Ambivalent Subjects and Liberation Theology by Philipp Geitzhaus and Julia Lis

AMBIVALENT SUBJECTS – LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND SUCCESSION PRACTICE IN NEOLIBERALISM by Philipp Geitzhaus and Julia Lis published in Gmainer-Pranzl, Franz/Lassak, Sandra/Weiler, Birgit (ed.): Theologie der Befreiung heute. Challenges - Transformations - Impulses. Salzburger Theologische Studien 57, Innsbruck 2017, pp. 155-174. The article is also available as PDF under "Texts" and here: Geitzhaus Lis Ambivalent Subjects [This reading sample published by the Munster Institute for Theology and Politics in 2017 is translated from the German on the Internet..] 1. Current liberation theology The time of the great church-political disputes about liberation theology, as it was formative for the 1980s, seems to be over. On the one hand, liberation theology has been forgotten by many - thus, just like New Political Theology, it plays only a marginal role within the university landscape in German-speaking countries. On the other hand perhaps also due to this marginality - the arguments about liberation theology have become much less sharp: also outside the small group of left-wing Christians the fundamental concern of an option for the poor/others often meets with a broad approval. The insight that Christianity has to do with conscious shaping and changing of the world is in many church circles just as capable of consensus as it mostly remains without consistency.1 Liberation theology today in German-speaking countries is thus confronted less with hostility than with cautious interest, an interest, of course, in which in view of the frustrating experience of the own marginality of the former people's churches and the loss of meaning of one's own tradition, as it is painfully experienced by many Christians in this country, often the longing for a living church, which still has something to say to the people, mixes. Thus the projection of another Latin American church emerges: colourful, full of life, with grassroots congregations in which active lay people read the Bible together and engage socially, in which liturgy and spirituality still have an everyday relevance - and this image is often associated with the keyword "liberation theology". But also the appearance of liberation theology, or better said, of the theologies which today understand themselves as liberating theologies in connection with the tradition of liberation theology, has become another one. Today it focuses on the perception of many cultures and numerous identities. Thus, as Victor Codina states in this volume, it is increasingly a question not only of socio-economic, but also of cultural, religious, ecological and gender questions. And beside "the poor" new subjects of liberating theologies emerge, the option for the poor is extended by the option for youth, women, indigenous people and much more. This goes hand in hand with the claim, also emphasized by Codina, to develop a new methodology "that is more symbolic and narrative, more emotional and more testimonious, neither androcentric nor eurocentric "2.