The Liberation Theology Podcast: Recent Episodes
David Inczauskis, SJ
Revolutionary force does not emerge from a blank slate, from a level playing field. It is a response to systemic injustice, to repression, to a state of affairs that kills, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Drawing from Juan Hernández Pico's ML chapter, David looks at the historical, biblical, and ecclesial sources of a liberationist approach to violence. To conclude, David presents a few key points from "Teaching Methods for Liberation: Practical Insights from Liberation Theology."
Resources:
Mysterium liberationishttps://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html
Ignite: A Decolonial Approach to Higher Education Through Space, Place, and Culturehttps://vernonpress.com/book/1024
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 liberationishttps://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 liberationishttps://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 liberationishttps://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 liberationishttps://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 liberationishttps://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 liberationishttps://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 liberationishttps://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
We return to "Mysterium Liberationis" and interpret Juan Luis Segundo SJ's essay "Revelation, Faith, Signs of the Times." Despite the order of the elements in the title, historically speaking, humans face the signs of the times, bet with faith on a way of addressing them, and come to understand this way as revelation (or not) according to its fruits. David shares two personal narratives to illustrate Segundo's points.
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Guest María Soledad del Villar Tagle and David discuss the church from the intersecting angles of feminism, liberation, Chile, personal experience, and clerical sexual abuse.
Sole's work:
Academia.edu
https://bc.academia.edu/Mar%C3%ADaSoledadDelVillarTagle
Las asistentes sociales de la Vicaría de la Solidaridadhttps://www.amazon.com/-/es/Mar%C3%ADa-Soledad-Del-Villar-Tagle/dp/9563571509
Mujeres Iglesia
https://www.facebook.com/MujeresIglesiaChile/
A Calzón Quitao!
https://www.instagram.com/acalzonquitaomm/
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 and Marcus discuss Sobrino's essay "The Central Position of the Reign of God in Liberation Theology." How do we define the Reign of God? What are its biblical and historical parameters?
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
What is the new human being? What will the new economy and new society look like? David uses the war on terror to illustrate the "old human being" and compares Ignacio Ellacuría's vision of the new human being with Che Guevara's.
Texts:
Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html
"Socialism and Man in Cuba" by Ernesto "Che" Guevara
https://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/03/man-socialism.htm
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, contends that, in liberation praxis, prophecy is the method, utopia is the horizon, and the reign of God is the revelation. David interviews Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ, about his new book "The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice."
Text:
Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html
Saint-Jean's book:
The Spiritual Work of Racial Justicehttps://www.amazon.com/Spiritual-Work-Racial-Justice-Meditations/dp/1625248369
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Juan Luis Segundo, SJ, argues that the word "liberation" captures the essential meaning of the biblical terms for "salvation" and "redemption." Biblical "freedom" is the ability to be artisans of a new humanity.
Text:
Mysterium liberationis
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html
Books mentioned:
Our Idea of Godhttps://www.amazon.com/Theology-Artisans-New-Humanity-Idea/dp/161097462X
The Liberation of Theology
https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Juan-L-Segundo/dp/1592440967
America article:
"Once I discovered liberation theology, I couldn't be Catholic without it"
https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/06/04/liberation-theology-catholic-faith-240599
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Text:
"Mysterium liberationis"
https://www.orbisbooks.com/mysterium-liberationis.html
Magnificast episode on Margaret Randall:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nicaragua-and-cuba-w-margaret-randall/id1214644619?i=1000521683859
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
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
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
The oppressed of Latin America read the Bible not as “past history alone but as a story that is still happening today.” They see biblical history as the process of the formation of a free and united people. Jesus did not primary come to save individual people from their individual sins but to save the people from their social sin. Two chapters from Ernesto Cardenal's "The Gospel in Solentiname" exemplify the method that Gilberto da Silva Gorgulho describes in his Mysterium Liberationis chapter.
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Some of Marcus Mescher's work:
The Ethics of Encounter, book: https://www.orbisbooks.com/the-ethics-of-encounter.html
"5 lessons Pope Francis has taught us with his actions more than his words", article: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/03/12/5-lessons-pope-francis-has-taught-his-actions-more-his-words
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Some of Marcus Mescher's work:
The Ethics of Encounter, book: https://www.orbisbooks.com/the-ethics-of-encounter.html
"5 lessons Pope Francis has taught us with his actions more than his words", article: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/03/12/5-lessons-pope-francis-has-taught-his-actions-more-his-words
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Dean Dettloff's work:
"The Catholic Case for Communism": https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2019/07/23/catholic-case-communism
"Civil Disobedience": https://geezmagazine.org/magazine/article/civil-disobedience
Music:
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Clodovis Boff discusses the theory, forms, and method of liberation theology, and David relates the three forms--popular, pastoral, and professional--to Ernesto Cardenal's base community at Solentiname, Ismael Moreno's prophetic pastoral work in Honduras, and Juan Luis Segundo's paradigm shift in academic theology.
Roberto Oliveros distinguishes four phrases in the development of liberation theology: gestation, genesis, growth, and consolidation. David shares three stories from Honduras about theater, water, and mining, each related to the struggle for liberation.
Music
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network
Mysterium liberationis edited by Ignacio Ellacuría, SJ, and Jon Sobrino, SJ, is the book that the podcast explores. Its first chapter by Roberto Oliveros, SJ, looks at the history of liberation theology in the light of Vatican II and the Latin American experience of poverty. David shares his first encounter with liberation theology in Guatemala.
Music
"Los molinos" by Adam Drake and Tom Jenkins
"Azure Sky" by Terry Devine-King and Adam Drake
Obtained via subscription to Audio Network