liberation theology article

Sometimes I think about religious issues, partly because sometimes I just do because I wonder about what helps us humans to be positive about the nature of humanity and to consider the greater good to be worthwhile vs nihilism. Years ago someone (John Gourley of Christchurch for anyone who has had the pleasure of knowing him) suggested to me that without God you were a nihilist and if you weren't a nihilist then you were for God whether you acknowledged it or not. I apologise if I have misunderstood or misquoted John, but it is an idea that I've wondered about ever since.



Anyway I got a notion to do a google search on blog + liberation theology while eating my lunch amd thought I would share this link from a group of students in the US. Some useful definitions there and some stuff that I wouldn't like to be trying to defend. I went to Rome with Favourite Handyman (then known to me as Favourite Travelling Companion as we then lived in a box not requiring any handywork) in 2001. I thought it would be special to me, given my Catholic roots, but it left me cold. It symbolises institutional corruption and one reason I don't regularly attend Mass. I certainly don't consider it unique amongst corrupt human-ordered institutions related to the worship of God. Or Allah or any other deity. All that wealth. Not the representation of St Peter that I find to be a positive force in my community.



So if you read the link, you may discern why I feel it unlikely I'll be throwing myself back into Church life during the 'reign' of our current Pope. Catholicism is part of my culture though. The music and symbolism, the stories, the call to social justice, they all gave a richness to my early years which suburban domesticity otherwise failed to do. I won't be letting Pope Benedict set all the terms of participation in a culture that does not have to be so hierarchical, conservative and right wing. I'm still a Lapsed Catholic and I still reserve the right to challenge any representative of hierarchy on whether they are acting for good or for bad.