From Class to Existence: The Evolution of Liberation Theology Toward the Theology of the Margins

 

 

Paolo Cugini

 

Liberation Theology and the subsequent Theology of the Margins share the same generative methodological core: the conviction that reflection on God cannot ignore the historical practice and geopolitical condition of the oppressed. While Liberation Theology, formally born in Latin America in the late 1960s and early 1970s, identified its primary locus theologicus in the socioeconomic vulnerability of the proletariat and peasantry, today's Theology of the Margins represents a radical epistemological expansion of this locus. The latter transcends mere economic reductionism to embrace the multiple peripheries of existence: gender, sexual orientation, migration, and cultural diversity.

1. The Foundation of Liberation: Gustavo Gutiérrez's Orthopraxy

The methodological turning point of the entire liberationist approach is found in the seminal text by Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, Liberation Theology: Perspectives . Gutiérrez overturns the primacy of abstract orthodoxy in favor of orthopraxy, redefining the very task of the theologian: "Theology as a critical reflection on historical praxis in the light of faith does not replace the other functions of theology... but situates them in a new perspective." Gustavo Gutiérrez , Liberation Theology: Perspectives , p. 21.

Gutiérrez shifts the theological focus from Europe to the peripheries of Latin America, arguing that salvation is not a purely eschatological or spiritualized reality, but a comprehensive process that requires the transformation of the unjust structures of the present world.

2. The Theology of the People: The Argentine Way to Liberation

Within the broad umbrella of Liberation Theology, Argentina developed a distinctive current known as the Theology of the People ( Teología del Pueblo ). Its leading exponents, among whom Lucio Gera and Juan Carlos Scannone stand out, distanced themselves from the Marxist-based class analysis typical of the Gutiérrez school. They preferred to adopt a historical-cultural category: the people , understood as a collective subject united by a common culture and, in particular, by popular religiosity.

For this school, the faith of the poor is not an ideology to be reawakened, but an already existing wisdom that holds an intrinsic potential for liberation and resistance. Juan Carlos Scannone highlights how the culture of the marginalized and the subjugated possesses its own logic, an alternative to the technocratic and hegemonic logic of the center: "The people of the poor are not simply objects of economic oppression or evangelization, but are a historical-cultural subject that evangelizes itself and the Church through its vital wisdom and its practices of solidarity." Juan Carlos Scannone , Theology of the People. Theological Roots of Pope Francis , p. 84.

The Theology of the People enriches the relationship between liberation and the margins through three fundamental insights:

• Unity in Diversity: The concept of people rejects the logic of class struggle that divides, seeking instead a communion that begins with the least and integrates differences into a common historical path.
• Popular Religiosity: Popular mysticism (pilgrimages, patronal festivals, devotions) is not seen as alienation or superstition, but as the place where the poor express their dignity and their silent protest against injustice.
• Impact on the global magisterium: This vision has redefined the category of "margin" in Pope Francis's pontificate. The concept of the Church reaching out to the existential peripheries has its theological roots directly in this Argentine school.

3. The Shift to the Margin and Queer Epistemologies: Marcella Althaus-Reid

While the first generation of Liberation Theology focused on the analysis of social classes, Argentine theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid led the crucial shift towards a true Theology of the Margins, integrating demands for liberation with post-colonial and gender theories. In her most famous and groundbreaking text, Indecent Theology , the author harshly criticizes the hegemonic center of traditional theology—European, masculine, and bourgeois—which has anesthetized the prophetic thrust of the Gospel:  "Theology needs to redefine itself no longer starting from the center of ecclesial or dogmatic power, but from the crossroads of lived marginality, where excluded bodies question transcendence." Marcella Althaus-Reid , Indecent Theology. Sexual Perversions and Theological Fulfillments , p. 45.

Althaus-Reid introduces the criterion of the margin as the preferred hermeneutic space. From this perspective, God's truth is not discovered within the closed confines of dogma, but is experienced and earned in the embodied and often uncomfortable encounter with the stories of the forgotten and marginalized.

4. The Concept of Existential Periphery in Magisterial Documents

The concept of the existential periphery represents the most mature magisterial development of the convergence between Liberation Theology and the Theology of the Margins. Systematically introduced by Pope Francis, this paradigm transposes the historical insights of Latin America into the official doctrine of the global Catholic Church.

Evangelii Gaudium (2013): The epistemological manifesto

In the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium , the periphery ceases to be a simple place of marginalization to become the starting point for understanding reality and faith itself. The Church is called to a centrifugal dynamism: "Today and always, 'the poor are the privileged recipients of the Gospel'... We must state bluntly that there is an inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. Let us never abandon them." Pope Francis , Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium , n. 48.

