A Critical Theology of the People: Toward a Christian Communism

• In Event: 41.084 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 41.084-14 - Imagining Education: Beyond the Logic and Learning in Neoliberal Capitalism

Abstract

Today in the United States, reactionary political forces backed by evangelical Christian churches have dominated the political stage. While this has been the case since the early 20th century, these forces have become more consolidated and virulent since the election of Ronald Reagan, 1981. Reagan believed in the inevitability of Armageddon, and this helped to shape his foreign policy, while George W. Bush claimed that God supported his invasion of Iraq. Current presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has expressed his intention to run the United States according to God's law and conservative, fundamentalist interpretations of Biblical scriptures. This talk intends to examine a theological approach and movement that challenges such Biblical interpretations and that has influenced solidarity and revolutionary movements for the poor--liberation theology. Liberation theology, especially as it has been developed in Latin America, has supported base communities and revolutionary movements that stand with peasants communities against government oppression which has included death squads and genocide, resulting in the slaughter of entire villages, the murder of priests and an ideological attack on liberation theology by the Reagan administration, the US military, and Pope John Paul II. However, with the election of the Jesuit Pope Francis, a window has been opened to re-examine the theology of liberation. Pope Francis does not speak from the perspective of liberation theology, but rather a modified version that he calls A Theology of the People. This paper will argue that Liberation Theology must retain both its Biblical and Marxist roots and argues that one of the primary messages of Jesus was the fight for economic justice. Jesus preached communism and the earliest Christian communities were communist. This tradition must be reinvigorated in order to combat the facile theological interpretations by Christian fundamentalists that are being used to marshal new forms of authoritarianism and militarism in the United States that could result in genocidal religious war. The paper calls for revolutionary critical pedagogy to incorporate strands of liberation theology into its development.

Author

• Peter L. McLaren, Chapman University