Liberation theological exegesis

The liberation theology exegesis interprets the biblical writings from the perspective of oppressed and disadvantaged peoples and populations.

It sees itself as a form of contextual exegesis , since when interpreting the texts it primarily examines the concrete living conditions that led to their creation, while at the same time trying to develop a contemporary understanding of the Holy Scriptures . Liberation theological exegesis tries to determine the current seat in the life of the individual texts and calls for the biblical message to be implemented in concrete terms in socio-political life and for the rights of the oppressed.

introduction

Bible interpretation always has to do justice to three factors:

1. the living conditions of the people who speak up in the Bible or who are reported about;
2. the text and its peculiarity, what it wants to say or withhold, its independence ( autonomy ) and complexity ( polysemy );
3. the point of view of the reader and the individual character, the individual and social conditions that determine him

Liberation theological exegesis in this context focuses on the social position of the author and the reader, while the texts are not only questioned about their socio-political and ideological context, but also according to the needs and goals of everyday, contemporary practice.

For the deciphering of the texts, the recipients' hermeneutic access is the key factor, or in other words: In order to understand what a text wants to tell us, readers are required who can grasp from their personal life situation how the holy scriptures want to be understood . This can be seen not least in the fact that the texts are often best internalized by people who experience the reality of life they express firsthand, even without any scientific method. So the black slaves in the southern states of the USA immediately grasped the tradition of the liberation of Israel from the slave house of Egypt as a message of liberation ( let my people go !).

The claim of the historical-critical method to advance to an original text through a scientific preparation is not primarily pursued by liberation theological exegesis. Instead, she points out that scientific methods should just as little be absolutized as church doctrines. Liberation theological exegesis sees a critical approach in relativizing and supplementing the historical-critical method with other approaches. Just as liberation theology has grown out of the confrontation of faith with injustice, liberation theological exegesis also sees itself in opposition to any use of God's word for the legitimation of power interests. As early as 1975, Juan Luis Segundo spoke in this context not only of the need to practice a liberation theology, but also a liberation of theology . Nevertheless, or precisely because of this, liberation theological exegesis draws on the findings of historical-critical exegesis in order to supplement it with its own considerations.

One of the most important aspects, which also leads directly into the understanding of liberation theological exegesis, is the knowledge of the seat in life that the texts have, or from what situation they arose and what their purpose is. The interpretation of biblical texts according to liberation theological understanding wants to perceive and take seriously the social status of their producers and recipients and calls for a change of location - taking sides - which is inherent in the central biblical traditions themselves: to understand the belief of Scripture as a liberating practice.

Methods

The method of liberation theological exegesis contains three basic elements that correspond to the three steps of seeing - judging - acting established by Joseph Cardijn . In doing so, a new, liberated reality of life is to be established through the perception of vital needs with the help of the Bible.

Contrary to a dualistic division of history into a religious story of redemption and a story of political liberation, she insists on the teaching of theological teachings throughout history. History is not seen as the history of the winners, but as the history of the oppressed as the suffering of God. The world of the poor thus becomes a privileged place of divine presence and the poor themselves become the sacrament of God's self-communication . They are considered to be the historical mediation of the encounter with the Lord . They are the true representatives of Christ. These poor, to which liberation theology refers, are to be understood as a collective, consisting of the classes of the common people.

It is a misunderstanding when the people of whom the theology of liberation speaks is identified with the proletariat of Marxism - as many critics suggest. Rather, the term has to be understood further, because it means any form of oppression. The following main categories can be identified:

• Racial oppression (e.g .: blacks)
• Ethnic oppression (e.g .: the Indians)
• Sexual oppression (e.g .: the woman)

As it turns out, under today's understanding, a liberation theology pursued from a purely economic point of view is no longer appropriate, because in addition to the experience of the poor who need to be liberated, a large number of interest groups have formed to which the liberation theological approach corresponds. There was no need for a drastic reformulation of the methods, because all these theologies (be it blacks, Indians, women, etc.) are usually based on the practical experience of being discriminated and oppressed. The biblical text always comes first, because from a liberation theological point of view, it is understood as God's answer to human needs. Liberation theological exegesis also takes place in art, which is particularly suitable for making the contextuality of exegesis tangible through the respective culture-specific aesthetics alone .

The Bible - A Text of Liberation

development

The discovery of the Bible in the liberation theological movement can be roughly described in three phases:

• A first phase consisted in the discovery of certain texts that reflect the situation of the suffering people and were particularly suitable for the grassroots movement from the 1960s to the 1970s.

• In a second phase, the focus was on contextual contexts. The congregation read larger narrative contexts and related them to their concrete everyday life. Certain stories or books (e.g. Ruth ) provided important guidelines for understanding the Bible in the course of the 1970s.

