Portugal.
Change - Significance an Challenges......................................................135
Cambio: significacin y desafos. Una nueva visin de la religin..........140
Deivit MONTEALEGRE, Buenos Aires, Argentina - Geneva, Swiss
Post-religional Paradigm? Towards a complex understanding..............145
Paradigma posreligional? Hacia una comprensin compleja del fenmeno
religioso contemporneo..........................................................................154
Alejandro ORTIZ, Puebla, Mxico
From Theism to Post-Theism: A Change in Religious Culture..................161
Del tesmo al postesmo: un cambio en la cultura religiosa...................173
Juan Diego ORTIZ, Guadalajara, Mxico
A Copernican Shift of Religion and Theology.........................................185
Cambia copernicanamente la religin. Debe cambiar la teologa.........193
Jos Amando ROBLES, Heredia, Costa Rica
Catholic Religion and Cultural Changes in Latin America & Caribe........201
Religin catlica y cambio cultural en Amrica Latina y Caribe...............208
Luigi SCHIAVO, San Jos, Costa Rica
9
Religion in a Techno-centric and Market-Based World.......... ..............215
Religion in a Thecno-centric and Market-Based World..........................226
Sinivaldo TAVARES, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil
2. Deepening and Relaunching of the Consultation
Profundizacin y relanzamiento de la Consulta.....................................237
2.1. For a Critical Theology. A contribution from Asia...........................239
Tissa BALASURIYA, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
2.2. Constituent Elements in the Post-Religional Paradigm......................251
2.2. Elementos constitutivos del paradigma pos-religional......................255
Mari CORB, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
2.3. Towards a Post-Religional Paradigm, Theological Proposal.............261
2.3. Propuesta teolgica: Hacia un paradigma pos-religional?.............275
2.3. Para um Paradigma Ps-religional. Proposta teolgica...................289
2.3. Verso un paradigma post-religionale? Proposta teolgica...............303
2.3. Vers un paradigme post-religional. Proposition Thologique.........315
EATWOT's International Theological Commission.
2.4. Practical Proposal to Work. Possible research projects....................329
2.4. Propuesta Prctica de Trabajo. Posibles proyectos de investigacin..337
Bibliography - Bibliografa.....................................................................345
10
11
Presentation of this issue
of VOICES
This is the first issue of VOICES magazine 2012. As mentioned
in the previous issue, it is dedicated to making public the results of the
Latin American Consultation about Religion, carried out by EATWOT of
Latin America, in September 2011, during the International Congress of
the PUC-Minas de Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
While showing the results of this first step made at the Congress,
the Latin American Theological Commission takes this occasion to re-
launch the topic towards a new stage in the process of this consultation,
offering a study proposal, a debate and a research proposal, mainly to
the continent, but open to the rest of the continents. Therefore, this issue
has two parts:
The Consultation itself: its objective, approach and the papers of
participating experts.
A deepening of the topic through some studies along the lines of
the concerns raised, and a theological proposal of interpretation of what
we call the post-religion paradigm, as a starting point to continue the
debate and the research.
And a final part, with a proposal for an agenda of pending top-
ics, as well as collective research work that can be discussed in the near
future.
Although the Consultation was launched only within Latin America,
the publication in the magazine, which is the theological magazine of
EATWOT, opens it to the world, inviting everybody to take part in this
Consultation as from this second stage.
12
12 Presentation
EATWOT thanks deeply all those intellectuals that have embraced
the call seriously and have made contributions so worthy of study, as well
as the PUC-Minas de Belo Horizonte, for embracing the Consultation in
the unique setting of its International Congress in September 2011. It also
thanks all friends that with their voluntary work and in the enthusiastic
monitoring of this continental dialogue, have made this issue of VOICES,
its Consultation about Religion and its promising future possible.
The next issues of VOICES, whose preparation has been under
way for some time, will deal, monographically, with the following topics:
- The great five last decades, issue dedicated to a reflection on the
fifty years since Vatican II and similar events in the Protestant Churches,
a research carried out this time by EATWOT at an intercontinental level.
- The forty years relationship between theology and liberation.
- A work agenda for the theology of the coming years, on a plan-
etary level, that will serve as the central theme for the next General
Assembly, and EATWOT wants to offer its preparatory reflections, as well
as call upon others to take up this research, which is increasingly shared
along the lines of a planetary theology.
- The forty years' intensive relationship between Theology and
Liberation, in Latin America and other Continents.
- An issue of Imaginative Theology about the future of Christianity
and Religions...
Regions and subsections of EATWOT must remember they can
contribute with a project for any issue of VOICES.
EATWOT expects VOICES to be issued on a regular basis between
4 and 6 times a year, taking advantage of the global character and flex-
ibility offered by current digital technology. On EATWOTs web page as
well as that of the International Theological Commission, we are offering
all the digital issues available of VOICES, freely. Do not miss the oppor-
tunity to visit it.
EATWOT's International Theological Commission
InternationalTheologicalCommission.org
InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
13
Presentacin de este nmero
de VOICES
ste es el primer nmero de la revista VOICES del ao 2012.
Como se anunciaba en el anterior, est dedicado a pasar al pblico los
resultados de la Consulta Latinoamericana sobre Religin realizada por
EATWOT de Amrica Latina, en septiembre de 2011, en el marco del
Congreso Internacional de la PUC-Minas de Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
Al ofrecer los resultados de este primer paso realizado en dicho
Congreso, la Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana aprovecha la ocasin
para relanzar el tema hacia una nueva etapa del proceso de esta Consulta,
ofreciendo una propuesta de estudio, de debate y de investigacin, prin-
cipalmente al Continente, pero abierta a los dems Continentes. As pues,
este nmero contiene tres partes:
La Consulta misma: su objetivo, su planteamiento, y las ponencias
de los expertos que participaron.
Una profundizacin en el tema, por medio de algunos estudios
en la lnea de la inquietud suscitada, as como de una propuesta teolgi-
ca de interpretacin del que llamamos paradigma pos-religional, como
provisional punto de partida para la continuacin e la investigacin y del
debate.
Y una parte final, con la elaboracin de una propuesta de agen-
da de temas pendientes, as como de trabajos de investigacin colectivos
susceptibles de ser acometidos en un prximo futuro.
Aunque el lanzamiento de la Consulta fue de nivel estrictamente
latinoamericano, la publicacin en esta revista, que es la revista teol-
gica de EATWOT, la abre a un mbito mundial, haciendo una invitacin
generalizada a incorporarse y participar en esta Consulta a partir de esta
segunda etapa.
14
EATWOT agradece profundamente a los estudiosos que han acogi-
do tan seriamente la convocatoria y han hecho contribuciones tan dignas
de estudio, as como a la PUC-Minas de Belo Horizonte, por la acogida
de la Consulta en el incomparable marco de su Congreso Internacional de
septiembre de 2011. Y tambin agradece a todos los amigos y amigas que
con su trabajo voluntario, y con el seguimiento entusiasta de este dilogo
continental han hecho posible este nmero de VOICES, la Consulta sobre
Religin que vehicula, y su prometedor futuro.
Los prximos nmeros de VOICES, cuya preparacin hace tiem-
po que est en marcha, van a tratar, monogrficamente, entre otros, los
siguientes temas:
- las cinco prodigiosas dcadas ltimas, nmero dedicado a
reflexionar sobre los 50 ltimos aos del cristianismo, a partir del
Concilio Vaticano II y de otros tantos eventos semejantes en las Iglesias
protestantes, una investigacin realizada esta vez a nivel de EATWOT
intercontinental;
- una agenda de trabajo para la teologa en los prximos aos, a
nivel planetario. Es el tema que se propuso y que trabaj el WFTL en
Dakar, Senegal, en 2011. Este nmero de VOICES, que va a ser un nme-
ro conjunto de la EATWOT y del WFTL, va a recoger lo que en Dakar se
vivi, tratando de dar un nuevo paso en la misma bsqueda, invitando
para ello a las firmas ms autorizadas sobre la agenda de trabajo que la
teologa pudiera proponerse a s misma a nivel planetario, pensando en
una teologa planetaria...
- los 40 aos de la relacin intensiva entre Teologa y Liberacin,
vividos tanto en Latinoamrica como en los dems continentes.
- un nmero de teologa imaginativa sobre el futuro del cristianis-
mo y de las religiones...
Recuerden las regiones y subsecciones de EATWOT que pueden
ofrecer algn proyecto de nmero de VOICES.
Estamos apuntando a que VOICES pase a ofrecer, ya de una mane-
ra estable, entre 4 y 6 nmeros por ao, aprovechando la flexibilidad y
globalidad que permite la informtica actual. En la pgina de EATWOT y
de la Comisin Teolgica Internacional estamos ofreciendo libremente al
pblico los nmeros de VOICES, en formato digital. No deje de visitarla.
Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT
InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
14 Presentacin
15

1.1. The approach to the Consult
1.1. Planteamiento de la Consulta
16
17
The Consultation
The Latin American Theological Consultation that EATWOT has
started in the Continent, and this issue of VOICES wishes to pass on to
the people, is an initiative in a way against the current. The main current
of the river of religion in Latin America, does not talk of crisis but of
vitality and in certain aspects even of ardour and enthusiasm. In Brazil,
the largest country in Latin America, the Pentecostal and Neo-pentecostal
movement continues to boom, as from the last decades, accounting
already about eighty million followers, 40% of the countrys population.
The charismatic Pentecostal movement, in just a few decades has been
growing and consolidating in all the world reaching various hundreds of
millions of believers and becoming one of the major transformations in
the map of Christianity, which has occurred within the shortest period of
time in history. An additional data: the charismatic-pentecostal movement
in Europe has not had much impact. ?
Against this data of religious ferment, there are others, opposing, of
situations of religious crisis and abandonment by believers. Generalising,
we could say that half the world is in religious ferment and half is in
crisis. And we cannot separate one half form the other by a geographical
line: both halves are together and frequently mingled, and are not always
distinguishable.
Data is very contradictory. Sometimes, as in great Latin American
urban places, in the same society we have opposing data of religious fer-
ment and growth on one hand, and crisis, abandonment and even apos-
tasy on the other. Being so contradictory the observable data of the pres-
ent situation, diagnosis may be far apart, and well backed by numbers.
What is really happening in the field of religion? We think there is
no one answer. There are many things happening, many processes, com-
plex and sometimes apparently opposite.
18
Maybe, in this time of freedom and pluralism we have entered, of
spontaneity and lack of social control, the religious world in a way is
becoming polarised in its evolution, contemplating in itself the develop-
ment of contrary phenomena: on the one hand revivals, enthusiasms,
pentecostalisms and returns to ways and forms of the past, and on the
other hand an evolution towards securalism that has never been so pro-
found and seems to take us inside a really new era, a novum historicum,
which some are qualifying as a new post-religious paradigm.
Be it clear that we acknowledge other realities, that we do not
ignore them or negate them, but simply, we want to concentrate on this
new process, really new one, unlike revivals and neo movements, which
we already know and that signify both the survival of the past and a
return to it.
Institutions and countries that, as the reader will see, have partici-
pated in this Consultation in a direct way are Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina,
Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia and Panama. We have also enjoyed the
collaboration of CETRE, Centre of Studies of Religious Traditions, from
Barcelona. The Latin American Theological Commission had participated
in previous years in some activities similar to this Consultation they were
really first-time attempts to implement it- in countries like Costa Rica
and Mexico. Also some magazines in the Continent have started to say
something, such as Alternativas, from Managua, Nicaragua, which has
already produced a monographic issue about this topic, and many other
have published articles about it. We are not then at ground zero, a starting
point without antecedents. Intuition has been opening its path long time
ago, and now seems called upon to become strong and be presented for-
mally to the Latin American continent, by the Latin American Theological
Commission, and to the world through VOICES, the theological magazine
of EATWOT. And we are very happy that this is so.
EATWOTs Latin American Theological Commission
Comision.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org/indexEnglish.html
18 Consultation
19
La Consulta
La Consulta Teolgica Latinonamericana que EATWOT ha inicia-
do en el Continente, y este nmero de VOICES que pretende pasarla al
gran pblico, son una iniciativa en cierto modo a contracorriente. La
corriente principal del ro de la religin en Amrica Latina, en efecto, no
habla de crisis, sino de vitalidad y, en algunos aspectos, hasta de fervor
y entusiasmo. Por referirnos al mayor pas latinoamericano, Brasil, el
movimiento pentecostal y neopentecostal contina all en auge, desde
las ltimas dcadas, contabilizando ya unos ochenta millones de fieles,
el 40% de la poblacin del pas. El movimiento pentecostal carismtico,
desde hace apenas unas dcadas, ha ido creciendo y consolidndose en
todo el mundo hasta alcanzar varios centenares de millones de fieles y
convertirse en una de las transformaciones cuantitativamente mayores del
mapa del cristianismo, que se han producido en el menor lapso de tiem-
po de toda la historia. Un dato complementario y matizador: en Europa
el movimiento pentecostal-carismtico no ha tenido mayor incidencia... ?
Frente a estos datos de efervescencia religiosa, pueden fcilmente
aducirse otros, contrarios, de situaciones de crisis religiosa y de abando-
no por parte de los fieles. Se puede generalizar diciendo que en medio
mundo la religin est en efervescencia, y en el otro medio est en crisis.
Y no se puede separar esas dos mitades del mundo por una simple raya
geogrfica: los dos medios mundos estn juntos, y con frecuencia bien
mezclados, y no siempre se dejan distinguir.
Los datos son bien contradictorios. A veces, como ocurre en las
grandes urbes latinoamericanas, en la misma sociedad tenemos datos con-
trarios de efervescencia religiosa y crecimiento por una parte, y de crisis,
20
abandono y hasta apostasa por otra. Y al ser tan contradictorios los datos
observables, de la situacin actual se pueden hacer los diagnsticos ms
dispares, y para todos ellos hay datos con los que respaldarlos.
Qu est aconteciendo pues en el campo religioso? Creemos
que no hay una respuesta nica. Estn pasando muchas cosas, se estn
dando muchos procesos, complejos, y a veces aparentemente opuestos.
Tal vez, en este peculiar tiempo en que hemos entrado, de libertad
y de pluralismo, de espontaneidad y falta de control social, el mundo
religioso, de alguna manera, se est polarizando en su evolucin, contem-
plando en su seno el desarrollo de fenmenos contrarios: por una parte
los revivals, los entusiasmos, los pentecostalismos y las vueltas a modos
y formas del pasado, y por otra una evolucin secularizante que nunca
ha revestido tal profundidad, y que parece llevarnos y adentrarnos en una
era realmente nueva, un novum histricum, que algunos estn comenzan-
do a calificar como un nuevo paradigma pos-religional.
Quede claro pues que no negamos las otras realidades, que no las
desconocemos ni las ignoramos, sino que, simplemente, nos queremos
concentrar en este proceso nuevo, realmente nuevo, a diferencia de los
revivals y los movimientos neo, que ya nos son conocidos y nos signifi-
can tanto la pervivencia del pasado como la vuelta hacia el mismo.
Instituciones y pases que, como ver el lector, han participado en
esta Consulta de un modo directo son Brasil, Bolivia, Argentina, Mxico,
Costa Rica, Colombia y Panam. Tambin hemos disfrutado de la cola-
boracin del CETR, Centro de Estudio de las Tradiciones Religiosas, de
Barcelona. La Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana ya haba participado
en aos anteriores en algunas actividades semejantes a esta Consulta
-eran en realidad intentos primerizos por ponerla en marcha- en pases
como Costa Rica y Mxico. Tambin, algunas revistas del Continente,
como Alternativas, de Managua, Nicaragua, ya ha elaborado ms de un
nmero monogrfico sobre este tema; muchas otras ya han dado cabida a
artculos sobre el tema. No estamos pues en un punto cero, un punto de
partida sin antecedentes. La intuicin se viene abriendo paso desde hace
tiempo, y ahora parece llamada a cobrar fuerza y ser presentada formal-
mente al Continente latinoamericano, por parte de la Comisin Teolgica
Latinoamericana, y al mundo, por medio de VOICES, la revista teolgica
de EATWOT. Estamos muy felices de que as sea.
Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana de la EATWOT
Comision.Teologica.Latinoamericana.org
20 La Consulta
21
Latin American Consultation on Religion
Call for papers
It is not yet 50 years ago that for believers religion was only one,
the one they believed in. This was considered the only one to bring sal-
vation to the world. Everywhere religion was considered to have a pre-
existence, coming directly from God, as a divine wisdom unquestionably
necessary for access to God.
Today, here and there, in a way everywhere, the vision of religion
is changing. For a while now, we are getting used to a certain change of
address. It is now common to hear that religion is a human construction,
cultural, finite, contingent and ambiguous, able to help as well as hin-
der the relationship with the transcendence. Today there is a clear distinc-
tion between religion and spirituality, realities that in the past tended to
mingle. The instrumental character of religion is generally recognised in
favour of a deep re-binding, and an intrinsic underestimation of religion
is accepted In many places, in different sectors of societies, the culture
of pluralism has expelled religion of its throne pretending to be the one
true religion, making them turn humbly into one religion more among
others, and from being a divine act, a grace coming directly from God, it
is now seen as a human construction, sometimes too human.
All this makes us now subliminally perceive religion in a totally dif-
ferent way as to how our ancestors did, or even we did until only some
decades ago. A new (auto)understanding of religion is breaking its way
and is spreading slowly but widely, occupying a great part of the stage
even in the midst of massive noisy conservative religious manifestations.
Well, in spite of all this, there is no systematic reflection in the field
of theology about this transformation, its significance and challenges. And
it is not only that this theological reflection has not been produced yet,
but in the field of theology there has not even been what we might call
a first reception of the change in perception to which we refer. Theology,
up to now, in general, has not acknowledged this radical change in the
understanding of religion which is spreading progressively. The religious
and theological observatories in our region have not yet sent an alarm
about this.
We think it is due time to delve in this topic, which we could call for
the time being a new vision of religion or a new religious paradigm,
22
whose coming will inevitably result in a crisis of religion. In the most
classic nomenclature, we would say we are heading towards a new the-
ology of religion.
The questions are already mature in society and in some reduced
sectors of the Churches. The Sciences of Religion do have a lot of research
and production in this field. Theology needs to host explicitly this topic,
and say a word, a first word this time more from the sciences of religion
and science in general than from philosophy.
In the Latin American Theological Commission of ASETT/EATWOT
we have been following this topic for some time worried because we
think it needs a systematic approach. We have taken part in activities and
investigations at university level, about this topic in countries such as
Costa Rica (2005) and Mexico (2009 and 2011)
This is why we believe it convenient to have a Theological
Consultation among qualified field observers who can give a clear
vision of the shift of perspectives taking place, some guidelines about
the unpredictable future that awaits religion, and the new issues theology
should face, to start on the way towards a new Theology of Religion, if
necessary. We would like to ask:
- What is happening to religion? What are the changes taking
place in its perception and conceptualisation?
- What traditional theological elements are being challenged?
- How can we design a map of the transformations in the
understanding of religion that have taken place in theological thought?
- Should we consider starting on the road to a new theology of
religion? How?
We make this Consultation with the aim of starting a long-range
process of reflection, with no hurry, to produce a collective investigation
that will definitely place the question about religion in the Latin American
theological concern. We hope it will invite pastors as well as thinkers and
society in general, to bring forward this new topic and will start a series
of reflections and reactions over it.
Academic Structure
This Consultation of EATWOT/ASETT will take place within the IV
International Symposium of Theology and Sciences of Religion, organised
by the Pontificia Universidad de Minas, Belo Hoizonte, Brazil (www.puc-
minas.br/ppgcr/tcr/index_padrao.php). One of its activities will be dedi-
cated to this topic and participation can be made directly by attending
(prior enrolment) or sending a written participation or communication
through the Latin American Theological Commission of EATWOT.
Due date of reception for papers will be August 2011.
22 Consultation - Call for Papers
23
Planteamiento
No hace todava 50 aos, para los ceyentes, la religin era slo una,
la propia, que era considerada la nica que poda traer la salvacin al
mundo. Por todas partes la religin era considerada como dotada de un
tipo de preexistencia, proveniente directamente de Dios, como un cuerpo
de sabidura divina indiscutiblemente necesario para el acceso hacia Dios.
Hoy da, por aqu y por all, un poco por todas partes, se est
pasando a una visin distinta de la religin. De un tiempo a esta parte,
estamos comenzando a acostumbrarnos a un cierto cambio de discur-
so. Ahora es frecuente or hablar de la religin como una construccin
humana, cultural, finita, contingente... y ambigua, capaz tanto de ayudar
como de dificultar la relacin con la transcendencia. Hoy ya es un lugar
comn la distincin neta entre religin y espiritualidad, realidades que
antiguamente parecan confundirse. Se reconoce generalmente el carcter
instrumental de la religin en favor de la religacin profunda, y se da
como por supuesta una minusvaloracin intrnseca de la religin... En
muchos lugares, en diferentes sectores de las sociedades, la cultura del
pluralismo ha expulsado a las religiones del pretencioso trono de ser la
nica religin verdadera, hacindolas pasar a ser, ms humildemente,
una una religin ms entre otras, y de ser una obra divina, un don pro-
veniente de Dios mismo, est pasando a ser vista como una construccin
humana, a veces demasiado humana.
Todo esto hace que subliminalmente vayamos percibiendo a la reli-
gin ahora de manera muy distinta a como la vivieron nuestros antepasa-
dos, o a como la hemos vivido nosotros mismos hasta hace apenas unas
dcadas. Una nueva (auto)comprensin de la religin se est abriendo
paso y se est difundiendo lenta pero ampliamente, llegando a estar pre-
sente en una buena parte del escenario aun en medio de manifestaciones
religiosas masivas conservadoras efervescentes incluso, no obsta-.
Pues bien, a pesar de ello, no existe en el campo teolgico una
reflexin sistemtica que d cuenta de esta transformacin, de su signifi-
Consulta latinoamericana sobre religin
Convocatoria
24
cacin y sus desafos. Y no es slo que no ha sido todava elaborada una
reflexin teolgica sobre el tema, sino que no se ha dado en el mbito
teolgico lo que podramos llamar una primera recepcin del cambio de
percepcin al que nos referimos. La teologa, por ahora, como conjunto,
no se ha dado por enterada todava de este cambio radical que va avan-
zando progresivamente en la comprensin de la religin. Los observa-
torios teolgicos y religiosos de nuestra Regin todava no han enviado
ninguna alarma al respecto.
Creemos que es hora de abordar este tema, que podramos llamar
provisionalmente una nueva visin de la religin, o un nuevo paradig-
ma religioso, cuyo advenimiento conllevar, inevitablemente, una crisis
de la religin. En la nomenclatura ms clsica, diramos que vamos hacia
una nueva teologa de la religin.
Estn maduras las preguntas en la sociedad y en algn sector muy
reducido de las Iglesias. Las Ciencias de la Religin, s tienen mucho
investigado y producido en ese campo. Falta que la Teologa acoja expl-
citamente el tema, y diga tambin una palabra, aunque sea inicial, palabra
que esta vez ser ms a partir de las ciencias de la religin y de la ciencia
en general que a partir de la filosofa.
Desde la Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana de la ASETT/
EATWOT hace tiempo que vamos dando seguimiento con preocupacin
a este tema, que nos parece que necesita un abordaje sistemtico. Hemos
intervenido en actividades e investigaciones de rango universitario, con
este tema como objetivo de investigacin, en pases como Costa Rica
(2005) y Mxico (2009 y 2011)...
Por eso creemos conveniente hacer una Consulta teolgica a
observadores de campo cualificados que puedan dar una visin clara del
corrimiento de perspectivas que se est dando, de los grandes rasgos
del futuro impredecible que nos espera, y de las nuevas cuestiones que
la teologa debera afrontar, para ponernos en camino hacia una nueva
Teologa de la religin, si fuera necesario. Queremos preguntarnos:
-qu est pasando con la religin?
-cules son los cambios que se estn dando en su peercepcin y
conceptuacin?
-qu elementos teolgicos tradicionales se ven desafiados?
-cmo trazar un mapa ordenado de las transformaciones que la
autocomprensin de la religin est experimentando en el propio pensa-
miento teolgico?
-habra que pensar en ponerse en marcha hacia una nueva teo-
loga de la religin?, cmo?
24 Consulta latinoamericana sobre Religin
25
Hacemos la Consulta con la intencin de desatar un proceso de
reflexin de largo alcance, sin prisas, y para producir un libro colectivo
que coloque definitivamente la pregunta por la religin en la pauta futura
de la preocupacin teolgica latinoamericana. Que invite, tanto a pasto-
res como a pensadores y a la sociedad en general, a tomar conciencia
de este tema nuevo, y que desencadene un una serie de reflexiones y
reacciones sobre el mismo.
Estructura acadmica
Esta Consulta de EATWOT/ASETT va a ser realizada en el seno del
IV Simpsio Internacional de Teologia e Cincias da Religio, organizado
por la Pontifcia Universidade de Minas, de Belo Horizonte, Brasil. Una
de sus sesiones ser dedicada a este tema, y en ella se puede participar
tanto hacindose presente (previa inscripcin), cuanto enviando una
participacin o comunicacin escrita a travs de la ASETT. Portal del
Simposio: www.pucminas.br/ppgcr/tcr/index_padrao.php
Fecha tope de recepcin de trabajos: fin de agosto de 2011.
La Consulta misma se realiz en los das 12 a 14 de septiembre.
A continuacin se tendra unas jornadas de trabajo con un equi-
po de expertos, para estudiar las ponencias presentadas en la Consulta,
elaborar alguna reflexin pertinente, y trazar las posibilidades de futuro
para la profundizacin en el proceso de investigacin de esta Consulta,
los temas de estudio a proponer, las posibles publicaciones a realizar...
Convocatoria
26
Getting the Poor Down From the Cross
Cristology of Liberation
In 30 days after the Noti-
cation against Jon Sobrino,
the EATWOT's International
Theological Commission re-
quested and collected the
contributions of more than 40
theologians, from all over the
world, to reect and testify
about their theological work,
as getting the poor down from
the cross.
As a result, there is this
digital book, which in its rst
week -40 days after the Noti-
cation- registered more than
three thousand downloads.
It continues to be on line
for downloading in several
languages (English, Spanish,
Italian) and in paper (English,
Spanish, Portuguese).
Getting the Poor Down from the Cross: still on line digital edition, which was
printed on paper in many places, 314 pp
Bajar de la cruz a los pobres: edicin digital en lnea, y tambin una edicin en
papel, por Dabar, Mxico 293 pp.
Descer da Cruz os Pobres: edio s em papel, pela Paulinas, So Paulo, 357 pp
Deporre i poveri dalla croce: edizione soltanto digitale, nella rete.
More information at the webpage:
See also, alternatively: servicioskoinonia.org/LibrosDigitales
Printable originals with full resolution can still be requested for local editions
without prot purposes.
A classical work of EATWOT's International Theological Commission
27

1.2. The papers of the experts
1.2. Las ponencias
28
Along the Many Paths
Latin American theology is
associated with liberation, basic
Christian communities, primacy of
the praxis and option for the poor.
The present volume shows that
Latin American theologians added
new themes to the previous ones:
religious pluralism, inter-religious
dialogue and macro-ecumenism.
It is the fruit of a programme of
the Theological Commission of the
Ecumenical Association of Third
World Theologians (EATWOT) in
Latin American, to work out a
liberation theology of religions.
This volume summarizes the
three rst ones of the series of ve
volumes.
J.M.VIGIL, Luiza TOMITA, Marcelo BARROS (eds.)
Foreword: Pedro CASALDLIGA
Series : Interreligious Studies, edited by Frans Wijsen and Jorge Castillo
Published by the Chair of World Christianity at Radboud University Nijmegen
Distributed in North Amrica by Transactions Publishers: orders@transactionspub.com
Distributed in UK by Global Book Marketing, London, www.centralbooks.co.uk
Distributed from Germay: Lit Verlag, Berlin and Mnster: www.lit-verlag.de
29
Post-religious Condition in Latin Amrica
A northeaster's vision
Gilbraz ARAGO *
Olinda, PE, Brasil
Resumo:
Como a gente pode ver reflexivamente a prpria f, entre outras
tradies humanas? Como a gente pode perceber que os deuses so
humanos e, o humano, divino? A reflexo deste testemunho se desenvolve
em duas partes. Primeiro, apresenta um relato autobiogrfico de como
o autor descobriu, atravs de uma goteira na sua igreja da infncia, a
dimenso de coisa feita e construda na experincia religiosa: No que
se transformaram as minhas primeiras e mais marcantes experincias de
gente? E onde foi parar (o) meu Deus?!. A partir da, tematiza uma con-
dio ps-religional que est presente entre pessoas que se encontram
na passagem para uma cosmoviso ps-moderna e/ou ps-metafsica,
solicitando a disponibilizao hermenutica das mensagens de todas as
tradies espirituais, para quem delas necessite em seu processo de for-
mao (e transcendncia) humana e humanizante.
Palavras-chave: Fenomenologia religiosa, Secularizao, Dilogo
inter-religioso.
Abstract:
How could we see reflectively our own faith, among other human
traditions? How could we realize that gods are human and the human one
is divine? This testimony reflection is developed in two parts. First of all,
it - the testimony - presents an autobiographic relate concerning the way
how this author. Has discovered, through a goteira
2
in his childhood
church building, the dimension of a coisa feita
3
and built in a religious
experience which have turned into first and most remarkable personal
experiences? And where has my god been meant to stop?. Thenceforth,
it - this testimony - turns into a real thematic a post-religionist condition
*
Department of religious studies, Universidade Catlica de Pernambuco (Brazil). E-mail:
gilbraz@unicap.br
2
Goteiras drip a falling, or letting fall, in drops.
3
Coisa Feita sorcery pretended employment of supernatural agencies.
30
Oh! My God, mayest thou
4
give me courage
Of living three hundred and sixty five days and nights,
All of them empty of thy presence.
Mayest thou give me the courage of considering this emptiness
As a plenitude.
Mayest thou make from me thy humble mistress,
Interwoven with thee in ecstasy.
Mayest thou make me able to speak to thee
With this tremendous emptiness
And to receive as an answer
Thy motherly love that nourishes and lulls to sleep.
Mayest thou make me to have the courage of loving thee
Without hating thy offences against my soul and my body.
Mayest thou not allow that solitude destroys me.
Mayest thou make my solitude serving me as a true company.
Mayest thou make me having the courage of confronting myself.
Mayest thou make me learn to remain with nothingness.
And even so to feel myself
As if I should be full of everything.
Mayest thou shelter in thy arms
My sin of thinking
On the pretext of this testimony, in a lighter way, I have reminded
this prayer made by a jewess-agnostic, Clarice Lispector, who grew up
in Recife and there she looked for courage in order to move away from
her God aiming at experiencing a new knowledge in solitude company
we ourselves - that in this symposium about religion and culture, have
glimpsed a postreligionist tendency in the information cultures that are
that used to be present among peoples that find themselves in their transit
toward a postmodern and/or a post-metaphysical worldview, demanding
all spiritual traditions messages hermeneutics availability, for those ones
that would need them - the above mentioned messages - in their human
and humanizing formation process.
Key words: Religious phenomenology Secularization
Interreligious dialogue.
4
Thou Thee Thy Thine archaic terms, except in biblical homiletic, elevated, or poetic
language, in prayers to a deity.
30 Gilbraz ARAGO
31
spread throughout the globalized world, we could as well as her make
a similar prayer (event if it would be the last one) because it is in the
silent solitude in front of reality, recognized as a mystery that we need, as
it can bee known, putting aside convictions brought out from childhood,
even regarding to our God, as well as concerning the world and human-
ity itself. It is not easy for us becoming empty from our convictions in
order to be able thinking, interrogating ourselves, constructing science,
acquiring a more universal knowledge concerning everything, becoming
ourselves more conscious as well as more consequent.
Would there be something postreligious in Latin America that would
deserve a postreligionist, departing from the theologians and from the
religious studies? We are not dealing only with the Religion Less increas-
ing phenomenon: 6,7% in Brazil, according to recent Mapa das Religies
da Fundao Getlio Vargas (Getlio Vargas Foundation Religious Map),
reminding that this index arises to 17,4% among masters and doctors
degree bearers persons. I have in mind that this postreligious thematic
touches much more broadly a cultural new sensitivity that since a long
time is also found up in afro-latin-indian lands. Year by year, on the occa-
sion of my birthplace town patron saint feast day, for instance a group
of half a hundred of my fellow countrymen use to go on a walk from
our States Capital until there: the pilgrims must carry with themselves,
no more than a rucksack with clothes, water a shepherds staff, a little
white flag and a great faith in order to face a hundred and seventy (170)
kilometers, in a walk for six days. All of us were in search for spiritual-
ity, self-surmount and transcendence in this Caminho de Santo Amaro
(so to say Saint Amarus Path), but the major part these did not use to
go on account of any believing in the above-mentioned Saint. I can share
with you, as a matter of fact, a reported personal experience. I was born
in a small town inhabited by coffee growers, in the Pernambucos stony,
mountain range of North-Eastern named Taquaritinga - do Norte, called
this way, i. e. of North, in order to avoid any confusion concerned with its
homonymous one placed in So Paulo which also itself searched out
in the Tupi
5
its mean geographical accident denomination: Ita-coara-et-
tinga a huge and white stone hole or more simply a cavern. Well then,
I am fully pleased being able going back-retrieving to this childhood and
youth cavern (a dream like one) of mine, whenever I evaluating the
paths, the routes, the courses my existence caught out. This is a natural
movement: I start going up to this mountain range and my reality hot
weight comes in to confront with the light wishes that come out from my
life dawn view. What have done concerning the way people have behaved
toward me? What have my first and most remarkable personal experi-
5
Tupi plural tupis or tupi member of any of a group of south american indian tribes.
Post-religious Condition in Latin Amrica. A northeaster's vision 31
32
ences transformed in? What have I allowed people making regarding to
my dreams? And where have I noticed having stopped my God?
A strong reminiscence leads me to realize that, at least on a special
aspect, my struggle for life in my existence has been developed in full
coherence with the discoveries I started making in Taquaritinga - and
that, nowadays, in the academic surrounding where I am living now at, I
am just trying recovering from my past clouds: in order to be able, God
does
6
know it, to help whomsoever that perhaps would be afraid reflect-
ing about things he/she could consider as sacred ones. I do understand
whom that fears looking for his/her reasons for his/her faith and their
own convictions, but I think that, especially in these times which the
Gods name in are invoked for justifying even wars, it is a worthwhile
this effort for illustration. It is just on account of this circumstance that
I partake with everybody these reminiscences of mine. I used to be a
scout myself and to like as much encamping as much praying. In this
perspective, I used to go to my church nearly all the evenings during my
childhood.
But in one of those evenings, during the winter, the thunder
rumble defied my childish ascetic spirit and even so I went to mass in
order to act as an assistant to Father Arago - of dearly missed memory.
The church building outstood over everything in town on account of its
higher level than the square one and by its - churchs buildings - con-
struction grandeur. I knew that my grandfather had participated in the
mutires
7
in order to build that sacred place, but the latin language
used in the novenas
8
and their incense uses, the liturgies solemnity that
there marked everybodys life from birth to death, the meeting cultural
point that the church building represented every Sunday and feast days,
made me forgetting, induced me to forget that all those circumstances
were a mere human construction.
Diving ourselves into a church building welcoming silence is truly,
unconsciously the same event as there being able to return to our exis-
tence social uterus
9
. Religion, as it was said by Kierkegaard, is infinite
passion
10
, a symbolical experience (either in extraordinary terms, either
6
It is suitable emphasizing that the verb to do can be used in its affirmative form as a rein-
forcing auxiliary verb. T.E.
7
Mutiro task force joint efforts toward a social enterprise gratis joint work, accom-
plished in order to help one person or a whole community.
8
Novenas in the Roman Catholic Church, a devotion consisting of a prayer said on nine
successive days, asking for some special blessing.
9
Uterus symbolical use: the place where everything is engendered or brought into life.
10
Passion an eager outreaching of mind toward some special object, as art, travel etc, as
fervid devotion.
32 Gilbraz ARAGO
33
in pedagogical ones) peculiar to the human heart, a kind of commo-
tion endowed with a plus power which we may bet in front of the so
many deaths that limit our humanity. It - religion - is a ghost fineness
that dilates our deepest ego and ravishes our mind and allows us see-
ing beyond the sensitive things and being able constructing - in spite of
everything - goodness and beauty, feeling ourselves confidently bound to
everything and everybody.
Just until that evening! For it occurred then, in that evening, as I
was alone, before the mass, while I was arranging the ornaments near to
the high altar, the water downpour burst into the church building trough
a big goteira
11
provoking in me a great fear for I thought that the whole
ceiling was falling down. In minutes lapse, my whole childish assurance
relinquished me in this sacred sanctuary and so I have led, better told
dragged, into a ripening process concerning the religion experiencing
way. Well then, as a kind of flash of lightening upon me, I have discov-
ered that the sacrarium that was just there since a long time (our parish
dates from 1801) could - the above mentioned sacrarium - then get rusty
and the Hosts
12
would become deteriorated, I discovered also that those
salvation and mystic communion symbols of mine were needing that I
would save them through some so prosaic providences
And then I escaped from there, running in search of help. It is pain-
ful for you becoming conscious of your faith and trying being consequent
with such a discovery. Especially because it - this discovery - implies
recognizing, for ever - again and again - the faith contraposition: which
is not well said atheism - in view of that nobody is completely atheist -
but in other word we should be in front of idolatry. But we should get
humanized as we will remove blindfold from us regarding to our idols
(the most religious they - our idols - would be) and come to call them
by their names - catching, thus, a glimpse, later on, of the nameless. Of
course, this so large exercise costs a lot. In my case, the sudden starting
traumatism has been in such an intensity that I have become specialist in
such a matter, as a kind of necessity. And so only I have discovered that
if religion, as a passion, is, as a last resort, an inebriated emotional sur-
render, a penultimate word, however, at least, must be said by reason: in
order that the whole body would not come into suffering, our loves and/
or our gods and the things associated with them would not, also, come,
as in my case, literally into darem ngua
13
.
11
See note number 1.
12
Host usually in capital letters: in the Roman Catholic, Greek, Lutheran and some other
Churches, the Eucharistic bread or wafer before or after consecration.
13
Darem ngua also darem com os burros ngua coming into the nothingness - result-
ing into failure, colapse. Lit. in leading the jackasses to plunge into the water.
34
And I, myself, have come to get marked by that goteira in such
a measure that my life principal work has been until nowadays, a result
from that occurrence or, at least, it - my life - has full inspiration in that
event: searching understanding our values and meanings significations
- nucleus, liberating our northeaster - tupiniquim
14
culture ethical-
mythical ensemble, in order that we should be able to know the way it
- this ensemble - has been made and so, in case of being this way, to be
able acting the same way again. To be a theologian - I do my utmost to
be one - is taking care of this mission: to reinterpreter the christianism
experience, traditionally presented in mythical, liturgical and moral key,
through images that are the most possible near to the divine one, bear-
ers of the Homo da Galilia
15
more human sanctity. In front of same
saints, with reference more to the Conselheiro
16
than Frei Damio, it is
desirable that we should put no dependence upon supernatural miracles
in our in human promises, but we could help ourselves transforming our
life in a more-than-natural miracle of love - that is (more than) human,
well then, it was this fact, in germ, still embryonically, happened to me in
that fateful evening and this is what that I try regaining recovering - and
developing since I have become a theologian apprentice.
I remember that I spent hours and hours in thinking where did
the bible come from that, there, in the church building, in despite of its
sacredness aura, was then under the risk, fragilely, of suffering all kind of
fragility. We were in front of a book, composed by men (even if inspired,
evidently), who could have made another, a different one - how it is
used to be made elsewhere (with other revelations). And who should
invent that sacred architecture that from now on would look like to me
so cleaned out in front of me and washedly
17
human? And about the
beatas
18
moralistic sermons? Why do I need them - i. e. their sermons?
And why are we used to go to mass so happily, so skipping, even if this
religious uses to be called sacrifice?
14
Tupiniquim related to a Brazilian indian group the tupi (tupis) mostly employed in dis-
paraging sense.
15
Homo da Galilia - Galilea big, great man. Homo is a popular euphemistic term rela-
tively, in this Testimony, similar to the Man upstairs.
16
Conselheiro, Antnio: the Counselor A Brazilian layman that acts in his own account,
non-formally, as a priest, a minister, with de facto religious great authority and
popular ascendency - this kind of leader is called by Beatos, i.e. sanctimonious N.B
this Testimony makes a comparison between the Counselor and Friar Damien, a
Franciscan popular preacher, had, also as, a saint, in traditional types but without
direct social preoccupation.
17
Lavadamente- whashedly whasably purifyingly.
18
Beatas - churchy cockroaches, commonly had as dissimulated women, fussy church
attenders.
34 Gilbraz ARAGO
35
And why the world, which I viewer as bearing good news through
television that reached my home, was prayed here - at church - as a
tears valley to be overpassed under suspicion? And why was I obliged
to kneel myself when it was registered that one presence, that one
who wanted so much being heard, attended in his claim - Let them, the
childish people, come to me - to get me hugged by him, beside the other
children and being given by him a lot of delighted smacks? I have to
confess that from that evening on I can as far kneel myself in the hour
dedicated to pardon, but on account of pure rapture I have never more
kneeled myself in church building.
I was a nearly an adolescent and I have just read in my cousins
books that there is more morality in the mountain lake than in the
worlds cathedrals (Rousseau) - even though, in that age, I should be,
by myself secretly convict of this truth: There is more power in a girls
beautiful face than in the universes all icons. But it is occurred in the
evening that the damned goteira dragged in a true water torrent my
faith naivety: my universal truths and secure certainties canopy vanished
out and this fact has obliged me studying religion and put it - my faith
- within a context its - my faith one - commandments, but also it - that
event - has emancipated me for broader religious experiences search than
those ones of my parents and for more refined (and sweetly more simple)
religious spaces than those ones of Taquaritingas church.
This initiatical way toward the parts where all gods of ours are
forged (and/or with the aim of discovering by ourselves the way how
we have been created for divinity itself) is dangerous and tortuous as it
occurs with any youngster initiation. But this is the doorway for maturity
in order that we should be able to find again our faith experience, as
a confident handing over to reality in a more human and loving - even
though precarious, as it uses to be all human love. In order to allow
ourselves carrying out by the Sopro da Vida (life blowing): he permits
us perceiving through ourselves that, within all loving rapport, a deter-
mined word speaks to us processually - revelation - interpretating itself
that makes a difference in life (in such a way that gods word is not only
present in the sacred books, not either only in the Christian literature
in order to rebuild, at last, finally, Jesus movement, departing from our
childwood mountains: now with our flesh walls, for it is in this matter
that Christs Spirit likes staying even tough with the possibility, still, of
more goteiras.
I imagine that a lot of you, here, partake of these questions and
imaginations. For, I think that this idea of transforming into a theme,
as religious scientists or lead theologians, a postreligionist (not exactly
post-religious, but post exclamation, this common attitude if God does
36
want), which it is already innerly present among human persons and
groups that, also among us in Latin America (this global village recess)
find ourselves in a passage position toward a postmodern cosmovision
and/or maybe a postmetaphysics, this is exactly the propitious time-space
for us partaking, systematizing and maturating, in an adequate way to
this time spirit, these angoisses, glamours, these inquiries that always
we must work hard in order to achieve a maturity in life. As I get myself
confronted with this invitation for thinking divinity in our lives, at a new
axial time; with another epistemological frame of references, less dualis-
tic and more relational, within a ternary truth perspective, focusing the
between and beyond scenarios, I feel myself in front of an initiation
true ritual: we need a solitary courage - but within a true solidarity - in
order to get us free even from (which one we imagine being) divinity in
order to reflect regarding to our convictions goteiras and only then we
can feel ourselves in a full assurance in making science - for surely, in a
certain loftiness of the whole knowledge, we shall be able founding out
again more truly the sacred ones transparency among us.
Will it be possible that human globalization and the cultural plural-
ism that we start carrying on our existence nowadays, resulted from the
locomotion modern means, the communications evolution and energy
and new forms are they truly leading us to a new axial time? It is emerg-
ing among the religions studies experts the hypotheses which according
to we are coming in the religions traditional historical figure transforma-
tion process. We have become aware of the fact that all the people and
the earth, i.e., we are tied up among us so that only together we must
face our common mission of saving our lives. In this perspective, it is not
possible understanding that a people or religion or church, sex or race
or class alone should be lux mundi
19
, so to say worlds light the theol-
ogy classical concepts and even a lot of science those ones, i.e., their
concepts that study religions are somehow senile, out of focus, surpassed.
We have come in a new religious cycle in which the religions
migrate themselves or wander, circulate themselves rapidly, are created
again and again in personalized canopies myriads and it occurred that
they the religions. Are becoming adapted to the geocultural cathedrals
vitraux where they have been arrived. As institutional religious bound-
aries fall down, a theocultural revolution gets strenghened. Informational
mondialization decrees the subjectivistic magic-rural cycle death and
relativizes - turns out relativistic - the modern tecnoscience objectiv-
istic order. This cultural process makes obsolete the dualistic system of
thought, that is antagonistic and monologic, born with the prehistory and
19
Lux mundi the worlds light.
36 Gilbraz ARAGO
37
permits a time arousing of possible dialogical, diversity reconciliation.
But this theocultural revolution groups in the most different expectations,
sometimes contradictory among themselves, and such pluralism as well
as such diversity can transform the world in a Paradise or in a hell.
The religiosity that emerges is more from down to up or, bet-
ter still, toward the mystery that hides and reveals itself between and
beyond. Each person is, nowadays, abler, more capable of understanding
and offering feedback. Religion till then cared viewing only upon creeds
and doctrines, while religiosity now is a kind of wiki-theology, pluralist.
Mondialization turned possible through, on account of internet and
informatics, provokes changes in the existential and cultural order con-
cerning all of us: we are on the eve of great pacifism and cooperation Era,
departing from the possibility of a transreligious spirituality acknowledg-
ment united, side by side, with transdisciplinary scientific debate as well
as then in front of a confrontation without proportions.
The equitable coexistence in a same geographical and tempo-
ral, secular space of cultures traditions and religious diversity is a true
revolution that is at the same time, enriching, humanizing and unique in
human History. But maybe not so much there are spirituality transreli-
gious searching deep movements signs, but sometimes the sacred one
that comes out in order to care for the momentary emotional interests
or for prosperity search. Due to this axial reversal ambiguity in cultures
History, we need daring to make religion sciences and even theologies, in
more adequate bases. Because only through new Logics and epistemolo-
gies, the intercultural and interreligious dialogue will be able to advance.
In truth, it is not only concerning religion that we must deal with
in the interreligious dialogue neither even directly about God but as
well with regard to the divine project in view of making from this world
a loving paradise. Only through the reality level change, coming out
from the theoretical-doctrine one toward the ethical praxis and/or spiri-
tual silence ambit, dialogue among religious becomes possible. Only by
overcoming our own experience concerning God and looking for Ethics
that is behind the human one and it i.e. Ethics unites all of us in a
sacred way only so a religion can dialogue with other cultures meeting.
The relativity that arises from the (dis)agreement concerning this route
cannot be accused immediately or relativistic one otherwise, there does
not seem being any more possible that we should accept religion in its
traditional form, which is that one concerning the heteronomy, based
upon ex cathedra
20
magisteries, inadmissible since Modernity had
Ex Cathedra literally, from the seat: applied to a pronouncement on faith or morals by
the Pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church. With authority: also used attributively
meaning officially spoken.
38
founded reasons liberty. But we must meditated on it religion again
in its content, as a love message.
The sooner we shall resort to a little more phenomenological
observation and Hermeneutics interpretation, the best we shall realize
that a worldly extent new community does go in a formation process,
which stirs up the intercultural and interreligious dialogue cultivation in
the midst of the search for a tenable life for all; and an worldly Ethics
and who can know? an universal spirituality cultivated particularly
according to each faith or philosophy tradition. Even more: the mission
religious concept change, instead of converting the world and implanting
my church, it is more plausible to help in all spiritual traditions messages
availability for those ones who need them in their human and human-
izing formation (transcendence) process. There are inclusively those ones
who would already be proposing, literally, as a basis for Theology (or
transcendence universal experience apologetics), the humanity whole
History including their sacred texts! What a labor! I feel myself called
up for the postreligionist reflection mutiro (task force): I am waiting
for all of you, too!
References:
AEBISCHER-CRETTOL, Monique. Vers un oecumnisme interreligieux. Paris: Cerf, 2001.
ARAGO, Gilbraz. Transdisciplinaridade e dilogo. Revista Religio e Cultura, So Paulo, v.
V, n. 10 (jul./dez. 2006), p. 75-110.
ARMSTRONG, Karen. A grande transformao. So Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2008.
BANON, Patrick. La rvolution thoculturelle. Paris: Presses de la Renaissance, 2008.
CASTELLS, Manuel. A sociedade em rede. So Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1999.
CORBI, Mari. Para uma espiritualidade leiga. So Paulo: Paulus, 2010.
DUFOUR, Dany-Robert. Os mistrios da Trindade. So Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2000.
HERVIEU-LGER, Danile. Catholicisme, la fin d'un monde. Paris: Bayard, 2003.
HICK, John, Teologia crist e pluralismo religioso. So Paulo: Attar, 2005.
JASPERS, Karl. Origen y meta de la historia. Madri: Alianza, 1980.
NICOLESCU, Basarab. Nous, la particule et le monde. Monaco: Rocher, 2002.
PADEN, William. Interpretando o sagrado: modos de conceber a religio. So Paulo:
Paulinas, 2001.
QUEIRUGA, Andrs T. Autocompreenso crist: dilogo das religies. So Paulo: Paulinas,
2007.
SMITH, Wilfred C. O sentido e o fim da religio. So Leopoldo: Sinodal, 2006.
VIGIL, Jos Maria. Teologia pluralista libertadora intercontinental. So Paulo: Paulinas, 2008.
WILBER, Ken. Espiritualidade integral. So Paulo: Aleph, 2006.
38 Gilbraz ARAGO
39
Meu Deus, me d a coragem
de viver trezentos e sessenta e cinco dias e noites,
todos vazios de Tua presena.
Me d a coragem de considerar esse vazio
como uma plenitude.
Faa com que eu seja a Tua amante humilde,
entrelaada a Ti em xtase.
Faa com que eu possa falar
com este vazio tremendo
e receber como resposta
o amor materno que nutre e embala.
Faa com que eu tenha a coragem de Te amar,
sem odiar as Tuas ofensas minha alma e ao meu corpo.
Faa com que a solido no me destrua.
Faa com que minha solido me sirva de companhia.
Faa com que eu tenha a coragem de me enfrentar.
Faa com que eu saiba ficar com o nada
e mesmo assim me sentir
como se estivesse plena de tudo.
Receba em teus braos
o meu pecado de pensar.
Para comear, lembrei-me dessa prece de uma judia-agnstica,
Clarice Lispector, que cresceu l no Recife e a busca coragem para se
distanciar at do seu Deus, para poder experimentar um novo conheci-
mento em companhia da solido. Ns, que nesse simpsio sobre religio
e cultura, vislumbramos uma tendncia ps-religional nas culturas infor-
macionais que se espraiam pelo mundo globalizado afora, bem que pod-
amos fazer uma prece semelhante (mesmo que fosse a ltima!), porque
Condio ps-religiosa na Amrica Latina:
Viso de um nordestino
Gilbraz ARAGO
Olinda, PE, Brasil
40
na solido silenciosa diante da realidade, reconhecida como mistrio, que
precisamos, quem sabe, abandonar as certezas trazidas desde a infncia,
at sobre o Deus da gente, mas tambm sobre o mundo e a humanidade.
E no fcil a gente se esvaziar de convices, para poder pensar, se
perguntar, fazer cincia, adquirir um conhecimento mais universal sobre
tudo, tornar-se mais consciente e consequente.
H algo de ps-religioso na Amrica Latina, que merecesse uma
reflexo ps-religional da parte dos telogos e dos estudos religiosos?
No se trata somente do fenmeno crescente dos sem-religio: 6,7% no
Brasil, segundo o recente Mapa das Religies da Fundao Getlio Vargas,
sendo que esse ndice sobe para 17,4% entre as pessoas com mestrado e
doutorado. Acredito que a temtica ps-religional toca muito mais ampla-
mente numa nova sensibilidade cultural, que faz tempo est presente
tambm em terras afrolatndias. Todo ano, por ocasio da festa do padro-
eiro da minha cidade natal, por exemplo, um grupo de meia centena de
conterrneos caminha da capital do Estado at l: o caminhante deve levar
apenas uma mochila com roupas, gua, um cajado, uma bandeirola branca
e muita f para enfrentar 170 quilmetros, em seis dias de caminhada...
Todos buscamos espiritualidade, superao de si e transcendncia nesse
Caminho de Santo Amaro, mas a maioria do pessoal no vai por conta da
crena no santo!
Compartilho com vocs, alis, uma experincia pessoal relacionada.
Nasci nessa pequena cidade de cafeicultores nas serras do Agreste per-
nambucano, chamada Taquaritinga do Norte, para no ser confundida
com a homnima de So Paulo, que tambm buscou no tupi a nomea-
o do seu acidente geogrfico principal: ita-coara-et-tinga, buraco de
pedra grande e branco, ou caverna simplesmente. Pois bem, folgo em
poder voltar a essa caverna (onrica) da infncia e juventude, quando
quero avaliar os rumos que minha existncia tomou. um movimento
natural: vou subindo a serra e o peso quente da minha realidade vai-se
confrontando com os ventos frios da montanha, com os desejos leves que
me vm da paisagem da aurora de minha vida. O que eu fiz com aquilo
que fizeram de mim? No que se transformaram as minhas primeiras e
mais marcantes experincias de gente? O que eu deixei fazerem dos meus
sonhos? E onde foi parar (o) meu Deus?!
Uma lembrana leva-me a considerar que, ao menos em um aspec-
to, minha lida na vida desenvolveu-se em coerncia com as descobertas
que comecei a fazer em Taquaritinga e que agora, neste ambiente aca-
dmico em que me encontro, vou recuperando das nvoas do passado:
para que possa talvez ajudar a quem porventura tenha medo de refletir
sobre as coisas que considere sagradas. Compreendo quem teme buscar
as razes da sua f e das suas convices, mas acho que, mormente neste
tempo em que os nomes dos deuses so invocados para se justificarem at
40 Gilbraz ARAGO
41
guerras, vale o esforo de ilustrao. E por isso partilho estas reminiscn-
cias. Eu era escoteiro e gostava tanto de acampar quanto de rezar. Tanto
que ia igreja quase todas as noites, na minha meninice.
Mas numa delas, era inverno, o retumbar dos troves desafiava a
ascese de menino e mesmo assim eu fui missa, ajudar o padre Arago
de saudosa memria. A igreja destacava-se de tudo na cidade, pelo plano
mais alto que o da praa e pela imponncia da construo. Eu sabia que
o meu av havia participado dos mutires para construir aquilo, mas
o latim das novenas e o seu incenso, a solenidade das liturgias que ali
marcavam do nascimento morte de todo mundo, o ponto cultural de
encontro que a igreja representava nos domingos e festas, faziam-me
esquecer que aquela era uma construo humana.
Entrar no silncio acolhedor de uma igreja deveras, inconscien-
temente, poder voltar ao tero social da nossa existncia. Religio, dizia
Kierkegaard, paixo infinita, uma experincia simblica (seja extraor-
dinria, seja pedagogicamente) prpria do corao humano, uma como-
o com um poder-a-mais no qual se aposta para fazer frente s mortes
tantas que limitam a nossa humanidade. uma fineza de esprito que nos
dilata o imo e arrebata a mente e permite ver alm das coisas sensveis e
ser capaz de construir apesar de o bom e o belo; sentir-se confiante-
mente ligado a tudo e a todos.
At aquela noite! Pois foi nela que, sozinho antes da missa, enquan-
to arrumava as alfaias junto do altar-mor, o aguaceiro prorrompeu igreja
adentro por uma goteira grande e at tive medo de o teto inteiro vir
abaixo. Num lapso de minutos, abandonou-me toda a segurana infantil
nesse recinto sagrado e eu tive que comear a amadurecer na maneira
de experimentar religio. Pois, como num relmpago, descobri que o
sacrrio que estava ali h tempos (a parquia de 1801) podia agora
enferrujar e as hstias se estragariam, que aqueles smbolos da minha
salvao eterna e comunho mstica precisavam ento que eu os salvasse
com providncias to comezinhas...
E sa correndo em busca de ajuda. Di um pouco voc se tornar
consciente da sua f e tentar ser consequente para com tal descober-
ta. Principalmente porque isso implica assumir, para superar sempre
de novo, o contraponto da f: que no bem o atesmo de vez que
ningum nunca ateu de tudo mas sim a idolatria. Todo mundo se
humaniza quando desvenda os dolos (por mais religiosos que sejam) e
os chama pelo nome vislumbrando assim, mais adiante, o inominvel.
Mas custa, um tamanho exorcismo. No meu caso, o trauma do comeo
abrupto foi tal, que eu acabei especialista no assunto, por necessidade.
E logo descobri que, se a religio, como a paixo, em ltima instncia
uma entrega emocional inebriada; uma penltima palavra, contudo, ao
Condio ps-religiosa na Amrica Latina. VIso de um nordestino 41
42
menos, precisa ser dada pela razo: para que o corpo todo no venha a
padecer, os nossos amores e/ou deuses(as) e coisas associadas no
venham a, como no meu caso, literalmente, darem ngua.
E fiquei mesmo marcado por aquela goteira, a ponto de que o
principal trabalho da minha vida tem sido at hoje decorrncia dela
ou ao menos tem inspirao naquele evento: buscar entender o ncleo
dos nossos valores e sentidos, libertar o conjunto tico-mtico da nossa
cultura nordestino-tupiniquim, para que a gente possa saber como se
fez e assim, se for o caso, poder fazer de novo. Ser telogo o que eu
tento cuidar disto: reinterpretar a experincia do cristianismo, tradi-
cionalmente apresentada em chave mtica, litrgica e moral, com imagens
mais prximas do divino, com uma santidade mais humana do Homo
da Galilia. Com santos, mais para Conselheiro do que para Frei Damio,
que no coloquem a dependncia de milagres sobrenaturais em nossas
promessas desumanas, mas nos ajudem a transformar a vida em um mila-
gre mais-que-natural, pelo amor que (mais do que) humano. Pois
foi isso, em germe, que aconteceu naquela noite fatdica. E isso que eu
tento recuperar e desenvolver desde que virei aprendiz de telogo.
Lembro que passei horas a pensar de onde veio a bblia que ali
na igreja, a despeito da sua aura de consagrao, corria fragilmente agora
perigo de uma outra calamidade qualquer. Era um livro, foi composto por
gente (inspirada, evidentemente), que poderia ter feito outro, diferente
como si fazer alhures (com outras revelaes). E quem teria inventa-
do aquela arquitetura sacra que doravante me parecia to despojada e
lavadamente humana? E os sermes moralistas das beatas, por que eu
os necessitava? E por que amos to alegres, serelepes, para a missa e ela
era incongruentemente chamada de sacrifcio?
E por que o mundo, que eu vislumbrava alvissareiro na televiso
que chegou l em casa, era rezado a como um vale de lgrimas a ser
transposto com suspeio? E por que tinha de me ajoelhar quando se
registrava a presena dAquele que tanto queria deixai vir a mim
abraar-me junto com as outras crianas e nos dar cheiros bem gostosos?!
Confesso que, daquela noite em diante, at me ajoelho na hora do per-
do, mas pela elevao nunca mais me ajoelhei numa igreja...
Eu era um quase adolescente e havia acabado de ler nos livros dos
meus primos que h mais moral em um lago da montanha do que em
todas as catedrais do mundo(Rousseau?!) muito embora, com aquela
idade, j estivesse, por mim mesmo, secretamente convicto de que h
mais poder no rosto belo de uma menina do que em todos os cones do
universo. Mas foi naquela noite que a danada da goteira levou de enxur-
rada a ingenuidade da minha f: o meu dossel de verdades universais
e certezas seguras se esvaiu e isso me obrigou a estudar a religio e a
42 Gilbraz ARAGO
43
contextualizar os seus mandamentos mas tambm me emancipou para
a busca de vivncias religiosas mais amplas que as dos meus pais, para
o encontro de espaos religiosos mais requintados (e docemente mais
simples) do que os da igreja de Taquaritinga.
Esse caminho inicitico l para onde os nossos deuses todos so
forjados (e/ou para descobrirmos como somos criados pelo divino)
perigoso e tortuoso, como a iniciao de todo moleque. Mas o portal
da maturidade, para reencontrarmos a experincia de f, como entrega
confiante realidade, de modo mais humano e amoroso ainda que pre-
crio, como todo amor humano. Para nos deixarmos levar pelo Sopro
da Vida: ele permite perceber que, dentro de toda relao amorosa, fala-
nos processualmente uma palavra Revelao! interpeladora, que faz
diferena na vida (de forma que a Palavra de Deus no est presente s
nos livros sagrados, nem somente na literatura crist). Para reconstruir-
mos, enfim, o movimento de Jesus desde as montanhas da nossa infncia:
agora com paredes de carne, pois nessa matria que o Esprito de Cristo
gosta de ficar mesmo com a possibilidade de mais goteiras ainda.
Imagino que dessas questes e imaginaes muitos aqui compar-
tilham. Pois, penso que a proposta de tematizarmos, enquanto cientistas
da religio ou telogos de ponta, uma condio ps-religional (no exa-
tamente ps-religiosa, mas ps-se Deus quiser), que j est presente
entre pessoas e grupos humanos que, tambm entre ns na Amrica
Latina (esse rinco de uma Aldeia Global), encontram-se na passagem
para uma cosmoviso ps-moderna e ou ps-metafsica, justamente o
tempo-espao propcio para se partilhar, sistematizar e amadurecer, de
maneira adequada ao esprito do tempo, essas angstias e deslumbra-
mentos, essas perguntas que sempre se precisa trabalhar para alcanar a
maturidade na vida. Ao me defrontar com esse convite para pensar o divi-
no em nossas vidas, s portas de um novo tempo axial, com outro quadro
epistemolgico, menos dualista e mais relacional, com uma perspectiva
de verdade ternria, entre e alm, eu me sinto diante de um verdadeiro
ritual de iniciao: precisamos da coragem solitria mas solidria para
nos livrar at de (o que imaginamos ser) divino, para refletir sobre as
goteiras das nossas certezas e fazer ento cincia pois com certeza,
numa certa altura de todo conhecimento, haveremos de reencontrar mais
verdadeiramente a transparncia do sagrado entre ns.
Ser que a globalizao humana e o pluralismo cultural que come-
amos a vivenciar hoje, resultantes dos modernos meios de locomoo,
da evoluo das comunicaes e das novas formas de energia e produ-
o, esto mesmo nos levando a um novo tempo axial? Emerge entre
estudiosos da religio a hiptese de estarmos entrando em um processo
de transformao da figura histrica tradicional das religies. Ganhamos
44
conscincia de que todos os povos e a terra inteira estamos ligados, de
sorte que juntos que devemos encarar nossa comum misso de salvar a
vida. Sendo assim, no daria para entender que um s povo ou religio
ou igreja, um s sexo ou raa ou classe sejam a luz do mundo. Os concei-
tos clssicos das teologias e mesmo de muitas das cincias que estudam
a religio esto meio caducos.
Entramos em um novo ciclo religioso, em que as religies migram
ou circulam rapidamente, so recriadas em mirades de dossis persona-
lizados e vo se adaptando aos vitrais das catedrais geoculturais aonde
chegam. Ao carem fronteiras religiosas institucionais, uma revoluo teo-
cultural se fortalece. A mundializao informacional decreta a morte do
ciclo mgico-agrcola subjetivista e relativiza a ordem objetivista da tecno-
cincia moderna. Esse processo cultural torna obsoleto o sistema dualista
de pensamento, antagnico e monolgico, nascido com a pr-histria, e
permite o surgimento de um tempo de possvel reconciliao, dialgica,
da diversidade. Mas essa revoluo teocultural agrupa expectativas as
mais diferentes, s vezes contraditrias, e tal pluralismo e diversidade
pode transformar o mundo em um paraso ou num inferno.
A religiosidade que emerge mais de baixo para cima ou, melhor
ainda, na direo do mistrio que se esconde e manifesta entre e alm.
Cada pessoa hoje mais capaz de aprender e oferecer feedback. A reli-
gio at ento tinha a ver s com credos e doutrinas, enquanto a religio-
sidade agora uma espcie de wiki-teologia, pluralista. A mundializao
possibilitada pela internet e pela informtica provoca mudanas na ordem
existencial e cultural de todos ns: estamos s vsperas de uma era de
grande pacifismo e cooperao, pela possibilidade do reconhecimento
de uma espiritualidade transreligiosa, conjugada com o debate cientfico
transdisciplinar - ou ento de um confronto mundial sem propores.
A coexistncia equitativa em um mesmo espao geogrfico e tem-
poral de uma diversidade de culturas, de tradies e de religies, uma
verdadeira revoluo, enriquecedora, humanizante e nica na histria
humana. Mas pode ser que nem tanto: h indcios de movimentos profun-
dos de busca transreligiosa de espiritualidade, mas, por vezes, o sagrado
que aparece mais de novo selvagem, buscado por adeso seletiva, com
um contedo autossistematizado para atender aos interesses emocio-
nais do momento ou ainda busca mgica de prosperidade. Devido
ambiguidade dessa virada axial na histria das culturas que precisa-
mos ousar fazer cincias da religio e mesmo teologias, em bases mais
adequadas. Pois s com a admisso de novas lgicas e epistemologias o
dilogo intercultural e inter-religioso poder avanar.
Em verdade, nem somente sobre religio que se deve tratar no
dilogo inter-religioso e nem mesmo diretamente sobre Deus , mas
44 Gilbraz ARAGO
45
sobre o projeto divino em vista de fazer deste mundo um paraso amo-
roso. Somente mudando o nvel da realidade, passando do terico-dou-
trinal para o da prxis tica e/ou do silncio espiritual, que o dilogo
entre religies possvel. Somente ultrapassando a prpria experincia
de Deus e buscando a tica que se esconde no humano e nos rene a
todos de maneira sagrada que uma religio pode dialogar com outra
e colaborar com o encontro de culturas. A relatividade que advm dos
(des)encontros desse percurso no pode ser acusada imediatamente de
relativista. Alis, no parece ser mais possvel aceitar-se a religio em
sua forma tradicional, que a da heteronomia, baseada em magistrios
ex cathedra, inadmissveis desde que a modernidade fundou a liberdade
da razo. Mas convm medit-la novamente em seu contedo, enquanto
mensagem de amor.
Se recorrermos a um pouco mais de observao fenomenolgica e
de interpretao hermenutica, logo perceberemos que uma nova comu-
nidade de alcance mundial est em processo de formao, o que suscita o
cultivo do dilogo intercultural e inter-religioso em meio busca por uma
vida sustentvel para todos; e uma tica mundial, quem sabe, e uma espi-
ritualidade universal cultivada particularmente segundo cada tradio
de f ou filosofia. Mais at: a mudana do conceito religioso de misso:
ao invs de converter o mundo e implantar a minha Igreja, ajudar na dis-
ponibilizao das mensagens de todas as tradies espirituais, para quem
delas necessite em seu processo de formao (e transcendncia) humana
e humanizante. H inclusive quem j proponha, sem mais ou menos,
como base para a teologia (ou apologtica da experincia universal de
transcendncia), toda a histria religiosa da humanidade - com todos os
seus textos sagrados! Quanto trabalho! Eu me sinto convocado para o
mutiro de reflexo ps-religional: espero que vocs tambm!
Referncias
Veja-se a bibliografia do texto na precedente verso em ingls, pg. 38.
46
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Resumen:
Comienza el autor centrando el tema afirmando el principio de
que la crisis no es slo de las instituciones religiosas, sino tambin de la
religin misma, matizndolo en diversos aspectos. Pasa revista a conti-
nuacin al panorama plural religioso del Continente, dando razn de
aumentos y disminuciones, pervivencias y resurgimientos, presencias
minoritarias y sectores religiosos en crecimiento.
Aborda luego la situacin especfica de la Iglesia Catlica en AL y
Caribe. Observa por una parte la pervivencia de una profunda religiosi-
dad en el pueblo latinoamericano, y un debilitamiento general de la vida
cristiana y la pertenencia a la Iglesia: existe una crisis de fe, en la que
la Conferencia de Aparecida funge como una seal de alarma ante las
causas principales de esta crisis: a nivel externo, un verdadero tsunami
cultural global, y a nivel interno, un proceso restauracionista enfocado a
crear una nueva cristiandad.
Abstract:
The author starts focusing the topic by stating that the crisis does
not only belong to the religious institutions, but also to religion itself,
showing various aspects. Next he gives an overview of the plural religious
situation of the Continent, showing increases and decreases, survivals
and revivals, presence of minorities and religious sectors growing.
Then he deals with the specific situation of the Catholic Church in
LA and the Caribbean. He observes on the one hand the survival of a deep
religiosity among the Latin American people and a general weakening
of Christian life and of belonging to the Church: there is a crisis of faith,
for which the Aparecida Conference acts as an alarm signal of the main
causes of this crisis: externally, a real global cultural tsunami, and inter-
nally, a restorative process focused on creating a new Christianity.
Consultation about Religion:
Religious Pluralism
Vctor CODINA
Cochabamba, Bolivia
48
I. Focusing the topic
There is no doubt that in this change of era there is a crisis not only
of religious institutions, but also of religion itself. The strong atheisms of
the XIX and XX centuries do not longer exist but agnosticism and reli-
gious indifference grow in many sectors, while in others there is a growth
of worth of everything spiritual and mystic, but outside religion.
Faced with this complex situation about religion in general, we may
ask about the state of religion in Latin America. I will try to answer this
question, more concretely from Bolivia.
I personally agree with Luiz Alberto Gmez de Souza, a Brazilian
sociologist: I have always reacted against the idea of a linear secularisa-
tion, with the inevitable dawn of the sacred. The sacred is still and very
much present in our societies, but in a plural world and post-Christian.
We Catholics not always know how to understand the new present times
and how to live in another climate.
1
The religious matrix in Latin America and the Caribbean has been
very strong, the people have a big sense of transcendence and open-
ness to God in everyday life. This maybe was not always understood by
missionaries who come from very secularised countries, and less still by
NGOs that work in the Continent.
But secular modernism and intimate post-modernism, globalisation,
migration from the countryside to the city, industrialisation, technological
development, the impact of MCS and internet, permanent migrations
affect the religious matrix of Latin America and transform many of its val-
ues, costumes and behaviours. For some expert observers, like Bartomeu
Melia, these changes are so big that perhaps they may only have as an
historic antecedent the transformations of the first colonial stage, when
the life of natives was violated and a big part of their cultures and beliefs
destroyed.
48 Vctor CODINA
1
L.A.Gmez de Sousa, Possvel agenda para a Igreja nos prximos anos, Perspectiva
Teolgica, 117 (Mai/Agosto 2010) 247, Belo Horizonte.
49
In this new context there is a bigger religious pluralism, both
in all the religious denominations present in Latin America, and inside
the Catholic Church. Consequence of this, to the national pluralism of
Bolivia, cultural and ethnic, and of the other countries in LA, the religious
pluralism must be added. A signal of this is the recognition of religious
freedom and the separation between Church and State that has been
occurring with different nuances in all Latin American countries, also
in Bolivia. From colonisation and the first evangelisation, the Catholic
Church had religious and moral hegemony in the continent: it was the
official religion, the one that had impregnated culture and morality in all
the society, in a Christian environment. This has radically changed, the
Church must now earn its moral authority and credibility, not through its
political power, but through its testimony and Christian coherence. It is
not even the voice of the voiceless, it is one voice among many others,
one religion among others.
II. Overview of religious pluralism in Latin America and the Caribbean.
During the last decades the religious landscape in LA and the
Caribbean has turned multifaceted. Without giving concrete numbers, all
statistics show there is a diverse religious configuration. Let us see the
main data.
1) Numerical decline in Catholicism and weakening of faith in the
Catholic Church. Later we will try to specify the situation.
2) Increase in the number of evangelical groups and specifically an
explosion of Pentecostalism, which is a new and surprising phenomenon:
Pentecostalism together with Islam are the religions that grow most in
the world today, some, like Jose Comblin (+), believe since the Reform
there had not been such a profound religious change in Christianity. And
Pentecostalism grows in marginal and poor areas, among women, black
and indigenous people, who recover their voice and ecclesial prominence
they did not have before in the historical Churches; now they experiment
salvation and healing, read the Word and renew their strength to fight
with the help of the Spirit. As Carlos Mesters has said, the poorest among
the poor in LA are not in BECs but in Pentecostal groups.
2
3) Survival and revival of originating religions. This does not
only happen in Bolivia. Originating religions, which since colonisation
had survived in a syncretic and many times semi-clandestine way, now
Consultation about Religion: Religious Pluralism 49
2
Onda pentecostal, Perspectiva Teolgica, 119 (Janeiro/Abril 2011), Belo Horizonte.
50
recover their original force. For many, this cultural and religious recov-
ery is done from their Christian faith, in an atmosphere of intercultural
and inter-religious dialogue, contributing to what is called indo and afro
Christian theology. But there are more radical minorities who in the pro-
cess of decolonisation wish to abandon Christian faith and return to their
originating religions before evangelisation. On the other hand, originating
culture and religion have also suffered the impact of globalised modern-
ism, with its values and counter-values; the originating religion does not
exist now in its pure state, as Simon Pedro Arnold sustains.
3
4) Minority presence of other non-Christian religious traditions:
Judaism, Islam, Asian eastern religions, some of the esoteric and gnostic
types (Rosicrucians, Acropolis New Age) that attract many persons who
sincerely look for a spirituality they do not find in traditional and histori-
cal religions in LA.
5) Increase of sectors who do not believe themselves religious but
agnostic, indifferent or even atheist. This group, composed by youth,
intellectuals, professionals, politicians, women, workers, is similar to the
one that is growing in Europe and USA.
This brief exposition is enough to understand that the religious
landscape in LA is a real mosaic, at the same time new and always chang-
ing.
III. Specific situation of the Catholic Church in LA and the Caribbean.
Within the Catholic Church there are also deep changes and a
certain internal religious pluralism. Following Aparecida (2007), we can
observe the following lines of force.
1) There is a deep religiosity and faith in the Latin American people
that is shown through popular religiosity, in the ecclesial compromise
with the poor, in biblical, liturgical and catechetical renovation, in the
vitality of parishes and consecrated life, in the work of various specific
pastorals, in the testimony of laymen, in the richness of different ecclesial
communities, etc. (Aparecida 98-99).
2) But there is a weakening of Christian life and belonging to the
Church, clericalism, individualism, marginalisation of women, sacramen-
talism with lack of evangelisation, little commitment from the lay in social
life, decrease in the clergy and religious life, materialism, lack of a sense
of transcendence, neglect of religious practices and a weakened belong-
ing to the Church, transfer to other religious groups (Aparecida 100).
50 Vctor CODINA
3
S-P. ARNOLD, Ensayos Andinos, Puno-Cochabamba 2009, 97-114.
51
3) Moreover, there is a crisis of faith, faith is eroding (Aparecida
13, 38), hence, a strong conversion and a pastoral correction are needed,
otherwise, there will be a de-Christianisation as can be seen in other con-
tinents. There is believing without belonging (G.Davie) but there is also
in many groups belonging without believing, ie they are post-Christian
disbelievers that wish to keep Christian symbols because they belong to
a western culture.
4
4) The motto of Aparecida disciples and missionaries is an alert
signal, a red light in the ecclesial traffic light. The continental mission to
which we are called, supposes Latin America is a continent of baptised
people that have not been properly evangelised, who are not disciples or
missionaries of the Lord.
The causes for this deterioration of faith are various, external and
internal to the Church. Among the external causes is the big change in era,
which, like a global tsunami, has shaken everything: has questioned reli-
gious institutions and even faith. Among the internal causes, the Catholic
Church that had started to live a spiritual revival and a true Pentecost
since Vatican II, and that in Latin America had started a prophetic process
since Medelln, in the last decades has experienced a restorative process,
stopping and reversing: a new Christianity to be born. This is the situation
of ecclesiastical winter we are going through. Moreover, the Church has
been unable to answer the new challenges that in these 50 years after
Vatican II have appeared in society and the proper ecclesial community.
There is a muffled cry, sometimes with indignation, that arises from
the basis of the Church claiming radical changes. Is anyone listening?
IV. A religious pluralism
Going back to everything that through Aparecida we have noted
about the religious and ecclesial situation in Latin America and the
Caribbean, we may confirm that we are facing a great religious pluralism.
The term religious pluralism, that is commonly applied to the coexistence
of various religions in the world, is applied here to the coexistence of
various religious forms and styles within the same society and within the
Latin American Church. Specifically, there are well differentiated religious
and ecclesial sectors that form like concentric and synchronic circles
which coexist in Latin America, as well as in Bolivia.
1) A great majority of Catholics belong to the popular religiosity,
with a great sense of the sacred, which has its roots more in the origi-
4
L. GONZLEZ CARVAJAL, Cristianos sin Iglesia, Concilium 340 (abril 2011) 115-121.
52
nating religions that in Christianity. These are called Christians of the
four stages in life who appear in church when their children are born
(baptism), during adolescence-youth (first communion-confirmation), in
adulthood (matrimony) and finally at death (death rites and memorial ser-
vices). They live the Church celebrations, mainly Christmas, Holy Week,
patron celebrations, and pilgrimages to Marian sanctuaries (Copacabana,
Urkupia, Cotoca) or sanctuaries of the Lord. They are more addict
to sacramentals (blessed water, ashes, palms, candles, saints) than to
sacraments, they act more within the scheme of sociological Christians
or cultural Christians, typical of the age of Christendom: there is belief
but with a weak ecclesial belonging, they form part of something like
a clandestine Church, informal, underground, creole, quite ignorant of
biblical and dogmatic issues, free from moral laws of the ecclesial insti-
tution (Sunday precept, sexuality, matrimony) which many times they
even ignore.
Nevertheless, many of these followers, poor and simple, live great
human and Christian values: love and solidarity, welcoming, resistance,
harmony with nature, patience, fight for life, sense of celebration, trust
and hope in God, prayer, the conviction that Dear God is always with
them. Popular religiosity has synthesised well the originating cultures
with Catholic faith.
2) There is a big number of Sunday practitioners, especially among
middle and high classes, who regularly attend Eucharistic celebrations,
but seldom work in ecclesial community tasks. They are usually very tra-
ditional in the Christian mentality, mainly in the social area.
3) There is a smaller but very much alive number of Catholics from
different social levels, who seriously compromise with their faith, form
part of communities, parishes, movements, base ecclesial communities
they are concerned with a serious Christian education, have an evange-
lising and missionary orientation, are sensitive to justice and to social
compromise.
4) There are other religious groups such as the Evangelic-
Pentecostal, originating non-Christian religions as well as traditional and
modern religions.
5) The number of agnostics is growing, indifferent and even athe-
ists, totally outside Churches and religions, some in search of spirituality.
To disregard this religious pluralism in Latin America and Bolivia,
judge the Continent with European or North American parameters, is a
big mistake. But all idealisation in the sense of considering it the hope
Continent should be avoided. Here we see the coexistence of sacrality
52 Vctor CODINA
53
and modernity and post-modernity, Christianity and the original rites of
the ancestral religions, a sometimes Marxist ideology with popular reli-
giosity, devotion to the Pope with ignorance of the Bible, pilgrimages to
Marian sanctuaries with chauvinism, violence, drunkenness, sexual abuse,
corruption, drug trafficking and injustice. The continent with the greatest
number of Catholics is the one that keeps the greatest unjust structures;
in a still recent past, on behalf of the western Christian civilisation, Latin
American dictators killed entire populations of indigenous people, mar-
tyred peasants, women, youth, priests, nuns and bishops. Is it strange to
be talking about the need of a new evangelisation, about moving from a
continent of baptised people to a continent of disciples and missionaries,
as Aparecida presents?
V. Questions towards the future.
It is very difficult to forecast the future of religion in Latin America
and of its Church. Aparecida states a very lucid paragraph:
A Catholic faith reduced to baggage, group of regulations and
prohibitions, fragmented devotional practices, occasional participation in
some sacraments, repetition of doctrinal principles, soft or tense moral-
ism that do not convert the lives of the baptised (Aparecida 12).
Christianity is in agony, but agonies are sometimes slow and may
last for some time.
5
There are sectors in Church who yearn for those times
when the states were proclaimed Catholic, temples were full, there were
numerous vocations, bishops regulated public life through their teach-
ings, the ecclesial institution was prestigious, it was the official religion
and its leaders had social plausibility. But this religious world of the past
is imaginary and not the present one, it is something residual. The crisis
of the Church forms part of the crisis of established religions.
To fall into catastrophic views is worthless. What we should do
is have a positive view of the possibilities foreseen for the creation of a
Church of convinced Christians, a Gods People Church, a Church that
discovers the Spirits presence in history and in religions, a Church of
open doors, entrance doors and atrium doors, in dialogue with other
religions and with the growing forms of agnosticism, indifference and
atheism. Religious pluralism is here to stay.
5
V. CODINA, La agona de la cristiandad, Cuarto intermedio, 89 (diciembre 2008) 80-94,
Cochabamba.
54
I. Centramiento del tema
Es indudable que en este cambio de poca existe una crisis no slo
de las instituciones religiosas, sino de la misma religin. Ya no existen los
fuertes atesmos de los siglos XIX y XX, pero en cambio crecen el agnos-
ticismo y la indiferencia religiosa en muchos sectores, mientras en otros
surge con fuerza la valoracin de todo lo que sea espiritualidad y mstica,
pero al margen de toda religin.
Ante esta compleja situacin sobre la religin a nivel general,
podemos preguntarnos sobre el estado de la religin en Amrica Latina.
Intentar responder a esta pregunta, ms concretamente desde Bolivia.
Concuerdo personalmente con la afirmacin del socilogo brasile-
o Luiz Alberto Gmez de Souza: Siempre reaccion contra la idea de
una secularizacin lineal, con el ocaso inevitable de lo sagrado. Lo sagra-
do sigue estando profundamente presente en nuestras sociedades, pero
en un mundo pluralista y de post-cristiandad. No siempre los catlicos
sabemos entender estos nuevos tiempos presentes y vivir en otro clima
1
.
La matriz religiosa ha sido muy fuerte en AL y el Caribe, el pueblo
posee tradicionalmente un gran sentido de la trascendencia y de apertura
a Dios en la vida cotidiana. Esto quizs no ha sido siempre comprendido,
ni por misioneros que proceden de pases muy secularizados, ni mucho
menos por las ONGs que trabajan en el Continente.
Pero la modernidad secular y la post-modernidad intimista, la
globalizacin, el xodo del campo a la ciudad, la industrializacin, el
desarrollo tecnolgico, el impacto de los MCS y de internet, las continuas
migraciones afectan la matriz religiosa de AL y transforman muchos de
sus valores, costumbres y comportamientos. Para algunos observadores
expertos, como Bartomeu Meli, estos cambios son de tal magnitud que
tal vez slo tengan como antecedente histrico las transformaciones ocu-
rridas en la primera poca colonial, cuando fue violentada vida de los
nativos y destruida gran parte de sus culturas y creencias.
54 Vctor CODINA
1
L.A.Gmez de Sousa, Possvel agenda para a Igreja nos prximos anos, Perspectiva
Teolgica, 117 (Mai/Agosto 2010) 247, Belo Horizonte.
Consulta sobre Religin:
Pluralismo Religioso
Vctor CODINA
Cochabamba, Bolivia
55
En este nuevo contexto se ha producido un mayor pluralismo reli-
gioso, tanto en el conjunto de las denominaciones religiosas presentes en
AL, como especficamente dentro de la Iglesia catlica. Consecuencia de
ello es que al pluralismo nacional, cultural y tnico de Bolivia y de los
otros pases de AL, hay que aadir ahora tambin el pluralismo religioso.
Una seal clara de ello es el reconocimiento de la libertad religiosa y la
separacin entre Iglesia y Estado que se ha ido produciendo con diversos
matices en todos los pases latinoamericanos, tambin en Bolivia. Desde
la colonia y la primera evangelizacin, la Iglesia catlica haba mantenido
la hegemona religiosa y moral en el Continente: era la religin oficial,
la que haba impregnado la cultura y la moralidad de toda la sociedad,
en un ambiente de Cristiandad. Esto ha cambiado radicalmente, la Iglesia
ahora ha de ganarse su autoridad moral y su credibilidad no por su poder
poltico sino por su testimonio y coherencia cristiana. Tampoco es ya la
voz de los sin voz, es una voz entre las muchas voces existentes, una
religin entre otras.
II. Panorama del pluralismo religioso en Amrica Latina y el Caribe
El panorama religioso de AL y el Caribe se volvi multifactico en
las ltimas dcadas.
Sin descender a nmeros concretos, todas las estadsticas nos
muestran que existe una diversa configuracin religiosa. Veamos sus
principales datos.
1) Declive numrico del catolicismo imperante y debilitacin de la
fe en la Iglesia catlica. Ms tarde intentaremos especificar y concretar
esta situacin
2) Aumento numrico de los grupos evangelistas y en concreto
explosin del pentecostalismo, lo cual constituye un fenmeno nuevo y
sorprendente: el pentecostalismo junto con el Islam son las religiones que
ms crecen en el mundo de hoy; algunos, como Jos Comblin (+), creen
que desde la Reforma no se haba experimentado en el cristianismo un
cambio religioso tan profundo. Y el pentecostalismo crece en ambientes
marginales y pobres, entre mujeres, negros e indgenas, que recuperan
la voz y el protagonismo eclesial que no tenan antes en sus Iglesias
histricas; ahora experimentan su salvacin y sanacin, leen la Palabra
y renuevan sus fuerzas para luchar con la ayuda del Espritu. Como ha
dicho Carlos Mesters, los ms pobres entre los pobres de AL no estn en
las CEBs, sino en los grupos pentecostales
2
.
3) Pervivencia y resurgimiento de las religiones originarias. Esto
no slo sucede en Bolivia. Las religiones originarias que desde la colonia
Consulta sobre Religin: Pluralismo Religioso 55
2
Onda pentecostal, Perspectiva Teolgica, 119 (Janeiro/Abril 2011), Belo Horizonte.
56
se haban mantenido de forma sincrtica y muchas veces semi-clandes-
tina, ahora recuperan su fuerza original. Para la gran mayora esta recu-
peracin cultural y religiosa se hace desde su fe cristiana, en un clima
de dilogo intercultural e inter-religioso, contribuyendo a lo que se llama
teologa cristiana india y afro. Pero hay grupos minoritarios ms radicales
que en el proceso de descolonizacin quieren abandonar la fe cristiana y
volver a sus religiones originarias anteriores a la evangelizacin. Por otra
parte, la cultura y religin originaria tambin ha sufrido el impacto de la
modernidad globalizada, con sus valores y contravalores; la religin origi-
naria tampoco existe en estado puro, como afirma Simn Pedro Arnold
3
.
4) Presencia minoritaria de otras tradiciones religiosas no cris-
tianas: Judasmo, Islam, religiones orientales asiticas, algunas de tipo
esotrico y gnstico (Rosacruces, Acrpolis, New Age) que atraen a
muchas personas sinceras que buscan una espiritualidad que no encuen-
tran en las religiones tradicionales e histricas de AL.
5) Aumento de sectores que no se profesan religiosos sino agnsti-
cos, indiferentes o incluso ateos. Este grupo, formado por jvenes, inte-
lectuales, profesionales, polticos, mujeres, obreros.. se asemeja al que
cada vez ms prolifera en Europa y USA.
Baste esta somera exposicin para comprender que el panorama
religioso en AL constituye un verdadero mosaico, a la vez nuevo y siem-
pre cambiante.
III. Situacin especfica de la Iglesia catlica en AL y el Caribe
Dentro del seno de la misma Iglesia catlica tambin existen pro-
fundos cambios y un cierto pluralismo religioso interno. Siguiendo a
Aparecida (2007), podemos constatar las siguientes lneas de fuerza.
1) Existe una fe y una profunda religiosidad en el pueblo latino-
americano que se manifiesta en la religiosidad popular, en el compromi-
so eclesial con los pobres, en la renovacin bblica, litrgica y catequtica,
en la vitalidad de las parroquias y de la vida consagrada, en el trabajo
en diversas pastorales especficas, en el testimonio de los laicos, en la
riqueza de las diversas comunidades eclesiales, etc. (Aparecida 98-99).
2) Pero hay un debilitamiento de la vida cristiana y de la perte-
nencia a la Iglesia, clericalismo, individualismo, marginacin de la mujer,
sacramentalismo con falta de evangelizacin, poco compromiso de los
laicos en la vida social, disminucin del clero y de la vida religiosa, mate-
rialismo, falta de sentido de trascendencia, abandono de las prcticas
religiosas y dbil pertenencia a la Iglesia, paso a otros grupos religiosos
(Aparecida 100).
56 Vctor CODINA
3
S-P. ARNOLD, Ensayos Andinos, Puno-Cochabamba 2009, 97-114.
57
3) Ms an, existe una crisis de fe, la fe se erosiona (Aparecida
13, 38), por lo cual se necesita una fuerte conversin y una correccin
pastoral, si no se quiere llegar a una descristianizacin como ha sucedi-
do en otros continentes. Hay creencia sin pertenencia (believing without
belonging, G. Davie) pero tambin existe en muchos grupos pertenencia
sin creencia, es decir son incrdulos postcristianos que desean mantener
smbolos cristianos porque stos pertenecen a la cultura occidental
4
.
