The previous two chapters in the Companion had asserted as a matter of course that black liberation theology was part and parcel of post-colonial liberation movements generally. Chapter 3, Black theology and liberation theologies by Edward Antonio, challenges this straightforward accommodation.
Antonio argues that liberation theologies come in two distinct approaches: Marxist (centering around economic oppression) and non-Marxist (centering on "struggles for recognition"). In other words, class vs. race/gender/etc. Marxist approaches to liberation theology trace their origins to South America while there are various sources for non-Marxist approaches. Not surprisingly, there are various pluralistic accounts that try either to merge economic and identity-centered approaches or to fit them into some sort of lexical priority. Antonio at first seems content to let each approach go its own way but nonetheless endeavors to identify a common methodology ("the politics of contestation"), which, however, must be construed pluralistically:
This chapter suggests that the field of liberation theologies is marked by a wide-ranging methodological pluralism. This pluralism is not merely a ... variation in emphasis ... but rather a reflection of genuine differences in history, content, experience of injustice, and of methods and approaches for ... overcoming the oppression that causes such injustice.
No dyed-in-the-wool Marxist would assent to such a characterization. Of course, historically most Marxists were white and their theological progeny, according to Antonio, are South American liberation theologians.*
It is very difficult for me to enter into such internecine controversies even for analytic purposes. For what it's worth, Dennis Dworkin does a superb job of laying out in intricate detail (and in a quite different context) the progression from traditional economic Marxism to "culture studies" in his highly regarded "Cultural Marxism in Postwar Britain".
My brief summary does not mean that Antonio's analysis of theologies of liberation doesn't have more to offer, only that you'll have to read it for yourself to discover them.
________________________________________
* See, e.g., Antonio's reference to Cornel West whom he cites for the conclusion that "by consistently underplaying the importance of the liberating aspects of oppressed cultures, Marxist analysis shows itself to be of a piece with oppressive European civilizing attitudes toward people of color."
No comments:
Post a Comment