• During the third phase - beginning in the 1980s - the entire text of the Bible was interpreted as the text of liberation and as a reminder of the hope of the poor.

Today liberation theological exegesis is a pluralistic enterprise. Many liberation theologians are at a very productive stage exploring various new topics. The ecumenical dimension, which was very present in the early stages of liberation theology , is gaining new urgency in the current era of globalization.

Basics

The Bible is viewed as a God-given authority and is firmly rooted in the spirituality of the base church, which is why many speak of praying the Gospel , while in the academic setting it is more about studying the Bible .

For a better understanding of the liberation theological approach of the Bible it should be noted that two terms correlate here: liberation and redemption. Without wanting to see the two in a kind of competitive relationship, a certain preference should be given to liberation, especially in theological language usage, since here God's saving action is to be understood as a holistic event in human beings. Especially with regard to social grievances, such as lack of freedom or oppression, it is important to expose these against the freedom willed by God.

The Bible is not only a book that contains texts about liberation, but also the text itself has to be liberated - after all, it is about recognizing the meaning behind it and opening up its contents. Even the word text as a Latin translation of textus (= fabric) implies a fabric or a substance that has been interwoven by many threads.

For liberation theology it is now important to grasp the individual threads of meaning, which are to be understood as a kind of code, and to open up the seat of life that is inherent in many texts of the Bible. Ultimately, it is important to pay attention to the use we make of the texts when we read them today. This claim seems to be justified in particular, since no text reflects the thoughts of just one author and is not transported directly into the mind of just one reader, but is designed with a variety of meanings in terms of its form.

Judaism and AT

Liberation is the central theology for Judaism and the Torah . The focal point of Jewish teaching is YHWH's skillful action, which grants people new life - freed from culpable entanglement and inner and outer existential need. For the liberated, God's action implies both the possibility and the obligation to a new way of life.

In the Old Testament , YHWH's act of liberation from the slavery of Egypt ( Exodus ) is constitutive both for the covenant and for the Jewish faith as a whole.

In the Exodus event ( Ex 20.2  EU ), YHWH proves himself to be the God of liberation, which Israel makes known through the annual Passover festival. It is not only about a form of remembrance, but also - in the light of the Babylonian exile - a critical form of remembering social injustices within the people of God themselves. According to Deutero-Isaiah, God will prove to be the Redeemer of Israel, who is his people freed to its original identity.

Christianity and NT

The New Testament bears witness to the fundamental message of Jesus' act of liberation that is fundamental to Christianity . His preaching to the Basilica already includes, in its prophetic approach, the liberation of the prisoners and the battered ( Lk 4,18-19  EU ). All of Christ's saving acts, both his exorcisms and the forgiveness of sins, aim at a liberation willed by God for a life in freedom. The focus is on the already now thought, i.e. no consolation in an otherworldly or yet to be expected kingdom, but the orientation of a freedom in God that has already begun in the present.

For Paul , too , God's liberating action in and through Jesus aims at the freedom of God's children, especially as liberation from enslavement through law and sin. It is precisely Jesus' turn to the poor and the outcast that forms the basic attitude of the commandment of love, which is realized through the grace-given spirit. Modern exegesis of liberation theology also takes up this social aspect.

literature

• Boff, Clodovis : Theology and Practice. The epistemological foundations of the theology of liberation. Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-459-01505-5 .
• Boff, Leonardo and Clodovis: How do you practice theology of liberation? Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1986, ISBN 3-491-77653-8 .
• Buchberger, Michael (ed.): Lexicon for theology and church. Volume 2. 2. revised. Edition. Herder, Freiburg im Br. 1986, ISBN 3-451-20756-7 .
• Fricke, Michael: Bible exposition in Nicaragua. Jorge Pixley in the field of tension between liberation theology, historical-critical exegesis and the Baptist tradition. Lit Verlag, Münster 1997, ISBN 3-8258-3140-X .
• Gerstenberger, Erhard S .; Schoenborn, Ulrich (ed.): Hermeneutics - social history. Contextualities in biblical studies from the point of view of (Latin) American and European exegetes (= exegesis in our time. Contextual Biblical Interpretations, Volume 1). 1st edition. Lit Verlag, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-8258-3139-6 .
• Schoenborn, Ulrich: Hermeneutics in the theology of liberation. Brasilkunde -Verlag, Mettingen 1994, ISBN 3-88559-057-3 .
• Silber, Stefan: The cry of my people. Liberation theological relecturas of the Exodus story . World and Environment of Bible 24 (2019) 2, 56–57
• Wind, Renate: Spell Liberation - Basic Reading Bible. Kaiser Taschenbücher, Wuppertal 1989, ISBN 3-579-05137-7 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Christian Weber: How other cultures see the Bible. A practical book with 70 works of art from 33 countries, TVZ, Zurich 2020