DECOLONIZATION AND IDENTITY

 

Paolo Cugini

 

Talking about decolonization isn't simply addressing a historical or political issue: it's rather the initiation of a profound process of liberation, aimed at recovering the identity that has been massacred, distorted, and often denied by those who invaded a world: ours. Decolonization, therefore, is an act of courage and resistance that aims to restore dignity, voice, and roots to the cultures and peoples who suffered the violent impact of colonization. Colonization is not only a historical event, but a phenomenon that has left deep scars on the social, cultural, and psychological fabric of colonized societies. Languages, traditions, religions, and even systems of thought have often been uprooted and replaced by those of the invaders. It is the memory that colonization attempted to erase, imposing a new order and a new narrative on the world. Decolonizing means, first and foremost, freeing ourselves from the invisible chains that continue to influence the way we see ourselves and our past. It is a journey that involves rediscovering one's roots, recovering traditions, and reconsidering original values. It's not just about reclaiming land or political autonomy, but about rebuilding collective identity, reclaiming one's own history, and rejecting the narrative imposed by others.

Colonial invasion and domination have often resulted in the loss of native languages, the demonization of local spiritual practices, the destruction of indigenous education systems, and the marginalization of traditional knowledge. This identity massacre was not limited to the past, but continues to reverberate in the present, in discrimination, prejudice, and the difficulty many peoples have in fully recognizing themselves. Reclaiming one's world means rebuilding what has been destroyed, rediscovering a sense of belonging and community. It is a process that involves culture, art, literature, and spirituality, and manifests itself in the desire to tell one's story in one's own words. The process of decolonization serves to prevent this loss, restoring value and dignity to roots. In the contemporary world, decolonization concerns not only countries that suffered colonial domination, but also the need to rethink power structures, educational models, and cultural relationships that still perpetuate logics of subordination. Decolonial education, the recovery of indigenous languages, and the valorization of traditional artistic practices are all tools in this process. It's a challenge that requires commitment, awareness, and, above all, a willingness to listen to the voices of those who suffered colonization.

Talking about decolonization, therefore, means opening a profound dialogue with the past and the future; it means acknowledging the wounds inflicted and working to heal them; it means restoring dignity and freedom to those who have lost them. It is a process that concerns us all, because only by recovering our identity can we truly build a more just world, one that respects differences. Let us not allow our history, our culture, and our identity to be lost. Decolonizing is, now more than ever, an act of rebirth.

Reflection on ecclesial and theological contaminations

 

 

Paolo Cugini

What are the aspects and sectors of theology and ecclesial reality that have become spaces of contamination, and what are the most significant contaminations? In other words, what is contaminating the Church—what themes, issues, and cultural processes are forcing the ecclesial fabric to open itself to confrontation, to allow itself to be contaminated? These are the questions that seek to lead us to daily life, to reality, so as not to always remain on the theoretical level, but to show how what we have analysed not only has consequences in people's lives, but is already underway. The culture of the "after", which visibly bears the prefix "post-", has broken barriers that seemed indestructible and, in this way, has opened and is opening new breaches in thought, new existential and spiritual possibilities. In my view, it is impossible to remain immune to this increasingly overwhelming process at every level of culture. The Church, therefore, cannot afford, and above all cannot risk, closing itself off, continuing to fight alone against windmills, because the world it was fighting against no longer exists; and if it does not realise this, someone must tell it—no offence, but out of love.

First of all, it is worth clarifying straight away, as Thomas Kuhn argued when developing the epistemological concept of paradigm, that despite paradigm shifts, the subjects involved do not change their stance overnight. In other words, we cannot expect an institution like the Church, which has defended its dogmatic truths tooth and nail for centuries, to become immediately available for contamination: that would be to demand the absurd. I believe that, at this initial stage, it is important to open cultural breaches upon which it is possible to establish open and sincere dialogue. What emerges in this new context is that it is no longer possible to remain entrenched in one’s own positions. The Church has an immense spiritual, cultural and artistic heritage, which at any moment it can place on the dialogue table, with an open, available style, condemning no one, but showing the ability to value every cultural contribution. There is so much beauty outside ecclesial grounds, there is immense spirituality worth knowing and recognising, there are cultural paths that deserve all our attention, even if they come from afar and, at first glance, seem to have nothing to do with us. Everything is connected to everything else and nothing falls outside this intuition.