4) El lema de Aparecida discpulos y misioneros es una seal de
alerta, una luz roja en el semforo eclesial. La misin continental a la que
se convoca, supone que Amrica Latina es un continente de bautizados
que no han sido suficientemente evangelizados, que no son discpulos y
misioneros del Seor.
Las causas de este deterioro de la fe son mltiples, externas e
internas a la Iglesia. Entre las externas est el profundo cambio de poca,
que como un tsunami global todo lo ha sacudido; ha cuestionado a las
instituciones religiosas y a la misma fe. A nivel interno, la Iglesia catlica
que haba comenzado a vivir una primavera espiritual y un verdadero
pentecosts desde el Vaticano II, y que en AL haba iniciado un proceso
proftico desde Medelln, en las ltimas dcadas ha experimentado un
camino restauracionista, de freno y marcha hacia atrs; se quiere edificar
una nueva Cristiandad. Es la situacin de invierno eclesial que ahora
padecemos. Ms an, la Iglesia ha sido incapaz de responder a los nuevos
desafos que en estos 50 aos despus del Vaticano II han surgido en la
sociedad y en la misma comunidad eclesial.
Hay un sordo clamor, a veces con indignacin, que surge desde la
base de la Iglesia pidiendo cambios radicales. Alguien lo escucha?
IV. Un pluralismo religioso
Reasumiendo todo cuando a travs de Aparecida hemos constata-
do sobre el panorama religioso y eclesial de Amrica Latina y el Caribe,
podemos confirmar que nos encontramos frente a un gran pluralismo
religioso. La expresin pluralismo religioso que ordinariamente se aplica
a la coexistencia de varias religiones en el mundo, la entendemos aqu
como la coexistencia de diversas formas y estilos religiosos dentro de la
misma sociedad y de la Iglesia latinoamericana. Concretamente, conviven
dentro de Amrica Latina, tambin de Bolivia, sectores religiosa y eclesial-
mente muy diferenciados que forman como unos crculos concntricos y
sincrnicos.
1) Una gran mayora de catlicos pertenece a la religiosidad popu-
lar, con un gran sentido de lo sagrado, que tal vez tenga su raz ms en
4
L. GONZLEZ CARVAJAL, Cristianos sin Iglesia, Concilium 340 (abril 2011) 115-121.
58
las religiones originarias que en el cristianismo. Son los llamados cris-
tianos de las cuatro estaciones de la vida que acuden a la Iglesia en el
nacimiento de sus hijos (bautismo), en la adolescencia-juventud (primera
comunin-confirmacin), en la adultez (matrimonio) y finalmente en la
muerte (ritos de difuntos y exequias). Viven las fiestas de la Iglesia, sobre
todo Navidad y Semana Santa, las celebraciones patronales, y peregrinan
a santuarios marianos (a Copacabana, Urkupia, Cotoca) o del Seor.
Son adictos ms a los sacramentales (agua bendita, ceniza, palmas, velas,
santos) que a los sacramentos, se mueven bajo el esquema de cristianos
sociolgicos o cristianos culturales, tpico de la poca de Cristiandad: hay
creencia pero con dbil pertenencia eclesial, forman parte de una especie
de Iglesia clandestina, informal, subterrnea, a la criolla, bastante igno-
rante de cuestiones bblicas y dogmticas, muy libre frente a las normas
morales de la institucin eclesial (precepto dominical, sexualidad, matri-
monio) que muchas veces incluso desconocen.
Sin embargo muchos de estos fieles, pobres y sencillos, viven gran-
des valores humanos y cristianos: el amor y la solidaridad, la acogida, la
resistencia, la armona con la naturaleza, la paciencia, la lucha por la vida,
el sentido de fiesta, la confianza y esperanza en Dios, la oracin, la con-
viccin de que Diosito les acompaa siempre. La religiosidad popular
es la que ha sintetizado mejor las culturas originarias con la fe catlica.
2) Hay un buen nmero de practicantes dominicales, sobre todo de
clase media y alta, que asisten regularmente a las celebraciones eucars-
ticas, pero que con dificultad se comprometen en las tareas de la comu-
nidad eclesial. Suelen ser muy tradicionales en su mentalidad cristiana,
sobre todo en lo social.
3) Existe un nmero ms reducido pero muy vivo de catlicos de
diferentes niveles sociales, que se comprometen seriamente con su fe,
forman parte de comunidades, parroquias, movimientos, comunidades
eclesiales de base... se preocupan por una formacin cristiana seria,
tienen una orientacin evangelizadora y misionera, ordinariamente son
sensibles a la justicia y al compromiso social
4) Existen otros grupos religiosos como los evanglicos-pentecosta-
les, religiones no cristianas tanto originarias como religiones tradicionales
y modernas.
5) Crece el grupo de agnsticos, indiferentes e incluso ateos, total-
mente al margen de las Iglesias y de las religiones, algunos en bsqueda
de una espiritualidad.
Desconocer este gran pluralismo religioso de Amrica Latina y de
Bolivia, juzgar al Continente con parmetros seculares europeos o norte-
americanos, es un grave error. Pero hay que evitar toda idealizacin en
el sentido de que sea el Continente de la esperanza. Aqu conviven la
sacralidad, con la modernidad y la post-modernidad, el cristianismo con
58 Vctor CODINA
59
los ritos originarios de las religiones ancestrales, la ideologa a veces mar-
xista con la religiosidad popular, la devocin al Papa con la ignorancia
de la Biblia, las peregrinaciones a santuarios marianos con el machismo,
violencia, borracheras, abusos sexuales, corrupcin, narcotrfico e injus-
ticia. El continente con mayor nmero de catlicos es el que mantiene
estructuras ms injustas; en un pasado todava reciente, en nombre de la
civilizacin cristiana occidental, dictadores latinoamericanos asesinaron
a poblaciones enteras de indgenas, martirizaron a campesinos, mujeres,
jvenes, a sacerdotes, religiosas y obispos. Es extrao que se hable de
la necesidad de una nueva evangelizacin, de pasar de un continente
de bautizados a un continente de discpulos y misioneros, como postula
Aparecida?
V. Interrogantes de cara al futuro
Es muy difcil pronosticar cul va a ser el futuro de la religin en
AL y de la misma Iglesia. Aparecida recoge un prrafo de gran lucidez:
No resistira
5
a los embates del tiempo una fe catlica reducida
a bagaje, a elenco de normas y prohibiciones, a prcticas de devocin
fragmentadas, a una participacin ocasional en algunos sacramentos, a
la repeticin de principios doctrinales, a moralismos blandos o crispados
que no convierten la vida de los bautizados (Aparecida 12).
La Cristiandad est en agona, pero las agonas a veces son lentas
y pueden durar un largo tiempo
6
. Hay sectores de la Iglesia que aoran
la poca de Cristiandad cuando los estados se proclamaban catlicos, los
templos estaban llenos, haba numerosas vocaciones, los obispos norma-
ban la vida pblica con su magisterio, la institucin eclesial gozaba de
prestigio, era la religin oficial y sus dirigentes tenan plausibilidad social.
Pero este mundo religioso del pasado es un imaginario que ya no es el
actual, es algo residual. La crisis de la Iglesia forma parte de la crisis de
las religiones establecidas.
Caer en catastrofismos no conduce a nada. Ms bien hay que ver
positivamente las posibilidades que se dibujan para la creacin de una
Iglesia de cristianos convencidos, una Iglesia Pueblo de Dios, una Iglesia
que descubra la presencia del Espritu en la historia y en las religiones,
una Iglesia de puertas abiertas, del umbral y del atrio, en dilogo con las
diversas religiones y con las crecientes formas de agnosticismo, de indi-
ferencia y de atesmo. El pluralismo religioso ha venido para quedarse.
5
El texto original de la versin episcopal deca no resistir. La correccin vaticana cambia
el futuro ms realista de los obispos por un condicional.
6
V. CODINA, La agona de la cristiandad, Cuarto intermedio, 89 (diciembre 2008) 80-94,
Cochabamba.
60
I. Colocao do problema
Na atual mudana de poca existe, sem dvida, uma crise no s
das instituies religiosas, como da prpria religio. J no existem os
fortes atesmos dos sculos XIX e XX, porm, em troca, crescem o agnos-
ticismo e a indiferena religiosa em muitos setores, enquanto que em
outros surge com vigor a valorizao de tudo o que seja espiritualidade e
mstica, porm margem de toda religio.
Ante essa complexa situao sobre a religio em geral, podemos
nos perguntar sobre o estado da religio na Amrica Latina. Meu intento
responder a essa questo, mais concretamente desde a Bolvia.
Pessoalmente, concordo com a afirmao do socilogo brasilei-
ro Luiz Alberto Gmez de Souza: Sempre reagi contra a ideia de uma
secularizao linear, com o ocaso inevitvel do sagrado. O sagrado segue
estando profundamente presente em nossas sociedades, s que em um
mundo pluralista e de ps-cristandade. No sempre os catlicos sabemos
entender estes novos tempos presentes e viver em outro clima
1
.
A matriz religiosa foi muito forte na Amrica Latina e no Caribe,
o povo possui tradicionalmente um grande sentido da transcendncia e
de abertura a Deus na vida cotidiana. Isso talvez no tenha sido sempre
compreendido, nem por missionrios que procedem de pases muito
secularizados, e muito menos pelas ONGs que trabalham no continente.
Contudo, a modernidade secular e a ps-modernidade intimista, a
globalizao, o xodo do campo para a cidade, a industrializao, o desen-
volvimento tecnolgico, o impacto dos MCS e da internet, as contnuas
migraes, tudo isso afeta a matriz religiosa da AL e transforma muitos
de seus valores, costumes e comportamentos. Para alguns observadores
atentos, como Bartomeu Meli, essas mudanas so de tal magnitude que
Traduo: Rogrio Mosimann da Silva sj
Consulta sobre Religio:
Pluralismo Religioso
Vitor CODINA
Cochabamba, Bolvia
1
SOUZA, L. A. Gmez de, Possvel agenda para a Igreja nos prximos anos. Perspectiva
Teolgica, 117, Belo Horizonte, maio-agosto de 2010, p. 247.
61
talvez s tenham como antecedente histrico as transformaes ocorridas
na primeira poca colonial, quando foi violentada a vida dos nativos e
destruda grande parte de suas culturas e crenas.
Nesse novo contexto se produziu um maior pluralismo religioso,
tanto no conjunto das denominaes religiosas presentes na AL, como
especificamente dentro da Igreja catlica. Consequncia disso que
ao pluralismo nacional, cultural e tnico da Bolvia e dos outros pases
da AL, h que se acrescentar agora tambm o pluralismo religioso. Um
sinal claro disso o reconhecimento da liberdade religiosa e a separao
entre Igreja e Estado que se foi produzindo com diversos matizes em
todos os pases latino-americanos, tambm na Bolvia. Desde a colnia
e a primeira evangelizao, a Igreja catlica havia mantido a hegemonia
religiosa e moral no continente: era a religio oficial, a que havia impreg-
nado a cultura e a moralidade de toda a sociedade, em um ambiente de
cristandade. Isso mudou radicalmente, a Igreja agora precisa conquistar
sua autoridade moral e sua credibilidade no por seu poder poltico, e
sim por seu testemunho e coerncia crist. Tampouco j a voz dos sem
voz, uma voz entre tantas vozes existentes, uma religio entre outras.
II. Panorama do pluralismo religioso na Amrica Latina e no Caribe
Nas ltimas dcadas, o panorama religioso da AL e do Caribe se
tornou multifacetrio. Sem descer a nmeros concretos, todas as estatsti-
cas nos mostram que existe uma configurao religiosa diversa. Vejamos
os principais dados.
1) Declive numrico do catolicismo imperante e debilitao da f
na Igreja catlica. Mais tarde buscaremos especificar e concretizar essa
situao.
2) Aumento numrico dos grupos evanglicos e, concretamente,
exploso do pentecostalismo, que constitui um fenmeno novo e surpre-
endente: o pentecostalismo junto com o Isl so as religies que mais
crescem no mundo de hoje; alguns, como Jos Comblin (recentemente
falecido), creem que desde a Reforma no se havia experimentado no
cristianismo uma mudana religiosa to profunda. E o pentecostalismo
cresce em ambientes marginais e pobres, entre mulheres, negros e ind-
genas, que recuperam a voz e o protagonismo eclesial que no tinham
antes em suas Igrejas histricas; agora experimentam sua salvao e cura,
leem a Palavra e renovam suas foras para lutar com a ajuda do Esprito.
Como disse Carlos Mesters, os mais pobres entre os pobres da AL no
esto nas CEBs, e sim nos grupos pentecostais
2
.
Consulta sobre Religio: Pluralismo Religioso 61
2
Onda pentecostal. Perspectiva Teolgica, 119, Belo Horizonte, janeiro-abril de 2011.
62
3) Sobrevivncia e ressurgimento das religies originrias. Isso no
acontece apenas na Bolvia. As religies originrias que desde a colnia
se haviam mantido de forma sincrtica e muitas vezes semiclandestina,
agora recuperam sua fora original. Para a grande maioria essa recupera-
o cultural e religiosa se faz desde sua f crist, em um clima de dilogo
intercultural e inter-religioso, contribuindo ao que se chama teologia
crist ndia e afro. Porm h grupos minoritrios mais radicais que no
processo de descolonizao querem abandonar a f crist e voltar a suas
religies originrias anteriores evangelizao. Por outro lado, a cultura e
religio originria tambm sofreu o impacto da modernidade globalizada,
com seus valores e contra-valores; a religio originria tampouco existe
em estado puro, como afirma Simn Pedro Arnold
3
.
4) Presena minoritria de outras tradies religiosas no crists:
Judasmo, Isl, religies orientais asiticas, algumas de tipo esotrico e
gnstico (Rosacruz, Acrpole, New Age,), que atraem muitas pessoas
sinceras que buscam uma espiritualidade que no encontram nas religi-
es tradicionais e histricas da AL.
5) Aumento de setores que no se professam religiosos mas agns-
ticos, indiferentes ou inclusive ateus. Este grupo, formado por jovens,
intelectuais, profissionais liberais, polticos, mulheres, operrios, etc
assemelha-se ao que cada vez mais prolifera na Europa e USA.
Baste esta sumria exposio para compreender que o panorama
religioso na AL constitui um verdadeiro mosaico, ao mesmo tempo novo
e sempre em mudana.
III. Situao especfica da Igreja catlica na AL e Caribe
Dentro mesmo do seio da Igreja catlica tambm existem profun-
das mudanas e certo pluralismo religioso interno. Seguindo Aparecida
(2007), podemos constatar as seguintes linhas de fora:
1) Existe uma f e uma profunda religiosidade no povo latino-
americano que se manifesta na religiosidade popular, no compromisso
eclesial com os pobres, na renovao bblica, litrgica e catequtica, na
vitalidade das parquias e da vida consagrada, no trabalho em diversas
pastorais especficas, no testemunho dos leigos, na riqueza das diversas
comunidades eclesiais, etc. (Aparecida, 98-99).
2) Mas h um enfraquecimento da vida crist e da pertena
Igreja, clericalismo, individualismo, marginalizao da mulher, sacramen-
talismo, com falta de evangelizao, pouco compromisso dos leigos na
vida social, diminuio do clero e da vida religiosa, materialismo, falta de
sentido de transcendncia, abandono das prticas religiosas e dbil per-
tena Igreja, passagem para outros grupos religiosos (Aparecida, 100).
62 Vctor CODINA
3
ARNOLD, S. P. Ensayos Andinos, Puno - Cochabamba, 2009, p. 97-114.
63
3) Mais ainda, existe uma crise de f, a f se desmorona (Aparecida,
13, 38), pela qual se necessita uma forte converso e uma correo de
rota da pastoral, se no se quer chegar a uma descristianizao como
ocorreu em outros continentes. H crena sem pertena (believing
without belonging, G. Davie), mas tambm existe em muitos grupos per-
tena sem crena, quer dizer, so incrdulos ps-cristos que desejam
manter smbolos cristos porque esses pertencem cultura ocidental
4
.
4) O lema de Aparecida discpulos e missionrios um sinal de
alerta no semforo eclesial. A misso continental qual de est sendo
convocado supe que a Amrica Latina um continente de batizados
que no foram suficientemente evangelizados, que no so discpulos e
missionrios do Senhor.
As causas dessa deteriorao da f so mltiplas, externas e inter-
nas Igreja. Entre as externas est a profunda mudana de poca, que
como um tsunami global a tudo sacudiu; questionou as instituies
religiosas e a prpria f. Em nvel interno, a Igreja catlica que havia
comeado a viver uma primavera espiritual e um verdadeiro pentecostes
desde o Vaticano II, e que na AL havia iniciado um processo proftico
desde Medelln, nas ltimas dcadas experimentou um caminho restaura-
cionista, de freio e marcha-a-r; quer-se edificar uma nova cristandade.
a situao de inverno eclesial que agora padecemos. Mais ainda, a Igreja
foi incapaz de responder aos novos desafios que nestes 50 anos depois
do Vaticano II surgiram na sociedade e na prpria comunidade eclesial.
Existe um surdo clamor, s vezes com indignao, que surge desde
a base da Igreja pedindo mudanas radicais. Algum o escuta?
IV. Um pluralismo religioso
Reassumindo tudo o que constatamos, atravs de Aparecida, sobre
o panorama religioso e eclesial da Amrica Latina e o Caribe, podemos
confirmar que nos encontramos frente a um grande pluralismo religioso.
A expresso pluralismo religioso, que ordinariamente se aplica coe-
xistncia de vrias religies no mundo, ns a entendemos aqui como
a coexistncia de diversas formas e estilos religiosos dentro da prpria
sociedade e da Igreja latino-americana. Concretamente, convivem dentro
da Amrica Latina, tambm da Bolvia, setores religiosa e eclesialmente
muito diferenciados que formam como que uns crculos concntricos e
sincrnicos.
1) Uma grande maioria de catlicos pertence religiosidade popu-
lar, com um grande sentido do sagrado, que talvez tenha sua raiz mais
4
GONZLEZ CARVAJAL, L. Cristianos sin Iglesia. Concilium, 340, abril de 2011, p. 115-121.
64
nas religies originrias do que no cristianismo. So os chamados cris-
tos das quatro estaes da vida que acodem Igreja no nascimento de
seus filhos (batismo), na adolescncia-juventude (primeira comunho-
confirmao), na fase adulta (matrimnio) e finalmente na morte (ritos
dos defuntos e exquias). Vivem as festas da Igreja, sobretudo Natal e
Semana Santa, as celebraes do padroeiro(a), e peregrinam a santurios
marianos (a Copacabana, Urkupia, Cotoca) ou do Senhor. So adeptos
mais dos sacramentais (gua benta, cinza, ramos, velas, santos) que
dos sacramentos, movem-se sob o esquema de cristos sociolgicos ou
cristos culturais, tpico da poca de cristandade: h crena mas com
fraca pertena eclesial, formam parte de uma espcie de Igreja clandes-
tina, informal, subterrnea, a seu modo, bastante ignorante de questes
bblicas e dogmticas, muito livre frente s normas morais da instituio
eclesial (preceito dominical, sexualidade, matrimnio,) que muitas
vezes inclusive desconhecem.
Contudo, muitos destes fiis, simples e pobres, vivem grandes valo-
res humanos e cristos: o amor e a solidariedade, a acolhida, a resistncia,
a harmonia com a natureza, a pacincia, a luta pela vida, o sentido da
festa, a confiana e esperana em Deus, a orao, a convico de que
o Deusinho os acompanha sempre. A religiosidade popular a que
melhor elaborou a sntese entre as culturas originrias e a f catlica.
2) H um bom nmero de praticantes dominicais, sobretudo de
classe mdia e alta, que assistem regularmente s celebraes eucarsti-
cas, mas que com dificuldade se comprometem com as tarefas da comuni-
dade eclesial. Costumam ser muito tradicionais em sua mentalidade crist,
sobretudo no que se refere ao social.
3) Existe um nmero mais reduzido mas muito vivo de catlicos
de diferentes nveis sociais, que se comprometem seriamente com sua
f, tomam parte de comunidades, parquias, movimentos, comunidades
eclesiais de base... Preocupam-se por una formao crist sria, tm uma
orientao evangelizadora e missionria, ordinariamente so sensveis
justia e ao compromisso social.
4) Existem outros grupos religiosos como os evanglicos pentecos-
tais, religies no crists tanto originrias como religies tradicionais e
modernas.
5) Cresce o grupo de agnsticos, indiferentes e inclusive ateus,
totalmente margem das Igrejas e das religies, alguns em busca de uma
espiritualidade.
Desconhecer esse grande pluralismo religioso da Amrica Latina
e da Bolvia, julgar o continente com parmetros seculares europeus ou
norte-americanos, um grave erro. Mas h que se evitar toda idealiza-
o no sentido de que seja o continente da esperana. Aqui convive
64 Vctor CODINA
65
a sacralidade com a modernidade e a ps-modernidade; o cristianismo
com os ritos originrios das religies ancestrais; a ideologia s vezes
marxista com a religiosidade popular, a devoo ao papa com a ignorn-
cia da Bblia; as peregrinaes a santurios marianos com o machismo,
violncia, bebedeiras, abusos sexuais, corrupo, narcotrfico e injustia.
O continente com maior nmero de catlicos o que mantm estrutu-
ras mais injustas. Num passado ainda recente, em nome da civilizao
crist ocidental, ditadores latino-americanos assassinaram a populaes
inteiras de indgenas, martirizaram a camponeses, mulheres, jovens, a
sacerdotes, religiosas e bispos. estranho que se fale da necessidade de
uma nova evangelizao, de passar de um continente de batizados a um
continente de discpulos e missionrios, como postula Aparecida?
V. Interrogaes diante do futuro
muito difcil prognosticar qual vai ser o futuro da religio na AL
e da prpria Igreja. Aparecida recolhe um pargrafo de grande lucidez:
No resistiria
5
aos embates do tempo uma f catlica reduzida a
uma bagagem, a um elenco de algumas normas e de proibies, a prticas
de devoo fragmentadas, a adeses seletivas e parciais das verdades da
f, a uma participao ocasional em alguns sacramentos, repetio de
princpios doutrinais, a moralismos brandos ou crispados que no con-
vertem a vida dos batizados (Aparecida 12).
A cristandade est em agonia, mas as agonias s vezes so lentas e
podem durar um longo tempo
6
. H setores da Igreja saudosos da poca
de cristandade quando os estados se proclamavam catlicos, os templos
estavam cheios, havia numerosas vocaes, os bispos normatizavam a
vida pblica com seu magistrio, a instituio eclesial gozava de prest-
gio, era a religio oficial e seus dirigentes tinham plausibilidade social.
Contudo, esse mundo religioso do passado um imaginrio que j no
o atual; algo residual. A crise da Igreja participa da crise das religies
estabelecidas.
Cair em catastrofismos no conduz a nada. Antes, preciso ver
positivamente as possibilidades que se delineiam para a criao de uma
Igreja de cristos convictos; uma Igreja povo de Deus; uma Igreja que
descubra a presena do Esprito na histria e nas religies; uma Igreja de
portas abertas, do umbral e do trio, em dilogo com as diversas religies
e com as crescentes formas de agnosticismo, de indiferena e de atesmo.
O pluralismo religioso veio para ficar.
5
O texto original da verso episcopal dizia no resistir. A correo vaticana muda o futuro
mais realista dos bispos por um condicional.
6
CODINA, V. La agona de la cristiandad. Cuarto intermedio, 89, Cochabamba, dezembro
de 2008, p. 80-94.
66
John Shelby SPONG
In English, HarperSanFrancisco: www.harpercollins.com
En espaol, increble su precio: US$ 8'5: www.abyayala.org y tiempoaxial.org
In italiano: Un cristianesimo nuovo per un mundo nuovo, Massari Ed., www.enjoy.it/erre-emme
A NEW CHRISTIANITY FOR A NEW WORLD
El nico libro que hace actualmente la propuesta de pasar de un cristianismo testa
a otro pos-testa, justicndola y aplicndola concretamente a los diferentes compo-
nentes de la visin cristiana (Dios, Jess, Evangelio, Jess, Iglesia, oracin, liturgia,
misin...). Jos Mara VIGIL.
In this brave and important book, Bishop Spong continues his lifelong quest for a
living faith and church worthy of the Christ in whom we can nd God in our time. His
call for a new reformation is honest, deep, provocative, and needed. Matthew FOX.
T
R
A
D
U
C
I
D
O

A
L

E
S
P
A
O
L
Why Traditional Faith is Dying
& How a New Faith Is Being Born
67
Resumen
Se explica en primer lugar el sentido y la justificacin de esta
ponencia elaborada a partir de las obras de Jos Comblin en sus ltimos
aos, por la voluntad que haba expresado pocos das antes de su muerte,
de participar en la Consulta, sin aadir algo a lo que ya he escrito.
Se aborda en primer lugar la crisis de la religin en funcin del
surgimiento de nuevas percepciones actuales: la religin como necesi-
dad humana, y como construccin cultural. Se distingue entre Jess, el
Evangelio y la religin. Se seala los elementos principales de la religin
que estn en crisis: la cosmologa subyacente, la heteronoma y el miedo.
Se reconoce que la crisis est en su punto culminante en Europa, y en
un nivel alto en Amrica Latina. Se avanza algunas previsiones sobre el
futuro de la religin, y se aterriza tratando de destacar las tareas de la
teologa ante esta crisis.
Abstract
Firstly, the meaning and justification of this paper is explained,
elaborated from the works of Jos Comblin during his last years, since he
had expressed a few days before his death the will to participate in this
Consultation.
Secondly, the crisis of religion is exposed, born from the new per-
ceptions of today: religion as a human need, and as cultural construc-
tion. A distinction is made between Jesus, the Gospels and religion. The
main elements of religion that are in crisis are noted: the underlying cos-
mology, heteronomy and fear. It is acknowledged that this crisis is at its
highest in Europe, and at a high level in Latin America. Some predictions
as to the future of religion are anticipated, and the work of theology fac-
ing this crisis is highlighted.
The Crisis of Religion
in Jose Comblin's Last Thinking
Jos COMBLIN
Belgium - Brazil
Traduccin de Alicia Mndez
68
Justification for this paper
This text is justified by the fact that Jose Comblin had accepted to
participate in this Latinamerican Theological Consultation about Religion.
On 16 February 2011 we cordially invited him to participate in our
Consultation. He humbly replied:
- I dont know if I could add something to what I have already writ-
ten, but I can collaborate.
We invited him to participate physically, travelling to be present,
but he declined the invitation:
- My problem is he said- that in the meetings I am not very useful
because of my hearing problem: I can hardly hear what is said in groups.
Death surprised him some days later, without giving him a chance
to start his text.
This is why, because of his intention to participate with a paper he
said would not add much to what he had been writing lately, we thought
it important to gather those ideas expressed in his last writings and bring
them to this Consultation, as was his will. In fact, during his last years,
Comblins thinking about religion had had a significant evolution.
In 2005 we invited him to a small theological gathering, in San Jose
de Costa Rica, to discuss the possible crisis of religion in Latin America.
We were surprised at his negative reaction to even a hypothesis that in
Latin America we could be at the start point of a crisis of religion. He
said that the crisis of religion was a European problem, due to Europes
decadence, a continent whose youth had no values or ideals, a youth that
would not even wish to have children while in Latin America religion
was not in a crisis, but it was in a state of explosion, with new religions
appearing permanently, the growth of neo-pentecostalism, and the migra-
tion of many catholics to the new religious movements.
Years later, in 2007 we met in Caracas, and I had the opportunity of
talking with him largely and observed a big change in his positions. He
not only did not deny the crisis of religion but also accepted it radically
and based it on a well-developed stream of thought. I remember that,
travelling by car to the airport as we were leaving the country, I decided
to insist on the fact that he should write those ideas in a systematised
way, requesting him formally to write an article about the topic for RELaT.
Comblin wrote the article and we published it in RELaT (Nr. 377), where
it can still be found as a real reference text.
But it was some years before that this new stream of thought had
been incubating, which made him interpret religion in a different way
to the traditional, classic, common to all Christian Churches, and specifi-
cally to the catholic Church, theology of religion. I consider his book O
Caminho (The Road. Essay on Jesus' following, Paulus, Sao Paulo), where
68 Jose COMBLIN
69
maybe his reconceptualization of religion is exposed more clearly and
concisely, a reconceptualization that allows for a new way of interpreting
freer and more realistic- the situation of religion in todays world. Public
conferences given by Comblin in the last years, such as the Theological
Sessions of the South Cone (of Amerindia, which will be quoted here by
its date, 091124), as well as interviews on radio given on the same occa-
sion, that were made famous on youtube, are also documents that clearly
show his brilliant and well-developed thinking on this topic. It is strange
to see how a thought expressed through such different means keeps
true to itself almost literally; a signal that those expressed key ideas of
his thought to which the author goes back once and again with total
confidence.
Let us then make Jose Comblins wish to participate in this
Consultation come true with a text that will really not add much to what
he had written in the last years.
We will firstly state the crisis or the change in the traditional theo-
retical proposals about religion that Comblin experimented. Secondly we
will try to show how Comblin describes the crisis of religion, the content
of the crisis and the future it allows us to foresee. Where possible I will
try to quote Comblin, otherwise I will summarise his thinking.
The new theoretical proposals about religion o
Crisis of the classic theoretical proposals about religion.
The distinction between religion and spirituality as a starting point.
Traditionally, spirituality, religion, gospels, Church, Christianity
were different names to refer, from different angles, to a single reality,
almost indivisible. Spirituality was a deep dimension, religions main
content, up to the point of considering that outside of religion there is
no spirituality. (Pagans may have moral virtues, human realities, but no
supernatural virtues, relation with God, spirituality.) Mentioning religion
was the same as saying spirituality, and the other way round. Both realities
would be consubstantial. Religion was indistinguishable from spirituality,
was not subordinate to it, was no means or instrument for anything but
a reality totally linked to spirituality, therefore, an end in itself.
Comblins latest thought is from the start contrary to this: the start-
ing point of this new thought about religion, its reconceptualization,
is the disidentification between spirituality and religion, or in Comblins
words, between gospels and religion.
Our starting point will be the distinction between religion and
gospel. Christianity is not originally a religion and Jesus did not found
any religion. Later Christians founded the Christian religion, human cre-
ation, not Gods (091124).
The Crisis of Religion in Jose COMBLIN's Last Thinking 69
70
Religion as a human need and cultural construction.
Religion, then, is not equivalent to spirituality (to gospels, as
Comblin says). Religion is more a human need. The human being needs
to express his religious feelings, channel in a religious way his wishes
and needs, and this creates religion. So, religion is clearly a human cre-
ation. It is not a reality coming directly from God, not a divine institution,
but a human creation, based on a human need. Human beings at least
up to now- cannot live without religion, they need it. Hence every people
create its religion, within its culture: religion is a cultural construction.
Each culture creates its own religion, and the people create their religion
from their culture, but also being influenced, inevitably, by religions
and cultures of peoples with whom they relate. Religion is thus usually
a syncretic reality, that includes an array of values and elements of the
neighbouring cultures and religions. This syncretism is always evolving:
religion is in permanent evolution. (RELaT 377)
Religion is the product of human culture. There is a great variety
of religions, and they all have the same structure although very different
external forms. They all have mythology, cult and a class dedicated to it.
The Christian religion does not differ in this. She is a human creation, the
product of various cultures. Religion is a basic reality of human existence.
It deals with the problems of the meaning of life on earth, the problem of
values, the place of the human being in the universe, and the problem of
salvation of all evils of this world. Religion has been studied by religious
anthropology, religious sociology, by the history of religions. All this
illustrates the Christian religion as well. Because it is a human creation,
Christian religion has changed and may still change in the future accord-
ing to changes in the future. (091124)
Jesus, gospels and religion
So, the Christian religion was created after Jesus, by his followers,
integrating religious elements of the Old Testament, of the Greek philoso-
phy later, of Roman law, of Mediterranean polytheism, of Irish religious
practices, of Germanic peoples and others.
Jesus lived within the Jewish religion, and rejected it. He did not
found any religion. What is more, what he preached was not a religion,
but, worse still, destroys all religion. (O Caminho, 7-10).
The Gospels, which Comblin likes to call the Road of Jesus, are
not a religion, although they are practised within a religion. But they are
above a religion, and must criticise and control it because religions tend
to become autonomous and shadow the gospels (ibidem). The history
of Christianity is the history of those religions called 'Christian', and the
history of the criticism of The Gospels to those religions. The history of
Christianity is the history of a tension or of a conflict between religion
70 Jose COMBLIN
71
and gospel, between a human tendency to religion, and the voices or the
lives of those who wanted to live according to the gospel. (091124)
Jesus gospel is not a religion. Jesus did not found any religion: he
did not proclaim a religious doctrine or a mythology, not even a speech
about God, he did not found any cult nor any clerical class. Jesus pro-
claimed and started Gods kingdom on earth. Gods kingdom is not a
religious kingdom, it is a rebirth of all humanity, rebirth that changes the
sense of human history, opening a new era, the last. It is a message for
all humanity in all its cultures and religions. It could be said that it is a
meta-policy message and history. (091124)
Many Christians and Christian structures fight against the gospel
without knowing it. (091124)
Religion is good if it helps to find the gospel instead of forgetting
it under a religious cover. It is a human need, but has to be investigated
and corrected. (091124)
Regarding the crisis of religion
What is in crisis in religion?
Underlying cosmology. There are elements of the old religion
that are now unacceptable. First is the underlying cosmology of the tra-
ditional religion. This was maybe common since the origins of human-
ity. The world appears to be divided in three levels: above is heaven.
In heaven lies god. God is represented as a patriarch or king-emperor,
according to the social structure of the people. Following the traditional
cosmology everything that happens on earth was decided in heaven.
God governs all terrestrial life following rules he only knows. What is
more, God is not subjected to any rule. He may change them whenever
he wishes. That is why prayer is so important, but it has to be strong and
persevering. (RELaT 377, 3)
In the religion of the masses this cosmology had an important
role. It was like the intellectual basis of religion. It justified all Christian
religious practices, and also justified the ancient pagan religions. Once
that cosmology is destroyed young people were convinced that religion
had no intellectual basis, it was pure imagination unrelated to reality.
(RELaT 377, 3)
In Latin America the old cosmology still abides in many popular
sectors, but it will produce the same religious crisis among adolescents
that start to study. School is the first secularisation factor and it destroys
the traditional religious cosmology. (RELaT 377, 3)
Heteronomy. In the middle, between heaven and hell, the earth
is a place of permanent conflict between the powers of heaven and the
powers of hell, which are in a never ending battle to win humanity. The
72
combat takes place within each person: in medieval spirituality this is a
constant topic. The combat also takes place among human groups repre-
senting the forces of heaven and of hell. Each group believes his enemies
are Satan armies and that he fights on behalf of God with all celestial
forces.
Life is lived as a permanent combat against hell forces. Life is a
fight to avoid sin and practise virtue, to adore God instead of Satan.
Human life would be a permanent tension between two forces external
to the human being. He would be the terrain of a battle between two
adversaries that are unyielding. Life would not be organised by human
beings, but dominated by external forces. Well now, since the Renaissance
it is very clear how each human being constructs his life.
This is the discovery of how each person is responsible for organis-
ing his life with autonomy, conquering every more freedom, not subject
to any supernatural forces, being those good or evil. This is also the
discovery that adolescents have been making for centuries. Today this
discovery is being made known, also due to schooling. The young person
learns to build his life regardless of celestial or hell forces. There are still
some remnants of archaic rural mentalities, but they are ever less operat-
ing. (RELaT 377, 3)
Fear. Since modern age, human beings have discovered that their
lives are not guided in that way by supernatural forces. They are owners
of their own lives. Threats, risks, ills in their lives are not due to super-
natural forces but to natural factors and decisions taken by human beings.
Illness is not a punishment for sin. Victory is not given by God. Peace is
a consequence of human action
After this discovery human beings have lost fear. They do not fear
God or the demons. They take life with its own limits and possibilities.
They learn to know nature better and their own capacities to produce the
effects they want to produce. They do not ask God for what they must
do. They try to do it themselves. (RELaT 377, 3)
State of the crisis
Within Christianity, the crisis of religion is reaching its summit in
Europe, and has reached a high level in America. But this crisis has very
old roots. (RELaT 377)
Post-modernism, far from bringing the end to the crisis of religion,
has furthered it. At this time the crisis of religion is more radical than in
1970. Not only in Brazil or in Latin America in general, but in all ancient
Christian territories. (ibidem)
The Curia believed and maybe still believes- that it has an alter-
native to the new movements: Opus Die, the Focolare, Communion and
72 Jose COMBLIN
73
Liberation, Neo-catechumenate, the Schnstatt movement, Legionaries
of Christ and many others that are less known. One day the Pope
proclaimed them agents of the new evangelisation. However, their pro-
grammes are of Christian restoration, which takes them apart from the
contemporary society and makes any evangelisation impossible. For them
evangelisation is recruitment of new members, which they do with all the
tricks that psychology or communication sciences give them. That is not
evangelisation. What is more, these groups are typical of middle class,
which is not the class looking for a new culture, but for an adaptation of
religion to their culture. The middle class wants a burgeois religion that
will prove them that God and money can be adored at the same time.
(ibidem)
The crisis of religion exists and is not on the road to a solution.
(ibidem)
All this evolution is irreversible. Nobody will be able to go back to
a past religious conscience. The cosmology and the anthropology born in
modernism and further developed since, are definitive. There will always
be some survivors of preceding times Nevertheless, from now on most
part of the catholic cult is not more than a show for tourists. Tourists do
not understand anything, but they like the anthropological museum that
religions are in present times. Cathedrals will be visited ever more and
pontifical masses will continue to be shown through television. (ibidem)
The future of religion
The XX century will have been the century of Pentecostalism. This
was the great religious movement that slowly covered all the world and
all the Churches and Christian denominations: it was a movement that
converted hundreds of millions of Christians. (RELaT 377, 5)
Related to religion, the most impressive fact in this century is
the extraordinary expansion of Pentecostalism or neo-pentecostalism.
Sociologists in Brazil estimate that in 10 years more they will be the reli-
gion of the majority in Brazil. They are already in Central America. They
are aware of their future glory and are more arrogant in their public life.
(Jose Comblin's e-mail of 110313)
The Pentecostals keep the traditional religious cosmology: God
and Satan, heaven, earth and hell, sin and divine punishment, Satans
temptations, the problem of salvation as central to religion. (RELaT 377, 5)
Historical experience shows that the great crisis of modernisation
appears in secondary school, around 15 years of age. The great majority
of the poor do not reach that, except in a few countries, such as Chile or
Uruguay. One day the poor will reach secondary school and will undergo
the same crisis, and the Pentecostal Churches will not be attractive. (ibi-
dem)
74
Pentecostalism may still grow, especially if historical Churches
do not permeate intensively the popular world. It cannot be permanent
because the poor classes will be better schooled and will undergo the
same religious problems of modernism and post-modernism. This evolu-
tion will depend on social evolution. The present system of exclusion can
still last for some years, 10, 20 or 50 years, depending on the resistance
of the new capitalist burgeosie and its ability to maintain its power over
society. (RELaT 377, 5)
Religion belongs to human condition. Hence, in all cultures there
is religion, and, if the culture changes, religion will change too, and
another will appear. We are now in a crucial moment of history because
of the radical change in culture.
Religion has a future, but not necessarily the religions we now
know. The traditional religion of Christianity has not much of a future
because it is incomprehensible and the new culture wants to understand.
The foundation of a new religion may last centuries, but there are
already some signals appearing.
Jesus did not found any religion, leaving the door open for his
disciples to create the religion that would best adapt to their culture,
what was done unknowingly, that is, without anybody knowing he was
building a new religion. That is why the religion we now know and prac-
tise was created within the Roman Empire, and is a historical possibil-
ity. Others may appear. Up to now Christianity has permeated only one
culture (with variances) from what existed in the Roman empire. This is
only a beginning, a first stage, most probably there will not be a strong
break up, but a progressive evolution. Certain institutions and practices
will disappear and others will appear. After some centuries a new set will
be present. (RELaT 377, 7)
The Christian religion is exhausted and offers no answer to the
present culture, except remnants from the past. (091124)
Tasks for theology facing this crisis
The main task and in a certain way unique, is the critical study
of all the Christian tradition, to go back to the gospel. It is a matter of
rediscovering what was really revealed by the life and death of Jesus.
It is not a matter of destroying a religion. It would be futile because
human beings need a religion and if it is supressed it will reappear under
other forms. The problem lies in knowing all about the religion that is
incomprehensible and unacceptable to the modern culture that invades
all religions. We will have to look for what is really comprehensible and
meaningful and may be an acceptable dress for the gospel. Let us look at
the elements of religion. (091124)
74 Jose COMBLIN
75
The task of theology will be to free the gospel of dogma rigid-
ity. All the magisterial documents will have to be critically examined.
As from Trento theologians habitually gave a maximalist interpretation
of dogmas. We need to go back to a minimalist interpretation. What is
it that the gospel really imposes? What is more, dogmas historically act
by what they do not say. The first 4 councils concentrated solely on the
concepts of person and nature. They forgot the human life of Jesus.
That is why the human life of Jesus was not a subject of reflection for
Christians during centuries. Tomas de Kempis could write a book about
the Imitation of Christ, with no mention of the human life of Jesus. What
kind of Christ is this? Dogmas hid the human life of Jesus for centuries.
In Trento nobody spoke of faith in a biblical sense, but of a religious
faith that is not Christian. The consequence was a lack of communication
between catholics and protestants during centuries, which could have
been avoided. (ibidem)
Dogmas were defined by Popes or Bishops. But they do not repre-
sent necessarily all the Christian population, as if the Spirit did not exist
among the people. There were councils that made a profound division
and expelled big sectors from the Church: Sirian churches, from Egypt
and all the East, not mentioning protestants. Within the assemblies there
were dissensions which were heresies. For example in Vatican I. This
makes definitions fragile. All this is the object of theology. (ibidem)
Of course the same theology is suspect under the light of the gos-
pels and has to be critically examined to see if it helps the comprehension
of the gospels or it hides it, what happened many times. Because since
Trento theology has become something controversial against protestants
and the moderns. It went under the service of the hierarchy. That is not
the task of theology. She is useful if she helps the Christian people better
understand what the gospel says. She is at the service of the Christian
people and not of the hierarchy. (091124)
For centuries theologians have been dedicated to explain and
justify all the elements of the system. Times have changed. All that was
linked to the traditional culture has lost its sense and legitimacy. Theology
must bring the gospel and the present world into contact. (ibidem)
Jos Mara VIGIL
Panama City, Panama
76
Justificacin de este escrito
Este texto tiene su justificacin en el hecho de que Jos Comblin
acept participar en esta Consulta Teolgica Latinoamericana sobre la
Religin. Con fecha 16 de febrero de 2011 le cursamos una cordial invita-
cin a participar en la Consulta. Nos respondi humildemente:
No s si podra aadir algo a lo que ya he escrito, pero puedo
colaborar.
Le invitamos a participar fsicamente, viajando para estar presente,
pero declin la invitacin:
Mi problema es -nos dijo- que en los encuentros ya no soy muy
til, por mi problema de audicin: escucho cada vez menos lo que se dice
en grupos.
La muerte le sorprendi pocos das despus, sin darle oportunidad
para comenzar su texto.
Por eso, por esa intencin suya de participar con una ponencia de
la que dudaba que pudiera aadir algo a lo que haba venido escribiendo
ltimamente, es por lo que nos pareci importante recoger esas ideas
expresadas en los escritos de sus ltimos aos, y traerlas a esta Consulta,
como fue su voluntad.
Efectivamente, en algunos pocos aos ltimos de su vida, Comblin
haba dado una importante evolucin en su pensamiento respecto al tema
de la religin.
En 2005 le habamos invitado a un pequeo encuentro teolgico,
en San Jos de Costa Rica, para debatir la situacin de la posible crisis
de la religin en A.L. Nos llevamos la sorpresa de que Comblin reaccion
negativamente ante la sola hiptesis de que en A.L. pudiramos estar a las
puertas de una crisis de la religin. Expres que la crisis de la religin era
un problema europeo, que se deba a la decadencia misma de Europa, un
76 Jos COMBLIN
La crisis de la religin
en el pensamiento ltimo de Jos Comblin
Jos COMBLIN
Blgica - Brasil
77
continente con una juventud sin proyecto ni ideales, una juventud que ni
siquiera quera tener hijos... mientras que en Amrica Latina la religin
no slo no estaba en crisis, sino que estaba en estado de explosin, con
el surgimiento constante de religiones nuevas, el crecimiento del neopen-
tecostalismo, y el paso de muchos catlicos a los nuevos movimientos
religiosos...
Aos despus, coincidiendo con l en Caracas, en 2007, tuve la
oportunidad de conversar largamente con l y observ un profundo cam-
bio en sus posiciones. No slo no negaba la crisis de la religin sino que
la afirmaba con radicalidad y la fundamentaba con un esquema de ideas
bien desarrollado. Recuerdo que, yendo en carro camino al aeropuerto
para salir ya del pas, me decid a insistirle en que deba escribir siste-
matizadamente aquellas ideas, encargndole formalmente que escribiera
un artculo sobre el tema para la RELaT. Comblin redact el artculo y lo
publicamos en la RELaT (n 377), donde todava est como un autntico
texto de referencia.
Pero ya desde algunos aos antes estaba incubando ese nuevo
esquema de pensamiento que le haca interpretar la religin de un modo
diferente al que ha sido la teologa de la religin tradicional, clsica,
comn en las Iglesias cristianas, en la Iglesia catlica concretamente.
Considero que es en su libro O Caminho (Paulus, So Paulo), quiz donde
expone ms clara y concisamente esta su reconceptuacin de la religin,
reconceptuacin que permite interpretar de un modo nuevo -ms libre
y realista- la situacin de la religin en el mundo actual. Conferencias
pblicas pronunciadas por Comblin en estos ltimos aos, como la
celebrada en las Jornadas Teolgicas del Cono Sur (de Amerindia, que
citaremos aqu por su fecha, 091124), as como entrevistas radiofnicas
concedidas en la misma ocasin, que se hicieron clebres por su difusin
a travs de youtube, son tambin documentos que perfilan con claridad
el pensamiento brillante y bien estructurado de Comblin en esta temtica.
Es curioso observar que en fuentes tan dispares (un libro, una ponencia,
una entrevista) hay con frecuencia pensamientos expresados con una
igualdad casi literal; seal de que expresaban ideas clave de su pensa-
miento a las que el autor vuelve una y otra vez con seguridad.
Vamos pues a dar cumplimiento al deseo de Jos Comblin de par-
ticipar en esta Consulta con texto que, efectivamente, no va a tratar de
aadir nada sobre lo que l ya haba escrito en los ltimos aos.
En un primer momento expondremos la crisis o la transformacin
de los planteamientos tericos tradicionales sobre la religin que expe-
riment Comblin. En un segundo momento trataremos de reflejar cmo
Comblin describe la crisis de la religin, el contenido de la crisis y el
futuro que cree vislumbrar. Siempre que sea posible reproducir direc-
tamente las palabras de Comblin; cuando sea necesario condensar el
pensamiento.
La crisis de la religin en el pensamiento ltimo de Jos COMBLIN 77
78
Los nuevos planteamientos tericos sobre la religin o
Crisis de los clsicos planteamientos tericos sobre la religin
La distincin religin/espiritualidad como punto de partida
Tradicionalmente, espiritualidad, religin, evangelio, Iglesia, cris-
tiandad... eran nombres distintos para referirse, desde aspectos diferentes,
a una realidad nica, casi indivisible. La espiritualidad era la dimensin
profunda, el contenido principal de la religin, hasta el punto de que se
consider tradicionalmente que fuera de la religin no hay espiritualidad.
(Los paganos pueden tener virtudes morales, realidades humanas, pero
no virtudes sobrenaturales, relacin con Dios, espiritualidad. Decir reli-
gin era tanto como decir espiritualidad, y decir espiritualidad era tanto
como decir religin. Ambas realidades seran como consustanciales. La
religin no se distingua de la espiritualidad, ni tena un carcter subordi-
nado hacia ella, ni era medio o instrumento de nada... sino una realidad
consustancial con la espiritualidad, y por tanto un fin en s misma.
El pensamiento reciente de Comblin se sita, de entrada, en una
posicin contraria: el punto de partida de todo este pensamiento nuevo
sobre la religin, de su reconceptuacin, es la desidentificacin entre
espiritualidad y religin, o en palabras exactas de Comblin, entre evan-
gelio y religin.
Nuestro punto de partida ser la distincin entre religin y evan-
gelio. El cristianismo no es originalmente una religin y Jess no fund
ninguna religin. Ms tarde los cristianos fundaron la religin cristiana,
creacin humana y no divina (091124).
La religin como necesidad humana y construccin cultural
La religin, pues, no es equivalente a la espiritualidad (al evange-
lio, en el decir mismo de Comblin). La religin es ms bien una nece-
sidad humana. El ser humano necesita expresar sus sentimientos reli-
giosos, canalizar religiosamente sus deseos y necesidades, y eso crea la
religin. As, la religin es, claramente, una creacin humana. No es una
realidad que provenga directamente de Dios, ni una institucin divina,
sino una creacin humana, en base a una necesidad humana. Los seres
humanos -hasta ahora al menos- no saben vivir sin religin, la necesitan.
Y por eso cada pueblo crea su religin, en su propia cultura: la religin
es as una construccin cultural. Cada cultura crea su religin, y cada
pueblo elabora su religin desde su cultura, pero tambin, dejndose
influenciar, inevitablemente, por las religiones de los pueblos y culturas
que estn en relacin con l. La religin es as una realidad normalmen-
te sincrtica, que incluye una amalgama de valores y elementos de las
culturas y religiones vecinas. Ese sincretismo no cesa de evolucionar: la
religin est en evolucin permanente. (RELaT 377)
78 Jos COMBLIN
79
La religin es producto de la cultura humana. Hay una gran
variedad de religiones, y todas tienen la misma estructura aunque muy
diversas en su forma exterior. Todas tienen una mitologa, un culto y una
clase dedicada a su ejercicio. En eso la religin cristiana no es diferente
de las dems. Ella tambin es creacin humana, producto de diversas
culturas. La religin es una realidad bsica de la existencia humana.
Plantea los problemas del sentido de la vida en esta tierra, el problema
de los valores, el lugar del ser humano en el universo, y el problema de
la salvacin de este mundo de todos sus males. La religin ha sido muy
estudiada por la antropologa religiosa, por la sociologa religiosa, por la
historia de las religiones.
Todo ello ilustra tambin la religin cristiana. Por ser creacin
humana, la religin cristiana ha cambiado y puede todava cambiar en el
porvenir segn los cambios de la historia (091124).
Jess, el evangelio y la religin
As, la religin cristiana fue creada despus de Jess, por sus segui-
dores, integrando elementos religiosos del Antiguo Testamento, de la filo-
sofa griega despus, del derecho romano, del politesmo mediterrneo,
de las prcticas religiosas de los irlandeses, de los pueblos germnicos...
y otros.
Jess vivi en la religin juda, y la rechaz. No fund ninguna
religin. Ms: lo que l predic no es una religin, sino que todava
ms destruye toda religin. (O Caminho, p. 7-10).
El Evangelio, que Comblin gusta de llamar el Camino de Jess, no
es religin, aunque se vive normalmente en una religin. Pero es supe-
rior a la religin, y debe criticarla y controlarla porque la religin tiende
a hacerse autnoma y a opacar al Evangelio (ibidem). La historia del
cristianismo es la historia de las 'religiones cristianas' y la historia de la
crtica a esas religiones en nombre del Evangelio (O Caminho, 9). La his-
toria del cristianismo es la historia de una tensin o de un conflicto entre
religin y Evangelio, entre una tendencia humana hacia la religin, y las
voces o las vidas de los que queran vivir segn el Evangelio (091124).
El Evangelio de Jess no es una religin. Jess no fund ninguna
religin: no proclam una doctrina religiosa o una mitologa, ningn
discurso sobre Dios, no fund ningn culto y no fund ninguna clase
clerical. Jess proclam e inaugur el reino de Dios en la tierra. El Reino
de Dios no es ningn reino religioso; es una renovacin de toda la huma-
nidad, realizacin que cambia el sentido de la historia humana, abriendo
una nueva poca, la ltima. Es un mensaje para toda la humanidad en
todas sus culturas y religiones. Se podra decir que es un mensaje y una
historia meta-poltica (091124).
80
Muchos cristianos y estructuras cristianas luchan sin saberlo con-
tra el Evangelio (091124). La religin es buena si ayuda a buscar el
Evangelio y no a olvidarlo bajo el revestimiento religioso. Es una necesi-
dad humana, pero tiene que ser vigilada y corregida (091124).
Respecto a la crisis de la religin
Qu es lo que en la religin est en crisis
La cosmologa subyacente. Hay elementos de la religin anti-
gua que ya no son asimilables. El primero es la cosmologa subyacente
a la religin tradicional. sta era comn tal vez desde los orgenes de
la humanidad. El mundo aparece dividido en tres niveles: arriba est el
cielo. En el cielo est Dios. Dios es representado como patriarca o como
rey-emperador, segn la estructura social de los pueblos. Segn la cosmo-
loga tradicional todo lo que sucede en la tierra, fue decidido en el cielo.
Dios gobierna toda la vida terrestre segn normas que slo l conoce.
Adems Dios no est sometido a ninguna norma. Puede cambiar cuando
quiere. Por eso la oracin puede ser eficaz, pero tiene que ser fuerte y
perseverante (RELaT 377, 3).
En la religin de las masas esta cosmologa tena un papel impor-
tante. Era como el fundamento intelectual de la religin. Era lo que justi-
ficaba todas las prcticas de la vida religiosa cristiana, as como justificaba
las antiguas religiones paganas. Una vez que se produjo la ruina de esa
cosmologa los jvenes tuvieron la conviccin de que la religin no tena
fundamentos intelectuales, era pura imaginacin sin relacin con la rea-
lidad (RELaT 377, 3).
En Amrica Latina la vieja cosmologa todava permanece en
muchos sectores populares, pero va a provocar la misma crisis religiosa
en los adolescentes que empiezan a estudiar. La escuela es el primer
factor de secularizacin y de destruccin de la cosmologa religiosa tra-
dicional (RELaT 377, 3).
La heteronoma. En medio entre el cielo y el infierno, la tierra
es el lugar del conflicto permanente entre las potencias del cielo y las
potencias del infierno, que estn en un combate permanente porque cada
cual quiere conquistar la humanidad. El combate tiene lugar dentro de
cada persona: el combate espiritual es tema constante de la espiritualidad
medieval. El combate tiene lugar tambin entre grupos humanos repre-
sentativos de las fuerzas del cielo y del infierno. Cada grupo humano cree
que sus enemigos son los ejrcitos de Satans y que l mismo combate
en nombre de Dios con las fuerzas celestiales.
80 Jos COMBLIN
81
La vida es vivida como combate permanente contra las fuerzas del
infierno. La vida es lucha para evitar el pecado y practicar la virtud, ado-
rar a Dios y no a Satans. La vida humana sera una tensin permanente
entre dos fuerzas exteriores al ser humano. ste sera el terreno de un
combate entre dos adversarios irreductibles. La vida no sera organizada
por el mismo ser humano, sino ms bien dominada por fuerzas exterio-
res. Ahora bien, desde el Renacimiento est cada vez ms claro que el ser
humano hace su vida.
Es el descubrimiento de que cada cual tiene la responsabilidad de
organizar su vida con autonoma, conquistando siempre ms libertad, sin
estar sometido a fuerzas sobrenaturales, buenas o malas. Ese es tambin
el descubrimiento que hacen los adolescentes desde hace siglos. Hoy en
da ese descubrimiento ya se est generalizando, tambin por influjo de la
escolarizacin. El joven aprende a hacer su vida sin preocuparse por las
fuerzas celestiales o infernales. Todava hay restos de la mentalidad rural
arcaica, pero son cada vez menos operantes (RELaT 377, 3).
El miedo. Desde la modernidad los seres humanos han descubier-
to que su vida no es dirigida en esa forma por fuerzas sobrenaturales.
Ellos mismos son dueos de sus vidas. Las amenazas, los peligros, los
males de sus vidas no se deben a fuerzas sobrenaturales sino a factores
naturales y a decisiones tomadas por los mismos seres humanos. La
enfermedad no es castigo del pecado. La victoria no es dada por Dios. La
paz es efecto de la accin humana...
A partir de este descubrimiento los seres humanos han perdido el
miedo. Ya no temen ni a Dios ni a los demonios. Asumen su vida con
sus lmites y sus posibilidades. Aprenden a conocer mejor la naturaleza y
sus propias capacidades para producir ellos mismos los efectos deseados.
No piden a Dios lo que ellos tienen que hacer. Tratan de hacerlo ellos
mismos (RELaT 377, 3).
Estado de la crisis
Dentro de cristiandad la crisis de la religin est llegando a su
punto culminante en Europa, y ya alcanz un nivel bien alto en Amrica.
Pero esta crisis tiene races muy antiguas (RELaT 377).
Lejos de traer el fin de la crisis de la religin, la pos-modernidad la
profundiz. En este momento la crisis de la religin es mucho ms radical
que en 1970. No slo en Brasil o en Amrica Latina en general, sino en
todo el territorio de la antigua cristiandad (ibdem).
La Curia pensaba y a lo mejor todava lo piensa que tiene una
alternativa en los nuevos movimientos: Opus Dei, Focolares, Comunin
y Liberacin, Neo-catecumenado, movimiento de Schnstatt, Legionarios
82
de Cristo... y muchos otros con menor difusin. El Papa los proclam un
da los agentes de la nueva evangelizacin. Sin embargo su programa
es de restauracin de la cristiandad, lo que los aparta cada vez ms de
la sociedad contempornea y hace imposible cualquier evangelizacin.
Para ellos la evangelizacin es reclutamiento de nuevos miembros, lo
que hacen con todas las astucias que la psicologa o las ciencias de la
comunicacin ponen a su disposicin. Eso no es evangelizacin. Adems
estos movimientos son tpicos de la clase media, que no es la clase que
busca una nueva cultura, sino una adaptacin de la religin a su cultura.
La clase media quiere una religin burguesa que le muestre que puede
muy bien adorar a Dios y al dinero al mismo tiempo (ibdem).
La crisis de la religin existe y no est en vas de solucin (ib-
dem).
Toda esta evolucin es irreversible. Nadie podr retornar a una
conciencia religiosa del pasado. La cosmologa y la antropologa nacidas
en la modernidad y desarrolladas ms todava desde entonces, son defi-
nitivas. Habr siempre algunos supervivientes de las pocas anteriores...
Sin embargo, desde ahora gran parte del culto catlico ya no es nada ms
que espectculo para los turistas. Los turistas no entienden nada, pero les
gusta el museo antropolgico que son las religiones en la actualidad. Las
catedrales sern cada vez ms visitadas y las misas pontificales seguirn
siendo difundidas por la televisin (ibdem).
Futuro de la religin
El siglo XX habr sido el siglo del pentecostalismo. ste fue el
gran movimiento religioso que envolvi poco a poco al mundo entero y
a todas las Iglesias y denominaciones cristianas: fue un movimiento de
conversin de cientos de millones de cristianos (RELaT 377, 5).
Sobre la religin, el hecho impresionante de este sigo es la expan-
sin extraordinaria del pentecostalismo o neopentecostalismo. En Brasil
los socilogos estiman que en 10 aos, mas sern la religin de la mayo-
ra en Brasil. Ya lo son de hecho en Amrica central. Estn conscientes
de su gloria futura y son mas arrogantes en la vida pblica (correo-e de
Jos Comblin del 110313).
Los pentecostales conservan la cosmologa religiosa tradicional:
Dios y Satans, el cielo, la tierra y el infierno, el pecado y los castigos
divinos, las tentaciones de Satans, el problema de la salvacin como
problema bsico de la religin (RELaT 377, 5).
La experiencia histrica muestra que la gran crisis de la moderni-
zacin se produce en la enseanza secundaria, alrededor de los 15 aos.
La inmensa mayora de los pobres no llegan hasta ah, salvo en pocos
pases, como Chile o Uruguay. Un da llegar en que los pobres entrarn
82 Jos COMBLIN
83
en la escuela secundaria y van a pasar por la misma crisis, y las Iglesias
pentecostales ya no les ofrecern tanto atractivo (ibdem).
El pentecostalismo puede todava crecer, sobre todo si las Iglesias
histricas no logran penetrar en forma intensiva en el mundo popular. No
podr ser algo permanente, porque poco a poco las mismas clases pobres
sern cada vez ms escolarizadas y entrarn en los mismos problemas
religiosos de la modernidad y la pos-modernidad. Esta evolucin va a
depender de la evolucin social. El sistema actual de exclusin todava
puede durar algunos aos, 10, 20 50 aos, segn la resistencia de la
nueva burguesa capitalista y su capacidad para mantener su dominio
sobre la sociedad (RELaT 377, 5).
La religin pertenece a la condicin humana. Por eso, en cualquier
cultura hay religin, y, si la cultura cambia, la religin va a cambiar tam-
bin, y otra aparecer. Estamos en un momento crucial de la historia por
motivo del cambio radical de la cultura.
La religin tiene futuro, pero no necesariamente las religiones que
conocemos hoy da. La religin tradicional de la cristiandad no tiene
mucho futuro porque ya es incomprensible y la nueva cultura quiere
comprender.
La fundacin de una nueva religin puede durar siglos, pero desde
temprano hay algunas seales que aparecen.
Jess no fund ninguna religin, dejando la puerta abierta para
que sus discpulos crearan la religin ms adaptada a su cultura, lo que se
hizo inconscientemente, o sea, sin que nadie supiera que estaba constru-
yendo una religin nueva. Por eso esa religin que conocemos y practica-
mos, se form dentro del Imperio romano, y es una posibilidad histrica.
Otras pueden aparecer. Hasta ahora el cristianismo slo penetr en una
sola cultura (con dos variantes) a partir de lo que haba en el Imperio
romano. Es slo un comienzo, una primera etapa. Lo ms probable es que
no habr ruptura fuerte, sino evolucin progresiva. Ciertas instituciones
o prcticas van a desaparecer y otras van a aparecer. Despus de algunos
siglos se podr observar que apareci un nuevo conjunto (RELaT 377, 7).
La religin cristiana est agotada y no ofrece respuesta a la orien-
tacin de la cultura actual, sino restos del pasado (091124)
Tareas de la teologa ante la crisis
La tarea principal y de cierto modo nica es el estudio crtico de
toda la tradicin cristiana, para volver al Evangelio. Se trata de redescu-
brir lo que realmente fue revelado en la vida y la muerte de Jess. No
se trata de destruir la religin. Sera intil, porque los seres humanos
necesitan una religin y, si se la suprime, reaparece bajo otras formas. El
problema consiste en saber todo lo en la religin ya no es comprensible
84
ni aceptable en la nueva cultura moderna que entra en todas las religio-
nes. Habr que buscar lo que es realmente comprensible y significativo y
puede ser un revestimiento aceptable del Evangelio. Veamos los elemen-
tos de la religin (091124).
La tarea de la teologa ser liberar el evangelio de la rigidez del
dogma. Habr que examinar crticamente todos los documentos del
magisterio. Desde Trento los telogos dieron habitualmente la interpreta-
cin maximalista de los dogmas. Necesitamos volver a una interpretacin
minimalista. Qu es lo que el Evangelio realmente impone?
Adems los dogmas actan histricamente por lo que no dicen.
Los 4 primeros concilios concentran todo en los conceptos de persona
y naturaleza. Dejaron de lado la vida humana de Jess. Por eso la vida
humana de Jess dej de ser durante siglos motivo de reflexin de los
cristianos. Toms de Kempis pudo escribir un libro sobre la Imitacin de
Cristo, sin ninguna alusin a la vida humana de Jess. Qu Cristo es ese?
Los dogmas ocultaron la vida humana de Jess durante siglos. En Trento
no se habl de la fe en sentido bblico, sino de una fe religiosa que no es
cristiana. La conclusin fueron siglos de incomunicacin entre catlicos y
protestantes, lo que poda haber sido evitado (ibdem).
Los dogmas fueron definidos por Papas u obispos. Pero ellos no
representan necesariamente todo el pueblo cristiano, como si el Espritu
no estuviera tambin en el pueblo. Hubo concilios que dividieron pro-
fundamente y expulsaron de la Iglesia a sectores inmensos: las Iglesias
de Siria, de Egipto y de todo el Oriente, sin hablar de los protestantes.
Dentro de las asambleas hubo disensiones que no eran herejas. Por
ejemplo en el Vaticano I. Esto fragiliza las definiciones. Todo eso es obje-
to de la teologa (ibdem).
Por supuesto la misma teologa es sospechosa a la luz del
Evangelio y tiene que examinarse crticamente para ver si ayuda a la
comprensin del Evangelio o lo oculta, lo que sucedi muchas veces.
Pues desde Trento la teologa se hizo en polmica contra los protestantes
y los modernistas. Se puso al servicio de la jerarqua. No es sa la tarea
de la teologa. Ella debe servir para ayudar al pueblo cristiano a entender
mejor lo que dice el Evangelio. Est al servicio del pueblo cristiano, no
de su jerarqua (091124).
Durante siglos los telogos se han dedicado a explicar y justificar
todos los elementos del sistema. Los tiempos han cambiado. Todo lo que
estaba ligado a la cultura tradicional, perdi su sentido y su legitimidad.
La teologa pondr en contacto el Evangelio y el mundo actual (ibdem).
Jos Mara VIGIL
Panam, Panam
84 Jos COMBLIN
85
Resumen
El presente trabajo parte de la constatacin de que la teologa
contempornea mantiene a grandes rasgos un silencio sobre el hecho
religioso y la coexistencia de una pluralidad de religiones. Esto de debe a
que se considera al pluralismo religioso como amenaza al rol salvfico de
la fe cristiana y un cuestionamiento a la pretensin universal y nica del
cristianismo. Para romper con este silencio, el autor plantea la urgen-
cia de salir de una concepcin monocultural de lo que es religin y bus-
car puentes interculturales. Desde el contexto andino, es imprescindible
ampliar el panorama del campo religioso y deconstruir interculturalmen-
te la concentracin del mismo en los aspectos institucionales, doctrinales
y escriturales. Como conclusin, el autor plantea que en perspectiva de
liberacin, no es la religin que libera o redime, sino la fe comprometida
que se sirve del factor religioso como una mediacin.
Abstract
The present contribution starts noting that contemporary theology
keeps in general silence about the religious filed and the coexistence of a
plurality of religions. The main reason for this fact consists in considering
religious pluralism as a danger for the salvific role of Christian faith and
critics of the universal and unique pretension of Christianity. In order to
break with this silence, the author suggests that it would be necessary to
break with a monocultural conception of what is conceived as religion
and to look for intercultural bridges. From an Andean context, it will be
indispensable to interculturalize the religious phenomenon and decon-
struct its concentration on institutional, doctrinal and scriptural aspects
in an intercultural perspective. As a conclusion, the author states that in
the sense of Liberation theology, it is not religion that liberates or redeems,
but engaged faith which recurs to the religious factor as mediation.
Religion Does Not Redeem.
Theological Reflections
about the Role of Religion Today
Josef ESTERMANN
La Paz, Bolivia
Translation: Kari Fisher Eller
86
The topic of religion has risen, in the last decades a growing
interest on part of the social sciences, postmodern philosophy, cultural
studies and even development sciences, but not on part of theology. The
factual plurality of the religious identities (religions) has constituted
much time- above all for representatives of the so called monotheistic
religions- a thorny problem or even an obstacle of such magnitude that
many theologians have avoided touching it and prefer to stay silent schol-
ars. And the few people who dare to confront the theme, run the risk of
being reprimanded, notified and silenced, above all in a religious institu-
tion with a strong vigilance of the doctrine (Catholic Church, Islam, new
religious movements).
In a context dominated by a postmodern and mercantile spirit
(Europe and North America), the loss of the institutionalized religiousness
(ecclesiastical; doctrine; normative ethics and cultural) and the ortho-
dox doctrine contrast with a proliferation of offers para and pseudo
religions, a post secular civil religiosity, an exaltation of the worship to
the body (wellness, cosmetic, body work), on one side, and the growth
of fundamentalist movements in practically all of the congregations
and religious identities, on the other. On the peripheral of the neoliberal
capitalist empire, in the global south the always weak religious institu-
tionality declines even more, not in the first place due to secularization
and a shy irreligiosity, but rather the spectacular expansion of the neo
Pentecostal churches of the electronic style, and the visibilization of clan-
destine forms of religion of the original peoples.
1. The Silence of Theology
The relationship between religion and theology has been, despite
an apparent marriage of convergence, always charged with mutual ten-
sion, suspicion and a certain hostility. Until the Constantine tour (315),
faith in Jesus Christ was not discussed as a new religion or with much
caution. It appears that the same concept religion has a roman origin
and is not overcome in the Semitic tradition (Hebrew), nor in the Greek
wisdom (Hellenic). For the first Christian theologians, religion was prac-
tically identical with the official worship of the Roman Empire, given that
the new Jewish Sect was not only irreligious, but also their followers
were atheist.
Many of the so called founders of religion (Jesus; Siddhartha
Gautama; Mohammed) have been very critical and even hostile with the
religion or religions of their time and they did not in any way constitute
or found a new religion. However, what were movements of profound
reform, within a few centuries had already converted in established insti-
tutions and recognized religions. In the case of Christianity, the preaching
and practice of the reign of God very rapidly was converted into Church,
and under the predominance of the Empire in an official religion.
86 Josef ESTERMANN
87
The theology is understood from a beginning as intellectual
defense of the new faith and not as a reflection of the practices, beliefs
and religious manifestations. To present, Catholic and Protestant theol-
ogy is understood more as an explication of a doctrine and not as a
reflection of a popular syncretic practice. The popular religiosity has not
been, except a few counted incidences, object of a theological reflection
and was, as the etymology reveals, associated with paganism and magical
practices not worthy of theological efforts. In Christianity- especially in
Catholicism- the question of salvation and redemption is associated very
early to the church as a community of believers, and afterwards to the
church as an institution (ex ecclesiam nulla salus).
In dialectical theology, insuperable antagonism between faith and
religion is planted, in such a way that religion is considered antipodal
of the direct and personal relationship with the divine mystery (faith),
and, as such, idolatry and an ideological obstacle for faith in Jesus Christ.
In association with early Christianity, this is not interpreted as religion,
but rather as a new way of relating with the divine. In Catholic theol-
ogy, the religion is not seen as locus theologicus, not because it was
not reality, rather because it was seen as a threat in the form of religious
pluralism. The simple fact that other religions outside of Christianity (or
precisely; Catholicism) existed constituted a danger for a theology that
defines salvation and redemption in terms of membership and belong-
ing. It is not the religion as such that constitutes a problem, but rather
the religions and their pretension of universal validity.
The silence of the theology in respect to the religious fact is only
broken in the contemporary era due to the challenge of religious plural-
ism. From the II Vatican Council, emerges, in the Catholic environment, a
theology of the religions or a theology of theological pluralism that is
not the same as a theology of religion or a theology of religious facts.
The famous dispute between Paul and Peter in the Jerusalem Council (ca.
70 EC) has been one of the first (and perhaps last) debates about the role
of religion (customs; cultural norms; ritual practices) for the redemp-
tion, that is to say: about the role of religion in the salvific history of
the human being. Despite the Pauline liberalization or a critical decon-
struction of the religious factor, new religious forms as prerequisites
for what was considered redemption and salvation were quickly installed
with greater coercive strength, between them Hellenistic circumcision
and the Roman legal stronghold.
2. Challenges for an Intercultural Theology of the Religious Fact
The religion concept that Christian theology embodies- as much
Catholic as Evangelical- in a large part of the world, has a Western origin
and is a reflection of the philosophy of basically Hegelian religion, on
Religion Does Not Redeem. Theological reflections on the role of religion today 87
88
one side, and the Eurocentrism (or Western Centrism) of the Classical
Sciences of Religion of the XIX and XX centuries, on the other side. In
one way, an overly schematic and monocultural concept of religion,
inherited the illustrious debate about the autonomy of the human person
and the alienating and ideological character of that which is religious.
In another way, a very institutional and doctrinal (orthodox) concept
of what is and should be a certain religion (above all in the sense of
church) is maintained.
An intercultural deconstruction of the religion propels, because
the classic parameters of the Sciences of Religion and the mental schemes
and prejudices still present in the official and academic theology, do not
reflect the diversity and contemporary complexity of the religious field
and of its manifestations.
In first place, the dominant concept of religion has as a prin-
cipal reference the existence or relevance of certain universal religions
established and institutionalized. In the Sciences of Religion the high
religions (Hochreligionen) were discussed until recently, a judgement of
unacceptable value that reflects a Eurocentric point of view. This posture
is articulated often with the supposition that monotheism (Christian) was
the evolutionary point more advanced of that which is religious, such as
the so called polytheist, animist and natural religions were relegated
a second or third place.
In second place, it normally referred to the religions as a total of
doctrinal, ritual and institutional elements, well identified and separable
from the same elements of other religious traditions. In the last years, we
are witnessing a new syncretization in the religious field, together with
a fundamentalization of beliefs and religious practices. Both tendencies-
although they appear contradictory- are the two faces of the same coin
and reflect the advanced process of cultural and economic globalization.
In third place, the contemporary religious field is characterized
by a diversification of the experiences and manifestations, in the sense of
a patched religion in which very distinct elements of religious traditions
are unified. This religious eclecticism carries with it a certain religious
light that prescinds a defined doctrine, established institutions, deter-
mined norms and visible representatives.
In fourth place, there is a re surging of ancestral religions made
invisible for much time, from a supposed paganism (or neo pagan-
ism) inside and at the margin of classic religions, but also of religious
pentecostal and charismatic dissidence, on one side, and conservative
and traditionalists, on the other. Innumerable forms of double loyalty
or birreligiosity (Sinoquismo), of religious hybridity, of syncretism and
eclecticism, of civil religiosity and esoterisms, of obscurantism and occult-
isms exist.
88 Josef ESTERMANN
89
3. Religion, Religiosity, Spirituality, Cosmovision, etc.
Speaking bluntly about religion, it is not anymore permitted to
describe nor appreciate all of the religious panorama with that which
the theological chores has to do. From the North (Europe and North
America), there is a certain tendency that favors the term spirituality
above religion. Spirituality is in fashion and embodies well the post-
modern spirit of the New Age, precursor of a cosmic convergence of the
distinct spiritualities, cosmovisions and life models, even more that the
positions (slightly flexible) of the historic religions. This concept (spiri-
tuality) covers phenomenons so diverse as forms of Hindu meditation,
Psychotherapeutic practices, rebirthing, the worship of the body (well-
ness) and forms of sufism or medieval mysticism.
On the other side, a tendency also exists to not talk about reli-
gions as such, rather religiosities, that is to say: the cultural and collec-
tive ways of perceiving, representation and living the relationship with
the sacred, if it does not imply the complete adhesion to an established
religion. Given the fact that it tends to call ancestral religions religi-
osities, one has to question this strategy as an intent (unconscious) of
differentiating and separating once again (as in the classic period of
Sciences of Religion) two classes of religious expression: religions and
religiosities.
The same occurs with the inflated use of the term cosmovision
that is used for whatever union of beliefs, life model, rituals and uni-
versal religions. Although it is appropriate for the indigenous original
peoples, it reflects a Western predilection for the view and theory
(theorein: to see). As a result, there are intents to reinterpret cosmo-
vision to terms of cosmospirituality, cosmosentiments or cosmowis-
dom. However, it is still being used in comparison to what is considered
philosophy, faith, religion and science, with the effect of a new
axiological hierarchy in disfavor of the first.
Finally, the influx of and abundant literature about the phenom-
enon of civil religion that opens apparently a panorama much wider
for the religious field, including even the ideologies unique of devel-
opment and progress as religious manifestations (as occurs with the
word developism, the exaltation of progress, of economic growth, etc.).
Capitalism and its hedonistic form of consumerism have been converted
into very powerful and globalized civil religions.
It is impossible to propose a definition more or less certain of the
mentioned terms, and even less the central term of religion. Recently in
and through intercultural dialogue, it is possible to arrive to a few provi-
90
sional working definitions. However, it means leaving behind monocul-
tural and culture centric definitions (today the most are still in majority
Euro-centric).
Religion implies just as much established religions on a planetary
level as local religions; doctrinal and institutional religions like religions
of low doctrinal intensity and have little to no institutionalization; spiri-
tual and spatial practices, indigenous cosmovisions, old and new syn-
cretisms, Pentecostal and charismatic proposals, expressions of a civil
religion of a people and society.
Finally, one has to take seriously the inherent ambiguity to reli-
gious systems, which can be inclined to promote more life, equality and
well being, or justly contribute to more death, a lack of inequality and
poverty. A true intercultural and inter religious dialogue is always critical
and auto-critical, and in the same way is the incipient dialogue between
religion and theology.
4. An Andean Perspective of the Religious Fact
In the case of the Andes, the people are eminently religious (in
Bolivia, 98% declare themselves believers in a Home Survey in 2001).
Although many people pertain to a church of a Christian tradition, a large
percentage practices traditions and ancestral religious rituals, possibly in
a parallel form integrated to the dominant religion. The perspectives and
concept of development, progress, and well being are loosely con-
nected with ideas and religious forms and perceiving reality.
The Andean religiousness is inclusive and is founded on the prin-
cipal of relationships as a primary parameter of acting, perceiving and
producing. As such, each theological reflection about the religious field
has to start from this fact, that is: it has to take into account the religiosity
as a transversal axis.
In the Andean case, the term religion is associated with the
institutional religious system of the Catholic Church and the Evangelical
churches, and not as much with the indigenous ancestral religiosity
and its spiritualities. In this context, attention is called to the para-
digm change, in the Bolivian case, between the Political Constitution of
the State (CPE) valid (1967) and the proposal of the new CPE of 2008,
as we have indicated earlier. The CPE of 1967 reflects a highly Western
and colonial spirituality, referring to the paradigm of the religion in an
institutional and Semi-state corporational (Holy Seat) sense. In contrast,
the CPE of 2008 intends to be decolonizing and inclusive, religion is
understood in terms of spirituality and cosmovision.
90 Josef ESTERMANN
91
Religious (or spiritual) in the Andean context is not limited to a
certain field or specific institutions or specialists, but rather it is present
in all aspects of life, from birth until death, from the planting to the har-
vest, and of course in all that has to do with development and the bet-
tering of life conditions. Religious or spiritual is for the Andean jaqi/
runa what is water for the fish: a second skin, the air that is breathed, the
collective subconscious treasure. Religious normally is not objectified
nor is it thematized, but rather it is lived in a ritual and celebratory form.
For the West, religion is associated with a system (symbolic) of
elements more or less consistent and coherent as they are objects of study
and reflection, and are visualized in an institutional and doctrinal form.
As a conglomerate of all sacred, it is contra posed to what is considered
profane or secular, beginning with the political life, passing through
economic activity and arriving to the judicial and legislative forum. The
West has passed the criticism of the illustrious religion, the seculariza-
tion and positivism, with the effect that the religious residues today is
encountered only in the churches, while spirituality has won followers
outside of the churches.
We can, then conclude a not casual synchronicity between the post-
modern planting in the West and the ancestral concept (pre-modern) of
the indigenous cultures, respect to the theme of religion. The crisis of
religion in modernity (or hypermodernity) is a crisis of institutionality
and its dogmatic monocultural character. Postmodernity (Western) and
indigenous spirituality aspire to liberate that which is religious of this
stronghold that demands the established religions and their theologies.
Only that the motives differ toto coelo, given that Andean spirituality
is not the result of a disconnected individual rebellion, but rather the
expression of a millennial collective wisdom.
5. Towards a Conclusion: Programatic Theses
a) What is required today in a context such as Latin America, is
not so much a theology of the religions or a theology of religious plu-
ralism, but rather a theology of religion, a theology of the religious
fact or a theology of that which is religious. Even though a theology
of the religions is a part of the fact of constituted and institutionalized
religions, a theology of religion reflects the role of religiosity (as
anthropologic existential) in the salvific plan, it is to say respect to the
construction of the reign of God, the integral liberation, the personal
illumination, the eschatology, depending on the case.
b) Religions are, above all, cultural and historical mediations of
human ways toward perfection and redemption that are expressed in
different utopic images, but do not form a constitutive and indispensable
system for said perfection or redemption. Religions do not redeem them-
92
selves, and the pertinence to one or another religion does not carry one
to what the distinct religious traditions call nirvana, classless society,
reign of God, paradise, neti-neti, etc.
c) As such, the question of exclusivity of a certain religion, of the
pretense of having the absolute truth, of universal value, is, theologi-
cally speaking, a question of the mediations, and not the objective itself
(the sacred, the divine, the undefined, the mystery). As such exist many
cultural, historical, existential and ritual paths to come close to what is
embraced and what is not at our disposition, also many religious paths
exist, that is to say: cultural religious mediation that arrive to the same
reality that has many names and that is reflected in different human atti-
tudes.
d) A liberationist theology of religion (or theology of the libera-
tion of the religious fact) part of the religious praxis of the peoples and
those marginalized, oppressed, discriminated, that many times is a non-
orthodox praxis inside the parameters of the religious cannon of the
dominant religious tradition (see the religious praxis of people who Jesus
speaks to) and that is given in all religious traditions, often in syncretic
form. The question behind all of this is not the orthodoxy of such a
religious practice, but rather its orthopraxis, that is to say: its liberating
and inclusive potential that also it is possible to be given in all religious
traditions (or religions).
e) A liberationist theology of religion should be necessarily inter
religious in its directionality, although it comes from a specific religious
tradition. The criticality of said theology consists in the analysis of the
dehumanizing and destructive aspects of the same religious tradition and
the other traditions, but at the same time in the prophetic announcement
of the humanizing and liberating aspects of all liberating traditions. The
inherent ambiguity of each religion requires a critical theological reflec-
tion, in order to not fall into an idolatrization and fetishization of the
same religion, as if it were the infinite source of life itself, and not one
of many mediations that are always imperfect.
f) In an intercultural perspective, a new theology of religion should
deconstruct the concept of religion that the dominant tradition uses,
that is, in the majority of the cases, culture centric and imperialistic in
front of other forms of religiosity. While religion is defined as a union
of phenomenas and structures that should have institutionality, sacred
texts, holy specialists, an object of veneration and a doctrine, all types of
religiosity: ancestral, non-theist, spiritual, animist or pantheist do not
fit into the cannon. As such, one should take into account the existing
asymmetries in the theological speeches between religion, on one side,
and cosmovision, spirituality, beliefs, superstition, magic, etc., on
the other side.
92 Josef ESTERMANN
93
g) The change that is produced in the last years in the religious
field on a global and continental level, is not a process of growing non
religiosity, but rather a transformation of the same religiosity. In this
process, it is noted, between many other facets, basically two tendencies:
the substitution of a religious religiosity (it appears redundant, but it
means; traditional; non-theistic; doctrinal) to a civil or post-secular
(consumerism, hedonistic, wellness, progress, well being, etc.) religi-
osity on one side, and on another spiritual and ancestral religiosity,
on another. The spiritualization of religion- often under the common
denominator of spirituality- is given in very diverse ways and even
incompatible amongst them. The Gaia thought; ecofeminism; indigenous
spiritualities; New Age; postmodern mysticism; syncretic spiritualities etc.
h) Religions and religious expressions always have a cultural and
historic charge that contradicts the values of human dignity, gender fair-
ness, the respect for alterity and nature, and should, at least, submit to
the intercultural deconstruction of the andro- and anthropocentrism
put into force in them. On another side, it urges to empower the liber-
ating aspects in the sense of inclusivity and holism, more so that any
centrism in the cultural, ethnic, social and generic sense. A theology of
liberationist religion in an intercultural key should be very sensible to
these aspects and lead to a critique of the religion that is oriented in the
inherent utopic potential to all religions, and not in their dogmatic and
institutional structure.
94
El tema de la religin ha suscitado, en las ltimas dcadas un cre-
ciente inters por parte de las ciencias sociales, la filosofa posmoderna,
los estudios culturales (Cultural Studies) e inclusive por las ciencias del
desarrollo, pero no as por parte de la teologa. La pluralidad fctica de
las identidades religiosas (religiones) ha constituido por mucho tiempo
sobre todo para representantes de las llamadas religiones monotes-
tas un problema espinoso o inclusive un obstculo de tal magnitud que
muchos/as telogos/as se abstuvieron de tocarlo y preferir quedarse con
un silencio erudito. Y las pocas personas que se atrevan enfrentar el
tema, corrieron el riesgo de ser amonestadas, notificadas y silenciadas,
sobre todo en una institucionalidad religiosa con una fuerte vigilancia de
la doctrina (iglesia catlica, islam, nuevos movimientos religiosos).
En un contexto dominado por un espritu posmoderno y mercantil
(Europa y Norteamrica), la prdida de la religiosidad institucionalizada
(eclesialidad; doctrina; normatividad tica y cultual) y de la doctrina orto-
doxa contrasta con una proliferacin de ofertas para- y seudo-religiosas,
una religiosidad civil postsecular, una exaltacin del culto al cuerpo
(wellness, cosmticas, body work), por un lado, y del crecimiento de movi-
mientos fundamentalistas en prcticamente todas las congregaciones e
identidades religiosas, por otro lado. En la periferia del imperio neolibe-
ral-capitalista, en el Sur global, la siempre dbil institucionalidad religiosa
se merma an ms, no en primer lugar por causa de la secularizacin y de
una temida irreligiosidad, sino ante todo por la expansin espectacular
de iglesias neopentecostales de tipo electrnico, y la visibilizacin de
formas religiosas clandestinas de los pueblos originarios.
1. El silencio de la teologa
Las relaciones entre religin y teologa han sido, a pesar de un
aparente matrimonio de convergencia, siempre cargadas de mutuas ten-
94 Josef ESTERMANN
La religin no redime.
Reflexiones teolgicas
sobre el rol de la religin hoy
Josef ESTERMANN
La Paz, Bolivia
95
siones, sospechas y cierta hostilidad. Hasta el giro constantiniano (315
EC), no se hablaba de la fe en Jess el Cristo como una nueva religin
o slo con mucha cautela. Parece que el mismo concepto religin tiene
origen romano y no se remonta ni a la tradicin semita (hebrea), ni a la
sabidura griega (helnica). Para los primeros telogos cristianos, reli-
gin era prcticamente idntica con el culto oficial del Imperio Romano,
con tal de que la nueva secta juda no solamente fuera irreligiosa, sino
que sus seguidores eran denominados ateos.
Muchos de los llamados fundadores de religin (Jess; Siddharta
Gautama; Mahoma) han sido muy crticos y hasta hostiles con la religin
o las religiones de su poca y no pretendieron de ningn modo cons-
tituir o inclusive fundar una nueva religin. Sin embargo, lo que eran
movimientos de reformas profundas, dentro de unos pocos siglos ya se
haban convertido en instituciones establecidas y religiones reconoci-
das. En el caso del cristianismo, la prdica y prctica del Reinado de Dios
muy rpidamente se iba a convertir en Iglesia, y bajo el predominio del
Imperio en religin oficial.
La teologa se entenda desde un inicio como defensa intelectual
de la nueva fe y no como una reflexin de las prcticas, creencias y mani-
festaciones religiosas. Hasta la actualidad, la teologa catlica y protes-
tante se entiende ms como explicitacin de una doctrina y no como
reflexin de una prctica popular sincrtica. La religiosidad popular no
ha sido, salvo contadas excepciones, objeto de una reflexin teolgica
y fue, como revela la etimologa, asociado con el paganismo y prcticas
mgicas no dignas del esfuerzo teolgico. En el cristianismo especial-
mente en el catolicismo la cuestin de la salvacin y redencin se aso-
ciaba muy tempranamente a la Iglesia como comunidad de los fieles, y
posteriormente a la Iglesia como institucin (extra ecclesiam nulla salus).
En la teologa dialctica, se plantea el antagonismo insuperable
entre fe y religin, de tal modo que la religin es considerada antpoda
de la relacin directa y personal con el misterio divino (fe), y, por tanto,
obstculo idoltrico e ideolgico para la fe en Jesucristo. En asociacin
con el cristianismo primitivo, ste no se interpreta como religin, sino
como una nueva manera de relacionarse con lo divino. En la teologa
catlica, la religin no figura como locus theologicus, pero no porque
no fuera una realidad, sino porque se la vea como amenaza, pero en la
forma del pluralismo religioso. El simple hecho de que existan religiones
fuera del cristianismo (o precisamente: del catolicismo) viene constitu-
yendo un peligro para una teologa que define la salvacin y redencin
en trminos de membresa y pertenencia. No es la religin como tal
que constituye un problema, sino las religiones y sus pretensiones de
validez universal.
La religin no redime. Reflexiones teolgicas sobre el rol de la religin hoy 95
96
El silencio de la teologa respecto al hecho religioso slo se rompe
en la era contempornea por causa del desafo del pluralismo religioso. A
partir del Concilio Vaticano II, surge, en el mbito catlico, una teologa
de las religiones o una teologa del pluralismo teolgico que no es lo
mismo que una teologa de la religin o una teologa del hecho religio-
so. La famosa disputa entre Pablo y Pedro en el Concilio de Jerusaln
(ca. 70 EC) ha sido uno de los primeros (y tal vez ltimos) debates sobre
el rol de la religin (costumbres; normas cultuales; prcticas rituales)
para la redencin, es decir: sobre el rol de la religin en la historia
salvfica del ser humano. A pesar de la liberalizacin paulina o de una
deconstruccin crtica del factor religioso, muy pronto se instalaban, con
mayor fuerza coercitiva, nuevas formas religiosas como prerrequisitos
para lo que era considerado redencin y salvacin, entre ellos la circun-
cisin helnica y la camisa de fuerza jurdica romana.