The text specifies that reaching out to the peripheries is not a simple philanthropic impulse, but a theological necessity: the center (institutional structures, academic theology) can only be understood and converted by looking at itself from the margins.

Laudato si' (2015): The Intersection between Ecology and Marginality

The Encyclical Laudato si' expands the boundaries of the existential periphery by uniting human suffering with environmental suffering. The document applies an intersectional approach in which social margins coincide with ecological margins:  "Today we cannot fail to recognize that a true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice into debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor." Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter Laudato si' , n. 49.

At number 139, the Encyclical formalizes the break with fragmented analysis: "We are not faced with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather a single complex crisis that is both socio-environmental ." The existential periphery thus includes those who suffer desertification, pollution, and the loss of their native lands without having a voice in global decision-making processes.

Fratelli tutti (2020): Citizenship of the Margins

In the encyclical Fratelli tutti , the concept evolves to challenge the illusion of a globalized world that professes to be united but actually produces human "waste." The existential margin is defined through the figure of "members and non-citizens":

"There are peripheries that are close to us, in the center of a city, or in one's own family. There is also an aspect of the universal openness of love that is not geographical but existential. It is the daily capacity to broaden my circle." Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti , n. 97.

The document (especially numbers 115-117) denounces the vulnerability of migrants, people with disabilities, and isolated elderly people, redefining the existential periphery as the space in which human rights are emptied of concrete meaning.

5. From theory to practice: The Synod on synodality

The Synod on Synodality marked the decisive shift from theory to institutional practice, translating the theology of the margins into concrete reforms of ecclesial governance . The breakdown of the rigidity of the pyramid was manifested primarily in the extension of voting rights in the Synodal Assembly to lay people, young people, and women, reconfiguring the criteria for representation and redefining the framework of ecclesial co-responsibility.

At the level of local structures, the Synod has made the method of shared discernment and conversation in the Spirit a structural one. This approach requires listening to the existential peripheries before any pastoral or administrative decision. Furthermore, the document emphasizes the reform and strengthening of parish and diocesan pastoral councils, understood as spaces where the voice of the marginalized, historically excluded from clerical decision-making centers, becomes an integral part of the institutional governance of the Church.

The integration of migratory realities and cultural minorities

The paradigm shift promoted by synodal governance finds one of its most radical applications in the Church's relationship with migrants, refugees, and cultural minorities. Traditionally considered mere recipients of charitable assistance, these groups are now being repositioned as truly active agents and bearers of a prophetic theological voice within local communities.  This institutional impact is expressed on three main levels:

• Inclusion in decision-making processes: The Synod's Final Document calls for the structural integration of representatives of migrant communities and ethnic minorities within Pastoral Councils. This presence prevents ecclesial decisions from being made according to a monocultural and hegemonic logic, forcing local Churches to rethink their identity based on the contributions of newcomers.
• Overcoming the assimilation model: The new governance promotes a shift from a pastoral approach based on assimilation (in which migrants must adapt to the customs of the host culture) to a pastoral approach based on interculturality. Cultural minorities are no longer relegated to isolated celebrations within the temporal and spatial confines of parishes, but become co-responsible for liturgy, catechesis, and community administration.
• The Peripheries as Centers of Evangelization: Reversing the historical flows of mission, synodal governance recognizes that migrants from the global South are not subjects to be culturally colonized, but often the main re-evangelizers of secularized societies. Their experience of vulnerability and uprootedness becomes the hermeneutic lens through which the entire Church rediscovers the original character of Christianity as a pilgrim and hospitable community.

Conclusion

The Theology of the Margins does not deny its roots in Liberation Theology. On the contrary, it embraces its methodological legacy and purifies it of any dogmatic rigidity. Finally, it demonstrates that Christian revelation never speaks from a position of neutrality, but always manifests itself from and for the peripheries of history. Through recent structural reforms, the existential margin embodied by the stranger and the different ceases to be a social problem to be managed, becoming the resource with which the Church purifies its institutions to make them a reflection of a truly universal and multifaceted catholicity.

 

Bibliography

Althaus-Reid, Marcella , Indecent Theology: Sexual Perversions and Theological Fulfillments , London: Routledge, 2000 [Original edition: Indecent Theology , London: Routledge, 2000]. Citation on p. 45 .

Gutiérrez, Gustavo , Liberation Theology. Perspectives , Brescia, Queriniana, 1972 [Original edition: Teología de la liberación. Perspectivas , Lima, CEP, 1971]. Quote on p. 21 .