There is another important point to underline. If it is true that at the hierarchical level it will take a long time before this becomes sensitive to contaminations and allows itself to be contaminated, at the grassroots level this process of contamination has been underway for a long time. Those who live the Gospel in the daily life of the local community rarely worry about the orthodoxy of their choices and statements. Those who live in the world of work, school, the market, the streets or the squares breathe new air every day, come into contact with different worlds, which influence thought, choices, behaviour. At the grassroots level, orthopraxy matters more than orthodoxy. Furthermore, it is worth recalling the flow of contaminations that happen every hour on the many internet platforms. If it is impossible to defend oneself, also because it makes no sense, the effort that must be made is to offer instruments both for access to these new cultural and spiritual worlds and for their interpretation. Not everything we find in the squares is good and deserves to be assimilated. How should we proceed and what path should we follow to be able to capture the beauty in the world and help others along the same path? What are those contaminations that already positively affect us, even without us realising it?

 

 

Cultural contamination in an interconnected world

 

Paolo Cugini

 

What are the consequences of the new cultural paradigm, whose main feature is the break with the past model? If the paradigm changes, the way of approaching reality must also change, because that is precisely what has been brought into question. In the West, our cultural journey has been marked by harshness, by a reason and rationality that have left no room not only for imagination, but also for feelings, passions—everything that characterises our daily experience. Over the centuries, there has been an exacerbation of the principle of rationality, which has prevailed over everything, anaesthetising reality, making it insensitive and incapable of approaching the world in any way other than through reason. There is a passion within history, in our veins; there is a profound feeling that experiences life differently from reasoning. Nature has a heart, which feels life according to criteria that escape the logical and dialectical systems elaborated in modernity. For this reason, everything has collapsed. Nature is patient, calm, but at a certain point it rebels against violence, abuses, violations, and falsifications. We are witnessing the revolt of nature: it cannot take any more. Did we have to wait for the destruction of the planet to realise that there was something in our Western way of approaching reality that was not working?

If conceptual systems collapse, with them fall the closed logical procedures, the conceptual walls built to defend from nature and reality. If there are no more conceptual pavilions and systems of protection, this means the field is open, there is room for everything, and the world, from now on, can create those relationships upon which it is structured. It is at this level of understanding that the concept of contamination comes into play in the new cultural paradigm.

I use the concept of contamination in an exclusively positive sense. This is already an important indication. The move away from the modern paradigm, which placed reason and the subject at the absolute centre of discourse, presents man as part of a whole. Western thought, consolidated in the modern era, always placed man at the centre of a world in which everything revolved around him and from which he could benefit. This world has collapsed; it could not withstand the impact with reality, which, as quantum physics teaches us, is all interconnected—the exact opposite of what the modern paradigm thought. Having spent centuries classifying reality, drawing boundaries, judging who was worthy and who was not, we found ourselves without answers when reality presented us with the bill, telling us that everything is interconnected, that relationship is the key concept for anyone wishing to understand the meaning of things. If everything is related to everything else, it no longer makes sense to create perfect systems that have no real reference but serve only to conceptually justify personal positions, often to justify usurpations and political power.

Contamination is a concept that is both fascinating and dangerous. Fascinating because it leads us to unexpected, new dimensions that require us to be open to questioning ourselves. Entering contaminated worlds and allowing oneself to be contaminated means understanding that, in the new cultural paradigm, identity is no longer a concept built on predetermined values but is formed by moving through time, paying attention to where one steps, but always looking forward and with a spirit open to encounter and relationship. At the same time, however, the concept of contamination is dangerous because it calls into question everything we have fixed upon and that has determined the structure of our world. It is dangerous because it requires abandoning conceptual securities, along with the willingness not only to build something new but also to allow oneself to be deconstructed. The concept of contamination, in the various fields of knowledge, cannot be implemented in a modern paradigm closed within its own systems built upon a priori principles. Above all, however, the concept of contamination does not work in contexts where someone believes they hold the absolute truth. Contamination sets us on a journey of discovering new worlds and, as we discover them, we come to understand ourselves.

