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robert J. schreiter | Globalization and Plural theologies
mensions, but also relate these identities so discerned to the Christian tra-
dition and the enduring message of the salvation of God in Jesus Christ.
I posited some years ago that, in their interaction with the forces of glo-
balization, they bring a kind of “universal” voice of a shared humanity to
engaging globalization (Schreiter 1997, 15–21). While keenly aware of the
potentially hegemonic character of Enlightenment universalisms, I pro-
posed that one could see four “global flows” in theology. A global flow is
constituted by sets of local discourses about given topics that are mutually
intelligible to one another yet together provide a common network of ad-
dressing urgent issues facing large swaths of humankind. These four flows
are: theologies of liberation, theologies of feminism, ecological theologies,
and theologies of human rights. They engage enduring issues of poverty
and oppression, of gender equity, of climate change, and the plight of those
denied human rights. In engaging these issues, they bring a Christian voice
to the larger struggles in these four areas as they join those of other faiths
and those who are secular in tackling the thorny challenges the entire world
faces.
In this process, two things emerge. First, they sketch an alternative to
abstract universals that are now under suspicion in a postmodern world.
While the critiques of the postcolonial situation and of postmodernity have
laid stress on the abstract and often hegemonic character of Enlightenment
universals, there is nonetheless a need to find common ground upon which
to act together. Second, while it does not give a firm definition of the human
as a basis for a shared humanity, it operates in a kind of negative dialectic
by addressing what is not human in such a way as to move dialectically to-
ward a greater sense of the human. Edward Schillebeeckx tried to articulate
something of this in his two volumes on Christology (Schillebeeckx 1974;
1977). In the fourth part of his first volume, he sees humanity as not able
to define itself theoretically, but as moving toward a humanum which will
be realized in an eschatological future (Schillebeeckx 1974, 488–501). In
the second volume, he tried to take this a step further in articulating what
he called “anthropological constants” that hold every expression of the
human, but by themselves do not articulate a full depiction of humanity
(Schillebeeckx 1977, 671–683). While he owed his formulation to the secu-
Four global flows: theologies of liberation, theologies of feminism,
ecological theologies, and theologies of human rights.
Limina
Grazer theologische Perspektiven, Volume 2:1
- Title
- Limina
- Subtitle
- Grazer theologische Perspektiven
- Volume
- 2:1
- Editor
- Karl Franzens University Graz
- Date
- 2019
- Language
- German
- License
- CC BY-NC 4.0
- Size
- 21.4 x 30.1 cm
- Pages
- 194
- Categories
- Zeitschriften LIMINA - Grazer theologische Perspektiven