Pope Francis , Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium , Rome, Vatican Press, 24 November 2013. Reference to n. 48 .

Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter Laudato si'. On Care for Our Common Home , Rome, Vatican Press, 24 May 2015. References to nn. 49, 139 .

Pope Francis , Encyclical Letter Fratelli tutti. On Fraternity and Social Friendship , Rome, Vatican Press, 3 October 2020. References to nn. 97, 115-117 .

Scannone, Juan Carlos , Theology of the People: The Theological Roots of Pope Francis , Bologna, EMI, 2019 [Original edition: La teología del pueblo , Madrid, BAC, 2017]. Citation on p. 84 .

General Secretariat of the Synod , Final Document of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops: For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation and Mission , Vatican City, 2024.

 

THEOLOGY CONFRONT OF THE PROVOCATIONS OF PAUL FEYERABEND'S ANARCHIST EPISTEMOLOGY

 

 

 

Paolo Cugini

 

Paul Feyerabend's anarchic epistemology, epitomized in his famous motto "Anything goes," offers valuable tools for contemporary theology, allowing it to assert its intellectual legitimacy in a world dominated by scientism. Feyerabend argues that science possesses no universal method superior to other forms of knowledge. In theology, this method is used to legitimize religious discourse. While science does not have a monopoly on truth, theology can be seen as an equally valid approach for exploring the complexity of reality. Furthermore, Feyerabend's critique of science as an ideology allows theology to denounce when the scientific method is used as an indisputable dogma that a priori excludes the transcendent.

Methodological pluralism suggests that advancing knowledge requires the use of diverse tools, including those considered irrational or unorthodox. From this perspective, theology can apply this principle by combining rigorous textual analysis (exegesis) with aesthetic, mystical, or poetic insights, considering them all valid contributions to truth. Pluralism itself allows for a more inclusive and context-sensitive religious study, integrating historical and sociological analyses without diminishing the normative role of sacred texts. Feyerabend (along with Kuhn) argues that different theories can be incommensurable, meaning they cannot be compared according to a single logical standard. Thus, rather than seeking to prove faith with science, theology uses incommensurability to explain that religion and science operate within different conceptual frameworks, each with its own internal coherence that cannot be fully translated into the other's terms.

For Feyerabend, truth is not a fixed objective fact, but often the result of historical and rhetorical processes. This approach helps theologians see doctrine not as a closed and static system, but as a harmonious endeavor in progress, subject to constant revision and deepening through dialogue between different eras. Feyerabend does not suggest that everything is true, but that no methodological rule should limit the pursuit of knowledge. For theology, this means the freedom to explore the divine without apologizing for failing to employ the empirical-experimental method. The application of Feyerabend's epistemological anarchism transforms exegesis and interreligious dialogue into open and creative processes, rejecting the idea that a single correct method can exhaust the search for truth.

Traditionally, exegesis relies on the historical-critical method, that is, the analysis of sources, contexts, and philology. Feyerabend's approach introduces counterinduction: there is no single way to read a text. Alongside historical criticism, psychological, aesthetic, sociological, or purely spiritual interpretations become legitimate, without one necessarily invalidating the others. If a sacred text presents contradictions, anarchic exegesis does not seek to forcefully resolve them to preserve logical coherence, but accepts them as expressions of the complexity of reality and human experience. Exegesis is no longer an activity reserved solely for academic specialists; even the intuition of the believer or the perspective of the artist can reveal meanings in the text that rigid methods tend to obscure.

In interreligious dialogue, the thesis of incommensurability plays a crucial role in overcoming conflict and intolerance. Recognizing that religions are incommensurable systems means accepting that there is no external yardstick (such as universal reason or neutral science) to decide which is best. Rather than seeking the lowest common denominator (which often empties religions of their specific meaning), Feyerabendian dialogue encourages each tradition to express its radical diversity. Truth emerges from proliferation and comparison, not from uniformity. The principle of "Anything Goes" serves to prevent one religion (or secular vision) from imposing itself as the only rational path, promoting a free society in which each individual can choose the conceptual framework within which to live. Feyerabend's anarchism in these areas is not chaos, but an invitation not to be imprisoned by methodological dogmas, allowing texts and traditions to speak with all their original richness.

