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.
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