The Liberation Theology Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

On this bonus episode, the Liberation Theology Podcast partners with the Word in Black and Red Podcast. It's a co-released introduction to liberation theology. We discuss the meaning of liberation theology, its varieties, its methods, some key concepts, and several misconceptions.

The Word in Black and Red:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-word-in-black-and-red/id1682991552

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

To what extent and how was Jesus' message political? David discusses Juan Hernández Pico's response to this question. Then, David interviews the education professor James D. Kirylo, who has written a recent book, The Catholic Teacher, with significant influences from liberation theology and critical pedagogy.

Resources:

No sea así entre ustedes by Juan Hernández Pico
https://archive.org/details/noseaasientreust0000hern

The Catholic Teacher by James D. Kirylo
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/catholic-teacher-9781350246188/

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

David presents and assesses three perspectives on the relation between ideology and Christianity from the French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser, the German theologian Karl Rahner, SJ, and the Spanish-born Salvadoran philosopher and theologian Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ.

Main texts:

"Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" (1970) by Louis Althusser
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm

"Is Christianity an ideology?" (1965) by Karl Rahner
https://concilium-vatican2.org/en/issues/

Ignacio Ellacuria: Essays on History, Liberation, and Salvation (2013) by Michael E. Lee
https://orbisbooks.com/products/ignacio-ellacuria

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

What exactly is ideology? How does liberation theology respond to critics who claim that liberation theology itself is ideological? And how does liberation theology engage with the prominent ideologies of our day?

Main text:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

Secondary texts:

Composer un monde en commun: Une théologie politique de l'anthropocène by Gaël Giraud
https://www.decitre.fr/livres/composer-un-monde-en-commun-9782021474404.html

"Socialism and the Churches" by Rosa Luxemburg
https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1905/misc/socialism-churches.htm

A People's Green New Deal by Max Ajl
https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341750/a-peoples-green-new-deal/

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

Jesuit scholar and priest Anthony Lusvardi introduces the sacraments as the ecclesial preservation of the embodied graces of Jesus' earthly presence and as the primary way that most Catholics engage with God and the Church. David interprets Víctor Codina's chapter on the sacraments, situates them within the project of the reign of God, and describes the sense in which liturgy should be "ugly and scandalous."

Tony's website:

https://tonylusvardisj.com/

Text:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

Though many consider "evangelization" to be converting others to Christianity, in liberation theology, "evangelization" means more than sharing a creed: it means bringing glad tidings to the poor--as Jesus himself defined it. It means seeing the suffering of the oppressed, feeling compassion, and acting smartly to alleviate their present pain as well as uprooting the unjust systemic factors that produced it.

Texts:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

John Thiede, SJ, joins David to discuss liberation Christology. How have liberation theologians thought about Christ, and what difference does a liberationist understanding of Christ make in Latin America?

Texts:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

Remembering Oscar Romero and the Martyrs of El Salvador: A Cloud of Witnesses by John Thiede, SJ
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/John-Thiede-SJ/dp/1498537987

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

Leonardo Boff shows how the Trinity serves as a model for a just society and how heresies against the Trinity reflect and reinforce various kinds of social oppression. David shares highlights from an interview with Chema Tojeira, SJ, on Nayib Bukele and El Salvador's crypto-financialization.

Texts:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

"El Salvador’s president made Bitcoin a national currency. A Jesuit says the project reminds him of ‘the seven deadly sins’"
https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/01/24/nayib-bukele-bitcoin-jesuits-el-salvador-242257

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

God is not a single person but a community of three equal persons. So, as the Orthodox socialists of Russia would say, "The Trinity should be our social program." We examine the first half of Leonardo Boff's essay on the Trinity alongside commentary by Ismael Moreno, SJ, on the presidential victory of the social democrat Xiomara Castro in Honduras.

Texts:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

"Jesuit Fr. Melo on the presidential victory of Xiomara Castro in Honduras: 'We are a happy people after a long bout of sadness.'"
https://thejesuitpost.org/2021/12/jesuit-fr-melo-on-the-presidential-victory-of-xiomara-castro-in-honduras-we-are-a-happy-people-after-a-long-bout-of-sadness/

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network

Why did the Salvadoran military assassinate Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, and his companions on Nov. 16, 1989? Ellacuría openly and emphatically emphasized this subversive dimension of the Christian faith. He claimed that Latin America is searching for “revolutionary change rather than reformist change” and that Christianity exhibits a “subversive dynamism,” which, though running the risk of Marxist co-option, can propel revolution against “the demands of capital.” A continued interpretation of Juan Luis Segundo's "Revelation, Faith, Signs of the Times" accompanies our discussion of Ellacuría.

Texts:

Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html

"A sus órdenes, mi capital"
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1X6IFk8uIV-bTiOagivWS1Ig6RDtOGu82/view?usp=sharing

Music:

"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network