2. Desafos para una teologa intercultural del hecho religioso
El concepto religin que maneja la teologa cristiana tanto cat-
lica como evanglica en gran parte del mundo, tiene origen occidental
y es un reflejo de una filosofa de la religin bsicamente hegeliana, por
un lado, y del eurocentrismo (u occidentocentrismo) de las Ciencias de
la Religin clsicas de los siglos XIX y XX, por otro lado. Por una parte,
se maneja una concepcin demasiadamente esquemtica y monocultural
de la religin, heredada del debate ilustrista sobre la autonoma de la
persona humana y el carcter alienante e ideolgico de lo religioso. Por
otra parte, se sigue manejando una concepcin muy institucional y doc-
trinal (ortodoxa) de lo que es y debe ser una cierta religin (sobre todo
en el sentido de iglesia).
Urge una deconstruccin intercultural de la religin, porque los
parmetros clsicos de las Ciencias de la Religin y los esquemas menta-
les y los prejuicios todava presentes en la teologa oficial y acadmica,
no reflejan la diversidad y complejidad contemporneas del campo reli-
gioso y de sus manifestaciones.
En primer lugar, la concepcin dominante de religin tiene como
referencia principal la existencia o vigencia de ciertas religiones univer-
sales establecidas e institucionalizadas. En las Ciencias de la Religin se
hablaba hasta hace poco de religiones altas (Hochreligionen), un juicio
de valor inaceptable que refleja un punto de vista eurocntrico. Esta
postura se articulaba a menudo con la suposicin de que el monotesmo
(cristiano) fuera el punto evolutivo ms avanzado de lo religioso, con tal
de que las llamadas religiones politestas, animistas y naturales fue-
ran relegadas a un segundo o tercer lugar.
En segundo lugar, se refera normalmente a religiones como un
conjunto de elementos doctrinales, rituales e institucionales, bien identifi-
96 Josef ESTERMANN
97
cados y separables de los mismos elementos de otras tradiciones religio-
sas. En los ltimos aos, estamos presenciando una nueva sincretizacin
en el campo religioso, conjuntamente con una fundamentalizacin de
creencias y prcticas religiosas. Las dos tendencias aunque parezcan
contradictorias son las dos caras de la misma moneda y reflejan el pro-
ceso avanzado de la globalizacin cultural y econmica.
En tercer lugar, el campo religioso contemporneo se caracteri-
za por una diversificacin de las experiencias y manifestaciones, en el
sentido de una religin de parches en la que se juntan elementos de
tradiciones religiones muy distintas. Este eclecticismo religioso conlleva
una cierta religin light que prescinde de una doctrina definida, institu-
ciones establecidas, normas determinadas y representantes visibles.
En cuarto lugar, hay un resurgimiento de religiones ancestrales
invisibilizadas durante mucho tiempo, de un supuesto paganismo (o
neopaganismo) dentro y al margen de religiones clsicas, pero tam-
bin de disidencias religiosas pentecostales y carismticas, por un lado,
y conservadoras y tradicionalistas, por otro lado. Existen innumerables
formas de doble fidelidad o birreligiosidad (sinoiquismo), de hibridi-
dad religiosa, de sincretismos y eclecticismos, de religiosidad civil y de
esoterismos, de oscurantismos y ocultismos.
3. Religin, religiosidad, espiritualidad, cosmovisin, etc.
Hablar de religin a secas, ya no permite describir ni apreciar
todo el panorama religioso con que el quehacer teolgico tiene que ver.
Desde el Norte (Europa y Norteamrica), hay una cierta tenden-
cia a favorecer el trmino de espiritualidad sobre el de religin.
Espiritualidad est de moda y recoge bien el espritu posmoderno de
la Nueva Era, precursora de una convergencia csmica de las distin-
tas espiritualidades, cosmovisiones y modelos de vida, ms all de las
posiciones (poco flexibles) de las religiones histricas. Este concepto
(espiritualidad) abarca fenmenos tan diversos como formas de medi-
tacin hind, prcticas psicoteraputicas, rebirthing, el culto al cuerpo
(wellness) y formas del sufismo o del misticismo medieval.
Por otro lado, tambin existe la tendencia de ya no hablar de
religiones como tales, sino de religiosidades, es decir: de maneras
culturales y colectivas de percibir, representar y vivir la relacin con lo
sagrado, si que ello no implique la adhesin completa a una religin
establecida. Debido al hecho de que se tiende a llamar a las religiones
ancestrales religiosidades, hay que cuestionar esta estrategia como un
intento (inconsciente) de diferenciar y separar nuevamente (como en el
periodo clsico de las Ciencias de la Religin) dos clases de expresin
religiosa: religiones y religiosidades.
98
Lo mismo ocurre con el uso inflacionario del trmino cosmovi-
sin que se viene usando para cualquier conjunto de creencias, modelos
de vida, rituales y universos religiosos. Aunque es apropiado por los
mismos pueblos originarios indgenas, refleja, en el fondo, una predi-
leccin occidental por la vista y teora (theorein: ver). Por ello, hay
intentos de reinterpretar la cosmovisin en trminos de cosmoespi-
ritualidad, cosmosentimiento o cosmosofa. De todos modos, se lo
sigue usando en contraposicin a lo que es considerado filosofa, fe,
religin y ciencia, con el efecto de una nueva jerarqua axiolgica en
disfavor de la primera.
Finalmente, hay que mencionar el surgimiento y la literatura abun-
dante sobre el fenmeno de la religin civil que abre aparentemente
un panorama mucho ms amplio para el campo religioso, incluyendo
inclusive a las propias ideologas de desarrollo y progreso como mani-
festaciones religiosas (como ocurre con el llamado desarrollismo, la
exaltacin del progreso, del crecimiento econmico, etc.). El capitalismo
y su forma hedonista del consumismo se han convertido en religiones
civiles muy poderosas y globalizadas.
Es imposible proponer una definicin ms o menos acertada de
los trminos mencionados, y menos an del trmino central de religin.
Recin en y a travs del dilogo intercultural, se puede llegar a unas
definiciones provisionales de trabajo. Sin embargo, habr que dejar atrs
definiciones monoculturales y culturo-cntricas (hoy todava en su gran
mayora euro-cntricas).
Religin implica tanto religiones establecidas a nivel planetario,
como religiones locales; religiones doctrinales e institucionales como
religiones de baja intensidad doctrinal y poco o nada institucionalizadas;
prcticas espirituales y sapienciales, cosmovisiones indgenas, sincretis-
mos antiguos y nuevos, propuestas pentecostales y carismticas, expre-
siones de la religin civil de un pueblo y una sociedad.
Finalmente, habr que tomar muy en serio la ambigedad inhe-
rente a cualquier sistema religioso, ambigedad que puede inclinarse a
fomentar ms vida, igualdad y bienestar, o justamente contribuir a ms
muerte, desigualdad y pobreza. Un verdadero dilogo intercultural e
interreligioso siempre es crtico y auto-crtico, y de la misma forma es el
incipiente dilogo entre religin y teologa.
4. Una perspectiva andina del hecho religioso
En el caso de los Andes, los pueblos son eminentemente religiosos
(en Bolivia, un 98 % se declararon creyentes en una Encuesta de Hogar
de 2001). Aunque muchas personas perteneces a una que otra iglesia
98 Josef ESTERMANN
99
de tradicin cristiana, un gran porcentaje practica tradiciones y rituales
religiosos ancestrales, sea en forma paralela y que stas sean integradas
a la religin dominante. Las perspectivas y concepciones de desarrollo,
progreso y bienestar estn estrechamente vinculadas con ideas y formas
religiosas de concebir la realidad.
La religiosidad andina es incluyente y se fundamenta en el princi-
pio de relacionalidad como parmetro rector de todo actuar, concebir y
producir. Por lo tanto, cada reflexin teolgica sobre el campo religioso
tiene que partir de este hecho, es decir: tiene que tomar en cuenta la
religiosidad como un eje transversal.
En el caso andino, el trmino religin se asocia con el sistema
religioso institucional de la iglesia catlica y de las iglesias evanglicas,
y no tanto con la religiosidad ancestral indgena y sus espiritualida-
des. En este contexto, llama la atencin el cambio de paradigma, en
el caso boliviano, entre la Constitucin Poltica del Estado (CPE) vigente
(del 1967) y la propuesta de la nueva CPE de 2008, tal como lo hemos
sealado antes. La CPE de 1967 que refleja un espritu altamente occi-
dental y colonial, se refiere al paradigma de la religin en un sentido
de institucin y corporacin semi-estatal (Santa Sede). En contraste, la
CPE de 2008 que pretende ser descolonizadora e incluyente, religin
se entiende en trminos de espiritualidad y cosmovisin.
Lo religioso (o espiritual) en el contexto andino no se limita
a un cierto campo o ciertas instituciones y especialistas, sino que est
presente en todos los aspectos de la vida, desde el nacimiento hasta la
muerte, desde la siembra hasta la cosecha, y por supuesto en todo lo que
tiene que ver con desarrollo y mejora de las condiciones de vida. Lo
religioso o espiritual es para el jaqi/runa andino lo que es el agua
para el pez: una segunda piel, el aire que se respira, el tesoro colectivo
subconsciente. Lo religioso normalmente no se objetiviza ni se tematiza,
sino se lo vive en forma ritual y celebrativo.
Para Occidente, religin se asocia con un sistema (simblico) de
elementos ms o menos consistentes y coherentes que son objetos de
estudio y de reflexin, y que se visibilizan en forma institucional y doc-
trinal. Como conglomerado de todo lo sagrado, se lo contrapone a lo
que se considera profano o secular, empezando con la vida poltica,
pasando por la actividad econmica y llegando al foro judicial y legislati-
vo. Occidente ha pasado por la crtica de la religin ilustrista, la seculari-
zacin y el positivismo, con el efecto de que los residuos religiosos hoy
en da se encuentren slo en las iglesias, mientras que la espiritualidad
ha ganado adeptos/as fuera de ellas.
Podemos, entonces, constatar una sincronicidad no causal entre el
planteamiento posmoderno en Occidente y la concepcin ancestral (pre-
100
moderna) de las culturas indgenas, respecto al tema de la religin. La
crisis de la religin en la modernidad (o hiper-modernidad) es una crisis
de su institucionalidad y de su carcter dogmtico monocultural. Tanto la
posmodernidad (occidental) como la espiritualidad indgena pretenden
liberar lo religioso de esta camisa de fuerza que exigen las religiones
establecidas y sus teologas. Slo que los motivos difieren toto coelo,
debido a que la espiritualidad andina no es el resultado de una rebelda
del individuo desvinculado, sino la expresin de una sabidura colectiva
milenaria.
5. A manera de conclusin: unas tesis programticas
a) Lo que se requiere hoy en un contexto como el latinoamericano,
no es tanto una teologa de las religiones o una teologa del pluralis-
mo religioso, sino una teologa de la religin, una teologa del hecho
religioso o una teologa de lo religioso. Mientras que una teologa de
las religiones parte del hecho de religiones constituidas e instituciona-
lizadas, una teologa de la religin reflexiona el rol de la religiosidad
(como existencial antropolgico) en el plan salvfico, es decir respecto a
la construccin del reinado de Dios, la liberacin integral, la iluminacin
personal, la escatologa, segn el caso.
b) Religiones son, ante todo, mediaciones culturales e histricas
de caminos humanos hacia la perfeccin y redencin que se plasman en
diferentes formas de imgenes utpicas, pero no forman un sistema cons-
titutivo e indispensable para dicha perfeccin o redencin. Las religiones
no redimen de por s, y la pertenencia a una u otra religin no lleva de
por s a lo que las distintas tradiciones religiosas llaman nirvana, socie-
dad sin clases, reinado de Dios, paraso, neti-neti, etc.
c) Por tanto, la cuestin de la exclusividad de una cierta religin,
de la pretensin de tener la verdad absoluta, de la validez universal,
es, teolgicamente hablando, una cuestin de las mediaciones, y no del
objeto mismo (lo sagrado, lo divino, lo indefinido, el misterio). Tal como
existen muchos caminos culturales, histricos, existenciales y rituales
para acercarse a lo que nos engloba y lo que no est a nuestra disposi-
cin, tambin existen muchos caminos religiosos, es decir: mediaciones
culturo-religiosas que conducen a la misma realidad que tiene muchos
nombres y se refleja en diferentes actitudes humanas.
d) Una teologa liberacionista de la religin (o teologa de la libe-
racin del hecho religioso) parte de la praxis religiosa de los pueblos
y personas marginados, oprimidos, discriminados, que muchas veces es
una praxis no-ortodoxa dentro de los parmetros del canon religioso de
la tradicin religiosa dominante (vase la praxis religiosa de las personas
con quienes habla Jess) y que se da en todas las tradiciones religiosas,
100 Josef ESTERMANN
101
a menudo en forma sincrtica. La cuestin de fondo no es la ortodoxia
de tal y cual prctica religiosa, sino su ortopraxis, es decir: su potencial
liberador e incluyente que tambin puede darse en todas las tradiciones
religiosas (o religiones).
e) Una teologa liberacionista de la religin debera ser necesa-
riamente interreligiosa en su direccionalidad, aunque surge desde una
cierta tradicin religiosa. La criticidad de dicha teologa consiste en el
anlisis de los aspectos deshumanizadores y destructivos de la tradicin
religiosa propia y de las dems tradiciones, pero a la vez en el anuncio
proftico de los aspectos humanizadotes y liberadores de todas las tradi-
ciones liberadores. La ambigedad inherente a cada religin requiere de
una reflexin teolgica crtica, para no caer en una idolatrizacin y feti-
chizacin de la misma religin, como si fuera la fuente infinita de vida
misma, y no una de muchas mediaciones siempre imperfectas.
f) En perspectiva intercultural, una nueva teologa de la religin
debe deconstruir el concepto de religin que la tradicin dominante
maneja, que es, en la mayora de los casos, culturo-cntrico e imperialista
frente a otras formas de religiosidad. Mientras que se defina religin
como un conjunto de fenmenos y estructuras que deben de tener ins-
titucionalidad, textos sagrados, especialistas consagrados, un objeto de
veneracin y una doctrina, todo tipo de religiosidad ancestral, no-testa,
espiritual, animista o pantesta no caben en el canon. Por tanto, se debe
tomar conciencia de las asimetras existentes en los discursos teolgicos
entre religin, por un lado, y cosmovisin, espiritualidad, creencias,
supersticin, magia etc., por otro lado.
g) El cambio que se produce en los ltimos aos en el campo
religioso a nivel mundial y continental, no es un proceso de creciente
irreligiosidad, sino de una transformacin de la misma religiosidad.
En este proceso, se puede notar, entre muchas otras facetas, bsicamen-
te dos tendencias: la sustitucin de una religiosidad religiosa (parece
tautolgico, pero quiere decir; tradicional; no-testa; doctrinal) a
una religiosidad civil o post-secular (consumismo, hedonismo, wellness,
progreso, bienestar, etc.), por un lado, y por una religiosidad espiritual
y ancestral, por otro lado. La espiritualizacin de la religin a menudo
bajo el denominador comn de espiritualidad se da en formas muy
diversas y hasta incompatibles entre s: pensamiento Gaia; ecofeminismo;
espiritualidades indgenas; Nueva Era; misticismo posmoderno; sincretis-
mos espirituales; etc.
h) Religiones y expresiones religiones siempre tienen una carga
cultural e histrica que contradice los valores de la dignidad humana, la
equidad de gnero, el respeto por la alteridad y la naturaleza, y deben,
por tanto, someterse a una deconstruccin intercultural del andro- y
antropocentrismo vigente en ellas. Por otro lado, urge potenciar los
102
aspectos liberadores en sentido de la inclusividad y del holismo, ms
all de cualquier centrismo en sentido cultural, tnico, social y genrico.
Una teologa de la religin liberacionista en clave intercultural debe de
ser muy sensible a estos aspectos y llevar a cabo una crtica de la religin
que se orienta en el potencial utpico inherente a todas las religiones, y
no en la estructura dogmtica e institucional de las mismas.
102 Josef ESTERMANN
NOVELTY!
Roger LENAERS' book
Nebuchadnezzars Dream
The End of a Medieval Catholic Church,
at Gorgias Press, Piscataway, NJ, U.S.A. 2007,
is being translating
into Indonesian language
by
FIDEI PRESS Publishing House
Jl. Tanjung Lengkong No. 25,
RT/RW 06/07, Kelurahan Bidaracina,
Jatinegara Jakarta Timur 13330.
Telph.: (021) 850 9929 / 3311 0199
Fax: (021) 850 9929.
Orders to: fideipress@yahoo.com
103
Suspicions and Philosophical Reflections
on Religion's Crisis
Ivone GEBARA
Camaragibe, PE, Brazil
Resumen:
La autora se reconoce como actora participante en la problemtica
de la crisis de la religin, siendo sta no un objeto de estudio, sino un
doloroso renacimiento de la religin a partir de fuentes ms creativas y
actuales. Afirma que la cuestin subyacente que habita la crisis de las
religiones es de orden filosfico, desglosndola en varios elementos: la
nueva comprensin del ser humano, nuestra doble dimensin de seres de
naturaleza y seres culturales, la necesidad de ir ms all de un univer-
salismo cristiano, la descentralizacin del poder, la Biblia como palabra
falible, la inadecuacin de la formacin teolgica actual, la vuelta a
las pequeas comunidades de sentido, la consideracin del cristianismo
como humanismo, as como la aceptacin del pluralismo y la diversidad.
Abstract:
The author recognizes herself as active participant in the problem
of the crisis of religion, being this not an object of study, but an ailing
rebirth of religion from more creative and present sources. She states that
the underlying issue present in the crisis of religions is of a philosophi-
cal nature, breaking it down in various elements: a new understanding
of the human being, our double dimension nature beings and cultural
beings-, the need to go beyond a Christian universality, the decentralisa-
tion of power, the Bible as fallible word, the inadequacy of the present
theological education, a comeback to small communities of meaning, the
consideration of Christianity as humanism, as well as the acceptance of
pluralism and diversity.
104
In an effort to understand something about what is taking place
among religions today I will share with you some brief reflections and
some intuitions I suspect in order to stimulate our thinking.
First, I think that this Consultation is very pertinent for this histori-
cal moment. It could result in bringing about a fruitful dialogue among
the participants and even more, could make a contribution to the thinking
of an interested public. The Consultation invites us to give voice to some
of the anguish we feel in regard to the actual state of the churches espe-
cially since the consulted do not seem to be facing issues foreign to their
own proper experience. We are part of religions illness and hopefully
will partake in its eventual recovery by using the most actual and creative
resources available. Even though we are limited in many areas of this
study, we are capable of reflecting on the historical, humanistic processes
and on the religious convictions we have experienced. Simultaneously
and equally we intend to address some of the anguish we feel in face of
some present direction of both society and the churches.
For me the underlying, transversal question, whether considered
superficially or in depth, narrowly or broadly, through the lens of moder-
nity or post modernity or whether seen from the perspective of the people
or the elite, is philosophical in nature. Let me explain what I mean here.
When I affirm that the question is philosophical in nature I am referring
to the key questions for understanding and interpreting the meaning of
human life. I am referring to the questions regarding meaning that have
always been embedded in the humanistic philosophical thinking of both
the east and west. The questions that seek to discern the sense or mean-
ing of life, human relationships, the understanding of the world in which
we live and of the diverse situations we face daily. I include the sense and
meaning of suffering and death, of death in general or of death before
its time, of violent death, of death as a fact of life, of my own individual
death. The meaning of human progress and its inevitable rise and fall,
its hopes for a world with a place for everyone and its exclusions and
growing violence are part of our living process. Death is a certainty for all
who are living and even though we have to describe ourselves as living
104 Ivone GEBARA
105
human beings; we are living mortal beings who experience almost at one
and the same time both processes of evolution and regression, of hope
and despair. The crisis of the churches touches our life and mortality, our
future hope and the various ways we create to cope with our finiteness.
Now, let me formulate some philosophical questions that perme-
ate the crises of the churches and religions. Conscious of limitations and
obscure points, I will briefly spell out a few of the current questions. As
the starting point in reference to these questions, I understand philoso-
phy here to mean the effort we make to come to an understanding of and
to reflect upon the challenges of our time. I write these reflections in my
own name and engage in this dialogue in my own name.
1) New understanding of what it means to be a human being, in vogue in our culture
I suspect that the new understanding of what a human being is,
that is being delineated in our globalized world has not been adequately
addressed by the theology of our churches. Liberation theology, espe-
cially in the seventies and eighties exposed the rational economic man
by means of social-analytical mediations which influenced both theology
and the reading of scripture. This theology though still valuable does not
take into account the very real complexity of the world in which we now
live. Today, particularly through the means of modern communication, we
find ourselves situated in a planetary moment in time where distant spac-
es become proximate and past and future time is presented to us through
cinema-graphic fiction. The Utopian dreams of former centuries no lon-
ger serve for the complexity of our times. We now have become Instant
techno-communication man and at the same time are also described as
the divided man in whom many types of identity attempt to impress
themselves, thus revoking to a certain degree the Universalist conception
of being human. Humanity or at least a great part of it seems to be aware
of what scientific discoveries tell us about what it means to be human.
New myths and new personages inhabit the infantile and juvenile world
of various countries around the world. Consciousness that we are bound
to the Earth grows more and more acute even though nationalism and
the divisions caused by human diversity are on the ascent. We no longer
have common, clear historical objectives. The utopian dreams that nour-
ished the past two generations no longer sustain the new ones. Multiple
common processes are what exist. There is no longer a single model for
society or a single model for what it means to be human, that fulfills
humankinds longing. Christian churches and in particular the Roman
Catholic Church still continues with their salvific, dualistic discourse and
its Universalist pretensions. Clerical mediation still appears in hierarchical
Suspicions and Philosophiocal Reflections On Religion's Crisis 105
106
form placing the sacerdotal elite in opposition to a lay order having less
and less effective power. This discourse, though still having adherents
among a conservative majority and among masses of the faithful needing
religious consolation and seeking divine care, does not as yet deal with
humankinds new visage as now being described. The messages being
delivered from the pulpit or other means of communication are sterile
and at times imbecilic. They do not invite us to personal autonomous
growth or ethical commitment. They provide circus for us and offer us
promises of miracles that foster the illusion of magical solutions.
There are multiple and varied reasons for rejecting new thinking
about our contemporary world. One possible reason, at least on the part
of the churches could be because it is difficult for religious power to
undergo change, habituated as it is in perceiving its own power as having
emanated from philosophical, ethical and supernatural theological con-
ceptions. A possible confrontation would lead to change which religious
authority and operative religious tradition do not want nor have at pres-
ent condition to bring it about. One of the changes would have to deal
with the term God Theos, a word coined from a hierarchical and dualistic
conception of the world and which is still very much in use today in our
theology, even in some of the most liberal ones. This vision of a divine
being having proper metaphysical existence, existing outside of creation
and yet somehow within it, still sustains the meaning for Christian belief
today. This vision of God nurtures the image we have of human beings as
being dependent on extra terrestrial and supernatural forces. This depen-
dency in turn not only corroborates social and political dependencies
but also hierarchalizes relationships. Insistence on belief in this model of
God and religion and this models pretension of being the detainer of the
only truth has led to a retrogression and a retardation of approaches to
an understanding of humanity as both plural and at the same time unique
and in great part responsible for its own destiny. The old expansionist
claims of the Catholic Church are no longer recognized in a world which
is seen at one and the same time as plural and unified. Yet, in spite of this,
given the continued interventions of conservative groups of bishops and
clergy and even of the pope, this traditional theology and politics remain
in force. This is the paradox in which we live, a paradox recognized by
some and ignored by others.
2) Human Beings: natural and cultural beings
The contemporary description of what it means to be a human
being opens up the question of the possible reinterpretation of alleged
human superiority. Even though we continue to recognize the difference
that comes because of our complex rationality today, it is affirmed as a
106 Ivone GEBARA
107
difference, without a doubt important, but as a difference in relationship
to other living beings. But we are speaking here of a difference that is
not necessarily hierarchical. The notions of interdependence and simul-
taneousness assist us in making a more ample and inclusive re-reading
of ethical and religious traditions. In the end culture is not opposed to
nature but complements and differentiates it while at the same time not
freeing itself from nature. Nature and culture are not opposed to one
another but interact continually and to such a degree that we often do
not know where one or the other begins or ends. Nature is all of creation
or rather it is an eruption of all of life and in this same sense so too
culture. It is this mysterious plural eruption of the life force of creation
and all that maintains life that is the religious source for all humanity; a
religious source in the root sense of the word religion- re-ligare, to bind
again, to connect again, to connect everything that exists. Such a concep-
tion demands humility of each religious faith which needs to recognize
that its own belief is just one among others and is only an expression of
a particular experience in relation to this vital source. There would no
longer be place for competition between churches, with each one trying
to convince its adherents of the truth and force of its message. Different
behavior than this is demanded in view of the incredible and contradic-
tory violence hat has been displayed by religious institutions.
3) Beyond Christian Universalism
For some groups and persons Christian universalism is giving
place to a more historical perception of history itself. In other words,
Christianity despite its complicity with the empires of this world and
its self assurance of being in possession of integral truth about what a
human being is and should be is seeing now in different way. In reality
it has become one among the many of the ethical and wisdom traditions
that offer us, within the limits of our human history, the consolation and
affirmation of the transcendental character of our nature. These groups
more and more make affirmations about the uncertainties of life and
make the provisional nature of the certainties clearer. Little by little our
fear of not having all the answers, nor a complete analysis or fear of our
not possessing the absolute truth that legitimates our power over every-
thing, is now giving way to the warm reception and welcome we are
giving to life in all of its beauty and fragility. We are embracing the time
that is called Today even though a majority still continues its attempt to
regulate time by use of a supernatural transcendental template of time,
of time outside of historical time. Based on the use of this control, the
past becomes more valued than the present. Present directions can only
be validated by use of the interpretation of texts from the past that are
considered relevant and sacred and that, without regard to the political
108
or particular hermeneutics of their reading. I am concretely referring here
to a primitive use of the bible and of a tradition that justifies the churchs
magisterial positions relating to a variety of problems and in particular
to those raised in regard to human sexuality. When a reading different
from the reading considered official occurs, it is immediately considered
false or mendacious in relationship to the powerful religious institutions
interpretation That which is new is considered a threat. And even though
official interpretations are confirmed, todays world makes it clear that
multiple forms for reading and interpreting texts from our religious tradi-
tions exist. This is happening in such a way that our alleged interpretive
universalism, rooted in a medieval dogmatic theology which sustains an
ideology of religious power is continuously being eroded by the new
situations and new voices that are being raised at this present historical
moment. A dose of humility seems to be in order if there is ever to be a
dialogue between various religious approximations. The word humility is
derived from the word humus meaning earth, ground. Ground is certainly
that from which we all spring. It invites us to reach into the simplicity of
our common origin and make of it a fundamental reference.
4) The question of decentralization of power
Despite the control of the imperial powers, above all that of the
great international corporations and their disguised economic and cul-
tural totalitarianism, a widespread thirst for wanting to have a share in
power seems to be giving direction to the world. Each of us, in our own
way recognizes this power and wants it to be used to benefit human dig-
nity and to preserve the planet. Never before as we saw at the end of the
last century and at the beginning of this, have there been so many self
organizing groups formed for the vindication of their differences. That
differentiated power has been attested to by the physical sciences and
astrophysics. We are aware now that the Milky Way does not have a fixed
center but exists in continually unfolding movement. We have discovered
that this blue planet earth is a mere dot among the myriads of dots that
constitute the universe.
But concomitant with this, the Roman Catholic Church is interven-
ing in order to eliminate the differences and desires of various groups
that have been inspired by the Gospel of Jesus because their presence
signals a critique of church power and doctrine. I am referring here in
particular to feminists groups or to gay and lesbian groups and to the
many individuals who in relation to polemical themes have dared to pub-
lish their theological perspectives.
Another aspect but in the same direction is that generally when
writing about Contemporary Catholic Church history, historians begins by
108 Ivone GEBARA
109
telling us about the preparations for Vatican Council II, then move on to
consider its effects among various national catholic communities around
the world. They then continue by writing about the evolution of these
communities since the time of the council. They write about betrayals and
wrong interpretations of the council and its documents. These historians
do not seem to perceive that their version offers a very limited key for
interpretation of actual Catholicisms complexity and its daily observable
diminishing numbers.
Today, though the Council has its importance, it should not be con-
sidered as the most important event. Why not instead refer to the twen-
tieth and twenty-first centuries indigenous movements: the afro-descen-
dent movement, the feminist movement, the gay, lesbian and transsexual
movements, and the ecological, technological and scientific movements
of these last years? Why do we not refer to new theologies and biblical
hermeneutics that are appearing on the margin of Catholic officialdom?
Why dont we talk about the dissenters, the ones who provoke dissention
in face of an officiousness that perceives itself as the representative of a
perfect world and as arbitrator of the will of Jesus Christ? Groups that
will not submit to institutional orthodoxy and orthopraxis are more and
more disposed to follow their own lead, facing the fact that their lives
though brief will take place outside the walls of the institutional church, a
church that distances itself more and more from the issues and questions
that are significant for peoples of the world.
5) The Bible as human fallible word
Some groups today no longer consider the Bible to be the Word
of God even though almost overwhelmingly, reference to the Bible
as a monotheistic and religious book continues as normative and still
validates many attitudes of both the faithful and hierarchy. Many groups
denounce the atrophy of the Bibles use when it is considered a book of
unquestionable reference and a word, superior in order and above the
worlds disorder. New Bible approaches now regard the Bible as a collec-
tion of important texts of our tradition that includes in equal measure the
truth and justice of our human experience as well as its unpredictable-
ness, corruption and cruelty. The Bible is no longer treated as if it were
sounding only a single idealistic and idealizing note distant from our real-
ity. Today effort is made to hear the polyphony of sound that is contained
in the books, sounds that invite us to reflect on what possible harmony
we could make out of this multiple mix of sound often intermingled with
the gunshot and cannon fire of daily life. This past wisdom best serves
to incite, to excite and to provoke needed reactions in us for present day
time. The affirmation that the Bible takes origin from a perfect world
110
radically different from the one our bodies inhabit, no longer allows
the bible to serve as the humanizing tool we so badly need. And even
though there have been great advances made in Bible studies in these
last decades, there still lingers a certain assurance that the Bible contains
superior knowledge and the most normative ethics and this assurance
is presumed to have been derived from the Bible itself. We continue to
sacralize the Bible particularly when being used by the simple people in
our communities.
6) The inadequacy of theological formation in face of actual ethical need
Given all that I have affirmed above, it is patently clear that there
is an urgent need to review the organizational and life producing forms
of Christian communities. The clerical model has for some time now
demonstrated its deficiency. Its alienating clerical role in regard to the
many questions of our time and the continued division between the lay
and clerical order has been exposed and is judged to be no longer ten-
able. During the last century in many countries around the world, includ-
ing those of Latin America many attempts were made to overcome this
inadequacy. I remember for example initiatives taken around workers
movements especially those of Monsignor Cardijin in his attempts to form
a worker world in Belgium. He worked to organize formation programs
for urban and rural workers in order to help lay leadership assume more
responsibility in their Christian communities. Shortly after this others
followed, headed by Dom Helder Cmara (Brazil) and Dom Lenidas
Proao (Ecuador). They wanted to form an active laity responsible for
and having authority in both urban and rural communities. Culture and
clerical tradition defeated these attempts. Traditionalists did everything to
discredit the movements and to undercut their value and prestige because
that would have cast a shadow upon clerical power and privilege. Today
such groups are again trying to organize themselves and are again being
defeated by both clerical strength and its weakness in regarding itself as
the detainer in fact and by right of power over the sacred Christian.
7) Return of meaning to small communities
Among many Christian groups a strong desire exists to form small
communities in which the faith and tradition of following Jesus could be
nourished. These communities in no way seek control over the clergy.
Certainly the thinking and behavior of these groups will raise questions.
But the questions can only be answered if the ecclesial institution per-
mits diversity of responsibilities and forms of cult within its environment.
And further, bishops and priests must not condemn nor undermine the
prestige of these initiatives as something marginal and apart from cor-
110 Ivone GEBARA
111
rect church tradition. These experiments are without a doubt very fragile
and they follow no set rules. The lack of space for experimentation is
notorious. In general, neither parish nor diocese permit experimental
gatherings nor that, celebrations take place within their boundaries. It is
almost as if church buildings themselves have to be obedient to the truly
Christian form and content of celebration.
8) Christianity is humanistic
Diverse groups and many writers have strongly insisted that
Christianity be considered from the viewpoint of humanistic tradition. To
affirm this in a certain manner is to fail to consider Christianity from the
view point of its Christological dogmatic definition and its marialogical
tradition, which in a noncritical way insists on the supernatural charac-
ter of Christianity and in addition, underlines the primacy of masculine
authority in the church. To work along the lines of humanism does not
diminish the religious character of Christianity that is to say the character
of being connected to others, of solidarity and of mutual help that are
present in this tradition. A study of this kind would attempt to avoid the
reduction of Christianity to the mode of first century thinking about the
characteristics of Christianity and most particularly from that thinking
that originated in that centuries many conflicts of power. This kind of
study would not at any cost want to reduce Christianity to a canonical
system of law or the observance of precepts. Emphasizing the humanistic
ethical dimension of Christianity, in its concern for the everydayness of
life, in its expression of care and mutual assistance, demands a theology
anchored in the gospel tradition, which looks in fact at the things that
help us to develop and maintain one anothers dignity
9) Pluralism and diversity or we who believe are many
There are many of us who believe in the inheritance of those who
preceded us, of those who wagered that we are capable of saving our
lives by love and justice in a continually renewed daily process. Accepting
this inheritance cannot mean merely to repeat its past way of celebrat-
ing and living as if being faithful to a supernatural tradition could stop
time. Love has many forms of expression and often times they are con-
tradictory. To embrace loves mixture is to allow it as one of the deepest
desires of our times to emerge in all of its various forms. We are weary of
heroes of the kingdom theologies, of the weighty structures that reduce
the beauty of life and the complexity of human relationships to legal
observance or to the model of a pre- established order. The dream of the
possibility of forming small communities where diversity exists continues
being a belief that the diversity we constitute needs to be respected so
112
that life itself can continue to expand and recreate itself.
10) Conclusion in hope
Today I continue groping along on my journey with a fragile
hope that nourishes my life. I have no certainty other than my finiteness
and mortality and a strong loving will to continue lifes adventure. And
because of this willingness I want to conclude by saying that the uncer-
tainty contributes to my search for liberty and demands of a creativity
that our times call for.
Human history and the history of Christianity are marked by criss-
crossing and intertwined currents and trends. I do not intend to affirm
how or which current will prevail nor how or which of the currents or
tendencies will gain the widest adherence. But I want there to exist now
a space within the reading we make of our Christian tradition, and an
ever widening space within which we can affirm ever anew our love of
neighbor, love of self and define ever more clearly our basic direction for
social, political and religious commitment. We all want to be respected
and we need to continue to respect those who are still convinced of the
patriarchal tradition of our churches. Even in spite of our disagreements,
the church, after all, in a certain sense, is our body and is certainly part
of our history. Renewed dialogue is imperative and perhaps there is also
a need to bring about new ways to recognize the common good so that
the irritation caused by the divergence of positions does not create more
division and conflict. Seeking mutual comprehension and maintaining
relationships of love is an affirmation that Christianity is a possibility in
our times.
112 Suspicions and Philosophiocal Reflections On Religion's Crisis
113
Suspeitas e reflexes filosficas
em torno da crise da religio
Ivone GEBARA
Camaragibe, PE, Brasil
Na tentativa de entender algo sobre o que est acontecendo com
as religies em nosso tempo partilho algumas suspeitas e algumas breves
reflexes para provocar o nosso pensamento.
Em primeiro lugar acho a Consulta bastante pertinente no atual
momento histrico e poder resultar num frutuoso dilogo entre os parti-
cipantes, alm de uma contribuio reflexo para o pblico interessado.
Ela nos convida a expressar algumas de nossas angstias em relao ao
estado atual das religies visto que os consultados e consultadas no
parecem enfrentar essa problemtica como um objeto alheio sua prpria
existncia. Somos parte da doena e do eventual renascimento da religio
a partir de fontes mais criativas e atuais. Apesar de nossa impotncia
em muitos campos ainda estamos sendo capazes de pensar algo sobre
os processos histricos que temos vivido a partir de nossas convices
humanistas e religiosas. Estamos tentando igualmente lidar com nossas
inquietaes frente a alguns rumos da histria presente da sociedade e
de nossas igrejas.
Para mim a questo subjacente, transversal, de profundidade, de
superfcie, de altura, de largura, de modernidade, de ps-modernidade,
do povo e da elite das religies de ordem filosfica. Eu me explico.
Quando afirmo que de ordem filosfica estou me referindo s chaves de
interpretao e compreenso da vida humana, s questes de sentido que
sempre habitaram o pensamento filosfico humanista do Ocidente e do
Oriente. Sentido ou sentidos para a vida, para as relaes humanas, para
o mundo em que vivemos e para a diversidade de situaes que enfren-
tamos no cotidiano da vida. Sentidos diante do sofrimento, da morte em
geral, da morte antes do tempo, da morte brutal, da morte como realidade
114
necessria e tambm de minha morte como individuo. Sentidos diante do
progresso humano, de sua derrocada e nova ascenso, das esperanas
em um mundo onde caibam todos e das excluses e violncia em cres-
cimento. A morte se impe para ns que estamos vivos e embora nos
definamos como seres viventes nos reconhecemos como viventes mortais
experimentando quase ao mesmo tempo processos diversos de evoluo
e de regresso, de esperana e de desespero. A crise das religies toca
tambm a nossa mortalidade, nossas esperanas futuras e as diferentes
formas que criamos para lidar com a nossa finitude.
Como explicitar a questo filosfica que habita a crise das religies?
Tentarei elencar algumas questes atuais de forma breve tendo consci-
ncia de seus limites e, sobretudo de seus pontos obscuros. A filosofia
apresentar-se- como esforo de entender e pensar os desafios de nosso
tempo a partir dessas questes. Escrevo em meu nome e me engajo nesse
dilogo em meu nome.
1) A nova compreenso do ser humano em voga em nossa cultura.
Creio que a nova compreenso do ser humano que est se deline-
ando em nosso mundo globalizado no foi devidamente enfrentada pela
teologia das igrejas crists. A teologia da libertao especialmente dos
anos 70 e 80 abriu-se para o homem racional econmico atravs das
mediaes scio-analticas que influenciaram o conjunto da teologia e da
leitura bblica. Essa mediao embora guarde seu valor j no d conta da
complexidade do real em que vivemos.
Hoje, sobretudo atravs dos meios de comunicao estamos num
momento planetrio onde espaos distantes tornam-se prximos e tempos
passados e futuros so apresentados em novas fices cinematogrficas.
As utopias dos sculos passados j no do conta da complexidade de
nossa histria atual. Passamos a ser o homem da tecnocomunicao ins-
tantnea. Passamos a ser tambm e ao mesmo tempo o homem dividido
em que identidades de muitos tipos tentam impor-se revogando at certo
ponto a concepo universalista do ser humano.
Toda a humanidade ou uma grande parte dela parece participar
das novas descobertas cientficas sobre os seres humanos. Novos mitos
e novos personagens habitam o mundo infantil e juvenil de diferentes
pases do mundo. A conscincia de que somos terrcolas parece cada vez
mais aguada muito embora os nacionalismos e as divises a partir da
diversidade humana se acentuam. J no temos mais objetivos histricos
comuns claros e as utopias que nutriram as duas ltimas geraes j no
sustentam mais as novas. H muitos processos concomitantes e no existe
mais um nico modelo de sociedade e de ser humano que possa conter
todos os anseios da populao.
114 Ivone GEBARA
115
As Igrejas crists e particularmente Igreja Catlica Romana ainda
continuam com um discurso salvfico dualista e com pretenses univer-
salistas. A mediao clerical ainda aparece na sua forma hierrquica
opondo as elites sacerdotais a um laicato cada vez mais com menos
poder efetivo. Este discurso, embora possa ainda ter adeptos nas maiorias
conservadoras e nas massas pobres consumidoras da religio consolo e
providncia, no se enfrentaram ainda a esse novo rosto humano que se
delineia. As mensagens transmitidas nos plpitos ou atravs dos meios
de comunicao so estreis e algumas chegam a ser imbecilizantes. No
convidam ao crescimento pessoal em autonomia e compromisso tico
e acabam fornecendo apenas circo e milagre provocando a iluso das
solues mgicas.
As razes da recusa do novo pensamento sobre o mundo contem-
porneo so mltiplas e variadas. Uma possvel razo, a partir das igrejas,
seria a dificuldade de mudana do poder religioso habituado a legitimar
seu prprio poder a partir de uma concepo tica, filosfica e teol-
gica sobrenatural. Esse possvel enfrentamento levaria a mudanas que
o poder religioso e as tradies religiosas vigentes no querem ou no
esto ainda em condies de fazer. Uma das mudanas tem a ver com o
termo Deus, Theos, termo cunhado a partir de uma concepo hierrqui-
ca e dualista do mundo ainda em vigor em nossas teologias mesmo as
mais libertrias. essa viso de um ser divino fora e dentro da criao,
com uma existncia metafsica em si mesma que mantm ainda o sentido
das crenas crists. essa imagem de Deus que continua a nutrir uma
imagem do ser humano dependente de foras extraterrestres ou de foras
sobrenaturais e, tal dependncia no s corrobora as dependncias de
ordem social e poltica como hierarquiza as relaes. A insistncia na
crena de que esse modelo de Deus e esse modelo de religio so deten-
tores da verdade nica tem significado um retrocesso ou um atraso para
uma aproximao de uma humanidade plural ao mesmo tempo nica
e em grande parte responsvel por seu destino. As velhas pretenses
expansionistas da Igreja Catlica j no tm mais lugar reconhecido num
mundo ao mesmo tempo unificado e plural. Apesar disso, dadas as con-
tnuas intervenes de grupos conservadores, de alguns bispos, padres
e at do papa, as teologias e as polticas tradicionalistas continuam em
vigor. Este o paradoxo no qual vivemos; um paradoxo percebido por
diferentes pessoas e grupos e ignorado ainda por muitos.
2) Os seres humanos: seres da natureza e da cultura
O delineamento contemporneo do ser humano pelo ser humano
abre-se para uma reinterpretao da pretensa superioridade humana.
Embora continuemos reconhecendo a diferena que nos vem de nossa
Suspeitas e reflexes filosficas em torno da crise da religio 115
116
complexa racionalidade esta se afirma hoje como diferena sem dvida
importante em relao aos outros seres vivos. Mas, trata-se de uma dife-
rena no necessariamente hierrquica. As noes de interdependncia e
simultaneidade aparecem para ajudar-nos a reler nossas tradies ticas
e religiosas numa perspectiva mais ampla e inclusiva. Afinal a cultura
no se ope natureza, mas acrescenta a ela algo que a diferencia e ao
mesmo tempo no a libera da natureza. Natureza e cultura no se opem,
mas interagem continuamente e a tal ponto que nem sempre sabemos os
limites de uma e de outra. A natureza passa a ser toda a criao ou toda
a irrupo da vida e, nesse sentido tambm a cultura. E essa misterio-
sa irrupo plural da vida, essa fora de criao e manuteno da vida
que se torna a fonte religiosa de toda a humanidade. Fonte religiosa no
sentido tradicional da palavra religio re-ligare, de ligao, de conexo
entre tudo o que existe. Tal concepo vai exigir de cada crena religiosa
um esforo de humildade no sentido de ser uma palavra entre outras,
a expressar a experincia particular em relao a essa fonte vital. No
haveria mais lugar para a competio entre as igrejas, cada uma tentando
convencer adeptos de sua veracidade e da fora de sua mensagem. Outro
comportamento exigido para fazer face incrvel e contraditria violn-
cia que nos vm das instituies religiosas.
3) Para alm do universalismo cristo
Para alguns grupos e pessoas o universalismo cristo est ceden-
do lugar a uma percepo mais histrica da prpria histria. Em outros
termos, o cristianismo apesar da aliana com os Imprios desse mundo
e das aparncias de propriedade da verdade integral sobre o destino dos
seres humanos, na realidade passa a ser uma entre as muitas tradies
de sabedoria, de tica, de consolo, de afirmao do carter transcendente
dos seres humanos nos limites da histria humana. Cada vez mais esses
grupos esto afirmando a realidade das incertezas da vida e das certezas
provisrias. Pouco a pouco nosso medo a no ter anlises completas,
respostas totais, verdades absolutas, poderes legitimadores de tudo est
cedendo acolhida da vida naquilo que tem de beleza e fragilidade.
Estamos acolhendo o tempo que se chama hoje muito embora a maioria
ainda pretenda dominar a partir do tempo transcendental sobrenatural
chamado eternidade, tempo para alm da histria. E, nesse domnio
valorizar mais o passado do que o presente, legitimar as orientaes
do presente atravs de interpretaes de textos passados considerados
revelados e sagrados sem que se perceba a hermenutica contextual e a
orientao pessoal e poltica de cada leitura. De forma concreta refiro-
me ao uso da Bblia e da Tradio primitiva para justificar posturas do
Magistrio da Igreja em relao a uma variedade de problemas e de
116 Ivone GEBARA
117
forma particular questes em torno da sexualidade humana. Quando se
apresentam leituras diferentes das que se pretendem oficiais estas so
imediatamente consideradas insolentes, falsas ou mentirosas em relao
a interpretao do poder religioso institucional. O que novidade con-
siderado ameaa.
Entretanto, apesar da oficialidade afirmada nas interpretaes,
nosso mundo est revelando muitas formas de ler e interpretar os textos
de nossas tradies religiosas. De forma que o pretendido universalismo
interpretativo a partir de uma dogmtica medieval que sustenta a ideolo-
gia do poder religioso est continuamente sendo abalada em nome das
novas situaes e das novas vozes que se levantam na histria presente.
Uma dose de humildade parece ser exigida para que um dilogo entre as
vrias aproximaes religiosas possa ser possvel. A palavra humildade
vem de hmus, terra e justamente a terra da qual todos ns proviemos
que nos convida a tocar a simplicidade de nossa origem comum e fazer
dela uma referncia fundamental.
4) A questo da descentralizao do poder
Apesar da dominao dos imprios, sobretudo, das grandes corpo-
raes internacionais com seu totalitarismo econmico e cultural disfar-
ado h uma disseminada sede de participar do poder ou dos poderes
que parecem dirigir o mundo. Estamos todos de uma maneira ou de outra
reconhecendo nossos poderes e querendo us-los em favor da dignidade
humana e do planeta. Nunca como no final do sculo passado e nesse
sculo vimos tantos grupos se organizarem a partir da reivindicao de
suas diferenas. A prpria cincia fsica e astrofsica vem confirmando
essa multiplicidade de poderes quando afirma, por exemplo, que na Via
Lctea no h um nico centro, mas um desdobramento de movimentos
e que essa Terra, esse planeta azul apenas um ponto entre as mirades
de pontos que constituem o universo.
Nesse mesmo tempo cronolgico a Igreja Catlica Romana tm
intervindo para eliminar as diferenas e os anseios inspirados no
Evangelho de Jesus de muitos grupos. E isto porque eles significam uma
crtica a seu poder e a sua doutrina. Refiro-me de maneira particular aos
movimentos feministas, gays e lsbicas e a muitas pessoas que individu-
almente ousaram publicar suas idias teolgicas em relao a diferentes
temas polmicos.
Em geral quando se escreve a Histria da Igreja Catlica contem-
pornea se comea a falar da preparao do Conclio Vaticano II e em
seguida dos efeitos do Conclio nas diferentes comunidades catlicas
nacionais. A partir da, historiadores da Igreja continuam contando a his-
tria partir da evoluo da vida das comunidades a partir do Conclio. E
118
ainda contam as traies e interpretaes mal feitas dos documentos do
Conclio. No se percebe que esta uma chave muito limitada para dar
conta da complexidade do catolicismo atual e particularmente da dimi-
nuio do nmero de fiis qual diariamente estamos assistindo.
Hoje, embora o Conclio tenha tido muita importncia, no se
pode tom-lo como o marco mais importante. Por que no nos referimos
a todo o movimento indigenista do sculo XX e XXI, ao movimento dos
afro-descendentes, ao movimento feminista, ao movimento dos gays, ls-
bicas e transexuais, ao movimento ecologista, ao movimento tecnolgico
e cientfico dos ltimos anos? Por que no nos referimos s novas teo-
logias e hermenuticas bblicas que surgiram margem do catolicismo
oficial? Por que no olhamos os dissidentes, os que provocaram dissenso
em relao a uma oficialidade que se julga representante de um mundo
perfeito e intrprete da vontade de Jesus Cristo?
Cada vez mais os grupos que no se submetem ortodoxia e
ortopraxia institucionais esto dispostos a seguir em frente mesmo que
sua vida, talvez breve, acontea fora dos muros da instituio catlica
cada vez mais distante das questes e dos problemas que de fato so sig-
nificativos para as populaes do mundo. A vida dessas pessoas e grupos
nos convida ao pensamento.
5) A Bblia como palavra humana falvel
A Bblia j no mais considerada por alguns grupos como a
Palavra de Deus muito embora quase que massivamente a referncia
a Bblia como um livro religioso monotesta continue normativa e legi-
timadora de muitas atitudes dos fiis e das hierarquias. Muitos grupos
tm denunciado a atrofia que se faz da Bblia considerando-a um Livro
de referncia inquestionvel, uma palavra superior de ordem sobre a
desordem do mundo.
Novas aproximaes bblicas como um conjunto de textos impor-
tantes de nossa tradio, tradio que contm igualmente a imprevisi-
bilidade, a corrupo, a crueldade, a verdade e a justia da experincia
humana. No se trata mais de ouvir da Bblia uma nota s, uma nota
idealista e idealizante, longe de nossa limitada realidade. Mas agora se
tenta ouvir a polifonia de sons escritos nos livros que nos convidam a
pensar que sadas possveis podemos ter nessa mesma polifonia muitas
vezes entremeada de balas perdidas e de tiros de canho de nosso dia a
dia. para isso que servem as sabedorias do passado: para incitar, excitar,
provocar as reaes do presente. Afirmar a Bblia como quase provenien-
te de um mundo perfeito, s vezes at radicalmente diferente do que
nossos corpos vivenciam no parece mais ser a chave humanizadora da
qual estamos necessitados. E, embora j tenhamos avanado muito nos
estudos bblicos, sobretudo nos ltimos decnios ainda continuamos com
118 Ivone GEBARA
119
uma espcie de razo superior ou tica maior que julgamos provir da
Bblia visto que de alguma maneira a sacralizamos mesmo quando usada
pelo povo simples de nossas comunidades.
6) A inadequao da formao teolgica diante das necessidades ticas atuais
Por tudo isso que afirmei acima se mostra de maneira flagrante a
urgente necessidade de rever as formas organizativas e reprodutivas das
comunidades crists. O modelo clerical vem mostrando j h muito tempo
sua deficincia visto que tem revelado o papel alienante do clero nas mui-
tas questes de nosso tempo e a continuidade de uma diviso entre clero
e laicato que j no se sustenta mais. Ao longo do sculo passado muitas
experincias foram feitas em diferentes pases do mundo e inclusive da
Amrica Latina para tentar superar essa inadequao. Lembro-me, por
exemplo, das iniciativas em torno da teologia da enxada, inspiradas pela
iniciativa de Monsenhor Cardjien de formar o mundo operrio na Blgica.
Pretendeu-se organizar uma formao de camponeses para ajudar lide-
ranas laicas a assumir mais responsabilidade nas comunidades crists.
Em seguida vieram outras encabeadas por Dom Helder Cmara e D.
Lenidas Proao (Ecuador) que quiseram formar um laicato atuante, com
responsabilidade e autoridade nas comunidades crists rurais e citadinas.
Todas essas experincias foram derrotadas pela tradio clerical das igre-
jas e da cultura de nossos povos. Os grupos tradicionalistas tudo fizeram
para desmerecer e desprestigiar todas as iniciativas que pudessem fazer
sombra ao poder clerical e a seus privilgios. Hoje, novamente, alguns
grupos tentam se organizar e mais uma vez se vem acuados pela fora e
fraqueza do clero que se consideram de fato e de direito como os nicos
detentores dos poderes sobre o sagrado cristo.
7) A volta das pequenas comunidades de sentido
H um desejo forte em muitos grupos cristos e indivduos para
constituir pequenas comunidades de sentido nas quais a f e a tradio
do Movimento de Jesus possam ser alimentadas. Entretanto, essas comu-
nidades no querem de forma alguma o controle do clero. Sem dvida
muitas questes podem ser levantadas, sobretudo quanto ao pensamento
e as aes desses novos grupos. Mas elas s podero ser respondidas
se a instituio eclesial permitir que a diversidade de responsabilidades
e inclusive das formas de culto possa existir em seu meio. E mais, se o
clero e os bispos no condenarem ou desprestigiarem de antemo essas
iniciativas como sendo parte ou marginais em relao prpria tradio
da Igreja. Esses ensaios so, sem dvida, bastante frgeis e nem sempre
conseguem obedecer a ritmos mais ou menos pr-fixados. A falta de espa-
os para isso notria. Em geral as parquias e dioceses no permitem
que encontros alternativos e celebraes alternativas se realizem em seu
120
meio. como se a prpria propriedade dos prdios das igrejas tivesse
que obedecer s mesmas formas de celebrao e aos mesmos contedos
estabelecidos como sendo verdadeiramente cristos.
8) O cristianismo um humanismo
Alguns autores e grupos diversos tm insistido muito em conside-
rar o Cristianismo a partir de sua tradio humanista. Dizer isso significa
de certa forma deixar de consider-lo a partir das definies dogmticas
cristolgicas e mariolgicas tradicionais que insistem de forma acrtica no
carter sobrenatural do Cristianismo. E, alm disso, sublinham a primazia
da autoridade masculina na Igreja. Trabalhar na linha do humanismo
no diminui o carter religioso, isto , de ligao, solidariedade, ajuda
mtua presentes na mesma Tradio. O que se tenta evitar a reduo
do Cristianismo a uma maneira de pens-lo caracterstica dos primeiros
sculos do Cristianismo e, sobretudo proveniente de muitos conflitos de
poder. No se quer reduzir o cristianismo a um sistema de leis cannicas
e de observncia de preceitos.
Enfatizar a dimenso tica humanista do cristianismo, a preocupa-
o com o cotidiano da vida na sua expresso de cuidado e ajuda mtua
necessita de uma teologia ancorada numa leitura da tradio evanglica
a partir das coisas que de fato nos ajudam a devolver e a manter a dig-
nidade de uns e outros.
9) Pluralismo e diversidade ou somos muitos os que acreditamos.
Somos muitos os que acreditamos na herana dos que nos prece-
deram na aposta pelo amor e pela justia capazes de salvar nossas vidas
num processo cotidiano continuamente renovado. Essa herana no pode
ser a repetio do mesmo jeito de viver e celebrar como se parssemos o
tempo em fidelidade a uma tradio sobrenatural. O amor tem expresses
variadas e muitas vezes contraditrias. Acolher essa mistura em nossos
amores, permitir que emerjam nas suas diversas formas um dos anseios
de nosso tempo. J estamos cansados das teologias dos heris do Reino
de Deus, das estruturas pesadas que reduzem a beleza da vida e a com-
plexidade das relaes humanas a uma observncia legal ou a um modelo
de vida pr-estabelecido. Sonhar na possibilidade de construir pequenas
comunidades onde a diversidade possa existir continua sendo a crena
de que a diversidade que nos constitui precisa ser respeitada para que a
vida continue expandindo-se e recriando-se.
10) Para concluir com esperana.
Estamos continuando nossa caminhada s apalpadelas com a tnue
esperana que nutre nossa vida hoje. J no temos certezas fora a certe-
za de nossa finitude e mortalidade e a forte vontade de continuarmos a
120 Ivone GEBARA
121
aventura da vida amorosamente. Por isso gosto de dizer que as incertezas
colaboram para a nossa busca de liberdade e para a criatividade qual o
presente momento histrico nos convoca.
A histria humana e a histria do cristianismo so marcadas por
vrias correntes ou tendncias que se cruzam e entrecruzam. No temos a
pretenso de nos afirmarmos como a corrente que deve prevalecer e nem
como a corrente que ter uma grande audincia. Mas, queremos espaos
para existir dentro da leitura que fazemos da tradio crist. Queremos
espaos talvez maiores para afirmar sempre de novo o amor ao prximo
e o amor a ns mesmos, como orientao bsica de nosso compromisso
social, poltico e religioso. Queremos ser respeitadas/os e continuar res-
peitando aqueles que ainda esto convencidos da pertinncia da tradio
patriarcal de nossas igrejas. Ela tambm ainda de certa forma nosso
corpo e parte de nossa histria apesar de nosso dissenso em muitos
assuntos. Um renovado dilogo se impe e talvez precisemos buscar
novas formas de reconhecimento do bem comum para que o acirramen-
to de posies no crie mais divises e conflitos. Buscar a compreenso
mtua afirmar a possibilidade do Cristianismo em nosso tempo.
122
The fifth and last volume of the Series.
Published in March 2010,
by Dunamis Publishers, Montreal, Canada, 198 pages.
You can download freely this book from the Net, at
http://tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths/
On paper it is published by DUNAMIS PUBLISHERS
For orders: dunamis@live.com
For Canada: $20 (shipment included)
For USA: $23 (shipment included)
For rest of the world: $27 (shipment included)
Toward a Planetary Theology
A collective EATWOT's
work by Michael AMALADOSS
(India), Marcelo BARROS
(Brazil), Agenor BRIGH-
ENTI (Brazil), Edmund
CHIA (Malaysia-USA), Amn
EGEA (Spain), Paul KNITTER
(USA), David LOY (USA),
Laurenti MAGESA (Tanzania),
Jacob NEUSNER (USA), Irfan
OMAR (USA), Teresa OKURE
(Nigeria), Raimon PANIKKAR
(India-Spain), Peter PHAN
(Vietnam-USA), Aloysius
PIERIS (Sri Lanka), Richard
RENSHAW (Canada), Amando
ROBLES (Costa Rica), K.
SESHAGIRI (USA), Afonso
SOARES (Brazil) Faustino
TEIXEIRA (Brazil) and Jos
Maria VIGIL (Panama)
123
The End of Religin
or Birth of Spirituality?
Rui Manuel GRCIO DAS NEVES
So Paulo, Brazil - Nagpur, India - Lisbon, Portugal
Translation by Jusitniano Liebl
Humanity today is at a critical time in its history. 'Critical' comes
from the word 'crisis', and its a crisis caused in the West primarily by
financial markets. Basically it is a crisis of values. However, crisis is
primarily a great time, a precious time to correct, to initiate radical and
pending structural changes, a time of creativity to test new ways (accord-
ing to the method of trial and error mistakes help us grow).
The religious and especially the spiritual attitude, has something
important to say, since it is a symbolic space in this global and global-
izing context.
1. First, to insure clarity in this text, we must define the concepts
used. What is meant by 'religion'? What is meant by 'spirituality'?
1.1.By 'Religion' here we mean the spiritual, external, exoteric struc-
ture, including dogmas or philosophical-theological principles, sacred
times or worship/liturgy, sacred spaces or temples, "clergy" or hierarchy,
and a determined ethics, both individual and social, etc. All this corre-
sponds to the institutional aspect of spirituality. It is this sociological defi-
nition, which, without denying, differs most from the traditional meaning
as religare, "= re-uniting what is separated (the end of dualism).
1.2. By 'spiritual' here we mean the mystical, interior, esoteric,
experimental, relationship with God, Divinity, Absolute or Transcendent
Sphere (whatever we might understand by that).
And so, both aspects, internal and external/social are not necessar-
ily opposed, but can be complementary. In some cases they even become
conflictive and mutually exclusive, although in themselves they are not
necessarily so.
124
2. We have witnessed in the West, since modern times, such as the
late eighteenth century and especially during the nineteenth and part of
the twentieth century, a radical criticism of the religious phenomenon.
Several rational explanations of this phenomenon are being investigated,
including its causality, and it is expected to terminate soon. Examples are:
the Marxian position -- as opium of the people in the sense of opium
that the people give themselves, because of their alienation within
the productive process; the Freudian -- as an illusory projection; the
Nietzschian -- as the "death of God and opposition to the pure unfolding
of life and its "logic, etc. The constant note has been "prophesying" its
imminent end.
3. Some data seems to support this hypothesis: the growing pro-
cess of secularization in the North-Atlantic hemisphere has led to a slight
decline in religious practice (especially Christian, but not other historical
religions such as Islam), and increased atheistic and agnostic attitudes.
However, overall, the religious phenomenon has not decreased statisti-
cally.
Franz Damen, for example writes in his, 'Overview of the 1910-
2010 world religions': "In the last hundred years, Christianity has suffered
a relatively slight decline, and there was also a notable shift in its eth-
nic and linguistic composition. There was a significant decrease in the
North-West and Central Asia areas, but a strong growth in the southern
hemisphere. It can also be said that the increase in historical religions
like Islam, has been remarkable. Also the growth of Hinduism and, more
modestly of Buddhism, is another noteworthy occurrence.
In Latin America the religious landscape has undergone major
changes in the last century. Christianity has maintained its dominant
position here, although it has changed in its composition: huge-growth
Pentecostal Christianity versus dominant Catholicism. Some countries,
such as Uruguay have seen a significant increase in the presence of
agnosticism and atheism. It seems that growth of a (relatively) good eco-
nomic situation involves a decrease in religious practice.
4. In our view, the socio-historical context of the contemporary
Western world, especially in relation to Christianity, is favorable in a
twofold aspect:
(1) its a crisis of religion as such (qualitatively but not necessarily
quantitatively) and
(2) theres a central search for the practical-experiential element in
the spiritual realm.
124 Rui Manuel GRCIO DAS NEVES
125
It seems that the ordinary products of religious institutions do not
favor a personal encounter with the Transcendent, or at least they are
not seen as such by many people. We have to make an exception here
for Pentecostal-like movements within the Protestant religions and the
charismatic movement within the Catholic.
But today it is possible (even technically) to have a relationship
with spirituality that is personal and in some cases, individualistic. This
is made possible by reading various publications in the religious market,
without having to get involved with any church or place of worship, but
only by the practice of individual meditation and/or various techniques
of spirituality.
In some more serious and consistent cases, this implies the cre-
ation of small communities of "searching people", who seem to know
rather well what that dont want, better than just what they do want. They
feel that official sacred spaces have become too "dry" and mediocre, and
tend to be places of power and prestige, of a "social practice in the most
superficial sense of the word. All of this does not allow them to directly
experience their relationship with the Divine (in whatever way it might
be represented) or the Supreme Reality.
5. During the time of early Christianity there was a tension
between the more interior and spiritual aspects (Gnostics) and its more
popular external and massive aspects (Orthodox sector). This dilemma
was "resolved" by the predominance of the externalist, popular, massive
tendency. In our days there is the possibility to revise all this, because of
a growing interest in these contemplative spiritual spaces among many
ordinary Christians.
There would therefore be an opportunity to restore a balance
between the inner (yin) and outside (yang) in Christianity, in such a way
that would produce neither groups of elite insiders, nor its opposite,
groups of massive mediocrity.
6. As far as Catholicism goes, we are presently involved in a crisis,
which need not necessarily be negative. Theologically theres the possibil-
ity of its being a time of growth in both testimony and authenticity. Here
are some areas that affect the Catholic Church. But first off, we have to
clarify better just what we mean by the Catholic Church.
When speaking about Catholicism, we ought to refer to different
spheres:
(1) The Vatican;
(2) Episcopal Conferences of the Bishops;
The End of Religion od Birth of Spirituality 125
126
(3) Priests involved in parishes;
(4) Women and men in religious institutes;
(5) Women and men who are not clergy nor in religious institutes,
-- the people, the laity-- some of whom are involved in small com-
munities.
So when we refer to the Catholic Church, just what do we mean?
To which sphere do we refer? The Catholic Church is not a homoge-
neous institution: there may be conflicts and different tendencies, more
or less apparent, within these identified areas. There is another series of
spheres where these conflicts become intensified: at ethnic, gender and
generational levels. Therefore, no one can or should do a generalized
analysis of the phenomenon called the "Catholic Church", without con-
sidering all the above distinctions.
7. Returning to the Catholic ecclesial crisis, we are able to identify
a number of problematic elements within it (considered from more top-
down intensity from point 1 to 5, as set out above) that hinder spiritual
practice:
7.1. Authoritarianism. Predominantly it is the power scheme of an
Absolute Monarchy, especially found in the Vatican, but which tends to be
reproduced in other vertical spheres (from 1 to 5). Today, the challenge
is to a church as a whole, to be more democratic, fraternal, egalitarian,
horizontal and respectful, of human rights (especially those of women) in
the internal forum. This greater horizontality does not break off from the
verticality of reference to the Master of Galilee, nor from other ministries
within the institutional Church, according to the ecclesiological logic of
the Second Vatican Council.
7.2. There exists an outdated concept of sexuality. I think the
appeal to a life of seriousness in sexual and emotional aspects, makes
sense within the Church, but there is a lack of realism in these areas that
still shows up strongly.
7.3. The language still continues being very abstract, paternalistic,
in need of a philosophical and, I would say, poetic overhaul: (new meta-
phors about God; a new way of talking about spirituality). This is a chal-
lenge at all levels of the Catholic Church.
7.4. The forms are still not transparent, due to a disguised insecu-
rity sometimes bordering on hypocrisy. It seems more similar to the logic
of the Scribes and Pharisees than to that of the "disciples of The Way,"
of the early Christian era.
127
7.5. The conservative political and social level is still outstanding.
Progressive positions are systematically punished by instances of ecclesi-
astical power. There is more fear than evangelical freedom of speech. And
worst of all: a frame of mind intellectually conservative.
8. This is where Christianity is given the opportunity to choose a
radical solution: a clear and definite option for the poorest and most mar-
ginalized people in this system -- children of the street, lonely old people;
women punished with lower wages, inequality, domestic violence; the
feminization of poverty; indigenous and black peoples treated as second
class citizens; destruction of whats left of Nature ("we men and women
are Nature!"); construction of credible values for a society that would be
different from the present dominant capitalistic financial system etc..
9. An important point here is the macro-ecumenical dialogue: the
search by the various historical religions for a convergence on social
alternative action (values of Justice, Peace and the Integration of Nature).
10. One of the key challenges then is: the "spiritualization" of reli-
gion, i.e. the search for direct and immediate experience of the Absolute.
This also applies to Christianity, and in particular to Catholicism.
This implies the relaxing of those hard institutional spaces, greater
sensitivity to the suffering of others, practical commitment to alternate
ways of life-style: (environmental, vegetarian, non-violent pacifism, spiri-
tual feminism); concretely overcoming ancient religious dualisms (e.g.
the contradiction between body and spirit, personal, collective and politi-
cal liberation etc..), a simple life without hypocrisy, the practice of daily
meditation; learning to remain serene (Stoicism) when encountering the
ravages Life, etc..
Conclusion
The hypothesis of our research would be that religion offers TWO
basic options with their different ramifications:
(1) an openness to a mature and serious spirituality, that would be
a vital experience producing plentiful-ness (a banana skin religion );
(2) a religion closed in upon itself - ecclesio-centric, more self-
centered on its ecclesiastic navel than interested in provoking deep
encounters, meaningfulness and silence (an empty shell religion).
In our opinion this is THE critical challenge for the future of reli-
gion as such. If not, we might just find ourselves with a church that "func-
The End of Religion od Birth of Spirituality 127
128
tions" but does not go deep, does not fulfill, and remains unconvincing.
In a word, that does not transform.
Which of these two options are really making happen in our own
life? Do we have the possibility to change without an intense faith in
a transforming God? Does our religion have a real mystique? Or is it a
mystique without religion?
From my perspective, these are key questions. It would be another
story to develop a holistic spirituality -- something we have been trying to
achieve for quite some time, but here is not the place to take up that task.
129
Fin de la religin
o nacimiento de la espiritualidad?
Rui Manuel GRCIO DAS NEVES
So Paulo, Brasil - Nagpur, India - Lisboa, Portugal
Abstract:
El artculo intenta precisar la diferencia entre las categoras de
'religin' y 'espiritualidad', que no son necesariamente lo mismo, aunque
se puedan entrecruzar. Se centra la cuestin en la predominancia de una
prctica vivencial espiritual frente a la crisis (relativa) de la religin en
nuestros das. Sin esa vivencia espiritual (que el autor cree encontrar en
la espiritualidad holstica), la misma religin puede perder su credibili-
dad, al quedarse en el cascarn externo de los dogmas, preceptos mora-
les, templos, instituciones eclesisticas, clrigos (masculinos), etc.
Resumen:
The author begins by establishing a decisive difference between
these categories: religion and spirituality, which are not necessarily the
same, even they can interweave. He focuses the issue of the predominat-
ing spiritual practice, in front of the (relative) crisis of religion nowadays.
Without such a spiritual living (which authors find in the holistic spiritu-
ality), the very religion can loss its credibility and contents...
La Humanidad se halla hoy en un momento crtico de su Historia.
Crtico viene de crisis, una crisis provocada en Occidente fundamental-
mente por los mercados financieros. De fondo, es una crisis de valores.
Pero crisis es ante todo un tiempo oportuno, es tiempo de corregir, de
iniciar cambios radicales y estructurales pendientes, de creatividad y de
ensayo de nuevos caminos (segn el mtodo de prueba-error: las equivo-
caciones ayudan a crecer). La actitud religiosa, y especialmente la espiri-
tual, tienen algo importante que decir, como espacio simblico, en este
contexto global y globalizante.
130
1. En primer lugar, para claridad de este texto, debemos definir
antes los conceptos utilizados. Qu se entiende por religin? Qu se
entiende por espiritualidad?
1.1. Por religin se entiende aqu una estructura espiritual exter-
na (exotrica), que incluye dogmas (o principios filosficos-teolgicos),
tiempos sagrados o culto/liturgia, espacios sagrados o templos, clero o
jerarqua, una determinada tica individual y social, etc. Corresponde al
aspecto institucional de la espiritualidad. Es sta una definicin sociolgi-
ca, que se aparta ms, sin negarla, de la tradicional como religare, volver
a unir lo separado (fin del dualismo).
1.2. Por espiritualidad entendemos aqu la estructura interior
(esotrica), mstica, experimental, de relacin con un Dios, Divinidad,
Absoluto, o Esfera Transcendente (sea lo que fuere que entendamos por
ella).
Pues bien, ambos aspectos, interior y exterior/social no son nece-
sariamente opuestos, sino que pueden ser complementarios. En algunos
casos llegan a ser conflictivos y excluyentes, aunque en s, necesariamen-
te, no lo sean.
2. Asistimos en Occidente, desde la Modernidad, y especialmente
desde finales del siglo XVIII y, sobre todo, desde el siglo XIX y parte del
siglo XX, a una crtica radical del fenmeno religioso. Se van a buscar
diversas explicaciones racionales de dicho fenmeno, incluso una causali-
dad, y se espera que en breve termine. Ejemplos son la postura marxiana
(como opio del pueblo, en el sentido de opio que el pueblo se da a s
mismo, debido a su alienacin dentro del proceso productivo), freudiana
(una proyeccin ilusoria), nietzscheana (muerte de Dios y oposicin
al puro desplegarse de la Vida y su lgica etc.). La constante ha sido
profetizar su fin inminente.
3. Algunos datos pareceran apoyar esta hiptesis: el proceso cre-
ciente de secularizacin en el Hemisferio Nor-Atlntico ha provocado un
ligero retroceso en las prcticas religiosas (especialmente cristianas, aun-
que no de otras religiones histricas, como el islamismo), y el crecimiento
de posturas agnsticas y ateas. Sin embargo, globalmente, el fenmeno
religioso no ha decrecido estadsticamente.
Franz Damen, por ejemplo, en Panorama de las religiones en el
mundo 1910-2010, escribe, en relacin al cristianismo, que: en los lti-
mos cien aos, el cristianismo ha sufrido una disminucin relativa ligera,
mientras se observ un desplazamiento en su composicin tnica y lin-
gstica
1
. Tuvo una disminucin notable en el mbito Nor-occidental y
Asia Central, pero un crecimiento fuerte en el Sur del planeta. Podemos
1
In: Agenda Latinoamericana mundial 2011, pp. 22-24.
131
decir tambin que el incremento de religiones histricas, como el isla-
mismo, ha sido notable. Tambin el crecimiento del hinduismo y, ms
moderadamente, del budismo, son otros fenmenos destacables.
En Amrica Latina el panorama religioso no ha sufrido grandes
modificaciones en el ltimo siglo. El cristianismo ha mantenido aqu su
posicin hegemnica, si bien ha cambiado en su composicin: crecimien-
to enorme del cristianismo pentecostal frente al catolicismo dominante.
Algn pas, incluso, como Uruguay, ha visto incrementar significativamen-
te la presencia del agnosticismo y del atesmo. Parece que el crecimiento
de una (relativa) sociedad del bienestar implica un decrecimiento de su
prctica religiosa.
4. En nuestra opinin, el contexto socio-histrico del mundo con-
temporneo occidental, especialmente en lo referente al cristianismo, est
favoreciendo un aspecto doble:
(1) crisis de la religin en cuanto tal (crisis cualitativa, no necesa-
riamente cuantitativa
2
); y
(2) bsqueda central del elemento prctico-vivencial en el mbito
espiritual.
Parece que las salidas institucionales religiosas standard no favo-
recen el encuentro personal con lo Transcendente, o, por lo menos, no
son percibidas as por mucha gente. Debemos exceptuar aqu los movi-
mientos pentecostales y afines, dentro del protestantismo, as como el
carismtico catlico.
Pero hoy es posible (incluso tecnolgicamente) una relacin perso-
nal y, en algunos casos, individualista, con la Espiritualidad. Esto se logra
mediante la lectura de diversas publicaciones en el mercado religioso,
sin necesidad de integrarse en ninguna iglesia o templo, as como una
prctica individual de meditacin y/o diversas tcnicas de espiritualidad.
En algunos casos, ms serios y consecuentes, esto implica la crea-
cin de pequeas comunidades de buscadores/as, que parecen saber
ms bien lo que no quieren, negativamente, que lo que quieren, positi-
vamente. Sienten que los espacios sagrados oficiales se han quedado
demasiado secos, mediocres, son espacios de poder y de prestigio, de
prctica social, en el sentido ms superficial del trmino, y que no les
permite experimentar directamente su relacin con la Divinidad (sea
como fuere que sta se represente) o la Suprema Realidad.
Fin de la religin, o nacimiento de la espiritualidad 131
2
Entendemos por crisis cualitativa una crisis de legitimidad del orden religioso, es decir,
puede no haber decrecimiento cuantitativo (en nmero) de miembros, pero se ha per-
dido la calidad devocional, el convencimiento, la originalidad, la creatividad, entrando
significativamente en un proceso de masificacin.
132
5. Si en otras pocas del cristianismo primitivo hubo una tensin
entre sus aspectos interiores-espirituales (gnsticos) y sus aspectos ms
populares (sector ortodoxo), y el dilema fue resuelto con el predomi-
nio de su vertiente externalista, popular, de masas, hoy en da hay la
posibilidad de revisar todo esto, pues crece el inters por los espacios
espirituales contemplativos en muchos y muchas de las y los practicantes
habituales del cristianismo.
Habra, pues, una oportunidad de restablecer un equilibrio entre
el espacio interior (yin) y el exterior (yang) dentro del cristianismo, de
tal manera que los grupos no cayeran en el intimismo elitista, o en su
contrario, una masificacin mediocrizante.
6. En lo referente al Catolicismo, nos encontramos actualmente con
esta crisis, y ello no tiene que ser necesariamente negativo: puede ser,
teolgicamente, la posibilidad de un crecimiento en testimonio y auten-
ticidad. Veamos algunos aspectos en que es afectada la Iglesia Catlica.
Pero antes de ms, debemos clarificar mejor qu entendemos por Iglesia
Catlica.
Al hablar de Catolicismo, podemos referirnos a diversos mbitos:
(1) El Vaticano; (2) Conferencias Episcopales u Obispos; (3)
Sacerdotes en el mundo de la Parroquia; (4) religiosos y religiosas; (5)
laicos/as, algunos de ellos y ellas en pequeas comunidades.
Pero cuando hablamos entonces de Iglesia Catlica, a qu nos
referimos? A qu mbito de estos queremos aludir? La Iglesia Catlica
no es una institucin homognea: puede haber conflictos y diversas ten-
dencias, ms o menos manifiestas, dentro de estos mbitos sealados.
Adems, hay otra serie de mbitos donde estos conflictos se intensifican:
a nivel tnico, a nivel de gnero y a nivel generacional. No se puede ni
se debe hacer entonces un anlisis generalista del fenmeno Iglesia
Catlica, sin tener en cuenta las anteriores diferenciaciones.
7. Volviendo a la crisis eclesial catlica, podramos identificar una
serie de elementos problemticos dentro de ella (que se observan con
ms intensidad de arriba-abajo, del punto 1 al 5, anteriormente enuncia-
dos), que obstaculizan una prctica espiritual:
7.1. El autoritarismo. El esquema de poder predominante todava
es la Monarqua Absoluta, especialmente a partir del Vaticano, pero que
tiende a reproducirse en los dems mbitos, verticalmente (del 1 al 5).
Hoy, el reto es de una Iglesia, como un todo, ms democrtica, frater-
na, igualitaria, horizontal y respetuosa, al nivel interno, de los derechos
humanos (especialmente de las mujeres). Esta mayor horizontalidad no
quiebra la verticalidad de la referencia al Maestro de Galilea, ni los dems
ministerios dentro de la Iglesia-institucin, en la lgica de la eclesiologa
del Concilio Vaticano II.
133
7.2. Una concepcin trasnochada de la sexualidad. Creo que tiene
mucho sentido el apelo dentro de la Iglesia a una seriedad de vida en los
aspectos sexuales y afectivos, pero el irrealismo en estos mbitos todava
tiene una fuerte presencia.
7.3. El lenguaje sigue siendo muy abstracto, paternalista, necesita-
do de una renovacin filosfica e, incluso, dira, potica (nuevas metfo-
ras sobre Dios; nueva manera de hablar sobre la espiritualidad). Esto es
un reto para todos los niveles de la Iglesia Catlica.
7.4. Las formas siguen siendo poco transparentes, producto de una
inseguridad disfrazada, rayana a veces en la hipocresa. Se parece ms a
la lgica de los fariseos y los escribas que a la de los discpulos/as del
Camino, de los primeros tiempos del cristianismo.
7.5. El conservadurismo a nivel poltico y social sigue siendo noto-
rio. Las posturas progresistas son sistemticamente castigadas desde el
Poder eclesistico. Hay ms miedo que parresa evanglica. Y lo peor:
una estructura mental e intelectual conservadora.
8. Aqu es donde se le plantea al cristianismo una salida de peso:
una opcin clara y decidida por las y los ms pobres y marginados de
este Sistema (nios y nias de la calle, ancianos solitarios, mujeres casti-
gadas con peores salarios, desigualdad, violencia domstica, feminizacin
de la pobreza, indgenas y negros secundarizados, destruccin del resto
de la Naturaleza (Nosotros/as somos Naturaleza!), construccin de
valores crebles para una sociedad alternativa al capitalismo financiero
dominante actual, etc.
9. Un punto importante aqu es el dilogo macro-ecumnico: la
bsqueda de las diversas religiones histricas de convergencias para la
accin social alternativa (valores de la Justicia, la Paz y la Integracin de
la Naturaleza).
10. Uno de los retos claves es entonces: la Espiritualizacin de la
Religin, es decir, la bsqueda de la experiencia directa e inmediata con
el Absoluto. Esto es vlido tambin para el Cristianismo, y Catolicismo en
particular.
Esto implica la relativizacin de los espacios de institucionalizacin
dura, para hacerse ms flexible; una mayor sensibilidad ante el sufrimien-
to ajeno; el compromiso prctico con formas de vida de tipo alternativo
(ecologismo, vegetarianismo, pacifismo no-violento, feminismo espiri-
tual); superacin en concreto los dualismos religiosos milenarios (por
ejemplo, la contradiccin cuerpo/espritu, liberacin personal y colectiva,
interior y Poltica, etc.); una vida no hipcrita y sencilla; la prctica de
la meditacin diaria; una serenidad (estoicismo) ante los embates de la
Vida, etc.
Fin de la religin, o nacimiento de la espiritualidad 133
134
Conclusin
Nuestra hiptesis de trabajo de investigacin sera que la religin
tiene bsicamente dos opciones, con sus diferentes ramificaciones:
(1) apertura a una espiritualidad madura y seria, que sea realmente
una experiencia vital que llene los vacos de plenitud (religin piel de
pltano);
(2) una religin cerrada en s misma, eclesiocntrica, ms centrada
en s misma (en el ombligo eclesitico), que provocadora de verdadero
encuentro, significatividad y silencio plenos (religin cscara vaca).
En nuestra opinin esto es un reto decisivo para el futuro de la
religin como tal. Si no, pudiramos encontrarnos con una Iglesia que
funciona, pero que no ahonda, no llena, no convence. En una palabra,
que no transforma.
Cul de las dos opciones estamos realmente potenciando con
nuestra vida? Tenemos posibilidad de cambiar sin una fe intensa en un
Dios que transforma? Tiene mstica nuestra religin? O es una mstica
sin religin?
He aqu preguntas esenciales, desde mi perspectiva. Otra cosa sera
ya desarrollar una espiritualidad holstica, algo que estamos intentando
hacer desde hace tiempo, pero cuya tarea no es para implementar aqu.
135
Change - Significance and Challenges
A new view of religion or new theology of religions
Deivit MONTEALEGRE
1
University of Geneva,
University Institute ISEDET, Buenos Aires
Resumen
No es posible concebir la religin como algo esttico, por el con-
trario, hablar de religin es hablar de dinmicas, de relaciones de inter-
dependencia y por supuesto de cambios; no obstante, todo cambio trae
consigo desafos y obliga a la resignificacin de los contenidos. As, nues-
tro inters es exponer algunos procesos que la religin ha atravesado a
lo largo de su historia en el mundo, procesos que han hecho de ella una
metfora capaz de ser interpretada de diferentes maneras y desde dife-
rentes especialidades.
Decir teolgicamente lo que hoy es Religin; es hablar no slo de
una amalgama de cualidades del espacio reservado al vinculo entre lo
sagrado y lo profano, sino adems de una dimensin del no-lugar.
Teolgicamente religin hoy es el lugar del desencuentro, el espacio de la
frontera entre las identidades, una espacio de virtualidad en el que lo
econmico poltico y social del ser humano se ve dominado por la terce-
ridad de sus deseos y obligaciones en un mundo viciado de capitalismo y
neoliberalismo.
Abstract
Is not possible understand religion as something static, however
talk of religion is talk of dynamics, relations of interdependence and of
course, changes; nevertheless, every change brings with it challenges and
requires the resignification of the contents. Thus, our interest is to expose
some processes that religion has crossed over his history in the world,
processes that have made it a metaphor able to be interpreted in different
ways and from different specialties.
Say what is now theologically Religion, is to speak not only an
amalgam of qualities of the space reserved for the link between sacred
and profane, but also a dimension of non-place. Theologically religion
today is the site of the clash, the borders space between identities, a virtu-
al space in which the political economic and social human being is domi-
nated by the thirdness of his desires and obligations in a flawed world of
capitalism and neoliberalism.
136
Over and over we have heard that human beings are religious
beings, that within us there is a sort of device that leads us to pursuit
of transcendence, that one way or another seek the divine, that which
connects us a reality beyond the finite in which we live. However, for
generations the religion step away from being an expression of the tran-
scendent and became institutions of the sacred, a place of power in which
the enlightened would developed their desire for transcendence and
mastery, a space in which the divine, although present, was mediated by
an unlimited number of objects and symbols, promising an approach to
God directly.
Religion move from being a part of the re-ligare condition of
human beings - with all that involves and ceases to involves this statement
- and transformed into a set of dogmas, liturgies, doctrines, prayers ... that
made it increasingly absent-present, i.e., religion finished linked to legal
aspects and almost-judicial that move away from the real communities
life constantly changing and got closer to certain areas of society who
were avid support and legitimacy of its structures of thought.
With the preceding we do not mean that religion lost its meaning,
if ever there was a unique sense of religion, rather, we make our readers
understand that there are processes religion has gone through over its
history in the world, processes that have made it a metaphor able to be
interpreted in different ways and from different specialties.
So much that what is now theologically Religion, is to speak not
only of an amalgam of qualities (political, social, cultural, economic...) of
the space reserved for the link between what is considered sacred and
what is considered profane, but also a dimension of other-place, theologi-
cally religion today is the site of mismatch, the boundarys space between
identities, a virtual space in which economic, political and social human
beings aspects are dominated by the thirdness of their desires and obliga-
tions in a world tainted by capitalism and neoliberalism.
When we speak of thirdness we are talking about the dimension
of the virtuality, not in the sense of technology, but using its words, but
in the sense of an experience beyond of the concrete or imaginary plane,
the space of virtuality or thirdness is the space now occupied by religion.
The other-place.
Thus, talking about religion nowadays does not imply to belief in
a particular doctrine or in a plurality of them, but talking about a virtual
136 Deivit MONTEALEGRE
137
place (another) where even, some times, is not necessary to believe, just
to dwell. A space capable of supporting religions overwhelming diversity
which at the same time re-builds the identities of the sacred.
This can be seen in many religions practices carried out at the
time of making its teachings, many have been compelled to transform its
language by a more inclusive one, abandoning radical exclusivism, oth-
ers have chosen to be recognized as part of a great whole, as a place of
revelation alongside the others. However, the combination of these views
comes the new understanding of religion, a space that does not belong to
anyone, an other-place, a place where plural and diverse gets its reason
for be without opposing the particular identity. It is as if religion was
being liberated from the chain of the categorizer language for become
prey to the metamorphosis of thirdness, ie a process of identification with
the unidentified.
We believe this is one of the great changes that have been appear-
ing in our time. A religion that refuses to be framed by restricted and
classificatory language, it chooses the formula of metaphor, for the space
of collision between identities and knowledge of different religious tradi-
tions and ancient spiritualities.
Religion is becoming in the place of the non-identity, even though
respect the identities, a space capable of hosting the most dissimilar.
Many may say that this was always so, which we must answer no. While
religion seen from the more general sight or from the science of religion
can be seen as neutral space almost every religious tradition filled with
its own significant, this is not what happens today.
What our generation is living is the intersection of a religion that
is no longer space to be filled, but a filled space that refuses to be put
in a single place and that claims to itself an other-place. Religion ceased
to be what religions were saying to become the relationship between the
confluences of the epistemological break; produced by religious plural-
ism, and the theology of religious pluralism.
A theological perspective of religion and its current transforma-
tion will produce a theology of religions that makes explode the concept
of particular and to engage in the task of a theology of religions from
boundary, ie, a theology that is able to respond from a plural identity
and not from the perspective of the signifiers of a particular religious
tradition.
A new theology of religion must be thought. That religion which
responded from its place of clear boundaries and precise scopes does not
realize the changes and transformations in our society. And at this point
we base our observation. We as a society have changed, we are crossed
138
by a splitting of our identity, by the fragility of permanent relationships
with the same system of signifiers, the Internet and all the technocratiza-
tion of our communities which have made our classical way to see and
understand the theology of religion is put in parentheses.
In this new walking appear major issues that must be solved or
at least seriously considered, namely, what God are we talking about
when we talk about religion is an other-place, a thirdness, the place of
the non-identity, it is say, from this new perspective can we still talking
about the God of Christianity or Islam, etc., or must we lose our fear and
make explode the significant God re-thinking it from a place closer
to the negative theology one or simply changing his/her conception?,
and Within Christian tradition Christology must be considered from an
improper place as part of the dynamic relationship between humanity
and their transcendence?
What place will have in this new paradigm the conception of
ecclesial community or religious community in general? However, about
these challenges we consider, that the most important, is the concep-
tion of our own religious identity, that is, will we have to find out for a
theological-religious identity which is not based on a particular religious
conception of identity, but builds its base in the relationship of the
boundary-line between different religious traditions?
If we would like to make this reflection something programmatic
to be studied, we suggest that it is started looking in a sort of journalistic
exercise, the changes in the way we communicate both inside and out-
side our religious communities. Then we suggest answering the following
questions:
- What do we call religious identity?
- What is essential in sharing our beliefs with others? (To be heard,
to proselytize, to help understand our perspective, among others.)
- How was confidence in religion 20 years ago? and how is it
today, and what kind of changes can we observe? Do these changes have
practical implications for our lives?
- What we thought when we heard speaking about religion as oth-
er-place? What is expected from religion today?
The intention of our questions is to approach a reflection that can
be guided to understand what it means today to talk about religion and
especially to change our attitude toward the impending change we are
experiencing.
138 Deivit MONTEALEGRE
139
Finally we do not want to leave aside the political implications that
this new paradigm brings to religions. We believe that both; the hierarchy
of religions as systems of government and the ways in which power is
distributed in the different religious traditions will be reflected in its heart
innermost this change.
