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Pluralism Part Two, Liberation Theology

Liberal perspective on interfaith dialogue

focus on dialogue not on trying to convert people think conservatives sacrifice this for exclusivism stuck in a medieval mindset

Conservatives on inter-faith dialogue

Emphasis on faith think religious freedom exclusivist and convert people

Why does David Ford argue that interfaith dialogue is post-liberal?

allowing people’s freedom of expression of religion rather than carving out a neutral ground that subsumes that

Gavia D’Costa on interfaith dialogue

Religions are all encompassing worldviews they explain why other religions are wrong - Christian explain Judaism as those who failed to recognise Jesus as the Messiah

Cardinal Ratzinger and Paul Eddy on liberal secularist problems

Exclusivism is seen as a threat to tolerance they feel like their belief is being made to feel socially unacceptable

C.Hitchens repsonse to Cardinal Ratzinger

Relativistic social pressure is justified because of the social problems it causes, he accept the freedom that religious people have to try and convert people but it should be socially looked down upon and everyone has the right to judge them negatively

Unintended negative consequences of secularism

If Christians think their religious freedom is threatened it can turn them even further into an extreme form of exclusivism

C.Hitchens final response to conservative Christians

Feeling of relativistic pressure because hold a pretence their opinion is worth more because God is on their side reveals a totalitarian mindset that wants to control others and cannot accept the equality that comes with freedom

W.L. Craig’s argument

Society has confused tolerance with relativism which is incompatible with objective truth for Christians they don’t need to be relativist to better connect

Paul Knitter’s argument

Pluralism is essential to a peaceful society and tolerance is not enough

Pluralism as essential (Knitter)

That the core objective of religion is actually peace and justice, exclusivism encourages violence over who side God is actually on idea that fuelled imperialism and colonialism

Knitter on tolerance

Tolerance suggests being able to stand someone we should be happy links to racial harmony ‘Christian supremacy is as dangerous as white supremacy’. H Kung says to have world peace there has to be peace within religions Knitter argues this is through pluralism

Axial Shift

change in the fundamentals of religion from competing to connecting

Alan Bloom

cited by Craig modern society thought ‘relativism is necessary to openess’

What are the two main aspects of the question what good is?

Meta-Physical Linguistic

Meta-Physical

what is the nature of goodness there are two opposing views on this: moral realism (properties of good and bad do exist) and moral anti-realism (moral properties do not exist)

Linguistic

What is the meaning of moral goodness: Cognitive (good is a proposition that is either true or false truth is apt), Non-Cognitive (moral language is meaningless not propositions that can be verified therefor truth is not apt)

Ethical Naturalism

Goodness is a natural property

Different types of ethical naturalism

Aristotelean (goodness means eudaimonia factual difference between natural organisms Foot saying difference between a plant that is flourishing and a plant that is not)
Utilitarian (goodness is pleasure a natural property of the world)
Linguistic Claim of Naturalism (naturalism cognitive properties of goodness)

Strength of Naturalism (2)

every human action is carried out in order to live a good life
utilitarian removes the concept of teleos replaces it with the pursuit of happiness ‘governance of two sovereign masters’ Mill the idea of psychological essence is related to the pursuit of pleasure

How can Hume be used to criticise naturalism

moral judgement is just inferred from facts talk about the way things are then jump to the conclusion of how things ought to be it is not a valid deduction

How is Hume arguably a Proto-Emotivism

Non Cognitivism - since our moral judgement not inferred from fact must have justified origin ethical language comes from the heart not from understanding/expresses an emotive feeling or sentient Hume is a proto-emotivist

Defending Naturalism

Patricia Churchland - Hume only attacks deductive arguments however we could say that utilitarianism is an inductive argument, does not deductively entail therefore that pleasure is good, however it is inductive evidence that pleasure is good. It is not based on an assumption but on evidence.

Evaluation Criticising Naturalist Realism and Cognitivism

this evidence might come from somewhere else e.g. that pleasure is an end-goal because of an evolutionary factor

Validity of the Biblical Influence on Liberation Theology

Main defence against purely Marxist is following example of Jesus, is this just suggesting giving charity or does it really mean tackling structural poverty

Matthew 6:25-34

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where you treasure is, there your heart will be also”.

