427 - Theology and the Church: A Response to Cardinal Ratzinger and a Warning to the Whole Church

Theology and the Church: A Response to Cardinal Ratzinger and a Warning to the Whole Church
By Juan Luis Segundo
Minneapolis, Winston and London, Geoffrey Chapman, 1985. 188 pp. $15.95.

In September 1984, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued an "Instruction on Certain Aspects of the 'Theology of Liberation,'" Libertatis nuntius (LN), which was widely publicized as the Vatican's condemnation of Latin American liberation theology. Actually, the Instruction stated that there are many theologies of liberation, some of them perfectly valid, being based on a biblically inspired concern for the poor and the oppressed.

Juan Luis Segundo, a Uruguayan Jesuit who was trained in theology in Louvain and Paris and who is regarded as one of the pillars of liberation theology, here offers a closely reasoned response to LN. He feels personally involved: "I understand that my theology (that is, my interpretation of Christian faith) is false if the theology of the document is true-or if it is the only true one." He adds that LN at some points caricatures liberation theology; he also denies that he himself has borrowed Marxist concepts in an uncritical manner.

Segundo's interpretation of LN is noteworthy on several counts. He interprets it as a condemnation of virtually all liberation theology and not just of certain deviant tendencies. And he sees as the basic error, rejected in the instruction, not Marxism, but rather reductionistic humanism. Recourse to Marxism is seen by the CDF, according to Segundo, as no more than an example of how a faith reduced to earthly dimensions falls prey to ideologies.

Segundo's fundamental response is a counterattack. The Instruction,

428 - Theology and the Church: A Response to Cardinal Ratzinger and a Warning to the Whole Church

he contends, is itself reductionist. It reduces Christianity to a purely spiritual, interior religion, a personal quest for union with the transcendent. He quotes, for example, a statement in LN that, according to the Psalms, "God, and not man, has the power to change the situations of suffering." Arguing that LN takes this sentiment to be the essential religious experience, Segundo concludes that the CDF has jettisoned a central insight of Vatican II. According to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, as interpreted by Paul VI, the Church has accepted a certain "anthropocentrism" and has placed religion totally at the service of humanity.

Segundo further charges that LN fails in its effort to depict Marxism as a rigid unitary system having at its core atheism and the denial of human rights. In this connection, he questions whether the Church has authority to pronounce on the essence of secular thought-systems. Interpreting the Instruction as forbidding all use of Marxist categories, he points out that many non-Marxists, including Max Weber, Karl Mannheim, and John Paul II, have made use of certain Marxist tools.

Segundo's reaction to LN, however, is not totally negative. He believes that liberation theology can and should profit from some criticisms, especially those made in the second half of LN (chaps. 7-11). He agrees that the "church of the people" is subject to manipulation by Marxist-oriented intelligentsia and politicians, that liberation theology has a tendency to erect a "classist" concept of the Church in which people and hierarchy are ranged against each other, and that there is an unfortunate tendency to attribute all poverty and misery simplistically to the domination of the ruling classes.

Some readers will be disappointed that this book is not a lucid sketch or a fervent defense of liberation theology, still less of Marxism. Nor is it a massive attack on LN. It is a courteous but firm analysis that calls for attentive reading. The style, at least in English translation, is rather complex and convoluted. Several sentences failed to yield their meaning to this reader even on second or third scrutiny.

Segundo is successful in pointing out some ambiguities and unfounded generalizations in LN, which shows signs of having been composed under pressure. But even after finishing this analysis, I continue to read LN as a warning against certain deviations, and specifically against Marxist tendencies in liberationism. I am not at all sure that LN favors the individualistic spiritualism that Segundo finds in it, for many of its sentences do not bear such an interpretation.. Especially in the light of the Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation, published by the CDF in the spring of 1986, the spiritualist interpretation of LN seems forced. The Roman authorities, I believe, see quite clearly the connection between the gospel and the just society. But, unlike Segundo, they seem to be worried that a politicized version of the gospel will soften up Latin American Catholics for political takeovers by atheistic Communists.

Although I do not fully share the author's perspective, I welcome this

430 - Theology and the Church: A Response to Cardinal Ratzinger and a Warning to the Whole Church

book (translated by John W. Dierksmeier) as an honest and temperate response to the CDF. It is regrettable that Segundo could not have withheld his critique until after the publication of the new Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation, already announced as forthcoming in LN. It casts a new light on the Vatican's attitude toward liberationist movements.

Avery Dulles, S.J.

The Catholic University of America
Washington, D.C.