Is not the same to politically support a paradigm in which the faith-
ful or believers are identified with the particular of each tradition, than
one in which both believers and unbelievers can take place thanks to a
complex and plural system capable to withstand them.
As a preliminary conclusion we argue that there is no possible reli-
gion without this is redirected to the new questions of society and that
in a plural age a religion cannot be singular.
140
Cambio: significacin y desafos.
Una nueva visin de la Religin
David MONTEALEGRE
1
Universidad de Ginebra,
Instituto Universitario ISEDET, Buenos Aires
Una y otra vez hemos escuchado que los seres humanos somos
seres religiosos, que dentro de nosotros existe una suerte de dispositivo
que nos inclina a la bsqueda de la trascendencia, que de una u otra
forma buscamos lo divino, aquello que nos conecte con una realidad
ms all de la finita en la que nos encontramos. No obstante, por gene-
raciones, la religin pas de ser una expresin de lo trascendente y se
convirti en la institucionalidad de lo sagrado; un lugar de poder en el
que los ilustrados desarrollaban sus deseos de trascendencia y dominio;
un espacio en el que lo divino, aunque presente, era mediado por un sin
nmero de objetos y smbolos, que prometan acercarnos a Dios de una
forma directa.
La religin pas de ser una parte de la condicin de re-ligare del
ser humano con todo lo que implica y deja de implicar este enunciado y
se transform en un conjunto de dogmas, liturgias, doctrinas, oraciones,
que la hicieron cada vez ms ausente-presente, es decir, la religin termi-
n vinculada a aspectos legales y casi judiciales que la alejaron de la vida
real de las comunidades en constante transformacin, y la acercaron a
determinados espacios de la sociedad que se hallaban vidos del soporte
y legitimacin de sus estructuras de pensamiento.
Con lo anterior no queremos decir que la religin perdi su sentido,
si es que en algn momento hubo un nico sentido de la religin; ms
bien, buscamos hacer que nuestro lector comprenda que hay procesos
que la religin ha atravesado a lo largo de su historia en el mundo, pro-
cesos que han hecho de ella una metfora capaz de ser interpretada de
diferentes maneras y desde diferentes especialidades.
Tanto es as que decir teolgicamente lo que hoy es Religin es
hablar no slo de una amalgama de cualidades (polticas, sociales, cultu-
rales, econmicas) de dicho espacio reservado al vnculo entre lo consi-
derado sagrado y lo considerado profano, sino adems de una dimensin
141
del otro-lugar. Teolgicamente religin hoy es el lugar del desencuentro,
el espacio de la frontera entre las identidades, una espacio de virtualidad
en el que lo econmico, poltico y social del ser humano se ve dominado
por la terceridad de sus deseos y obligaciones en un mundo viciado de
capitalismo y neoliberalismo.
Cuando hablamos de terceridad estamos hablando de la dimen-
sin de lo virtual, no en el sentido de la tecnologa, aunque, usando sus
palabras, sino en el sentido de una experiencia que se pone ms all del
plano de lo concreto o imaginario. El espacio de lo virtual o de la terce-
ridad es el espacio que hoy ocupa la religin. El otro-lugar.
Por tanto, hablar de religin hoy no implica la creencia en una
determinada doctrina o en una pluralidad de doctrinas, sino hablar de
un lugar virtual (otro) en donde dado el caso no es necesario creer; slo
habitar. Un espacio capaz de soportar la sobrecogedora diversidad de lo
religioso, y que a su vez reconstruye las identidades de lo sagrado.
Esto se puede ver en las prcticas que muchas religiones llevan a
cabo a la hora de realizar su tarea de enseanza; muchas se han visto
obligadas a transformar su lenguaje por uno ms inclusivo, abandonando
exclusivismos radicales; otras han optado por reconocerse como parte
de un todo mayor, como espacio de revelacin junto a las dems. No
obstante, en la conjuncin de estas posturas surge la nueva comprensin
de la religin: un espacio que no le pertenece a nadie, un otro-lugar, un
espacio donde lo plural y lo diverso obtiene su razn de ser sin oponerse
a la identidad particular. Es como si la religin estuviera siendo liberada
de las cadenas del lenguaje categorizador, para hacerse presa de la meta-
morfosis de la terceridad, esto es, de un proceso de identificacin con lo
no identificado.
Creemos que ste es uno de los grandes cambios que ha estado
apareciendo en nuestra poca, una religin que se resiste a ser enmar-
cada por el lenguaje clasificatorio y restringido, que opta por la frmula
de la metfora, por el espacio de colisin entre las identidades y saberes
de las distintas tradiciones religiosas milenarias y de las espiritualidades
histricas.
La religin se est transformando en el lugar de lo no identitario
aunque respete las identidades; un espacio capaz de albergar lo ms dis-
mil. Muchos pueden opinar que esto siempre fue as, a lo cual debemos
responder que no. Si bien la religin vista desde el plano ms general o
desde las ciencias de la religin puede verse como espacio casi neutro
que cada tradicin religiosa llena con sus propios significantes, no es esto
lo que ocurre hoy en da.
Lo que nuestra generacin est viviendo es la interseccin de una
religin que ya no es ms espacio a ser llenado, sino espacio lleno que
Una nueva visin de la religin - 141
142
se resiste a ser puesto en un nico lugar y que reclama para si un otro-
lugar. La religin dej de ser lo que las religiones dicen que es, para pasar
a ser la relacin de las mismas y la confluencia del quiebre epistemol-
gico producido por el pluralismo religioso y la teologa pluralista de las
religiones.
Una perspectiva teolgica de la religin y su transformacin actual,
producir una teologa de las religiones que haga estallar el concepto de
lo particular y se involucre en la tarea de una teologa de las religiones
desde el lmite, es decir, una teologa que sea capaz de responder desde
una identidad plural y no desde la perspectiva de los significantes de una
tradicin religiosa particular.
Un nueva teologa de la religin debe ser pensada. Ya la religin
que responda desde su lugar de lmites claros y alcances precisos no da
cuenta de los cambios y las transformaciones de nuestra sociedad. Y es
en este punto que basamos nuestra observacin. Nosotros como sociedad
hemos cambiado, estamos atravesados por un desdoblamiento de nuestra
identidad, por la fragilidad de las relaciones permanentes con el mismo
sistema de significantes, por la internet y por toda la tenocratizacin de
nuestras comunidades; lo cual ha hecho que nuestra forma clsica de ver
y entender la teologa de la religin sea puesta en parntesis.
En este nuevo caminar aparecen grandes temas que deben ser
resueltos o por lo menos considerados muy seriamente, a saber, de qu
Dios estamos hablando cuando hablamos de que la religin es un otro-
lugar, una terceridad, el lugar de lo no identitario, es decir, desde esta
nueva perspectiva podremos seguir hablando del Dios del cristianismo o
del Islam, etc., o tendremos que perder el miedo y hacer estallar el sig-
nificante Dios repensndolo desde un lugar ms cercano al de la teologa
negativa, o simplemente transformando su concepcin?
Dentro de la tradicin cristiana la cristologa deber ser pensada
una vez ms desde un lugar impropio como parte de la relacin dinmica
de la humanidad y su trascendentalidad?
Qu lugar tendr en este nuevo paradigma la concepcin de la
comunidad eclesial o comunidad religiosa en general. No obstante, sobre
estos desafos consideramos que el ms importante es el de la concep-
cin de nuestra propia identidad religiosa, es decir, tendremos que dar
cuenta de una identidad teolgico-religiosa que no reposa en una con-
cepcin de identidad religiosa particular, sino que construye su base en
la relacin del lmite-frontera entre las diferentes tradicin religiosa?
Si quisiramos hacer de esta reflexin algo programtico para ser
estudiado, proponemos empezar observando en una suerte de ejercicio
periodstico los cambios en la forma en que nos comunicamos tanto al
interior de nuestras comunidades religiosas de base como al exterior de
142 David MONTEALEGRE
143
ellas con el resto de la sociedad. Posteriormente sugerimos dar respuesta
a las siguientes preguntas:
- A qu llamamos identidad religiosa?
- Qu es lo esencial a la hora de compartir nuestras creencias con
otros? (Ser escuchados, hacer proselitismo, ayudar a la comprensin de
nuestra perspectiva, entre otras.)
- Cmo era la confianza en la religin hace 20 aos y cmo es
hoy?, qu tipo de cambios podemos observar?, tienen estos cambios
implicaciones para nuestra vida prctica?
-qu idea nos hacemos cuando escuchamos hablar de otro-lugar
de la religin?
Qu se espera de la religin hoy?
La intencin de nuestras preguntas es acercarnos a una reflexin
que pueda ser guiada a comprender que significa hablar de religin hoy
y sobre todo a cambiar de actitud frente al inminente cambio que estamos
experimentando.
Finalmente no queremos dejar de un lado las implicaciones polti-
cas que este nuevo paradigma trae para las religiones. Creemos que tanto
la jerarqua de las religiones como los sistemas de gobierno y las formas
en que se reparte el poder en las diferentes tradiciones religiosa ver
reflejado en su fuero ms interno este cambio.
No es lo mismo sostener polticamente un paradigma en que los
fieles o creyentes se identifican con lo particular de cada tradicin, que
uno en el cual tanto creyentes como no creyentes puedan tener lugar
gracias a su sistema complejo y plural capaz de soportarlos.
A manera de conclusin preliminar sostenemos que no hay religin
posible sin que sta sea redireccionada por las nuevas preguntas de la
sociedad y que en una era plural no es posible una religin singular.
Una nueva visin de la religin - 143
144
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Post-religonal Paradigm?
Towards a complex understanding
of the contemporary religious phenomenon
Alejandro ORTIZ
Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla
Mxico
Intentionality
We would like to propose, in the following lines, the idea of the
existence of civilizational-paradigms, which have guided the historical
walk of humanity, in relation and permanent conflict, coexisting at the
same time, creating alliances, intersections or conflicts between them. And
also, wed try to erase a vision of lineal and consequent paradigms where
one outdoes the previous one, and where the exceeded paradigm disap-
pears in history over time. This last modern progressive vision doesn't
help -in our view- to understand the complexity that is current reality.
Thats why we believe that saying that we live or that we are mov-
ing towards a post-religious paradigm can be an unsuitable way, -for
being fast and simple- to understand the world and the religious role in
the contemporary world. Instead, we locate several civilizing paradigms
that have consequently emerged one after another, paradigms that dont
completely disappear, but are transformed, or certain expressions of a
paradigm find new ways of expression and to exist from the relations
and/ or the intersections with other existing civilizing paradigms.
In order to better understand these ideas, I will develop in a nar-
rative way a minimal vision of the five civilizing paradigms that in my
consideration I place, if not as the only ones, as the main ones. In the
explanation of each paradigm I will write how the religious phenomenon
lives and develops.
First ideas
In the history of humanity we can point with certain ease five
civilizing paradigms that mutually coexist today creating countless inter-
sections, alliances, contradictions, etc., which in turn create what we call
146
reality. When the Zapatistas* mention their utopia of creating a world
where many worlds fit they have as a base idea that: there are in coex-
istence and in conflict several ages today. That a dominant and exclu-
sionary epochal vision believes that its perspective is the best and it tries
to dominate the others is part of the Zapatista analysis, but what really
interests us in this moment is the idea of the existence of several times
converging at a same time and space. Another way to say the same thing
can be: that in current societies as well as in contemporary family nuclei
coexist at the same time and several times in the same place, three differ-
ent ways of seeing the world: the pre modern, modern and post modern
perspective, each of them with its advantages and values; with its con-
tradictions and negativities. Families become war fields when the dialog
and negotiation don`t prevail. Likewise, we can talk about other social
institutions.
We call civilizing paradigms these collective systems that lead
-dominantly- human communities in a certain time and space and from
their central values they build social, cultural, and political economic
subsystems that allow them to create conviviality, cultures and sociabil-
ity. Then, from these paradigms, human civilizations that will be able to
survive over the years are created, as long as they are adjusted, sometimes
very tightly, with the new paradigms that are emerging and that become
the dominant ones. Paraphrasing Corb, these civilizing paradigms are
the great vessels where civilizations in each age are shaped in certain
ways and forms.
We will briefly describe each civilizing paradigm and will point out
briefly, also, how religions play an important role in each of them.
The Naturalist Civilizational Paradigm
The first civilizing paradigm can be called naturalist. In this para-
digm the physical context that wraps the communities is the focal. Is
nature which is endowed with personality and with which you have to
talk so it can be lenient with the human communities. Soon, nature will
be our mother, Gaia according to the Greeks, Pachamama according to
the Latin-Americans.
While it is true that here religious practices are important, the
axis arent the gods but nature. In the beginning gods will help us to
understand the secrets of nature, the rhythms of cyclical destinies which
invariably and eternally happen every so often. Understanding it until
mastering it will be a long dialog and a drama that the human beings will
act with nature with important consequences. Initially, then, it will be the
ground, the skies, the stones, the flowers, the animals, the big cultural
symbols from which the communities will build their social and cultural
proposals. As Corb stated, it will be hunting, collecting, and agriculture,
146 Alejandro ORTIZ
147
the economical activities that will give meaning to the communities of
that time.
However, the knowledge of nature, the learning of its secrets, of
its movements, of its cycles, of its stages will be the epistemological
forms with which the world and the role of the human being in it will be
explained. We can detect it in several myths and rituals. The shamans, the
wise men and women will learn from nature. They will dance its rhythms;
they will heal -from secret and forbidden odors, except for them- the
sick communities. They will guide the communities not to upset natural
forces which later will be called gods- and instead they will teach us to
know how to thank them for what they do so the communities can live.
Then, it is clear to understand that the human being becomes a ser-
vant, a watcher, a manager, a steward of the earth as stated in the Genesis
myth, we will be made from corn as the Mayan myth in Popol Vuh states
or as the other Genesis myth says, we will be living earth. At present,
the Greek body and soul will not exist, but the Latin American tonal*
or nahual*. Tonal will be the spirit of an animal that will look after us all
our lives. The biggest secret will be to know which is our own tonal and
master him until we get confused with it. When we achieve this we will
be nahuales. The great social and initiation rites will have to do with the
domain of hunting magical animals.
We can observe that the indigenous cultures, Afro Americans,
Africans and some Arabs still have as civilizing matrix this paradigm.
They adapt it by stressing and confronting the new dominant existing
paradigms. Although it might seem to be the weakest paradigm, today
we can say that all the other civilizing paradigms grew out of it and each
one has something of it. Some say that this civilizing paradigm has man-
aged to survive in the new expressions of new age where the natural
(against the artificial), the green, the ecological, becomes a new way of
living this civilizing paradigm.
In this naturalist paradigm, the religious forms are still expressed
in what Otto called the tremendum. Religion is part of something bigger,
the religious creates rites minors that mimic the bigger cycles of nature.
Perhaps it is the stage of what is called the pre-religious by several schol-
ars of the religious phenomenon. For example, before Passover would
become the great Jewish religious ritual and then Christian; before, it was
a meal that reflected the respect and the sacred approach to the context
of the desert. Then, again it will become from the sacred experience of
the exodus a rite of religious identity until it returned to be one of the
greatest Jewish religious rites.
This paradigm still exist today, and perhaps a very profound and
true way of expressing today could be through the Indian and Afro the-
ologies.
Towards a complex understandig of the contemporay religious phenomenon 147
148
The Religious Civilizing Paradigm
Then, from this paradigm, and also from the development of agri-
culture and the creation of irrigation, as well as the subsequent cattle rais-
ing, the communities started searching religion as a civilizing paradigm
in itself. It will not serve any longer to mediate between natural forces
and its spirits, and human beings, but it will become an end in itself and
from itself it will be based, justified and it will order the existing world.
The ones that will guide the human course will be the local gods and not
the cosmic forces.
Religion or religions- will become the second civilizing paradigm.
From it, empires, cities and civilizations will be built. It will be a battle of
gods where only the most dominant be positioning. This until monothe-
ism is reached, where only one god fits: the own. The churches, religious
communities will become of prime importance as much or more than
kings themselves. The sacred books, the temples and the priests, the sec-
ond trinities, according to Pannikar, will be the mediations through which
communities will find course and direction in their lives.
This civilizing paradigm as the former one continues until today.
People are still religious although not so institutionally. Participation
in churches decreases but the religious search grows. It is not a matter
of the elderly, but of those big farming communities that migrate to the
cities bringing their religious beliefs. For instance, the Mexican migrant
communities have imposed on American communities their guadalupa-
nas* beliefs.
We can briefly say that the civilizing paradigm still exists and
will continue for many years. However, this paradigm doesnt finish
explaining the whole religious reality in the world. We must say that the
traditional religious institutions of this paradigm are the ones that are
dominant and the ones that politically play in shaping the current glo-
balization. Judaism and its various political worldwide groups, Roman
Catholicism and its conservative expressions such as Opus Dei- or its
more progressive strands like Liberation Theology in Latin America, his-
toric Protestantism especially in England and the United States, Islam and
its Sunni and Shia forms in the Arab countries, Taoism, Confucianism,
Buddhism and its various expressions; all of them explain the world- not
to mention the thousands of religious forms that structure the Hindu real-
ity, the current geopolitics.
Here we must make multiples analysis of how religious expres-
sions of this civilizing paradigm converge and/or intersect with the
other existing civilizing paradigms. When asked expressly if we live a
post-religious paradigm, we can say yes, but that doesnt mean that the
religious will disappear or that it will become meaningless for millions of
148 Alejandro ORTIZ
149
people; rather, we must understand which strategies and new forms will
be adopted by this civilizing paradigm in its historical expressions to the
new existing paradigms.
The Human Civilizing Paradigm
As several authors have said, among them Luc Ferry, Jean Luc
Marion, etc., it has been the Judeo-Christian matrix the one that opened
the door for the birth of a third paradigm that we can call humanist. From
the Judeo-Christian civilizing religious paradigm, the human being will
no longer be a servile object to the wishes of gods, but a counterpart
with which it will negotiate, and alliances will be made. It will no longer
start from of the infinite debt to the gods, but from the human freedom
to accept the sacred berith.
From this humanist part will prevail a great theological dose but
little by little, it will turn into philosophy and the great Renaissance,
Humanists and Modern movements will be built where the human being
is once again the center of human societies. This dynamics will be slower
because of its struggle against the dominant civilizing paradigm, but it
will not be until the economic activity gives it a boost and starts impos-
ing socially.
Along with the birth and imposition of this civilizing paradigm as
dominant, the religious will find three states or forms. We can summarize
it with three words: Displacement, Substitution and Consent. The human-
istic modernity has tried from its global empowerment to displace the
religious and turn to be center itself, meaning and horizon of new human
communities. It has tried to transform the religious dynamics in private
acts. It has tried to replace the justifications that religious institutes use
to give by producing a state that legitimates and gives social order to
modern communities. It is not about religious ideals but social, the ones
that will guide in a utopian way human paths. Democracy will become
the important thing. It will also do rough things such as propose its own
transcendence mediations, the famous civil religion where the flag or the
national symbols are worshiped. It will think that this paradigm will be
only a matter of time before the religious disappears, the analysts will
say more theories than observable truths, many will say that the religious
disappeared, taking the European case as a global reality, but they were
wrong: religion never left, it never came back, it is still mutating, trans-
forming, or still crusting. Today the discussion is like the modern states,
they accept and consent /tolerate the current religious forms. How far its
social acting and its political participation allow, this is the current theme
of this paradigm.
In another moment we would have to analyze from these para-
digms the experience of religious orders.
150
The Economicist Civilizing Paradigm
It is not unknown for anyone how modernity, with the industrial
and liberal dynamics, became a non humanistic modernity and quite an
economist one. And that was where the fourth paradigm was born, the
one that prevails and is the one that most damaged has caused in the
actual world. The market has become a fetish as Marx said or an idol as
it was said by the liberation theologians. Anyway, it has become the linch-
pin of current globalization. In this dominant paradigm, today, but with
death signals too, the religious still occupies a relevant place. In the first
place, we talk about a religious perspective where the same paradigm is
a religious system of transcendence, has its own temples (Wall Street) ,
its priests (the brookers), its own sacred books (Dow Jones, for example),
its prophets (presidents) and Levites (IMF, just as an example), its ethics
(to maintain the status quo as Mardones said).
On the other hand, it makes religious expressions trade themselves
and thus move away from their first and central objectives. All sacred is
for sale. The pilgrimages became touristic tours; devotions became gold
medals of John Paul II that are sold on TV or images stickers- on bags
of fries. Everything is sacred commodity. We can see the excesses in
some Pentecostal sects that mislead people with holly water from the
Jordan or with sand from the dessert where Jesus prayed. The theol-
ogy of prosperity of the televangelist is the height allowed. Camdessus,
Novak and others have tried to see sacred truths and new sacred values
in Neoliberalism itself.
The Digital Civilizing Paradigm
It is thanks to the last two paradigms that the next civilizing para-
digm emerges and consolidates: the Digital. Science, from the humanistic
civilizing paradigm has had a development that hasnt stopped. And tech-
nology, specially computers and data have became the great business and
the great new power of all new knowledge societies as Castells said, until
reaching the digital world that the current, new and elitists youth genera-
tions already enjoy. We already talk about digital natives, that is to say,
whole generations that already were born in a world where the daily life
and normal is the artificial, the cement, the touch, the immediate, the
access, the no distance, the multitask, but also superficiality, the networks
and the simulation, among other things.
We still have a long way to understand and grasp this new civiliz-
ing paradigm. There are still more critics and prejudices than reasoning
and comprehension, even though we dont intend justify ourselves. Here
the religious and transcendental is science and technology itself. David
150 Alejandro ORTIZ
151
Noble has been in charge of clarifying how science is seen as the new
god that will provide us a new world. Others more atheists verify Gods
death and postulate how machines with their artificial intelligence in the
year 2040 will become as intelligent as human beings and also as beings
as themselves.
Here we can say in a better way how the cutting-edge, progres-
sive, traditional, religious expressions have linked with this new civilizing
paradigm.
There are more questions than answers. Maybe we can close this
essay asking ourselves, in this new civilizing paradigm which ones will
be the poverties and the new exclusions and how Liberation Theology
will be able to face them?
152
Proyecto teolgico completado!
Acaba de aparecer el quinto y ltimo volumen de
Por los muchos caminos de Dios
serie de cinco volmenes colectivos organizada por la
Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana de ASETT/EATWOT
y concluida nalmente por su
Comisin Teolgica Internacional.
La primera y hasta ahora nica obra que aborda el cruzamiento entre
teologa de la liberacin y teologa del pluralismo religioso.
Los cinco volmenes son:
I. Desafos del pluralismo religioso a la teologa de la liberacin
II. Hacia una teologa latinoamericana del pluralismo religioso
III. Teologa latinoamericana pluralista de la liberacin
IV. Teologa pluralista liberadora internacional
y
V. Hacia una teologa planetaria
organizado por Jos Mara VIGIL, con la participacin de:
M. Amaladoss (India), M. Barros (Brasil), A. Brighenti (Brasil),
E.K-F. Chia (Malaysia), A. Egea (Espaa), P.F. Knitter (EEUU),
D.R. Loy (EEUU), L. Magesa (Tanzania), J. Neusner (EEUU),
I.A. Omar (EEUU), T. Okure (Nigeria), R.Panikkar (India-Espaa), P.C.
Phan (Vietnam-EEUU), A. Pieris (Sry Lanka), R. Renshaw (Canad),
J.A. Robles (Costa Rica), K.L. Seshagiri (EEUU), A.M.L. Soares (Brasil),
F. Teixeira (Brasil).
190 pginas. 75 US$.
Pedidos a: editorial@abyayala.org / www.abyayala.org
Tambin en formato digital: a la mitad de precio, por correo-e
Ms informacin: http://tiempoaxial
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tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths
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Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana de ASETT
comision.teologica.latinoamericana.org
comissao.teologica.latinoamericana.org
y Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT
internationaltheologicalcommission.org
153
A Theological Project Completed!
The fth and last volume has just been published
Along the Many Paths of GoD
a ve volume collection series, edited by the
Latin American Theological Commission of EATWOT
and nally concluded by its
International Theological Commission.
The rst and until now unique work addressing the cross-fertilization
between Theology of Liberation and Theology of Pluralism
The ve volumes are:
I. Challenges of Religious Pluralism for Liberation Theology
II. Toward a Latin American Theology of Religious Pluralism
III. Latin American Pluralist Theology of Liberation
IV. International Pluralist Liberating Theology
and the last one now also appearing in English:
V. Toward a Planetary Theology
edited by Jos Mara VIGIL vwith the collaboration of:
M. Amaladoss (India), M. Barros (Brazil), A. Brighenti (Brazil),
E.K-F. Chia (Malaysia), A. Egea (Spain), P.F. Knitter (USA),
D.R. Loy (USA), L. Magesa (Tanzania), J. Neusner (USA),
I.A. Omar (USA), T. Okure (Nigeria), R. Panikkar (India-Spain), P.C.
Phan (Vietnam-USA), A. Pieris (Sri Lanka), R. Renshaw (Canada), J.A.
Robles (Costa Rica), K.L. Seshagiri (USA),
A.M.L. Soares (Brazil), F. Teixeira (Brazil).
This fifth book is published in English by Dunamis Publishers
To order: dunamis@live.com / dunamispublishers.blogspot.com
For the Spanish edition: editorial@abyayala.org / www.abyayala.org
(sold also in digital format: at half price, by e-mail )
For further information:
tiempoaxial.org/AlongTheManyPaths
tiempoaxial.org/PorLosMuchosCaminos
tiempoaxial.org/PelosMuitosCaminhos
tiempoaxial.org/PerIMoltiCammini
Comisin Teolgica Latinoamericana de ASETT
comision.teologica.latinoamericana.org
and the International Theological Commission of EATWOT
internationaltheologicalcommission.org
154
Paradigma posreligional?
Hacia una comprensin compleja
del fenmeno religioso contemporneo
Alejandro ORTIZ
Universidad Iberoamericana de Puebla
Mxico
Intencionalidad
Quisiramos proponer, en las siguientes lneas, la idea de la exis-
tencia de paradigmas civilizatorios -que han guiado el caminar histrico
de la humanidad-, en relacin y conflicto permanente, conviviendo al
mismo tiempo, creando alianzas, intersecciones o conflictos entre ellos;
y tratar de borrar una visin de paradigmas lineales y consecuentes
donde uno va superando al anterior, y donde el paradigma superado va
desapareciendo en la historia con el tiempo, esta ltima visin moderna
progresista no ayuda a nuestro entender- a comprender la complejidad
que es la realidad actual.
Por eso creemos que el decir que vivimos o vamos hacia un para-
digma post-religioso puede ser una manera no apta, -por ser rpida y
sencilla-, de entender el mundo y el papel de lo religioso en el mundo
contemporneo. Al contrario, ubicamos varios paradigmas civilizatorios,
que si bien han surgido de manera consecuente uno despus de otro, los
paradigmas no desaparecen del todo sino que se van transformando o
ciertas expresiones de un paradigma van encontrando nuevos caminos
de expresin y de existir a partir de las relaciones y/o intersecciones con
otros paradigmas civilizatorios existentes.
Para comprender mejor estas ideas desarrollar de manera narrati-
va una visin mnima de los cinco paradigmas civilizatorio que a mi con-
sideracin ubico, si no como los nicos si como los principales. Dentro
de cada explicacin en cada uno de los paradigmas escribir cmo el
fenmeno religioso vive y se desarrolla.
155
Primeras ideas
En la historia de la humanidad podemos sealar con cierta facilidad
cinco paradigmas civilizatorios que conviven mutuamente en la actualidad
creando un sinfn de intersecciones, alianzas, contradicciones, etc., que a
su vez crean lo que denominamos realidad. Los zapatistas al mencionar
su utopa de crear un mundo donde quepan muchos mundos suponen
de base esta idea: existen en convivencia y en conflicto mltiples pocas
en la actualidad. Que una visin epocal dominante y excluyente crea
que su perspectiva sea la mejor y trate de dominar a las otras es parte del
anlisis zapatista, pero lo que nos interesa en este momento es la idea
de la existencia de varias pocas convergiendo en un mismo tiempo y
espacio. Otra manera de decir lo mismo puede ser: que en las sociedades
actuales, as como en los ncleos familiares contemporneos, conviven al
mismo tiempo y muchas veces en el mismo lugar tres maneras diferentes
de ver el mundo: la perspectiva premoderna, moderna y postmoderna,
cada una con sus ventajas y valores, as como con sus contradicciones y
negatividades. Las familias se vuelven campos de batallas cuando el di-
logo y la negociacin no prevalecen. As mismo podemos hablar de otras
instituciones sociales.
Llamamos paradigma civilizatorio a esos sistemas colectivos que
rigen dominantemente- a las comunidades humanas en un tiempo y
espacio determinados, y que desde sus valores centrales construyen sub-
sistemas socio-culturales y econmico-polticos que les permiten crear
convivialidad, culturas y sociabilidad. Se crean, entonces desde estos
paradigmas, civilizaciones humanas que podrn sobrevivir con los aos
en la medida que se van ajustando, a veces de modo muy tenso, con los
nuevos paradigmas que van surgiendo y que van siendo los dominantes.
Parafraseando a Corb, estos paradigmas civilizatorios son las grandes
vasijas donde se moldean de determinadas maneras y formas las civili-
zaciones en cada poca.
A continuacin describiremos brevemente cada paradigma civiliza-
torio y sealaremos tambin brevemente cmo las religiones van jugando
un rol importante en cada uno de ellos.
El paradigma civilizatorio naturalista
El primer paradigma civilizatorio lo podemos llamar naturalista. En
este paradigma es el contexto fsico que envuelve a las comunidades el
eje rector. Es la naturaleza a la que se dota de personalidad y con la cual
hay que dialogar para que sea benvola con las comunidades humanas.
Pronto la naturaleza ser nuestra madre, la Gaia segn los griegos, la
Pachamama segn los latinoamericanos.
Hacia una comprensin compleja del pensamiento religioso contemporneo 155
156
Si bien es cierto que aqu las prcticas religiosas son importantes,
el eje no son los dioses sino la naturaleza. Los dioses nos ayudaran en
primer momento a comprender los secretos de la naturaleza, los ritmos
de los destinos cclicos que invariablemente y eternamente suceden
cada determinado tiempo. Comprenderla hasta dominarla ser una largo
dilogo y drama que actuarn los humanos con la naturaleza con impor-
tantes consecuencias. Al principio, entonces, ser la tierra, los cielos, las
piedras, las flores, los animales, los grandes smbolos culturales a partir
de los cuales las comunidades irn construyendo sus propuestas sociales
y culturales. Como dice Corb, ser la caza, la recoleccin y la agricultura
las actividades econmicas que les darn sentido mayoritariamente a las
comunidades de entonces.
Sin embargo el conocimiento de la naturaleza, el aprender de sus
secretos, de sus movimientos, de sus ciclos, de sus etapas ser las formas
epistemolgicas con las cuales se explicara el mundo y el papel del ser
humano en l. Lo detectamos en varios mitos y ritos. Los chamanes, los
hombres sabios y las mujeres sabias aprendern de la naturaleza, bailarn
sus ritmos, curarn, -desde los olores secretos y prohibidos menos para
ellos-, a las comunidades enfermas. Ellos y ellas guiarn a las comunida-
des para no enojar las fuerzas naturales, -que despus se llamarn dioses-
y en cambio nos ensearn a saber agradecerles lo que hacen para que
las comunidades puedan vivir.
Entonces es claro comprender que el ser humano se vuelve un
sirviente, un cuidador, un administrador, un mayordomo de la tierra.
Como dice el mito del Gnesis, seremos hechos de maz como lo dice el
mito maya Popol vuh, o como dice otro mito del Gnesis, seremos tierra
viviente. En estos momentos no existir el cuerpo y alma griegos, sino
el tonal y nahual latinoamericanos. El tonal ser ese espritu de un animal
que nos cuidara en toda nuestra vida. El secreto mayor ser conocer cul
es nuestro propio tonal, y dominarlo hasta confundirnos con l. Cuando
logramos esto seremos nahuales. Los grandes ritos sociales y de inicia-
cin tendrn que ver con el dominio en la caza de animales mgicos.
Podemos observar que los pueblos indgenas, afroamericanos,
africanos y algunos rabes todava tienen como matriz civilizatoria este
paradigma. Lo van adecuando, tensionando y enfrentando a los nuevos
paradigmas dominantes existentes. Aunque pareciera ser el paradigma
ms dbil, en la actualidad podemos decir que todos los dems para-
digmas civilizatorios nacieron de ste y todos tienen algo de l. Algunos
dicen que este paradigma civilizatorio ha logrado sobrevivir en las nuevas
expresiones del new age, donde lo natural (en contra de lo artificial), lo
verde, lo ecolgico se vuelve una nueva manera de vivir este paradigma
civilizatorio.
156 Alejandro ORTIZ
157
En este primer paradigma naturalista las formas religiosas todava
se expresan en lo que Otto llamaba lo tremendum. Lo religioso es parte
de algo mayor, lo religioso crea ritos menores que imitan los ciclos mayo-
res de la naturaleza. Tal vez es la etapa de lo que se llama lo pre-religioso
por varios estudiosos del fenmeno religioso. Por ejemplo, antes de que
laspascua se volviera el gran rito religioso judo y despus cristiano,
antes era una comida que reflejaba el respeto y el acercamiento sagrado
al contexto del desierto; despus se volver desde la experiencia sagrada
de los xodos en un rito de identidad religiosa hasta volver en uno de los
grandes ritos religiosos de los judos.
Hoy sigue existiendo este paradigma y tal vez una forma bastante
profunda y verdadera de expresarse hoy sea a travs de las teologas
indias y afros.
El paradigma civilizatorio religioso
Despus, desde este paradigma y tambin desde el desarrollo
de la agricultura y la creacin de los sistemas de riego as como de la
posterior ganadera, las comunidades irn ubicando a la religin como
paradigma civilizatorio en s misma, ya no servir para mediar entre las
fuerzas naturales y sus espritus y los humanos, sino ms bien se volver
fin en s misma y desde ella se fundamentar, justificar y se ordenar el
mundo existente. Sern ya los dioses locales o dominantes los que dirijan
los rumbos humanos y no las fuerzas csmicas.
La religin o religiones- se volver el segundo paradigma civili-
zatorio. Desde ella se construirn imperios, ciudades, civilizaciones. Sera
una lucha de dioses donde se irn posicionando slo los ms dominan-
tes. Hasta llegar a los monotesmos, donde slo cabe un dios: el propio.
Las iglesias, comunidades religiosas, se volvern de primera importancia,
tanto o ms que los propios reyes. Los libros sagrados, los templos y los
sacerdotes, las segundas trinidades, segn Pannikar, sern las mediacio-
nes mediante las cuales las comunidades encontrarn rumbo y direccin
en sus vidas.
Este paradigma civilizatorio como el anterior contina hasta la
fecha. La gente sigue siendo religiosa aunque ya no tan institucio-
nalmente. La participacin en las iglesias disminuye pero la bsqueda
religiosa crece. No es cuestin solo de viejitos sino de aquellas grandes
comunidades agrarias que emigran hacia las ciudades llevando consigo
sus creencias religiosas. Por poner un ejemplo: las comunidades migran-
tes mexicanas han impuesto a las comunidades anglosajonas norteameri-
canas sus creencias guadalupanas.
Podemos decir brevemente que el paradigma civilizatorio religioso
sigue existiendo y seguir por mucho aos. Sin embargo este paradigma
158
no termina de explicar toda la realidad religiosa en el mundo. Debemos
decir que son las instituciones religiosas tradicionales de este paradigma
las que son las dominantes y las que juegan polticamente en la configu-
racin de la globalizacin actual. El judasmo y sus distintos grupos pol-
ticos mundiales, el catolicismo romano y sus expresiones conservadoras
como el opus dei- o sus vertientes ms progresistas como las teologas de
la liberacin en Amrica latina, los protestantismos histricos sobre todo
en Inglaterra y Estados Unidos, el islam y sus formas chitas y sunitas en
los pases rabes, el taosmo, el confucianismo, el budismo y sus distintas
expresiones, explican todos ellos en el mundo sin olvidar las miles de
formas religiosas que estructuran la realidad hind- la geopoltica actual.
Aqu debemos hacer mltiples anlisis de cmo expresiones reli-
giosas de este paradigma civilizatorio convergen y/o interseccionan con
los otros paradigmas civilizatorios existentes. Ante la pregunta expresa, si
vivimos un paradigma pos-religioso, podemos decir que s, pero eso no
significa que lo religioso desaparezca, ni deje de tener sentido para millo-
nes de personas; ms bien debemos entender qu estrategias y nuevas
formas adopta este paradigma civilizatorio en sus expresiones histricas
ante los nuevos paradigmas existentes
El paradigma civilizatorio humanista
Como lo han dicho varios autores, entre ellos Luc Ferry, Jean Luc
Marion, etc., ha sido la matriz judeocristiana la que abri la puerta para
que naciera un tercer paradigma que podemos llamar humanista. Desde
el paradigma civilizatorio religioso judeocristiano, el ser humano ya no
ser ms un objeto servil a los deseos de los dioses ,sino una contraparte
con la cual se negociara, se harn alianzas. Ya no se parte de la deuda
infinita hacia los dioses, sino de la libertad humana para aceptar la beri-
th sagrada.
Esta parte humanista prevalecer una gran dosis teolgica, pero
poco a poco se ir volviendo filosofa y se irn construyendo los grandes
movimientos renacentistas, humanistas y modernos donde el ser humano
vuelve a ser el centro de las sociedades humanas. Esta dinmica ser ms
lenta por su lucha contra el paradigma civilizatorio religioso dominante,
pero ser hasta que la actividad econmica le d un fuerte impulso y se
vaya imponiendo socialmente.
Con el nacimiento e imposicin de este paradigma civilizatorio
como dominante lo religioso se encontrar en tres estadios o formas.
Podemos resumirlo con tres palabras: Desplazamiento, Sustitucin y
Consentimiento. La modernidad humanista ha tratado desde su empode-
ramiento global de desplazar a lo religioso y volverse ella misma centro,
sentido y horizonte de las nuevas comunidades humanas. Ha tratado de
158 Alejandro ORTIZ
159
transformar la dinmica religiosa en actos privados. Ha tratado de susti-
tuir las legitimaciones que daban las instituciones religiosas produciendo
un estado que legtima y da orden social a las comunidades modernas.
Ya no se trata de ideales religiosos sino sociales, los que guiaran utpi-
camente los caminos humanos. La democracia se volver lo importante.
Tambin har cosas burdas como proponer sus propias mediaciones de
trascendencia, la famosa religin civil donde se rinde culto a la bandera
o a los smbolos patrios. Pensar este paradigma que ser slo cuestin
de tiempo para que lo religioso desaparezca; los propios analistas dirn
ms teoras que verdades observables; muchos dirn que lo religioso des-
apareci, tomando el caso europeo como realidad global, pero se equi-
vocaron: la religin nunca se fue, nunca retorn, sigue mutndose, sigue
transformndose o sigue hacindose costra. Hoy la discusin es como
los estados modernos aceptan y consienten/toleran las formas religiosas
actuales. Hasta dnde permiten su actuacin social y su participacin
poltica: ste es el tema actual desde este paradigma.
En otro momento tendramos que analizar desde estos paradigmas
la vivencia de las rdenes religiosas
El paradigma civilizatorio economicista
Para nadie es desconocido cmo la modernidad, con las dinmi-
cas industriales y liberales, se fue convirtiendo en una modernidad nada
humanista y s mucho economicista. Y ah naci el cuarto paradigma que
prevalece y es el que mayor dao nos ha hecho en el mundo actual. El
mercado se ha vuelto un fetiche como dira Marx, o un dolo, como dije-
ron los telogos de la liberacin. Como sea, se ha vuelto el eje rector de la
globalizacin actual. En este paradigma dominante hoy, pero con seales
de muerte tambin, lo religioso sigue ocupando un lugar relevante. En
primer lugar hablamos de una perspectiva religiosa donde el mismo para-
digma es un sistema religioso de trascendencia, tiene sus templos (Wall
street), sus sacerdotes (los agentes de la bolsa), sus libros sagrados (dow
jones por ejemplo) sus profetas (presidentes) y levitas (FMI, por poner un
ejemplo) su tica (la de mantener el status quo como deca Mardones).
Por otro hace que las expresiones religiosas se mercantilicen y
con ello se alejen de sus objetivos primeros y centrales. Se vende todo lo
sagrado. Las peregrinaciones se volvieron tours tursticos, las devociones
se volvieron medallas de oro de Juan Pablo II que se venden por televi-
sin o imgenesstickers en bolsitas de papas fritas. Todo es mercanca
sagrada. Los excesos podemos verlos en algunas sectas pentecostales
que engaan a la gente con agua bendita del Jordn o arena del desierto
donde or Jess. La teologa de la prosperidad de los telepredicadores
evanglicos es el colmo permitido. Camdessus, Novak y otros han tratado
160
de ver en el mismo neoliberalismo verdades sagradas y nuevos valores
sagrados.
El paradigma civilizatorio digital
Es gracias a los dos ltimos paradigmas que va surgiendo y se
van consolidando como el prximo paradigma civilizatorio dominante el
Digital. La ciencia desde el paradigma civilizatorio humanista ha tenido
un desarrollo que no ha parado. Y la tecnologa, sobre todo la computa-
cional e informtica, ha resultado el gran negocio y el gran nuevo poder
de las nuevas sociedades de conocimiento como dira Castells, hasta lle-
gar al mundo digital que disfrutan ya las nuevas y elitistas generaciones
juveniles actuales. Se habla ya de nativos digitales es decir de generacio-
nes enteras que ya nacieron en un mundo donde lo cotidiano y normal es
lo artificial, el cemento, lo touch, lo inmediato, el acceso, la no distancia,
las multitareas, pero tambin la superficialidad, las redes y la simulacin,
entre otros elementos.
Nos falta mucho entender y comprender este nuevo paradigma
civilizatorio. Todava hay ms criticas y prejuicios que razonamientos y
comprensiones, aunque no pretendemos justificaciones. Aqu lo religioso
y trascendental es la ciencia y la tecnologa en s misma. David Noble
se ha encargado de aclararnos cmo la ciencia se ve ya como el nuevo
dios que nos facilitar un nuevo mundo. Otros ms ateos verifican la
muerte de Dios y postulan cmo las maquinas con inteligencia artificial
en el ao 2040 sern tan inteligentes como los seres humanos y tambin
tan sintientes como ellos.
Aqu podemos decir mejor cmo las expresiones religiosas tradi-
cionales, progresistas, de vanguardia se han relacionado con este nuevo
paradigma civilizatorio.
Hay ms preguntas que respuestas. Tal vez podemos cerrar este
escrito preguntndonos: en este nuevo paradigma civilizatorio, cules
sern las pobrezas y las nuevas exclusiones, y de qu manera la teologa
de la liberacin podr enfrentarlas?
160 Alejandro ORTIZ
161
From Theism to Post-Theism:
A Change in Religious Culture
Juan Diego ORTIZ
Universidad de Guadalajara, Mxico.
Resumen
El presente artculo aborda algunos cambios que se perciben en
la cultura religiosa de la poblacin, particularmente entre los jvenes.
El anlisis terico se hace a partir de los postulados sobre tesmo y pos-
tesmo de John Shelby Spong, obispo cristiano perteneciente a la iglesia
anglicana estadounidense, quien ha estudiado las transformaciones en el
sistema de creencias religiosas. El estudio tiene como base emprica una
encuesta que se aplic a 100 jvenes estudiantes que habitan en la zona
metropolitana de Guadalajara, y que muestra ciertas tendencias en la
manera de comprender la fe cristiana. El artculo muestra que hay trans-
formaciones en la cultura religiosa y que por lo mismo es pertinente darle
seguimiento a este fenmeno. El trabajo no se sita en el campo de la
increencia religiosa, sino en saber en qu creen y cmo creen los jvenes
que se sienten pertenecientes al catolicismo. Es decir, se trata de compren-
der si efectivamente se est dando un proceso de transicin en las formas
testas de creer, hacia un postesmo que rebasa el culto tradicional y la
doctrina clsica del cristianismo catlico.
Palabras clave: Tesmo, postesmo, catolicismo, cultura religiosa, jvenes
Summary
This article discusses some changes that are perceived in the reli-
gious culture of the population, particularly among young people. The
theoretical analysis is based on the tenets of theism and postesmo John
Shelby Spong, Bishop Christian belonging to the U.S. Anglican church,
who has studied the changes in the system of religious beliefs. The empiri-
cal study is based on a survey applied to 100 young students living in the
metropolitan area of Guadalajara, which shows certain tendencies in the
162
way of understanding the Christian faith in light of our rapidly changing
times. The paper shows the changes in religious culture and therefore it is
appropriate to follow up on this phenomenon. The work is not situated in
the field of religious unbelief, but in knowing what they believe and how
they think young people feel belonging to Catholicism. That is, trying to
understand if indeed it is making a transition in forms of theistic belief,
to a cult postesmo exceeding the traditional and the classical doctrine of
Catholic Christianity.
Keywords: Theism, postesmo, Catholicism, religious culture, youth.
Introduction
In these times of globalization and cultural changes, its said that
religions and their churches have entered a deep crisis, particularly in
Europe. Opinions and analyses regarding Latin America are diverse, and
not all of them come to conclude that there is a crisis in religions; they
accept, at most, that the crisis is focused in the churches and their hier-
archies, but that it doesnt show itself in peoples spirituality. In any case,
the subject has become a topic of interest for those who study religious
phenomena because it reaches the vast majority of the population. From
different angles, the impacts of cultural change withheld over the world
are being researched, and they affect religions.
Aside from the different conclusions, the irrefutable fact is that
the youngest layer of society shows a gradual distancing from religious
systems and churches, though this has its differences according to the
region thats being analyzed. If we choose Europe and Latin America
as a case, we will find contrasts and diverse rhythms in the process of
cultural change, needless to say that this applies too to the Middle East,
central Asia or Africa. Nevertheless, in spite of the contrasts and different
rhythms, a change in religious culture is happening among young people,
and it is there where bigger efforts in research should be layed.
To analyze this topic, people draw from John Shelby Spongs ideas
on post-theism in the belief system, and how this phenomenon is gen-
erating transformations in the religious field, especially in the Christian
one. Spongs theory is accompanied by information from a survey that
was applied among young people in Guadalajara, Mexico, which shows
empirical evidence about religious cultural change. Results of the survey
show certain trends, for it is only the opinion of 100 youth between 18
and 30 years old with a strong urban identity, so one cannot say absolute
truths about what goes on in the highly populated and industrial zone
of the state of Jalisco. With all this, the present article has a theoretical
162 Juan Diego ORTIZ
163
basis and field information with which its attempted to analyze religiosity
among youths in aims to understand it.
Spong and theism
Its appropriate to start this article explaining briefly who Spong is,
for, according to some theologians, he is the author with the most con-
viction and bravery among those proposing the idea of post-theism, and
who more insistently calls for a post-theist reading of Christianism. Spong
is a retired bishop from the Christian Episcopal Church, the American
version of the Anglican Church. He was born in North Carolina, United
States, and has written over 10 books, one of which is A New Christianity
for a New World: Why traditional faith is dying and how a new faith is
being born, from where the following lines are drawn. Its a non ortho-
dox writer who has been questioning the literal truths of the Bible, and
has consequently walked many roads to understand, from other points
of view, the deep contents and messages of Christianity. In the preface of
Spongs book (2011), the author writes:
In that Christianity versed to the future I have looked to avoid the
pseudo-assurance offered by traditional Christianity. The God of eternal
arms, ready to help us when we fall (cf. Dt 33,27), and the Jesus we call
the Eternal Rock, to whom well hold on eternally, both produce I
think so now immature people, who need the cares of a supernatural,
paternal deity.
As one can tell, Spong is a theologist in search of new paradigms to
understand Christianity. Its an author whos unsatisfied by the traditional
formulas and the truths of that orthodox, doctrinal Christianity, and he
calls to build one radically reformulated, and able to survive in this dar-
ing new world. This retired bishop has wanted and needed to dialogue
with the academic world, so he can be read from two sides: the academic
one and the theological one, giving a more interesting and argued pos-
ture about religion and the times were living in. His 45 years of career
inside a church and his presence in several American universities have
given him an undisputable intellectual strength. As a Christian, Spong
states that a rereading of Christianity is necessary; he speaks of a reform
in Christianity and its church, but of a radical, deeply theological reform,
proclaiming that the way in which traditional christianism was formulated
has lost credibility.
It is exactly among young people that religions, including
Christianity, but especially the churches, seem to lack credibility, and
thus there is a gap that distances many of them from religious belief
and belonging to the church. If they still believe in any religion they do
it in ways that differ from the traditional schemes; that is why Spongs
From Theism to Post-Theism: A Change in Religius Culture 163
164
approaches are pertinent: because they deal with reinterpreting Christian
faith under the light of these days, an issue that many find outrageous,
especially because theyre made from a post-theist posture, which may
not be new but has been enriched by challenging approaches that call
for deep reflection.
Having the above information about our author as a reference, let
us now turn to the matter of theism, but before we get into what Spong
says, its important to review the definition that Roystons Diccionario de
religiones (Dictionary of religions) has about this concept:
Theism "(from gr. Theos," God "). Etymologically, belief in the
existence of a God, but usually "theist" applies to someone who believes
in a personal God, transcendent and as interested in men as to make
Revelation to them. The "deist" (etymologically the same) believes, how-
ever, in a Divinity that after creating the universe, has withdrawn com-
pletely and never intervenes in human affairs (p.436).
This concept of theism tells us that there is a belief about a god
who intervenes directly in human lives, has been revealed, is transcen-
dent and is therefore located outside this world, that is, there is a divinity
in the realm of the extraterrestrial, in heaven, in the superhuman, in the
supernatural. In the meantime, deism believes in a god who has created
the world but doesnt intervene in human business. Between theism and
deism there is a wide debate, one of the polemic issues being whether
God is an interventionist or not in the carrying of human life in the world.
Getting into Spongs ideas about theism, he tells us that Christian
education has taught us the image of a theistic God, that is, a transcen-
dent God who does intervene in human history but with supernatural
powers, who lives outside this world and regularly invades it to fulfill
divine will (ibid p. 38), but after reviewing his intervention, it turns out
that many divine acts could be considered in modern times, immoral,
according to our author. Take for example the plagues used to punish
Egyptians and the massive downing of hundreds of them in the Red Sea
to free Gods chosen people from Egyptian rule. Beholding this, Spong
asks himself, is this the work of a moral God? Are these actions not the
reflection of a God that the Egyptians could never adore?
Another example of the theist God who intervenes with super-
natural power, in actions that turn out to be incomprehensible to actual
human thought, is the sacrifice of Jesus before the cross, which until
these days means that God gave his son to be tortured and murdered in
payment for our sins. And also how that blood washes the sins of the
world to be resurrected later as a sign of triumph. Here, Spong ponders
if this God who needs a bloody human sacrifice is worthy of adoration
nowadays, when we become fully conscious of this offensive idea.
165
Following the line of a theistic God our author says that religious
beliefs are weakening, and sets other examples: when people say today
that the age of miracles has passed, it doesnt mean that miracles no
longer happen, but that they never happened at all, because the age
when we perceived some events as miraculous is over (ibid p. 38). What
Spong wants to show is that scientific knowledge has provided a better
understanding of the universe and life in the Earth, which means we now
understand certain phenomena not as miracles of God, but as the result
of workings of nature or of human actions though knowledge.
We used to see God as the prime mover in areas of health and sick-
ness. We thought that illness was a reflection of divine punishment and
health of its blessing. But then we discovered germs and viruses, and we
developed antibiotics, surgical procedures and things like chemotherapy.
With this new knowledge we started to realize that antibiotics, surgeries
and chemotherapy work on sinners as well as on saints. Thus, the realm
of disease as an area of operation of God grew smaller and medicine
made its contribution to the modern development of secularization.
Formerly, we saw God as the cause of climate and we interpreted
floods, droughts, hurricanes and storms as expressions of divine will.
Then we discovered meteorology, weather fronts, high and low pres-
sure systems, the winds of El Nio and la Nia, the climatic effects of
tides and so many other facts that the idea of a supernatural being who
manipulated the weather for moral reasons became untenable.
We believed that if God guided our country in the battle we would
beat the enemy, or if our faithfulness to this God decayed, he would make
us try his divine wrath with defeat But with the arrival of modern
wars, it seems that God is always on the side of the ones who have the
strongest weapons (p. 39).
Spong states that with the previous examples can prove that God,
understood theistically, is no longer functional in our belief system. He
claims that the God of theism is dying and, therefore, religious beliefs are
changing even if many people try to hold on to that God with supernatu-
ral powers who rules Earth and human life from the outside.
In another set of examples, Spong notes that there are emotional
data that suggest that the role of security provider, attributed to the theist
God in the past, no longer work. He points there are many human behav-
iors that account for the disappearance of this idea of a protecting and
controlling God. Today, many people in the world find self-assurance and
control for their fears and hysterias in addictions and use of tranquil-
izers, in the use of violence, in suicide, in racism, even in not complying
with certain commandments of Christian churches, such as not divorc-
ing, not using contraceptives, not having homosexual practices, etcetera,
behaviors that, according to Spong, are emotional proofs of the death
166
of the theist God, that is, that God who controlled it all and gave assur-
ance, so there is no longer a supernatural almighty God who intervenes
to solve every personal situation and provide the necessary certainties
for existence.
These quests for assurance are no longer focused on divine inter-
vention, but in the most varied human behaviors. This fix-it-all God is
extinguishing and more so in the conscience of youths, who are finding
assurance in other ways or, put in a different manner, are solving their
insecurities in ways that might not be the most appropriate. Their needs
to believe in a transcendent being or to fulfill spirituality are parts of
a renewed religious culture that is far from the schemes of traditional
Christianity.
In his book A New Christianity for a New World, which we have
been referring to, Spong points that the revolution of knowledge and the
emerging human maturity have conspired to reduce the credibility the old
theist molds. Far from viewing this as a problem, our author comments
that the weakening of theism shouldnt represent something frightful
and evil, but should be considered as a step towards maturity, towards a
human coming of age through which we can stop being those children
relating to and depending on a heavenly father.
Spong claims that this maturity can be the starting point to discover
a new way to understand God, that is to say it represents a transit where
the old myth of theism quickly loses its power to create a new myth,
which is in progress and will be the result of the ways of the new era that
global society is living. The construction of a new myth is not necessarily
held outside the sacred scriptures of Christianity, but in a rereading of
them, where there are, according to Spong, important clues to understand
in other ways the existence of God, and the relationship that a human
being can hold with that Foundation and Source of all beings. Following
the crisis of theism, he says no religion can give assurance to a person,
and that when such assurance is looked for though personal religions,
what people find are usually illusions. He explains, on the other hand,
that every true religiosity lets embrace life with all its radical uncertainty
and live it with courage.
This sends us back to the youths, who dont normally look to any
god to sort out their problems. Young people dont go to church seeking
for assurance, they manage without religion and that doesnt mean that
they are not spiritual or they dont have religious beliefs. The point is they
assume that relationship with the divine in a different way. The following
are the results of a survey where some changes in young peoples reli-
gious culture can be appraised, changes that may be related with Spongs
post-theism. As it was stated in the beginning, its a first explanatory
167
study to detect trends, so only initial interpretations about the religious
phenomenon are presented.
God as universal energy
The referred survey was answered by 100 youths living in the met-
ropolitan area of Guadalajara, that is, they are inhabitants of the munici-
palities of Zapopan, Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Tonal and Tlajomulco.
Their ages range from 18 to 30, theyre students and some of them
recently finished college. Nevertheless, its necessary to mention that the
survey was also applied to another 100 people whose ages range from
31 to 80. This means the sample harvests the opinion of 200 believ-
ers about how they view some of the religious truths of Christianity,
and its objective is to recognize the possible cultural or epistemological
changes happening to their own religion. For the purposes of this piece
and for reasons of space, only the results of the hundred surveys applied
individually to young people in different parts of the city are discussed
and analyzed. The survey contains 17 items, but only the results of five
of them are presented because its impossible to talk about all of them
in this piece. Nonetheless, they are the most representative ones of the
topic of this essay.
Lets start with one of the answers that most catches attention in
the field research, which is the one for the question, Who is God? Its
peculiarly related to the theism Spong questions. As one can tell, deduc-
tions can be made saying a cultural religious change is happening among
youths, and its located in a post-theist context.
Who is God?
The Creator 24%
A punishing father 0%
A loving father 18%
A universal energy 46%
I don't know 12%
Total 100%
Most of the answers of the surveyed youth (46%) identify God as a
universal energy, and another thing that catches attention is that nobody
identifies God as a punishing father, but as a loving father (18%). The
answers go against what the church traditionally teaches, for they have
historically promoted the idea of a theist God, namely an almighty God
who should be feared, who punishes and rewards depending on peoples
behavior. Even the idea of a creator God has been replaced by the idea
that God is universal energy present everywhere. Additionally, the sample
shows that its not a personal God located outside human reality, but a
168
universal energy pervading all around. This can be inferred from the
answers to the next question of the survey.
The question was, Where is God? Participants answered as follows:
Where is God?
In Heaven 16%
In this world's life 60%
Nowhere 10%
I don't know 14%
Total 100%
Again, the most extended answer does not match the idea of a the-
ist God located in the supernatural, outside the human realm, in heaven.
Instead, participants believe in a God located in life in this world (60%),
and therefore its not a distant unreachable God, so these answers too add
up to the idea that we are in the middle of a process of change in reli-
gious culture, and there are signs of a rereading of theological teachings.
Moreover, the following answers also reveal that something is hap-
pening in the religious education of young people. The question was,
How do you feel closer to God? The results are:
How do you feel closer to God?
Attending mass 13%
Reading the Bible 1%
Praying 23%
Being loving to the others 63%
Total 100%
The option about feeling closer to God by being loving to others
is the one that convinced the most participants in the survey (63%). The
results reach religious rituality, because according to the sample, now its
more important to focus religiosity around the relationship with others
and not attending to mass (13%), reading the Bible (1%) or praying (23%).
This appraisal puts the belief in God in a concrete and human realm, in
the field of the immediate and everyday, in the proximity with the other
one, setting aside the church as an intermediary to reach the divine. This
also represents, in some way, a transformation in the belief system that
breaks with the tradition of emphasizing the rituality of attending mass,
group readings of the Bible or learning and repeating prayers to feel the
transcendent. Nowadays the choice is to practice love unto others, which
has certainly been a substantial part of the deep message of Christianity,
but that was slowly replaced by the strong presence of the church and
its role as a filter to reach God.
169
At this point, its important to go back to the post-theist ideas of
Spong, who explains his definitions of a non-theist God. This Anglican
bishops first definition is that this non-theist God is the supreme source
of life. One adores this God by living fully and sharing deeply. In his
second definition, he establishes God is the primordial source of love,
and the way to worship this God is to love abundantly, distributing love
frivolously and giving love without thinking about the price. Finally, he
defines God as the Being, as the reality that underlies everything. To wor-
ship this God, one has to be willing to risk it all, forsaking ones defenses
and self-imposed social constructions of assurance and security.
With all the above, Spong means the non-theist God is not a super-
natural being who helps the unsure and troubled, but a presence beyond
the image of external divinity. This presence resembles the universal
energy the surveyed have chosen to define God, a God that belongs to
this world, a God that is present in every act of human love. A god that
doesnt punish and from whom we dont have to expect certainties, but
that doesnt demand any praise either, as the church boasts.
Back to the survey with youths, another very interesting question
deals with religious cultural change, but its answers are even more inter-
esting. Can you believe in God without religions? Here are the results:
Can you believe in God without religions?
Yes 77%
No 11%
I don' know 12%
Total 100%
As one can see, there is an overwhelming majority (77%) thats
convinced that one can believe in God without necessarily belonging to
a religion and church, while a very small part of the surveyed (11%) con-
siders one cant believe in God without a religion. Again, theres useful
information to recognize the changes in religious culture. That 77% is not
minor data, and it points that young people hold their beliefs in a frame
of freedom beyond the limits of religions. These are beliefs that ques-
tion the authority of the churches and their doctrines, and this supposes
breaking with the catholic and Christian molds that hold access to the
divine is only possible through rites, tradition and the clergy. This little
sample could represent what some call the movement toward a post-reli-
gious paradigm, where religions and their churches are no longer needed
to live human religiosity and spirituality, which constitutes a relevant
cultural change. Robles (2001) says that todays man rejects traditional
religion, the religion of beliefs, because it is dogmatic, heteronomous
and imposed. That is probably why young people feel the autonomy and
170
freedom of answering that it is possible to believe in God without the
impositions and orthodoxies of religious institutions.
The fifth and last question of the exposed survey asks: How
attached do you feel to your church? Agreed that all those who answered
were catholic, the answers were as follows:
How attached do you feel to your church?
A lot 12%
More or less 29%
A little 20%
Not at all 39%
Total 100%
Its evident that the majority of the participants dont have a feeling
of belonging to their church (39%), namely the catholic one, but aside
from which one it is, there is a gap and a detachment from the traditional
forms of undertaking religiosity. Only 12% of the youths feel very close
to their church. This fact shows a crisis in the churchs ability to summon
and, therefore, in authority and legitimacy of the ecclesial institution,
but also a lack of need to feel part of a space and religion that provides
assurance and identity in collective imaginary. Thus, analyzing the results
of the five questions, its clear that there is not only a shift towards post-
theism in beliefs regarding God, but also a deepening crisis in the church,
and together they impact the religious culture of youth.
Roger Lenaers (2008) explains that thoughts and convictions are
everyday more being determined by occidental scientific thought, and it
is precisely what keeps conditioning us and has originated the shift from
theism to post-theism, and precisely that occidental knowledge society
will be the one to give birth to new ways of understanding and new
meanings to faith. Both knowledge and peoples autonomy are shaping
new ways to undertake religion, and this has come into contradiction
with the heteronomous axiom of Christian catholic doctrine. As young
people know more, assume their freedom and their autonomy of thought,
they reconfigure their beliefs and its no longer easy to transmit myths
and doctrines, because societies are not static and ignorant anymore.
Detraditionalization is in progress, and accelerated cultural change is
part of the new reality. As Vigil (2006) states, new generations grow in
an environment where irrefutable truths can lo longer be taught. The
cultural structure where they are growing asks them to demand support
for traditions (religion included) that are evidently human constructions.
Lenaers doesnt state the start of religions disappearance in new
times, as Spong doesnt either, but they both behold the beginning of
transformations in religions, and consider that from their current crisis,
171
sooner or later new interpretations, a renewed mythology and a resig-
nification in faith will arise, to live a new Christianity to match global
times. Lenaers says the modern believer is outgrowing the old mythical
thought because he wants to find the richness that underlies that mythi-
cal language, to make it accessible to the 21st century. Its perharps like
the surveyed youth expressed: they question the great myths but they
feel the need to reinterpret and undertake autonomously their religious
belief systems. They want to continue being believers, but not in the old
fashioned way, they want to be modern believers even if this poses a
threat to traditional clergy.
From a more radical point of view there is also a sector of young
people who go beyond their questionings and dont feel attached to any
type of religion or church, locating themselves in unbelievance. That is
why youth and religious cultural change has to be the source of varied
researches to gain a deeper understanding of the consequences and paths
of this phenomenon.
Conclusion
In these times of accelerated scientific, technological and cultural
changes, the way the world is understood is shifting, and the ways in
which we understand and undertake religiousness are changing too. It
can be said that the transformations that are happening in the 21st cen-
tury and that affect religions are, to a certain point, natural, matching
the development of societies, especially in the western world. The shift
from theism to post-theism, post-religionals approaches that propose the
possibility of believing without a religion, the growing acceptation of
religious pluralism, the massive conversion from one religion to another,
the apparition of new churches, secularization, unbelief and the quest for
spiritual alternatives are nothing but manifestations of a new stage, a new
axial time, as some theologists and philosophers may say, from which
religions will emerge transformed, in the best scenario.
Its important to conclude saying that nobody has certainty as to
what road religions will take, and even Spong is honest by saying that
with the passing of theist myths new myths havent arisen with new ways
to understand God. Only changes are noticeable, deep transformations,
but nothing is set and nobody can define the road religions and spiritual-
ity will take. There is just one certainty left: God is a mystery and nobody
has the absolute truth for his comprehension. Besides, there is another
fundamental fact pointed by theologists and academics: God cannot be
understood by reason, but experience is determinant, and this turns
things even more complex, because the experience of God is personal, it
belongs to each believer, and this narrows down the possibilities of aca-
172
demic analysis regarding the transcendent and the divine. Nevertheless,
this doesnt mean reason has to stop dialoguing with faith. On the con-
trary, it means the debate has to go deeper, learning to be tolerant from
both human aspects.
References
Lenaers, Roger (2008). Otro cristianismo es posible. Fe en lenguaje de modernidad. Quito,
Ecuador: Editorial Abya Yala.
Ortiz, J. Diego (2011). Encuesta Creencias religiosas en los jvenes de la ZMG. Guadalajara,
Mxico: Universidad de Guadalajara.
Robles, J. Amando (2001). Repensar la religin, de la creencia al conocimiento. San Jos,
Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Nacional Heredia.
Royston, Edgar (2005). Diccionario de las Religiones. Mxico, DF: Fondo de Cultura
Econmica.
Spong, John S. (2011). Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo. Quito, Ecuador:
Editorial Abya Yala.
Vigil, Jos Mara (2006). Teologa del pluralismo religioso. Quito, Ecuador: Editorial Abya
Yala.
173
Introduccin
En esta poca de globalizacin y cambios culturales se llega a afir-
mar que las religiones y sus iglesias han entrado en una profunda crisis,
particularmente en Europa. Con respecto Amrica Latina las opiniones y
los anlisis son ms diversos y no todos llegan a la conclusin de que
ya se est en una crisis de las religiones; si acaso se acepta que la crisis
se localiza en las iglesias y sus jerarquas, pero que incluso esa crisis no
se manifiesta en la espiritualidad de las personas. De cualquier modo,
el asunto se ha convertido en un foco de inters para los estudiosos del
fenmeno religioso, ya que se trata de un tema que atae a la mayora
de la poblacin. Desde muy diversos ngulos se estn investigando los
impactos del cambio cultural que se registra en la inmensa mayora de los
pases del orbe, y que en mayor o menor medida afecta a las religiones.
Pero al margen de las distintas conclusiones, lo que es un hecho
irrebatible es que en la capa joven de las sociedades se percibe un distan-
ciamiento gradual, cada vez mayor, con respecto a los sistemas religiosos
y las iglesias, aunque esto tambin tiene sus matices segn la regin de
que se trate. Si ponemos como caso a Europa y Amrica Latina, encon-
traremos diferencias y ritmos muy diversos en el proceso de cambio
cultural, y no se diga si se habla de Oriente Medio, Asia central o frica.
Sin embargo, a pesar de los matices y los ritmos diferenciados, el cambio
cultural religioso se est dando en la franja de poblacin joven, y es ah
donde habra que poner mayores esfuerzos en la investigacin.
Para realizar el anlisis de este tema, se parte de las ideas de John
Shelby Spong sobre el postesmo en el sistema de creencias, y cmo
este fenmeno est generando transformaciones en el campo religioso,
particularmente en el cristiano. La teora de Spong es acompaada con
Del tesmo al postesmo:
un cambio en la cultura religiosa
Juan Diego ORTIZ
Universidad de Guadalajara, Mxico.
174
informacin proveniente de una primera encuesta que se aplic a jvenes
de la zona metropolitana de Guadalajara, con lo cual se muestra evidencia
emprica acerca del cambio cultural relacionado con las religiones. Los
resultados de la encuesta indican ciertas tendencias en dicho proceso, ya
que slo es la opinin de 100 jvenes de entre 18 y 30 aos de edad con
una fuerte identidad urbana, por lo que no se pretende decir verdades
absolutas sobre lo que est ocurriendo en la zona ms poblada e indus-
trial del estado de Jalisco. De este modo, el trabajo aqu expuesto tiene
unas bases tericas e informacin de campo con la cual se pretende lograr
una aproximacin analtica para comprender el fenmeno de la religiosi-
dad en los jvenes.
Spong y el tesmo
Es pertinente comenzar este artculo explicando, aunque sea de
manera breve, quien es Spong, el cual, segn algunos, es el autor con ms
conviccin y valenta que est proponiendo el tema del postesmo y que
con ms insistencia est llamando a realizar toda una relectura postesta
del cristianismo. Spong es un obispo jubilado perteneciente a la iglesia
cristiana episcopal, que es la versin estadounidense de la iglesia anglica-
na. Naci en Carolina del Norte, Estados Unidos, y ha escrito ms de 10
libros, entre ellos, Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo. Por qu
la fe tradicional est muriendo y cmo una nueva fe est naciendo, texto
del cual nos apoyamos para desarrollar las siguientes lneas. Se trata de
un autor poco ortodoxo que ha estado cuestionando las verdades literales
de la Biblia, y que por consiguiente ha recorrido caminos distintos para
comprender, desde otras pticas, los contenidos y mensajes profundos
del cristianismo. En el prefacio del libro de Spong (2011), sealado lneas
arriba, el autor escribe:
En ese cristianismo volcado al futuro he buscado tambin evitar
la seudo-seguridad ofrecida por el cristianismo tradicional. El Dios de
los brazos eternos, que est listo para socorrernos cuando nos caemos
(cf. Dt 33,27), y el Jess a quien llamamos la Roca Eterna, a quien nos
agarraremos eternamente, ambos producen as lo creo ahora- personas
inmaduras, que necesitan los cuidados de una deidad sobrenatural y
paternal (p.18).
Como se puede observar, Spong es un telogo que est en bs-
queda de nuevos paradigmas para comprender el cristianismo, se trata
de un autor insatisfecho con las frmulas tradicionales y las verdades de
ese cristianismo ortodoxo y doctrinal, apela ms bien a construir un cris-
tianismo radicalmente reformulado que sea capaz de sobrevivir en este
desafiante mundo nuevo. Este obispo retirado ha gustado y se ha visto en
la necesidad de dialogar con el mundo acadmico, por lo que se le puede
leer desde dos aristas: la teologal y la acadmica, razn por la cual resul-
175
tan ms interesantes y argumentadas sus posturas acerca de la religin y
la poca que estamos viviendo. Sus 45 aos de carrera dentro de la iglesia
y su paso por varias universidades estadounidenses, le dan una fuerza
intelectual indiscutible. Como cristiano, Spong dice que es necesaria una
relectura del cristianismo, habla de una reforma del cristianismo y su
iglesia, pero de una reforma radical profundamente teolgica, proclama
que la forma en la que el cristianismo fue formulado tradicionalmente ya
no tiene credibilidad.
Y precisamente entre los jvenes pareciera que las religiones,
entre ellas el cristianismo, pero sobre todo las iglesias, ya no tienen la
credibilidad suficiente y por ello existe hoy un distanciamiento que aleja
a muchos de ellos de la creencia religiosa y la pertenencia a la iglesia. Y
si acaso siguen creyendo en alguna religin lo estn haciendo bajo otras
formas que dista de los esquemas tradicionales, por ello, los planteamien-
tos de Spong resultan pertinentes porque se trata de reinterpretar la fe
cristiana a la luz de los nuevos tiempos, cuestin que para muchos resulta
un atrevimiento, sobre todo porque se hace desde una postura postesta,
que si bien no es nueva, s ha sido enriquecida con planteamientos desa-
fiantes que llaman a la reflexin profunda.
Pues bien, teniendo como referencia la informacin anterior sobre
nuestro autor, pasemos ahora al tema del tesmo, mas antes de adentrar-
nos en lo que nos dice Spong, es importante revisar la definicin que
contiene el Diccionario de Religiones de Royston sobre este concepto:
Tesmo (del gr. Theos, dios). Etimolgicamente, creencia en la
existencia de un Dios. Por lo comn se llama testa a quien cree en un
Dios personal, trascendente y tan interesado en los hombres que les ha
hecho Revelacin. El desta (etimolgicamente lo mismo) cree, en cam-
bio, en una Divinidad que, despus de crear el universo, se ha apartado
completamente y jams interviene en los asuntos humanos (p. 436).
Este concepto sobre tesmo nos dice que hay una creencia sobre
un dios que interviene directamente en la vida humana, que ha sido reve-
lado, que es trascendente y que por lo tanto se encuentra fuera de este
mundo, es decir, hay una divinidad que se sita en lo extraterrestre, en
el cielo, en lo suprahumano, en lo sobrenatural. Mientras que el desmo
cree en un dios que es el creador del mundo pero que no interviene en
los asuntos humanos. Entre el tesmo y el desmo existe un amplio deba-
te, siendo uno de los puntos polmicos el de si Dios es intervencionista
o no en el desarrollo de la vida humana en el mundo.
Adentrndonos en las ideas de Spong sobre el tesmo, ste nos dice
que la educacin cristiana nos ha enseado la imagen de un Dios testa,
es decir, un Dios trascendente que s interviene en la historia humana
pero con poderes sobrenaturales, que vive fuera de este mundo y lo
Del tesmo al postesmo: un cambio en la cultura 175
176
invade peridicamente para realizar la voluntad divina (Ibidem, 38),
pero al revisar dicha intervencin resulta que muchos de los actos divinos
pueden considerarse para los tiempos actuales, como actos inmorales,
segn nuestro autor. Por ejemplo, las plagas con las que se castig a los
egipcios y el ahogamiento masivo de cientos de egipcios en el Mar Rojo,
en el contexto para liberar al pueblo elegido de Dios del dominio egip-
cio. Ante ello, Spong se pregunta es esa la obra de un Dios moral? Esos
actos no reflejan un Dios que los egipcios jams podran adorar?
Otro ejemplo del Dios testa que interviene con poderes sobrena-
turales pero que resultan ser actos incomprensibles para la conciencia
humana actual, es el sacrificio de Jess ante la cruz, lo que hasta nues-
tros das sigue significando que Dios entreg a su hijo para que fuera
torturado y asesinado en pago a nuestros pecados. Y como esa sangre de
Jess lava los pecados del mundo para luego ser resucitado como seal
de triunfo. Aqu Spong se pregunta, este Dios, que necesita un sangriento
sacrificio humano, ser merecedor de adoracin hoy, cuando termine-
mos de tomar conciencia de esta idea ofensiva?
En esta lnea del Dios testa nuestro autor afirma que las creencias
religiosas se estn debilitando, y vuelve a poner como ejemplo otras
situaciones cuando la gente dice hoy que la poca de los milagros ya
pas, no significa que los milagros dejaron de ocurrir, sino que nunca
ocurrieron, porque la poca en que percibamos algunos eventos como
milagrosos ya pas (Ibidem, 38). Lo que Spong quiere dar a entender
es que el conocimiento cientfico nos ha hecho comprender mejor el
universo y la vida en la Tierra, lo que significa que ahora entendemos
ciertos fenmenos no como milagros de Dios, sino como el resultado
del funcionamiento de la naturaleza o las acciones humanas a travs del
conocimiento.
Antes veamos a Dios como el primer motor en los temas de enfer-
medad y salud. Pensbamos que la enfermedad era el reflejo del castigo
divino, y la salud de su bendicin. Pero luego descubrimos los grmenes,
y los virus, y desarrollamos antibiticos, procedimientos quirrgicos y
cosas como la quimioterapia. Con ese nuevo conocimiento comenzamos
a ver que los antibiticos, las operaciones quirrgicas y la quimioterapia
hacen efecto tanto en los pecadores como en los santos. As que el mbito
de la enfermedad, como rea de actuacin de Dios, se empez a reducir
y la medicina hizo su aportacin al desarrollo moderno de la seculariza-
cin.
Antiguamente, veamos a Dios como la causa del clima e inter-
pretbamos las inundaciones, sequas, huracanes, tempestades como
expresiones de la voluntad divina. Pero entonces descubrimos la meteoro-
loga, los frentes climticos, los sistemas de presin baja y alta, los vientos
de el Nio y la Nia, los efectos climticos de las mareas, y tantas otras
177
realidades que el concepto de un ser sobrenatural que manipula el clima
por motivos morales se volvi insostenible.
Creamos que Dios guiaba nuestro pas en la batalla derrotando
al enemigo o, si nuestra fidelidad a este Dios decaa mucho, nos haca
probar su ira divina con la derrota Pero, con la llegada de las guerras
modernas, parece que Dios siempre est del lado del que posee las armas
ms potentes. (Ibidem:39).
Spong dice que con los ejemplos anteriores se puede demostrar
racionalmente que Dios, entendido testicamente, ya no es operativo
en nuestro sistema de creencias. Asegura que el Dios del tesmo est
muriendo, que por tanto, las creencias religiosas estn cambiando a
pesar de que mucha gente se sigue aferrando a ese Dios con poderes
sobrenaturales que gobierna la Tierra y la vida humana desde fuera.
En otro orden de ejemplos, Spong seala que hay datos de carcter
emocional que sugieren que el rol de proveedor de seguridad, en otros
tiempos atribuidos al Dios testa, ya no funciona. Indica que hay abun-
dantes comportamientos humanos que dan cuenta de que esa idea de
Dios protector y controlador de las situaciones est desapareciendo. Hoy,
muchas personas en el mundo encuentran su seguridad personal y el
control de sus ansiedades e histerias en las adicciones y el consumo de
tranquilizantes, en el ejercicio de la violencia, en el suicidio, en la prcti-
ca del racismo, incluso en el no cumplimiento de ciertas ordenanzas de
las iglesias cristianas, tales como no divorciarse, no usar anticonceptivos,
no tener prcticas homosexuales, etctera, comportamientos que segn
Spong, son manifestaciones emocionales de la muerte del Dios testa, es
decir, ese Dios que controlaba todo y daba seguridad, por lo que no exis-
te ms un Dios todopoderoso sobrenatural que interviene para resolver
cada situacin personal y brindar as las seguridades necesarias para la
existencia.
Estas bsquedas de seguridades ya no se localizan en la interven-
cin divina, sino en los ms diversos comportamientos humanos. Ese
Dios arregla-todo se est extinguiendo, y ms en la conciencia de los
jvenes, los cuales estn encontrando sus seguridades en otros mbitos, o
visto de otra manera, resuelven sus inseguridades por otros caminos que
muchas veces no son los adecuados. Sus necesidades de creer en alguien
trascendente o de llevar a cabo su espiritualidad estn formando parte
de una renovada cultura religiosa que dista mucho de los esquemas del
cristianismo tradicional.
En su libro Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo, al que
hemos estado haciendo referencia, Spong indica que la revolucin del
conocimiento y la madurez humana emergente han conspirado para vol-
ver poco crebles los antiguos moldes testas (Ibidem, 66). Pero lejos de
ver esto como un problema, nuestro autor comenta que el debilitamiento
178
del tesmo no debera representar algo temeroso y malo, sino tiene que
verse como un paso hacia la madurez, hacia la mayora de edad huma-
na, a travs de la cual podemos dejar de ser esos nios que se relacionan
y dependen de un padre celestial.
Spong afirma que esa madurez alcanzada puede ser el punto de
partida para descubrir una nueva forma de entender a Dios, es decir,
representa un trnsito en donde el viejo mito del tesmo pierde acelera-
damente su poder para ir creando un nuevo mito, el cual se encuentra en
proceso y ser resultado del caminar de la nueva poca que vive la socie-
dad global. Pero la construccin de un nuevo mito no necesariamente
tiene que darse fuera de las sagradas escrituras del cristianismo, sino de
una relectura de stas, en donde existen, segn Spong, claves importantes
para comprender de otra manera la existencia de Dios y la relacin que
la persona humana pueda tener con ese Fundamento y Fuente de Todo
ser. En continuidad con la crisis del tesmo nos indica que ninguna reli-
gin le puede dar seguridad a alguien y que cuando se busca dicha segu-
ridad a travs de las propias religiones, lo que se encuentra son ilusiones.
Explica por el contrario, que toda religiosidad verdadera permite abrazar
la vida con toda su inseguridad radical y vivirla con valor (Ibidem, 73).
Esto nos remite de nuevo al caso de los jvenes, los cuales por lo
general no acuden a ningn dios para sortear sus problemas; los jvenes
no van a la iglesia en bsqueda de seguridad, se las arreglan al margen
de las religiones, sin que eso suponga que no sean espirituales o no ten-
gan un conjunto de creencias religiosas; lo que sucede, es que asumen
de manera diferente esa relacin con lo divino. Lo que a continuacin se
expone son los resultados de una encuesta en la que se pueden percibir
algunos cambios en la cultura religiosa de los jvenes, cambios que pue-
den estar en sintona con lo expuesto sobre el postesmo de Spong. Como
se dijo al inicio, se trata de un primer estudio exploratorio para detectar
tendencias, por lo que slo se presentan interpretaciones iniciales acerca
del fenmeno religioso.
Dios como energa universal
La encuesta referida se aplic a 100 jvenes que viven en la zona
metropolitana de Guadalajara, es decir, se trata de habitantes pertene-
cientes a los municipios de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Tonal
y Tlajomulco. Los jvenes que respondieron al cuestionario tienen una
edad entre los 18 y 30 aos, son jvenes que estudian y algunos recin
egresados de sus carreras, sin embargo, es preciso aclarar que la encuesta
tambin se aplic a otras cien personas cuya edad oscila entre los 31 y
80 aos de edad. O sea, la muestra recoge la opinin de 200 creyentes
en relacin a cmo perciben algunas de las verdades religiosas del
179
cristianismo y cuyo objetivo es conocer los posibles cambios culturales o
epistemolgicos que se estn dando en cuanto a su propia religin. Para
el propsito del presente trabajo y por problemas de espacio slo se
explican y analizan los resultados de las 100 encuestas relacionadas con
los jvenes, las cuales se aplicaron personalmente en diferentes rumbos
de la ciudad. La encuesta contiene 17 preguntas, sin embargo, slo se
presentan los resultados de cinco de ellas porque es imposible hablar de
todas ellas en este trabajo, pero son las ms representativas del tema que
nos ocupa en este ensayo.
Comenzamos con una de las respuestas que ms llama la atencin
en el estudio de campo, que es la relacionada con la pregunta acerca
de quin es Dios?, pero particularmente es relevante en relacin con el
tesmo que cuestiona Spong. Como se podr observar, se pueden hacer
deducciones en el sentido de que efectivamente se est dando un cambio
cultural religioso en los jvenes que se ubica en un contexto postesta.
Quin es Dios?
El creador 24%
Un padre castigador 0%
Un padre amoroso 18%
Una energa universal 46%
No s 12%
Total 100%
La mayora de las respuestas de los jvenes encuestados (46%)
identifican a Dios con una energa universal, pero adems otra cuestin
que llama la atencin es que nadie identifica a Dios con un padre casti-
gador, sino con un padre amoroso (18%). Las respuestas van a contraco-
rriente de lo que tradicionalmente ensea la iglesia, quien histricamente
ha promovido la idea de un Dios testa, es decir, un Dios todopoderoso al
que hay que temer, que castiga y premia segn el comportamiento huma-
no, incluso la idea de un Dios creador ha sido superada por la creencia
de que Dios es una energa universal que est presente en todas partes.
Asimismo, la muestra indica que no se trata de un Dios personal situado
fuera de la realidad humana, sino que esa energa universal impregna
todo lo existente, esto se puede inferir a partir de las respuestas a la
siguiente pregunta del cuestionario.
La pregunta de la encuesta, fue en dnde est Dios?, interrogante
que los jvenes contestaron de la siguiente manera:
180
En dnde est Dios?
En el cielo 16%
En la vida de este mundo 60%
En ningn lugar 10%
No s 14%
Total 100%
De nuevo, la respuesta mayoritaria no corresponde a la idea del
Dios testa que se localiza en lo sobrenatural, fuera de lo humano, en el
cielo. Ms bien, los participantes creen que Dios est situado en la vida
de este mundo (60%), por lo tanto no es un Dios lejano e inalcanzable,
por lo que tambin stas respuestas abonan a la idea de que s estamos
en un proceso de cambio en la cultura religiosa, y hay signos de que se
comienza hacer una relectura de las enseanzas teolgicas.
Por otra parte, las siguientes respuestas tambin revelan que algo
est ocurriendo en la educacin religiosa de los jvenes, la pregunta que
contestaron, fue cmo te sientes ms cerca de Dios?, los resultados fue-
ron de este modo:
Cmo te sientes ms cerca de Dios?
Asistiendo a misa 13%
Leyendo la biblia 1%
Orando 23%
Siendo amoroso con los dems 63%
Total 100%
La opcin de sentirse cerca de Dios siendo amoroso con los dems
es la que ms convenci a los participantes en la encuesta (63%), los
resultados trastocan la ritualidad religiosa porque segn la muestra ahora
es ms importante centrar la religiosidad en la relacin hacia los dems y
ya no asistiendo a misa (13%), ni leyendo la Biblia (1%), ni orando (23%).
Esta valoracin de los encuestados coloca la creencia en Dios en un plano
concreto y humano, en el terreno de lo inmediato y lo cotidiano, en la
proximidad con el otro, dejando a un lado a la iglesia como la intermedia-
ria para acceder a lo divino. Lo cual tambin representa de algn modo,
una transformacin en el sistema de creencias que rompe con la tradicin
de poner mayor nfasis en la ritualidad que representa asistir a misa, las
lecturas grupales de la Biblia o aprenderse y repetir oraciones para sentir
lo trascendente. Ahora la opcin es la prctica del amor hacia el otro, que
181
ciertamente ha sido parte sustancial del mensaje profundo del cristianis-
mo, pero que sin embargo, fue sustituido paulatinamente por la presencia
poderosa de la iglesia y su papel como filtro para acceder a Dios.
En este punto es importante regresar a las ideas postestas de
Spong, quien nos explica cules son las definiciones que l tiene acerca
de un Dios no-testa. Al respecto, la primera definicin de este obispo
anglicano refiere que ese Dios no-testa es la suprema fuente de la vida.
Uno adora a este Dios viviendo en plenitud y compartiendo profunda-
mente (Ibidem, 75). En su segunda definicin establece que Dios es la
fuente primordial del amor. Y la manera de adorar este Dios es amando
abundantemente, distribuyendo amor frvolamente y regalando amor sin
pensar en el precio (Ibidem, 76). Finalmente define que Dios es el Ser,
la realidad que subyace a todo lo que existe. Para adorar a este Dios,
tenemos que estar dispuestos a arriesgar todo, abandonando nuestras
defensas y nuestras construcciones sociales de seguridad autoimpuestas
(Ibidem, 77).
Con todo lo anterior, Spong est queriendo decir que el Dios no-
testa no es una entidad sobrenatural que socorre a los inseguros y des-
venturados, sino que es una presencia que est ms all de la imagen de
la divinidad externa. Dicha presencia se asemeja a esa energa universal
por la que optaron los encuestados para definir a Dios, un Dios que per-
tenece a este mundo, un Dios que se hace presente en todo acto de amor
humano. Un Dios que no castiga y del cual no hay que esperar segurida-
des, pero que tampoco exige alabanzas como lo pregona la iglesia.
Volviendo a la encuesta con los jvenes, hay otra pregunta muy
importante en relacin al cambio cultural religioso, pero ms interesan-
tes son las respuestas. La pregunta que se realiz, fue se puede creer en
Dios sin las religiones?, los resultado son los siguientes:
Se puede creer en Dios sin las religiones?
Si 77%
No 11%
No s 12%
Total 100%
Como se aprecia, hay una mayora abrumadora (77%) que est
convencida de que se puede creer en Dios sin necesariamente estar
adscrito a alguna religin e iglesia, mientras escasamente otro sector de
los encuestados (11%) considera que no se puede creer en Dios si no
es a travs de una religin en particular. De nuevo aparece informacin
relevante para conocer los cambios en la cultura religiosa, ese porcentaje
182
de 77% no es un dato menor, ya que se percibe que los jvenes sostie-
nen sus creencias en un marco de libertad ms all de los lmites de las
religiones. Son creencias que ponen en entredicho la autoridad eclesial y
de las doctrinas, lo que supone a su vez romper con los moldes catlicos
y cristianos de que slo es posible el acceso a lo divino por medio de
la mediacin de los ritos, la tradicin y el clero. Esta pequea muestra
pudiera estar representando los que algunos llaman el paso hacia un
paradigma posreligional, donde las religiones y sus iglesias ya no son
necesarias para vivir la religiosidad y la espiritualidad humana, lo que
representa un cambio cultural relevante. Robles (2001) afirma que el ser
humano actual rechaza la religin tradicional, la religin de creencias,
por ser una religin dogmtica, heternoma e impuesta, por ello, tal vez
los jvenes sintieron la autonoma y la libertad de responder que s es
factible creer en Dios sin las imposiciones y ortodoxias de las institucio-
nes religiosas.
La quinta y ltima pregunta de la encuesta que se expone en este
trabajo dice qu tan apegado te sientes a tu iglesia?, en el entendido de
que todos los jvenes que respondieron son creyentes catlicos. Las res-
puestas fueron las siguientes:
Qu tan apegado te sientes a tu iglesia?
Mucho 12%
Regular 29%
Poco 20%
Nada 39%
Total 100%
Resulta evidente que la mayora de los encuestados no sienten per-
tenencia a su iglesia (39%), la cual es la catlica, pero al margen de cul
sea, existe un distanciamiento y un desapego hacia las formas tradiciona-
les de asumir la religiosidad. Slo un 12% de los jvenes se sienten muy
cercanos a su iglesia. Este fenmeno denota una crisis de convocatoria y
por tanto de autoridad y legitimidad de la institucin eclesial, pero a su
vez una ausencia de necesidad de sentirse parte de un espacio y una reli-
gin que en el imaginario colectivo proporciona seguridad e identidad.