Therefore, there are two guiding ideas in this second part: interconnection and contamination, which, in my view, are closely linked. This second part is intended as a line of enquiry, offering a path that should be reconsidered and remodelled based on each researcher’s specific journey.

The Light in young people

 

Paolo Cugini

 

“Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on, if there are five people in one family, they will be divided: three against two and two against three; father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:50-53)

Thus speaks the Voice that travels through the centuries: Behold, the light of the Gospel pierces the darkness of the world, and nothing remains untouched in its passage. Reality is torn apart, the foundations are shaken, and among the ruins the deepest rift is revealed: the one between generations. Fathers, mothers, mothers-in-law are the guardians of what is ancient; they represent the stronghold of a rigid mentality, now closed to the breeze of renewal. Woe to those who stop changing, woe to those who do not ask questions, woe to those who do not strain their ears to listen: such a person has already surrendered to the old age of the spirit, even if time has not marked their face.

Listen, peoples! It is not the passing of years that brings about ageing, but the heart that closes itself, the mind that settles, the conviction that everything has already been learned and that there is nothing left to discover under the sun. But whoever believes they have reached the goal has stopped, and the light can no longer find space within them. Thus, it is easier for the adult to delude themselves that they have arrived, to stop seeking, to take pleasure in their achievements and deprive themselves of the thirst that leads to the source.

But lo, the young arise as virgin soil: they possess nothing yet, and precisely for this reason they are open to the gift, able to listen, ready to receive the living flame of the Gospel that consumes falsehoods and illuminates what was hidden. The Gospel calls for young souls, hearts wide open to the new, indomitable spirits unafraid of change.

Here is the proclamation: the fire of the Gospel demands a youthful spirit in anyone who wishes to welcome the Light. This is why, in his days among men, Jesus himself revealed the conflict that separates generations; father against son, mother against daughter, because the Word calls for a conversion of hearts. Hear this, adults! It will be you who must be converted and learn from your children, be reborn in spirit, let yourselves be enlightened by the light that knows no end or weariness. Whoever wishes to be a bearer of Light must abandon the old garment and be born anew; whoever aspires to be a child of the Light must return to the beginning, where everything starts again.

 

 

Prophet of the sleeping words

 

Paolo Cugini

 

 

"Woe to you also, doctors of the Law, who load people with unbearable burdens, and those burdens you do not touch even with a finger!" (Luke 11:46).

Thus speaks the voice that rises from the folds of history, witness to the days when the Word was fire, a lamp at the feet of those who sought meaning and a turning point. At the beginning it was enchanting: those who approached the Word did so with a burning heart, thirsty for truth. It was like a spring in the desert, a breeze that opened up paths where we did not dare to set foot, and those who had wandered in darkness finally found light to illuminate the way.

But be careful! Let no one say: "I am safe, I have already climbed the peaks!", because the path of the spirit becomes treacherous right where quietness is confused with peace, where the Word turns into a letter, and the flame goes out in the warmth of routine. Here is the problem that grips the doctors of the law: masters of the Word of God who do not touch it with a finger, guardians of a knowledge that does not warm the heart, but only the mind. It is not enough to know, it is necessary to live! so admonishes the wind that shakes the valleys of time. When the heart settles down, the nostalgia for the aesthetic path emerges: the old ghosts, never truly defeated, return. They were there, silent in the corner of the soul, waiting for the opportune moment to invade the scene again. And behold, the Word, from a transforming force, becomes a mask, rhetoric to seduce, an instrument for power. Thus Jesus saw in the Pharisees the face of deception: skillful manipulators, adorned with a beautiful appearance, but empty inside, intent on using the Word of God to dominate and enrich themselves at the expense of the poor.