Kloppenburg

Fusing theology and political ideology decreases the spiritual message of Christianity, Jesus focuses on an individual spiritual liberation not a collective one, when Jesus asked about tax he says ‘give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s’ there is a disconnect between politics and theology

Exodus

The liberation of the Jewish people from slavery by The Pharaoh shows that God does care about people being liberated from oppression on Earth and not just at an individual level. Christianity sees itself as an expansion of the Jewish covenant to all humanity which makes it more relevant

Biblical evidence against LT - Jesus at trial

Jesus at his trial said that his kingdom is ‘not of this earth’ suggesting that his kingdom is disconnected from this politics. John Paul II says that LT is ‘anthropocentric’ too human focused, leads to secularism and a lack of genuine spirituality

Biblical Evidence Against LT - Jesus wealth in heaven

Jesus’ injunction to build a treasure on Earth and build a spiritual treasure in heaven as that is where our heart will be, some might say that it defends LT warning against gaining wealth but arguably JPII argues that these fail because they don’t have their hearts in the right place. ‘Such a view easily translate into one more ideology of purely earthly progress

Reza Aslan

Quote from the Bible written 90 years after Jesus’ death and when Christianity had become a Roman religion, earlier Gospels show that Jesus’ intention bring kingdom on earth added to de-politicise in order to fit into Roman society

Luke 12:22

Jesus asks people to not worry about your life and what you will eat tomorrow, birds do not farm yet God produces food for them, and we are more valuable ‘seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well’ Jesus encourages us not to care about where people get their stuff which goes against the LT and justifies Marx claim that religion is used as a distraction and juxtaposes Guitterez view economic liberation -> spiritual

Give unto Caesar

Story about Pharisees attempted to trap Jesus by asking whether Jews should pay an unfair tax if he says yes sell out if no could be arrested says ‘give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give unto God what is God’s’ - written in all three synoptic Gospels before John 

Analysis of Give unto Caesar

Avoided being a sell-out disconnect between politics and spirituality not God’s concern hard to see how Jesus is a political figure the traditional view of him as the Son of God recommending individual salvation seems to fit better

Defence of LT’s view of Jesus

While it is fair enough to say that Jesus focused on individual liberation if enough people do it then it brings about economic and structural change therefore it is valid to see him as a political liberator but it would bring about socio-economic change if that was to happen

1968 Medellin Doc

New church dedicated to social/economic change - Latin America’s poverty comes from its reliance on rich countries as a result of exportation of raw materials, an inner state struggle form of class struggle. This felt out of fashion until the USA did the same thing and countries such as Japan and South Korea embraced capitalism

Capitalism Jesus vs Now

Capitalism did not exist in Jesus time however more exploitative now for someone like Bill Gates to get rich that have to make something that is useful to everyone such as computers - so could only reflect the time

Adam Smith

Adam Smith against poverty said human nature innately selfish capitalism best way to harness this selfishness because you have to provide something for other people

Capitalism and Poverty

Liberation Theology views of sin and selfishness and greed as a result of the capitalist free market economy therefore is something that can be overcome, however capitalist would point out that it is countries with the freest markets where human rights are upheld and violated least. In 1960 extreme poverty of world 70% dropped to 17% in 2012

Capitalism vs Liberation Theology

Income inequality has not improved and actually got worse evidence to suggest it is destabilizing society. Therefore Jesus’ criticism and LT drawing on it is justified, globalisation shows how capitalists rule the world and manipulate the market for their own profit. The benefits laid out by Smith such as innovation and economic growth are destroyed, there is room for anti-capitalist theories.

Freud on religion

Freud argues belief in religion is caused by psychological fear of a chaotic unpredictable world, in childhood order is represented by the father but religious people find comfort in projecting an order on a providing eternal father ‘Religion is the process of unconscious wish fulfillment’ ‘unable to cope with the idea of a purposeless/godless life’