Por tanto, se puede visualizar, analizando los resultados de las cinco pre-
guntas, que no slo se est gestando un proceso hacia el postesmo en las
creencias hacia Dios, sino tambin se est profundizando una crisis en la
iglesia, que juntas estn impactando en la cultura religiosa de los jvenes.
Roger Lenaers (2008) explica que cada da ms las maneras de
pensar y las convicciones van siendo determinadas por el pensamiento
cientfico occidental, y es precisamente lo que nos sigue condicionando
183
y lo que ha originado ese proceso del tesmo al postesmo, y ser esa
misma sociedad del conocimiento occidental la que dar origen a nuevas
maneras de comprender y resignificar la fe. Tanto el conocimiento y la
autonoma de los sujetos estn configurando nuevas maneras de asumir
la religiosidad, lo cual ha entrado en contradiccin con el axioma heter-
nomo de la doctrina catlica cristiana. Por eso, los jvenes en la medida
en que saben ms, asumen su libertad y su autonoma para pensar, van
reconfigurando su marco de creencias, ya no es tan fcil la transmisin de
mitos y doctrinas porque no estamos ya en la fase de las sociedades est-
ticas e ignorantes. El proceso de destradicionalizacin est en marcha, el
cambio cultural acelerado es parte de la nueva realidad. Como dice Vigil
(2006), las nuevas generaciones crecen en un ambiente en donde ya no
se les pueden transmitir verdades indiscutibles la estructura cultural en
que se estn formando les exige pedir justificaciones para tradiciones
(religin incluida) que perciben con toda evidencia como una construc-
cin humana.
Lenaers no plantea que en los nuevos tiempos se est perfilando
la desaparicin de las religiones, como tampoco lo establece Spong, sino
ambos consideran que se est dando paso a transformaciones en las
religiones, que de la crisis actual por la que pasan, tarde que temprano
surgirn nuevas interpretaciones, una renovada mitologa, una resignifi-
cacin de la fe, que se vivir un nuevo cristianismo que estar a la altura
de los tiempos globales. Lenaers asegura que el creyente moderno est
superando el pensamiento mtico antiguo porque quiere encontrar la
riqueza que yace enterrada en ese lenguaje mtico, para hacerlo accesible
al siglo XXI. Es tal vez como lo expresaron los jvenes de la encuesta,
que cuestionan los grandes mitos pero que sienten la necesidad de rein-
terpretar y de asumir de manera autnoma sus sistemas de creencias
religiosas. Quieren seguir siendo creyentes, pero no a la antigua, quieren
ser creyentes modernos aunque para el clero tradicional eso constituye
una amenaza.
Aunque desde una postura ms radical tambin hay un gran sector
de personas jvenes que van ms all en sus cuestionamientos y que no
se sienten ligadas a ningn tipo de religin e iglesia, y que por tanto se
sitan en la increencia. Por eso, los jvenes y el cambio cultural religioso
tienen que seguir siendo fuente de variados estudios para conocer ms a
detalle las consecuencias y el rumbo de este fenmeno.
Conclusiones
Estos tiempos acelerados de cambios cientficos, tecnolgicos y
culturales estn cambiando la manera de entender el mundo, pero tam-
bin estn transformando la forma de entender y asumir la religiosidad.
184
Se puede decir que las transformaciones que vivimos en pleno siglo XXI
y que afectan al campo de las religiones, pueden ser hasta cierto punto
naturales, de acuerdo al desarrollo que estn teniendo las sociedades,
particularmente en el mundo occidental. El proceso del tesmo al postes-
mo, los planteamientos posreligionales que indican que es posible creer
sin religiones. La aceptacin cada vez mayor del pluralismo religioso, las
conversiones masivas de una religin a otra, la aparicin de nuevas igle-
sias, la secularizacin, la increencia, la bsqueda de alternativas espiritua-
les, no son ms que manifestaciones de que estamos en una nueva poca,
en un nuevo tiempo axial, como diran muchos telogos y filsofos, del
cual saldrn transformadas las religiones, en el mejor de los escenarios.
Es importante concluir diciendo que nadie tiene certeza sobre qu
rumbo tomarn las religiones, incluso el propio Spong es honesto al decir
que con la muerte de los mitos testas no han surgido nuevos mitos con
nueva direccin en la comprensin de Dios; slo se advierten cambios,
transformaciones profundas, pero nada est decidido ni nadie podr defi-
nir el camino que tomarn las religiones y la espiritualidad. Slo sigue
quedando una certeza, la de que Dios es un misterio y que nadie tiene
la verdad absoluta para su comprensin. Pero adems hay otro elemento
fundamental en el que insisten telogos y acadmicos, de que a Dios no
se le puede comprender slo desde la razn, sino que el terreno de la
experiencia es muy determinante en este sentido, y aqu se vuelve ms
complejo el problema, porque eso de experimentar a Dios slo le perte-
nece a cada persona, a cada creyente, y ah el anlisis acadmico estrecha
sus posibilidades de descifrar este campo de lo trascendente, de lo divino.
Sin embargo, esto no quiere decir, que la razn tenga que dejar de dialo-
gar con la fe, al contrario, el debate se tiene que profundizar aprendiendo
a ser tolerantes desde las dos dimensiones humanas.
Bibliografa
Lenaers, Roger (2008). Otro cristianismo es posible. Fe en lenguaje de modernidad. Quito,
Ecuador: Editorial Abya Yala.
Ortiz, J. Diego (2011). Encuesta Creencias religiosas en los jvenes de la ZMG. Guadalajara,
Mxico: Universidad de Guadalajara.
Robles, J. Amando (2001). Repensar la religin, de la creencia al conocimiento. San Jos,
Costa Rica: Editorial Universidad Nacional Heredia.
Royston, Edgar (2005). Diccionario de las Religiones. Mxico, DF: Fondo de Cultura
Econmica.
Spong, John S. (2011). Un cristianismo nuevo para un mundo nuevo. Quito, Ecuador:
Editorial Abya Yala.
Vigil, Jos Mara (2006). Teologa del pluralismo religioso. Quito, Ecuador: Editorial Abya
Yala.
185
Resumen:
Dado que ciencia y tecnologa han comenzando a ser nuestro
paradigma y forma de vida, los grandes cambios ocurridos en ellas
estn produciendo cambios profundos en la religin. Concretamente, ha
cambiado la cosmologa, la antropologa y la historia, visiones cultura-
les marco sobre las que se ha articulado religin y teologa. Ms grave e
importante an, ha cambiado la religin como axiologa, la transforma-
cin religiosa sin duda ms profunda de todas. De esta manera la teolo-
ga est asistiendo al cambio de lo que ha sido su objeto de estudio y la
funcin de su conocimiento. En esta presentacin se postula que si la reli-
gin ha cambiado copernicanamente, del mismo modo tiene que cambiar
la teologa, si quiere hacerse creble hoy.
Abstract:
Given that science and technology are becoming a new paradigm
in our form of life, their implied changes are also producing deep changes
in religion. Up to this date religion and Theology have been built upon
cosmological, anthropological and historical views that are already gone.
Even more, the most profound religious transformation in our days is
the change in the conception of religion as an axiological view. Therefore
Theology is facing a change of what has been so far its object of study and
its epistemological function. The present article postulates that if religion
has experienced such a Copernican twist, Theology has to change in a
similar manner not to lose credibility.
A Copernican Shift
of Religion and Theology
J. Amando ROBLES
CEDI, Heredia, Costa Rica
186
We are experiencing profound changes mainly at the level of sci-
ence and technology. These are indeed Copernican changes since they
constitute a new paradigm and a new way of living, also affecting religion.
Therefore this Copernican twist should be experienced also in theology,
if it wants to be credible today.
We mean by paradigm, in this context, a matrix scheme useful to
represent reality and our relationship with it in order to live and not die.
By lifestyle we mean the resources allowing a group or society to live. It
includes the technological development to produce goods and services
and the specific way of organization employed to obtain them.
The changes refer to in this presentation are mainly those of para-
digm and lifestyle.
Cosmology has changed
Not only has changed what was one cosmological vision over sev-
eral millennia, but the changes were so deep and large that cosmology,
as a product of that vision, has ceased to exist, at least as an experience
that leads to transcendence.
As Raimon Panikkar has repeatedly warned, modern human being
is a human being without cosmology. What you have instead is a cosmic
vision built upon scientific evidence or, rather, its projection to the cos-
mos, which is very different from a cosmological view. It is proved by the
fact that a traditional cosmological vision carries or leads to socially and
culturally shared transcendence values, whereas a cosmological vision of
more scientific nature is individual and atomized, precisely because there
no longer exists a common cosmological view, and therefore no possibil-
ity of articulating a theology on it.
As if to weaken these assertions, it is said that when dimensions
or aspects of reality are "disenchanted", other dimensions or aspects do
"re-enchant".
This is somehow true and we are seeing some of this today. But,
there is not such a mechanical process related to the cosmos, ecology
and nature in general, That is to say, the enchantment is not a substitute
without further disenchantment, but rather recalls and confirms it. The
cosmological vision of the past transcended and appropriated the cosmos;
it was felt like a "sacred canopy" covering things, space and time. The sci-
entific cosmic vision, instead, makes us aware of our common origin and
186 J. Amando ROBLES
187
destiny, of the unique being that we deeply are. We are now aware of our
integration in a whole, of our interdependence and of the communion
in which we live. But on a background or under a "canopy" that will no
longer be common or sacred, although some individuals and groups still
feel like that.
With cosmology as a cosmos vision, several millennia of cosmic
religion articulated to it ceased to exist; this is a fact for many modern
men and women. . But it is still built-in in current religion and theology
in such a way that in general they think it does not represent a crisis for
them. The same could not be stated for other aspects very tied to that
vision, that certain persons still consider useful.
Even if the cosmos is no longer conceived with a center or origin
from which everything comes about neither is conceived in a causal way,
having a God as its creator and its cause, there still remains some need
for grounding, transcendence and objectivity. A need for a holistic or
vision of wholeness, of communion with the whole... aspects upon which
religion and theology are still trying to articulate, and they do whenever
they can. This need is obvious in a proposal like the one presented by
the "new age", which has also the advantage of being broad, emotive and
flexible, as the "movement" that has taken place and constitutes it.
These ideas are still present, albeit more subtle, when current
theologies feel the theoretical need of reasoning expressed in terms of
"theonomy". This is an attempt to overcome, two antagonistic and as such
not reconciled positions: heteronomy/autonomy, The same need is also
present in the different holistic, cosmological, historical, social and politi-
cal religious and theological worldviews that exist today. They all have
in common their emphasis in deep social and human needs: objectivity,
reasonableness, validity, significance, identity, meaning, value; and offer
a plausible and rational religious proposal.
One could say that cosmology as a cosmic evidence of God dis-
appeared, but not the personal and social functions it fulfilled. Some of
these still remain, and theology, in general, seeks its fulfillment through
new constructions, in general always looking for concordance between
science and religion, reason and faith, relative/functional and absolute
dimension of the world.
And yet the attempt to establish a pseudo-religious or pseudo-
scientific concordance or both at the same time, prompted crisis in
traditional cosmology and continues to do so today. This postulate and
supposed continuity between two human dimensions, and therefore of
reality, even if presented in a manner evolutionary and historical, does
not have neither a scientific nor a religious character. Hence, the fast
developing of crisis in successive religious and theological constructions.
A Copernican Shift of Religion and Theology 187
188
One of these dimensions is relative, it exists to guarantee life; and the
other is absolute, i.e, not oriented to anything else. Yesterday cosmology
as a religious function fell and, its substitutes begin to fall nowadays.
What is at stake in theses crisis is the nature of religious experience
genuinely as such, and the epistemology required to understand it. Both
go beyond rational or scientific constructions and above all continuity
with those, beyond the personal and social functions with which they
have been identified and, therefore, constitute a great challenge to theol-
ogy, that only could know them objectively if symbolically expressed.
In any case, theology can no longer continue its way as if these
changes were not being happening, without diving deep into its nature
and its challenges. Some of the crisis in theological constructions could
be prevented and, even better, totally stopped.
Specially when it comes to consider religion in the line of objec-
tivity and competition. Objectivism of what it wants to know and com-
petence in autonomous fields such as conception of the human being,
ethics, human history, sexuality... Why not change this line of thought?
Anthropology changed and changing
Anthropology changed and keeps changing. The very concept of
human being conception, with the challenge that such changes mean
for theology, especially when taking into account that an anthropology
underlies any theology.
Consistent with past cosmological vision, the human being was
seen as essentially lacking and in need. This perception was equivalent
to a heteronomous conception of God as his fullness and completion.
Today human being perceive him/herself as autonomous, able to be as
full and complete a can be. Hence the almost instinctive cultural rejection
to everything that means heteronomy about him, and even with respect
to the cosmic reality as such. Heteronomy as a theory has entered in deep
crisis, while autonomy is on the rise.
But as with cosmology, also in anthropology not all items that
come up are also in crisis. In the first place, clear and grossly heterono-
mous elements make crisis. But still remaining elements that have to do
with values and ethical standards, the meaning of human life and history,
the anthropomorphic or personal conception of God, the conception of
human beings as autonomous, and his realization. On these elements and
aspects theology still articulates its proposals, though not without feel-
ings of a short time validity..
Thus, autonomy is recognized in man and in reality, but still within
a teleological conception. In other words, humans, and reality in general,
189
still lack something, sometimes essential, to achieve a "telos" or purpose
that is beyond, waiting, challenging him. Therefore he is "autonomous"
but "in need" and again "lacking". For that he should have to undergo a
process or processes, and given the nature of any procedural implementa-
tion, only a few will succeed, or rather, nobody, because how to establish
"the end" of what is by nature always extendable? Determination is priori-
tized but the other question about autonomy is not answered.
When one can not guarantee human beings the full and total
realization here and now, there is little difference although for other
effects is so great between a promise of success in heteronomous or
autonomous terms. Because there's always a hteros between him and
his completion, there will always be an objective distance, a heteronomy,
which is the one that currently is in crisis. Because it can not be achieved
as promised and is not real, remaining always as an unfinished project,
into a proposal for implementation, a simple promise, as Ken Wilber
wanted to show with the title of his book "The Atman Project."
For achieving such human autonomy, it is not enough to release
the space up and down, divine and human, soul and body. There must be
a release of time as a continuum and there must be a full and complete
reality here and now. And this is the great change that anthropology is
experiencing: to discover that this dimension already exists in the human
being, no matter what stage in space and time, he can be full and com-
plete here and now.
Conception of human being is in crisis as it was before teleology as
an approach to knowledge of nature. Then this knowledge was liberated
from teleology. Now conception of human being must also be liberated
from a teleological conception. It is necessary to liberate human being
from a God that provides a teleology that is no longer needed. Human
being is what it is and being what it is, is full and complete in its being,
in its absolute dimension.
If theology is articulated upon a teleological conception of human
being, it would not help achieve what it promises, with the resulting cri-
sis. If it articulates upon the absolute dimension of which human beings
are endowed here and now, it get free from all "telos", from time and the
process it entails.
History changes
As a consequence of these major changes at both cosmology and
anthropology, it is also changing what has been a product of modernity:
the perception of ourselves in terms of historicity, of history as the human
continuum, culturally and socially necessary for our fulfillment.
190
This way of looking at ourselves, as Raimon Panikkar liked to
report again and again, is a relatively recent product of Western moderni-
ty, but which we have adhered as essential. We used to think of ourselves
as essentially historical, and never thought that could be otherwise. We
needed to follow our so-called teleology orientation and, this way, be in
history as individuals and society. Although by its very historical structure
this is a contradiction and this accomplishment becomes impossible.
Today, because of the outlined changes affecting our perception of
space and time, our modern Western perception of history is also chang-
ing profoundly. What seemed like a call to be universal perception and
sine qua non of our human fulfillment, as individuals and as society, now
turns out to be local, and within its location in the West, not only, but one
of the many that have been, in other words, temporary. As temporary that,
past the first industrial revolution modernity, this perception is in crisis,
crumbling as qualified interpretation of time, and displayed mythical as it
is, the myth of Western history.
Time, like space, is a "quality" correlative to our perception of
reality. According to our representational paradigm and to what is our
way of life, we, Western modern men and women need not to conceive
or think it as history. The cosmic reality, human life and history have no
teleology, are not subject to it. They are intended for us to discover the
meaning and value that we want and can give them. There is no God, or
something, directing the universe's history or the world, nor of human
history on our planet. There isnt either universal cosmic laws to fulfill
this function, although they may seem so. Increasingly being imposed on
us to distinguish between "teleonomy" and "teleology", between purpose
and aim, and between reality in itself and a supposed order that the real-
ity would obey.
Hence, the historical and social, cultural and political visions built
around the conception of history as a dynamic place of human fulfill-
ment are also in crisis. Such is the phenomenon that, still not believing
what we see, it seems we are witnessing. Still very recently, and almost
without realizing how this happened, we witnessed the fall of a religious
cosmological vision as captivating as that of Teilhard de Chardin. Perhaps
we did not realize it, because very soon that vision and others were
replaced by other socio-historical, cultural and political visions that were,
or so it seemed, much more grounded and practical, more biblical, more
and more evangelical Christians. But nothing indicates that such visions,
correct as they may seem, in their very nature may differ from the cosmo-
logical visions and will not suffer the same fate. Cosmological views and
visions of history, both are social constructs and as such children of time.
191
Deep changes in our current paradigm and lives
Changes in our cosmological and anthropological vision, and as a
result, also in our conception of time, are the expression of a new rep-
resentational paradigm and a new way of life, in which we have already
entered. Structural changes at this level are deep in the background of
all other changes. And both representational paradigm and way of life,
consist of a new type of knowledge, not axiological.
We have always lived by our knowledge in any type of society.
But this knowledge was axiologic, a type of meaningful knowledge and
the values that individuals need to live human and socially. Now, for
the first time, we live not only based in knowledge as a paradigm but
as a resource and a technology. For that, this knowledge has to be non-
axiological, purely functional or technical. Otherwise, with axiological
knowledge, we could not ensure our life or survival as a collective. This
is what it means to be a knowledge society: to base our life in knowledge,
but a type that is sterile axiologically, so to speak. Hence the need to strip
knowledge, and reality that it shows, of any significance (cosmological,
anthropological, teleological) apart from that of its functionality, and use-
fulness of its results.
We could not live without values, without goals, objectives and
goals, either individually or socially, but these values will also need to be
constructed scientifically, in a value-aseptic manner, based on assump-
tions and in a continuous process, therefore continually subject to evalu-
ation and adjustment of test error. And built on these values religion will
not be articulated because, by definition, it is the summit of axiology. A
summit that has to be beyond any construction, since a religion that is sci-
entifically built is not religion. Hence the disappointment soon produced
by "engineering religions", as Ken Wilber described the proposals of the
"New Age" as well as the charm that still keep the traditional religions,
when they are lived honestly, in correspondence to a way of life. Because,
even with its limitations, they are pointing to transcendence.
A Copernican shift in Religion
The changes thus seen and interpreted, to speak of Copernican rev-
olution in religion, though necessary, is an understatement. The change
is so profound that what has always been religion has ceased to be. In
men and women of knowledge society, religion as we have known it can't
replay itself. It can't be articulated around the axiology of the paradigm
of knowledge, as it always did, because its paradigm does not have it,
does not produce it.
Neither can it reproduce itself upon any axiology, past or present
to be built scientifically. It is not possible on the past ones, because they
192
no longer exist, but also upon those we build today because of their
quality of "constructed", since it cant build what literally has to be apex,
and crown. Religion will be built upon itself and from itself, as full and
complete human experience, always possible as a dimension that has a
purpose: the full realization of human beings, but not an end; beyond,
therefore, of any use, from all convenience and interest.
Change can't be greater. Religion has been experience and axi-
ological knowledge, built around the axiology of life forms. Over this
conception of religion is that theology has been established and built.
Now religion is to be pure experience, gratuitous, total, without substance
or form, without content, without subject or object, experience and only
experience, no need to ask what or why. And theology can only be found-
ed and articulated about it if it is symbolically expressed and depending
on the experience itself, with no other interest or purpose.
There is a Copernican revolution in religion, there also must be a
Copernican shift in theology.
193
Consecuencia de cambios profundos experimentados sobre todo
a nivel de la ciencia y de la tecnologa en la medida en que ambas han
comenzado a constituir nuestro paradigma y nuestra forma de vida, se
estn dando cambios profundos, verdaderamente copernicanos, en la
religin, y por tanto debieran darse en la teologa, si es que sta quiere
ser creble hoy.
Por paradigma estamos entendiendo aqu el esquema matricial
que, al permitirnos representarnos la realidad y relacionarnos con ella,
nos permite poder vivir y no morir. Por forma de vida, el recurso o recur-
sos gracias a los cuales un grupo, colectivo o sociedad vive, la tcnica o
tecnologa con que los obtiene y la forma como socialmente se organiza
para lograrlo.
Los cambios de los que va a ser objeto en esta presentacin se ubi-
can fundamentalmente en este nivel, del paradigma y de la forma de vida.
Ha cambiado la cosmologa
No slo ha cambiado lo que fue una visin cosmolgica plurimile-
naria, sino que los cambios fueron tan profundos y grandes que la cos-
mologa como producto de esa visin ha dejado de existir, al menos como
experiencia que lleva a lo trascendente.
Como lo ha advertido reiteradamente Raimon Panikkar, el ser
humano moderno es un ser humano sin cosmologa. En su lugar lo que
tiene es una visin csmica hecha de elementos cientficos o, ms bien, la
proyeccin de estos a nivel del cosmos, cosa muy diferente de una visin
cosmolgica. La prueba es que una visin cosmolgica tradicional es por-
tadora de trascendencia, social y culturalmente compartida, o lleva a ella,
y una visin csmica de naturaleza ms bien cientfica o no lleva del todo
o solo de manera individual y atomizada, precisamente porque no existe
ya una visin cosmolgica comn, y por ello, tampoco la posibilidad de
una teologa articulndose sobre ella.
Cambia copernicanamente la religin.
Debe cambiar la teologa
J. Amando ROBLES
CEDI, Heredia, Costa Rica
194
Como queriendo quitar fuerza a estas aseveraciones, se recuerda a
propsito de las mismas que cuando dimensiones o aspectos de la reali-
dad se desencantan, otras dimensiones o aspectos se reencantan.
Si bien es cierto, y a algo de esto estamos asistiendo en la actua-
lidad con respecto al cosmos, la ecologa y la naturaleza en general, no
es tan mecnico el proceso o, mejor dicho, el reencantamiento no susti-
tuye sin ms al desencantamiento, ms bien lo recuerda y lo confirma.
La visin cosmolgica pasada trascenda, cosmizaba, se senta como un
dosel sagrado cubriendo cosas, espacio y tiempo. La visin csmico-
cientfica nos hace conscientes de nuestro origen y destino comn, del
ser nico que en el fondo somos, del todo que formamos y de la inter-
dependencia y comunin en que vivimos, pero sobre un teln de fondo
o bajo un dosel que ya no ser comn ni sagrado, aunque individuos y
grupos as lo vivan.
Con la cosmologa como visin del cosmos ha dejado de existir
la religin csmica plurimilenaria articulada sobre la misma, tal como
sucede en muchos hombres y mujeres modernos. Pero esto es algo ya tan
asumido por la religin y teologa actuales que en general, se piensa, no
representa crisis alguna para ellas. No se puede decir lo mismo de aspec-
tos todava muy vinculados a aquella visin, que aun se reproducen como
necesarios en ciertos actores.
Aunque el cosmos ya no es concebido como cntrico y causal,
ni Dios como su creador y su causa, an persiste cierta necesidad de
fundamentacin, trascendencia objetividad, visin total u holstica, comu-
nin con el todo, aspectos sobre los cuales intentan articularse todava
religin y teologa, y sobre los cuales se articulan hasta donde pueden.
Esta necesidad es obvia en una propuesta como la de la New Age,
que adems tiene la ventaja de ser amplia, emotiva y flexible, como el
movimiento a que ha dado lugar y en el que consiste. Pero no deja de
estar presente, aunque sea de manera mucho ms sutil, cuando teolo-
gas actuales sienten la necesidad necesidad de fundamentacin de
expresarse en trminos de teonoma para superar, uniendo, lo que, si
no, seran dos posiciones antagnicas, heteronoma / autonoma, y como
tales no reconciliadas. Esta misma necesidad est igualmente presente
en las diferentes visiones de mundo religiosas y teolgicas, holsticas,
cosmolgicas, histrico-sociales y polticas que se dan en nuestros das.
Todas ellas tienen la nota en comn de partir de necesidades humanas y
sociales profundas objetividad, racionalidad, fundamentacin, trascen-
dencia, identidad, sentido, valor y presentar una propuesta religiosa y
racionalmente plausible.
Se podra decir que la cosmologa desapareci como evidencia cs-
mica de Dios, pero no las funciones personales y sociales que cumpla.
Como que algunas de estas todava se mantienen, y desde la teologa se
195
busca su realizacin a travs de nuevas construcciones, en general siem-
pre concordistas entre ciencia y religin, razn y fe, dimensin relativo-
funcional del mundo y dimensin absoluta.
Y sin embargo, es este concordismo pseudoreligioso o pseudocien-
tfico o, mejor, ambos a la vez, el que ha hecho crisis en la cosmologa tra-
dicional y el que sigue haciendo crisis en la actualidad. Es ese postulado
y pretendido continuismo, en general presentado en clave evolucionista
e histrica, entre dos dimensiones humanas, y por tanto de la realidad,
una relativa o en funcin de la vida y la otra absoluta o en funcin de
s misma, el que muy pronto se revela no ser cientfico ni ser religioso.
De ah la crisis rpida en la que caen estas sucesivas construcciones
religiosas y teolgicas. Ayer cay la cosmologa con funcin religiosa, en
nuestros das comienzan a caer y seguirn cayendo sus sucedneos.
Lo que en estas crisis est en juego es la naturaleza de la experien-
cia religiosa genuinamente tal y la epistemologa para entenderla, ambas
ms all de toda construccin racional o cientfica y de toda continuidad
con sta, ms all de las funciones personales y sociales con las que se
les ha identificado, y por tanto un gran reto a la teologa, que slo puede
conocerlas objetivamente en tanto son simblicamente expresadas.
En todo caso, la teologa no puede seguir su camino de elaboracin
como si estos cambios no se estuvieran dando, sin bucear en profundidad
en su naturaleza y en sus retos. Hay crisis en las construcciones teolgi-
cas que se pueden evitar con tiempo y, mejor an, del todo, en este caso
en lo que refiere a seguir proponiendo la religin en clave de objetivismo
y de competencia, objetivismo de lo que pretende conocer y competencia
sobre campos que le son autnomos, concepcin del ser humano, tica,
historia humana, sexualidad Por qu no hacerlo?
Cambi y cambia la antropologa
Cambi y cambia la antropologa, la propia concepcin del ser
humano, con el reto que tales cambios implican para la teologa, sobre
todo si se tiene en cuenta que a toda teologa subyace una antropologa
Consecuentemente con la visin cosmolgica pasada, el ser huma-
no era percibido como esencialmente carente y necesitado. Percibirlo as
y percibir heternomamente a Dios como su plenitud y acabamiento era
lo mismo. Hoy el ser humano se percibe como ser autnomo, con capa-
cidad para ser lo pleno y total que pueda ser. De ah el rechazo cultural
casi instintivo a todo lo que suponga heteronoma con respecto a l e
incluso con respecto a la realidad csmico-material sin ms. La hetero-
noma como planteamiento ha entrado en profunda crisis, mientras la
autonoma est en alza.
Cambia copernicanamente la religin. Debe cambiar la teologa. 195
196
Pero como sucediera con la cosmologa, igualmente en la antro-
pologa no todos los elementos que la integran entran igualmente en
crisis. Entran en crisis en primer lugar los ms clara o burdamente hete-
rnomos, mantenindose todava por ejemplo los que tienen que ver con
valores y criterios ticos, el sentido de la vida humana y de la historia, la
concepcin antropomrfica y/o personal de Dios, la concepcin del ser
humano como autnomo y su realizacin, elementos y aspectos sobre
los cuales todava articula la teologa sus propuestas, aunque no sin pre-
sentimientos de caducidad.
As, se reconoce la autonoma en el ser humano y en la realidad,
pero todava en el marco de una concepcin teleolgica. En otras pala-
bras, al ser humano, como en general a la realidad, todava le falta algo,
a veces lo esencial: alcanzar un telos o fin que todava est fuera de l,
ms all de l, esperndolo, desafindolo, resultando entonces autno-
mo, pero necesitado y de nuevo carente. Para ello tendr que seguir
un proceso o procesos, someterse a ellos, y dada la naturaleza de toda
realizacin procesual, slo unos pocos lo lograrn o, mejor dicho, nadie
porque cmo establecer el fin de lo que por naturaleza siempre es
alargable?, primando la determinacin y quedando en el aire la pre-
gunta: y la autonoma?
Cuando al ser humano no se le puede garantizar la realizacin
plena y total aqu y ahora, poca es la diferencia, aunque a otros efectos
sea tan grande, entre prometerle su realizacin en trminos heternomos
o autnomos, porque siempre habr un hteros entre l y su realizacin,
siempre habr una distancia objetiva, una heteronoma, que es la que
actualmente entra en crisis. Porque no es realizable como se promete ni
es real, quedando siempre en proyecto inacabado, en propuesta de reali-
zacin, en promesa, como lo quiso poner de manifiesto Ken Wilber con
el ttulo de su libro El proyecto Atman.
Para que la autonoma humana sea tal, no basta con liberarla del
espacio, arriba y abajo, divino y humano, alma y cuerpo; hay que liberarla
del tiempo como continuum y tiene que ser una realidad plena y total
aqu y ahora. Y ste es el gran cambio que est experimentando la antro-
pologa, al descubrir que esa dimensin existe ya en el ser humano, que
no importa cul sea el escenario en el espacio y en el tiempo, l puede
ser pleno y total aqu y ahora.
Como entr en crisis la teleologa en el conocimiento de la natu-
raleza y hubo que liberarla de ella, otro tanto est sucediendo en la con-
cepcin del ser humano y hay que liberarla de ella. Hay que liberar al ser
humano de Dios que le proporcionara una teleologa que no necesita. El
ser humano es lo que es, y siendo lo que es, es pleno y total en su ser,
en su dimensin absoluta.
197
Compete a la teologa articularse sobre una concepcin teleolgica
del ser humano, y de esta manera no ayudar a lograr lo que promete,
con la consecuente crisis, o articularse sobre la dimensin absoluta de la
que est dotado el ser humano aqu y ahora, liberada de todo telos, del
tiempo y del proceso que este implica.
Cambia la historia
Consecuencia de estos grandes cambios a nivel tanto de la cosmo-
loga como de la antropologa, est cambiando tambin lo que ha sido un
producto de la modernidad, la percepcin de nosotros mismos en trmi-
nos de historicidad, de la historia como el continuum humana, cultural y
socialmente necesario de nuestra realizacin.
Esta manera de percibirnos, como gusta denunciar una y otra vez
Raimon Panikkar, es un producto relativamente reciente, de la moder-
nidad occidental, pero al que hemos adherido como algo esencial.
Pensndonos necesariamente histricos, no se nos pasaba por la mente
que pudiramos no serlo. Necesitbamos seguir nuestra pretendida orien-
tacin teleologa y, siguindola, realizarnos en la historia como individuos
y como sociedad. Aunque por su misma estructura histrica ello sea una
contradiccin y tal realizacin resulte imposible.
Hoy, en virtud de los cambios reseados afectando en la forma en
que lo hacen nuestra percepcin de espacio y tiempo, nuestra percepcin
moderna occidental de la historia est cambiando tambin profundamen-
te. Lo que pareca una percepcin llamada a ser universal y condicin
sine qua non de nuestra realizacin humana, en tanto individuos y en
tanto sociedad, ahora resulta ser local, y dentro de su localizacin en
Occidente, no la nica, sino una de las muchas o al menos varias que ha
habido, en otras palabras, temporal. Tan temporal que, pasada la moder-
nidad de la primera revolucin industrial, ella misma entra en crisis, se
desmorona como interpretacin calificada del tiempo, y se muestra mtica
como es, el mito de la historia de Occidente.
El tiempo, como el espacio, es una cualidad correlativa a la per-
cepcin que tenemos de la realidad, y de acuerdo a nuestro paradigma
representacional y a la que es nuestra forma de vida, nosotros, hombres
y mujeres occidentales y modernos, no necesitamos concebirlo ni pen-
sarlo como historia. La realidad csmica, la vida humana y la historia no
tienen teleologa, no estn sometidas a ella, slo tienen el propsito que
nosotros podamos descubrir y con l como recurso, el sentido y valor
que nosotros les queramos y podamos dar. No hay un Dios, o algo as,
dirigiendo la historia del universo ni del mundo, tampoco la historia
humana en nuestro planeta. No hay tampoco leyes csmico-universales
cumpliendo esa funcin, aunque as lo parezca. Cada vez ms se nos
198
impone distinguir entre teleonomia y teleologa, entre propsito y fin,
entre la realidad como es en s y un supuesto ordenamiento al que su
realidad estara obedeciendo.
De ah que las visiones histrico-sociales, culturales y polticas arti-
culadas sobre la historia como lugar dinmico de la realizacin humana
tambin estn en crisis. Y tal es el fenmeno al que, sin creer todava lo
que vemos, pareciera estamos asistiendo. Todava muy recientemente, y
casi sin darnos cuenta de cmo es que ello sucedi, asistimos a la cada
de una visin cosmolgica religiosa tan subyugante como la de Teilhard
de Chardin. Quizs no nos dimos cuenta, porque muy pronto esa visin y
otras fueron sustituidas por visiones histrico-sociales, culturales y polti-
cas que eran, o as nos parecan, mucho ms aterrizadas y prcticas, ms
bblicas, ms evanglicas y ms cristianas. Pero nada indica que como
visiones, por ms correctas que nos parezcan, en su naturaleza intrnseca
sean diferentes de las visiones cosmolgicas y no vayan a correr la misma
suerte. Visiones cosmolgicas y visiones de la historia, ambos tipos son
construidos y como tales hijos del tiempo.
Cambios profundos en nuestro paradigma y en nuestra vida
Los cambios en nuestra visin cosmolgica y antropolgica, y como
consecuencia de ello en nuestra concepcin del tiempo, son la expresin
de un nuevo paradigma representacional y de una nueva forma de vida,
en los que ya hemos entrado. Transformaciones a este nivel estructural
profundo son las que estn en el trasfondo de todos los dems cambios.
Y ambos, paradigma representacional y forma de vida, consisten en un
nuevo tipo de conocimiento, no axiolgico.
Siempre, en cualquier tipo de sociedad, se ha vivido del conoci-
miento y gracias a l. Pero ste siempre ha sido axiolgico, siempre ha
sido un conocer significativo, con valores, que individuos y sociedad
necesitan para vivir humana y socialmente. Ahora, por primera vez vivi-
mos del conocimiento no slo en tanto paradigma sino en cuanto recurso
y tecnologa, y para ello el conocimiento tiene que ser no axiolgico,
puramente funcional o tcnico. De otra manera, con un conocimiento
axiolgico, no podramos garantizar nuestra vida y sobrevivencia como
colectivo. Esto es lo que implica ser una sociedad de conocimiento: no
solo vivir del conocimiento sino de un conocimiento axiolgicamente
asptico, por as decir. De ah la necesidad de despojar el conocimiento
y la realidad que conoce de toda significacin (cosmolgica, antropol-
gica, teleolgica) que no sea la de su funcionalidad, la de sus resultados
y utilidad.
No se podr vivir sin valores, sin fines, objetivos y metas, ni indi-
vidual ni socialmente hablando, pero estos valores necesarios tambin
199
tendrn que se construidos cientficamente, de una manera valricamente
asptica, partiendo de postulados y en un proceso ininterrumpido, por
tanto continuamente sometido a evaluacin y a ajuste, de prueba error.
Y sobre estos valores as construidos no se va a poder articular la reli-
gin, que por definicin es la cumbre de la axiologa. Una cumbre que
tiene que estar ms all de toda construccin, ya que una religin cien-
tficamente construida no es religin. De ah el desencanto que pronto
producen las religiones ingenieriles, como calific Ken Wilber a las
propuestas de la New Age, as como el encanto que an guardan las
religiones tradicionales cuando son vividas honestamente en correspon-
dencia a una forma de vida. Porque, aun y con sus limitaciones, apuntan
a la trascendencia.
Cambia copernicanamente la religin
As vistos e interpretados los cambios, hablar de cambio coperni-
cano en la religin, aunque necesario, es quedarse corto. El cambio es
tan profundo que lo que siempre fue la religin ha dejado de ser. En los
hombres y mujeres de la sociedad de conocimiento la religin tal como
la hemos conocido no se puede volver a reproducir como tal. No puede
volver a articularse sobre la axiologa del paradigma de conocimiento,
como lo hizo siempre, porque el suyo, el paradigma actual, no la tiene,
no la produce. No se puede reproducir sobre ninguna axiologa, ni sobre
las pasadas, ni sobre la actual a construir cientficamente. No es posible
hacerlo sobre las pasadas, porque stas ya no existen, pero tampoco
sobre la que vamos construyendo actualmente, porque sobre su natura-
leza de construida no se puede construir lo que literalmente tiene que
ser culmen, vrtice y corona. La religin tendr que construirse sobre s
misma y a partir de s misma, como experiencia humana plena y total,
posible en todo momento, como dimensin que tiene un propsito, la
realizacin plena del ser humano, pero no un fin; ms all, pues, de toda
utilidad, de toda conveniencia y de todo inters.
El cambio no puede ser mayor. Articulada sobre la axiologa
correspondiente a la forma de vida, la religin ha sido experiencia y
conocimiento axiolgico, con forma y contenidos, y sobre ella como
conocimiento y axiologa religiosa es que se ha fundado y articulado la
teologa. Ahora la religin ser experiencia pura, una, gratuita y total, sin
fondo ni forma, sin contenido, sin sujeto ni objeto, experiencia y solo
experiencia, sin para qu ni por qu. Y la teologa slo se podr fundar
y articular sobre ella en tanto es simblicamente expresada y en funcin
de la experiencia misma, sin otro inters ni otra finalidad.
Est cambiando copernicanamente la religin, tiene que cambiar
tambin copernicanamente la teologa.
200
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Abstract
The self-referencial attitude of the Church, expressing itself through
concepts by revelation, in dogmatics positions based on the super-evalua-
tion of the instituctional and autoritative dimension and in the church-
centrism, is brought into question by the new cultural moment and by
the new inter-relationality paradigm. This text analyses the actual situa-
tion of the Church and points out all challenges proposed to the Catholic
Church in Latin America.
Resumen
La actitud auto-referencial de la Iglesia, que se hace visible en con-
ceptos como revelacin, en posturas dogmticas basadas en la sper-valo-
racin de la dimensin institucional y autoritativa y en el eclesiocentris-
mo, es puesta en cuestin por el nuevo momento cultural y el paradigma
de la interrelacionalidad. El presente texto analiza la actual situacin
eclesial y apunta algunos desafos que se proponen a la Iglesia Catlica
en Amrica Latina.
The cultural changes that we are living, drive the structural changes
at all levels: political, economic, social, cultural and religious. Reference
models of some years ago are in crisis and enable to satisfy any new
requirements. We live in a time of instability, which becomes stronger in
the field of politics and economics. The centrality of the economy reveals
the fragility of the current political system, that being based on participa-
tory democracy, can not guarantee indistinctively to everyone, the funda-
mental rights. The market economy, based on "the calculation of utility,"
fails to satisfy the greed of a market that reveals all its indifference in rela-
tion to social, material and ecological matters. These elements, combined
Catholic Religion and Social Changes
in Latin America and Caribe
Luigi Schiavo
DEI, San Jos, Costa Rica
202
with others, generate a deep crisis of the development model, dependent
on the capital and on the market. In the social field, the great waves of
immigration of recent years, from the south to the north of the world and
from the east to west, are reshaping the global social environment. The
contact, not always peaceful between different cultures, creates problems
of social instability that can engender attitudes of intolerance and ethno-
centrism, as well as bring to life interesting experiences of meeting and
openness. If, on one side, the economic globalization sees positively this
openness to pluralism and multiculturalism, as instruments of economic
expansion, on the other hand, there are cultures and peoples, especially
indigenous, natives and Africans that resist with all their forces to the cul-
tural and economic homogenization that would lead them to disappear or
be reduced to mere cultural folklore. In the same context we must place
the crisis of religion, especially the classic and more institutionalized
ones , while the new religious groups, widely spread throughout Central
and Latin America, seem to live a moment of great expansion. It should
be them, according to the opinion of some experts of religion, the best
interpreters of religion in today's new socio-cultural context, referring to
their view of religion.
In this paper, we will try to place some issues mostly concerning
the Catholic Church, trying to indicate, at the end, some specific chal-
lenges.
New Paradigms
Beyond the items mentioned in the introduction, what is happen-
ing, in the opinion of many, its a paradigm shift whose consequences
are quite profound. The paradigm of modernity supported science and
was legitimized in the philosophical thought, had its rationale in the
subject-object dualism and ended by emphasizing the former over the
latter. The subject, from his ability to think, learn and formulate, becomes
the reference point of all. Thus, the thinking subject and his reason
became the decisive impulse of the scientific progress and of the modern
development system. Through reason and its scientific and technologi-
cal production, everything could be objectified and transformed starting
from the interests of the human subject. The philosophical reflection, ori-
ented as well to the study of being, just putting its emphasis on it, giving
legitimacy to such ideological paradigm, which asserts the superiority of
the one over the other: in the field of science, as well as in that of the
social, religious, cultural, relations, and so on. That kind of thinking is at
the origin of the systems of domination such as patriarchy, eurocentrism
and capitalism, to quote some ones. The emerging paradigm proposes
another type of approach: from the bipolar dualistic system that preferred
202 Luigi SCHIAVO
203
one of the two elements to against the other, to a view where everything
is related to everything: the interrelationality. The discovery of quantum
physics where matter is energy, resulting from exchange, caused a revolu-
tion in science, in thought and in the various fields of social, political and
cultural life. The overcoming the dualistic opposition: subject x object,
leading, for example to understand that there is something (an object)
outside or separated from the subject as something static that can be
known, otherwise there is a vital link between the two, by which, we not
only know each other, as we interact and this interaction is the beginning
of a continuous transformation. The subject is not one to be defined once
for all, but is constantly transforming itself: the result of its relationships.
It is a statement of fundamental importance, leading to the reformula-
tion of key concepts such as truth, identity, and the review of relations
nowadays essential, for example, the relationship with others (be they
individuals, peoples or nations), with nature and the cosmos.
The Catholic religion against those changes
This new cultural situation challenges in a special way the Catholic
Church, and some of its fundamental concepts and structures that need
to be rethought and reformulated.
- One of the central aspects of Catholicism is its self-consciousness
and self-understanding that is founded on key concepts such as "revela-
tion" and "incarnation." Such formulations are too emphasized, can be
compromised by inter-religious dialogue, arriving to an exclusive or par-
tially inclusivist position. They are also related to Christology: excessive
stress in the person of Jesus sets in a less important level the subversive
message of the Kingdom. The message is replaced by the messenger.
The person of Jesus is important, fundamental, as the bridge, the
road, while the Reign remains the ultimate goal. Furthermore, the central-
ity of Christology can produce a magical religion: it was not what Jesus
expressed by his life and words.
Rethinking the fidelity to the Gospel means coming back to the
centrality of God's plan, which coincides with what is commonly called
the Kingdom of God.
- Related to the concept of revelation is the question of truth. The
Catholic Church is very concerned about the truth, and mantains a very
clear position on what it considers truth, as the logical consequence of
the revelation of God and the incarnation of Jesus Christ. But the truth is
conceived as something objective, the "deposit" received, to be preserved
and passed: it is a set of beliefs and statements that define the Church's
doctrinal body. For this is the function of the Magisterium, whose main
task is the preservation, protection and transmission of the deposit. The
Catholic Religion and Cultural Changhes in Latin America and Caribe. 203
204
teaching function is characterized by some key dimensions: its divine
origin, resulting in religious consecration of its members, the visible
expression of the divine call, its apostolicity linking the unbroken line
of bishops to the apostles, apostolic fidelity guarantee ; his infallibility,
even if recognized only in certain cases, in which are expressed its con-
science and authority. Dogmatic attitudes of the Church and its doctrinal
intransigence are logical consequences of this restrictive conception of
truth and authority. From the new relational paradigm, it is understood
that there is no truth neither already existing nor created, but there is a
collective and plural search for truth. That means more than talking about
truth, we must consider several truths, as many as the people involved in
the search, because each one has their own understanding. Taking as an
example the glass, it is not defined by one of its facets, but by all. The
truth is proposed, then as a path, a process that is never finished, there
will always be the possibility of new contributions and new understand-
ings.
- This concept of truth leads to an overestimation of the teaching
function, which is characterized by hierarchy, institutionalization and
self-referentiality. Its standing in the divine call, makes it a necessary and
untouchable institution, and its essential reference to the sacred places
gives it a position of superiority and separation in relation to the laity.
Its hierarchical structure expresses the degree of proximity to the divine
and responsibility in its role as intermediary. All that area of mystery and
holiness of the Catholic hierarchy confers absolute and unquestionable
power, because its origin is considered divine. It is here that the ques-
tion of self-referentiality of the Magisterium originates, transforming the
tradition of the Church and its doctrinal statements, mostly of the past,
as a reference to the present and future, without considering that they
also are result of social, political, historical and cultural processes. The
doctrinal dogmatism is the logical consequence of this archaic concep-
tion of authority and doctrinal fixity and the monopoly of interpretation
related only to the magisterium, is made with no possibility of internal
questioning the Church itself, which falls under the dictatorship of fidelity
doctrine and dogmatism, which are expressed by the concept of the infal-
libility of the hierarchy. In fact, nothing more than a self-referential truth.
In that sense it is also understood its patriarchal structure, which favors
only the access of men to power, damaging the other social categories
such as women.
- Another problem with the Catholic Church is the question of
the inculturation of the gospel and, therefore, the concept of mission. It
is part of the constituent elements of the Church's mission "ad gentes",
which expresses the universal attitude of Christianity. But the universal
expansion became, in most cases, a real conquest or cultural imposition,
204 Luigi SCHIAVO
205
with all human problems, both social and cultural getting from the "evan-
gelized" cultures. There is, to understand the mission a serious mistake:
the conception of the gospel as something superior to the cultures, which
is above, and that is good for everyone, without distinction. The gospel
is considered as a metaphysical body of values, applicable equally to all
peoples and cultures. Without denying the validity of the Gospel ethics,
that position also forgets that the gospel is the result of a cultural pro-
cess, and an expression of a historically and sociologically contextualized
situation. So the gospel is also related to its time, its society and culture.
To universalize it, it must be inculturated as: translated into the symbolic
systems and the languages typical of cultures with which it comes into
contact. To do that without obstacles, you have to put on an equal situ-
ation and discuss equally with other "gospels", expressions of other cul-
tures and religions.
- The result of these medieval conceptions is a church closed in his
temple, looking for its center, concentrated on internal issues rather than
on dialogue with the world. Ecclesiocentrism prevalence is on a more
dialogic, missionary, transforming and liberating model. Thus, the Church
focuses on a sacramental pastoral and doctrinal, ritual where the function
gets a central importance. The worship and the observance of ecclesi-
astical norms (for that is the canon law!) guarantee the faithful correct
interpretation of the gospel and, ultimately, salvation. The world is always
seen as something negative, you need transformation, and God is far from
that reality, being put out of this world, considered unworthy of him. The
sky is transformed into the reference to God, to which rising the incense
smoke of religious celebrations, whose languages and symbols are no
longer understood by the people, because they are not expressions of
his life. Life, faith and celebration have no harmony between them, not
being expressions of the same outlook on life, God and religion. The cur-
rent closure of part of Latin-American church to the social question, the
poor and the transformation of reality, can only be understood with the
advance of ritualistic and sacramental model of the Church.
Challenges to the Catholic religion in LA and the Caribbean
According to what said before, it seems that some challenges are
urgently to the Catholic Church.
- Rethinking its identity and mission, from the centrality of the
Word of God. In times of crisis back to the origins is always one of the
elements that helps in the evaluation of the way. Listening to the word
enables to reaffirm the centrality of Jesus' plan and to understand the
social, cultural and historical elements, preventing from a greater trust in
it. But it is not a simple method of reading the word: it is necessary to
206
start from the historical-critical method, not legitimizing history but being
reference of a cultural construction of the text, and giving value to the
immense contributions of biblical Latin-American hermeneutics. In par-
ticular the popular reading of the Bible that gets more easily than other
methods, establishes the relationship between life, truth.
- The word has in itself the option for the poor, the impoverished,
"subjects denied", the "excess mass" as privileged theological place in a
continent scarred by a history of colonization and spoliation. The invita-
tion to resume the mission made at the Conference of Aparecida, is an
invitation to leave the temples, and internal problems to return to the
streets, squares, where are the people, especially those that are suffering.
The credibility of the Church depends on its prophetic ability and on his
desire to be again leaven in society. A neutral church, committed to the
excluded is not a true Church of Jesus Christ.
- The consequence of these choices lead to the centrality of com-
munional look, to an inclusive attitude from the excluded, to the priority
of the relational element of the institutional. In a society marked by great
migrations, products of individualism and social exclusion the commu-
nional inclusive attitude may be interpreted as a prophetic element of
the Church, expression of the project of Jesus of the shared bread. The
possibility of inclusion in relational communities, will enable the emer-
gence of new subjectivities and social and political projects that are truly
alternative, because their subjects are different. The relational element is
not opposed to the mass: the two are complementary. But the Church
must avoid the temptation of mass not to keep as central the question of
primary relationships.
- It is necessary a reflection to obtain a more inclusive understand-
ing of the ministry, involving women and other categories of people
so far excluded. This goes beyond the internal democratization of the
Church: it means the overcoming of a patriarchal conception of authority,
for the expression of power really understood as a service to all existing
subjectivities. It also involves the assumption of the relationship as basic
category that governs not only the institutional and power relations, but
also relations from which depends the hermeneutical process of defini-
tion of truth, identity and mission of the Church itself.
- Finally, it is necessary a reflection on faith in different cultures,
being more concerned with fidelity to the values rather than with history
of the definitions and doctrinal formulations. Inculturation means recog-
nizing that the Spirit becomes before the missionaries, and is expressed
by an attitude of appreciation of difference and otherness, and being less
concerned with ourselves. One of the great challenges of Christianity is
to get over the fear of others (be they religious denominations, other
206 Luigi SCHIAVO
207
religions, other cultures or the world), distrust, superiority and attitude
of confrontation, which are resolved in the attempt to reduce everyone
to himself/herself. Simply going out from ourselves to meet the other
is to follow Jesuss commandment, who invites to consider the other
more important than yourself. The emphasis on relationship is the way
to overcome the opposition! Thus, we believe, Christianity get out of its
closure to open a pluralistic dialogue in and welcome diversity, differ-
ence, plurality.
Referential Bibliography
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Bauman, Zygmunt. Confianza y temor en la ciudad. Vivir con extranjeros. Arcadia, Barcelona
2006.
Boff, Leonardo Muraro, Rose Maria. Femenino y Masculino. Una nueva consciencia para
el encuentro de las diferencias. Trotta, Madrid 2004
Capra, Fritjof. El punto crucial. Creencia, Sociedad y Cultura nasciente. La necesria visin
de una nueva realidad. Una reconciliacin entre la creencia y el espritu humano para
hacer posible el futuro. Integral, 1985.
Capra, Fritjof. La trama de la vida. Una perspectiva de los sistemas vivos. Anagrama,
Barcelona, 1998.
Capra, Fritjof. Las conexiones ocultas. Implicaciones sociales, medioambientales, econmi-
cas y biolgicas de una nueva visin del mundo. Anagrama, Barcelona 2002.
Daz-Polanco, Hctor. Elogio de la diversidad. Globalizacin, multiculturalismo, etnofagia,
Casa de las Amricas, La Habana (Cuba) 2008.
Hinkelammert, Franz. La maldicin que pesa sobre La ley. Las races del pensamiento crtico
en Pablo de Tarso. Arlekn, San Jos, Costa Rica, 2010.
Levinas, Emmanuel. La huella del otro. Taurus, Mxico 2000.
Maturana Humberto. El sentido de lo humano. Dolmen, Santiago de Chile,
8
1996.
Najmanovich, Denise. El juegos de los vnculos. Subjetividad y redes: figuras en mutacin.
Biblos, Buenos Aires 2005.
Vigil, J.M.,Theology of Religious Pluralism. Lit Verlag, Berlin, 2006.
208
Religin catlica y cambio cultural
en Amrica Latina y Caribe
Luigi Schiavo
DEI, San Jos, Costa Rica
El cambio cultural
Los cambios culturales que estamos viviendo, impulsan a cambios
estructurales a todos los niveles: poltico, econmico, social, cultural y
religioso. Los modelos de referencia de algunos aos atrs estn en crisis
y no satisfacen ms las nuevas exigencias.
Vivimos un momento de inestabilidad, que se hace ms notoria en
el campo de la poltica y de la economa. La centralidad de la economa
revela las fragilidades del sistema poltico actual, que, incluso estando
fundado en la democracia participativa, no consigue garantizar, a todos y
todas indistintamente, los derechos fundamentales. La economa de mer-
cado, establecida sobre el clculo de la utilidad, no consigue satisfacer
la voracidad de un mercado que revela toda su indiferencia en relacin a
los problemas sociales, materiales y ecolgicos. Estos elementos, y otros,
generan una profunda crisis del modelo de desarrollo, por lo dems,
dependiente del capital y del mercado.
En el campo social, las grandes olas migratorias de estos ltimos
aos, del sur a norte del mundo y del este a oeste, estn rediseando el
panorama social mundial. El contacto, no siempre pacfico, entre culturas
diferentes, genera problemas de inestabilidad social que pueden engen-
drar actitudes de intolerancia y etnocentrismo, como pueden tambin dar
vida a experiencias interesantes de encuentro y apertura. Si por un lado
la globalizacin econmica ve con simpata esa apertura al pluralismo y
al multiculturalismo, como instrumentos de su expansin econmica, por
otro lado, hay culturas y pueblos, sobre todo los autctonos, indgenas y
africanos que resisten con todas sus fuerzas a la homogeneizacin cultu-
ral y econmica, que los llevara a desaparecer o a ser reducidos a mero
folklore cultural.
En ese mismo contexto hay que situar la crisis de la religin, sobre
todo de las clsicas y ms institucionalizadas, mientras que los nuevos
grupos religiosos, florecidos numerosos en toda Amrica Latina y Central,
209
parecen vivir un momento de gran expansin. Seran, en la opinin de
algunos estudiosos de la religin, los mejores intrpretes de la religin en
el actual nuevo contexto socio-cultural, en lo que se refiere a la religin.
En el presente trabajo, trataremos de enfocarnos sobre algunas
problemticas que se refieren ms directamente a la Iglesia Catlica, pro-
curando indicar, al final, algunos desafos concretos.
Nuevos paradigmas
Ms all de los elementos sealados en la introduccin, lo que est
ocurriendo, en la opinin de muchos, es un cambio de paradigmas, cuyas
consecuencias sern bastante profundas.
El paradigma de la modernidad serva de base a la ciencia y se
legitimaba en el pensamiento filosfico: tena su razn fundamental en el
dualismo sujeto-objeto y acababa enfatizando el primero sobre el segun-
do. El sujeto, a partir de su capacidad de pensar, conocer y de formular
se transformaba en el punto de referencia de todo. De esa forma, el sujeto
pensante y su razn se convirtieron en el impulso decisivo del progreso
cientfico y del sistema de desarrollo moderno. A travs de la razn y de
su produccin cientfica y tecnolgica, todo poda ser objetivado e trans-
formado a partir de los intereses del sujeto humano. La reflexin filosfi-
ca, ella tambin orientada al estudio del ser, acababa poniendo su nfasis
en el mismo, dando legitimidad ideolgica a ese tipo de paradigma, que
afirmaba la superioridad del uno sobre los dems: en el campo de la cien-
cia, como tambin de las relaciones sociales, religiosas, culturales, etc. Ese
tipo de pensamiento est en el origen de sistemas de dominacin como el
patriarcado, el eurocentrismo y el capitalismo, por citar algunos.
El paradigma emergente propone otro planteamiento: del sistema
bipolar dualista, que privilegiaba uno de los dos elementos en perjuicio
del otro, se pasa a una concepcin en la que todo est en relacin con
todo: la interrelacionalidad. El descubrimiento de la fsica cuntica de que
la materia es energa y que sta es fruto de interrelaciones, desencade-
n una verdadera revolucin en las ciencias, en el pensamiento y en los
varios mbitos de la vida social, poltica y cultural.
La superacin de la oposicin dualstica: sujeto versus objeto, lleva,
por ejemplo, a entender que no hay algo (un objeto) fuera o separado
del sujeto, como algo esttico que se puede conocer; sino que existe una
relacin vital entre los dos, por la cual, no slo nos conocemos recproca-
mente, sino que interactuamos y esta interrelacin es el principio de una
continua transformacin. El sujeto no es un ser definido de una vez por
todas, sino en constante de-venir: es el resultado de sus relaciones. Es una
afirmacin de fundamental importancia, que lleva a la reformulacin de
conceptos clave, como el de verdad, el de identidad... y lleva tambin a la
Religin catlica y cambio cultural Amrica Latina y Caribe 209
210
revisin de relaciones hasta ahora fundamentales, como, por ejemplo, la
relacin con los otros (sean ellos personas, pueblos o naciones), con la
naturaleza y el cosmos.
La religin catlica frente esos cambios
Esa nueva situacin cultural desafa de modo especial la Iglesia
Catlica, y a algunos de sus conceptos y estructuras fundamentales, que
necesitan ser repensados y reformulados.
- Uno de los aspectos centrales del catolicismo es su auto-conscien-
cia y auto-comprensin fundados en conceptos claves como revelacin
y encarnacin. Tales formulaciones, si se enfatizan demasiado, pueden
ser perjudiciales para el dilogo inter-religioso, pues llevaran a una posi-
cin exclusivista o parcialmente inclusivista. Adems, estn relacionados
con la cristologa: la excesiva acentuacin en la persona de Jess pone
en segundo plano el mensaje subversivo del Reino. Al mensaje le acaba
sustituyendo el mensajero.
La persona de Jess es importante, fundamental, por ser el puente,
el camino, mientras que el Reino sigue siendo el propsito final. Adems,
la centralidad de la cristologa puede llevar a una religin mgica, y no
fue eso lo que Jess testimoni con su vida y palabras.
Retomar la fidelidad al evangelio, significa, entonces, retornar a la
centralidad del proyecto de Dios, que coincide con lo que comnmente
llamamos Reino de Dios.
-Relacionada al concepto de revelacin est la cuestin de la ver-
dad. La Iglesia catlica est muy preocupada por la verdad, y tiene una
postura muy clara en relacin a lo que considera verdad, entendida como
la consecuencia lgica de la revelacin de Dios y de la encarnacin de
Jesucristo. Pero la verdad es concebida como algo objetivo, el depsito
recibido, que debe ser conservado y transmitido: se trata de un conjun-
to de creencias y de afirmaciones que definen el cuerpo doctrinal de la
Iglesia. Para esto est la funcin del Magisterio, cuya tarea principal es la
conservacin, defensa y transmisin del depsito.
La funcin magisterial se caracteriza por algunas dimensiones
esenciales: su origen divino, que se traduce en la consagracin religiosa
de su miembros, expresin visible del llamado divino; su apostolicidad:
la lnea ininterrumpida que liga los obispos a los apstoles, garanta de
la fidelidad apostlica; su infalibilidad, que aunque sea reconocida slo
en determinados casos, expresa su consciencia y su autoridad.
Las actitudes dogmticas de la Iglesia y su intransigencia doctrinal
son consecuencias lgicas de esa concepcin rgida de la verdad y de la
autoridad.
210 Luigi SCHIAVO
211
A partir del nuevo paradigma relacional, se entiende que no hay
una verdad ya confeccionada y lista, sino que existe un proceso colecti-
vo y plural de bsqueda de la verdad. Eso significa que ms que hablar
de una verdad, debemos considerar varias verdades, tantas cuantas son
las personas involucradas en su bsqueda, porque cada una tiene de la
misma su propia comprensin. Como un diamante, ella no se define por
una sola de sus facetas, sino por todas. La verdad se propone, entonces
como camino, proceso que nunca ser acabado, pues siempre habr posi-
bilidad de nuevos aportes y nuevas comprensiones.
- Esta concepcin de la verdad conlleva una supervaloracin de la
funcin magisterial, que se caracteriza por su jerarquizacin, instituciona-
lizacin y auto-referencialidad. Su legitimacin sobre el llamado divino la
transforma en una institucin necesaria e intocable; y su referencia esen-
cial a lo sagrado la pone en situacin de superioridad y de separacin
en relacin a los laicos. Su estructura jerrquica refleja el grado de proxi-
midad a lo divino y de responsabilidad en su funcin de intermediacin.
Toda esa esfera de misterio y de santidad confiere a la jerarqua catlica
un poder absoluto e incuestionable, porque se considera derivacin divi-
na. Es aqu donde tiene sus races la cuestin del auto-referencialidad del
magisterio, que transforma la tradicin de la Iglesia y sus afirmaciones
doctrinales, la mayora del pasado, en referencia para el presente y el
futuro, sin considerar que tambin son fruto de procesos sociales, pol-
ticos, histricos y culturales. El dogmatismo doctrinal es la consecuencia
lgica de esa concepcin arcaica de autoridad; y la rigidez doctrinal y el
monopolio interpretativo relacionado solamente al magisterio eclesisti-
co, hacen que no haya posibilidad de cuestionamiento interno a la propia
Iglesia, que cae en la dictadura de la fidelidad doctrinal y del dogma-
tismo, que se expresan en el concepto de infalibilidad de su jerarqua.
En realidad, no pasa de una verdad autorreferencial. En ese sentido se
entiende tambin su estructura patriarcal, que privilegia nicamente el
acceso de los varones al poder, en perjuicio de otras categoras sociales,
como las mujeres.
- Otro problema de la Iglesia catlica es la cuestin de la incultu-
racin del evangelio y, por consiguiente, el concepto de misin. Forma
parte de los elementos constitutivos de la Iglesia la misin ad gentes,
que expresa la actitud universalista del cristianismo. Pero, la expansin
universalista se transform, en la mayora de los casos, en verdadera con-
quista o imposicin cultural, con todos los problemas humanos, sociales y
culturales que eso trajo para las culturas evangelizadas. Hay, por detrs
de esa comprensin de misin un equvoco muy serio: la concepcin del
evangelio como algo superior a las culturas, algo que estara por encima,
y que sera bueno para todos. Se considera el evangelio como un cuer-
po metafsico de valores, aplicable indistintamente a todos los pueblos
212
y culturas. Sin negar la validez tica del evangelio, esa posicin olvida
que tambin el evangelio es fruto de un proceso cultural, y es expresin
de una situacin contextualizada tanto histrica como sociolgicamente.
Entonces, tambin el evangelio es relativo a su tiempo, a su sociedad y
a su cultura. Para universalizarlo, tiene que ser inculturado, quiere decir:
traducido en los sistemas simblicos y en los lenguajes tpicos de las cul-
turas con las cuales entra en contacto. Sin embrago, para hacer eso, hay
que ponerse en una situacin de igualdad y dialogar de par a par con
otros evangelios, expresiones de otras culturas y religiones.
- El resultado de esas concepciones medievales es una Iglesia
cerrada dentro su templo, que mira para su ombligo, preocupada por sus
cuestiones internas ms, que en dialogo con el mundo. Es la prevalencia
del eclesiocentrismo sobre un modelo ms dialogal, misionero, transfor-
mador y liberador. De esa forma, la Iglesia se concentra en una pastoral
sacramental y doctrinal, en las que la funcin ritual adquiere importancia
central. El culto y la observancia de normas eclesisticas (para eso est
el derecho cannico!) garantizan a los fieles su correcta interpretacin del
evangelio y, al final, su salvacin. El mundo es siempre entendido como
algo negativo, que necesita de transformacin, y Dios est alejado de esa
realidad, es puesto fuera de este mundo, considerado indigno de l. El
cielo es transformado en la referencia de Dios, hacia el cual se elevan
los humos de incienso de las celebraciones religiosas, cuyos lenguajes y
smbolos ya no son entendidos por el pueblo, porque no son expresiones
de su vida. Vida, fe y celebracin no tienen ya sintona entre ellas, no
son expresiones de la misma visin de la vida, de Dios y de la religin.
La actual actitud de rechazo de parte de la iglesia latino-americana hacia
la cuestin social, del pobre y de la transformacin de la realidad, slo
puede ser entendida con el avance del modelo ritualista y sacramental
de Iglesia.
Desafos a la religin catlica en Amrica Latina y Caribe
Frente a lo expuesto anteriormente, nos parece que algunos desa-
fos se presentan con urgencia a la Iglesia Catlica.
- Repensar su identidad y misin, a partir de la centralidad de la
Palabra de Dios. En perodos de crisis volver a los orgenes es siempre
uno de los elementos que ayudan en la evaluacin del camino. Ponerse
en la escucha de la Palabra posibilita reafirmar la opcin y la centralidad
del proyecto de Jess y entender los elementos sociales, culturales e his-
tricos que impiden una mayor fidelidad al mismo. Pero, no se trata de
cualquier mtodo de lectura de la Palabra: es necesario partir del mtodo
histrico-critico, no como legitimador de la historia, sino como referen-
cia de una construccin cultural del texto, y valorizando las inmensas
212 Luigi SCHIAVO
213
contribuciones de la hermenutica bblica latino-americana. Sobre todo
la lectura popular de la Biblia que consigue, ms fcilmente que otros
mtodos, establecer la relacin entre vida, palabra y fe.
- La Palabra lleva a la opcin por los pobres, los empobrecidos,
los sujetos negados, las masas sobrantes, como lugar teolgico privi-
legiado, en un continente marcado por una historia de colonizacin y
expoliacin. La invitacin a retomar la misin hecha en la Conferencia
de Aparecida, es invitacin a salir de los templos, y de los problemas
internos para volver a las calles, a las plazas, donde se encuentra el pue-
blo, sobre todo los que ms estn sufriendo. La credibilidad de la Iglesia
depende de su capacidad proftica, y sa, de su voluntad de volver a ser
fermento dentro la sociedad. Una Iglesia neutra y no comprometida con
los excluidos no es una Iglesia fiel a Jess.
- La consecuencia de estas opciones lleva a la centralidad del
aspecto comunional, a una actitud inclusiva a partir de los excluidos, a la
prioridad del elemento relacional sobre lo institucional. En una sociedad
marcada por grandes migraciones, productos del individualismo y de la
exclusin social, la actitud inclusiva y comunional podr ser interpretada
como uno de los elementos profticos de la iglesia, en fidelidad al pro-
yecto del pan compartido de Jess. La posibilidad de inclusin en comu-
nidades relacionales, posibilitar el emerger de nuevas subjetividades y
de proyectos sociales y polticos verdaderamente alternativos, porque sus
sujetos son diferentes. El elemento relacional no se opone a la masa: los
dos son complementarios. Pero la Iglesia tiene que evitar la tentacin de
la masa, sin poner en el centro el aspecto de las relaciones primarias.
- Es necesaria una reflexin para una comprensin ms inclusiva
del ministerio, que englobe las mujeres y otras categoras de personas
hasta ahora excluidas. Eso va ms all de una democratizacin interna
de la Iglesia: implica la superacin de una concepcin patriarcal de la
autoridad, en favor de la expresin del poder entendido realmente como
servicio a todas las subjetividades existentes. Implica tambin la asuncin
de la interrelacin como categora bsica que regula no solamente las
relaciones institucionales y de poder, como tambin las relaciones de las
cuales depende el proceso hermenutico de definicin de la verdad, de
la identidad y misin de la propia Iglesia.
- Finalmente, es necesario una reflexin que piense la fe dentro
de las diferentes culturas, preocupndose ms por la fidelidad a los valo-
res que por la historia de las definiciones y formulaciones doctrinarias.
Inculturacin significa reconocer que el Espritu precede a los misione-
ros/as, y se traduce en una actitud de valorizacin de la diferencia y de
la otreidad, y una menor preocupacin con s mismo. Uno de los grandes
desafos del Cristianismo es lo de conseguir superar el miedo de los otros
214
(ya sean otras confesiones religiosas, otras religiones, otras culturas o el
mundo), la desconfianza, la actitud de superioridad y de confrontacin,
que se resuelven en la tentativa de reducir todos y todas a s mismo.
Salir de s para ir con sencillez al encuentro del otro es poner en prctica
el mandamiento de Jess, que invita a considerar al prjimo como ms
importante que uno mismo. El nfasis en la relacin es el camino para
superar la contraposicin! De esa forma, creemos, la cristiandad conse-
guir salir de su cerrazn actual para abrirse al dilogo plural y acoger
en su medio la diversidad, la diferencia, la pluralidad.
Bibliografa de referencia
Bauman, Zygmunt. La sociedad individualizada. Ctedra, Madrid 2001.
Bauman, Zygmunt. Confianza y temor en la ciudad. Vivir con extranjeros. Arcadia, Barcelona
2006.
Boff, Leonardo Muraro, Rose Maria. Femenino y Masculino. Una nueva consciencia para
el encuentro de las diferencias. Trotta, Madrid 2004
Capra, Fritjof. El punto crucial. Creencia, Sociedad y Cultura naciente. La necesaria visin de
una nueva realidad. Una reconciliacin entre la creencia y el espritu humano para hacer
posible el futuro. Integral, 1985.
Capra, Fritjof. La trama de la vida. Una perspectiva de los sistemas vivos. Anagrama,
Barcelona, 1998.
Capra, Fritjof. Las conexiones ocultas. Implicaciones sociales, medioambientales, econmi-
cas y biolgicas de una nueva visin del mundo. Anagrama, Barcelona 2002.
Daz-Polanco, Hctor. Elogio de la diversidad. Globalizacin, multiculturalismo, etnofagia,
Casa de las Amricas, La Habana (Cuba) 2008.
Hinkelammert, Franz. La maldicin que pesa sobre La ley. Las races del pensamiento crtico
en Pablo de Tarso. Arlekn, San Jos, Costa Rica, 2010.
Levinas, Emmanuel. La huella del otro. Taurus, Mxico 2000.
Maturana Humberto. El sentido de lo humano. Dolmen, Santiago de Chile,
8
1996.
Najmanovich, Denise. El juegos de los vnculos. Subjetividad y redes: figuras en mutacin.
Biblos, Buenos Aires 2005.
Vigil, J.M., Teologia do pluralismo religioso. Para una releitura pluralista do cristianismo. So
Paulo, Paulus, 2006.
214 Luigi SCHIAVO
215
Religion in a Thecno-centric
and Market-Based World
Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
ISTA, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil
Abstract
We live, today, under the hegemony of a techno-centric and mar-
ket-based paradigm. It is the authentic horizons, in the interior of which
are uncovered all of the scopes of the human experience. That said, what
does human kind and religion become in this new era? Techno-science
has become a horizon of comprehension of man regarding the world and
himself. Not only our lifestyles, and our way of life and work, are condi-
tioned by technology, but also our deeper identity is lost by the technical
difference. We are still victims of the absolutization of the market: an
authentic mercantilization of life and, therefore, culture and religion.
The market presents itself as the only setting of our present civilizations
story line. Our vital fluctuations, as well as the values and religious and
cultural symbols become merchandise to consume and discard. This has
been the price that religion decided to pay in exchange for the right of
citizenship in a world dominated by techno-science and by the market.
Resumen
Vivemos, hoje, sob a hegemonia do paradigma tecnocntrico e mer-
cadolgico, que se constituem em autnticos horizontes no interior dos
quais se desvelam todos os mbitos da experincia humana. Isso posto,
o que o ser humano e a religio se tornam nessa nova situao epocal?
A Tecnocincia tornou-se horizonte de compreenso do ser humano em
relao ao mundo e si prprio. No apenas nossos estilos de vida, nosso
modo de trabalhar e viver, so condicionados pela tcnica, mas tambm
nossa identidade mais profunda dada pela diferena tcnica. Somos
ainda vtimas da absolutizao do Mercado: uma autntica mercanti-
lizao da vida e, portanto, tambm da cultura e da religio. O mercado
vai se impondo como nico cenrio de nossa trama civilizacional atual.
Nossos fluxos vitais e tambm os valores e smbolos culturais e religiosos
se tornam mercadoria de consumo e de descarte. Esse tem sido o preo
que a religio decidiu pagar em troca do direito de cidadania em um
mundo dominado pela tecnocincia e pelo mercado.
216
Religion is an extremely complex phenomenon; such that we shun
the pretension that we could exhaust such complexity. What we want, in
fact, is to consider religion in the context of the contemporary hegemonic
paradigm, as well as techno-centric and market-based context. It appears
to us that, in such context, religion runs the risk of succumbing when
faced with a double reductionism. We purposely choose the term reduc-
tionism because we believe that, in both cases, religion feels obliged to
circumscribe the situations that, in principle, are foreign to the phenom-
enon that is religion. This double reductionism is the price that religion
has paid for acquiring the right of citizenship, in a world dominated by
techno-science and the market.
1. Techno-science as horizon of the present base experience
The modern Western paradigm is characterized, among other
things, by a visible anthro-centrism expressed in the peculiar attitude of
putting ourselves above things; objectifying them as foreign, because dis-
connected from human beings, they are seen as merely as our subjects.
Modernity is revealed, like this, as a movement that, from the centrality of
Cartesian thought, was disintegrating the mystic nature of the world, so
that human beings could embody more and more their intent to become,
in effect, le maitre et le possesseur de la nature (Descartes).
It is attested, in this sense, a correlation between might makes
right of the modern subject and the disenchantment of the world con-
sidered merely an object. Things begin to be seen by humans only in
light of their usefulness. Westerners are made prisoners, therefore, to their
own interest and to the image of themselves neglecting other humans
and creatures, while limiting their relations to those things that are use-
ful and functional. Our subject felt more and more the ray of his power,
subjecting and subordinating everything he found himself faced with. In
this perspective, the human being is auto-affirmed in a fight against the
others (those considered strange) and, therefore, they are made objects to
be dominated or eliminated.
In such a context, technology was co-opted by the subject as a priv-
ileged instrument for the wielding of that knowledge as power. In fact,
technology was used, in the condition of an instrument, to that domain
of the thinking subject about other beings considered mere measurable
objects. Considered by human kind as a mere instrument, technology was
seen as emanating from the subject, in other words a sort of extension
of his members in relation to the potency of his domain over things. In
a word, technology was considered a mere instrument at the disposal of
the human being.
216 Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
217
For some decades now we have been witness to a huge expan-
sion of techno-science to the point of being considered a new era. From
a mere instrument of domination at human disposal, techno-science
has constituted a final horizon where we uncover all of the scopes of
experience, arriving at adjusting, even the way that humans understand
themselves.
After all, wouldnt complete control embody pretensions of total-
ity? Wouldnt the expansion of planetary control be inherent to the same
essence of all technology? Wouldnt contemporary technologies only be
causing the final consequences of the modern intent to equate knowl-
edge with power? The advancement and expansion of technology has
produced a phenomenon described as the displacement of subjectivity.
Who has better characterized this passage, carrying it with strong colors
that the Italian philosopher Umberto Galimberti. He writes:
To that height, man is no longer a subject, but something arran-
ged in the horizon uncovered by technology, that is, therefore, what
determines the way of man to perceive, feel, think, and project. []
Technology, in its old version, was the mediator in the man-nature rela-
tionship in its modern version becomes the horizon inside which man
and nature are arranged by the demands that technical possibilities
promote. [] Man is not more capable of perceiving himself even outside
of the world arranged by technology. As mans environment, technology
is that relationship through which todays man arrives at self understan-
ding. [] By that we say that in the arrangement of the world, and not
in its instrumentality should we identify the essence of technology. And
this signifies that technology is not more applied science but a horizon
inside which pure science also finds the condition and the destination of
its inquiry.
The verification of this simultaneous process of techno-sphere
emergency and the displacement of subjectivity would justify for itself
alone the need for its own hermeneutics for techno-science to be under-
stood. We cant continue speaking of a world custom-made for humans,
but of humans custom-made for the world. By that, we begin to employ
the term techno-sphere to refer to a sort of internal environment where
new visions of the cosmos are produced. We overcome, for example, that
geometrical and mechanistic vision of classical physics and its domesti-
cating function. Now, in the regime of techno-science, nature is decom-
posed and, so to speak, recreated according to models of informational
science and molecular biology. In other words, technology stopped being
that sort of slave that helped humans achieve their own ends, and became
now the producer of need of which humans become more and more
dependent. The technological world becomes more and more indispen-
sible for the survival of human beings.
Religion in a Thecno-centric and Market-Based World 217
218
The relationship between techno-science and humans becomes still
more complex when considered from the perspective of recent experi-
ences of hybridization between them. The technologies are not them-
selves simply in opposition to human beings. In its autonomy, technology
is capable of integrating with humans in its technical apparatus. And
what comes to be created, from here on, is a man-machine system, and
human behavior is delegated merely to a function of the machines with
the machines regulated by technology. With good reason R. Marchesini
writes:
Technology transforms human epistemic imports; it imports non-
humans in the dimensions; it modifies the formative perception that man
has of himself; it facilitates the processes of change in reference with
non-humans; and finally it conjugates and hybridizes (it does not sepa-
rate nor purify); it de-anthro-centralizes and does not reinforce anthro-
central thought.
This makes us think that, in the end, all technology is, in fact, a bio-
technology. The technology becomes, in that case, a partner of humans
since it modifies not only its profile, but also modifies its profile as a
biological entity. In this sense, technology opens us for the world in the
exact proportion in that it facilitates the hybrid process between humans
and non-humans. In fact, technology penetrates the human interior to
the point of becoming, for all intents, its meat. In this way our body is
transformed into a true proving ground of the new technologies and this
hybridization has happened with increasing acceleration with profound
modifications when it comes to the predicates and human attributes.
Considering, therefore, that technology in our days has become an
indispensible horizon of comprehension for humans regarding the world
and technology itself, then perhaps it was the case for us to ask ourselves,
What have humans and religion become in the broad situation uncov-
ered by technology? Perhaps it is important to remember, in such a case,
that techno-science becomes fundamentally conditioned as much through
the facility for unlimited experimentation as by the infinite manipulation
thereof. In that sense, not only are our lifestyles, and way of work and life
conditioned by technology, but also our deeper identity is conditioned by
technological differences. And in this radical turn-around, we are faced
with a hardly surmountable conclusion: Its no longer what we are able
to do with technology, but what technology can do with us.
Religion within the narrow limits of mere functionality
Technology does not propose, nor does it establish, goals to be
reached. Its movement is the growth of its own results, and its inci-
dence rests in its self-potency. Considering itself the purpose, technology
assumes that the principal regulating device is the imperative categorical
219
according to which everything should be done that can be done. This
being the case, technology does not respond to another end or beginning
that is not from the achievement of its own possibilities.
Although many of our contemporaries still hold messianic expec-
tations in technology, technology does not remeem us. Nore save us. It
only grows, or better yet, swells and inflates itself, expanding itself for
its own benefit. Technology is unlimited and, in that sense, swallows
the spaces that were once reserved for religion. By that some authors
speak of the twilight of religion as one of the characteristics of the
age of technology. The only limit of technology is the present state of
the results achieved. By this reason, we frequently hear expressions like:
that is not yet possible, but with all certainty, in the near future it will
be. We perceive in this way, that the limit can be placed to the infinite.
Technology operates, having as its unique purpose, its own increasing
power. Technology becomes its own end.
In the age of technology constitutive elements of religion are
put in crisis. Constitutive dimensions of practically all the big religious
traditions have been ethics. It finds us, today, in a situation of impasse.
This impasse borders on impotence, when for example, ethics is found
incapable of impeding the effectiveness of technology and its possibili-
ties. It is inevitable that in a little while, what is technically possible, will
be carried out, according to the great cosmologist Stephen Hawking.
Everything that is possible looks to have gained, in our days, legitimacy,
and therefore is sought by technologies in a sort of morbid compulsion.
When technology was still utilized as a mere instrument, it was
done within the limits of ethics. Therefore ethics was concerned about
the ends, while technology was in charge of the means for the achieve-
ment of those same ends. It was, therefore the role of ethics to approve
technology as well as the ends produced while guiding the technical pro-
cess. In our days, that situation has reversed itself. Technology no longer
needs ethics to approve the ends it produces. Technology conditions eth-
ics in the sense of obliging it to take part of an artificial reality. The ends
become nothing more than the results of the technical procedures. The
act of making, as production of results, assumes a place of higher impor-
tance than the act as a choice and decision of the ends. Ethics, therefore,
finds itself faced with the results of technical procedures, and without
having chosen them is unable to detach itself from them.
In the age of techno-science we perceive the honor of being a
finalist. Forced by the creation of a world more and more artificial; a
world that is a product of contemporary technology, ethics are no lon-
ger able to arrange another model, except continuous technical output.
Our ethics, matured in the heart of the Western tradition had, without
220
exception, a diverse model: cosmological (old), theological (medieval),
anthropological or ideological (modern). Our religious and humanistic
ethics are found in a situation of true impotence. They are not able to
transpose the universe of inter-subjective relations in order to notice an
artificial reality that has pretensions of universality and whose scope is,
in fact, planetary.
Besides, technological works are revealed as impersonal. In our
days, the effects of technological works are not fruit of decisions taken
by works of man. They are, to the contrary, results of procedures and
approaches already initiated and whose only basis is the accumulation
of knowledge. In that sense, technology works in the following way: the
results accumulate throughout--and by means of--its own procedures. The
effects, therefore, can no longer be traced to the initial agents.
Another constitutional dimension of the religious phenomenon is
time, be it cyclical or lineal. The experience of time as an event that mani-
fests itself in the course of history loses importance in the age of tech-
nology. We speak of the twilight of history conceived like time endowed
with sense. The dimension of history completely annuls itself while the
narrative itself is woven around a constructed feeling deconstructed and
reconstructed around three axes: past, present, and future. We are suf-
focated by the inflation and swelling of the present that extends its ten-
tacles more and more until achieving the dimensions of the entire world.
The past loses itself in the insignificance of the ultra-past; the future is
reduced to an insignificant improvement of technical procedures. The
only time contemplated by the new technologies is the one that distin-
guishes its products in first, second, third, last generation.
New technologies assume a peculiar relation with time. We watch
today a process of increasing acceleration of time and of the attempt
to circumscribe the scope of mere quantity. Years ago, we still spoke
of progress. We would say that the modern paradigm was structured
around the axis of progress, understood as well-being, and production
of wealth for all, etc. The notion of progress, in spite of all its historical
contradictions, still denotes an interior advance of the horizon of sense.
Today, to the contrary, we only hear speak of development or growth.
By means of those two categories time seems to lose any and all trace of
intensity to establish itself only in the sphere of the quantitative. Time,
in effect, is merely quantitative measure. We find ourselves in the age of
technology, entangled in the fibers of the kronos time, whose rhythm is
despotic and merciless, dragging everything it encounters without mercy.
Technology consigns time to its results and nothing more.
If, in fact, technology has become, in our days, a true environ-
ment; in other words, that regarding which modern man comes to self
221
knowledge, and of the world in which man finds himself inserted, then it
is also true that technology has become a sort of atmosphere in which
and by means of whichhumans perceive, think, and express their basic
relations: with himself, with his peers, and with the world in which he
lives. In this context, situations emerge that would be characterized as
true symptoms of that new environment promoted by the techno-science.
The culture of narcissism, for example, is where the liberty of self-real-
ization is confused with the impossibility of leaving the plane of the I.
Another example would be the situation of monologue produced by the
media language of today.
In this new configuration, the existence of people taken as indi-
viduals would only be justified on the basis of the technical ability and
productive capacity of that same individual. In that case, the identity of a
person would be reduced to his functionality. In other words, a persons
value would reside in their own competence and professionalism. And
this is because technology recognizes efficiency as the only value.
The conception of truth is found, in the world of technology, condi-
tioned by the notion of efficacy. The truth of technology is, for all effects,
functional. True is what is effective in real terms and nothing else. It no
longer interests us to search for pure knowledge, but instead utilizable
knowledge. It is an issue of the reduction of the logos to its technological
dimension. We witness, therefore, the hegemony of instrumental reason;
reason that, in its time produces a simultaneous dual trial of dehumaniza-
tion of the human and the denaturalization of nature. In the exercise of
reason the result is the translation of the ends to results, rewarding the
be like this over the should be like this; the reduction of the unknown
to unknowable mathematical and, finally, the submission of the novelty
to the order of prediction.
On the basis of what was said up to here, technology is found free
of any ties. It is presented, for all effect, as being ab-solute, in the ety-
mological sense of the term, solutes ab, free of any tie, where tie can be
understood as horizon of ends, output of meaning, limit or conditioning.
We would be able to conclude saying that, in the age of technology, no
end justifies the means, given that only the means justify the ends. It is
what G. Anders bluntly affirms:
For a long time now weve been preparing the degeneration of
the double concept means to an end. Any of the phases of that process--
means and endshave changed roles: the fabrication of means becomes
today, the end of our existence. And it searched frequently (in all coun-
tries, because the evolution is general) things are justified that before had
value as an end (purpose), showing that they can be used, doubtless, as a
means to itself with great results (for example: distraction and love, and
even religion). [] What we cannot try to prove is that a means does not
222
have access to the modern cosmos of objects. By that: The exact reason
they are not means, the ends are considered to be without any objecti-
ve. The objective of the objectives consists, today, in being means of the
means. It is simply a point of fact and the formulation is paradoxical,
only because the fact is paradoxical.
Assuming this, we would dare to formulate the following question:
In our days, would the religions be to a great extent witnessing that sin-
gular paradox set out above? Would they not be swallowing the bait that
is thrown by our techno-centric civilization subjecting themselves to the
conditions that are offered, restricting themselves to the narrow limits of
mere functionality?
2. The absolutization of the market
We are victims, at present, of a process that could be described as
absolutization of the market; in other words, an authentic commoditi-
zation of life and, therefore, consequently, of culture and religion. This
signifies, that the market imposes itself as the only scenario of our civi-
lizations story line. In that context, our vital fluctuations, and the values
and religions and cultural symbols become merchandise of consumption
and disposal. Sharp analysts have debated about this present phenom-
enon that has attacked our contemporary societies.
We have witnessed a new phase of Western capitalism, described
as intangible capitalism or symbolic capitalism. In the bulge of this
great transformation of the material culture, the so-called immateriality
constitutes one of its more fascinating traits. In this new configuration,
less and less work is required for the manufacture of products, creat-
ing a fragile cost and a low price. To contain this price cut, companies
transform their material products into esthetic, affectionate, symbolic,
intangible property.
What counts now is no longer the practical utility of the product,
but yes, the subjective desire to obtain, through the consumption of a
determined product: identity, prestige, personality, or the desire to obtain
the quality of knowledgeof which the consumer judges the result. By
means of the fall of the value of the material products and the artificial
increase of the intangible change in value, a collapse of the basics of the
political economy is verified: knowledge, products, and capital.
We enter, like this, into a new phase of Western capitalism; not
more productive, but this time consumerist. For this a frantic search to
merchandize everything in order to inflate (to the maximum) the universe
of goods in view of greater and greater consumption. If before, in the
industrialist era, we needed the alluring expression of Michel Foucault,
helpful, available, and docile bodies; today the interest is in qualified
223
soulssubjectivities drawn from the qualities more desired in the labor
market. In its new phase, capitalism is interested in the formation of
subjective consumers. And in order to increase the consumption, and the
appetite of consumers, it becomes indispensable to invest in the fetishism
of the goods.
All of this is only possible under the presumption that we find (in
the process) a growing supremacy of the market in the administration
of the vital fluctuations. In the contemporary world, life itself is defined
like a producta merchandise; in a word, a human invention. All of this
is thanks to the unheard-of capacity of 21st century capitalism to operate
an authentic symbolic kidnapping of the vital forces. Capitalism does not
only capture such forces, but also is able to recycle the resistances to this
kidnapping by means of the output of advertising slogans and good to
be consumed.
On the basis of such analyses, neoliberal capitalism would be final-
izing its growing process of expansion and its consequent hegemony
of mercantile tentacles. Insofar as it is possible to transform life, and
therefore transform the values, and religions and cultural symbols in mer-
chandise of consumption and the neoliberal capitalism has consolidated
its hegemony over our entire civilization. Referring to that expedient, the
well-known theologian Joao Baptist Libanio formulates an expressive and
alluring pun: Religion becomes neoliberal and neo-liberalism becomes
religion. And what is more disturbing: this process has also begun in the
heart of the thousands of religious traditions.
Religion is subjected to the unseemly interests of the market
Our era finds itself marked by a phenomenon that has come to be
known as The divine epiphany. Surprised, in fact, we watch the phe-
nomena that we allow to become visible in a clear excess of belief. This
appears to constitute a vital atmosphere of our contemporary culture.
The subjectifying of the faith or privatization of religion is fundamen-
tally characterized by a diffuse religiosity, whose most significant result
looks to be the instrumentalization of religion in function of individual
needs and interests. What is established is a religiosity without demand
for conversion; without any external intervention capable of provoking
in the faithful a process of unconditional adhesion to God, expressed in
the greater search of conformity to Gods will. The sense of faith as an
attitude of obedience to God is lost.