Feyerabend's critique of scientism provides modern theology with an intellectual weapon to denounce what he called "blind faith" in science as the sole source of truth. Feyerabend argued that modern science had assumed the dogmatic role that the Church had in the Middle Ages. Theology uses this critique to show how scientism has become a state ideology that imposes a spiritual monolithism. Theologians draw on Feyerabend's call for a free society where science is separated from the state just as religion is, allowing citizens to choose their own path to knowledge without institutional pressure. Feyerabend debunks the idea that science is neutral and purely rational. If science is also influenced by subjective desires, metaphysical prejudices, and aesthetic judgments, then the accusation of theology being merely subjective loses force. Theology claims that all knowledge, including scientific knowledge, arises from an act of faith or an existential decision. In his later works, such as The Tyranny of Science , Feyerabend highlighted how scientism impoverishes human experience. Modern theology uses Feyerabend to argue that the reduction of reality to the measurable (reductionism) is a form of intellectual laziness. Feyerabend began to reevaluate the role of mysticism and religion as tools that satisfy fundamental human needs, such as love, reverence, and a sense of mystery, which scientific materialism ignores or suppresses. Feyerabend levels the playing field: he doesn't say that theology is science, but he demonstrates that science, when it claims to be the only Truth, is merely a myth more powerful than others.

 

IS A THEOLOGY INSPIRED BY THE THOUGHT OF KARL POPPER POSSIBLE?

 

Palo Cugini

 

 

Karl Popper's epistemology, centered on the principle of falsifiability, is usually considered the clear boundary between science and metaphysics. For Popper, a theory is scientific only if "it can be disproved by experience." At first glance, theology—which deals with absolute and transcendent truths—would seem the exact opposite of this model. However, applying Popper to theology doesn't necessarily mean demolishing it, but rather attempting to transform it into an intellectually honest discipline open to revision. This is what a Popperian theology might look like.

At the heart of Popper's thought is the rejection of inductivism: no matter how much evidence we accumulate in favor of a thesis, we can never be certain of its absolute truth.
In theology, this approach would attack rigid dogmatism. A Popperian theology would not consider its assertions as immutable truths handed down from above, but as bold conjectures about the meaning of existence. The believer would not be someone in possession of the truth, but a researcher who proposes an explanation of the world, aware of his own human fallibility.

The critical point is: is there an event that could disprove the existence of God? The philosopher Antony Flew, applying Popper, observed that theologians often die of a thousand qualifications: if something bad happens, they say God is mysterious; if something good happens, it is thanks to God. If nothing can disprove God's love, then the statement "God loves us" has no real informative content, since it is compatible with any state of affairs.

To be Popperian, theology must accept the challenge: what would have to happen for me to stop believing? A faith that doesn't accept the risk of contradiction (God's silence, extreme evil, the absence of signs) risks becoming an empty suit of armor. Just as the scientist doesn't observe nature with a virgin eye, the theologian doesn't read sacred texts or reality without presuppositions. To affirm that observation isn't neutral means recognizing that there is no interpretation of the Bible or dogma without a "pre-understanding" (hermeneutics). Every believer interprets the divine through specific cultural, linguistic, and philosophical lenses.

In theology, Truth (often identified with God) would become a horizon toward which to journey, rather than an object possessed once and for all. Theology would no longer be a system of static certainties, but a dynamic quest. As with Popper's scientist, it is the striving toward this absolute Truth that gives meaning to study, even if the fullness of knowledge remains metaphysically beyond human reach. The most radical aspect concerns the process of approaching truth through the elimination of error: It proceeds by falsifying inadequate images of God. Theology progresses when it recognizes that a past interpretation was erroneous or limited (think of the overcoming of certain theocratic or discriminatory visions). Dogma does not change Truth, but corrects previously misinterpreted facts, refining human understanding in an infinite evolutionary process. From this perspective, the distinction between revealed data (fact) and theology (opinion) blurs. Every religious fact is already mediated by human experience. This does not lead to relativism, but to epistemological humility: no one can claim a monopoly on objective truth, since we are all immersed in conjectures that must constantly be tested by dialogue and history.

Popper applied his epistemology to politics in The Open Society and Its Enemies . A theology inspired by him would be an open theology. Doctrines should be subjected to public and rational discussion, not protected by the enclosure of the "sacred." Just as science progresses through the clash of different theories, so the understanding of the divine would benefit from the confrontation of different faiths and visions, seen as alternative attempts to answer the same ultimate question.

Applying Popper to theology means stripping it of its claim to be an exact science of the spirit. The result is a theology of hope and risk, where faith is not a dogmatic endpoint, but a series of conjectures submitted to the tribunal of human experience and suffering. In this sense, the Popperian theologian is very similar to the scientist: both seek the truth, knowing that each of their conclusions is merely a not-yet-disproved proposition in the long journey of knowledge.