Ignacio Ellacuría and the "civilization of poverty". Notes for the 21st century

Abstract

This article offers a reconstruction of the category of "civilization of poverty" in the thought of Ignacio Ellacuría. For such category, we understand the proposal of the construction of a global arder of human cohabitation that emerges in opposition and as a response to the serious civilizatory crisis we currently suffer. If thirty years ago, the emergence of such crisis was evident. now it is impossible not to recognize that we live in times that face us with complex challenges of all sorts: financial economic, environmental climatic, food-related, demographical, energetic etc. Thus with such a notion Ellacuría already underscored the urgent need of constructing a radically different future for humanity. In his conception of civilization of poverty, Ellacuría insisted in searching for a way of establishing a viable system of life, characterized by articulating an appropriate link between humankind and nature, Thus, the new axis of articulation of the notion of civilization would be the intimate connection between civilization and sustainability. Achieving this ecological sustainable balance is not an easy task and, for Ellacuría, its viability starts with a radical critique of the current capitalist civilizatory model.

Realidad: Revista de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades No. 155, 2020: 87-104