This specific experience of the sacred is firstly a superficiality of
feelings and emotions; leaving, to the contrary, intact those innermost
existential structures of human beings. It is besides a religiosity without
any objectivity; the objective precepts of the religious traditions are con-
224
sidered too hard. Desired now, in this new reference chart, is a lighter
religiosity of character where the individual needs and short-comings
begin to occupy a place of prominence.
This situation is aggravated still more when considered in its con-
sumer society. Witnessing this sort of consumerist instrumentalization of
religion are so many initiatives proposed with frequency in such envi-
ronments. It isnt by chance, and has been said with enough frequency,
in the last times of the religion of the market.
The media has performed a very important role in the process
of fetish-ization of religions products. And the media, as we know, has
stopped being a simple means to become a world outside of which we
are no longer able to live. We can no longer separate ourselves from a
media-driven world since it has become impossible to have an experience
except for the proposal made by the media. The media-driven description
of the world constructs the facts based on the information, and not to the
contrary as one would think. And the combination between market and
media has been revealed as very efficient with regard to the unseemly
interests of the market.
The market seems to have discovered, finally, an immense virgin
land. By that, with unheard-of voracity, the market has invested in the
fetishism of the symbolic-religious good, exploring (to the maximum) the
deep religious desire of immense majorities of the population. A large
part of the religious leaders have let themselves be seduced by the offer-
ings of the market, believing they will be the protagonists of an authentic
religious revival. It seems to us the grand illusion. Instead of protagonists,
they are being submitted, knowingly or not, to the seductions of a market
that reduces religious symbols to mere goods of consumption, obeying
the unseemly interests.
Conclusion: The indispensable process of religious discernment
We are of the opinion that we must not elude ourselves with
present religious awakenings. More than anything it looks to be an
expression of a singular anxiety of the contemporary human being; the
same human that believed excessively in technology and in its messianic
promises of salvation. Conscious of the lure of which human kind has
been victim, today man understands the techno-scientific progress with
its project of infinite expansion, which it carries in its own excesses, the
possibility of destruction and the threat of extinction of a significant part
of life on the planet.
However, recent facts of the last census, promoted by the IBGE in
Brazil, has shown a process of growing migration in the religious scope.
225
With much facility, people migrate from one religious denomination to
another in a short period of time. And that is repeated one, two, three.
ten times. And in the end those people end up declaring themselves
without religion. And what moves such people to carry out that singular
itinerary are the expectations that religion nourishes. They seek the reli-
gion where their expectations of luck can be satisfied as quickly as pos-
sible. They let themselves be impressed, better yet, seduced by the most
immediate offering of satisfaction of their own needs. And once frustrated
by such expectations, they change religions. And after successive frustra-
tions, they completely abandon the religious universe. Such facts seem to
confirm our theory of the double reductionism where religion is a victim
in the present world.
If, in fact, our theory is pertinent, then it becomes indispensable to
establish a process of discernment for religion. Presuming its character
of eminent mediator, religion will never allow itself to swallow unseemly
intentions of techno-science, or of the market. Religious leaders will
never allow themselves the luxury of feeling released from participation
and social inclusion, and finally, the fate of life on our planet.
Religion is perhaps the only establishment capable of reconnect-
ing, as expressed in the etymology of the word, the broken threads of
the complex web that is our world. In this sense, the religious universe
is constituted in privileged space to usurp the overwhelming omnipo-
tence of new technologies and the market, unmasking their oppressive
tentacles and their unseemly interests. If the responsibility of religion is
to reconstruct from the ruins; to sew again from the lacerations and frag-
mentations, then how is this done if not by seeking to rescue its intrinsi-
cally religious dimension?
In this sense, we are of the opinion that religious are faced with
a singular responsibility: rethink the risks and the importance of that
paradoxical and ambiguous dimension of human kind that reflects in
the religious sphere. And so that such a responsibility yields fruit, it is
fundamental that religions recuperate and embody the profile that they,
an fact, are called to fit: the urgent solicitation of religious discernment.
226
A Religio em um mundo
tecnocntrico e mercadolgico
Sinivaldo Silva TAVARES
ISTA, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brasil
A religio um fenmeno extremamente complexo. Por isso, longe
de ns a pretenso de esgotar tal complexidade. O que queremos, na
verdade, considerar a religio no contexto do paradigma contempor-
neo hegemnico, tecnocntrico e mercadolgico. Parece-nos que, em tal
contexto, a religio corre o risco de sucumbir diante de um duplo reducio-
nismo. Escolhemos de propsito o termo reducionismo por acreditarmos
que, em ambos os casos, a religio se sente obrigada a se circunscrever
a situaes que, em princpio, so alheias ao fenmeno religioso propria-
mente dito. Esse duplo reducionismo, em ltima instncia, o preo que
a religio tem pagado para adquirir direito de cidadania em um mundo
dominado pela tecnocincia e pelo mercado.
1. A tecnocincia como horizonte de fundo da experincia atual
O paradigma ocidental moderno se caracterizava, entre outras
coisas, por um visvel antropocentrismo, expresso na peculiar atitude de
se colocar sobre as coisas, objetivando-as, e julgando-as alheias, porque,
desconectadas do ser humano, concebido como sujeito. A Modernidade
revelou-se, assim, como um movimento que, a partir da centralidade do
cogito cartesiano, foi desintegrando e pulverizando a ndole mistrica do
mundo, para que o ser humano pudesse concretizar cada vez mais seu
intento de se tornar, para todos os efeitos, le matre et le possesseur de la
nature (Descartes).
Atestava-se, neste sentido, uma correlao entre vontade de poder
do sujeito moderno e o desencantamento do mundo considerado apenas
como objeto. As coisas passaram a ser vistas pelo ser humano apenas na
sua utilidade. Preso, portanto, ao prprio interesse e imagem de si, o
ser humano ocidental passou a descuidar dos outros humanos e das cria-
turas, limitando-se a manter relaes meramente funcionais e utilitrias.
O cogito foi se sentindo sempre mais o raio de seu poder, sujeitando e
subordinando tudo o que encontrava diante de si. Nessa perspectiva, o
227
ser humano se auto-afirmava em luta contra os outros, considerados estra-
nhos e, portanto, objetos a serem submetidos ou eliminados.
Num tal contexto, a tcnica foi excogitada pelo sujeito como instru-
mento privilegiado para o exerccio desse saber como poder. Com razo
se dizia que a tcnica nada mais era que cincia aplicada. De fato, a tc-
nica se prestava, na condio de instrumento, a esse domnio do sujeito
pensante sobre os demais seres considerados meros objetos mensurveis.
Concebida como mero instrumento, a tcnica era vista como emanao do
sujeito, vale dizer, uma espcie de extenso de seus membros em vistas
ao potenciamento de seu domnio sobre as coisas. Numa palavra, a tec-
nologia era considerada mero instrumento disposio do ser humano.
Desde algumas dcadas, estamos assistindo a uma expanso tama-
nha da tecnocincia a ponto de se caracterizar uma autntica virada epo-
cal. De mero instrumento de dominao disposio do ser humano, ela
teria se constitudo em horizonte ltimo no interior do qual se desvelam
todos os mbitos da experincia, chegando a condicionar inclusive a
maneira de o prprio ser humano se auto-conceber.
Afinal, todo controle no encarnaria pretenses de totalidade? A
expanso de um controle planetrio no seria inerente essncia mesma
de toda tcnica? As tecnologias contemporneas no estariam apenas
levando s ltimas conseqncias o intento moderno do saber como
poder? O avano das tecnologias e sua expanso tm produzido um fen-
meno descrito como deslocamento da subjetividade. Quem melhor tem
caracterizado essa passagem, carregando-a com cores fortes, o filsofo
italiano Umberto Galimberti. Escreve ele:
A essa altura, o homem no mais sujeito, mas algo disposto
no horizonte desvelado pela tcnica, que , pois, o que decide o modo de
o homem perceber, sentir, pensar e projetar. [...] A tcnica que em sua ver-
so antiga, era o mediador na relao homem-natureza, na sua verso
moderna torna-se o horizonte dentro do qual o homem e a natureza so
dispostos pelas demandas que as possibilidades tcnicas promovem. [...] o
homem no mais capaz de perceber a si mesmo fora do mundo disposto
pela tcnica. Como seu ambiente, a tcnica aquilo em relao ao qual o
homem de hoje chega ao conhecimento de si. [...] Por isso, dizemos que na
disposio do mundo, e no na instrumentalidade, deve ser identificada
a essncia da tcnica. E isso significa que a tcnica no mais cincia
aplicada, mas horizonte dentro do qual tambm a cincia pura encontra
a condio e a destinao do seu indagar
1
.
A constatao desse processo simultneo da emergncia da tecnos-
fera e do deslocamento da subjetividade justificaria por si s a neces-
sidade de uma hermenutica prpria para se compreender a tenocincia.
No se poderia, a rigor, continuar falando em um mundo medida do
ser humano, mas, sim, de um ser humano medida do mundo. Por isso,
228
chega-se a empregar o termo tecnosfera para se referir a uma esp-
cie de ambincia no interior da qual se produzem novas cosmovises.
Supera-se, por exemplo, aquela viso mecanicista e geomtrica da fsica
clssica e sua funo domesticadora. Agora, no regime da tecnocincia,
a natureza decomposta e, por assim dizer, recriada segundo os moldes
da cincia informtica e da biologia molecular. Em outras palavras, a
tecnologia deixou de ser aquela espcie de escrava que ajudava o ser
humano a alcanar seus prprios fins, para se tornar agora produtora de
necessidades das quais o ser humano se torna cada vez mais dependen-
te. O mundo tecnolgico se torna cada vez mais imprescindvel para a
sobrevivncia do ser humano.
Essa relao entre tenocincia e ser humano se torna ainda mais
complexa quando considerada sob o ngulo dos recentes processos de
hibridizao entre ambos. As tecnologias no se contrapem simplesmen-
te ao ser humano. Em sua autonomia, a tecnologia capaz de integrar
o ser humano em seu aparato tcnico. E o que vem a se criar, a partir
da, um sistema homem-mquina e os comportamentos humanos ficam
reduzidos a meras partes de mquinas, e essas, por sua vez, regulados
pela tecnologia. Com razo, escreve R. Marchesini:
A tecnologia transforma a epistmica humana, importa mode-
los no-humanos na dimenso, modifica a percepo formativa que o
homem tem de si mesmo, facilita os processos de trocas referenciais com o
no-humano; enfim conjuga e hibridiza, no separa nem purifica, antro-
podescentraliza e no refora o pensamento antropocentrado
2
.
Isso nos faz pensar que, no final das contas, toda tecnologia de
fato uma biotecnologia. A tecnologia se torna, nesse caso, parceira do ser
humano uma vez que ela modifica no apenas seu perfil, mas tambm o
modifica enquanto entidade biolgica. Nesse sentido, a tecnologia abre-
nos para o mundo na exata proporo em que ela facilita os processos
hbridos entre humanos e no-humanos. De fato, a tcnica penetra no
interior do ser humano a ponto de se tornar, para todos os efeitos, sua
carne. E assim nosso corpo se transforma num verdadeiro campo de
aplicao das novas tecnologias e essa hibridizao tem se dado numa
acelerao crescente com profundas modificaes no tocante aos predi-
cados e atributos humanos.
Considerando, portanto, que a tcnica, em nossos dias, se tornou
horizonte imprescindvel de compreenso do ser humano em relao ao
mundo e si prprio, ento talvez fosse o caso de nos perguntarmos: o que
o ser humano e a religio se tornam nessa situao epocal desvelada pela
tcnica? Talvez seja importante lembrar, em tal caso, que a tecnocincia
se encontra condicionada fundamentalmente tanto pela experimentabi-
lidade ilimitada quanto pela manipulabilidade infinita. Nesse sentido,
no apenas nossos estilos de vida, nosso modo de trabalhar e viver, so
229
condicionados pela tcnica, mas tambm nossa identidade mais profunda
condicionada pela diferena tcnica. E, nesta radical reviravolta, somos
postos diante de um questionamento dificilmente contornvel: no mais o
que ns poderemos fazer com a tcnica, mas o que a tcnica pode fazer
de ns.
A religio dentro dos estreitos limites da mera funcionalidade
A tcnica no se prope fins, no estabelece nenhuma meta a ser
atingida. Seu movente est no crescer sobre os prprios resultados e sua
incidncia repousa em seu autopotenciamento. Ao se considerar finalida-
de em si mesma, a tcnica assume como princpio regulador o imperativo
categrico segundo o qual se deve fazer tudo o que se pode fazer. Assim
sendo, a tcnica no responde a nenhum outro fim ou princpio que no
seja o da realizao das prprias possibilidades.
Embora muitos de nossos contemporneos ainda depositem nas
tecnologias suas expectativas messinicas, elas simplesmente no nos
redimem, nem nos salvam, elas apenas crescem, ou melhor, incham,
inflacionam-se, expandem-se em benefcio prprio. A tcnica ilimitada
e, nesse sentido, ela engole os espaos que antes eram reservados s
religies. Por isso, alguns autores falam do crepsculo da religio como
uma das caractersticas da idade da tcnica. O nico limite da tcnica
o estado atual dos resultados alcanados. Por essa razo, ouvimos fre-
qentemente expresses como: isso ainda no possvel, mas, com toda
certeza, em um futuro prximo o ser. Percebemos, assim, que esse limite
pode ser deslocado ao infinito. A tcnica opera, tendo como escopo nico
seu autopotenciamento. Ela se torna, dessa forma, fim em si mesma.
Na idade da tcnica elementos constitutivos da religio so pos-
tos em crise. Dimenso constitutiva de praticamente todas as grandes
tradies religiosas tem sido a tica. Encontramo-nos, hoje, em uma situa-
o de verdadeiro impasse. Esse impasse beira impotncia quando, por
exemplo, a tica se descobre incapaz de impedir a tcnica na efetivao
de suas possibilidades. inevitvel sentencia o grande cosmlogo
Stephen Hawkin daqui a pouco, quando for tecnicamente possvel, ser
realizado. Tudo o que possvel de ser feito parece ter assumido, em
nossos dias, legitimidade e, portanto, passa a ser buscado pelas tecnolo-
gias em uma espcie de compulso mrbida.
Quando a tcnica ainda era utilizada como mero instrumento,
ela estava submetida tica. Pois, de fato, a tica se destinava aos fins,
enquanto a tcnica se ocupava dos meios para a realizao desses mesmos
1
U. Galimberti, Psiche e techne. O homem na idade da tcnica, Paulus, So Paulo 2006,
383.389.391.393.
A religio catlica em um mundo tecnocntrico e mercadolgico 229
230
fins. Era, portanto, a tica que promovia a tcnica, enquanto tocava-lhe
a deciso dos fins que deviam orientar os processos tcnicos. Em nossos
dias, essa situao se inverte. A tecnocincia no necessita mais da tica
para lhe prescrever as finalidades de seu operar. A tcnica condiciona a
tica no sentido de obrig-la a tomar parte de uma realidade artificial.
Os fins passam a ser os resultados dos procedimentos tcnicos. O fazer
como produo de resultados assume o primado do agir como escolha
e deciso dos fins. A tica, portanto, encontra diante de si os resultados
dos procedimentos tcnicos e, sem t-los escolhido, no consegue mais
prescindir dos mesmos.
Na idade da tecnocincia, percebe-se o primado do fazer afinalis-
ta. Forada pela criao de um mundo cada vez mais artificial, produto
das tecnologias contemporneas, a tica no pode mais dispor de outro
referente a no ser a contnua produo tcnica. Nossas ticas, amadu-
recidas no seio da tradio ocidental tinham, sem exceo, um referente
diverso: cosmolgico (antigos), teolgico (medievais), antropolgico ou
ideolgico (modernos). Nossas ticas de cunho religioso ou humanista se
encontram numa situao de verdadeira impotncia. Elas no conseguem
transpor o universo das relaes intersubjetivas para dar conta de uma
realidade artificial que tem pretenses de universalidade e cuja extenso
, de fato, planetria.
Ademais, o fazer tcnico se revela como impessoal. Em nossos dias,
os efeitos do fazer tcnico no so fruto de decises tomadas pelo agir
humano. So, ao contrrio, resultados de procedimentos e mtodos j
iniciados e cuja base nica o saber acumulado. Nesse sentido, a tcnica
trabalha da seguinte forma: os resultados vo se acumulando ao longo de
e mediante os prprios procedimentos; os efeitos, portanto, no podem
mais ser reconduzidos aos agentes iniciais.
Outra dimenso constitutiva do fenmeno religioso o tempo,
seja ele cclico ou linear. A experincia do tempo como evento que se
manifesta no curso da histria perde sua importncia da era da tcni-
ca. Trata-se do crepsculo da histria concebida como tempo dotado
de sentido. Anula-se completamente a dimenso da histria enquanto
narrativa que se tece ao redor de um sentido construdo, desconstrudo
e reconstrudo ao redor de trs eixos: passado, presente e futuro. Somos
sufocados pela inflao e inchao do presente que vai estendendo seus
tentculos sempre mais at alcanar as dimenses do mundo inteiro. O
passado se perde na insignificncia do ultra-passado; o futuro se resu-
2
Cf. R. Marchesini, Uma hermenutica para a tenocincia, em I. Neutzling P.F.C. de
Andrade (orgs.), Uma sociedade ps-humana. Possibilidades e limites das nanotecnolo-
gias, Editora Unisinos, So Leopoldo 2009, 153-182, aqui 155-156, os verbos em itlico
de responsabilidade nossa.
231
me a um mero aperfeioamento dos procedimentos tcnicos. O nico
tempo contemplado pelas novas tecnologias aquele que distingue seus
produtos em 1, 2, 3, ltima gerao.
As novas tecnologias assumem uma peculiar relao com o tempo.
Assistimos hoje a um processo de crescente acelerao do tempo e da
tentativa de circunscrev-lo ao mbito da mera quantidade. Tempos atrs,
ainda se falava em progresso. Diramos que o paradigma moderno se
estruturou entorno do eixo do progresso, entendido como bem-estar,
produo de riqueza para todos, etc. A noo de progresso, apesar de
todas as suas contradies histricas, ainda denota um avanar no inte-
rior de um horizonte de sentido. Hoje, ao contrrio, s se ouve falar em
desenvolvimento ou em crescimento. Mediante essas duas categorias,
o tempo parece perder todo e qualquer trao de intensidade para se
resolver unicamente na esfera do quantitativo. O tempo, para todos os
efeitos, medido apenas quantitativamente. Encontramo-nos, na idade
da tecnocincia, enredados nas malhas do krnos: aquele tempo cujo
ritmo avassalador e impiedoso, que vai arrastando sem piedade tudo o
que encontra diante de si. A tcnica consigna o tempo a seus resultados
e nada mais.
Se, de fato, a tcnica se tornou, em nossos dias, um verdadeiro
ambiente, vale dizer, aquilo em relao ao qual o homem de hoje chega
ao conhecimento de si e do mundo no qual se encontra inserido, ento
tambm verdade que ela se tornou uma espcie de ambincia na qual e
por meio da qual os seres humanos percebem, pensam e expressam suas
relaes bsicas: consigo mesmo, com seus semelhantes e com o mundo
em que vivem. Nesse contexto emergem situaes que caracterizaramos
como verdadeiros sintomas dessa nova ambincia promovida pela tecno-
cincia. A cultura do narcisismo, por exemplo, onde a liberdade da auto-
realizao confundida com a impossibilidade de sair do horizonte do
eu. Outro exemplo poderia ser a situao de monlogo produzida pela
linguagem meditica de hoje.
Nessa nova configurao, a existncia das pessoas tomadas singu-
larmente s se justificaria com base na habilidade tcnica e capacidade
produtiva dessa mesma pessoa. Nesse caso, a identidade de uma pessoa
se resolveria na sua funcionalidade. Em outros termos, seu valor residiria
na prpria competncia e profissionalidade. E isso porque a tcnica reco-
nhece como nico valor a eficincia.
A prpria concepo de verdade se encontra, no mundo da tcnica,
condicionada pela noo de eficcia. A verdade da tcnica , para todos
os efeitos, funcional. Verdadeiro o que surte efeito em termos reais
e no outra coisa. Interessa no mais a busca do conhecimento puro,
mas sim do conhecimento utilizvel. Trata-se da reduo do logos sua
232
dimenso tecno-lgica. Testemunha-se, portanto, a hegemonia da razo
instrumental; razo essa que, por sua vez, produz um processo duplo e
simultneo de desumanizao do ser humano e de desnaturalizao da
natureza. Em seu exerccio, opera-se a traduo dos fins em resultados, o
primado do ser-assim sobre o dever-ser; a reduo do desconhecido
a incgnita matemtica e, enfim, a submisso da novidade ordem da
previso.
Com base no que foi dito at aqui, a tcnica, se encontra livre de
qualquer amarra. Ela se apresenta, para todos os efeitos, como sendo ab-
soluta, no sentido etimolgico do termo, solutus ab, livre de qualquer
lao, onde lao pode ser entendido como horizonte de fins, produo de
sentido, limite ou condicionamento. Poderamos concluir dizendo que, na
idade da tcnica, nenhum fim justifica os meios, dado que s os meios
justificam os fins. o que afirma de maneira contundente G. Anders:
J h muito tempo que se vinha preparando a degenerao da
dupla conceitual meio-fim. Quaisquer que tenham sido as fases desse
processo, meio e fim, trocaram de papis: a fabricao de meios tornou-
se, hoje, o fim da nossa existncia. E se busca freqentemente (em todos
os pases, porque a evoluo geral) justificar coisas que antes tinham
valor de fim (finalidade), demonstrando que podem ser usadas, sem
dvida, como meio se com timos resultados (por exemplo: a distrao e
o amor, at a religio). [...] O que no pode provar ser um meio, no tem
acesso ao hodierno cosmo de objetos. Por isso: justamente porque no
so meios, os fins so considerados desprovidos de objetivo. O objetivo
dos objetivos consiste, hoje, em ser meios dos meios. simplesmente um
dado de fato.E a formulao paradoxal, somente porque o fato para-
doxal
3
.
Isso pressuposto, ousaramos formular a seguinte questo: em nos-
sos dias, as religies no estariam em grande parte testemunhando essa
singular paradoxalidade explicitada acima? No estariam elas engolindo
a isca que lhes lanada pela nossa civilizao tecnocntrica: sujeitar-se
condio que lhes oferecida, de forma velada, de se restringir aos
estreitos limites da mera funcionalidade?
2. A absolutizao do Mercado
Somos vtimas, atualmente, um processo que poderia ser descrito
como absolutizao do mercado, vale dizer, uma autntica mercantiliza-
o da vida e, portanto, conseqentemente, da cultura e da religio. Isso
significa que o mercado vai se impondo como nico cenrio de nossa
trama civilizacional atual. Nesse contexto, nossos fluxos vitais e tambm
os valores e smbolos culturais e religiosos se tornam mercadoria de
233
consumo e de descarte. Analistas agudos tem se debruado sobre esse
fenmeno atual que tem acometido nossas sociedades contemporneas
4
.
Testemunhamos uma nova fase do capitalismo ocidental, descrita
como capitalismo imaterial ou ainda como capitalismo simblico. No
bojo desta grande transformao da cultura material, a assim chamada
imaterialidade constitui um de seus traos mais fascinantes. Nesta nova
configurao, exige-se cada vez menos trabalho para a confeco material
dos produtos, tornando assim o custo frgil e o preo baixo. Para conter
essa baixa de preos, as empresas transformam seus produtos materiais
em bens imateriais, simblicos, afetivos, estticos.
O que conta, agora, no mais a utilidade prtica do produto, mas,
sim, o desejo subjetivo de obter, atravs do consumo de um determinado
produto, identidade, prestgio, personalidade ou o desejo de se obter
a qualidade dos conhecimentos dos quais se julga serem o resultado.
Mediante a queda do valor dos produtos materiais e o aumento artificial
do valor de troca do imaterial, verifica-se um desmoronamento dos funda-
mentos da economia poltica: conhecimento, trabalho material e capital
5
.
Ingressamos, assim, em uma nova fase do capitalismo ocidental.
No mais produtivo, mas, dessa vez, consumista. Por isso, a busca fren-
tica por mercantilizar tudo a fim de inflacionar maximamente o universo
das mercadorias em vistas do consumo cada vez maior
6
. Se antes, na era
industrial, exigiam-se na sugestiva expresso de Michel Foucault corpos
dceis, disponveis e teis, hoje, interessam almas capacitadas, subje-
tividades munidas das qualidades mais cotadas no mercado de trabalho.
Em sua nova fase, interessa ao capitalismo a produo de subjetividades
consumidoras. E para incrementar o consumo e o apetite dos sujeitos
consumidores torna-se imprescindvel investir no fetichismo das merca-
dorias
7
.
Tudo isso s possvel sob o pressuposto de que se encontra
em processo uma crescente supremacia do mercado na administrao
dos fluxos vitais. No mundo contemporneo, a vida se define como um
produto, uma mercadoria; numa palavra, uma inveno humana. E isso
graas inaudita capacidade do capitalismo do sculo XXI de operar um
autntico seqestro simblico das foras vitais. Ele no apenas captura
tais foras como tambm consegue reciclar as resistncias a esse seqes-
tro mediante a produo de slogans publicitrios e mercadorias a serem
consumidas.
Com base em tais anlises, o capitalismo neoliberal estaria ultiman-
do seu crescente processo de expanso e conseqente hegemonia de seus
tentculos mercantis. Na medida em que vem conseguindo transformar
a vida e, portanto, tambm os valores e smbolos culturais e religiosos
em mercadoria de consumo e de descarte, o capitalismo neoliberal tem
234
consolidado sua hegemonia sobre nossa inteira civilizao. Referindo-se
a esse expediente, o conhecido telogo Joo Batista Libanio formula um
expressivo e sugestivo trocadilho: A religio se faz neoliberal e o neo-
liberalismo se faz religio
8
. E o que mais preocupante: esse processo
tem se dado tambm no seio das tradies religiosas multimilenrias.
A religio sujeita aos interesses escusos do mercado
Nossa poca encontra-se marcada por um fenmeno que se
convencionou chamar de epifania do divino. Surpresos, na verdade,
assistimos a fenmenos que deixam transparecer um visvel excesso de
crena. Essa parece constituir a atmosfera vital de nossa cultura contem-
pornea. A subjetivao da f ou privatizao do religioso se caracte-
riza fundamentalmente por uma religiosidade difusa, cujo resultado mais
significativo parece ser a instrumentalizao da religio em funo de
interesses e de necessidades individuais. Constata-se assim uma religio-
sidade sem nenhuma exigncia de converso, sem qualquer interveno
externa capaz de provocar no fiel um processo de adeso incondicional a
Deus, expresso na busca de conformidade maior sua vontade. Perde-se
o sentido da f como atitude obediencial a Deus.
Esta especfica experincia do sagrado toca antes a superficialidade
dos sentimentos e das emoes, deixando, ao contrrio, intactas aquelas
estruturas existenciais mais ntimas do ser humano. Trata-se, ademais, de
uma religiosidade sem nenhuma objetividade; os preceitos objetivos das
tradies religiosas so considerados por demais hard. Deseja-se agora,
neste novo quadro referencial, uma religiosidade de carter mais light,
onde as necessidades e carncias individuais passam a ocupar lugar de
relevo.
Esta situao agrava-se ainda mais quando considerada na sua
estreita relao com o consumismo. A privatizao da f serviu como
uma luva aos interesses econmicos da sociedade de consumo. A tes-
temunhar esta espcie de instrumentalizao consumista do religioso
esto tantas iniciativas propostas com freqncia em tais ambientes. No
por acaso, tem se falado com bastante freqncia, nos ltimos tempos,
de religio de mercado
9
.
A Mdia tem desempenhado um papel importantssimo no processo
de fetichizao das mercadorias religiosas. E a Mdia, como sabemos, dei-
xou de ser simples meio para se tornar um mundo. Mundo esse fora do
3
G. Anders, Luomo antiquato, vol. I: Considerazioni sullanima nellera della seconda
rivoluzione industriale, Il Saggiatore, Milo 1963, 250.
4
Cf. G. Lipovetsky, O imprio do efmero. A moda e seu destino nas sociedades modernas,
Companhia das Letras, So Paulo 2006; Z. Bauman, Vida para consumo. A transfor-
mao das pessoas em mercadoria, Zahar, Rio de Janeiro 2008.
235
qual no se pode mais viver. No se pode mais prescindir desse mundo
miditico uma vez que tem se tornado impossvel uma experincia dife-
rente da proposta pela Mdia. A descrio miditica do mundo constri
os fatos pela informao e no o contrrio, como comumente se pensa.
E a combinao entre mercado e mdia tem se revelado profundamente
eficiente com respeito aos interesses escusos do mercado.
O mercado parece ter descoberto, finalmente, um imenso terreno
virgem. Por isso, com inaudita voracidade ele tem investido no fetichismo
das mercadorias simblico-religiosas, explorando ao mximo o profundo
desejo religioso de imensas maiorias da populao. Grande parte dos
lderes religiosos tem se deixado seduzir pelas ofertas do mercado, acre-
ditando serem eles, os protagonistas de um autntico revival religioso.
Grande iluso, segundo nos parece. Em vez de protagonistas, eles esto
se submetendo, conscientemente ou no, s sedues de um mercado
que reduz os smbolos religiosos a meras mercadorias de consumo, obe-
decendo a interesses escusos.
Concluso: o imprescindvel processo de discernimento da religio
Somos de opinio de que no devemos nos iludir pelo atual des-
pertar religioso. Mais do que outra coisa ele parece ser expresso de
uma singular inquietude do ser humano contemporneo. Desse mesmo
ser humano que acreditou demasiadamente na tcnica e em suas pro-
messas messinicas de salvao. Consciente do engodo do qual tem sido
vtima, o ser humano tem se dado conta, hoje, de que o to propalado
progresso tecnocientifico com seu projeto de expanso infinita carrega
em seu prprio bojo a possibilidade de destruio e a ameaa de extino
de uma significativa parte da vida no Planeta.
Todavia, dados recentes do ltimo censo, promovido pelo IBGE,
no Brasil, tm mostrado um processo de crescente migrao no mbito
religioso. Com tamanha facilidade, migra-se de uma denominao reli-
giosa para outra em um curto espao de tempo. E isso se repete uma,
duas, trs... dez vezes. E, ao final, essas pessoas terminam se declarando
sem-religio. E o que move tais pessoas a realizar esse singular itinerrio
5
A. Gorz, A crise e o xodo da sociedade salarial, Cadernos IHU. Idias 31, So Leopoldo
2005, 20; cf. ainda A. Gorz, O imaterial, Annablume, So Paulo 2005.
6
Cf. as importantes obras do antroplogo N. Garca Canclini, Consumidores e cidados,
Editora UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 2008; Diferentes, desiguais e desconectados, Editora
UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro 2007;.
7
Cf. P. Sibilia, O Homem Ps-Orgnico. Corpo, subjetividade e tecnologias digitais, Relume
Dumar, Rio de Janeiro 2002, 156-202
8
J.B. Libanio, A religio no incio do milnio, Loyola, So Paulo 2002, 152-159.
236
parecem ser as expectativas que nutrem para com as religies. Buscam
a religio como espao onde suas expectativas de toda sorte possam
ser satisfeitas o mais depressa possvel. Deixam-se impressionar, melhor
dizendo, seduzir pelas ofertas mais imediatas de satisfao de suas pr-
prias necessidades. E uma vez frustradas tais expectativas, mudam de reli-
gio. E aps sucessivas frustraes, abandonam por completo o universo
religioso. Tais dados parecem confirmar nossa tese do duplo reducionis-
mo do qual tem sido vtima a religio no mundo atual.
Se, de fato, nossa tese pertinente, ento imprescindvel se faz
instaurar um processo de discernimento da religio. Pressuposto seu
carter eminentemente mediador, as religies jamais podero se deixar
tragar por interesses escusos sejam esses oriundos da tecnocincia ou do
mercado. Elas jamais podero se dar ao luxo de se sentir desobrigadas
a participar do amplo debate acerca das questes cruciais do nosso
tempo: a dignidade inalienvel do ser humano, a justia, participao e
incluso sociais e, enfim, o destino da vida em nosso planeta.
A religio talvez seja a nica capaz de religar, como exprime a
prpria etimologia da palavra, os fios rompidos dessa complexa teia do
nosso mundo. Nesse sentido, o universo religioso se constitui em espao
privilegiado para se furtar a essa onipotncia esmagadora das novas tec-
nologias e do mercado, desmascarando seus tentculos opressores e seus
interesses escuros. Se a incumbncia da religio reconstruir a partir
das runas, a de coser de novo a partir das dilaceraes e fragmentaes,
ento como faz-lo seno procurando resgatar sua dimenso intrinseca-
mente religiosa?
Nesse sentido, somos de opinio de que as religies tm diante
de si uma incumbncia singular: repensar o risco e a importncia dessa
dimenso ambgua e paradoxal do ser humano que se reflete na esfera
do religioso. E para que tal incumbncia seja levada a cabo fundamental
que as religies recuperem e encarnem o perfil que as faz ser o que elas,
de fato, so chamadas a ser: a instncia do discernimento da religio.
9
Cf. L.A. Luz, Carnaval da Alma: comunidade, essncia e sincretismo na Nova Era, Vozes,
Petrpolis 2000; J.B. Libanio, A religio no incio do milnio, Loyola, So Paulo 2002.
237

2. DEEPENING & RELAUNCHING
of the Consultation
2.1. For a Critical Theology.
A contribution from Asia
2.2. Constituent Elements in the
Post-Religional Paradigm
2.3. Towards a Post-Religional Paradigm.
Theological Proposal
2.4. Practical proposal to work.
Possible research projects

2. PROFUNDIZACIN Y RELANZAMINETO
de la Consulta
2.1. Para una Teologa Crtica.
Aportacin desde Asia
2.2. Elementos Constitutivos
del Paradigma Posreligional
2.3. Hacia un Paradigma Post-Religional?
Propuesta Teolgica
2.4. Propuesta prctica de trabajo.
Posibles proyectos de investigacin.
238
239
What are presuppositions in theology
Presuppositions are certain propositions that are accepted or
assumed as true by a community or religious group even if they are not
verifiable. In so far as religions present perspectives concerning other
worldly realities such as life after death or the nature of the Divine
their acceptance belongs to the realm of faith. Their positions may not be
rationally or experimentally verified by human knowledge. The proposi-
tions of religions in these fields are accepted because of faith in a person
in whom there is confidence and trust and/or as presuppositions that
form the basis of the teaching of the religion.
At the foundation of all the religions, that propose meta-cosmic per-
spectives on human life, there are some assumptions or presuppositions
that are taken for granted. They cannot be demonstrated as necessarily
true to the human reason but are accepted due to faith in the teachers of
the religions; they are the implicit working hypotheses of the religions.
Some explanation that religions give about human life can be veri-
fied e.g. concerning the birth, growth, health, sickness and cause of death
of persons or groups. Sociological factors such as the distribution of food,
housing and employment and psychological realities such as love and
friendship, joy and sorrow can be inquired into by the human scientific
disciplines. We can also have consciousness of right and wrong, virtue and
vice, of fulfillment and frustration, of acceptance and rejection, of power
and powerlessness, of justice and injustice. On these there may be, and
there are, differences of opinion, but they are verifiable by human experi-
mentation and reflection. The moral teachings of the religions are devel-
oped around such a consciousness among persons of a given community.
For a Critical Theology.
A contribution from Asia*
Tissa BALASURIYA
Centre for Society and Religion,
Colombo, Sri Lanka
* The text has been reduced, by reasons of space. Thanks to the author by his approval.
240
Presuppositions can be at different levels of the evolution of a
religion or faith. They may be concerning the founder and his or her
teachings, concerning the texts which contain such teachings or later
elaborations by the religious community built up around the founder and
the original core message of the foundation. These different levels of pre-
suppositions do not have the same claim to the loyalty of the followers of
a religion. The core values and foundational teachings are generally from
the primordial religious experience of the founder. The later elaborations
are influenced by the course of history and the particular evolution of a
religious community. Even a founders teachings are conditioned by the
culture of that time, generally they tend to be more universalistic at
least in their basic intuitions.
Presuppositions are generally not called in question within the
group that accepts them, unless they are disadvantageous to them. They
are ingrained in the life of a people and become part of their cultural
heritage. For centuries the Bible story of creation in six days was unques-
tioned by most of all the Christian people and even many theologians
until scientific data seemed to contradict it. People generally acquire a
certain uncritical approach towards the presuppositions on which their
religious and cultural life are based. Many religious conflicts have been
concerning these perceptions which have acquired the force of deep
convictions and form as it were the identity of a religious group. Hence
inter-religious conflicts have been, and are common, in human history.
Validity of presuppositions in theology
A presupposition is a proposition that is assumed to be true: it is
generally taken for granted; it is not necessarily the subject of proof and
rational argument. To the one who believes in a presupposition of reli-
gion, it has a validity and a truthfulness based on faith. It can be borne
witness to by living according to its teachings or demands. It can be
inspiring and meaningful to the one who accepts it.
The presupposition of one religion may not, however, be accepted
as necessarily true by persons of others religions, or of no religion. They
would not accept it in faith. They can however respect the faith of the
believer particularly when it leads to good of the believer and of others.
There can be differences concerning presuppositions even within
the same religious tradition. Thus within Christianity there are certain
presuppositions that may be accepted by all Christians e.g. that Jesus is
the supreme teacher and that he gave his life in fidelity to his teaching.
There are other claims of some Churches that are not accepted by others
Christians. Thus the teaching concerning the infallibility of the Roman
Pontiff is a point of division of the Churches. There are other issues on
240 Tissa BALASURIYA
241
which Christian Churches have divergent views; e.g. the nature of original
sin, grace and redemption. There can be fundamental differences in the
interpretation of commonly accepted texts such as the Bible. Many theo-
logical debates of the 4th and 5th centuries or in the Reformation debates
related to different interpretations of texts of the Bible, chosen according
to the interests of the disputants.
More profound issues arise when different religions present totally
different sets of propositions based on different presuppositions. There
may be a similarity at certain levels as in the core values or in their
applications to a concrete situation, but the overall thinking within one
religion may be organized in a different manner from the thinking in
another. Thus Christian theology and Buddhist religious thought or phi-
losophy may agree on certain common values and applications, but the
construct of thinking and their expression are quite different from each
other.
So long as these religions are practiced by people in different
contexts, there may be no issue concerning their inter relation. But when
they are lived by different groups within the same country or region their
interaction is important. As history shows us, the claim of one religion
that it is the unique and privileged path to salvation, and that it has a
right to dominate the others, can lead to much inter-religious conflict.
As religions are based on different presuppositions we need to
develop criteria and methodologies for their inter-relation. The presup-
positions of one religion are not necessarily more valid than those of
another. Both may be assumptions about things concerning which there
can be no proof. They can have a significance within a cultural matrix. We
can of course see from their impact whether and how far each leads to
human fulfillment. In such a context we should not compare the theory
of one with the practice of another, or the best of one with the worst of
another. The saintly mystic of one religion should not be compared with
the evil doers in another.
We must recognize presuppositions as assumptions and hence
valid only to those who accept them. We can however study the implica-
tions of different sets of assumptions or theological positions. A religion
which acknowledges the equality of all races before God would have
a different impact on history from one which has a concept of being
a chosen people who are favored by God, especially if such favors are
understood as a right to domination. Naturally in such a study it would
be necessary to see the impact of an ideology which may Influence the
interpretation and living of the core values of a religion.
Can we have some common critical principles for evaluating all
presuppositions and consequently all theologies that depend on them? Or
For a Critical Theology. A contribution from Asia 241
242
at least within each tradition can such principles be evolved. Within the
Christian tradition it is possible to evolve a critical principle that would be
valid at least in its application to elaborations of Christian theology? Such
a principle, if it is rationally convincing or consonant with the core values
of other religions and persuasions, may have a validity for them also.
Role of imagination in theology
There is much room for the play of imagination in the evolution
of theologies because theology often deals with things about which we
have no verifiable information or are beyond the capacity of the human
mind to understand and comprehend. God is a mystery; the origins of the
human race are unknown to us. What happens to a person after death is
also an unknown. But religions weave different explanations about these
from their cultural tradition.
Christian theology is linked to the mythical presentations of the
old testament, such as the Genesis story and the writings in the new
testament. These have been developed imaginatively into theology and at
times defined doctrines. Thus there are different explanations concerning
the origin of Eve from Adam, but generally in favor of the priority of the
male. Varying interpretations are given concerning the condition of Adam
and Eve before the alleged Fall in a state of original justice. This is
something about which we cannot know anything by reason or experi-
ence. The Genesis narrative itself does not describe it except briefly and
idyllically. It is later theological writers who refer to the action of the first
parents (in the myth) as a grave sin against Gods commands. The con-
cept of original sin in Catholic theology is evolved over the centuries of
Christians experience including St. Augustine through the Middle Ages
to the definitions of the Council of Trent in the 16th century.
The differences among schools of theology, as between the
Catholics and Protestants, and even among Catholics and among
Protestants show what varieties of interpretation are possible. Each view
presents an explanation of the state of original justice, the nature of the
fall, its consequences and correspondingly a concept of redemption.
While we know from experience that human fallibility and mortality are
combined with the desire for good and for immortality, we cannot know
the historical origins of this predicament. Is not what is said about that
state and stage very much a matter of theological imagination e.g. Adam
and Eve not being subject to concupiscence or death?
Thus in the debates between the Pelagians and their opponents
in the early fifth century those who held that human nature had fallen
in the sin of Adam and Eve taught that the souls of infants, who died
without baptism, would be condemned, but as they had no personal sin,
243
they would not go to hell but to a lighter punishment. Pelagians thought
that as they had no sin they would not go to hell, but they would go, not
to heaven, but to a lesser happiness in eternal life. On the other hand
according to Augustine, if an infant had received the sacraments of the
Mediator, then, although the present life be immediately brought to an
end, the child having been transferred from the power of darkness to the
kingdom of Christ, shall not only be saved from eternal punishments, but
shall not even suffer purgatorial torments after death. For spiritual regen-
eration of itself suffices to prevent any evil consequences resulting after
death from the connection with death which carnal generation forms.
(Augustine: City of God XXI, 16 in The Essential Augustine, edited by
Vernon J. Bourke, Hackett, Indianapolis 1974, p. 180).
It will be easily seen nowadays that both schools were giving
interpretations about an unknown and unknowable hypothesis, based
on the acceptance of the presupposition concerning original sin and its
consequences. Their philosophical and theological reflection was very
profound about freedom and the grace of God; but all was based on the
assumptions drawn from scriptural quotations.
This need not be a problem if the doctrines have no unfavour-
able impact on the relations among persons and communities. But these
concepts led to conclusions about the nature and necessity of redemp-
tion of humanity from sin and Satan. The need of a divine redeemer was
deduced from the presupposition of the fall and the alienation of the
whole of humanity from God. Thence the conclusion on the need of the
grace of Christ and of the Churches for salvation. Hence the other reli-
gions were not salvific.
Such interpretations of myth in Christian theology had disastrous
consequences on the understanding of the gender and inter-religious
relations. The Adam and Eve story has been a foundation of an ideol-
ogy of male domination. It led to the exclusivist and intolerant teachings
and attitudes of Christian theology and Christian powers such as the
European colonizers in Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania in the past
five centuries.
Thus very vital theological issues were responded to on the basis of
conclusions derived from the interpretation, given over time, to a mythi-
cal story. Further each succeeding generation in the Church attributed the
value of tradition to interpretations of their predecessors in the faith.
The influence of ideology
Theology is influenced not only by the teachings of the religious
founders and the presuppositions of the community but also by the inter-
ests of the group that evolves the thinking. A line of thinking developed
244
to foster the interests of a group may be called an ideology. All power
holders tend to develop thought patterns that legitimize their power and
perpetuate it.
They are not generally satisfied with physical power through legal,
political and military control over people. They wish to win over the
minds of their subjects. They develop ideologies for an intellectual and
moral justification of their power.
Every ruling oligarchy of history has found ideological pretensions
as important a bulwark of authority as its political power.
1

Religious establishments also tend consciously or unconsciously
to evolve their religious teaching to control power in the religious com-
munity. Normally, they do not elaborate doctrines that disempower them,
even though religious founders regard power as a service. If anyone of
you wants to be great he must be the servant of the rest (Mk 10,43).
But power holders may consider their own power the greatest
service to the community. The Catholic Church with centennial spiritual
and political power over whole peoples can be particularly susceptible to
ideologizing its theology, i.e. suiting it to benefit its power holders. Thus
of all the references to Peter in the gospels, the church highlights what it
considers useful for empowering the papacy. Thou art Peter and not
get behind me, satan also addressed by the Lord to Peter.
All human knowledge continues Niebuhr, is tainted with an
ideological taint. It pretends to be more true than it is. It is finite knowl-
edge, gained from a particular perspective but it pretends to be final and
ultimate knowledge.
2

Throughout most of its history the evolution of Catholic theology
has been controlled by male, celibate clerics. Till this generation they
have been mainly Europeans or the descendants of Europeans in other
continents. Hence Catholic theology is likely to be evolved in the interests
of the male Euro-American clergy.
A hermeneutic of suspicion is therefore necessary in the analysis of
theology. Since the ideological taint is a common human phenomenon,
it is to be expected in all theology (including the present writers). With
centuries of feudalism followed by European domination over most of
the world, Christian theology is likely to be tainted with the feudal and
later European capitalist and imperialist ideology. When theology deals
with matters not subject to empirical verification or rational investigation,
1
Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man, Scribners, New York, 1964.
2
Op.cit., p. 194.
245
there is more room for the influence of ideology. Then what is taught as
faith may coincide with the interests of the powerful.
When theology advances and propagates doctrines with an ideo-
logical bias, there is a tendency for them to get ingrained in a people to
the extent of becoming a prejudice and a stereotype for evaluating situ-
ations. This can be clearly seen from the impact of the garden of Eden
story on the attitude of society towards women.
Myth and theology
A myth is a narrative which seeks to express through symbols
the ultimate reality which transcends both the capacity for discursive
reasoning and expression in ordinary human language. A myth is a nar-
rative concerning fundamental symbols which are vehicles of ultimate
meaning. A myth tries to express through symbols ultimate reality which
transcends both the capacity of discursive reasoning and expression in
ordinary human language.
3
The presuppositions of a religion may relate
to myths. Thus the creation story in the Bible has the character of a myth;
it contains an implicit truth which is communicated through the narra-
tive to those who accept it. Formally myths are narratives about symbols,
functionally they are vehicles of ultimate meaning.
Since the beginning and end of the universe and of human life are
beyond our experiential knowledge, the religions claim access to certain
revelations by God/the Ultimate, and utilize different myths to interpret
their perspectives on these issues. Myth signifies some event which is
said to have taken place in primeval time, and is considered fundamental
for the whole order and regulation of life.
A myth should not be taken literally as if it were fully historically
real and not a story. Theology may be built around a myth. Then much
would depend on the interpretation given to it and its message concern-
ing the ultimate realities. Since a myth is a narrative that endeavors to
communicate an aspect of the ultimate or transcendent reality in relation
to the origin, destiny and meaning of human life or for a community, it
leaves considerable room for phantasy and imagination. This is true of
the biblical story of creation or the peoples stories of their ethnic origins
like St. George and the Dragon or the arrival of Vijaya and his followers
from India to Sri Lanka. Thus Pope Leo I (440-461) combined Romes
imperial greatness with its high Christian dignity. He explained in a ser-
mon on 29 June that St. Peter and St. Paul had replaced Romulus and
Remus as the protecting patrons of Rome.
4

3
The New Dictionary of Theology: on Myth.
4
Henry Chadwick: The Early Church, Penguin, London, 1967/1990, p. 243.
246
This literary form enables subsequent interpreters of the myth also
to exercise their imagination in explaining and developing the myth.
Power holders in a community are likely to do so to safeguard their
interests.
A twofold criterion for evaluating Christian theologies
While appreciating the innumerable and unfathomable benefits
Christian theology has brought to many millions of human beings during
nearly two millennia, we need to evaluate its drawbacks for the sake of
believers, the Church and of interreligious relations specially in Asian
countries.
The sources of Catholic theology, the Bible and tradition are both
subject to a critical evaluation. The Bible has a core teaching of love and
unselfish service which can be truly meaningful and redeeming for all
humanity. This is part of the primordial religious intuition, inspiration,
experience and example of the Jewish people in the Old Testament and
of Jesus and his disciples in the New.
However there are many elements in the Bible which are less
praise worthy or are even undefensible specially as they impinge on the
rights of human beings. Thus the Book of Deuteronomy calls for the
total extermination of the seven nations that will be inhabiting Canaan
when Israel occupies it. (Dt 7. 1-5, 20, 16-18). The Israelites are to utterly
destroy them (Dt 7.2) and to save nothing that breathes (Dt 20.16).
Before the interests of Israel the chosen people of God, the lives of these
others do not count.
5

Likewise in tradition too there are different interpretations of
texts which have led to conflicts among Christians, and teachings of the
Church that have been intolerant and harmful to others e.g. concerning
other religions, cultures and women.
We propose a twofold principle one negative and one positive
-for evaluating theology. It is derived from the love command of Jesus
the core of his message.
a) Negatively
Any theology authentically derived from God in Jesus must be lov-
ing, respectful and fulfilling of all sections of humanity of all places and
times. This is the nature of the just and loving God revealed in the basic
(and better) inspiration of the Bible specially by Jesus. Hence any ele-
ment in a theology that Insults, degrades, dehumanizes and discriminates
against any section of humanity of any time or place cannot be from
5
George Soares Prabhu: Communalism and the Role of the Theologian, MS New Delhi, 1987.
247
God in Jesus. Any such element in Christian theology is an unjustifiable
intrusion by later theologizers and should be exorcised from the body
of acceptable Christian theology. As Jesus says from their fruits you will
know them. Fruits of hate and insult cannot come from Jesus or God.
This gives a principle for the purification of a prevailing and pre-
dominant Christian theology. If there are such degrading elements in a
theology their source must be searched. Perhaps they are an illegitimate
inference from an acceptable source, or else the source itself may be a
presupposition that is not justified or justifiable. In the latter case, that
source itself must be very critically analyzed and evaluated. We must be
careful not to attribute to God what is of mere human elaboration. This
principle can lead to a review of much of the traditional construct of
Western Christian theology.
b) Positively
Since all good comes from God, everything truly humanizing and
ennobling in any religion or ideology is also ultimately from the divine
source, and must be respected as such. As God wills the happiness and
fulfillment of all persons and peoples, the more a theology leads to genu-
ine human self-realization of all persons and peoples, the closer it is to
the divine source.
This principle of critique is a rational and an ethical one. It can be
applied to any religion or ideology. It is based also on the central teach-
ing of Jesus Christ. It makes the core message of Jesus the touchstone
of good theology. Should not Christian theology have this as its guiding
principle? It affirms God in Jesus Christ as a God of love who cares for
all irrespective of any divisions even of creed. It affirms the centrality of
universal love which is made a measuring rod of the authenticity of any
sacred text, church teaching or practice.
It will seem both simple and exacting. But so is the Gospel of
Jesus. He himself purified the religion of the day. He struggled against the
wrong interpretations of the Law and the Prophets that imposed unnec-
essary burdens on the people in the name of religion. The teaching of
Jesus is very much concerning the moral life inspired by the love of God.
The dogmatic definitions of later Christianity are not found as such in his
teaching. But the evangelical teaching of Jesus was neglected in church
dogma and catechisms used for teaching religion.
6
6
cf. The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No. 2; Catholic Book, Publishing Co. N.Y.
1962. The U.S. Baltimore Catechism had three parts: the creed, the commandments,
and the sacraments and prayer; the emphasis was on the life of the church; less on the
core message of Jesus of love of neighbour and its implications in the world of the time.
Everyone born into the world had original sin on his soul and was therefore a slave of
the devil. p. 36.
248
There would naturally be differences of opinion in the application
of this principle. But the principle as such would seem to have a validity
both in relation to the teaching of Jesus and human rationality. It gives
us a way of applying the key value of the Jesus Gospel to the theologies
that claim to be from him. It helps us liberate Christian theologies from
presentations of God that are unfaithful to the Jesus teaching ego of God
as intolerant, partial and cruel or fostering inhumanity, dehumanization
and exploitation of human beings. It thus constrains us to seek deeper
into the origins of certain theological teachings which cannot be from
God in Jesus and are of purely human sectarian sources.
Criteria for evaluating the myths of a religion
With this principle of critique we can propose some criteria for
evaluating the myths of a religion. The myths, or conceptual framework
which thus purports to explain human life and its meaning and destiny
cannot be proved or, even disproved by empirical evidence or by rational
thought, as they are beyond verifiable history. They can have a verisi-
militude as a good story, as giving feasible explanations. They may have
entered the cultural ethos and collective memory of a people or of whole
civilizations.
The myths of a religion have to be understood empathetically from.
within the religious tradition and in relation to the cultural background
of their origins and development.
As Raimundo Panikkar writes,
7
Religions deal mainly with the
collective ultimate self-understanding of a human group. The truth of
religion can be gauged only within the unifying myth that makes the self-
understanding possible. The myths of religions or of a particular human
community are deep rooted collective perceptions that influence their
thinking and actions at a primordial level. They are generally accepted
unquestioningly as true and valid. They are part of the strong emotive
subconscious of a people.
Myths or narratives concerning symbols which are mere pointers to
the ultimate realities may themselves be taken as literal truths. Their inter-
pretation may serve the power holders in the community. Once this route
of theological development has been entered into, tradition, considered a
source of revelation, can buttress the ideological positions and hand them
down from generation to generation as divinely revealed truths.
7
Raimundo Panikkar, in Towards a Universal Theology of Religion, Ed. Leonard Swidler,
Orbis, New York, 1987, p. 129.
249
Among myths, the founding myths are of primary importance as
the basis of much that follows in belief and life. Such founding myths
cannot be evaluated historically unless they are clearly contrary to
proven scientific date and evidence. They cannot be directly verified at
source if they are claimed to be from a divine revelation, as this cannot
be consulted by us.
The distinction between myth or narrative and historical fact is
therefore extremely important; likewise between presuppositions and
authentic teachings of the Jesus. The limitations in the past theology was
partly due to a literal interpretation of the Genesis story as historical data
revealed by God. This mythical narrative can have an important spiritual
message concerning the human predicament, but taken as literal truth it
can leave much room for ideology.
Christian theology has found it difficult to refute the rationalistic
rejection of the myth of the Fall without falling into the literalistic error
of insisting upon the Fall as an historical event. One of the consequences
of this literalism, which has seriously affected the thought of the Church
upon the problem of mans essential nature, is the assumption that the
perfection from which man fell is to be assigned to a particular historical
period i.e. the paradisiacal period before the Fall.
8

In Christian theology the original mythical. presentation of Genesis
has been interpreted in later centuries by the ecclesiastical authorities.
These claimed authority to do so on the basis of divine inspiration and
the power given to them by Jesus Christ. These interpreters were male
clergy, feudal lords and sometimes political rulers as in the Holy Roman
Empire. It is therefore necessary to exercise a critical judgment on the
evolution of the myth (or from the myth) into religious teaching and later
even defined dogma of the Catholic Church.
A combination of myth interpreted by the authorities turning into
Church tradition may thus be given a quasi divine sanction and consid-
ered a source of revelation. The imagination of teachers and authorities
may be invoked to interpret the myth ideologically. Modern thinkers,
such as Rudolf Bultmann, have developed the concept of demythizization
to separate the real import of a myth from its imaginative expression.
The myths generally give an advantage to a dominant group within
a community. It may be an ethnic group, a class, royal family, a priestly
caste or the dominant sex. Myths thus consolidate prevailing inequalities
by internalizing them within peoples mind-sets and cultures. Myths even
give an aura of sacredness to such convictions which are thus not to be
questioned but accepted as true.
8
Reinhold Niebuhr: Op. cit, pp. 267-268.
250
These considerations show us that it is important that we adopt a
hermeneutic of suspicion in order to try to evaluate the impact of myth,
ideology, imagination and prejudice in the evolution of dogmas. This
is particularly necessary in situations in which dogmas have a divisive
impact in a pluralist society or deflect the attention of Christians from the
more important issues of human community living and the core message
of the Gospel.
251
Constituent Elements
in the Post-Religional Paradigm*
Mari CORB
CETR,
Centre of Study of Traditions of Wisdom
Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
The spiritual, deep human quality, cannot be lived as a separate
phenomenon from ways of thinking and feeling of a particular society.
We cannot think there are different patterns or paradigms for the practice
of a spiritual life and for everyday life. It has never been like this and it
would be crazy.
Cultural transformations we have already mentioned complete
disappearance of pre-industrial societies or on their way to extinction,
the generalisation of industrialisation, settling of knowledge societies
and a continuous change and globalisation- have transformed the para-
digm from which all the human axiological phenomenon is interpreted
and experienced, including what our ancestors called spirituality and we
should call profound or deep human quality, because our anthropology
does not understand humans as a composite of body and spirit.
We cannot think about the problem of the axiological paradigm of
a collective by considering only the religious paradigm. In our case we
cannot deal with the problem of the paradigm of spirituality, or better
of the profound human quality after religions, without noticing that first
we need to solve the problem of the axiological paradigm of society as a
whole, under the conditions imposed by globalised knowledge societies.
In the same way as the religious paradigm influenced all levels of
interpretation and appreciation of reality, the post-religious paradigm or
pattern will influence all interpretation and appreciation of reality. This
is an axiological paradigm, post-religions, that will encompass the whole
culture of the new societies.
* This paper was published originally in the HORIZONTE, Journal of PUC-MINAS, Belo
Horizonte, v. 9, n. 23, p. 821-838, out./dez. 2011.
252
I will describe some aspects of this new paradigm, subsequent to
all systems of belief.
The paradigm must be adjusted to the new industrial societies of innovation and
permanent change.
The new paradigm cannot be dependent on any system of beliefs,
neither religious, nor lay. We could say it is a non-believing paradigm.
Societies that live by continually changing the interpretation of reality due
to the transformation of our scientific knowledge, in all areas of human
life, that live under a permanent technological creation that change con-
tinuously our way of living, of working, of organisation and, therefore,
our systems of cohesion and of objectives. cannot be believers, because
beliefs are fixed, and new societies survive by changing all their patterns
of life.
If members of the new societies must be always ready to change
all aspects of their lives, and hence, cannot be believers, they will not be
able to be religious, because religion comes conveyed by beliefs. The new
paradigm is neither based on religion nor beliefs.
Consequently, this cultural paradigm cannot be presented or expe-
rienced as exclusive and unique. New societies are aware that beliefs do
not come from gods and are not in the nature of things, they know they
are human creation, conditioned by ways of survival and by globalisation.
The post-religious axiological paradigms will vary according to the state
and development of techno-sciences and their consequences.
That non-exclusivity will be the base of an intercultural dialogue
and of a full ecumenism.
The post-religious paradigm should be adjusted to societies that live in a con-
tinuous creation of knowledge.
If post-religious axiological patterns are human creation and rela-
tive to forms of survival, they are then changeable.
The interpretation and appreciation patterns that are human
creation, relative to forms of survival, cannot pretend to be a faithful
description of reality, they will have to accept they are just models of
reality tailored to our forms of survival in concrete and always changing
cultural forms.
They cannot then be interpreted from a mythic epistemology, but
from a non-mythic epistemology.
252 Mari CORB
253
The collectives of the new societies must be aware that they are the
creators of their own axiological principles and their own collective proj-
ects. And they must be aware that they should be alert to change them
to the rhythm of accelerated growth of our techno-sciences and of all the
consequences that the transformations of our techno-scientific equipment
will bring to our ways of life and organisation.
They must be aware that they live under the influence of their own
constructions, conditioned and changeable.
The traditional principle of revelation should radically change.
Revelation will be understood through human constructions; therefore,
it will have to be understood as spirit (according to the expression in
the gospels), not fixed to the word or any type of fixed formulas; revela-
tion will have to be understood as a profound human quality proposal,
expressed in human words but absolutely independent from them.
The new paradigm will have to adjust to globalised societies.
The new paradigm is born in the midst of globalisation, therefore,
it should be able to inherit all the religious and spiritual knowledge of
humanity.
It should be able to value and never undervalue all knowledge
traditions of humanity.
It should be able to embrace and take on all means of expression
and cultivation of the deep human quality, wherever they appear.
General aspects of the axiological paradigm
The new axiological paradigm, appearing after the era of religions,
should be able to offer a proposal without any sign of imposition or
submission. The offer cannot appear as an obligation but as the best of
human possibilities.
It should be able to make human groups understand that if the
deep human quality is not sufficiently cultivated, which is the cultiva-
tion of the absolute and free dimension of reality, we will see ourselves
reduced to the condition of inconsiderate predators of anything around
us, armed with a techno-scientific equipment getting day by day more
powerful and full of risks.
The new paradigm will have to make humanity aware that, with-
out the procedures of cultivation, individual and collective, of the deep
dimension of reality, which is a totally free dimension, there is no equal-
ity, no justice, no true love, not even an adequate practical efficiency.
Constituent Elements in the Post-Religional Paradigm 253
254
The new paradigm must create awareness that without the explicit
cultivation of the free absolute dimension of reality, there is no respect
for the environment nor a sustainable culture.
None of these things, gratuity, equality, justice, true love, respect
for the environment, creation of a sustainable culture, can be obtained
with voluntarism; all that is just the fruit of the cultivation of the absolute
dimension of what is real and of the human quality that it generates.
The new paradigm should allow us to inherit all the wisdom of
religions and spiritual traditions of our ancestors in all humanity, without
incurring in our becoming believers, religious and compliant.
We have stated that the new paradigm cannot be religious, or based
on belief and, consequently, cannot be founded on complacency or on
imposition. With these characteristics it will not need to rely on power,
and power will not see any utility in something that does not give rise to
its legitimation, to the exercise of complacency and coercion.
Can we describe, although very generally, the features of the axi-
ological paradigm post-religions? Can we briefly describe a paradigm
adjusted to societies that live in a continuous creation of scientific and
technologic knowledge and, through them, a permanent innovation of
products and services in globalised conditions?
In very general terms we could say that the new societies live and
prosper through constant investigation and mutual service. That is to
say, spirituality, deep human quality, should be conceived as a road of
continuous enquiry, communication and service: constant enquiry of the
legacy of wisdom from our ancestors in all traditions and of our own
deep interior and permanent communication with the teachers of the past
and with our travelling companions and service to our adventure peers
and to all humanity. There cannot be a constant enquiry without a fluid
and complete communication; and this quality of communication does
not exist without interpersonal service in the act of enquiry.
Without deep communication there is no constant enquiry and
without mutual service there cannot be communication, and therefore,
nor can there be enquiry.
Enquiry, communication and mutual service are three aspects of a
same attitude that cannot be separated.
This triad can adopt countless different forms, but it will always
be free enquiry, not submissive; of immediate inheritance, according to
possibilities, without any hierarchical mediation; and of mutual service,
if possible, unconditioned.
254 Mari CORB
255
Lo espiritual, la cualidad humana honda, no se puede vivir como
un fenmeno aparte de lo que son las maneras de pensar y sentir de una
concreta sociedad. No podemos pensar que haya unos patrones o para-
digmas para la prctica de la vida interior y otros para la vida cotidiana.
Nunca ha sido as y sera un disparate.
Las transformaciones culturales que ya hemos sealado, la des-
aparicin completa de las sociedades preindustriales o su camino a la
extincin, la generalizacin de la industrializacin, el asentamiento de las
sociedades de conocimiento y cambio continuo y la globalizacin, han
transformado el paradigma desde el que se interpreta y vive la totalidad
del fenmeno axiolgico humano, incluido lo que nuestros antepasados
llamaron espiritualidad y que nosotros deberemos denominar como cua-
lidad humana profunda porque nuestra antropologa ya no comprende a
los humanos como un compuesto de cuerpo y espritu.
No podemos plantearnos el problema del paradigma axiolgico
de unos colectivos pensando slo en el paradigma de lo religioso. En
nuestro caso no podemos plantearnos el problema del paradigma de la
espiritualidad, o mejor de la cualidad humana profunda despus de las
religiones, sin advertir que hemos de solventar previamente el problema
del paradigma axiolgico de la sociedad entera, en las condiciones que
imponen las sociedades de conocimiento globalizadas.
Como el paradigma religioso afectaba a todos los niveles de la
interpretacin y valoracin de la realidad, as el paradigma o patrn pos-
religional afectar a toda la interpretacin y valoracin de la realidad. Se
trata de un paradigma axiolgico, posterior a las religiones, que abarcar
la totalidad de la cultura de las nuevas sociedades.
Elementos constitutivos del
Paradigma Pos-religional *
Mari CORB
CETR,
Centro de Estudio de las Tradiciones de Sabidura
Barcelona, Catalua, Espaa.
* This paper was published originally in HORIZONTE, Journal of PUC-MINAS, Belo Horizonte,
volume 9, n. 23, p. 821-838, out./dez. 2011.
256
Describir algunos rasgos de este nuevo paradigma posterior a
todo sistema de creencias.
El paradigma deber ser adecuado a las nuevas sociedades industriales de inno-
vacin y cambio constante
El nuevo paradigma no podr estar sometido a ningn sistema de
creencias, ni religioso, ni laico. Podramos decir que es un paradigma
no creyente. Las sociedades que tienen que vivir de cambiar continua-
mente la interpretacin de la realidad a causa de la transformacin con-
tinua de nuestros conocimientos cientficos, en todos los mbitos de la
vida humana; que viven de la continua creacin tecnolgica que cambia
continuamente nuestros modos de vida, de trabajo, de organizacin y, por
consiguiente, nuestros sistemas de cohesin y de fines: no pueden ser
creyentes, porque las creencias fijan, y las nuevas sociedades sobreviven
moviendo todos los parmetros de sus vidas.
Si los miembros de las nuevas sociedades han de estar siempre
dispuestos al cambio en todos los aspectos de su vida y, por ello, no
pueden ser creyentes, no podrn ser religiosos, porque la religin viene
vehiculada por las creencias. El nuevo paradigma no es, pues, creyente,
ni religioso.
Consecuentemente ese paradigma cultural no puede presentarse
ni vivirse como exclusivo y excluyente. Las nuevas sociedades son cons-
cientes de que no los reciben ni de los dioses ni de la naturaleza misma
de las cosas, sabe que son creacin humana, condicionada por los modos
de sobrevivencia y por la globalizacin. Los paradigmas axiolgicos pos-
religionales variarn segn el estado y desarrollo de las tecnociencias y
sus consecuencias.
Esa no exclusividad ser la base del dilogo intercultural y del
pleno ecumenismo.
El paradigma posreligional deber ser adecuado a las sociedades que viven de
la creacin continua de conocimientos
Si los patrones axiolgicos posteriores a la religin son creacin
humana y son relativos a los modos de sobrevivencia, son mutables.
Los patrones de interpretacin y valoracin que son creacin
humana, relativa a los modos de sobrevivencia, no pueden tener la pre-
tensin de ser una descripcin fidedigna de la realidad, tendrn que
saber que son slo modelaciones de la realidad a la medida de nuestros
modos de sobrevivencia en unas formas culturales concretas y continua-
mente cambiantes.
256 Mari CORB
257
No pueden, pues, ser interpretados desde una epistemologa mti-
ca, sino desde una epistemologa no mtica.
Los colectivos de las nuevas sociedades tendrn que ser conscien-
tes de que son ellos mismos los que crean sus propios postulados axio-
lgicos y los propios proyectos colectivos. Y debern ser conscientes de
que habr que estar vigilantes para cambiarlos al ritmo del crecimiento
acelerado de nuestras tecnociencias y de todas las consecuencias que las
trasformaciones de nuestros aparatos tecnocientficos tienen sobre nues-
tros modos de vida y organizacin.
Tendrn que ser conscientes de que viven conducidos por sus pro-
pias construcciones, condicionadas y cambiantes.
La nocin tradicional de revelacin tendr que mutar profunda-
mente. La revelacin se entender travs de las construcciones humanas;
por consiguiente tendr que ser comprendida como espritu (segn la
expresin evanglica) no ligado a la letra ni a ningn tipo de frmulas
fijadas; la revelacin se tendr que entender como una propuesta de
cualidad humana profunda, expresada en formulaciones humanas pero
completamente libres de ellas.
El nuevo paradigma tendr que ser adecuado a las sociedades globalizadas
El nuevo paradigma nace en el seno de la globalizacin, deber,
pues, ser capaz de heredar toda la sabidura religiosa y espiritual de la
humanidad.
Tendr que ser capaz de valorar y no menospreciar a ninguna de
las tradiciones de sabidura de la humanidad.
Tendr que ser capaz de reconocer la cualidad humana profunda,
aunque no sea en formas religiosas o espirituales, como el arte, la filoso-
fa, la filantropa, el ecologismo, etc.
Tendr que ser capaz de acoger y asumir todos los procedimientos
de expresin y cultivo de la cualidad humana profunda, donde quiera
que se presenten.
Rasgos generales del nuevo paradigma axiolgico
El nuevo paradigma axiolgico, posterior a la poca de las religio-
nes, tendr que presentarse como capaz de hacer una oferta sin rasgo
alguno de sumisin e imposicin. Su oferta no puede presentarse como
un deber sino como la mejor de las posibilidades humanas.
Tendr que ser capaz de hacer comprender a los grupos humanos
que si no se cultiva suficientemente la cualidad humana profunda, que es
el cultivo de la dimensin absoluta y gratuita de la realidad, nos veremos
Elementos constitutivos del paradigma pos-religional 257
258
reducidos a la condicin de depredadores inconsiderados de todo lo que
nos rodea, dotados de un aparato tecnocientfico da a da ms poderoso
y lleno de riesgos.
El nuevo paradigma deber hacer consciente a la humanidad de
que sin procedimientos de cultivo, individual y colectivo, de la dimensin
absoluta de la realidad, que es la dimensin completamente gratuita, no
hay ni equidad, ni justicia, ni amor verdadero, ni siquiera eficacia prctica
adecuada.
El nuevo paradigma debe crear la conciencia de que sin cultivo
explcito de la dimensin absoluta y gratuita de la realidad no hay ni
respeto del medio, ni cultura sostenible.
Ni la gratuidad, ni la equidad, ni la justicia, ni el verdadero amor,
ni el respeto del medio, ni la creacin de una cultura sostenible pueden
conseguirse con voluntarismo; todo eso es slo fruto del cultivo de la
dimensin absoluta de lo real y de la cualidad humana que de ese cultivo
se genera.
El nuevo paradigma nos tiene que posibilitar heredar toda la sabi-
dura de las religiones y de las tradiciones espirituales de nuestros ante-
pasados de toda la humanidad, sin que eso suponga tener que hacernos
creyentes y religiosos y sumisos.
Hemos indicado que el nuevo paradigma no puede ser ni religio-
so, ni creyente y que, consecuentemente, no puede fundamentarse ni en
la sumisin y ni en la imposicin. Con estas caractersticas no tendr,
pues, ningn inters en apoyarse en el poder, ni tampoco el poder ver
ninguna utilidad en quien no le proporciona creencias que den pie a su
legitimacin, al ejercicio de la sumisin y la coercin.
Podemos describir, aunque no sea ms que los rasgos generales
del paradigma axiolgico, posterior a las religiones? Podemos describir
sumariamente un paradigma que sea adecuado a las sociedades que
viven de la continua creacin de conocimientos cientficos y tecnolgicos
y, a travs de ellos, de la continua innovacin de productos y servicios en
condiciones de globalidad?
En rasgos muy generales podramos decir que las nuevas socieda-
des viven y prosperan a travs de la investigacin constante, la comuni-
cacin y el servicio.
Si es as, los rasgos ms generales del paradigma posreligional
seran la indagacin constante, la comunicacin y el servicio mutuo. Es
decir, habra que concebir la espiritualidad, la cualidad humana profunda,
como un camino de continua indagacin, de comunicacin y servicio.
258 Mari CORB
259
Indagacin constante del legado de sabidura de nuestros antepasados de
todas las tradiciones y de nuestra propia profundidad interior y comuni-
cacin constante con los maestros del pasado y con los compaeros de
viaje y servicio a los compaeros de aventura y a la humanidad entera.
No puede haber una indagacin constante sino es en una comunicacin
completa y fluida; y no puede darse esa calidad de comunicacin sin que
se d el servicio de unos a otros en la indagacin.
Sin comunicacin profunda no hay indagacin constante y sin
servicio mutuo no puede haber comunicacin y, por tanto, tampoco
indagacin.
La indagacin, la comunicacin y el servicio mutuo son tres aspec-
tos de una misma actitud que no pueden separarse uno del otro.
Esa trada podr adoptar infinidad de formas diferentes, pero siem-
pre se tratar de indagacin libre, no de sumisin; de herencia inmediata,
en la medida de las posibilidades, sin mediacin jerrquica ninguna; y de
servicio mutuo, a ser posible incondicionado.
Elementos constitutivos del paradigma pos-religional 259
260
261
Towards a Post-Religional Paradigm.
Theological proposal
EATWOT's International Theological Commission
There is more talk about the decline of Christianity in the West
every day. Both Catholicism and Protestantism are in a deep crisis, in
Europe and in North America. But more observers are foreseeing that
after the crisis of Christianity other religions will undergo a crisis. There is
the suspicion that the present crisis is not due to a problem of Christianity
itself, but more to the nature of religions as we know them, and the
growing incapacity of these to accommodate to the deep cultural changes
that are under way. The hypothesis of the advent of a so-called post-
religional paradigm wishes to express the possibility of our facing a very
deep socio-cultural transformation, in which neolithic religions will stop
being viable when the society of knowledge
1
gets rooted, which will be
a post-religional
2
society, and in which religions that have been unable
to free themselves from ancestral religional conditionings will be rel-
egated to residual margins of the course of present history.
1
We try not to emphasise a concrete characterisation of the new culture or society being
born, so as not to introduce a debate that could distract us from the central debate. Our
preference goes along the denomination of society of knowledge, not in the sense of
an educated or wise society, but in the sense that probably knowledge will be its axis
of accumulation and production, that is, societies living (eating even) from knowledge
production. Independently of that characterisation, the important for our goal is to look
after the epistemological structure of such a society.
2
We use the neologisms religional and post-religional as technical concepts absolutely
different from religious and post-religious, as explained later.
262
It is obvious that this paradigm-hypothesis would coexist with
very opposed phenomena of religious conservatism, spiritual revivals,
charismatism and neo-pentecostalism. This new paradigm may be present
mostly in some specific geographical sectors, but some observers state
that the symptoms are growing in urban sectors that are educated, both
young and adult, with access to culture and technology it might be
starting to appear also in Latin America (also in Africa and Asia?). Without
taking into account quantitative field investigations, we want to concen-
trate on the theorising of a first reflexive and inquisitive presentation of
what we want to call post-religional paradigm, which we present to be
debated and contrasted by the community of students of theology and of
the sciences of religion, as well as pastors and all people concerned about
the present evolution of the religious.
POSSIBLE FOUNDATION FOR THE HYPOTHESIS
Among others, a broadening of human knowledge and a silent
confrontation of science with religion could be the intellectual causes for
this new paradigm. The development of the sciences is taking humanity
to observe itself and is building a different idea of religiosity from the one
it had up to now, which entails also a different attitude towards religion.
In this moment in history, cultural anthropology believes it can
make a different judgment of religion from the one religion has been
making of itself, the definition religion has given of itself throughout
millennia, with which it has forged the major view of traditional societ-
ies up to now. Although there is still much to investigate, and although
other sciences can also say much, the cultural anthropology considered
as interdisciplinary- thinks it knows when religions were forged, with
which social and epistemological mechanisms they operate, and which
are the deep human dimensions at stake in its relation to the human
being, individual and collective. The novelty of these judgments is radical,
and seems to generalize and spread in developed societies both quickly
and subliminally, generating a spontaneous and deep change of attitude
towards religion, which we are interpreting precisely as the advent of a
new post-religional paradigm.
These wouldin synthesis-be the nuclear points (to be developed
later) of this new vision cultural anthropology is presenting today about
religion:
Religions have not always existed, not since the world is world,
nor since the human being appeared on Earth. Today we know that reli-
gions are young, almost recent. The eldest, Hinduism, is only 4500 years
old. Judeo-Christianity, 3200 years. In developmental terms, even limiting
time to the homo, (between 5 and 6 million years), or even to the homo
262 Theological proposal 262 Theological proposal
263
sapiens (150 or 200 thousand), religions appeared yesterday. We have
been more time without religions than with them, although it appears
we have been spiritual from the very beginning: homo sapiens and homo
spiritualis seem to be contemporaries. Religions are not something that
necessarily come with the human being, as history shows
3
.
Religions appeared in the neolithical era, after the transfor-
mation our species went through when passing from nomadic tribes of
collectors to live sedentarily in urban societies linked to the cultivation
of land, due to the agrarian revolution
4
. At that stage of development
(maybe the most difficult time) humanity had to reinvent itself creating
codes that enabled it to live in society, not in gangs or herds, with law,
moral, social cohesion, sense of belonging and being viable and able
to survive as a species. In this stage, our species has resorted to maybe
its greatest force since its emergence as a species: its symbolic and reli-
gious capacity, its need for meaning and the experience of transcendence.
Maybe it could have been otherwise, but it was like this.
Since the Neolithic era until today, societies have been reli-
gious, centred on religion, permeated by religion in all their structures:
their wisdom (and ignorance), their beliefs, their culture, their sense of
identity, their social cohesion and sense of belonging of their members,
their law, politics, legitimacy, social structure, vision of the cosmos, art,
culture has been the form of religion, and religion has been the soul
of culture (Paul Tillich). The religious impulse, the force of religion,
Towards a Post-religional Paradigm 263 Towards a Post-religional Paradigm 263
3
With suspicion and resignation we accept the word spirituality, trying to overlook and forgive
its obvious connotation which is etymologically dualist. It is a word established by usage,
which we know we do not accept as referring to a spirit as opposed to a supposed mat-
ter which is not spiritual Obviously, we postulate a more adequate conceptualisation
of what is meant by spirituality: that profound dimension (Tillich), that need to frame our
lives in wider contexts (Armstrong), the profound human quality (Corb), the last moti-
vations, the mystic by which a person lives and fights and with which he infects others
(Casaldliga-Vigil) To remember this limitation of the word spirituality we have tried to
put it together with synonyms and parallel expressions even if unnecessary sometimes.
4
We talk of agrarian society or age not in the sense of rural society or society of agriculture,
dedicated to the primary sector of the economy, but we refer from a more anthropologic-
cultural perspective, to the human society post the Neolithic-agrarian revolution, as
listing globally a period that would reach its present dissolution.
We call it agrarian in the widest sense, including cattle breeding societies, that share epis-
temological structures belonging to all this neolithic time after a socio-cultural revolution
that started with the discovery of agriculture. The scientific revolution (from the XVI
century) and the industrial revolution (from the XVIII century) and their several waves,
could be considered as the first moments of a breakdown of the Neolithic or agrarian
age, breakdown that is currently undergoing its final phase.
These categories and the statements need much clarification; we pedagogically adopt this
simple terminology to make possible a simple presentation of this paradigm.
264
has been the engine of the operating system of societies. Except the
last two centuries, since the agrarian revolution up to now, we have not
met any big social movement or society, not even revolutions, which are
non-religious; it is clear that their motivations were also, and mainly, eco-
nomic and political, but through the religious these social impulses were
managed. Religion itself with an almost divine prestige, unquestionable
authority, beliefs, myths, dogmas, laws, moral even its inquisitorial
instances- served as the programming software of each society. This has
been so throughout all the Neolithic or agrarian in a broader sense-
which now the CA claims is perishing.
Through which internal mechanisms religions have exercised
their controlling and programming capacity in society? Through:
- the creation and imposition of their own view of the cosmos on
society: religion has told humanity, in each society, what reality is, its
origin, sense and moral requirements;
- the main beliefs conveyed through the sacred myths, that have
given society its assumptions, axioms and postulates unverifiable, but
which had been believed without doubt;
- a mythical epistemology that attributes to God its own elabora-
tions, to present them as revelation or God's will, and thus make them
absolute in order to give safety to human society;
- a radical imposition of submission (islam means submission), of
faith (a foremost imposition in Christianity), of believing what cannot be
seen (or not even understood);
- managing all these mechanisms as an operating system of society
(evidenced in the social systems of empires with their religion of the
State, (the society of Christendom or theocratic regimes in other reli-
gions, for example).
From these principles of CA we could now produce an ad hoc
technical definition of religion, in the sense we want to give this
expression: we technically call religion the socio-institutionalised con-
figuration that human religiosity (spirituality) of all times adopted in
the Neolithic, through which it has served as a fundamental system of
programming and self-control of Neolithic agrarian societies. Here we
understand religion in this strict technical sense, and not in any of the
other meanings of the word (religiosity, religious dimension, spirituality,
religious institution); without this semantic precision we would inevi-
tably fall into confusion.
Consecutively, we will call technically religional all that relative
to this Neolithic or agrarian socio-religious configuration, while, in the
264 Theological proposal
265
ordinary meaning of the dictionary, we will call religious all that relative
to the spiritual dimension of the human being and of society, in general.
In this sense, it should be noted that the paradigm we refer to is
called post-religional, not post-religious, because it will continue to
be religious in the normal sense of the dictionary, as related with the
spiritual dimension of the human being and society; we call it post-
religional because it will establish itself once the religious configuration
is overcome (those ways of functioning we will refer to as pertaining to
the religions we call agrarian including cattle breeding and more spe-
cialised ones.
The prefix post does not refer literally to time (as after) but in
a meaning that generically is overcoming: further. Therefore, it would
be valid to say a-religional, with no confusion with the temporal dimen-
sion. Post-religional does not mean then post-religious nor post-spir-
itual, but, strictly, beyond the religious, marginal to what the agrarian
religions have been, or a religiosity without religions, a spirituality with-
out religious systems, without dogmas, social control, submission Of
course we will rely on other mediations, gestures, symbols, institutions or
"systematisations" of different types, because human spiritual experience
cannot be presented in a void; but this is not the moment to discuss
this issue
5
.
MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE POST-RELIGIONAL PARADIGM
Let us try now to establish the main elements of the new post-reli-
gional conscience of the emerging social culture as a main consequence
of the spreading of this growth of human knowledge.
1. Religions are something else from what we traditionally
thought, from what many people still think, from what they affirm about
themselves and have spread in society for millennia. They are not backed
by a sort of pre-existence that would make of them a prime supreme
body of knowledge, divine knowledge authentically revealed by God
Towards a Post-religional Paradigm 265
5
These semantic precisions can explain why it is necessary to create this non-technical
neologism well within the etymological rules of the language-, to avoid ambiguity, be it
to equate it to the religious in the common sense of the dictionary, or to unduly confuse
it with the anti-religious or the atheist.
In any way: Is the adjective religional the most appropriate to define this paradigm?? We
think it is correct, it is adequate, and it is useful (due to plasticity and effect), but we
also think it is not absolute, and may be improved, because it does not come from the
essence of the phenomenon nor recalls what could be its material foundation or its epis-
temological specificity. Therefore, we humbly propose it as provisional and improvable
266
himself, what would make them the sole means of access to revelation
and of the relation to the Mystery. Religions always in the specific sense
we are giving to the word- are, rather, a historical phenomenon, a con-
crete socio-cultural dress that the permanent deep dimension of human
beings has given it in a specific historic period; they are not religiosity
itself, nor the same as the human spirituality of all times.
Religions are forms, historical, contingent, and changing, while
spirituality is a dimension that constitutes humanity, permanent, and
essential to the human being Spirituality may be experienced within
or outside religions. We could do without religions, but we will never be
able to dispense with human being's dimension of trascendence.
2. Religions are also human constructions As already said, sci-
ence and society already know a lot about their origins, their formation,
their mechanisms. This radically changes our perception about them:
religions are our work, human creation, great but human sometimes, too
human-, and must be at our service, not the other way.
Religions their beliefs, myths, moral- are not the direct work
of a God, out there, up there, who sent us the gift of religions, on the
contrary, they are something born down here, something very terrestrial,
made for humans by humans, driven of course by the force of the divine
mystery that covers us, but according to our own possibilities and with
our own very concrete conditionings.
Religions made themselves absolute, when they ascribed their own
origin to God. It was a mechanism whose purpose was to fix and give
an immovable character to those human constructions, in order to save
the social formulas of coexistence that humanity had been able to create.
Today, we are losing ingenuity, and this absolute character of religions,
that was for millennia an essential component of human societies, that
made human lives easier and more passive, seems now as a wonderful
anthropological mechanism, through a false belief, which today is not
necessary, nor desirable, nor bearable.
3. Then, we are not subjected to religions, we are not condemned
to march through history along the path drawn by them, as if it was a
divine plan that previously marks from eternity- our destinies, as if it
would impose on us the solutions that our ancestors found to solve their
problems and to interpret reality according to their possibilities If reli-
gions are our construction, this means that we are free, we have the right
(and the obligation) to speak out before history and give our own answer
to the problems of existence and to express with confidence our own
267
interpretation of the reality we are, helped by our scientific discoveries,
instead of being made to take as an untouchable and impenetrable truth,
the obsolete interpretations and ancient solutions given to themselves by
human generations of many thousands of years ago, as if those interpreta-
tions were Gods Word, an extraneous supposed revelation, coming from
outside and of absolute binding. This religional mistake in which our
ancestors have lived, seems to us, at this time in history, an alienation.
It is frightening to feel alone, responsible before history, free from
traditional religious paths, without a safe and unquestionably mandatory
road drawn by the gods but this new vision of the world, this post-
religional paradigm generates a human self-conscience profoundly dif-
ferent from the one the traditional religional conscience had marked for
us. Now we feel free from religional bindings to unleash our personal
and collective fulfillment, to fully take responsibility for our decisions,
our interpretation at our risk, without any restriction or supposedly exter-
nal coercion, although worried to tune up to the Mystery that moves us.
4. Religions are not, by nature, eternal, for ever, the only ones to
know the beginning of times and the end of the world Now we know
they are temporal, recent, contingent, very limited in time, and we know
it is not absurd they might disappear. They are not essential to our nature,
nor indispensable in time.
Moreover: Neolithic religions are bound to the Neolithic age: we
could say they were born to make the human species viable in that new
era, the one subsequent to the agrarian revolution. But it is precisely that
era that specialists say is presently coming to an end. What future can we
see for religions in a time of transition that announces the end of the era
that gave birth to them? The hypothesis that religions (we insist we refer
to the religions of that time, not to religiosity itself, the deep dimension)
may disappear is very plausible. It does not appear as impossible in itself,
nor should it be necessarily an important historical disaster. We have
lived most of our history without religions (all the Paleolithic), and it is
evident this did not prevent our deep quality, our spirituality from being.
5. At this point it is already indirectly evident that there is a distinc-
tion to be made. Traditionally religions believed themselves as holders of
the spiritual. A person could only be spiritual only thanks to religions.
They were the source of spirituality, who could connect us directly with
the Mystery. Religions and spirituality were all one, the same thing.
As we have just expressed, the conceptualisation of religions is
changing radically in the emerging post-religional paradigm. Today, more
and more persons feel as evident that religions are not the source of
268
spirituality, just some socio-cultural ways the same can be dressed in,
even frequently a brake and an obstacle for it. Religions and spiritual-
ity are perceived today as realities of a totally different kind: religions
would be a specific socio-cultural configuration in which the spirituality
of human beings has been expressed for some time, while spirituality
would continue to be an essential dimension and a characteristic of the
human being, that permanently and inevitably accompanies him since its
emergence as a species. The words religion, religious, religions, which
traditionally were embracing indiscriminately all that referred to spiritu-
ality, today should scrupulously go through the screen of the distinction
between the religious (what has to do with that mysterious dimension of
the human being) and the religional, which belongs simply to the field
of socio-cultural configurations and institutions we have called Neolithic-
agrarian religions. This distinction allows us to separate religious realities
from the religional: non-religional experiences of the religious. The new
paradigm has in this distinction one of its fundamental basis.
SYNTHESIS OF THE POST-RELIGIONAL PARADIGM
Once presented these main elements that constitute the vision of
the post-religional paradigm, we could try to express its core argument
in synthesis:
- First premise: religions (not religion, nor spirituality or religi-
osity), in the technical sense we have given here to the term, are a
Neolithic creation, of the agrarian stage of humanity, product of it as well
as its cause.
- Second: the socio-cultural transformation we are going through
now is, precisely, the end of the Neolithic-agrarian era. What is now
being overcome and removed has been in the foundation of human
society and the shape of the human conscience of the species for the
last 10.000 years, since the start of the agrarian age; there lies the depth
of the present change. A new type of society is emerging, with different
foundations especially epistemological- that are incompatible with the
ancient operating system. A change of system both at an epistemological
level and at the level of spiritual conscience of humanity prevails. This is
the cause for such a radical and deep change of era we are experiencing,
a new axial time.
- Consequence: religions (Neolithic-agrarian), identified with agrar-
ian conscience, vision of the world and epistemology, are losing ground
and starting on a deep decline as due to the never stopping growth of
knowledge, scientific, technological, social and experiential- a new type
of conscience is emerging, of vision of the world and of epistemology,
269
incompatible with the traditional neolithic one. Human beings of the
new age cannot express their spiritual dimension in that concrete con-
figuration of agrarian societies (both of agriculture and cattle breeding),
and these are unable to tune to and make themselves understood by the
new society. The Neolithic-agrarian religions face radical transformation
or their disappearance. Meanwhile members of those religions, as they
travel to the new culture, let go of the mechanisms and epistemology of
the agrarian religions and start living their spirituality post-religionally.
