Marx and Liberation Theology: Toward a Dialectical Approach to Moral Conscience and Liberation

• In Event: 34.096 - MTCC Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: 34.096-10 - Futures of Power and Resistance in Public Education

Abstract

Humanity is currently balancing on a moral vacuum, implicated in a history of unimaginable violence. The ideas of Karl Marx and Liberation Theology provide us with a moral grounding upon which we can pave a path to freedom.
This paper explores the points of both convergence and discrepancy in these two frameworks and adds the dimension of Mujerista theology to push past the invisibility of race and gender in theology. Exposing striking similarities in the moral denunciation and divergence on individualism and collectivism, suggests a dialectical consistency between Marx and the Bible. The paper also introduces Rene Girard's notion of mimetic rivalry and the generative scapegoat mechanism responsible for violence at the heart of the sacred.

Authors

• Peter L. McLaren, Chapman University

• Lilia D. Monzo, Chapman University