Beyond Borders: A theology from the margins

 

Paolo Cugini

 

 

In the long history of Christian theology, the theme of boundaries has always played a central role. Much has been discussed about doctrinal limits, existential markers, and barriers that divide the “inside” from the “outside”, creating a sort of reassuring enclosure for faith and community. However, now more than ever, the Church and every believer are called to rethink these borders, to question what it truly means to live and do theology from the margins, starting from the least, the excluded, those who inhabit the peripheries of existence.

Traditions, norms, and dogmas form the doctrinal margins, offering identity and security. Yet, faith cannot be a simple defence of what is already known; it requires openness, dialogue, and courage. Overcoming these boundaries does not mean renouncing one’s faith, but rather living the tension between rootedness and innovation, between fidelity and change. It is a journey that demands discernment and willingness to engage with questions and concerns that enrich the community and drive it towards continuous growth.

Beyond doctrinal margins, there are existential ones, perhaps even more challenging. These are the peripheries of life, inhabited by those who are excluded, marginalised, forgotten. Doing theology in this context means not limiting oneself to speaking “about” those at the margins, but “with” and “among” them. Encountering the stories of those who live in exclusion becomes a source of profound questioning and transformation. As Don Milani reminds us: “Getting out alone is selfishness, getting out together is politics.” Theology from the margins is an embodied theology, one that gets its hands dirty and allows itself to be questioned, changed, and renewed by the other.

Reading the Gospel anew from the margins means discovering a Good News that does not settle for comforting those who are already well. The Gospel, reinterpreted in this way, becomes the voice of those who have no voice, hope for the desperate, bread for the hungry. Pope Francis invites the Church to “have the smell of the sheep”: a powerful image evoking genuine sharing of life with those at the margins. It is in this encounter that faith is renewed, doctrine opens up, and community is regenerated, becoming an authentic sign of a love that knows no boundaries.

Crossing boundaries, whether doctrinal or existential, involves risks and uncertainties. However, it is precisely on the margins that theology rediscovers its prophetic strength and authenticity. Only by inhabiting the margins, by listening and walking alongside the excluded, can the Christian community be a ferment of innovation and a sign of a love that breaks every barrier. At the borders, where life seems to break off, new horizons of hope and faith open up. The future of Christian theology lies in sincere dialogue with the margins: not just listening to them, but living them, crossing them, and inhabiting the peripheries of the world and the heart. It is a challenge that calls the Church and every believer, inviting all to leave behind the enclosures of their own certainties to encounter the Gospel in its purest and most radical form: the one that is born and grows at the margins, where sky meets sea and new paths of meaning and salvation open up.