Consequently, to verify this hypothesis:
- the technical concept of Neolithic-agrarian religions will have
to be analysed, not only going back to the moment of their birth during
the agrarian revolution, but by making a contrast of what have been their
main characteristics and in some way permanent, during the agrarian
time.
- the statement that we are facing the end of the Neolithic era must
be demonstrated with arguments, concretely detailing on which anthro-
pological elements we base this, which are the characteristics of the new
society that outweigh the agrarian society and are incompatible with the
new society.
- And a project of support of society in the times coming will be
needed, to accompany the transit from an agrarian society to the new
society.
In conclusion, we call post-religional paradigm this way of liv-
ing the deep dimension of the human being that overcomes, ignores or
rejects the mechanisms typical of the Neolithic-agrarian societies, such as:
- their mythical epistemology, their beliefs and myths,
- the monopoly over spirituality,
- their requirement of submission, of blind acceptance of some
beliefs as revealed by God,
- their exercise of political and ideological power over society, be
it under Christian regimes, Caesaro-papist, Islamic, of Church and State
union, of imposition of the ecclesiastical laws over the lay society
- their imposition of a heteronomous moral, coming from above,
with an interpretation of the natural law from an officially imposed phi-
losophy, with a moral not subject to a democratic examination,
- their control of the human thought, with dogmas, pursuit of free-
dom of thought, Inquisition, condemnation and execution of heretics,
with an infallibility pretension of divine inspiration, the only authorised
instance to interpret the indisputable will of God
- their proclamation as revelation of the book (in the case of
270
book religions) that has gathered the ancient traditions, exalted as
Gods direct Word, regulating and indisputable
- their pre-modern interpretation of reality as a world in two
stories, with the supernatural, divine world above us, from which we
depend, and below the one we are in
- their interpretation of life and death as a test, judgment and
reward/punishment by a Universal Judge who is the supreme Lord of the
same religion
With the end of the agrarian age, all these ancient structures of
thought, axiological and epistemological, are stopping to be viable with
the emergence of the new society. They were a great human invention.
Thanks to them, the nomadic bands of gatherers were able to find the
way to coexist in a city, regulated by law, joined by a religious conscience
of membership to a collective whose identity was given by the gods The
present crisis is not due to secularisation processes, or to a loss of values,
or to the dissemination of materialism or hedonism, (blaming interpreta-
tion usually held by religions' officers), neither to the lack of testimony or
to the moral scandals of religion, but to birth of a new cultural situation,
that puts an end to the radical transformations of the knowledge, axiolog-
ical and epistemological neolithic structures, transformation that started
with the scientific revolution in the XVI century, the Enlightenment of the
XVIII century and the various waves of industrialisation. The symptoms
that this gradual transformation produces appear in ways such as certain
diffuse agnosticism, loss of epistemological ingenuity, a more accentu-
ated critical sense, a more utilitarian conceptualisation of religions as a
service to the human being instead of receptors of full loyalty from their
members, the disappearance of the idea of a unique true religion and
a revealed moral.
We are not facing a really new phenomenon, just only its radicali-
sation. And we are not dealing with a radically new interpretation (this
post-religional paradigm), but with an awareness that the accumulative
axis of the change Is mainly epistemological, and that it radically trans-
forms everything.
Two warnings:
A) As already mentioned at the beginning, we are not trying to
say that this is the only thing happening in the religious field, as if all
the scenery were now occupied by this transformation of the agrarian
religions paradigm into a post-religional paradigm. There are many other
phenomena taking place in the field of religion simultaneously, even
271
chaotically, since they are In certain aspects contradictory. Together with
this crisis of religion, we mention religious effervescence and revivals,
reversals and fundamentalisms. In this theological proposal we have
specifically focused on a concrete aspect of this on-going transformation,
that does not deny all the other present elements. There are other things
happening in the field of religion, but this one is happening too, and
this theological proposal wants to call attention on it, despite its almost
imperceptible character, and still minor in many regions.
B) What we have been saying cannot be applied indiscriminately
to ALL religions. Not all religions are "agrarian". There are quite a lot of
religions that have not passed through the agrarian and urban revolu-
tions. They still have a matrix of religious experience typical of times
before the neolithic transformation (previous to the separation against
the placenta of the sacredness of nature, the assumption of the dual-
istic and a-cosmic divine transcendence, etc.), and did not fall into the
controlling and programming current of society through submission to
doctrines, dogmas, inquisitions Here we can place the great family of
cosmic religions, indigenous, animists as well as others that, even from
the neolithic period and being religions of agrarian societies (agricultural
or cattle breeding) kept themselves away from that dogma-doctrinal con-
trol, as for example Hinduism, a "religion without truths". This means that
this paradigm does not apply to all religions. Reality is more complex
than our simplifying attempts to understand, what demands of us more
precision, more humility and a greater interest in field study, investigation
and dialogue.
FACING THE IMMEDIATE TRANSIT
This proposal we are presenting is theological, a theoretical deep-
ening to better transform the reality it interprets (interpreting as a way to
transform). But it is obvious it has pastoral consequences, and big ones.
Because what we are talking about is a cultural and religious tsunami, a
metamorphosis that may make it difficult for us to recognise ourselves in
the near future. And this can be a very difficult situation to go through
for humanity; anthropologists say the passage from the paleolithic to
the neolithic society, with the agrarian revolution, was the most difficult
situation experienced by our species; maybe we are in a similar moment
of evolution. It is necessary to present how to accompany this "transit"
society is going to take or is already starting to take, from "agrarian" reli-
gions to a new type of society whose spiritual fulfilment will take place
by paths and according to models that will continue to be religious but
272
"post-religional", but today we do not know exactly how these models
and paths will be, hence we will have to invent them.
Religions will face in many places now- situations of decline, of
loss of members and loss of credibility and plausibility , on the one hand,
and on the other will experience a contradiction with their own agrarian
mechanisms. Already many persons feel they have to radically transform
their religiosity, but poignantly feel the contradiction with the official
doctrine, considered infallible and immutable, that prohibits all change or
abdication of the ancient principles. In some societies there are already
tens of millions people who silently abandon religions to continue being
religious post-religionally. It is possible that some religious hierarchies,
anchored in the mirage of a sacred loyalty, may adamantly prefer to sink
their own religious institutions by blocking their evolution, doing it with
the best of intentions, to the glory of God. But it is also possible that
many human groups may be able to transform themselves. It is really pos-
sible, and we believe also desirable, that agrarian religions might evolve
towards new religious forms (post-religional) in accordance with this new
society of knowledge. They will become aware that, as in the past science
rightly contradicted the geocentrism they considered as revealed, today
science discovers that the religiocentrism has been a religional illusion
and that as before it is possible to abandon the old cosmovision and con-
tinue to find spiritual fulfilment in a new stage of evolution.
All seems to foretell that the Titanic of the agrarian religions will
not float in the latitudes of the ocean of the society of knowledge. All
seems to indicate it will not endure much and will sink. Its kairs is gone,
although there is still a little cronos. But it is not the end of the world.
It is only the end of one world, the end of the agrarian-neolithic world
and its epistemology, and with it the end of the religional configurations
of spirituality, what we have called "agrarian-neolithic religions". Life and
its deep dimension continue. And it is our duty to understand what is
happening, so as not to find ourselves fighting against Reality, but help-
ing this new evolutionary birth of our species, to reinvent ourselves once
more as we did at the beginning of the neolithic. It is our duty to be cau-
tious, not to push anyone beyond his needs or his possibilities, to clearly
warn that the situation is difficult, it is a new birth, a metamorphosis, a
"change of species"", or a change in the operative system, and a time of
important risks, both socially and individually. It is the duty of theology
to foresee the novelty, not only in its deconstructive aspect, but in its con-
structive one: not just what we cannot believe, but how we can develop
our transcendental or spiritual dimension fully, the deep human quality
that religional religions, after all, with more or less limitations, wanted to
support. Many things are dying, this is inevitable, and they do not com-
pletely die, we try to aid them to die well, (the ars moriendi of dying
giving life to others, giving birth). Meanwhile, it is a brand new world that
273
is trying to rise, and finds It difficult to rise, and we wish to help it rise.
Religions will find themselves in the need to reinterpret and
reconvert their symbolic patrimony, created under the epistemological
conditionings of the agrarian times. It would be a re-elaboration, a "re-
ception" (Congar) of all its patrimony, created initially millennia ago, and
historically sustained under an ignorance and inculturation of which we
have recently emerged, thanks to the ample display of sciences. Religions
will have to find how to re-understand, and what is left -if something- of
the various beliefs, dogmas, heteronomous moral, agrarian rites among
this new situation of knowledge and the new frames of Interpretation.
Many human beings, when they see themselves unable to continue
leaning on religions to spiritually survive, will experiment serious difficul-
ties in the spiritual integrity of their lives. As when the airplane takes off
and abandons the support system of its wheels, having to support itself
on a new system, totally different, that of its wings, most of humanity will
have to undergo moments of difficult balance in the transit from one to
another axiological system, so different and to some extent incompatible
and without automatic change.
What comes is a tsunami. Risks are serious on all grounds. The
duty of a responsible theology is to foresee these problems and try to
accompany the inevitable "transit" in which we already find ourselves.
Both In the theoretical aspect as in the practical aspect, the subject
deserves much more attention than what we are giving it In this simple
"theological proposal". We leave it here, and we deliver it to consultation
and debate, hoping It will be corrected and improved. Could we offer,
by the end of this year, an ample book, with the reflections, insights and
debates that this simple presentation of the POST-RELIGIONAL paradigm
arouses? You are all cordially invited.
274
275
Cada vez se est hablando ms del declive del cristianismo en
Occidente. El catolicismo y el protestantismo por igual, atraviesan una
grave crisis, tanto en Europa como en Amrica del Norte. Son cada vez
ms los observadores que pronostican que a continuacin la crisis va a
afectar tambin a otras religiones. Se sospecha que la crisis no parece
deberse a un problema propio del cristianismo, sino a la naturaleza misma
de las religiones, y la incapacidad creciente que stas experimentan para
acomodarse al profundo cambio cultural que est en curso. La hiptesis
del advenimiento de un paradigma posreligional quiere plantear la posi-
bilidad de que estemos ante una transformacin socio-cultural de hondo
calado, en la que las religiones neolticas van a dejar de ser viables cuan-
do se implante a fondo la adveniente de sociedad del conocimiento
1
, que
ser una sociedad pos-religional
2
, y que las religiones que no se liberen
de sus condicionamientos religionales ancestrales se vern abocadas a
los mrgenes residuales del curso de la historia.
1
Tratamos de no hacer nfasis en una caracterizacin concreta de la nueva cultura o
sociedad emergente para no introducir un debate lateral. Nuestra preferencia sera
denominarla sociedad del conocimiento, no en el sentido de sociedad muy culta,
sino en el sentido de que el conocimiento probablemente ser su eje de produccin
y acumulacin, es decir, sociedades que vivirn de producir conocimiento. Sea cual
sea esa caracterizacin, lo importante para nuestro objetivo es atender a la estructura
epistemolgica de esa sociedad.
2
Utilizamos los neologismos religional y pos-religional como conceptos tcnicos a ser
distinguidos cuidadosamente de religioso y pos-religioso, como luego explicare-
mos.
Hacia un paradigma pos-religional.
Propuesta teolgica
Comisin Teolgica Internacional
de la EATWOT
276
Es obvio que este paradigma-hiptesis estara conviviendo con
fenmenos bien contrarios de conservadurismo religioso, revivals espi-
rituales, carismatismo y neopentecostalismo. Slo en algunos sectores
geogrficos puede estarse dando mayoritariamente, pero algunos obser-
vadores afirman que crecen los sntomas de que en las capas urbanas
cultas, tanto de jvenes como de adultos, con acceso a cultura y tecno-
loga, estara empezando a hacerse presente este paradigma tambin en
Amrica Latina (tambin en frica y Asia?). Prescindiendo de sondeos de
campo cuantificadores, nos queremos concentrar en la elaboracin te-
rica de una primera presentacin reflexiva e indagatoria de lo que aqu
queremos llamar paradigma pos-religional, que proponemos a debate y
contraste de la comunidad de estudiosos de la teologa y de las ciencias
de la religin, as como de los pastores y de todas las personas preocu-
padas por la evolucin actual de lo religioso.
POSIBLE FUNDAMENTO DE LA HIPTESIS
Una ampliacin del conocimiento humano y un callado enfrenta-
miento de la ciencia actual con la religin pareceran ser causas intelec-
tuales de este nuevo paradigma, entre otras. El desarrollo de las ciencias
est llevando a la humanidad a observarse a s misma y a hacerse de su
religiosidad una idea en gran medida diferente de la que hasta ahora
tena de ella, lo cual repercute en una actitud nueva frente a la religin.
A estas alturas de la historia, la antropologa cultural se cree ya
en capacidad de poder hacer sobre la religin un juicio diferente al que
sta ha venido haciendo de s misma, a la auto-definicin con la que
durante milenios la religin se ha presentado y con la que ha fraguado
la opinin mayoritaria de las sociedades tradicionales, hasta hoy. Aunque
quede mucho por investigar, y aunque otras ciencias tambin pueden
aportar mucho, la antropologa cultural interdisciplinariamente conside-
rada cree saber ya cundo y cmo se fraguaron las religiones, con qu
mecanismos sociales y epistemolgicos operan, y cules son las dimen-
siones humanas profundas en juego en su relacin con el ser humano,
individual y colectivo. La novedad de estos juicios es radical, y parece
generalizarse y difundirse en las sociedades evolucionadas tan rpida
como subliminalmente, generando un cambio profundo de actitud hacia
la religin, que estamos interpretando precisamente como la llegada de
un nuevo paradigma pos-religional.
stos seran muy en sntesis los puntos nucleares de esta nueva
visin que la antropologa cultural est presentando hoy da sobre la
religin:
276 Propuesta teolgica
277
Las religiones no son de siempre, no existen desde que el ser
humano est sobre la faz de la Tierra. Hoy sabemos que las religiones son
jvenes, casi recientes. La ms antigua, el hinduismo, slo tendra unos
4500 aos. El judeocristianismo, 3200. En trminos evolutivos, aun limi-
tndonos a los tiempos del gnero homo (entre 5 y 7 millones de aos), o
ms todava de la especie homo sapiens (150 mil o 200 mil), las religiones
son de ayer mismo. Hemos pasado muchsimo ms tiempo sin religiones
que con ellas, aunque espirituales
3
parece que lo hemos sido desde el
primer momento: homo sapiens y homo spiritualis parecen ser coetneos.
Las religiones no son por tanto algo que acompaa necesariamente al ser
humano, como muestra la historia.
Las religiones se han formado en la poca neoltica, tras la gran
transformacin que vivi nuestra especie al pasar de ser tribus nma-
das de cazadores y recolectores, a vivir sedentariamente en sociedades
urbanas ligadas al cultivo de la tierra, a raz de la revolucin agraria
4
.
En esa coyuntura evolutiva (tal vez el momento ms difcil de su histo-
ria evolucionaria) la humanidad ha tenido que reinventarse a s misma
creando unos cdigos que le permitieran vivir en sociedad, no ya en
bandas o manadas, con derecho, moral, cohesin social, sentido de per-
tenencia... para ser viable y sobrevivir como especie. En esa coyuntura,
la humanidad ha echado mano de la que es quiz su fuerza mayor desde
3
Con recelo y resignacin aceptamos la palabra espiritualidad, tratando de no transigir
con su innegable connotacin etimolgica dualista. Es una palabra consagrada por el
uso, y es sabido que no la aceptamos como referida a un espritu contrapuesto a
una supuesta materia no espiritual... Postulamos una conceptuacin ms adecuada de
lo que por espiritualidad se quiso significar: aquella dimensin de profundidad (Tillich),
aquella necesidad de enmarcar nuestras vidas en contextos ms amplios (Armstrong),
la calidad humana profunda (Corb), las motivaciones ltimas, la mstica por la que vive
y lucha y con la cual contagia a los dems (Casaldliga-Vigil)... Para subsanar su limi-
tacin, tratamos de reconducir la palabra acompandola con expresiones paralelas.
4
Hablamos de sociedad o poca agraria no en el sentido de sociedad rural o de sociedad
agrcola, dedicada al sector primario de la economa, la agricultura, sino refirindonos,
desde una perspectiva antropolgico-cultural, a la sociedad humana posterior a la
revolucin agraria neoltica, como catalogacin global de una poca que llegara
hasta su disolucin actual.
La llamamos agraria en sentido amplio, incluyendo las sociedades ganaderas, que com-
parten unas estructuras epistemolgicas propias de todo ese tiempo neoltico posterior
a la revolucin sociocultural que se inici con el descubrimiento de la agricultura. Las
revoluciones cientfica (siglo XVI) e industrial (XVIII y siguientes) pueden ser conside-
radas como el comienzo del fin del neoltico o edad agraria profunda, quiebre que
actualmente estara en su fase de culminacin.
Estas categoras y las afirmaciones necesitan mucha matizacin; adoptamos pedaggica-
mente este lenguaje simplificado para facilitar una presentacin sencilla de este
paradigma.
Hacia un paradigma pos-religional 277
278
su aparicin como especie emergente: su capacidad simblica y religiosa,
su necesidad de sentido y de experiencia de trascendencia. Quiz podra
haber sido de otra manera, pero ha sido de hecho as.
Desde el neoltico hasta nuestros das, las sociedades han sido
religiosas, religiocntricas, transidas de religin en todas sus estruc-
turas: su conocimiento (y su ignorancia), sus creencias, su cultura, su
sentido de identidad, su cohesin social y el sentido de pertenencia de
sus miembros, su derecho, su poltica, su legitimidad, su estructura social,
su cosmovisin, su arte... La cultura ha sido la forma de la religin, y
la religin ha sido el alma de la cultura (Tillich). El impulso religioso,
la fuerza de la religin, ha sido el motor del sistema operativo de las
sociedades. Si exceptuamos los dos ltimos siglos, desde la revolucin
agraria no hemos conocido sociedades ni grandes movimientos sociales
ni siquiera revoluciones no religiosas; es claro que sus motivaciones eran
tambin y fundamentalmente econmicas y polticas, pero era a travs
de lo religioso como eran gestionados esos impulsos sociales. La religin
misma con un prestigio cuasidivino, su autoridad incuestionable, sus
creencias, mitos, dogmas, leyes, moral... e incluso sus instancias inquisito-
riales funga como software programador de cada sociedad. Eso ha sido
as durante todo el tiempo neoltico o agrario en el sentido amplio que
estamos utilizando, que ahora la antropologa cultural sostiene que se
est acabando.
Con qu mecanismos internos las religiones han ejercido esta
su capacidad programadora de la sociedad? Por medio de:
la creacin e imposicin de su cosmovisin sobre la sociedad:
ella es quien ha dicho a la humanidad, en cada sociedad, qu es la reali-
dad, cul es su origen, su sentido y sus exigencias morales;
las creencias fundamentales vehiculadas por los mitos sagrados,
que han fungido como los presupuestos, axiomas, postulados, presupues-
tos profundos de cada sociedad, como la arquitectura epistemolgica
misma de la sociedad humana;
una epistemologa mtica, que ha atribuido a Dios sus propias
elaboraciones, para presentarlas como revelacin o voluntad de Dios, y
as absolutizarlas para dar seguridad a la sociedad humana;
una exigencia radical de sumisin [islam significa sumisin], de
fe [una exigencia primaria en el cristianismo], de creer lo que no se ve
(o lo que ni siquiera se entiende);
ejerciendo con todos estos mecanismos como sistema operativo
de la sociedad (lo que se evidencia en los sistemas sociales de los impe-
rios con su religin de Estado, la sociedad de cristiandad o los regme-
nes teocrticos en otras religiones, por ejemplo).
279
A partir de estas premisas podramos dotarnos ahora de una nueva
definicin tcnica ad hoc de las religiones en el sentido que aqu que-
remos dar al trmino: llamamos tcnicamente religin a la configuracin
socio-institucionalizada que la religiosidad (espiritualidad) constitutiva
del ser humano adopt en la edad agraria, configuracin que ha fungi-
do como sistema fundamental de programacin y de autocontrol de las
sociedades agrarias neolticas. En esta exposicin entendemos religin
en este estricto sentido tcnico, y no en cualquiera de las otras acepciones
de la palabra (religiosidad, dimensin religiosa, espiritualidad, institucin
religiosa...); no tener en cuenta esta precisin de vocabulario nos llevara
inevitablemente a la confusin. Derivadamente, llamaremos tcnicamente
religional a lo relativo a esta configuracin socio-religiosa propia del
tiempo agrario o neoltico
En este sentido, es de notar que el paradigma que queremos pre-
sentar es calificado como pos-religional; no como pos-religioso, por-
que continuar siendo religioso en el sentido normal del diccionario,
en cuanto relacionado con la dimensin espiritual del ser humano y de
la sociedad, aunque cambien las culturas y las pocas; lo llamamos pos-
religional porque ciertamente se instalar en la superacin de la citada
configuracin de lo religioso (aquellos modos de funcionar a los que
luego nos vamos a referir propios de las religiones que genricamente
llamamos agrarias incluyendo ah las ganaderas y otras formas ms
especializadas).
El prefijo pos no lo tomamos en el sentido literalmente temporal
(como un despus de) sino en un sentido genricamente superador:
ms all de. Por ello, igualmente sera vlido decir a-religional, para
evitar la posible confusin con la dimensin temporal. Pos-religional
no significa pos-religioso ni post-espiritual, sino, estrictamente, ms
all de lo religional, es decir, ms all de lo que han sido las religiones
agrarias, o una religiosidad sin religiones (agrarias), una espiritualidad
sin la configuracin socio-institucionalizada propia de la edad neoltica
(sin programacin social, sin sumisin, sin dogmas...)
5
. Obviamente, nos
5
Estas precisiones de vocabulario pueden explicar por qu se hace necesario acudir a este
artesanal neologismo que permanece dentro de las reglas propias de la lengua-, para
evitar el equvoco, tanto de equipararlo con lo religioso en el sentido normal del dic-
cionario, como de confundirlo indebidamente con lo anti-religioso o lo ateo.
De todas formas, nos preguntamos: es el adjetivo religional el ms adecuado para cali-
ficar este paradigma? Respondemos: creemos que es correcto, que es adecuado, y
que es til (por plstico y efectista), pero creemos que no es absoluto, y que puede ser
mejorado, porque quiz no proviene de lo esencial del fenmeno al que se refiere, ni tal
vez evoca lo que pudiera ser su base material o su especificidad epistemolgica. Por
eso, nosotros lo proponemos con humildad, como provisional y como mejorable.
280
apoyaremos en otras mediaciones, gestos, smbolos, instituciones o sis-
tematizaciones de otro tipo, porque la experiencia espiritual humana no
puede darse en el vaco...; pero no es ste el momento dirimir este punto.
ELEMENTOS PRINCIPALES DEL PARADIGMA POS-RELIGIONAL
Tratemos de establecer ya los elementos principales de la nueva
conciencia pos-religional propia de ese fenmeno complejo de la
cultura social emergente, consecuencia principal de la ampliacin del
conocimiento humano.
1. Las Religiones son otra cosa que lo que tradicionalmente
pensbamos, que lo que todava piensa mucha gente, que lo que ellas
piensan de s mismas y han difundido en la sociedad durante milenios.
Las religiones no estn respaldadas por una especie de preexistencia que
hara de ellas un cuerpo supremo primordial de sabidura, unas formas
de sabidura divina reveladas por Dios mismo, lo que las convertira en
el nico medio de acceso a esa revelacin y a la relacin con el Misterio.
Las religiones -siempre, no se olvide, en el sentido especfico que esta-
mos dando al trmino- son, ms bien, un fenmeno histrico, una forma
sociocultural concreta que la dimensin profunda de siempre del ser
humano ha revestido en una determinada era histrica. No son la reli-
giosidad misma. No son equiparables sin ms a la espiritualidad humana
de todos los tiempos.
Las religiones son formas, histricas, contingentes, y cambiantes,
mientras que la espiritualidad es una dimensin constitutiva humana,
permanente, anterior a las formas, y esencial al ser humano... La espiri-
tualidad puede ser vivida en, o fuera de las religiones. Podramos pres-
cindir de las religiones, pero no podremos prescindir de la dimensin de
transcendencia del ser humano...
2. Las religiones son tambin... construcciones humanas. Como
hemos dicho, la ciencia y la sociedad ya saben mucho sobre su origen, su
formacin, sus mecanismos. Ello cambia radicalmente nuestra percepcin
sobre ellas: las religiones son obra nuestra, creaciones humanas; geniales,
pero humanas a veces, demasiado humanas, y que deben estar a nues-
tro servicio, no al revs.
Las religiones -sus creencias, sus mitos, su moral...- no son obra
directa de un Dios out there, up there, que nos envi ese don de las
religiones, sino que son algo que ha surgido de aqu abajo, algo muy
terrestre, que nos lo hemos hecho nosotros los humanos, impulsados
281
ciertamente por la fuerza del misterio divino que nos invade, pero segn
nuestras posibilidades y con nuestros condicionamientos muy concretos.
Las religiones ms tarde se absolutizaron a s mismas atribuyendo
su propio origen a Dios. Fue un mecanismo que sirvi para fijar y dar
consistencia inamovible a las construcciones humanas que ellas eran, en
el afn de asegurar las frmulas sociales de convivencia con las que la
humanidad haba logrado dotarse. Hoy estamos perdiendo la ingenui-
dad, y ese carcter absoluto de las religiones, que durante milenios fue
un componente esencial de las sociedades humanas, que nos hizo ms
fcil y ms pasiva la vida de los humanos, se nos evidencia como un
llamativo espejismo epistemolgico que habamos asumido por va de
una creencia, pero que hoy ya no nos resulta ni necesario, ni deseable,
ni soportable.
3. Entonces, no estamos sometidos a las religiones, no estamos
condenados a marchar por la historia por el camino acabadamente traza-
do por ellas, como si fuera un designio divino que marcara previamente
desde siempre, y desde fuera nuestro destino, como si nos obligara a
adoptar las soluciones con que nuestros ancestros trataron de resolver
sus problemas y de interpretar la realidad a la medida de sus posibilida-
des... Si las religiones son construccin nuestra, ello significa que no nos
quitan el derecho (ni la obligacin) de pronunciarnos ante la historia y
de aportar nuestra propia respuesta a los problemas de la existencia, y de
expresar con autoconfianza nuestra propia interpretacin de la realidad
de lo que somos, ayudados por nuestros descubrimientos cientficos. No
estamos obligados a tomar como verdad intocable e infranqueable las
interpretaciones obsoletas y las soluciones ancestrales que se dieron a
s mismas generaciones humanas de hace unos cuantos miles de aos,
como si aquellas interpretaciones fueran una supuesta revelacin venida
de fuera y de obligado cumplimiento. Ese equvoco religional en el que
han vivido nuestros antepasados, nos parece, a estas alturas de la historia,
una alienacin.
Da miedo sentirnos solos, responsables ante la historia, libres ante
los caminos religiosos tradicionales, sin un camino seguro e indiscutible-
mente obligatorio trazado por los dioses... Esta nueva visin del mundo,
este paradigma pos-religional, genera una autoconciencia humana
profundamente diferente respecto a la que nos haba marcado la con-
ciencia religional tradicional. Ahora nos sentimos libres de las ataduras
religionales para dar rienda suelta con creatividad a nuestra realizacin
personal y colectiva, para asumir plenamente nuestra responsabilidad,
nuestras decisiones, nuestra interpretacin al propio riesgo, sin ninguna
restriccin ni coaccin supuestamente externa, aunque bien preocupada
por sintonizar con el Misterio que nos mueve.
282
4. Las religiones, supuestamente las nicas conocedoras del princi-
pio de los tiempos y del final del mundo, no son, por naturaleza, eter-
nas, para siempre. Ahora las sabemos ms bien temporales, construidas
humanamente, recientes, y contingentes. Sabemos que no es imposible
que puedan desaparecer. Nos han acompaado una pequea parte de
nuestra historia evolucionaria. No son esenciales a nuestra naturaleza.
Las religiones agrarias estn ligadas a la poca neoltica: podramos
decir que surgieron de hecho para hacer viable la especie humana al
entrar en esa era nueva, la subsiguiente a la revolucin agraria. Pero es
precisamente esa era la que los especialistas dicen que actualmente est
llegando a su fin. Qu futuro podemos pronosticar a las religiones en
una poca de transicin que anuncia el final de la era que las hizo surgir?
Parece plausible la hiptesis de que las religiones (agrarias) pudieran
desaparecer. No parece un imposible en s mismo, ni tendra por qu ser
un desastre histrico gravsimo: hemos vivido la mayor parte de nuestra
historia sin religiones (todo el paleoltico), y est demostrado que ello
no impidi nuestra cualidad humana profunda, nuestra espiritualidad.
5. A estas alturas ha quedado ya indirectamente evidenciada una
distincin que se impone. Tradicionalmente las religiones detentaban el
monopolio de lo espiritual: una persona podra ser espiritual, solamente
mediante las religiones. Eran consideradas la fuente misma de la espiri-
tualidad, la conexin directa con el Misterio. Religiones y espiritualidad
eran todo uno, la misma cosa.
Hoy, como acabamos de expresar, la conceptuacin de las religio-
nes est cambiando radicalmente en el paradigma posreligional emer-
gente. Cada da a ms personas se les hace evidente que las religiones no
son la fuente de espiritualidad, sino slo unas formas socio-culturales que
la espiritualidad ha revestido histricamente; con frecuencia son un freno
y un obstculo para la espiritualidad, que es una dimensin esencial y
caracterstica del ser humano, que le acompaa permanente desde su
surgimiento como especie. Las palabras religin, religioso, religiones, que
tradicionalmente venan cubriendo intercambiablemente todo el mbito
de lo relativo a la espiritualidad, hoy debern pasar, escrupulosamente,
por la criba de la distincin entre lo religioso (lo que tiene que ver con
esa dimensin misteriosa del ser humano) y lo religional (lo que perte-
nece simplemente al mbito de esas configuraciones socio-culturales e
institucionales que hemos llamado religiones agrarioneolticas).
283
EL PARADIGMA POS-RELIGIONAL EN SNTESIS
Una vez expuestos estos elementos principales de la visin cons-
titutiva del paradigma posreligional, podramos tratar de expresar su
ncleo argumentador en apretada sntesis:
Primera premisa: Las religiones (no la religin, ni la espiritua-
lidad, ni la religiosidad...), en el sentido tcnico que hemos dado aqu al
trmino, son una creacin neoltica, de la edad agraria de la humanidad,
tanto productos de ella como causas de la misma.
Segunda: La transformacin socio-cultural que estamos atra-
vesando en la actualidad implica, precisamente, el final de esa poca
agrario-neoltica. Lo que ahora est siendo superado y barrido ha estado
en los fundamentos de la sociedad humana y en la forma de la con-
ciencia humana de la especie durante los ltimos 10.000 aos (desde el
comienzo de la edad; sa es la profundidad del cambio actual). Emerge
un tipo nuevo de sociedad, con unos fundamentos distintos sobre todo
epistemolgicos que resultan incompatibles con el sistema operativo
milenario neoltico. Se impone, por ello, un cambio sistmico tanto a
nivel epistemolgico como a nivel del tipo de conciencia espiritual de la
humanidad. De ah la radicalidad y la profundidad del cambio epocal que
estamos viviendo, un nuevo tiempo axial.
Consecuencia: las religiones (agrario-neolticas), identificadas
con el tipo de conciencia, cosmovisin y epistemologa agrarios, estn
perdiendo base y entrando en un profundo declive a medida que por
la acumulacin de conocimientos cientficos, tecnolgicos, sociales y
experienciales va emergiendo un tipo de conciencia, de cosmovisin
y de epistemologa nuevo, incompatible con el tradicional neoltico. Los
humanos de la sociedad adveniente ya no pueden expresar su dimensin
espiritual en aquella configuracin concreta de las religiones agrarias
(tanto agrcolas como ganaderas), y stas no logran sintonizar y hacerse
entender por la nueva sociedad. Las religiones agrario-neolticas se ven
abocadas por tanto a transformarse radicalmente, o a desaparecer. Por
su parte, las personas, comunidades e instituciones de estas religiones,
a medida que pasan a la nueva cultura, se van desprendiendo de los
mecanismos y de la epistemologa agrarios, y van pasando a vivir su
espiritualidad pos-religionalmente.
Para verificar consecuentemente esta hiptesis:
Habr que profundizar en el concepto tcnico de religiones
agrario-neolticas, no limitndonos a la referencia a su origen tras la
Revolucin Agraria, sino adentrndonos en su estructura epistemolgica
y sus caractersticas esenciales, permanentes durante este tiempo de la
edad agraria.
284
Habr que mostrar ms fundamentadamente la afirmacin de
que estamos ante el fin de la edad neoltica, detallando concretamente
en qu elementos antropolgicos sustanciamos esta afirmacin, y cules
son los rasgos de la nueva sociedad que resultan incompatibles con sus
religiones.
Y habr que elaborar un proyecto de acompaamiento a la socie-
dad en esta poca que se avecina de trnsito desde la sociedad agraria a
la nueva sociedad.
Concluyendo, llamamos paradigma pos-religional a esa forma de
vivir la dimensin profunda del ser humano que se libera y supera los
mecanismos propios de las religiones agrario-neolticas, a saber:
su epistemologa mtica,
su monopolio de la espiritualidad,
su exigencia de sumisin, de aceptacin ciega de unas creen-
cias como reveladas por Dios,
su ejercicio del poder poltico e ideolgico sobre la sociedad, ya
sea en regmenes de cristiandad, cesaropapistas, islmicos, de unin de
Iglesia-Estado, de imposicin de las leyes eclesisticas sobre la sociedad
civil...
su imposicin de una moral heternoma, venida de lo alto,
con una interpretacin de la ley natural desde una filosofa oficialmente
impuesta, con una moral no sometida a un examen riguroso, comunita-
rio y democrtico,
su control del pensamiento humano, con los dogmas, la per-
secucin de la libertad pensamiento, la Inquisicin, la condena y ejecu-
cin de herejes, la pretensin de infalibilidad, de inspiracin divina,
de detentar el poder de interpretar autorizadamente de la voluntad de
Dios...
su proclamacin como Santas Escrituras reveladas (en el
caso de las religiones del libro) de las tradiciones ancestrales acumula-
das, exaltadas como Palabra directa de Dios, como normativa suprema e
indiscutible para la sociedad y para las personas...
su interpretacin premoderna de la realidad como un mundo
en dos pisos, con un mundo divino sobrenatural encima de nosotros, del
que dependemos y hacia el que vamos...
su interpretacin de la vida y de la muerte en trminos de
prueba, juicio y premio/castigo de manos de un Juez Universal que es el
Seor supremo de cada religin...
Con el final de la era agraria, todas estas estructuras cognoscitivas,
axiolgicas y epistemolgicas milenarias, estn dejando de ser viables, a
medida que adviene la nueva sociedad. Fueron un gran invento humano.
285
Gracias a esas andaderas, las bandas nmadas de cazadores y recolecto-
res lograron reinventar su humanidad hacindola capaz de convivir en la
ciudad, regulada por el derecho, unida por una conciencia religiosa de
pertenencia a una colectividad con una identidad atribuida a los dioses...
La crisis actual no se debe principalmente a procesos de secularizacin,
o a prdida de valores, o a la difusin del materialismo o del hedonismo
(interpretacin culpabilizante normalmente esgrimida por la oficialidad
de las religiones), ni tampoco a la falta de testimonio o a los escnda-
los morales de las religiones (aunque sean muy influyentes), sino a la
eclosin de una nueva situacin cultural, que culmina la transformacin
radical de las estructuras cognoscitivas, axiolgicas y epistemolgicas
neolticas, transformacin que comenz en el siglo XVI con la revolucin
cientfica, la Ilustracin del XVIII y las varias olas de industrializacin.
Los sntomas sociales son un cierto agnosticismo difuso, la prdida de
la ingenuidad epistemolgica, un sentido crtico ms acentuado, una
conceptuacin ms utilitarista de las religiones como al servicio del ser
humano en vez de como receptoras de una lealtad total por parte de sus
adeptos, la desaparicin de la idea de la nica religin verdadera y el
desvanecimiento de la plausibilidad de una moral revelada heternoma.
El cambio estructural gravita en todo caso sobre la citada transformacin
epistemolgico-cultural.
No estamos pues ante un fenmeno realmente nuevo, sino slo
ante su radicalizacin. Y no estamos ante una interpretacin radicalmente
nueva (este paradigma pos-religional), sino ante la toma de conciencia
de que el eje de acumulacin del cambio es sobre todo epistemolgico,
y que ello lo transforma radicalmente todo.
Dos cautelas:
a) Como ya sealamos al principio, no estamos queriendo decir
que slo esto es lo que acontece en el campo religioso, como si todo
el escenario estuviera actualmente ocupado por esta transformacin del
paradigma de las religiones agrarias en un paradigma pos-religional. En
el campo religioso tienen lugar muchos otros fenmenos, simultneamen-
te, incluso caticamente, ya que son en algunos aspectos, contradictorios.
Junto a esta crisis de la religin, decimos que se dan efervescencias
religiosas y revivals, retrocesos y fundamentalismos. En esta propuesta
teolgica nosotros hemos centrado nuestro foco selectivamente en un
aspecto concreto de la transformacin en curso, que no niega todo el
resto de elementos presentes. Ocurren otras cosas en el campo religioso,
pero tambin ocurre sta, y esta propuesta teolgica quiere llamar la
atencin sobre ello, a pesar del carcter difcilmente perceptible y todava
minoritario que reviste en muchas regiones.
286
b) Lo que venimos diciendo tampoco se puede aplicar, indiscri-
minadamente, a TODAS las religiones. Porque no todas las religiones
son agrarias. Hay una buena cantidad de religiones, todo un gnero
de las mismas, que no han pasado por la revolucin agraria y urbana.
Conservan en su seno una matriz de experiencia religiosa propia de los
tiempos anteriores a la transformacin neoltica (a la separacin frente
a la placenta de la sacralidad de la naturaleza, a la asuncin de la trans-
cendencia divina dualista y acsmica, etc.), y no cayeron en la deriva
controladora y programadora de la sociedad mediante la sumisin a
doctrinas, dogmas, inquisiciones... Aqu podemos ubicar la gran familia
de religiones csmicas, indgenas, animistas... as como otras que, aun
perteneciendo histricamente al perodo neoltico y siendo religiones de
sociedades netamente agrarias (agrcolas o ganaderas), se mantuvieron
al margen del ese control dogmtico-doctrinal, como por ejemplo el
hinduismo, una religin sin verdades. Quiere esto decir que tampoco
este paradigma se aplica a todas las religiones. La realidad es pues, ms
compleja que nuestros intentos simplificadores de comprensin, lo cual
nos urge a una mayor precisin, a una ms serena humildad y a un mayor
inters por el estudio de campo, la investigacin y el dilogo.
DE CARA AL INMEDIATO TRNSITO
sta que estamos haciendo es una propuesta teolgica, una profun-
dizacin terica para mejor poder transformar la realidad que interpreta
(interpretar como forma de transformar). Pero es obvio que tiene reper-
cusiones pastorales, y muy grandes. Porque de lo que estamos hablando
es de un tsunami cultural y religioso, de una metamorfosis que tal vez
nos har difcil reconocernos a nosotros mismos en un prximo futuro.
Y sta puede ser una situacin muy difcil de atravesar para la humani-
dad; los antroplogos dicen que el trnsito de la sociedad paleoltica a
la neoltica, con la revolucin agraria, fue la situacin ms difcil que ha
experimentado nuestra especie; tal vez estamos en un momento evoluti-
vo semejante. Se hace necesario plantear cmo acompaar este trnsito
que va a realizar o que ya est iniciando la sociedad, desde las religiones
agrarias, a un nuevo tipo de sociedad cuya realizacin espiritual va a
darse ms bien por vas y segn modelos que continuarn siendo religio-
sos pero pos-religionales, sin que hoy por hoy sepamos concretamente
cmo sern esas vas y esos modelos, pues... habremos de inventarlos.
Las religiones se van a ver abocadas ya lo estn siendo en muchos
lugares a situaciones de declive, de prdida de miembros y prdida de
credibilidad y plausibilidad, por una parte, y por otra van a experimentar
la contradiccin con sus propios mecanismos agrarios. Ya muchas per-
sonas perciben que necesitan transformar su religiosidad, radicalmente,
287
pero sienten punzantemente la contradiccin con la doctrina oficial,
considerada infalible e inmutable, que les prohibe todo cambio o abdi-
cacin respecto de los principios ancestrales. En algunas sociedades se
cuentan ya por decenas (tal vez centenas) de millones las personas que
abandonan calladamente las religiones para seguir siendo religiosos pos-
religionalmente. Es posible que algunas jerarquas religiosas, prendidas
en el espejismo de una lealtad sagrada, prefieran numantinamente hundir
a sus propias instituciones religiosas bloqueando su evolucin hacin-
dolo, con la mejor intencin, a la mayor gloria de Dios. Pero es tambin
posible que muchos grupos humanos sean capaces de transformarse. Es
bien posible, y lo creemos adems deseable, que las religiones agrarias
evolucionen hacia unas nuevas formas religiosas (pos-religionales) com-
patibles con esta nueva sociedad del conocimiento. Se darn cuenta de
que igual que la ciencia contradijo con razn el geocentrismo que ellas
consideraban incluso revelado, hoy la ciencia nos descubre que el reli-
giocentrismo ha sido un espejismo religional; y que igual que entonces
fue posible abandonar la vieja cosmovisin y continuar con la vivencia
espiritual, as hoy ser posible y necesario liberarnos de las ataduras de
lo religional, para encontrar la realizacin espiritual en un nuevo escaln
evolutivo.
Todo parece indicar que el Titanic de las religiones agrarias no
va a llegar a flotar en las latitudes del ocano de la sociedad del conoci-
miento. Todo parece indicar que no va a durar tanto, y se va a hundir. Se
pas su kairs, aunque le queda un poco de cronos. Pero no es el fin del
mundo. Es slo el fin de un mundo, el fin del mundo agrario-neoltico y
de su epistemologa, y con ello el fin de las configuraciones religionales
de la espiritualidad, las que hemos llamado religiones agrario neolticas.
La vida y su dimensin profunda continan. Y es deber nuestro com-
prender lo que est sucediendo, para no encontrarnos luchando contra
la Realidad, sino para ayudar a este nuevo parto evolutivo de nuestra
especie, para volver a reinventarnos como hicimos al comienzo del neo-
ltico. Es deber nuestro tambin ser prudentes, no empujar a nadie ms
all de sus necesidades ni de sus posibilidades, y advertir claramente que
la situacin es difcil, que es un nuevo nacimiento, una metamorfosis,
un cambio de especie, un cambio de sistema operativo, y un momento
de riesgos importantes, tanto en el plano social cuanto individual. Y es
deber de la teologa avizorar lo nuevo, no slo en el aspecto deconstruc-
tivo, sino en el constructivo: no slo lo que ya no podemos creer, sino
cmo podemos desarrollar en plenitud nuestra dimensin transcendente
o espiritual, la cualidad humana profunda que las religiones religionales,
despus de todo, con ms o menos limitaciones, queran apoyar.
Muchas cosas estn muriendo, y no acaban de morir, aunque
es inevitable que mueran. Tratamos de ayudarles a bien morir (el ars
288
moriendi, arte de morir dando vida para otros, dando a luz). Mientras
tanto, es todo un mundo nuevo el que trata de nacer, que no acaba de
nacer, y queremos ayudarle a nacer.
Las religiones van a verse en la necesidad de reinterpretar y recon-
vertir todo su patrimonio simblico, que fue creado bajo los condicio-
namientos epistemolgicos del tiempo agrario. Se tratara de una reela-
boracin, una re-recepcin (Congar) de todo su patrimonio, elaborado
inicialmente hace milenios, y mantenido histricamente bajo una igno-
rancia y una incultura de las que hace muy poco que acabamos de salir,
gracias al portentoso despliegue de las ciencias. Las religiones habrn de
buscar cmo re-comprender, y qu queda si queda algo de muchas de
las creencias, dogmas, moral heternoma, ritos agrarios... dentro de esta
nueva situacin del conocimiento y de los nuevos marcos de interpreta-
cin.
Muchos seres humanos, al verse incapacitados de seguir apoyndo-
se en las religiones para sobrevivir espiritualmente, van a experimentar
serias dificultades en la integridad espiritual de sus vidas. Como cuando
el avin despega y abandona el sistema de apoyo de sus ruedas sobre el
suelo, teniendo que pasar a apoyarse en un nuevo sistema de sustenta-
cin, totalmente distinto, el de sus alas, la mayor parte de la humanidad
va a tener que pasar por momentos de difcil equilibrio en el trnsito de
uno a otro sistema axiolgico, tan diferentes, y hasta cierto punto, sin
continuidad natural entre ellos, sin cambio automtico.
Lo que viene es un tsunami. Los riesgos son graves, en todos los
rdenes. Es deber de la teologa responsable anticipar estos problemas y
tratar de acompaar el trnsito inevitable en el que ya estamos entrando.
Tanto en el aspecto terico como en el prctico, el tema merecera mucha
ms extensin que la de esta sencilla propuesta teolgica. Nosotros la
dejamos aqu, y la entregamos a consulta y a debate, deseosos de que sea
contrastada, corregida y mejorada. Quedan ustedes cordialmente invita-
dos a ello.
289
Rumo a um Paradigma Ps-religional?
Proposta teolgica
Comisso Teolgica Internacional
da EATWOT
Fala-se cada vez mais do declnio do cristianismo no Ocidente.
Tanto o catolicismo como o protestantismo atravessam uma greve crise,
assim na Europa como na Amrica do Norte. So cada vez mais nume-
rosos os observadores que prognosticam a continuao da crise a afetar
tambm outras religies. Suspeita-se que ela no se relacione a um pro-
blema do cristianismo, mas sim, prpria natureza das religies e cres-
cente incapacidade destas se adaptarem profunda mudana cultural em
curso. A hiptese do advento de um paradigma ps-religional levanta a
possibilidade de nos encontrarmos diante de uma transformao scio-
cultural to profunda que as religies neolticas se tornaro inviveis
quando a adveniente sociedade do conhecimento se instalar, sociedade
esta que ser uma sociedade pos-religional, e que as religies que no
se libertarem de seus condicionamentos religionais ancestrais ver-se-o
nas margens residuais do curso da histria.
Obviamente, este paradigma-hiptese coexistiria com fenmenos a
ele opostos, como conservadorismo religioso, reavivamentos espirituais,
carismatismo e neopentecostalismo. Apenas em alguns reas geogrficos
pode estar acontecendo majoriatariamente esta mudana, mas alguns
observadores afirmam que os sintomas esto crescendo nas camadas
urbanas cultas, tanto de jovens como de adultos com acesso cultura e
tecnologia... e que ele estaria comeando a fazer-se presente tambm
na Amrica Latina (tambm na frica e na sia?). Independentemente de
pesquisas quantitativas de campo, concentramo-nos na elaborao teri-
ca de uma primeira apresentao reflexiva e interrogativa do que, aqui,
denominamos paradigma ps-religional, e que propomos ao debate e
ao contraditrio da comunidade de estudiosos de teologia e de cincias
da religio, bem como dos pastores e de todas as pessoas preocupadas
com a atual evoluo do fenmeno religioso.
290
Possvel fundamento da hiptese
Uma expanso do conhecimento humano e um silencioso enfren-
tamento entre a cincia atual e a religio pareceriam ser, entre outras, as
causas intelectuais deste novo paradigma. O desenvolvimento das cin-
cias est levando a humanidade a observar-se a si mesma e a fazer-se uma
ideia de sua religiosidade em grande parte diferente da que dela tinha at
agora, o que provoca uma nova atitude frente religio.
Nesta altura da histria, a antropologia cultural acredita estar em
condies de elaborar a respeito da religio um conceito diferente do que
esta vinha fazendo de si mesma, ou seja, diferente da auto-definio com
que durante milnios a religio se apresentou e com a qual moldou at
hoje a opinio majoritria das sociedades tradicionais. Embora ainda haja
muito a ser investigado e outras cincias tambm possam fornecer muita
contribuio, a antropologia cultural interdisciplinarmente considerada
acredita j saber quando e como as religies foram forjadas, com que
mecanismos sociais e epistemolgicos operam, e quais so as dimenses
humanas profundas que esto em jogo em sua relao com o ser huma-
no, individual e cletetivamente considerado. A novidade destas avaliaes
radical e parece difundir-se e generalizar-se de maneira to rpida e
subliminarmente nas sociedades assim evolutivas que gera uma profunda
mudana de atitude em relao religio, o que estamos interpretando
como a chegada de um novo paradigma, o paradigma ps-religional.
Em sntese, estes seriam hoje em dia os pontos focais da nova viso
que a antropologia cultural apresenta a respeito da religio:
As religies no so de sempre, ou seja, s existem desde que o
ser humano se encontra sobre a face da Terra. Sabemos hoje que elas so
jovens, quase recentes. O hindusmo, a mais antiga, s teria em torno
de 4.500 anos. O judeu-cristianismo, 3.200. Em termos evolutivos, mesmo
que nos limitemos aos tempos do gnero homo (entre 5 e 7 milhes de
anos) ou ainda espcie homo sapiens (150 ou 200 mil), as religies so
de ontem. Passamos muito mais tempo sem religies que com elas,
embora espirituais parece que o temos sido desdo o primeiro momento:
homo sapiens e homo spiritualis parem ser coetneos. Portanto, as religi-
es no so algo que necessariamente acompanha o ser humano, como
a histria mostra
1
.
1
Com receio e resignao aceitamos a palavra espiritualidade, procurando no transigir
com sua inegvel conotao etimolgica dualista. uma palavra consagrada pelo uso
e sabido que no a aceitamos como sendo referida a um esprito conttraposto a
uma suposta matria no espiritual... Postulamos uma conceituao mais adequada do
que se quiz significar com por espiritualidade: aquela dimenso de profundade (Tillich),
aquela necessidade de enquadrar nossas vidas em contextos mais amplos (Armstrong),
a qualidade humana profunda (Corb), as motivaes ltimas, a mstica pela qual se
290 Proposta teolgica
291
As religies se formaram no perodo neoltico, aps a grande
transformao por que passou nossa espcie ao passar de nmades tribos
de caadores e coletores para sociedades urbanas sedentrias, ligadas
ao cultivo da terra transformao denominada de revoluo agrria
2
.
Nessa conjuntura evolutiva (talvez o momento mais difcil de sua hist-
ria evolutiva), a humanidade teve que reinventar-se a si mesma, criando
cdigos que lhe permitissem viver em sociedade e no mais em bandos
ou grupos, ou seja: com direito, moral, coeso social, sentido de perten-
a..., para ser vivel e sobreviver como espcie. Nessa conjuntura, nossa
espcie lanou mo daquela que certamente sua maior fora desde sua
apario como espcie emergente: sua capacidade simblica e religiosa,
sua necessidade de sentido e de experincia de transcendncia. Talvez
pudesse ter sido de outra maneira, mas, de fato, foi assim.
Do neoltico a nossos dias, as sociedades foram religiosas, reli-
giocntricas, permeadas de religio em todas as suas estruturas: seu
conhecimento (ou sua ignorncia), suas crenas, sua cultura, seu sentido
de identidade, sua coeso social e o sentido de pertena de seus mem-
bros, seu diretio, sua poltica, sua legitimidade, sua estrutura social, sua
cosmoviso, sua arte... A cultura foi a forma da religio e a religio foi
vida e luta e com a qual se contagia aos demais (Casaldliga, Vigil)... Para superar
sua limitao, procuramos reconduzir a palavra, acompanhando-a com expresses
paralelas.
2
Falamos de uma sociedade ou poca agrria no em sentido de sociedade rural ou de
sociedade agrcola, dedicada ao setor primrio da economia, a agricultura, mas referi-
mo-nos, sim, a uma perspectiva antropolgico-cultural, sociedade humana posterior
revoluo agrria neoltica, catalogao geral de uma poca, cuja dissoluo chega
at nossos dias.
Denomina-la de agrria em sentido amplo, incluindo as sociedades pastoris, que compar-
tilham algumas estruturas epistemolgicas prprias de todo este tempo neoltico pos-
terial revoluo scio-cultural que teve incio com o descobrimento da agricultura. As
revolues cientfica (s. XVI) e industrial (s. XVIII e seguintes) podem ser consideradas
como o comeo do fim do neoltico ou da idade agrria evoluda, final que atualmente
estaria em sua fase conclusiva.
Estas categorias bem como as afirmaes necessitam de muita matizao; pedagogicamen-
te, adotamos esta linguagem simplificada para possibilitar uma apresentao singela
e simples deste paradigma.
Estas precisaes de vocabulrio podem explicar o por qu se faz necessrio lanar mo
deste artesanal neologismo perfeitamente dentro das regras etimolgicas da lngua -,
para evitar o equvoco de equipar-lo com o religioso no sentido normal do dicionrio,
como de confundi-lo indevidamente com o anti-religioso ou ateu. Em todo caso: o
adjetivo religional o mais adequado para qualificar este paradigma? Cremos que sja
correto, adequado e til (plstico e enigmtico), porm, cremos tambm que no seja
absoluto e que, portanto, possa ser melhorado, porque, quem sabe, no provenha do
essencial do fenmeno ao qual se refere nem, talvez, evoque o que poderia ser sua
base material ou sua especificidade epistemolgica. Por isso e com humildade, ns o
propomos como provisrio e melhorvel.
Rumo a um paradigma pos-religional 291
292
a alma da cultura (Tillich). O impulso religioso, a forma da religio foi
o motor do sistema operativo das sociedades. Se excetuarmos os dois
ltimos sculos, desde a revoluo agrria no conhecemos sociedades
nem grande movimentos sociais nem sequer revolues que no fossem
religiosas; certo que suas motivaes eram tambm e fundamental-
mente econmicas e polticas, porem era atravs do religioso que eram
gerados e conduzidos estes impulsos sociais. A religio com seu pres-
tgio quase divino, sua autoridade inquestionvel, suas crenas, mitos,
dogmas, leis, moral... e, inclusive, com suas instncias inquisitoriais fez
as vezes de software programador de cada sociedade. Assim foi durante
todo o tempo neoltico ou agrrio, no sentido amplo que lhe estamos
atribuindo -, mas que, agora, a antropologia cultural sustenta no estar
mais sendo.
Com que mecanismos internos exerceram as religies esta sua
capacidade programadora da sociedade? Com os seguintes:
com a criao e imposio de sua cosmoviso sobre a sociedade:
foi ela que disse humanidade, em cada sociedade, o que a realidade,
qual sua origem, seu sentido e suas exigncias morais;
com as crenas fundamentais que, veiculadas pelos mitos sagra-
dos, serviram de postulados, axiomas, pressupostos profundos de cada
sociedade, constituindo-se na prpria arquitetura epistemolgica da
sociedade humana;
com uma epistemologia mstica, atribuindo a Deus suas pr-
prias elaboraes para apresent-las como revelao ou vontade de
Deus e, assim, absolutizando-as, fundamentar a segurana da sociedade
humana;
com uma radical exigncia de submisso (islam significa submis-
so), de f (uma exigncia de primeira ordem no cristianismo), de crer no
que no se v (ou no que nem sequer se entende);
com um sistema operativo da sociedade que se vale de todos
estes mecanismos (o que fica evidente nos sistemas sociais dos imprios
com sua religio de Estado, com a sociedade de cristandade ou com os
regimes teocrticos em outras religies, por exemplo).
Agora, a partir dessas premissas, poderamos nos dotar de uma
nova definio tcnica ad hoc das religies, no sentido que aqui quere-
mos dar ao termo: chamamos tecnicamente de religio configurao
socio-institucionalizada que a religiosidade (espiritualidade) constitutiva
do ser humano adotou na idade agrria, configurao que fez as vezes de
sistema fundamental de programao e de auto-controle das sociedades
agrrias neolticas. Portanto, nesta exposio, entendemos religio neste
estrito sentido tcnico, e no em outra acepo da palavra (religiosida-
de, dimenso religiosa, espiritualidade, instituio religiosa...); no levar
293
em conta esta precisao de vocabulrio, levar-nos-ia inevitavelmente
confuso. Derivadamente, chamaremos tecnicamente religional ao que
relativo a esta configurao scio-religiosa prpria do tempo agrrio
ou neoltico.
Neste sentido, de se notar que o paradigma que queremos apre-
sentar qualificado como ps-religional, no como ps-religioso, uma
vez que continuar sendo religioso no sentido normal do dicionrio,
enquanto relacionado dimenso espiritual do ser humano e da socie-
dade, embora mudem as cultduras e as pocas; chamamo-lo de ps-
religional, porque, certamente, se instalar como forma de superao da
citada configurao do religioso (ou seja, aqueles modos de funcionar a
que logo mais nos referiremos, como sendo prprios das religies que
genericamente chamamos de agrrias incluindo a as pastoris ou
outras formas mais especializadas).
No tomamos o prefixo ps em sentido literalmente temporal
(como um depois de), mas sim, em sentido genericamente superador
de alm de. Por isso, tambm seria vlido dizer a-religional, sem cair
em confuso com a dimenso temporal. Ps-religional no significa
ps-religioso nem ps-espiritual, seno, estritamente, para alm do
religional, ou seja, para alm do que foram as religies agrrias, ou
no sentido de uma religiosidade sem religies (agrrias), uma espiri-
tualidade sem a configurao scio-institucionalizada prpria da idade
neoltica (sem programao social, sem submisso, sem dogmas...).
Evidentemente, apoiar-nos-emos em outras mediaes, gestos, smbolos,
instituies ou sistematizaes de outro tipo, porque a experincia
espiritual humana no pode acontecer no vazio...; porm, no este o
momento para equacionar este ponto.
Principais elementos do paradigma ps-religional
Tratemos logo de estabelecer os principais elementos da nova
conscincia ps-religional, prpria desse complexo fenmeno da cul-
tura social emergente, principal consequncia da ampliao do conheci-
mento humano.
1. As religies so outra coisa do que tradicionalmente imagin-
vamos, do que muita gente ainda imagina, do que as prprias religies
imaginam de si mesmas e o difundiram durante milnios na sociedade.
As religies no esto respaldadas por uma espcie de pr-existncia que
faria delas um conjunto primordial de sabedoria ou uma espcie de for-
mas desabedoria divina reveladas pelo prprio Deus, o que as converteria
no nico meio de acesso a essa revelao e relao com o Mistrio. As
religies sempre, no o esqueamos, no sentido especfico que estamos
atribuindo ao termo so, antes, um fenmeno histrico, uma forma
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sociocultural concreta que a profunda e permanente dimenso humana
revestiu numa determinado perodo da histria. No so a prpria reli-
gisidade. No so, sem mais, equiparveis espiritualidade humana de
todos os tempos.
As religies so formas histricas, contingentes e mutantes,
enquanto a espiritualidade uma dimenso humana constitutiva, perma-
nente, anterior s formas, e essencial do ser humano... A espiritualidade
pode ser vivida na ou fora das religies. Poderamos prescindier das
religies, mas no poderamos prescindir da dimento transcendente do
ser humano...
2. Tambm as religies soo construes humanas... Como disse-
mos, a cincia e a sociedade j sabem muito sobre sua origem, sua for-
mao e seus mecanismos. E isso muda radicalmente nossa perceo a
respeito da religies: elas so obra nossa, so criaes humanas, geniais,
mas humanas por vezes, demasiado humanas -, e que devem estar a
nosso servio, no o contrrio.
As religies suas crenas, seus mitos, sua moral... no so obra
direta de um Deus l de fora (out there) ou l de cima (up there), que nos
teria enviado este dom, mas sim, algo que surgiu daqui de baixo, algo
muito cho, que ns, os humanos, criamos para ns mesmos, certamente
impulsionados, sim, pela fora do mistrio divino que nos permeia, mas
tambm segundo nossas possibilidades e nossas limitaes muito con-
cretas.
Ao atribuir sua prpria origem a Deus as religies se absolutiza-
ram a si mesmas. Foi um mecanismo que serviu para fixar e dar firme
consistncia s construes humanas que elas mesmas eram, n af de
assegurar as frmulas sociais de convivncia com as quais a humanidade
havia conseguido dotar-se. Hoje estamos perdendo a ingenuidade, e esse
carter absoluto das religies, que durante milnicos se constituiu num
componente essencial das sociedades humanas, que tornou mais fcil e
passiva a vida humana, se nos evidencia como uma sedutora miragem
epistemolgica que tnhamos assumido atravs de uma crena, mas que
hoje j no nos resulta nem necessria, nem desejvel e nem suportvel.
Portanto, no estamos submetidos s religies. No estamos conde-
nados a caminhar pela histria, percorrendo o caminho aprontado por
elas, como se fosse um desgnio divino que previamente desde sempre
e de fora para dentro - tivesse estabelecido nosso destino, como se nos
obrigasse a adotar as solues com as quais nossos ancestrais procura-
ram resolver seus problemas e interpretar a realidade na medida de suas
possibilidades... Se as religies so construo humana, isto significa que
no nos tiram o direito (nem a obrigao) de nos pronunciar diante da
histria e de apresentar nossa prpria resposta aos problemas da exis-
295
tncia e de expressar com autoconfiana nossa prpria interpretao da
realidade que somos, ajudados por nossos descubrimentos cientficos.
No somos obrigados a tomar como verdade intocvel e impenetrvel as
interpretaes obsoletas e as solues ancestrais que geraes humanas
consctruram para si mesmas h alguns milhares de anos, como se aque-
las interpretaes fossem uma suposta revelao vinda de fora e cujo
seguimento seria obrigatrio. Este equvo religional em que viveram
nossos antepassados, nesta altura da histria, parece-nos uma alienao.
D medo sentirmo-nos sozinhos, responsveis perante a histria,
livres diante dos caminhos religiosos tradicionais, sem um traado segu-
ro e indiscutivelmente obrigatrio e marcado pelos deuses... Esta nova
viso do mundo, este paradigma ps-religional gera uma autoconsci-
ncia humana profundamente diferente daquela que nos tinha marcado
a conscincia religional tradicional. Agora sentimo-nos livres em relao
s amarras religionais para dar rdea solta nossa realizao pesso-
al e coletiva, para assumir plenamente nossa responsabilidade, nossas
decises, nossa interpretao por conta e risto prprio, sem nenhuma
restrio nem coao supostamente externa, embora preocupados em
sintonizar com o Mistrio que nos move.
4. As religies, supostamente as nicas conhecedoras do incio dos
tempos e do final do mundo, no so, por natureza, eternas, perenes.
Agora temos maior cincia de que so temporais, humanamente constru-
das, recentes, contingentes. E sabemos que no impossvel que possam
desaparecer. No so essenciais nossa natureza e nos acompanharam
durante uma pequena parte de nossa evoluo histrica.
As religies agrrias esto ligadas poca neoltica: poderamos
afirmar que surgiram para que a espcie humana se tornasse vivel ao
ingressar nesta na nova era, a subsequente revoluo agrria. Porm,
precisamente esta era que, afirmam os especialistas, est chegando ao
fim. Que futuro podemos ento prognostidar para as religies, numa
poca de transio que anucia o final da era que as fez surgir? Parece
plausvel a hiptese de que as religies (agrrias) poderiam desapare-
cer. No parece um impossvel em si mesmo, nem haveria por que ser
um gravssimo desastre histrico: vivemos a maior parte de nossa hist-
ria sem religies (todo o paleoltico), e est demonstrado que isto no
inviabilizou nossa qualidade humana profunda, nossa espiritualidade.
5. A esta algura j ficou indiretamente evidenciada uma distino
que impe. Tradicionalmente, as religies detinham o monoplio do espi-
ritual. Uma pessoa s poderia ser espiritual mediante as religies. Estas
eram consideradas a prpria fonte da espiritualidade, a direta conceo
com o Mistrio. Religies e espiritualidade constituam um todo nico,
coincidiam.
296
Hoje, como acabamos de dizer, a concepo que se tem da religies
est mudando racicalmente em funo do emergente paradigma ps-reli-
gional. Com efeito, a cada dia e a mais pessoas se faz evidente que as reli-
gies no so a fonte da espiritualidade, mas sim, to somente algumas
formas scio-culturais com que a espiritualidade se revestiu histricamen-
te. Antes e com frequncia, so um freio e um obstculo para a espirituali-
dade, que uma dimenso essencial e caracterstica do ser humano e que
o acompanha permanentemente desde seu surgimento como espcie. As
palavras: religio, religioso, religies que tradicional e intercambialmente
cobriam todo o mbito do que relativo espiritualidade, deveriam, hoje,
passar escrupulosamente pelo crivo da distino entre o religioso (o que
tem a ver com a dimenso misteriosa do ser humano) e o religional (o
que simplesmente pertence ao mbito das configuraes scio-culturai e
institucionais que denominamos de religies agrcola-neolticas).
O paradigma ps-religional em sntese
Expostos os principais elementos da viso constitutiva do paradig-
ma ps-religional, poderamos apresentar seu ncleo argumentador em
breve sntese, assim:
Primeira premissa: As religies (no a religio, nem a espiritu-
alidade, nem a religiosidade...), no sentido tcnico que aqui damos ao
termo, so uma criao neoltica, da idade agrria da humanidade, tanto
produtos como causas da mesma.
Premissa segunda: A transformao scio-cultural que estamos
atravessando na atualidade implica o fim da poca agrrio-neoltica. O
que agora est sendo superado e varrido esteve nos fundamentos da
sociedade humana e na forma da conscincia da espcie durante os lti-
mos 10.000 anos (desde o comeo da idade; esta a profundidade da
atual mudana). Emerge um novo tipo de sociedade, com fundamentos
diferentes sobretudo epistemolgicos , incompatveis com o milenrio
sistema operativo do neoltico. Impe-se, pois, uma mudana sistmica,
tanto a nvel epistemolgico como de conscincia espiritual da humanida-
de. Da a radicalidade e a profundidade da mudana epocal que estamos
vivendo, um novo tempo axual.
Consequncia: As religies (agrrio-neolticas) identificadas
com o tipo de conscincia, cosmoviso e epistemologia agrrias esto
perdendo cho e entrando em acentuado declive medida que em
razo do acmulo de conhecimentos cientficos, tecnolgicos, sociais e
experienciais emerge um novo tipo de conscincia, de cosmoviso e de
epistemologia, incompatvel com o tipo tradicional neoltico. Os huma-
nos da emergente sociedade j no conseguem exprimir sua dimenso
espiritual na configurao das religies agrrias (tanto as agrculas
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como as pecuaristas), e estas, por sua vez, no conseguem sintoniar com
a nova sociedade nem fazer-se entender por ela. Portanto, as religies
agrrio-neolticas veem-se foradas a transformar-se radicalmente ou a
desaparecer. Por seu turno, as pessoas, comunidades e instituies destas
religies, medida que migram para a nova cultura, vo se desprendendo
dos mecanismos e da epistemologia agrrios e vo passando a viver sua
espiritualidade ps-religionalmente.
Para consequentemente verificar esta hiptese:
Temos que aprofundar o conceito tcnico de religies agrrio-
neolticas, no nos limitando referncia de sua origem relacionada
revoluo agrria, mas sim, entrar em sua estrutura epistemolgica e em
suas caractersticas essenciais e perdurveis durante o tempo da idade
agrria.
Haver que se demostrar mais fundamentadamente a afirmao
de que estamos diante do fim da idade neoltica, detalhando concreta-
mente em que elementos antropolgicos se fundamenta esta afirmao
e quais so as caractersticas de nova sociedade que so incompatveis
com suas religies.
E se ter que elaborar um projeto de acompanhamento da socie-
dade nesta poca em que se aproxima a passagem da sociedade agrria
para a nova sociedade. Concluindo, chamamos de paradigma ps-religio-
nal forma de o ser humano viver sua dimenso profunda, libertando-se
e superando os mecanismos prprios das religies agrrio-neolticas, a
saber:
sua epistemologia mtica,
seu monoplio da espiritualidade,
sua exigencia de submisso, de cega aceitao de algumas cren-
as como sendo reveladas por Deus,
seu exerccio do poder poltico e ideolgico sobre a socieda-
de, seja em regimes de cristandade, cesaropapistas, islmicos, de unio
Igreja-Estado, de imposio das leis eclesisticas sobre a sociedade civil...
sua imposio de uma moral heternoma, vinda do alto, com
uma interpretao da lei natura a partir de uma filosofia oficialmente
imposta, com uma moral no submetida a um exame comunitrio e
democrtico,
seu controle do pensamento humano atravs dos dogmas, da
perseguio liberdade de pensamento, da inquisio, da condenao e
execuo de hereges, da pretenso de infalibilidade, de inspirao divi-
na, de deter a interpretao autntica da vontade de Deus...
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sua proclamao das tradies ancestrais acumuladas como
Sagradas Escrituras reveladas, exaltadas como Palavra direta de Deus,
como normativa suprema e indiscutvel para a sociedade e para as pes-
soas...
sua interpretao pr-moderna da realidade como um mundo em
dois andares, estando o mundo divino e sobrenatural acima de ns, de
qual dependemos e para o qual nos dirigimos...
sua interpretao da vida e da morte expressa em termos de
prova, juzo e prmio/castigo nas mos de um Juiz Universal, que o
Senhor supremo de cada religio...
Com o fim da era agrria e medida do advento da nova socie-
dade, todas estas estruturas cognoscitivas, axiolgicas e epistemolgicas
milenares esto deixando de ser viveis. Constituram-se numa grande
inveno humana. Graas a esses andadores, as nmades tribos de caa-
dores e coletores conseguiram re-inventar sua humanidade, tornando-a
capaz de viver em cidade e regulamentada pelo direito, unida em torno
de uma conscincia religiosa de pertena a uma coletividade com uma
identidade atribuda aos deuses... A atual crise no se deve primeiramente
a processos de secularizao ou perda de valores ou ainda difuso
do materialismo ou do hedonismo (interpretao culpabilizante, normal-
mente esgrimada pela oficialidade das religies), nem tampouco falta
de testemunho ou aos escndalos morais das religies, mas sim, ecloso
de uma nova situao cultural que culmina com a radical transformao
das estruturas cognitivas, axiolgicas e epistemolgicas neolticas, trans-
formao que comeou com a revoluo cientfica do sculo XVI, com o
iluminismo do sculo XVII e com as vrias ondas de industrializao. Os
sintomas sociais se traduzem num certo agnosticismo difuso, na perda
da ingenuidade epistemolgica, no sentido crtica mais acentuado, na
concepo mais utilitarista das religies como estando a servio do ser
humano e no como receptora de uma lealdade a toda prova por parte
dos adeptos, do desaparecimento da ideia de a nica religio verdadeira
e do desvanecimento da plausibilidade de uma moral heteronomamente
revelada; porm, a estrutural mudana gravita em torno da transformao
epistemolgico-cultural.
Portanto, no nos encontramos diante de um fenmeno totalmente
novo, mas sim, to somente diante de sua radicalizao. Tambm no nos
encontramos diante de uma interpretao radicalmente nova (paradig-
ma ps-religional), mas diante de uma tomada de conscincia de que o
principal eixo portante da mudana o epistemolgico e que, por isso, a
transformao abrange tudo.
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Duas advertncias:
a) Como assinalamos no incio, no queremos dizer que s isso
que est acontecendo no campo religioso, como se atualmente todo o
cenrio estivesse tomado pela transformao do paradigma das religies
agrrias para um paradigma ps-religional. No campo religiosa aconte-
cem, simultaneamente, muitos outros fenmenos, inclusive de maneira
catica, uma vez que, em alguns aspectos, so contraditrios entre si.
Juntamente com a crise religiosa que viemos descrevendo, dissemos que
acontecem efervecncias religiosas e reavivamentos (revivals), e retroces-
sos e fundamentalismos. Em nossa leitura teolgica, apenas focalizamos
um aspecto da transformao em curso, no negando, a existncia dos
demais elementos. Ocorrem outras coisas no campo religioso, como ocor-
re esta; e esta proposta teolgica quer chamar a ateno para ela, apesar
de seu carter dificilmente perseptvel e ainda minoritrio em muitas
regies.
b) O que estamos dizendo tambm no pode ser indiscrimina-
damente aplicado a todas as religies. Pois, nem todas so agrrias.
H uma boa quantidade, todo um gnero delas, que no passou pela
revoluo agrria e urbana. Em seu seio conservam uma matriz de expe-
rincia religiosa prpria dos tempos anteriores transformao neoltica
( separao relativa placenta de sacralidade da natureza, assuno
da transcendncia divina dualista e csmica etc.) e no ficaram merc
da sociedade controladora e programadora atravs da submisso a dou-
trinas, dogmas, inquisies... Aqui podemos arrolar a grande famlia de
religies csmicas, indgenas, animistas..., assim como outras que, embo-
ra historicamente pertencendo ao perodo neoltico e sendo religies de
sociedades nitidamente agrrias (agrcolas e pecuaristas), mantiveram-se
margem deste controle dogmtico-doutrinal, como, por exemplo, o
hindusmo, uma religio sem verdades. Isto somente quer dizer que
o paradigma que estamos propondo no se aplica a todas as religies.
Portanto, a realidade mais complexa do que nossas tentativas simplifi-
cadoras de compreenso, o que nos insta a uma maior precisao, a uma
mais serena humildade e a um maior interesse de estudo de campo, de
investigao e de dilogo.
Frente iminente mudana
Apresentamos uma proposta de interpretao teolgica, de apro-
fundamento terico para melhor poder transformar a realidade (interpre-
tar como forma de transformar). bvio, porm, que esta proposta tem
repercusses pastorais muito significativas, pois estamos falando de um
tsunami cultural e religioso, de uma metamorfose que, talvez, num futuro
300
prximo, far com que tenhamos dificuldade em nos reconhecer. Para a
humanidade, esta pode ser uma situao muito difcil de atravessar; os
antroplogos afirmam que a passagem da sociedade paleoltica para a
neoltica, com a revoluo agrria, foi a situao mais difcil que nossa
espcie experimentou; talvez estejamos num momento evolutivo seme-
lhante. Faz-se necessrio estabelecer como acompanhar este transito
que ir acontecer ou que j se iniciou na sociedade, a partir das religies
agrrias para um novo tipo de sociedade, cuja realizao espiritual,
certamente, se dar por vias e segundo modelos que continuaro sendo
religiosos, porm, ps-religionais, sem que, por ora, saibamos concre-
tamente como sero estes caminhos e estes modelos, pois... teremos que
invent-los.
As religies sero fadadas e j o esto sendo em muitos lugares
, por um lado, a experimentar situaes de declive, de perda de mem-
bros, de credibilidade e de plausibilidade, e, por outro, experimentaro
a contradio de seus prprios mecanismos agrrios. Muitas pessoas
j percebem que precisam transformar radicalmente sua religiosidade,
mas sentem de maneira pungente a contradio com a doutrina oficial,
considerada infalvel e imutvel, que lhes probe toda mundana ou abdi-
cao dos princpios ancestrais. Em algumas sociedades j so dezenas
de milhes as pessoas que abandonam silenciosamente as religies para
continuar sendo religiosas ps-religionalmente. possvel que alguns
representantes hierrquicos, presos miragem de uma lealdade sagrada,
prefiram inflexivelmente afundar suas prprias instituies religiosas,
bloqueando sua evoluo e fazendo-o com a melhor das boas intenes
e para a maior glria de Deus. Porm, tambm possvel que muitos gru-
pos humanos sejam capazes de transformar-se. Entendemos ser bem pos-
svel, e acreditamos mesmo que seja desejvel, que as religies agrrias
evoluam para novas formas religiosas (ps-religionais) condizentes com
a nova sociedde do conhecimento. Dar-se-o conta de que, assim como a
cincia contextou, com razo, o geocentrismo que, inclusive ela conside-
rava revelado, nos diga que o religiocentrismo foi uma iluso religional,
e que, assim como outrara foi possvel abandonar a velha cosmoviso e
continuar a vivncia espirirual, tambm hoje ser possvel e necessrio
libertarmo-nos das amarras do religional, para encontrar a realizao
em um novo patamar evolutivo.
Parece que o Titanic das religies agrcolas no vai ficar a flutu-
ar nas latitudes do oceano da sociedade do Tudo parece indicar que o
Titanic das religies agrrias no vai conseguir flutuar nas latitudes do
oceano da sociedade do conhecimento. Tudo pare indicar que, em breve,
afundar. Passou seu kairs, embora lhe reste ainda um pouco de cronos.
Porm, isto no ser o fim do mundo. somente o fim de um mundo,
o fim do mundo agrrio-neoltico e de sua epistemologia e, com isso, o
301
fim das configuraes religionais da espiritualidade, que denominamos
de religies agrrio-neolticas. A vida e sua dimenso profunda conti-
nuam. nosso dever compreender o que est acontecento, para que no
nos encontremos lutando contra a Realidade, mas sim, que ajudemos
este novo parto evolutivo de nossa espcie, a fim de reiventar-nos, como
fizemos no comeo do neoltico. Tambm nosso dever ser prudentes,
no empurrar ningum para alm de suas necessidades e possibilidades,
advertir claramente que se trata de uma situao difcil, de um novo nas-
cimento, de uma metamorfose, de uma mudana de espcie ou de uma
mudana de sistema operativo, e que um momento de significativos
riscos tanto no plano social como no individual. dever da teologia vis-
lumbrar o novo, no s em sentido descontrutivo, mas tambm no cons-
trutivo: no s o j no podemos acreditar, mas tambm como podemos
desenvolver plenamente nossa dimenso transcendente ou espiritual, a
qualidade humana profunda que as religies religionais, apesar de tudo,
com mais ou menos limitaes, queriam apoia. Muitas coisas esto mor-
rendo, inevitvel que morram, e no param de morrer; tratamos, ento,
de ajud-las a bem morrer (a ars moriendi, dando vida a outros, dando
a luz). Enquanto isso, h todo um novo mundo que nasce, que no pra
de nascer, e queremos ajud-lo a nascer.
As religies ver-se-o na necessidade de re-interpretar e de re-
estruturas todo seu patrimnio simblico, criando nos condicionamentos
epistemolgicos do tempo agrrio. Tratar-se-ia de uma reformulao, de
uma re-recepo (Congar) de todo o seu patrimnio, desenvolvida por
milnios e historicamente mantido sob uma ignorncia e uma falta de
cultura da qual, h pouco, acabamos de sar, graas ao portentoso desen-
volvimentos das cincias. As religies tero que buscar formas de como
re-entender e de ver o que fica se algo permanece de muitas crenas,
dogmas, moral heternoma, ritor agrrios... na nova situao do conheci-
mento e dos novos parmetros de interpretao.
Muitos seres humanos, ao dar-se conta de no mais conseguir
apoiar-se nas religies para espiritualmente sobreviver, experimentao
srias dificuldades com a integridade espiritual de suas vidas. maneira
do avio que decola e abandona o sistema de apoio de suas rodas sobre
o solo, tendo que passar a apoiar-se em um novo sistema de sustenta-
o, totalmente diferente, o de suas asas, assim tambm a maior parte
da humanidade ter que passar por momentos de difcil equilbrio na
passagem de um sistema axiolgico para outro, to diferentes e, at certo
ponto, incompatveis e sem cmbio automtico.
O que vem por a um tsunami. Os riscos so graves, em todos
os nveis. , pois, dever de um fazer teolgico responsvel prever esses
problemas e procurar acompanhar este trnsito inevitvel em que nos
302
encontramos. Tanto na teoria como na prtica, este tema mereceria muito
mais do que esta singela proposta teolgica. Enquanto isso, oferecemo-
la consulta e ao debate, desejosos de que seja corrigida e melhorada.
Para o final deste ano [2012] ou incio do prximo, estaramos em condi-
es de oferecer um livro, amplo, com as reflexes, aprofundamentos e
debates que esta singela apresentao do paradigma ps-religioso susci-
tar? Sintam-se todos cordialmente convidados.
Traduo da equipe da Revista Eclesistica Brasileira.
Publicada em REB 72 (2012) 944-957.
303
Verso un paradigma post-religionale?
Proposta teologica
Commissione Teologica Internazionale
dell'EATWOT
Si parla sempre pi del declino del cristianesimo in Occidente. Il
cattolicesimo e il protestantesimo attraversano entrambi una grave crisi,
tanto in Europa quanto in America del Nord. Sono sempre di pi gli
osservatori che prevedono che la crisi colpir successivamente anche altre
religioni. Si sospetta che essa non sia dovuta a un problema proprio del
cristianesimo, bens alla natura stessa delle religioni, e allincapacit cre-
scente di queste a far fronte al profondo cambiamento culturale in corso.
Lipotesi dellavvento di un paradigma post-religionale delinea la possi-
bilit che si stia dinanzi a una trasformazione socio-culturale di grande
profondit, in cui le religioni neolitiche siano destinate a segnare il passo
nella misura in cui si insedier la nascente societ della conoscenza, che
sar una societ post-religionale, e che le religioni che non si liberino
dei propri condizionamenti religionali ancestrali si vedranno sospinte ai
margini della storia.
ovvio che lipotesi di questo paradigma stia convivendo con
fenomeni opposti di conservatorismo religioso, revival spirituali, crescita
carismatica e neopentecostale. Ma ci si registra in maniera massiccia solo
in alcuni settori geografici, mentre, secondo alcuni osservatori, nelle fasce
urbane, colte, di giovani e di adulti con accesso a cultura e tecnologia
comincerebbe a farsi presente questo paradigma, anche in America Latina
(pure in Africa e in Asia?). Prescindendo dalle indagini sul campo, vor-
remmo concentrarci sullelaborazione teorica di una prima presentazione
di ci che qui intendiamo chiamare paradigma post-religionale, su cui
invitiamo a dibattere la comunit di studiosi di teologia e di scienze della
religione, come pure i pastori e tutte le persone interessate allevoluzione
attuale della dimensione religiosa.
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POSSIBILI FONDAMENTI DELLIPOTESI
()
Lo sviluppo delle scienze sta conducendo lumanit a osservare se
stessa e ad avere della religiosit unidea in gran misura diversa da quel-
la che conservava finora, e che si traduce in un atteggiamento nuovo di
fronte alla religione.
A questo punto della storia, lantropologia culturale si ritiene ormai
capace di esprimere sulla religione un giudizio diverso dallautodefinizio-
ne con cui per millenni questa si presentata forgiando fino ad oggi lopi-
nione maggioritaria delle societ tradizionali. Per quanto resti molto da
studiare e per quanto anche altre scienze possano offrire un grande con-
tributo, lantropologia culturale ritiene ormai di sapere quando e come si
sono create le religioni, con quali meccanismi sociali ed epistemologici
operano e quali dimensioni umane profonde sono in gioco in relazione
allessere umano individuale e collettivo. La novit di questi giudizi radi-
cale e sembra generalizzarsi e diffondersi nelle societ evolute in maniera
tanto rapida quanto subliminale, generando un profondo cambiamento di
atteggiamento verso la religione, che stiamo interpretando precisamente
come lavvento di un nuovo paradigma post-religionale.
Questi sarebbero in estrema sintesi i punti centrali di questa
nuova visione presentata oggi dallantropologia culturale:
- Le religioni non sono da sempre, non esistono dalla comparsa
dellessere umano sulla faccia della Terra. Oggi sappiamo che le religioni
sono giovani, quasi recenti. La pi antica, linduismo, avrebbe solo 4500
anni. La religione giudaico-cristiana, 3200. In termini evolutivi, anche
limitandoci ai tempi del genere homo (tra 5 e 7 milioni di anni), o pi
ancora della specie homo sapiens (150 mila o 200 mila), le religioni sono
da ieri. Abbiamo passato moltissimo pi tempo senza religioni che con
esse, per quanto sembra che esseri spirituali lo siamo stati dal primo
momento: homo sapiens e homo spiritualis sembrano essere coetanei. Le
religioni non sono pertanto qualcosa che accompagna necessariamente
lessere umano, come mostra la storia.
- Le religioni si sono formate in epoca neolitica, dopo la gran-
de trasformazione che ha vissuto la nostra specie passando dalle trib
nomadi di cacciatori e raccoglitori alla vita sedentaria in societ urbane
legate alla coltivazione della terra, a radice della rivoluzione agraria. In
questa congiuntura (forse il momento pi difficile della sua storia evolu-
tiva) lumanit ha dovuto reinventare se stessa creando dei codici che le
permettessero di vivere in societ, non pi in bande o in gruppi, con un
diritto, una morale, una coesione sociale, un senso di appartenenza... per
304 Proposta teologica
305
poter sopravvivere come specie. In questo contesto, la nostra specie ha
fatto ricorso a quella che forse la sua maggiore forza dalla sua appari-
zione come specie emergente: la sua capacit simbolica e religiosa, la sua
necessit di senso e di esperienza di trascendenza. ().
- Dal neolitico ai nostri giorni, le societ sono state religiose, reli-
giocentriche, rette dalla religione in tutte le loro strutture: conoscenza (e
ignoranza), credenze, cultura, senso di identit, coesione sociale e senso
di appartenenza, diritto, politica, legittimit, struttura sociale, cosmovisio-
ne, arte... La cultura stata la forma della religione, e la religione stata
lanima della cultura (Tillich). Limpulso religioso, la forza della religione,
stato il motore del sistema operativo delle societ. Ad eccezione dei due
ultimi secoli, a partire dalla rivoluzione agraria non abbiamo conosciuto
societ n grandi movimenti sociali e neppure rivoluzioni che non siano
stati religiosi; chiaro che le loro motivazioni erano anche e fondamen-
talmente economiche e politiche, ma era attraverso la sfera religiosa
che venivano gestiti questi impulsi sociali. La religione stessa con un
prestigio quasi divino, unautorit indiscutibile, credenze, miti, dogmi,
leggi, morale e anche istanze inquisitoriali fungeva come software di
ogni societ. stato cos durante tutto il tempo del neolitico, tempo che
lantropologia culturale sostiene stia volgendo ora al termine.
- Con quali meccanismi interni le religioni hanno esercitato la
loro capacit di programmazione della societ? Per mezzo della creazione
e imposizione della loro cosmovisione alla societ (); delle credenze
fondamentali veicolate dai miti sacri, che hanno operato () come archi-
tettura epistemologica della societ umana; di unepistemologia mitica
che ha attribuito a Dio le proprie elaborazioni, presentandole come rive-
lazione o volont di Dio e cos assolutizzandole per dare sicurezza alla
societ umana; di unesigenza radicale di sottomissione (islam significa
sottomissione), di fede (unesigenza primaria nel cristianesimo), di cre-
dere a ci che non si vede (o che neppure si intende); dellesercizio di
tutti questi meccanismi come sistema operativo della societ (il che si evi-
denzia nei sistemi sociali degli imperi con la loro religione di Stato, nella
societ di cristianit o nei regimi teocratici in altre religioni, per esempio).
A partire da queste premesse, potremmo dotarci ora di una nuova
definizione tecnica ad hoc delle religioni nel senso che qui vogliamo dare
al termine: chiamiamo tecnicamente religione la configurazione socio-
istituzionalizzata che la religiosit (spiritualit) costitutiva dellessere
umano ha adottato nellet agraria, configurazione che ha operato come
sistema fondamentale di programmazione e di autocontrollo delle societ
agrarie neolitiche. (). Di conseguenza, chiameremo tecnicamente reli-
gionale ci che relativo a questa configurazione socio-religiosa propria
del tempo agrario o neolitico.
Verso un paradigma post-religionale 305
306
In questo senso, va notato che il paradigma che vogliamo presen-
tare qualificato come post-religionale, non come post-religioso, perch
continuer ad essere religioso nel senso normale della parola, in quanto
legato alla dimensione spirituale dellessere umano e della societ, al di
l del cambiamento di culture e di epoche ().
Il prefisso post non lo usiamo in senso letteralmente temporale
(come un dopo di) ma in un senso che va genericamente oltre: pi in
l di. Per questo, sarebbe ugualmente valido dire a-religionale, senza
possibile confusione nella dimensione temporale. Post-religionale non
significa post-religioso n post-spirituale, ma, in senso stretto, pi in
l del religionale, cio pi in l di quello che sono state le religioni
agrarie, o come una religiosit senza religioni (agrarie), una spiritualit
senza la configurazione socio-istituzionalizzata propria dellet neolitica
(senza programmazione sociale, senza sottomissione, senza dogmi...).
Ovviamente, ci appoggeremo su altre mediazioni, gesti, simboli, istituzio-
ni o sistematizzazioni di altro tipo, perch lesperienza spirituale umana
non pu darsi nel vuoto ().
ELEMENTI PRINCIPALI DEL PARADIGMA POST-RELIGIONALE
Cercheremo ora di stabilire gli elementi principali della nuova
coscienza post-religionale propria di questo fenomeno complesso della
cultura sociale emergente, conseguenza principale dellampliamento della
conoscenza umana.
1. Le religioni sono una cosa diversa da quello che tradizional-
mente pensavamo, che ancora pensa molta gente, che esse pensano di
se stesse e che hanno diffuso nella societ per millenni. Le religioni non
godono di una specie di preesistenza che farebbe di esse delle forme di
saggezza divina rivelate da Dio stesso, cosa che le renderebbe lunica via
di accesso a questa rivelazione e alla relazione con il Mistero. Le religioni
sono, piuttosto, un fenomeno storico, una forma socioculturale concreta
che la dimensione profonda di sempre dellessere umano ha rivestito in
una determinata era storica. ().
