Political theology: prophetism in Latin America. The theological legacy of Ignacio Ellacuría

Abstract

Ellacuría’s discourse on utopia and prophecy rests on two foundations: his philosophy of historical reality and his engagement with utopian philosophers—both Bloch’s positive utopia and the Frankfurt School’s negative utopia—and the Bible as an encyclopedia of some of humanity’s most beautiful utopias. Utopia and prophecy not in the abstract, but from a very concrete location, Latin America; from a well-defined social and political standpoint, the popular majorities; and from an ethical imperative, the option for the poor, so as not to fall into falsely universalist discourses. The philosophy of historical reality takes shape in a reflection on the temporal structure of human reality and history, the dynamism of historical processes, and history as a creative process of developing capacities and actualizing historical possibilities. The influence of Zubiri and, above all, of Ernst Bloch is evident. The theological foundations revolve around three major biblical categories: the kingdom of God, utopia, and prophecy, which Ellacuría interprets through an actualizing and active hermeneutic, in a living and fluid dialogue between the texts and historical reality. The result is a vision of a new human being who stands in solidarity with the cause of the oppressed, the new earth understood as a new economic, cultural, and political order, and the new heaven as God’s historical presence among human beings and as the principle of humanity’s ceaseless renewal.