The danger is at the door, like a thief waiting for nightfall. Every time our conscience lowers its guard, we too can transform ourselves: be strange, abusive, hidden behind appearances to conceal the rottenness that slowly accumulates in the soul. Today, as yesterday, the Word calls us to watch, not to let it fall asleep in the folds of our indifference. He who has ears, let him hear!

Here, then, is the prophecy: do not be masters of the Word, but its disciples, do not let the fire go out or your life become a theater of masks. Walk, seek, scrutinize with the heart; the Word is alive only if you touch it, only if you let it enter deep inside, where the truth hurts and heals at the same time. May this be your warning, your hope, your admonition for those who have climbed the peaks and risk losing their way in the warmth of a sleeping faith.

 

THEOLOGY FROM BELOW: A PATH TOWARDS A CONTAMINATED THEOLOGY

 

 

Paolo Cugini

 

In the contemporary landscape of theological reflection, there is a growing need for a theology capable of listening to reality, a theology from below capable of grasping the action of the Holy Spirit within concrete history. This perspective presents itself as a lively alternative to deductive Western theology, which often formulates dogmas starting from abstract concepts, risking losing touch with people's experiences and with what the Holy Spirit brings to the everyday. Theology from below is born from experience, from encounters with others, from listening to the questions that emerge from the folds of history and the wounds of humanity. In this approach, reflection does not begin with abstract universal principles, but from the concreteness of life, from the stories of men and women seeking meaning and salvation. "Reality surpasses ideas," Pope Francis would say, recalling the need not to confine oneself to static frameworks but to allow oneself to be challenged by history.

 

This openness to reality is not only method, but also content: it is here that the Holy Spirit acts, transforms, and prepares new paths. Bottom-up theology thus becomes a contaminated theology, capable of being challenged and transformed by contact with real life, cultures, social changes, the sufferings and hopes of peoples. Western theology, especially in its most deductive form, has often favored the formulation of dogmas based on abstract concepts, sometimes estranging itself from historical context and lived reality. This method, rooted in Greek philosophy and medieval scholasticism, has certainly guaranteed the coherence and depth of Christian thought, but it risks becoming self-referential. The danger is that of an in vitro theology, which analyzes faith as a laboratory object, refusing to be contaminated by life, but rather defending itself from it. In this way, theological reflection can lose its prophetic power and dynamism, failing to grasp what the Holy Spirit is preparing in history through novelties, crises, challenges, and transformations. This is perhaps one of the most evident problems in contemporary theological debate, where the inability of official theology and the Church's Magisterium to engage with the issues highlighted as urgent by everyday life is evident. A theology that defends itself from life, to protect its own absolute principles, deemed non-negotiable, is destined to remain outside the realms of real life and, in the long run, to be ignored in the debate seeking solutions to existential problems.

 

Conversely, a contaminated theology is a theology that accepts the risk of encounter, incarnation, and fusion. It is not afraid to get its hands dirty in history, to engage with what is new, different, and unexpected. It is a theology that recognizes that the Holy Spirit acts not only in institutional settings or consolidated dogmas, but also, and above all, on the peripheries, in uncomfortable questions, in social changes, in struggles for justice. This perspective recalls the biblical model, where God reveals himself in the concrete history of a people, through events often marked by pain and hope. Grassroots theology, informed by reality, then becomes a place of discernment, listening, and creativity, capable of generating new syntheses and new paths for faith. It is on the paths of history that theologians should find themselves, in order to listen and develop a theology that is rooted in earth and water, in life lived, not in the stench of books and shelves. In a rapidly changing world, theology cannot be content to repeat abstract formulas, but must listen to reality, allowing itself to be influenced by history and the questions that emerge from daily life. Only in this way can we truly grasp the working of the Holy Spirit, who continues to prepare new paths for the Church and for humanity. Bottom-up theology invites us to leave the safe shores of abstraction to navigate the open sea of ​​life, where the Spirit breathes and renews all things.