Le religioni sono forme storiche, contingenti e mutevoli, mentre la
spiritualit una dimensione costitutiva umana, permanente, anteriore a
quelle forme, ed essenziale allessere umano... La spiritualit pu essere
vissuta nelle religioni o fuori di esse. Potremmo prescindere dalle religio-
ni, ma non dalla dimensione di trascendenza dellessere umano...
2. Le religioni sono costruzioni umane... Come abbiamo detto, la
scienza e la societ sanno ormai molto sulla loro origine, sulla loro for-
mazione, suoi loro meccanismi. Ci cambia radicalmente la nostra perce-
zione di esse: le religioni sono opera nostra, creazioni umane, geniali, ma
307
umane a volte troppo umane e devono essere loro al nostro servizio,
non il contrario.
Le religioni le loro credenze, i loro miti, la loro morale non sono
opera diretta di un Dio l fuori, l sopra, che ci ha inviato questo dono
delle religioni, ma sono qualcosa che sorto qui sotto, qualcosa di molto
terrestre, che ci siamo fabbricati noi stessi, spinti certamente dalla forza
del mistero divino che ci invade, ma secondo le nostre possibilit e con
i nostri condizionamenti concreti.
Le religioni hanno assolutizzato se stesse attribuendo la propria
origine a Dio. stato un meccanismo che servito per fissare e dare
consistenza inamovibile alle costruzioni umane che esse erano, nella
necessit di assicurare le formule sociali di convivenza di cui lumanit si
era dotata. Oggi stiamo perdendo lingenuit, e questo carattere assoluto
delle religioni, che per millenni ha rappresentato una componente essen-
ziale delle societ, rendendo pi facile e pi passiva la vita degli esseri
umani, ci si rivela come una significativa illusione epistemologica, che
avevamo assunto per via di una fede, ma che oggi non risulta n neces-
saria, n desiderabile, n sopportabile.
3. Pertanto, non siamo sottomessi alle religioni, non siamo con-
dannati a marciare nella storia sul cammino compiutamente tracciato
da esse, come fosse un disegno divino che segnasse previamente da
sempre, e da fuori il nostro destino, come se ci obbligasse ad adottare
le soluzioni con cui i nostri antenati hanno cercato di risolvere i loro
problemi e di interpretare la realt nella misura delle loro possibilit...
Se le religioni sono una nostra costruzione, ci significa che non ci
tolgono il diritto (n lobbligo) di pronunciarci di fronte alla storia, offren-
do la nostra risposta ai problemi dellesistenza ed esprimendo con fiducia
in noi stessi la nostra stessa interpretazione della realt di ci che siamo,
aiutati dalle nostre scoperte scientifiche. Non siamo obbligati ad assu-
mere come verit intoccabile e insuperabile le interpretazioni obsolete e
le soluzioni ancestrali che si sono date le generazioni umane di qualche
migliaio di anni fa, come se quelle interpretazioni fossero una presunta
rivelazione venuta da fuori e di compimento obbligato. Tale equivoco
religionale in cui hanno vissuto i nostri antenati ci appare, a questo punto
della storia, come unalienazione.
Fa paura sentirsi soli, responsabili di fronte alla storia, liberi rispetti
ai cammini religiosi tradizionali, senza un cammino sicuro e indiscutibil-
mente obbligatorio tracciato dagli dei... Questa nuova visione del mondo,
questo paradigma post-religionale, genera unautocoscienza umana pro-
fondamente differente rispetto a quella che aveva segnato la coscienza
religionale tradizionale. Ora ci sentiamo liberi dai legacci religionali per
dare briglia sciolta alla nostra realizzazione personale e collettiva, per
308
assumere pienamente la nostra responsabilit, le nostre decisioni, la
nostra interpretazione a nostro rischio e pericolo, senza nessuna restri-
zione n coazione esterna, per quanto con la preoccupazione di sintoniz-
zarci con il Mistero che ci muove.
4. Le religioni, presunte conoscitrici uniche del principio dei tempi
e della fine del mondo, non sono, per natura, eterne, per sempre. (...).
Non sono essenziali alla nostra natura e ci hanno accompagnato per una
piccola parte della nostra storia evolutiva.
Le religioni agrarie sono legate allepoca neolitica: potremmo dire
che sono sorte di fatto per consentire alla specie umana di entrare in
questa era nuova, quella successiva alla rivoluzione agraria. Ma preci-
samente questa era quella che gli esperti dicono stia giungendo alla fine.
Che futuro possiamo pronosticare alle religioni in unepoca di transizione
che annuncia la fine dellera che le ha viste sorgere?
Sembra plausibile lipotesi che le religioni (agrarie) possano scom-
parire. Non sembra un fatto impossibile in s, n vi sono motivi perch
appaia un disastro storico gravissimo: abbiamo vissuto la maggior parte
della nostra storia senza religioni (tutto il paleolitico), ed dimostrato
che ci non ha impedito la nostra qualit umana profonda, la nostra
spiritualit.
5. A questo punto ormai evidente che si impone una distinzio-
ne. Tradizionalmente le religioni detenevano il monopolio della sfera spi-
rituale. Una persona avrebbe potuto essere spirituale solamente mediante
le religioni. Erano considerate la fonte stessa della spiritualit, la con-
nessione diretta con il Mistero. Religioni e spiritualit erano tuttuno, la
stessa cosa.
Oggi, la concettualizzazione delle religioni sta cambiando radical-
mente nel paradigma postreligionale emergente. Ogni giorno per pi
persone diventa evidente che le religioni non sono la fonte della spiri-
tualit, ma solo delle forme socio-culturali che la spiritualit ha assunto
storicamente; e sono spesso un freno e un ostacolo per la spiritualit, che
una dimensione essenziale e caratteristica dellessere umano, accompa-
gnandolo permanentemente dalla sua apparizione come specie. Le parole
religione, religioso, religioni, che tradizionalmente venivano coprendo,
interscambiandosi, tutto lambito di ci che relativo alla spiritualit,
dovranno oggi passare, scrupolosamente, per il vaglio della distinzione
tra il religioso (quanto ha a che vedere con questa dimensione misteriosa
dellessere umano) e il religionale (ci che appartiene semplicemente
allambito di queste configurazioni socio-culturali e istituzionali che
abbiamo definito religioni agricole-neolitiche).
309
IL PARADIGMA POST-RELIGIONALE IN SINTESI
Una volta esposti questi elementi principali della visione costitutiva
del paradigma postreligionale, potremmo cercare di esprimerne sinteti-
camente il nucleo:
- Prima premessa: le religioni (...) sono una creazione neolitica, di
cui sono tanto prodotto quanto causa.
- Seconda premessa: la trasformazione socio-culturale che stiamo
attualmente attraversando implica, precisamente, la fine di questa epoca
agrario-neolitica. Quello che ora si sta superando ha costituito il fonda-
mento della societ umana e la forma della coscienza umana negli ulti-
mi 10.000 anni (). Emerge un tipo nuovo di societ, con fondamenti
distinti soprattutto epistemologici che risultano incompatibili con il
sistema operativo millenario neolitico. Si impone, perci, un cambiamen-
to sistemico tanto a livello epistemologico quanto a livello del tipo di
coscienza spirituale dellumanit. Da qui la radicalit e la profondit del
cambiamento epocale che stiamo vivendo, un nuovo tempo assiale.
- Conseguenza: le religioni (agrario-neolitiche), identificate con
il tipo di coscienza, di cosmovisione e di epistemologia agrarie, stanno
perdendo terreno ed entrando in un profondo declino nella misura in cui
- per laccumulazione di conoscenze scientifiche, tecnologiche, sociali ed
esperienziali - va emergendo un nuovo tipo di coscienza, di cosmovisione
e di epistemologia, incompatibile con quello tradizionale neolitico. Gli
esseri umani della societ nascente non possono pi esprimere la propria
dimensione spirituale in quella configurazione concreta delle religioni
agrarie e queste non riescono a sintonizzarsi con la nuova societ e farsi
intendere da questa. Le religioni agrario-neolitiche si vedono pertanto
obbligate a trasformarsi radicalmente, o a scomparire. Da parte loro, le
persone, le comunit e le istituzioni di queste religioni, nella misura in
cui passano alla nuova cultura, si vanno allontanando dai meccanismi e
dallepistemologia agrari, passando a vivere la propria spiritualit post-
religionalmente.
Per verificare conseguentemente tale ipotesi:
- Bisogner approfondire il concetto tecnico di religioni agrario-
neolitiche, non limitandoci a riferirci alla loro origine dopo la Rivoluzione
Agraria, ma addentrandoci nella loro struttura epistemologica e nelle loro
caratteristiche essenziali, che permangono per tutto questo tempo dellet
agraria.
- Bisogner fondare maggiormente laffermazione che ci troviamo
di fronte alla fine dellet neolitica, precisando concretamente gli elemen-
ti antropologici su cui si sostanzia tale affermazione, e quali sono i tratti
della nuova societ che risultano incompatibili con le religioni neolitiche.
310
- E bisogner elaborare un progetto di accompagnamento alla
societ in questa transizione dallet agraria alla nuova epoca.
Concludendo, chiamiamo paradigma post-religionale questa forma
di vivere la dimensione profonda dellessere umano che si libera e supe-
ra i meccanismi propri delle religioni agrario-neolitiche, e cio: la loro
epistemologia mitica; il loro monopolio della spiritualit; la loro esigenza
di sottomissione, di accettazione cieca di alcune credenze come rivelate
da Dio; il loro esercizio del potere politico e ideologico sulla societ (...);
la loro imposizione di una morale eteronoma, venuta dallalto, con una
interpretazione della legge naturale a partire da una filosofia ufficialmen-
te imposta (...); il loro controllo del pensiero umano, con i dogmi, la per-
secuzione della libert di pensiero, linquisizione, la condanna degli ere-
tici, la pretesa di infallibilit, di ispirazione divina, di possesso dellinter-
pretazione autorizzata della volont di Dio; la loro proclamazione come
Sacre Scritture rivelate (nel caso delle religioni del libro) delle tradizioni
ancestrali che si sono andate accumulando, esaltate come Parola diretta
di Dio, come normativa suprema e indiscutibile per la societ e per le
persone; la loro interpretazione premoderna della realt come un mondo
a due livelli, con un mondo divino soprannaturale al di sopra di noi, da
cui dipendiamo e verso cui andiamo; la loro interpretazione della vita e
della morte in termini di prova, giudizio e premio/castigo per mano di un
Giudice Universale che il Signore supremo di ogni religione.
Con la fine dellera agraria, tutte queste strutture conoscitive,
assiologiche ed epistemologiche millenarie stanno cedendo terreno
nella misura in cui va sorgendo la nuova societ. Sono state una grande
invenzione umana, grazie a cui i gruppi nomadi di cacciatori e raccogli-
tori sono riusciti a reinventare la propria umanit rendendola capace di
convivere nella citt, regolata dal diritto, unita dalla coscienza religiosa di
appartenenza a una collettivit con unidentit ricondotta agli dei...
La crisi attuale non si deve principalmente a processi di secolarizza-
zione o a perdita di valori, o alla diffusione del materialismo o delledoni-
smo (interpretazione colpevolizzante normalmente offerta dalle religioni
ufficiali), neppure alla mancanza di testimonianza o agli scandali morali
delle religioni, ma allesplosione di una nuova situazione culturale, in cui
culmina la trasformazione radicale delle strutture conoscitive, assiologi-
che ed epistemologiche neolitiche, trasformazione che ha preso avvio
con la rivoluzione scientifica del XVI secolo, lIlluminismo del XVIII e le
varie ondate di industrializzazione. I sintomi sociali sono un certo agno-
sticismo diffuso, la perdita dellingenuit epistemologica, un senso critico
pi accentuato, una concettualizzazione pi utilitarista delle religioni che
devono essere al servizio dellessere umano invece che esigere una lealt
totale da parte dei loro adepti, la scomparsa dellidea dellunica religione
311
vera e la sparizione della plausibilit di una morale rivelata eteronoma.
Ma il cambiamento strutturale gravita sulla citata trasformazione episte-
mologico-culturale. (...). Due cautele:
a) Come abbiamo gi indicato, non vogliamo dire che questo solo
che avviene in campo religioso, come se tutto lo scenario fosse attual-
mente occupato da questa trasformazione del paradigma delle religioni
agrarie in un paradigma post-religionale. In campo religioso hanno luogo
molti altri fenomeni, simultaneamente, anche caoticamente, essendo in
alcuni aspetti contraddittori.
Insieme a questa crisi della religione, si registrano effervescenze
religiose e revival, involuzioni e fondamentalismi. In questa proposta
teologica ci siamo concentrati in maniera selettiva su un aspetto concreto
della trasformazione in corso, che non nega il resto degli elementi pre-
senti. ().
b) Quello che stiamo dicendo non si pu neppure applicare, indi-
scriminatamente, a tutte le religioni. Perch non tutte le religioni sono
agrarie. C una buona quantit di religioni che non passata per la
rivoluzione agraria ed urbana, conservando una matrice di esperienza
religiosa propria dei tempi anteriori alla trasformazione neolitica (alla
separazione dalla placenta della sacralit della natura, allassunzione
della trascendenza divina dualista e acosmica, ecc.), e non cadendo nella
deriva del controllo e della programmazione della societ mediante la
sottomissione a dottrine, dogmi, inquisizioni... Qui possiamo ubicare
la grande famiglia di religioni cosmiche, indigene, animiste, cos come
altre che, pur appartenendo storicamente al periodo neolitico e a socie-
t nettamente agrarie, si sono mantenute ai margini di questo controllo
dogmatico-dottrinale (...). Ci vuol dire che questo paradigma non si
applica neppure a tutte le religioni. La realt allora pi complessa dei
nostri tentativi semplificatori di comprensione, cosa che ci spinge a una
maggiore precisione, a una pi serena umilt e ad un maggiore interesse
per lo studio di campo, la ricerca e il dialogo.
DI FRONTE AL PASSAGGIO IMMEDIATO
Questa una proposta teologica, un approfondimento teorico per
poter meglio trasformare la realt che si interpreta. Ma ovvio che ha
ripercussioni pastorali, e molto grandi. Perch ci di cui stiamo parlando
uno tsunami culturale e religioso, una metamorfosi che forse render
difficile riconoscere noi stessi in un prossimo futuro.
E questa pu essere una situazione molto complessa per lumani-
t: se gli antropologi dicono che il passaggio dalla societ paleolitica a
quella neolitica, con la rivoluzione agraria, stata la situazione pi dif-
ficile che abbia sperimentato la nostra specie, forse siamo dinanzi a un
312
momento evolutivo simile. Si rende necessario delineare il modo in cui
accompagnare questo passaggio che si realizzer o che gi sta inizian-
do, a partire dalle religioni agrarie, verso un nuovo tipo di societ la cui
realizzazione spirituale si dar piuttosto per vie e secondo modelli che
continueranno ad essere religiosi, ma post-religionali, senza sapere ad
oggi concretamente come saranno queste vie e questi modelli, poich
dovremo inventarli.
Le religioni saranno da una parte esposte gi cos in molti
luoghi a situazioni di declino, di calo di fedeli e di perdita di credibi-
lit e plausibilit, e dallaltra sperimenteranno la contraddizione con i
propri meccanismi agrari. Gi molte persone avvertono la necessit di
trasformare la propria religiosit, radicalmente, ma sentono in maniera
cocente la contraddizione con la dottrina ufficiale, considerata infallibile
e immutabile, che proibisce loro ogni cambiamento o abdicazione dai
principi ancestrali. In alcune societ sono gi decine di milioni le persone
che abbandonano silenziosamente le religioni per continuare ad essere
religiose post-religionalmente. possibile che alcune gerarchie religiose,
prese dallillusione di una lealt sacra, preferiscano far crollare le proprie
istituzioni religiose bloccandone levoluzione, facendolo con la miglio-
re intenzione, a maggior gloria di Dio. Ma anche possibile che molti
gruppi umani siano capaci di trasformarsi. ben possibile, e lo riteniamo
anche desiderabile, che le religioni agrarie evolvano verso nuove forme
religiose (post-religionali) coerenti con questa nuova societ della cono-
scenza. Si renderanno conto che, cos come la scienza ha contraddetto il
geocentrismo che esse consideravano addirittura rivelato, oggi la scienza
scopre che il religiocentrismo stato unillusione religionale, e che, come
allora stato possibile abbandonare la vecchia cosmovisione e portare
avanti lesperienza spirituale, cos oggi sar possibile e necessario
liberarci dai legacci del religionale per trovare la realizzazione spirituale
in un nuovo scatto evolutivo.
Tutto sembra indicare che il Titanic delle religioni agrarie non arri-
ver nelle acque delloceano della societ della conoscenza. Tutto sembra
indicare che non durer tanto, e sprofonder. passato il loro kairs, per
quanto resti un poco di cronos. Ma non la fine del mondo. solo la
fine di un mondo, la fine del mondo agrario-neolitico e della sua episte-
mologia, e con ci la fine delle configurazioni religionali della spiritualit,
quelle che abbiamo chiamato religioni agrario-neolitiche.
La vita e la sua dimensione profonda continueranno. Ed nostro
dovere comprendere quello che sta succedendo, per trovarci non a lottare
contro la Realt, ma a contribuire a questo nuovo parto evolutivo della
nostra specie, tornando a reinventarci come abbiamo fatto allinizio del
neolitico.
313
nostro dovere anche essere prudenti, non spingendo nessuno pi
in l delle sue necessit e delle sue possibilit, avvertendo chiaramente
che la situazione difficile, che una nuova nascita, una metamorfosi,
un cambiamento di sistema operativo, e che un momento di rischi seri,
tanto sul piano sociale quanto su quello individuale. dovere della teo-
logia scrutare il nuovo, non solo nellaspetto decostruttivo, ma in quello
costruttivo: non solo quello a cui non possiamo pi credere, ma il modo
in cui possiamo sviluppare in pienezza la nostra dimensione trascen-
dente o spirituale, la qualit umana profonda che le religioni religionali,
dopotutto, con pi o meno limitazioni, volevano sostenere. Molte cose
stanno morendo, inevitabile che muoiano e che non smettano di farlo:
cerchiamo di aiutarle a morire bene (lars moriendi, morire dando la vita
per altri, dando la luce). Nel frattempo, tutto un mondo nuovo che cerca
di nascere e non smette di farlo, e vogliamo aiutarlo a nascere.
Le religioni si vedranno nella necessit di reinterpretare e ricon-
vertire tutto il loro patrimonio simbolico, che stato creato sotto i condi-
zionamenti epistemologici del tempo agrario. Si tratterebbe di una riela-
borazione, una ri-ricezione (Congar) di tutto il loro patrimonio, elaborato
da millenni e tenuto storicamente sotto unignoranza e una incultura di
quelle da cui siamo usciti ben poco tempo fa, grazie al portentoso svi-
luppo delle scienze. Le religioni dovranno cercare come ri-comprendere e
cosa resta se resta qualcosa di molte delle credenze, dei dogmi, della
morale eteronoma, dei riti agrari... allinterno di questa nuova situazione
di conoscenza e del nuovo quadro di interpretazione.
Molti esseri umani, sentendosi non pi in grado di continuare ad
appoggiarsi sulle religioni per sopravvivere spiritualmente, sperimente-
ranno serie difficolt nellintegrit spirituale delle loro vite. Come quando
laereo decolla, abbandonando il sistema di appoggio delle ruote per un
nuovo sistema di sostegno, totalmente distinto, quello delle ali, la mag-
gior parte dellumanit dovr passare per momenti di difficile equilibrio
nel passaggio da uno allaltro sistema assiologico, essendo i due tanto
differenti e, fino a un certo punto, incompatibili, e senza cambiamento
automatico.
Quello che in arrivo uno tsunami. I rischi sono gravi, a tutti i
livelli. dovere di una teologia responsabile scrutare questi problemi e
cercare di accompagnare questo passaggio inevitabile in cui gi ci trovia-
mo. Tanto nellaspetto teorico quanto in quello pratico, il tema meritereb-
be uno sviluppo molto pi esteso di questa semplice proposta teologica.
Noi la lasciamo qui e la sottoponiamo a consultazione e dibattito, nel
desiderio che venga corretta e migliorata.
314
315
Vers un paradigme post-religional
Proposition thologique
Commission Thologique Internationale
de l'EATWOT
On parle toujours de la dcadence du christianisme en Occident.
Non seulement le catholicisme, mais le protestantisme aussi traversent
une grave crise, tant en Europe quen Amrique du Nord. De plus en
plus, les observateurs prdisent, chaque fois, que la crise touchera aussi
les autres religions. Il semble que la crise ne soit pas due un problme
propre au christianisme, mais la nature mme des religions et
lincapacit progressive de celles-ci sadapter au profond changement
culturel en cours. Lhypothse dun paradigme post-religional veut pro-
poser la possibilit de se trouver face une trs profonde transformation
socioculturelle, dans laquelle les religions nolithiques vont arrter
dtre viables quand stablira rsolument la socit de la connaissance
1
,
laquelle serait une socit post- religieuse
2
, et les religions qui ne se
librent pas de leurs conditionnements religionaux ancestraux seront
mises en marges rsiduelles de lhistoire.
videmment cette hypothse-paradigme voit le jour parmi des ph-
nomnes bien contraires de conservatisme religieux, de renouveaux spi-
1
Nous essayons de ne pas mettre l'accent sur une description prcise de la nouvelle culture
ou socit pour ne pas ouvrir une discussion qui dtournerait du sujet. Nous prfrons
pltot parler de socit de la connaissance, non pas dans le sens de la socit bien
duque, mais dans le sens d'une socit qui possde une vaste culture gnrale ou
qui soit intlligente, mais dans le sens que la connaissance soit son axe de production
et d'accumulation, c'est--dire, nous parlons des socits qui vivent de la production
de connaissance. Quelle que soit la description, est de tenir compte de la structure
objective pistmologique de telle socit.
2
Nous utilisons les nologismes religional et post-religional comme des concepts tech-
niques qui doivent tre nettement distingus du religieux et post-religieux, comme
nous lexpliqueront plus en avant.
316
rituels, de charismatisme et de no-pentectisme. Mme si ces phnom-
nes ne prvalent que dans quelques secteurs gographiques quelques
observateurs affirment que dans la strate urbaine cultive, tant des jeunes
comme des adultes ayant un bon accs la culture et la technologie
ce paradigme est dj prsent dans lAmrique Latine (peut-tre aussi
en Afrique et en Asie?). part des sondages quantificateurs de champ,
nous voulons nous concentrer sur llaboration thorique d'une premire
reflexion et des sondages de ce que nous appelons le paradigme post-
religionnal, que nous proposons dbat la communaut cientifique de
la thologie et des sciences des religions, et nous invitons les pasteurs et
toutes les personnes proccupes par lvolution actuelle du phnomne
religieux participer cette discussion.
Possible fondement de lhypothse
Une augmentation de la connaissance humaine et la confrontation
silencieuse de la science actuelle avec la religion pourraient tre une des
causes de ce nouveau paradigme, mais pas lunique. Le dveloppement
des sciences amne lhumanit sobserver elle-mme et concevoir sa
religiosit d'une manire biendiffrente jusqu' prsent. Et il en rsulte
une nouvelle attitude envers la religion.
En ce moment de lhistoire, lanthropologie culturelle se retient
capable de se faire une ide de la religion qui se distingue de la concep-
tion que la religion avait d'elle-mme, de la dfinition que la religion
s'tait fait d'elle-mme et qui avait domin sa prsentation pendant des
millnaires et qui avait forg lopinion majoritaire dans les socits tra-
ditionnelles, jusqu nos jours. Mme si il reste beaucoup explorer et
mme si dautres sciences pourraient, elles aussi, apporter beaucoup,
lanthropologie culturelle -considre comme une science interdiscipli-
naire- croit savoir quand et comment se sont forges les religions, avec
quels mcanismes sociaux et pistmologiques elles oprent et quelles
sont les profondes dimensions humaines en jeu dans la relation avec
ltre humain individuel et collectif. Linusit de ce jugement est radical et
semble se gnraliser et se diffuser dans les socits dveloppes autant
de manire rapide que subliminale. Il produit un changement profond
dattitude envers la religion, que nous interprtons prcisment comme
larrive dun nouveau paradigme post-religional .
Les points nuclaires de cette nouvelle vision que lanthropologie
culturelle prsente aujourdhui sur la religion se laissent rsumer ainsi :
* Les religions nexistent pas depuis toujours , ni ds que
ltre humain est apparu sur la face de la terre. Nous savons aujourdhui
que les religions sont jeunes, presque rcentes. La plus ancienne, lhin-
douisme, date seulement de 4500 annes. Le judo-christianisme, de 3200
316 Proposition thologique
317
ans. En termes volutifs, mme si on parle des temps du genre homo
(entre 5 et 7 millions dannes) ou de lespce homo-sapiens (150 mille
ou 200 mille ans) les religions ne datent que dhier . Nous, en tant
quhommes, avons pass beaucoup plus de temps sans religions quavec
elles. Cependant il semble que comme tres spirituels, nous le sommes
depuis le premier moment: lhomo-sapiens et lhomo-spirituel semblent
tre contemporains. Les religions ne sont pas pour autant un phnomne
indispensable de l'existence humaine, comme le montre notre histoire
3
.
* Les religions se sont formes dans lpoque nolithique aprs
la grande transformation qua subit notre espce, celle de passer dtre
des tribus nomades de chasseurs et de rcolteurs celle de tribus sden-
taires en groupes urbains lis la culture de la terre, par la rvolution
agraire
4
. Dans cette conjoncture volutive (peut-tre le moment le plus
difficile de lhistoire de lvolution), lhumanit a du se rinventer elle
mme, en crant des codes qui permettent de vivre, non en bandes ou
en groupes, mais en socit, avec le droit, la morale, la cohsion sociale,
le sens dappartenance pour tre stables et survivre en tant quespce.
Dans cette conjoncture, notre espce a pris ce qui est sa majeure force
depuis sont apparition en tant quespce mergente : c'est--dire sa
capacit symbolique et religieuse, son besoin de sens et dexprience de
transcendance. Peut tre cela aurait-il pu se passer autrement, mais dans
les faits cela sest pass ainsi.
3
Avec mfiance et rsignation nous acceptons le mot spiritualit, en essayant de ne pas
transiger avec sa connotation tymologique dualiste indniable. Cest un mot consacr
par l'usage, et nous ne lentendons pas comme faisant rfrence un esprit par oppo-
sition une suppose matire non spirituelle. Nous proposons une conceptualisation
plus adquate de ce que la spiritualit signifierait : la dimension de profondeur (Tillich),
qui doit encadrer nos vies dans un contexte plus large (Armstrong), la qualit humaine
profonde (Corb), les motivations ultimes, la mystique grce laquelle on vit et on lutte
et avec laquelle on communique avec les autres (Casaldliga-Vigil)... Pour rparer cette
limite, nous essayons dutiliser le mot accompagn d'expressions parallles.
4
Nous parlons de la socit ou d'une poque agraire pas dans le sens de la socit rurale
et socit agricole, ddie au secteur primaire de l'conomie, de l'agriculture, mais en
se rfrant, avec perspective anthropologique culturelle, la socit humaine aprs le
rvolution agraire nolithique , comme le catalogage global dune poque qui arrive
sa dissolution actuelle.
Nous l'appelons agraire dans un sens large, y compris les socits d'leveurs, qui ont par-
tag les structures propres cette poque pistmologique post-nolithique postrieure
la rvolution culturelle qui a commenc avec la dcouverte de l'agriculture. Les rvolu-
tions scientifique (XVI sicle) et industrielle (XVIII et suivants) peuvent tre considres
comme le dbut de la fin de la nolithique ou ge agraire profonde, rupture qui en
serait actuellement sa phase culminante.
Ces catgories et ces affirmations ont besoin de beaucoup nuances ; nous adoptons pda-
gogiquement ce langage simplifi pour faciliter une prsentation simple de ce para-
digme.
Vers un paradigme post-religional 317
318
* Depuis le nolithique et jusqu nos jours, les socits ont t
religieuses, religieux-centristes , imprgnes de religion dans leurs
structures : leur connaissances (et leurs ignorances), leurs croyances, leur
culture, leur sens didentit, leur cohsion sociale et le sens dappartenan-
ce de leurs membres, leur droit, leur politique, leur lgitimit, leur struc-
ture sociale, leur cosmovision, leur art La culture a t la forme de la
religion, et la religion a t lme de la culture (Tillich). Llan religieux,
la force de la religion, a t le moteur du systme opratif des socits.
Aprs la rvolution agraire, si nous excluons les deux derniers sicles,
nous navons pas connu de socits, ni de grands mouvements sociaux, ni
mme des rvolutions non-religieuses. Cest clair que les motivations ont
t fondamentalement conomiques et politiques, mais travers le reli-
gieux se sont canalises des impulsions sociales. La religion mme avec
un prestige quasi divin, son autorit indubitable, ses croyances, mythes,
dogmes, lois, morales ou mme ses instances inquisitoriales a servie
de software programmateur chaque socit. Il en a t ainsi durant tout
le temps nolithique agraire , dans le sens ample avec lequel nous
lutilisons ce terme- qui selon ce que lanthropologie culturelle soutient,
est en train de se finir.
* Avec quels mcanismes internes les religions ont-elles exerc
cette capacit de programmer la socit? Par ces moyens :
- la cration et limposition de sa cosmovision sur la socit : dans
chaque socit, cest elle qui a dit lhumanit ce que c'est la ralit, ce
que sont son origine, son sens et ses exigences morales.
- les croyances fondamentales lies par les mythes sacrs, qui ont
servi de croyances, propositions, axiomes, postulats, prsupposs profon-
des de chaque socit, comme larchitecture pistmologique profonde
de la socit humaine.
- une pistmologie mythique qui a attribu Dieu ses propres
laborations, pour les prsenter comme rvlation ou volont de Dieu, et
ainsi les absolutiser pour donner scurit la socit humaine.
- une exigence radicale de soumission [islam signifie soumission]
de foi [une exigence premire dans le christianisme], de croire ce
quon ne voit pas (et mme ce qui ne se comprend pas) ;
- en exerant, avec ces mcanismes comme systme opratif de la
socit (ce qui est vident dans les systmes sociaux des empires avec
leur religion dtat, la socit christianit ou les rgimes thocratiques
dans dautres religions, par exemple).
partir de ces indices nous pouvons prtendre une nouvelle
dfinition technique ad hoc des religions dans le sens quici nous
voulons donner cette parole : nous appelons techniquement religion
la configuration socio-institutionnalise que la religiosit (spiritualit)
319
constitutive de ltre humain a adopte dans lge agraire, configuration
qui a servi comme systme fondamental de programmation et dautocon-
trle des socits agraires nolithiques. Dans cet expos nous concevons
religion dans le sens strict du terme, et pas du tout dans les autres
significations de la parole (religiosit, dimension religieuse, spiritualit,
institution religieuse) ; sans une prcision du vocable nous serions por-
ts invitablement confusion. Donc, nous appellerons techniquement
religional tout ce qui concerne cette configuration socioreligieuse
propre lpoque agraire ou nolithique .
Dans ce sens il est retenir que le paradigme que nous voulons
prsenter est qualifi comme post-religional , et non comme post-
religieux parce que il sera toujours tre religieux dans le sens com-
mun du dictionnaire, comme ce qui concerne la dimension spirituelle
de ltre humain et de la socit , mme si changent les cultures et les
poques. Nous lappelons post-religional parce que certainement il sin-
tgrera dans le surpassement de la configuration mentionn du religieux
(cette manire de fonctionner au quelle nous faisons rfrence, et qui
est propre aux religions que gnriquement nous appelons agraires ,
inclue les socits dlevage et aussi dautres formes plus spcialises).
Nous ne prenons pas le prfixe post dans le sens littral tempo-
rel (comme un aprs ) mais plutt dans le sens commun plus loin.
Cependant, on pourrait dire a-religional , pour viter la dimension
temporelle. Post-religional ne signifie pas post religieux ni post-
spirituel mais, nettement au-del du religional , cest--dire au-del de
ce que les religions agraires ont t, ou une religiosit sans religion
(agraire) , une spiritualit sans les configurations socio-institutionnali-
ses propres lre nolithique (sans programmation sociale, sans sou-
mission, sans dogmes)
5
. Certainement que nous nous appuyons sur
des mdiations, gestes, symboles, institutions ou rationalisations dun
autre type, car lexprience spirituelle humaine ne peut se donner dans
le vide ; mais ce nest pas ici le bon moment pout traiter de ce point.
5
Ces prcisions de vocabulaire peuvent expliquer pourquoi il est ncessaire de faire appel
ce nologisme artisanal - parfaitement dans les rgles tymologiques de la langue -
pour viter tout malentendu, la fois dassimiler religieux dans le sens habituel
du dictionnaire, tout comme de le confondre tort avec l ' antireligieux ou lathe.
Quoi qu'il en soit, est ce que cest l'adjectif religional le mieux adapt pour dcrire
ce paradigme? Nous pensons que c'est correct et adquat, et que cest utile (car il est
pratique et effectif), mais nous pensons que ce n'est pas absolu, et que cela peut tre
amlior, car peut-tre il ne peut pas venir de l'essence du phnomne auquel il se
rfre, ni il voque peut-tre ce qui pourrait tre le matriel de base ou de sa spcificit
pistmologique. Par consquent, nous le proposons humblement comme un terme
provisoire et amliorer.
320
ELEMENTS PRINCIPALS DU PARADIGME POST-RELIGIONAL
Nous voulons tablir les lments principaux de la nouvelle
conscience post-religionale propre ce phnomne complexe de la
culture sociale qui merge, consquence principale de laugmentation de
la connaissance humaine.
1. Les religions sont autre chose que ce que traditionnellement
nous avons pens, de ce qu'encore beaucoup de gens pensent, de ce que
les religions pensent d'elles-mmes, et de ce qu'on a rpandu comme
ides dans les socits pendant des millnaires. Les religions ne se fon-
dent sur une sorte de prexistence qui les renderait d'elles un corps
suprme primordial de sagesse, des patrimoines de sagesse divine rv-
le par Dieu lui mme, de manire qu'elles deviennent l'unique moyen
d'accs cette rvlation et la relation avec le Mystre. Les religions
toujours -n'oublions pas le sens spcifique que nous donnons ce terme
- sont plutt un phnomne historique, une forme socioculturelle concrte
que la dimension profonde et constante de l'tre humain a revtu dans
une re dtermine historique. Les religions ne sont pas la religiosit en
elle-mme. Elles ne sont pas comparables la spiritualit humaine de
tous les temps.
Les religions sont des structures historiques, contingentes, et chan-
geantes, alors que la spiritualit est une dimension humaine constitutive,
permanente, antrieure essentielle l'tre humain La spiritualit peut
tre vecue au sein des religions, ou en dehors des religions. Nous pour-
rions faire abstraction des religions, mais nous ne pourrions mconnatre
la dimension de transcendentale de l'tre humian...
2. Les religions sont aussi des constructions humaines Comme
nous avons dit, la science et la socit savent dj beaucoup sur leur
origine, leur formation et leurs mcanismes. Ceci change radicalement
notre perception sur celles-ci : les religions sont notre uvre, des cra-
tions humaines, gniales, mais humaines - parfois trop humaines - et qui
doivent tre notre service et non l'inverse.
Les religions - ses croyances et ses mythes, sa morale- ne sont
pas uvre directe d'un Dieu out there, up there, qui nous a envoy ce
don des religions, mais quelque chose qui a surgi ici bas, quelque chose
de trs terrestre, que nous avons fait, nous les humains, pousss certai-
nement par la force du mystre divin qui nous envahit, mais selon nos
possibilits et avec nos conditionnements trs concrets.
Les religions se sont absolutises elles-mmes quand on a attribu
leur origine Dieu lui-mme. C'tait un mcanisme qui a servi fixer et
donner une consistance fixe telles constructions humaines, dans le
dsir d'assurer les formules sociaux de coexistence, desquelles l'humanit
s'tait dote. Aujourd'hui nous perdons l'innocence, et ce caractre absolu
321
des religions, pendant des millnires qui rendait la vie des personnes plus
facile et passive, se rvle n'tre autre qu'une illusion pistmologique.
Aujourd'hui, ce caractre absolu des religions, accept par nous aupara-
vant comme une croyance, ne nous rsulte plus ncessaire, ni dsirable,
ni mme supportable.
3. Donc, nous ne sommes pas soumis aux religions, nous ne
sommes pas condamns suivre l'ornire de l'histoire, le chemin dfini
par les religions, comme s'il s'agissait d'un propos divin dordre antrieur
et exterieur notre destin, comme si nous tions obligs d'adopter les
solutions avec lesquelles nos anctres ont essay de rsoudre leurs pro-
blmes et d'interprter la ralit dans la mesure de leurs possibilits Si
les religions sont notre construction, ceci signifie qu'elles ne nous retirent
pas le droit (ni l'obligation) de nous positionner face l'histoire et d'ap-
porter notre propre rponse aux problmes de l'existence, et de mani-
fester avec pleine confiance en nous-mmes notre propre interprtation
de la ralit que nous sommes, en nous appuyant sur nos dcouvertes
scientifiques. Nous ne sommes pas obligs de prendre comme une vrit
intouchable et inbranlable les ralits dsutes et les solutions ancestra-
les que se donnrent elles mmes, les gnrations humaines de je ne
sais combien de milliers d'annes, comme si ces interprtations taient
une super rvlation venue du dehors et avec un accomplissement obli-
gatoire. Cet quivoque religional dans lequel ont vcu nos anctres,
nous parait, ce moment de l'histoire, une alination.
Cela fait peur de se sentir les seuls responsables sans l'histoire,
libres des chemins traditionnels religieux, sans un chemin sur et indis-
cutablement obligatoire trac par les dieux Cette nouvelle vision du
monde, ce paradigme post-religional , gnre une auto-conscience
humaine profondment diffrente par rapport celle qui a marqu notre
conscience religionale traditionnelle. Maintenant nous nous sentons
libres des contraintes pour laisser libre cours seulement notre ralisa-
tion personnelle et collective, pour assumer pleinement notre responsa-
bilit, nos dcisions, notre interprtation avec ses risques, sans aucune
restriction ni coercition supposment extrieure, mme si telle ft motiv
par la proccupation de s'accorder avec le Mystre qui nous anime.
4. Les religions, supposment les seules expertes en ce qui concer-
ne l'origin du temps et la fin du monde, ne sont pas, par nature, ter-
nelles, pour toujours. Maintenant nous savons bien qu'elles sont des
constructions humaines, rcentes, imprvisibles. Et nous savons qu'il n'est
pas impossible qu'elles puissent disparatre. Elles ne sont pas essentielles
notre nature, et elles nous ont accompagnes durant une petite partie
de notre histoire de l'volution.
Les religions sont lies l'agriculture nolithique: on pourrait
dire quelles ont rellement merg pour assurer la viabilit de l'espce
322
humaine au moment o elle entrait dans cette nouvelle re, faisant suite
la rvolution agraire. Mais, c'est prcisment cette re qui, daprs les
experts, arrive actuellement sa fin. Quel futur pouvons-nous prdire
aux religions dans une priode de transition qui annonce la fin de l're
qui leur a donn naissance? Lhypothse que les religions ( agraires )
pourraient disparatre semble plausible. Cela ne semble pas impossible
en soit, ni une grave catastrophe historique: nous avons pass la plupart
de notre histoire sans religion (toute lre palolithique), et il est
attest que cela n'a pas empch notre qualit humaine profonde, notre
spiritualit.
5. A ce point ci, il nous reste faire une distinction qui simpose
et qui, indirectement, est venue dj en vidence. Les religions tradition-
nelles dtenaient le monopole du monde spirituel. Une personne pouvait
tre spirituelle, uniquement grce aux religions. Les religions taient
considres comme la source mme de la spiritualit, la connexion
directe avec le Mystre. La religion et la spiritualit taient une seule et
mme chose.
Aujourd'hui, comme on vient de le dire, la conceptualisation des
religions est en train de changer radicalement en ce paradigme mer-
geant post-religional. Chaque jour, toujours plus de personnes constatent
que les religions ne sont pas la source de la spiritualit, mais seulement
des formes socioculturelles que, historiquement, la spiritualit a prise.
Souvent elles sont un frein et un obstacle la spiritualit, dimension
essentielle et caractristique de ltre humain, qui laccompagne en per-
manence depuis son apparition en tant qu'espce. Les mots religion,
religieux, religions, qui traditionnellement englobent l'ensemble de la
spiritualit, aujourd'hui devront passer, scrupuleusement, par le triage de
la distinction entre le religieux (qui est li cette dimension mystrieuse
de l'tre humain) et le religional (ce qui appartient seulement au domaine
des paramtres socioculturels et institutionnels que nous appelons reli-
gions agricoles-nolithiques).
LE PARADIGME POST-RELIGIONAL EN BREF
Une fois expos les lments principaux de la vision constitutive
du paradigme post-religional, nous pourrions essayer d'exprimer le noyau
central de son argumentation en un bref rsum :
Premire hypothse : les religions (pas la religion, ni la spiritua-
lit, ni la religiosit), dans le sens technique que nous avons dfini ici,
sont une cration nolithique, tout autant comme fruit que comme cause,
de lre agraire de l'humanit.
323
Deuximement : La transformation socioculturelle que nous
vivons l'heure actuelle, implique, prcisment la fin de cette poque
agraire. Ce qui est maintenant surmont et balay, a t aux fondements
de la socit humaine et de la forme de la conscience humaine au cours
des 10.000 dernires annes (depuis le dbut de cette poque; ceci est la
profondeur du changement actuel). Un nouveau type de socit merge,
avec des fondements diffrents - en particulier pour lpistmologie- qui
sont incompatibles avec le systme opratif nolithique millnaire. Par
consquent, un changement systmique est impratif tant au niveau pis-
tmologique, quau niveau du type de conscience spirituelle de l'huma-
nit. De l, le caractre radical et la profondeur du changement d'poque
que nous vivons, un nouvel temps axial .
Consquence : les religions (agricoles nolithiques), caractrises
par le type de conscience, de cosmologie et dpistmologie agricole,
perdent leur fondement et entrent dans un profonde dclin au fur et
mesure que - par l'accumulation de connaissances scientifiques, technolo-
giques, sociales et exprientielles - merge un autre type de conscience,
de cosmovision et dpistmologie nouvelle, incompatible avec le tradi-
tionnel nolithique. Les humains de la socit qui merge, ne peuvent
plus exprimer leur dimension spirituelle, dans cette configuration particu-
lire des religions agraires (tant agricoles que dlevage) et ils ne parvien-
nent pas sharmoniser et se faire comprendre par la nouvelle socit.
Les religions agraire-nolithiques sont obliges de se transformer radica-
lement, ou de disparatre. Pendant ce temps, les personnes, les commu-
nauts et les institutions religieuses, au fur et mesure quelles passent
la nouvelle culture, vont se librer des mcanismes et de l'pistmologie
agricole, et se mettre vivre leur spiritualit post-religionalement .
Pour vrifier cette hypothse conscutivement :
Nous allons devoir approfondir le concept technique de reli-
gions agraires-nolithiques, en ne nous limitant pas la rfrence des
origines aprs la rvolution agraire, mais, en pntrant dans sa struc-
ture pistmologique et ses caractristiques essentielles, permanentes au
cours de cette priode de l'ge agraire.
Il faudra que nous dmontrions davantage les fondements soli-
des de l'affirmation selon laquelle il s'agit de la fin de l'ge nolithique,
en dtaillant concrtement quels sont les lments qui justifient une telle
affirmation et, quelles sont les caractristiques et les principes de la nou-
velle socit, qui sont incompatibles avec leurs religions.
Et nous aurons besoin dlaborer dun projet daccompagnement
pour la socit de cette poque qui est en transition entre la socit
agraire et une socit nouvelle.
324
En conclusion, nous appelons le paradigme post-religional ce
mode de vivre la profonde dimension de l'tre humain qui se libre et
va au-del des mcanismes propres aux religions agricole-nolithiques,
savoir:
son pistmologie mythique,
son monopole sur la spiritualit,
son obligation de soumission, dacceptation aveugle des croyan-
ces comme si frent rvles par Dieu,
son exercice du pouvoir politique et le contrle idologique sur la
socit, que ce soit dans les rgimes de la chrtient, islamiques, d'union
d'glise-tat, d'imposition de lois ecclsiastiques sur la socit civile...
sa imposition d'une morale htronome, venue d'en haut, avec
une interprtation du droit naturel partir dune philosophie officielle-
ment impose, avec une morale non soumise une examen communau-
taire et dmocratique,
son contrle de la pense humaine, avec les dogmes, la perscu-
tion de la libert de pense, l'Inquisition, la condamnation et l'excution
des hrtiques, la prtention de l'infaillibilit d'inspiration divine, de
dtenir l'interprtation autorise de la volont de Dieu...
sa proclamation comme Saintes critures rvles (dans le cas
des religions du Livre) des traditions ancestrales accumules, exaltes
comme Parole directe de Dieu, comme rgle suprme et incontestable.
pour la socit et pour les personnes...
son interprtation pr-moderne interprtation de la ralit
comme un monde deux tages, un monde surnaturel divin au-dessus
de nous, dont nous dpendons et vers laquelle nous allons...
son interprtation de la vie et de la mort en termes de preuve,
jugement et rcompense / punition universelle dans les mains d'un juge
qui est le Seigneur suprme de chaque religion...
la fin de l're agraire, toutes ces structures cognitives, axiologi-
ques et pistmologiques millnaires, cessent d'tre viables, pour laisser
place la nouvelle socit. Elles taient une grande invention humaine.
Grce ces promeneurs, les bandes de nomades et de chasseurs-
cueilleurs ont russi rinventer lhumanit, la rendant capable de vivre
ensemble dans la ville, rglemente par le droit, unis par une conscience
religieuse d'appartenance une communaut ayant une identit attribue
aux dieux... La crise actuelle nest pas principalement d au processus
de scularisation, ou la perte de valeurs, ou lexpansion du matrialisme
et de l'hdonisme (interprtation culpabilisante gnralement avance
325
par les dirigeants des religions), pas plus qu l'absence de tmoignages
ou aux scandales moraux des religions, mais lclosion d'une nouvelle
situation culturelle, o la transformation radicale des structures cogniti-
ves, axiologiques et pistmologiques nolithiques culmine, transforma-
tion qui a commenc avec la rvolution scientifique du XVIe sicle, le si-
cle des Lumires (XVIIIe sicle) et les diffrentes vagues d'industrialisa-
tion. Les symptmes sociaux sont un certain agnosticisme diffus, la perte
de la navet pistmologique, un sentiment critique plus accentu, une
conceptualisation plus utilitariste des religions comme tant au service de
ltre humain plutt que comme bnficiaires dune loyaut totale de la
part de ses adhrents, la disparition de l'ide de lunique vraie religion
et l'affaiblissement de la plausibilit d'une morale rvle htronome ;
mais le changement structurel gravite autour de la transformation lpis-
tmologique-culturelle.
Nous ne sommes donc pas face un phnomne vraiment nou-
veau, mais seulement face sa radicalisation. Et ce n'est pas une inter-
prtation radicalement nouvelle (ce paradigme post-religional), mais cest
la prise de conscience de ce que l'axe de concentration du changement
est principalement pistmologique et qu'il transforme tout radicalement.
Deux mises en garde:
a) Comme nous l'avons mentionn au dbut, nous n'aimerions pas
sugrer que rien d'autre se passe dans le domaine religieux, comme si
tout le scnario tait actuellement occup par cette transformation du
paradigme des religions agraires en un paradigme post-religional. Dans
le domaine religieux, d'autres phnomnes se produisent simultanment,
de manire chaotique mme, car ils sont, certains gards contradictoi-
res. Paralllement cette crise de la religion, il y a des effervescences
religieuses et des rveils, des reculs et intgrismes. Dans cette proposi-
tion thologique, nous avons cadr notre centre d'intrt sur un aspect
de la transformation en cours, qui ne nie pas tous les autres lments
prsents. D'autres ralits se vivent dans le domaine religieux, mais il
se produit galement cette ralit, et notre proposition thologique veut
attirer l'attention sur elle, malgr sa caractristique peine perceptible et
minoritaire dans de nombreuses rgions.
b) Ce que nous disons ne peut pas tre appliqu indistinctement
TOUTES les religions. Parce que toutes les religions ne sont pas agraires.
Il y a beaucoup de religions, toutes du mme genre, qui n'ont pas vcu la
rvolution agraire et urbaine. Elles ont conserv en leur sein une matrice
de lexprience religieuse propre des temps prcdent la transformation
nolithique ( la sparation face au placenta de la sacralit de la nature,
la prise en charge de la transcendance divine dualiste et acosmique, etc.)
326
et elles ne sont pas tombes dans la drive contrleuse et programmatrice
de la socit travers la soumission aux doctrines, dogmes, inquisitions...
Ici, nous pouvons cerner la grande famille des religions cosmiques,
indignes, animistes... ainsi que d'autres qui, nappartenant pas histori-
quement la priode nolithique et tant des religions de socits pure-
ment agraires (agriculture ou levage) sont restes en marge du contrle
dogmatique-doctrinal, comme l'hindouisme, une religion sans vrits .
Cela signifie que ce paradigme ne s'applique pas toutes les religions.
La ralit est donc plus complexe que nos tentatives simplificatrices de
comprhension, qui nous poussent une plus grande prcision, une
humilit plus sereine et un plus grand intrt pour l'tude de terrain, de
la recherche et du dialogue.
FACE AU PASSAGE IMMDIAT
Ce que nous faisons est une proposition thologique, un appro-
fondissement thorique pour pouvoir mieux transformer la ralit que
nous interprtons (interprtation comme un moyen de transformer). Mais
il est videmment quil aura des rpercussions pastorales trs grandes.
Parce que ce dont nous parlons est un tsunami culturel et religieux,
une mtamorphose quil nous sera parfois difficile de reconnatre nous-
mmes, dans un avenir proche. Et cela peut tre trs pnible franchir
pour lhumanit : les anthropologues disent que la transition de la socit
palolithique la nolithique avec la rvolution agraire, a t la situation
la plus ardue que notre espce ait connue, peut-tre sommes nous dans
un temps volutionniste semblable. Il est ncessaire d'examiner comment
accompagner ce transit qui va seffectuer ou qui a dj commenc
dans la socit, des religions agraires vers un nouveau type de socit,
dont la ralisation spirituelle sera aussi bien par des voies et selon des
modles qui continueront tre religieux mais post-religionaux , sans
quactuellement nous sachions, prcisment comment seront ces voies et
ces modles... car nous devrons les inventer.
Les religions seront voues - elles le sont dj dans de nombreux
endroits des situations de dclin, de perte de membres, de crdibilit
et de plausibilit, d'une part, et dautre part elles exprimenteront des
contradictions avec leurs propres mcanismes agricoles. Dj de nom-
breuses personnes peroivent le besoin de transformer leur religiosit,
radicalement, mais sentent de faon poignante la contradiction avec la
doctrine officielle, considre comme infaillible et immuable, qui leur
interdit toute modification ou abdication d'anciens principes. Dans certai-
nes socits, il y a dj des dizaines de millions de personnes qui quittent
tranquillement la religion, et restent religieux post-religionalment. Il est
possible que certaines hirarchies religieuses, perdues dans le mirage
327
d'une fidlit sacre, persistent dans leur prfrence de couler leurs
propres institutions religieuses, pltot que de permettre la progression,
mme avec les meilleures intentions, et pour la gloire de Dieu. Mais il
est galement possible que de nombreux groupes soient capables de se
transformer. Cest bien possible et nous souhaitons vraiment, que les reli-
gions agraires voluent vers de nouvelles formes religieuses (post-religio-
nales) compatibles avec cette nouvelle socit du savoir. Ils se rendront
compte que, de la mme faon que la science a contredit le gocentrisme
qu'ils considraient mme rvl, la science rvle maintenant que le
religio-centrisme tait un mirage religional, et que comme ce moment
la il a t possible dabandonner la vieille cosmovision et de continuer
vivre spirituellement, alors aujourd'hui il sera possible, et ncessaire,
de se librer des chanes de ce religional, pour trouver l'panouissement
spirituel dans une nouveau grade de l'volution.
Il semble que le Titanic des religions agricoles narrivera pas
flotter dans les latitudes de l'ocan de la socit de la connaissance. Il
semble quil ne durera pas trs longtemps et quil va couler. Il a puiss
son kairos, mais il lui reste un peu de temps de chronos. Mais ce n'est
pas la fin du monde. C'est juste la fin d'un monde, la fin du monde agri-
cole-nolithique et de son pistmologie, et donc avec lui, des configu-
rations religionales de la spiritualit, que nous avons appel religions
nolithiques agraires . La vie et sa dimension profonde continuent. Et
nous devons comprendre ce qui se passe, pour ne pas nous retrouver
lutter contre la Ralit, mais d'aider la naissance de cette nouvelle tape
volutionnaire de notre espce, pour contribuer se rinventer comme
nous l'avons fait au dbut du Nolithique. Notre devoir est aussi de faire
preuve de prudence et ne pas pousser quelqu'un au-del de ses besoins
ou de ses possibilits, avertir clairement que la situation est difficile, il
sagit dune nouvelle naissance, dune mtamorphose, un changement
des espce, ou un changement de systme opratif, et c'est un moment
de risques importants, tant sur le plan de dconstruction, comme sur le
plan constructif : non seulement pour ce auquel nous ne pouvons plus
croire, mais aussi comment nous pouvons dvelopper pleinement notre
dimension transcendante et spirituelle, la qualit humaine profonde
que les religions religionales, aprs tout, avec plus ou moins de limites,
tentaient de soutenir. Beaucoup de choses sont en train de mourir, il
est invitable quelles meurent, et elles ne finissent pas de mourir, nous
essayons de les aider bien mourir (cest lars moriendi, de mourir en
donnant la vie aux autres, en donnant naissance). Entretemps, c'est un
monde tout nouveau qui est en train de natre, qui lutte pour naitre, mais
mais il n'est pas encore n, et nous aimerions l'aider naitre.
Les religions ne jugent pas ncessaire de rinterprter et de res-
tructurer l'ensemble de leur patrimoine symbolique, qui a t cr dans le
328
cadre des conditionnements pistmologiques de lre agricole. Ce serait
une rlaboration, une r-rception (Congar) de toute son patrimoine,
labor depuis des millnaires, et maintenu historiquement dans une
ignorance et le manque de culture dont nous venons de sortir rcemment,
grce au dploiement prodigieux des sciences. Les religions devraient
chercher comment r-comprendre ce qui reste, sil reste quelque chose,
des croyances, des dogmes, des rites agraires moraux htronomes...
au sein de cette nouvelle situation de connaissance et de ces nouveaux
cadres d'interprtation.
Beaucoup d'tres humains, se verront inaptes continuer s'ap-
puyer sur les religions pour survivre spirituellement, ils auront de srieu-
ses difficults avec l'intgrit spirituelle de leur vie. Comme lorsque
l'avion dcolle et quitte le systme dappui de ses roues sur le sol, ayant
passer s'appuyer sur un nouveau systme de soutien, compltement
diffrent, celui de ses ailes, la plupart de l'humanit devra passer par des
moments difficiles d'quilibre dans la transition dun systme l'autre
systme de valeurs, si diffrents, et dans une certaine mesure, incompati-
bles, et sans la possibilit de mettre le pilote automatique.
Un tsunami est venir. Les risques sont graves, tous les niveaux.
Il est du devoir de la thologie responsable de prvoir ces problmes et
d'essayer d'accompagner ce transit invitable o nous nous trouvons.
Tant dans la thorie que dans la pratique, la question mrite beaucoup
plus quune simple proposition thologique . Nous l'avons laiss ici, et
nous la livrons la consultation et au dbat, dsireux quelle soit corrige
et amliore.
Pourrions-nous offrir, la fin de cette anne, un ouvrage complet,
avec les rflexions, les ides et les dbats ns de cette simple prsentation
du paradigme post-religieux? Vous tes cordialement invits.
329
Practical Proposal to Work
Possible research projects
EATWOT's
International Theological Commission
The Belo Horizonte Consultation concluded with an eye to the
future. The result of the consultation had been very good, and indeed,
it was deemed necessary to give it continuity. The idea now is to pro-
duce a guide, a list of research projects with which it would be possible
to address all the issues and topics raised by the Consultation, while at
the same time trying to bring out the differences, to verify and even to
improve the proposed interpretation of what we are calling the post-
religional paradigm.
With this list or index as guide, the International Theological
Commission of EATWOT is opening a second phase of the consultation
which consists in convoking both those who participated in the first
phase, as well as all theologians and scientific students of religion who
might still like to participate.
People or institutions that feel inspired and motivated to develop
any of these suggestions or lines of thought, are invited to contact our
Theological Commission. This would be either to report on their work or
to search for colleagues and/or set up alliances. The ideas and proposals
were worked up in thematic blocks, but this is purely a methodological
mesure and freely open to reformulation.
(See)
Thematic block of FACTS
- The HISTORY of "agrarian religion": its origin, essential identity,
basic features, epistemological mechanisms, control over society, and:
Just what did our ancestors do to latch on to this "reinvention of soci-
ety'?...
330
- Comparative studies of religiosity in the agrarian Neolithic and
Paleolithic eras. What can we learn today from these studies?
- Study and compare the contrasting religious relationship of the
human person with the existing nature of the Paleolithic and the Neolithic
periods. When were we separated from the Great Mother Goddess? How
and why did this happen? What is the existing basis for our current
reclaiming of: "a return to our natural home" our homecoming? From
just where did we turned off, and at what point in our evolutionary his-
tory did we abandon our telluric and cosmic placenta? What role did
our agrarian Neolithic religion play in all this and how do we go about
recovering from this self-imposed exile from which we are still suffering?
Was this a pure contingency or a real necessity? Was it just this way even
though it could have been otherwise, or did it have to be this way and
could not have been otherwise?
- The society that is still to come: How to characterize it and what
to call it? A society of knowledge, innovation, post-industrial ...? What will
be the principle features of this emerging culture of the new society?
- The epistemology of the new society: its limits, convergence and
incompatibility with the dominant epistemology of Neolithic times.
- Field studies to verify and assess specifically the presence of this
new society in Latin America and/or other continents.
- Focus on the facts which are in dissonance with this presumed
pos-religional paradigm: the spread of fundamentalism, Pentecostalism,
spiritual revivals, the persistence of magical thinking ... Are they compat-
ible? What is the overall direction of the flow, despite so many whirlpools
in the river of religious history today?
(Judge)
Thematic block on (AGRARIAN) RELIGION
-First off: What is the religious/spiritual drive of the human per-
son? Elucidate over a more compelling, interdisciplinary and functional
definition of the religiosity of human beings, including its essentially
transcendent dimension.
-The "Neolithic Agrarian Religion" as a factor in programming
and social cohesion. Submission and thought-control as a characteristic
mechanism of religions. "Ontology of submission" (Corb).
- With all agrarian religions? Is there a variation of positions
between some religions and others in this feature of being "social pro-
grammers"?
330 Possible research projects
331
- Ought we to consider the " programming characteristic" of reli-
gions, and the "submission" by members of society, the principle or
nuclear feature of agrarian Neolithic time?
- Can it be held that liberation from this programmer control and
the subsequent submission was the principle and central characteristic of
the era that superceded the agrarian Neolithic period?
- Can it be said that overcoming this, paved the way for the
Enlightenment and its Sapere aude! (Dare to know!)?
-Can it be said that the main feature of the new post-agrarian era
will be the freeing of epistemology, or liberation epistemology?
- Towards a religion that is post-religional: with control of neither
thought, nor opinion nor its expression; without dogmas, doctrines, or
absolute truths; without submission ... A religion centered upon - what?
- Towards a new "theology of religion" (re-defining religion). If the
traditional role of religion in the Neolithic agrarian world became nonvi-
able, what will religion be like in a pos-religional society? Would it move
towards a new "theology of religion, a new consideration of the deep
religious significance of religion itself and what it means to be religious?
Would it be a theology of religion that adopts today's perspective: that
religions are human constructs (not purely divine); that religions are
relative (not absolute), purely cultural-positioning (not supernatural and
universal), and that they are limited (flawed) and not unique ...
Specific thematic block CHRISTIANITY
- Christianity is also an agrarian Neolithic-religion. ... As for being
founded by Jesus, or in spite of being "founded" Jesus? Study of the
agrarian-Neolithic dimensions of Christianity: its being, quantity, origin,
its taking shape in the history of Christianity ...
- "Is Christianity a religion? Reconsidering this classic question.
Did Jesus found a religion or is it that his message represents precisely
the displacement of religions? Is it possible to reinterpret or reformulate
Christianity in a non-religious way? It would be worth while replanting
the ever timely question of a "non-religious Christianity" (secularizing
movements of John AT Robinson, the theology of the death of God,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Gustave Thils, John Shelby Spong ...)
- The Future of Christianity: What path will the tradition of Jesus
follow in the new post-religional world? What can we foresee?
- Possibilities of Christianity: Can Christianity cease to be an agrar-
ian-Neolithic religion? What particular elements of agrarian religions are
found in Christianity? List them. Are they really essential to Christianity?
Do they actually flow from the message of Jesus? Are there actually agrar-
Practical Proposal to Work 331
332
ian religious elements in the message itself of the historical Jesus? Is it
strange that they are found there?
- Obviously the thought patterns of Jesus were geocentric, just as
those of any person of his time would be. (" The Father makes the sun
to shine on both the just and sinners"). Nevertheless we, although with
great difficulty on the part of the institution, have been able to move into
a Christianity with a heliocentric cosmic view . In a parallel manner: just
as Jesus was religious with the agrarian religiosity of the Judaism which
he professed, wouldnt it be possible for us to move into a non-religional
Christianity?
Special difficulties of Catholicism: Will Roman Catholicism be
able to discard agrarian- Neolithic features after having been so pro-
foundly inbred by Greek metaphysics and after Catholicism has radically
bolstered itself up with the doctrines of infallibility, immutability and un-
reinterpretability for both its dogmas and the deposit of faith, and now
after its persecution of dissidents and heterodoxy ... or will Catholicism
die as a martyr of fidelity to these principles? Faced with this tsunami
of cultures just ahead: Just what can we expect of Christianity if it fails
to transform itself?
- "Jesus invites us to surpass religions" (Thomas Sheehan).
Christianity without religion (Gustoff Thils). Jesus calls us to a non-
ordained, a lay sanctity. (Bonhffer) "Jesus for the non-religious"
(book by John Shelby Spong). "A Jesus for atheists" (of Machovec) ... In
a pos-religional culture, just what would diferentiate faith in Jesus, the
following of Jesus, the community of followers of Jesus?
Thematic bloc of EPISTEMOLOGY and RELIGION
- This would entail a thorough study of the epistemology of agrar-
ian religions:
their beliefs (in the technical sense), their myths,
the "great mechanism" of divine attribution ... and its unfeasibility
today ...
- And equally:
the end of mythical epistemology, the end of "naive realism"
(Barbour)
the recognition of the metaphorical character of all religious
expression,
and the "end of the dogmatic religious dream" ...
- Traditionally theology has been an element of agrarian religion -
it has been its theoretical expression and doctrinal base when necessary.
Is a post-religional theology possible? Obviously there will always be
333
need for a "local theology to respond for every religion, but shouldnt
theology be remade with a focus that is beyond the local, towards a
pluralistic, inter-religious, multi-religious, trans-religious ...a planetary
theology? Can we move towards a global theology?
- If a post-religional paradigm transforms the conceptualization of
religion itself, forcing us to come up with a new, completely different face
for religion, wont a "new theology of religion" also be necessary?
Thematic block on LIBERATION THEOLOGY
- LIBERATION THEOLOGY is that that theology that re-read the
modernizing Christianity of the last third of the twentieth century with
its conscience focused upon the political dimension and the option for
the poor. It acts completely like a paradigm, the liberating paradigm. We
must ask: Do the liberating paradigm and the post-religional paradigm
have something to do with each other? Do they have something in com-
mon? Are they compatible?
- The theological proposal of a pos-religional paradigm presented
here would answer that: at first blush it appears neutral from the stand-
point of a liberating paradigm. Is it actually possible to be politically neu-
tral? (Does anything politically neutral actually exist?). With the advent of
a post-religional paradigm and a society of knowledge: would it be in
favor of the poor or of the powerful?
- Can we make a presentation of the post-religional paradigm from
a "political neutrality" at least for methodological reasons?
- Liberation Theology is still clearly a "religional" theology. Even
though it polished up many of the conservative aspects of traditional
Christianity, in fact it assumed the central structure of its epistemol-
ogy, together with its great story, and of course the main "beliefs" of
Christianity. Just as in past years it has been tried, and to a good degree
achieved, to "cross" Liberation Theology with the pluralist paradigm,
coming up with a "Pluralist Liberation Theology". Would it be possible
to cross Liberation Theology with the post-religional paradigm and come
up with a "Post-religional Liberation Theology"? Since many elements of
the agrarian religions would disappear: just what agrarian elements of
Liberation Theology would have to be transformed?
Thematic block of SPIRITUALITY
- The new relevance given to spirituality in the reflection on reli-
gion. The decline of religions in the world, and the emergence of a sense
of priority and absoluteness of the spiritual ...
Practical Proposal to Work 333
334
- Movements towards a pluralistic concept of spirituality. Is spiri-
tuality one, or are there many different spiritualities? Discussion about
different approaches.
- Spirituality and religions: What about spirituality beyond reli-
gion...; spirituality without religion ...; a lay spirituality that is simply
human ...
- The non-dual spirituality: a growing Eastern ascendancy over
the West.
- The so-called "neo-atheism" and the post-religional paradigm: do
a comparative contrasting study.
("Act")
Thematic block of TRANSITION
Theorizing over a pos-religional paradigm should be responsible
and include in its consideration the felt need to accompany the "transi-
tion" that in reality has already been initiated by largely agrarian-Neolithic
societies into pos-religional societies in the style of knowledge societies.
Regarding this transition, different levels must be distinguished: that of
individuals, that of communities, the "People of God", institutions, and
those self-exiled people who have left by the millions...
To foresee and accompany this transition we must ...:
- Be able to foresee a new historical figure of Spirituality, that is far
beyond that of agrarian religions, their basic principles and functioning
mechanisms ... This requires heading towards a pos-religional religiosity:
heading towards a being spiritual or religious beyond "religional reli-
gion", a "profound humanization without religious forms...
- Concretely attempting to reinterpret Christianity in a non-religion-
al key. What would be the spiritual significance of Jesus if we should hold
that he never intended to found a religion? How would Christianity have
to transform itself if, -- even though it has been a religion, -- it will have
to stop being a religion in order to move on into the pos-religional future
at the end of the agrarian-Neolithic era?
- Develop a proposal of "pastoral and social strategies to accom-
pany religions and societies in this transition. (To "maintain the child after
bathing, instead of throwing it out with the bath water"). This would be
to avoid having a society being left without a dimension of profundity
and spirituality at the time religions are entering a decline, since these,
-- even with their shortcomings, -- have been the principal means for their
cultivation.
- Research and work up a new vision of "secular spirituality" as
being simply something of a profound and deeply-human dimension ...
335
- Since in some way this "transition" will involve a certain "regres-
sion" -- a "return to our eco-mother-home" of eco-centric spirituality
("homecoming") -- it is important to develop an adequate analytic reflec-
tion on it , in order to avoid dualistic transcendence-immanence and
while overcoming patriarchal agrarian religions finally re-encountering
our eco-spirituality in REALITY.
- Since the perception of this paradigm will probably shock if not
even scandalize quite a few people who are religious in the traditional
agrarian sense, the question comes up: Is it correct and valid for us to
propose this post-religional paradigm when we actually still have no per-
fectly clear idea of just where we are going to arrive at, and up to what
point the human spiritual dimension will evolve in the coming post-agrar-
ian period? Would it perhaps be better to wait? Or on the contrary is it
urgent to act now in order to prevent and/or care for those who already
have become victims of this transformation and whose numbers run into
the tens of millions? Ought we to try to avoid scandalizing the simple,
or should we strive to help those already suffering existential damage?
- How to help believers -- submitted to mythical epistemology and
conditioned in that line -- move forward with this changing society
which every day makes their personal situation less feasible...
- How to help institutions, churches and religions confront this
future. Help them re-discover themselves, to change their goals, to
accept a metanoia that produces "conversion", and with it a consequent
change of attitude. Its worth while recalling a point made by Raymond
Hostie : "Historically, 75% of religious institutions founded during the his-
tory of the Catholic Church disappear". They face the dilemma of radically
renewing, or of dying in peace. They must learn the ars moriendi (the
art of dying), the art of accepting death and making of it the supreme
act in favor of life; instead of dying in despair, dying to help bring to life
different realities more in line with the times; dying to give life ("as dying
in childbirth" ultimately converts death into giving life).
Help common people to gradually overcome the "beliefs" (in
the technical sense), the mythical thought, the epistemology of submis-
sion and control ... Make a list of "beliefs" common in Christianity (even
in Liberation Theology), analyze them in detail, as a pedagogical aid to
overcome them ...
336
337
Propuesta Prctica de Trabajo.
Posibles proyectos de investigacin
Comisin Teolgica Internacional
de la EATWOT
La Consulta de Belo Horizonte concluy con la mira puesta en el
futuro. El resultado de la Consulta haba sido muy bueno y, efectivamen-
te, haba que darle continuidad. Se trat de elaborar una gua, un elenco
ordenado de proyectos de investigacin con los que fuera posible abordar
todas las cuestiones y temticas suscitadas en la Consulta, para tratar de
contrastar y verificar o mejorar la propuesta interpretativa del llamado
paradigma pos-religional.
Con esta gua, con este elenco, se abre una segunda fase de la
Consulta, a la que la Comisin Teolgica Internacional de la EATWOT
convoca tanto a quienes participaron en la primera, como a todos los
telogos/as y cientistas de la religin que quieran incorporarse a partir
de ahora.
Las personas, o instituciones, que se sientan inspirados y motivados
a desarrollar cualquiera de estas sugerencias o pistas de trabajo, pueden
ponerse en contacto con nuestra Comisin Teolgica, ya sea para infor-
mar sobre su trabajo como para buscar colegas y entablar alianzas.
Las ideas y propuestas fueron ordenadas por bloques temticos (lo
cual es un recurso meramente metodolgico, que puede ser libremente
reformulado).
(Ver)
Bloque temtico de LOS HECHOS
- La historia misma de la religin agraria (su surgimiento, su
identidad esencial, sus rasgos caractersticos, sus mecanismos epistemo-
lgicos, su control sobre la sociedad, cmo hicieron nuestros antepasados
para dotarse de esta reinvencin de la sociedad...
- Estudios comparados de la religiosidad agrario-neoltica y de la
religiosidad paleoltica. Qu podemos hoy saber en esa comparacin?
338
- Estudiar y comparar la contrastante relacin religiosa del ser
humano con la naturaleza en el perodo paleoltico, con la que hemos
adoptado en el perodo neoltico. Cundo nos separamos de la Gran
Diosa Madre? Cmo y por qu ocurri? Qu fundamento tiene la actual
reclamacin de una vuelta a nuestro hogar natural (homecoming)?
Dnde fue que nos desviamos, en qu momento de nuestra historia evo-
lutiva nos separamos de nuestra placenta telrica y csmica? Qu papel
tuvieron en ello las religiones agrario-neolticas? Cmo recuperarnos de
este autoexilio que an padecemos?
- Contingencia o necesidad?: Fue as aunque podra haber sido
de otra manera, o tuvo que ser as porque no podra haber sido de otra
manera?
- La sociedad adveniente: cmo caracterizarla? Cmo llamarla?
Del conocimiento, de innovacin, post-industrial...? Rasgos principales
de la cultura emergente de la nueva sociedad.
- La epistemologa de la nueva sociedad: lmites, convergencias e
incompatibilidades con la epistemologa dominante en el tiempo neoltico.
- Estudios de campo que verifiquen y valoren concretamente la pre-
sencia de esta nueva sociedad en Amrica Latina y/u otros continentes.
- Atencin a los hechos disonantes con este supuesto paradigma
posreligional: difusin de los fundamentalismos, pentecostalismos, revi-
vals espirituales, pervivencia de la mentalidad mgica... Son compatibles?
Cul es la direccin global de la corriente, a pesar de tantos remolinos
en el ro de la historia religiosa actual?
(Juzgar)
Bloque temtico de LA RELIGIN (AGRARIA)
- Previamente, qu es la religin-espiritualidad del ser humano...?
Elucidar de un modo ms convincente una definicin funcional e inter-
disciplinar sobre la religiosidad del ser humano, su dimensin esencial
de transcendencia.
- La Religin agrario-neoltica como factor de programacin y de
cohesin social. La sumisin y el control del pensamiento como mecanis-
mo caracterstico de las religiones. La ontologa de la sumisin (Corb).
- Profundizacin en el concepto de religiones agrarias. Lo fueron
todas las religiones de la poca neoltica? Tambin aquellas de socie-
dades cuya base material no era mayoritariamente la agricultura? Y las
religiones de sociedades fundamentalmente ganaderas? Hay variacin de
posiciones entre unas religiones y otras en su caracterstica de programa-
doras sociales, en sus mecanismos epistemolgicos u otras dimensiones?
338 Propuesta prctica de trabajo
339
- Sera el carcter programador por parte de las religiones, y la
sumisin por parte de los miembros de la sociedad, la caracterstica
principal, la nuclear, del tiempo agrario neoltico? Sera la liberacin de
ese control programador y de esa sumisin la caracterstica principal y
central de la nueva era superadora del tiempo agrario-neoltico? Podrase
decir que esta superacin comenz con la Ilustracin y su spere aude!?
Podrase decir que la caracterstica principal de la nueva era pos-agraria
va a ser la liberacin de la epistemologa, o una epistemologa liberadora?
- Hacia una religin pos-religional: sin control del pensamiento ni
de la opinin ni de su expresin, sin dogmas, sin doctrina, sin verdades,
sin sumisin... Una religin centrada en qu? En la calidad humana
profunda?
- Hacia una nueva teologa de la religin (redefinicin de la reli-
gin). Si el papel tradicional de la religin en el mundo agrcola-neoltico
se hace inviable, qu va a ser la religin en una sociedad posreligional?
Vamos hacia una nueva teologa de la religin, una nueva reconsidera-
cin del significado religioso profundo de la religin misma y de lo reli-
gional? Hacia una teologa de la religin que acoja la perspectiva actual:
religiones que son construcciones humanas (no puramente divinas), reli-
giones relativas (no absolutas), ubicadamente culturales (no sobrenatura-
les y universales), limitadas (con limitaciones concretas), sin unicidad...
Bloque temtico especfico de EL CRISTIANISMO
- El cristianismo es tambin una religin agrario-neoltica... En
cuanto fundada por Jess, o a pesar de ser fundada por Jess? Estudio
de las dimensiones agrario-neolticas del cristianismo: entidad, dosis, ori-
gen, su plasmacin en la historia del cristianismo...
- El cristianismo es una religin?: replanteamiento de esta pre-
gunta clsica. Jess fund una religin, o su mensaje representa precisa-
mente la superacin de las religiones? Es posible reinterpretar/reformu-
lar no religiosamente el cristianismo? Replanteamiento de la recurrente
cuestin de un cristianismo no religioso (movimientos de secularizacin,
John A.T. Robinson, teologa de la muerte de Dios, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Gustave Thils, John Shelby Spong...)
- Futuro del cristianismo: por dnde continuar la tradicin de
Jess en el nuevo mundo pos-religional? Qu podemos vislumbrar?
- Posibilidades del cristianismo: Podr el cristianismo dejar de ser
una religin agrario-neoltica? Qu elementos propios de las religiones
agrarias encontramos en el cristianismo? Enumerar. Son esenciales al
cristianismo? Provienen del mensaje de Jess? Hay elementos de reli-
giosidad agraria en el mensaje mismo del Jess histrico? Sera extrao
que los hubiera?
Posibles proyectos de investigacin 339
340
- Jess pensaba geocntricamente, como persona de su tiempo
(el Padre hace salir el sol sobre justos y pecadores); pero nosotros
(con grandes dificultades por parte de la institucin, que se opuso a ello
durante trescientos aos) hemos podido pasar a un cristianismo con una
cosmovisin heliocntrica. Paralelamente: si Jess era religioso religio-
nalmente, con una religiosidad agraria, como lo era el judasmo que
profes, podremos nosotros pasar a un cristianismo no religional?
- Dificultades especiales del catolicismo: podr el catolicismo
romano superar los rasgos agrario-neolticos habindose identificado
tan profundamente con la metafsica griega, y habindose escorado tan
radicalmente hacia la doctrina de la infalibilidad, la inmutabilidad e inin-
terpretabilidad de sus dogmas, de la fe revelada, del depsito de la fe,
la persecucin de la disidencia y de la heterodoxia... o morir vctima y
mrtir de la fidelidad a esos principios? Ante el tsunami cultural que est
dndose, qu se puede esperar del cristianismo si en vez de transfor-
marse, se aferra numantinamente a una supuesta filosofa perenne, o a la
insuperable helenizacin del cristianismo?
- Jess invita a la superacin de las religiones (Thomas Sheehan).
Cristianismo sin religin (Gustave Thils). Jess nos llama a una santidad
laica (Dietrich Bonhoeffer). Jess para los no religiosos (libro de John
Shelby Spong). Jess para ateos (de Milan Machovec)... En una cultura
posreligional, qu ser la fe en Jess, el movimiento de Jess, el segui-
miento de Jess, la comunidad de los seguidores de Jess?
Bloque temtico de EPISTEMOLOGA, TEOLOGA Y RELIGIN
- Estudio detenido de la epistemologa propia de las religiones
agrarias: las creencias (en sentido tcnico), los mitos, el gran mecanis-
mo de atribucin divina... y su inviabilidad hoy; e igualmente:
el fin de la epistemologa mtica,
el fin del realismo ingenuo (Ian Barbour),
el reconocimiento del carcter metafrico de toda expresin religiosa,
el fin del sueo dogmtico religioso...
- La teologa ha sido tradicionalmente un elemento de las religiones
agrarias, y ha sido como su expresin terica y doctrinal. Es posible una
teologa pos-religional? Es obvio que siempre habr necesidad de una
teologa local, de cada religin... pero, a estas alturas de la historia y de
la mundializacin de la noosfera, no deber la teologa rehacerse con
un enfoque supralocal, pluralista, inter-religioso, multi-religioso, trans-
religioso... planetario? Hacia una teologa planetaria (world theology)?
- Si el paradigma pos-religional transforma la conceptuacin de la
religin misma, haciendo que le descubramos un nuevo rostro, comple-
tamente distinto, no ser necesaria una nueva teologa de la religin?
341
Bloque temtico de TEOLOGA DE LA LIBERACIN
- La teologa de la liberacin es la teologa que reley el cristianis-
mo modernizante del ltimo tercio del siglo XX con la toma de concien-
cia de la dimensin histrica y poltica y de la opcin por los pobres. Ella
funge como todo un paradigma, el paradigma liberador. Preguntamos: el
paradigma liberador y el paradigma pos-religional, tienen algo que ver?
Tienen algo en comn? Son compatibles?
- La propuesta teolgica del paradigma pos-religional que aqu se
presenta diramos que, en principio, parece neutra desde el punto de
vista del paradigma liberador. Es posible que sea neutra polticamente?
(Hay algo polticamente neutro?). El advenimiento del paradigma pos-
religional y la sociedad del conocimiento, favorece a los pobres o a los
poderosos?
- Podramos hacer una presentacin del paradigma pos-religional
desde una neutralidad poltica por razones metodolgicas?
- La teologa de la liberacin es todava, claramente, una teologa
religional. Aunque puli muchos de los aspectos conservadores del
cristianismo tradicional, de hecho asumi la estructura central de su epis-
temologa, su gran relato, las principales creencias del cristianismo. Del
mismo modo que en los aos pasados se ha intentado y en buena parte
se ha conseguido cruzar la teologa de la liberacin con el paradigma
pluralista, llegando a una teologa pluralista de la liberacin, ser posi-
ble cruzar la teologa de la liberacin con el paradigma pos-religional... y
llegar a una teologa pos-religional de la liberacin? Si muchas cosas de
las religiones agrarias van a desaparecer... qu elementos agrarios de la
teologa de la liberacin es probable que hayan de transformarse o hayan
de desaparecer?
Bloque temtico de ESPIRITUALIDAD
- La nueva relevancia que est adquiriendo la espiritualidad en la
reflexin sobre la religin. El declive de las religiones en el mundo, y la
emergencia de la prioridad y del carcter absoluto de la espiritualidad...
- Hacia un concepto plural de espiritualidad. La espiritualidad es
una, o hay muchas diferentes espiritualidades? Debate de planteamientos.
- Espiritualidad y religiones: La espiritualidad ms all de las reli-
giones. Espiritualidad sin religiones, espiritualidad laica, simplemente
humana...
- La espiritualidad no dual: creciente influjo oriental sobre
Occidente. Su relacin con la espiritualidad liberadora: diferencias y
mutua interpelacin...
342
(Actuar)
Bloque temtico de EL TRNSITO
Una teorizacin sobre el paradigma posreligional debe ser respon-
sable e incluir en su consideracin la preocupacin por acompaar el
trnsito que ya se ha iniciado desde las sociedades mayoritariamente
agrarioneolticas hacia sociedades posreligionales del tipo de socieda-
des de conocimiento. Respecto a este trnsito hay que distinguir niveles:
las personas, las comunidades, el Pueblo de Dios, las instituciones, los
autoexiliados que han abandonado por millones...
Para prever y acompaar el trnsito necesitamos...:
- Ser capaces de prever una nueva figura histrica de la espiri-
tualidad, ms all de las religiones agrarias, de sus presupuestos y sus
mecanismos de funcionamiento... Ello exige caminar hacia una "religin
sin religin", a una religin pos-religional vuelta hacia la calidad humana
profunda, hacia un ser religiosos o espirituales ms all de la religin-
religional, hacia una humanizacin profunda sin formas religionales...
- Intentar concretamente una relectura del cristianismo en clave
no religional. Cul es la significacin espiritual de Jess si contamos
con que l no quiso fundar una religin? Cmo debe transformarse el
cristianismo si, a pesar de que ha sido una religin religional, necesita
dejar de serlo para adentrarse en el futuro a-religional posterior al fin de
la edad agrario-neoltica?
- Elaborar una propuesta de estrategias "pastorales" y "sociales"
para acompaar a las religiones y a la sociedad en este trnsito. (Para
sujetar el nio despus de haberlo lavado, en vez de tirarlo con el agua
sucia). Para que la sociedad no se quede sin dimensin profunda, sin
espiritualidad, al entrar en declive las religiones, que fueron el vehculo
principal de su cultivo, aun con sus deficiencias.
- Estudio y elaboracin de una nueva conceptuacin de la espiri-
tualidad laica, como dimensin profunda simplemente y profundamen-
te humana...
- Dado que en algunos aspectos el trnsito va a implicar una cier-
ta vuelta atrs, un retorno a nuestro hogar eco-materno, a la espiritua-
lidad eco-centrada (homecoming), elaborar una reflexin adecuada para
esta transformacin, para la superacin del dualismo transcendencia-
inmanencia, para superar el patriarcalismo de las religiones agrarias, para
reencontrar nuestra eco-espiritualidad dentro de la Realidad.
Cmo ayudar a los creyentes, sometidos a la epistemologa
mtica, programados... que avanzan con esta sociedad que se transforma
haciendo cada da ms inviable esa su situacin personal... Ayudarles a ir
superando las creencias (en el sentido tcnico), el pensamiento mtico,
343
la epistemologa del control, la ontologa de la sumisin... Hacer con-
cretamente un elenco de las creencias ms habituales en el cristianismo
(inclusive en la teologa de la liberacin), abordndolas explcitamente y
tratndolas pormenorizadamente, con sentido pedaggico para ayudar a
su superacin...
Cmo ayudar a las instituciones de las Iglesias y religiones a
afrontar este futuro. Ayudarles a recomprenderse a s mismas, a reconver-
tir sus objetivos, a asumir una metanoia que produzca una conversin,
con un cambio consecuente en sus actitudes. Respecto a los innumera-
bles institutos religiosos femeninos y masculinos, recordar un dato de
Raymond HOSTIE: las partes de los institutos religiosos fundados en
toda la historia de la Iglesia catlica ya han desaparecido... Muchos de
esos institutos estn ante el dilema de renovarse radicalmente, o morir
en paz. Necesitan aprender el ars moriendi, el arte de saber aceptar la
muerte haciendo que sea un acto supremo en favor de la vida: en vez de
morir en la desesperacin, morir ayudando a que nazcan otras realidades
ms acomodadas al tiempo, morir dando vida (morir de parto en defi-
nitiva, convertir la muerte en donacin de vida).
344
Jos COMBLIN, Frei BETTO,
Leonardo BOFF, Margot BRE-
MER, Marcelo BARROS, Jose
Mara VIGIL, Fernando HUAN-
CUNI, lvaro GARCA LINERA,
Eduardo GALEANO, Gregorio
IRIARTE, Pablo SUESS, Boa-
ventura DE SOUZA, David
CHOQUEHUANCA, Bartomeu
MELI, Pedro DVALOS, Elsa
TMEZ, Luis RAZETO, Jorge E.
MENDOZA, Pedro RIVEIRO DE
OLIVEIRA, Edgardo LANDER,
Josep Manel BUSQUETA, Marc
PLANA, Alejandro DAUS,
Rosa Martha ZRATE...
Living Well - Living Well Together
Latin American Agenda' 2012
Foreword: Pedro CASALDLIGA
33 author's contributions
by the best known names of Latin America and beyond :
You can download this edition freely digitally
at the page of the Latin American Agenda, here:
Latinoamericana.org/English
For the printed copy:
Dunamis Publishers, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
www.dunamispublishers.blogspot.com
dunamis@live.com
345
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ZOHAR, Danah MARSHALL, Ian, Inteligencia espiritual, Plaza Jans, Barcelona 2001.
Journals/Revistas
- Sociedades de Conocimiento: Crisis de la religin y retos a la teologa. Seminario de
Telogos y Telogas, 4-6 de abril de 2005. Escuela Ecumnica de Ciencias de de la
Religin, Universidad Nacional, Programa de Publicaciones e Impresiones, Heredia
(Costa Rica), marzo 2006.
- Cambios en la religin y retos a la teologa en Amrica Latina. II Seminario Internacional
de Telogos/as, 11 al 15 de junio de 2007. Escuela Ecumnica de Ciencias de la
Religin y Centro Dominico de Investigacin (CEDI), Universidad Nacional, Programa
de Publicaciones e Impresiones, Heredia (Costa Rica) 2008.
- Revista ALTERNATIVAS n 29 (enero-junio 2005), Crisis de la religin en Europa, nuevo
lugar teolgico?.
- Revista ALTERNATIVAS n 35 (enero-julio 2008), La crisis de la religin en Amrica Latina:
desafos a la teologa.
- VOICES, EATWOT's Theological Journal, Religions and Peace. EATWOT at WFTL, XXXIV
(2011-4), 378 pp
- VOICES, EATWOT's Theological Journal, 50 Years Since Vatican II, Seen From Latin
America, XXXIV (2011-4), 321 pp
Bibliografa 347
348
Per i molti cammini di Dio
Teologia Liberatrice Intercontinentale
del Pluralismo Religioso
vol IV
Prlogo di Paul KNITTER
Prefazione di Letizia TOMASSONE
Pazzini Editore
Villa Verrucchio RN, Italia
2011
www.pazzinieditore.it
pazzini@pazzinieditore.it
Prossimo a uscire: Per i molti cammini di Dio, vol. V
Contenuto:
La teologia del Pluralismo Religioso in A.L., Faustino TEIXEIRA
Molteplici appartenenze: il pluralismo che verr, Marcelo BARROS
Salvezza indigena e afroamericana, Diego IRARRZAVAL
Pluralismo e missione. Per un'ermeneutica dell'alterit, Paulo SUESS
Cristologia nella teologia pluralista, Jos COMBLIN
Valore teologico del sincretismo, Afonso M Ligrio SOARES
Identit cristiana e teologia del pluralismo religioso, Jos Maria VIGIL
Teologia asiatica e pluralismo religioso, Edmund CHIA
Teologia del pluralismo religioso in Asia, K.C. ABRAHAM
Dialogo con lo Shintoismo, Ismael GONZLEZ FUENTES
Dalle cristologie europee alle teologie asiatiche, Jonathan TAN YUN-KA
L'interpellanza del pluralismo religioso, Raimon PANIKKAR
Perch una cristologia pluralistica in Asia, Tissa BALASURIYA
Teologia del pluralismo religioso in Africa, Mari GETUI
Relazioni inter-religiose in Sudafrica, Ramathate DOLAMO
Salvezza e guarigione, Mari GETUI
La liberazione del popolo a partire delle minoranze degli USA, Dwight HOPKINS
Teologia del pluralismo religioso in Europa ed in Occidente, Carlo MOLARI
Voci di chi abita sulla frontiera, Lieve TROCH
La Terra: riferimento primordiale per la teologia delle religioni, R. RENSHAW
Epilogo. Teologia pluralista: i dati, i compiti, la sua spiritualit, J.M. VIGIL
349
Free downloadable at: www.InternationalTheologicalCommission.org/VOICES
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ISSN: 2222-0763
Volume XXXIV N 2012/1 New Series January-March 2012
Asociacin Ecumnica de Telogos/as del Tercer Mundo
Association Oecumnique des Thologiens du Tiers Monde

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