Interdisciplinary dialogues find researchers seeking better understandings of theories and concepts, such colonialism and capitalism, and the means through which these concepts impact both local and global cultures. The results of explorations such as these raise the question of how to translate the theories that are created by these dialogues into practice. Moreover, they ask where we can take these conversations, how can we focus them toward specific aims, and how can we effectively enact them as one collective group. This article introduces and proposes Joseph Cardinal Cardijn's See-Judge-Act method as a possible framework to better enable these discussions to move from theory to praxis. It proposes that such a theory may also allow the theoretical portions of these interdisciplinary dialogues to happen without any discipline ceding or 'shaving away' the core principles that respectively identify each discipline. The article begins by exploring Cardinal Cardijn's original articulation of the method. Then, it describes how the liberation theologians Leonardo Boff and Clodovis Boff employed the method in their development of a theological framework. Finally, this article explores how the See-Judge-Act method might be useful for other disciplines, such as African thought and philosophy, and critical theory.Keywords: Joseph Cardinal Cardijn; liberation theology; African Philosophy; Critical Theory; methodology; Leonardo Boff; Clodovis Boff; Young Christian Workers The issues of economic, social, and political inequality clearly span across writing genres and academic discourses. This is seen throughout this special issue, and especially in its subtitle: 'African Thought, Critical Theory, and Liberation Theology in Dialogue'. Indeed, each of these disciplines approach the concept of inequality from specific and important angles: African thought/philosophy employs a critical deconstruction that decolonizes prevailing socio-economic systems that persist in controlling how Africans should think and live. Critical theory's socio-economic analysis likewise attempts to uncover the presumed structures of society that promote and legitimize the hegemonies targeted by African thought's decolonizing efforts. Liberation theology, in turn, takes these critiques and analyses, and employs them through a praxis-based theology in pursuit of not just material liberation, but a spiritual one as well.The scope of this special issue is to bring these disciplines together to create an encounter from which future discussions may arise. This encounter was premised by the notion that each discipline focuses upon oppression and possible liberation: oppression resulting from a myriad of events that become conceptualized through colonialism, capitalism, and social hegemony. Furthermore, it was also premised by the idea that we need to bring together these disciplines because these issues cannot be solved by a lone theory or discourse; we need to band together ideas and concepts from various discourses to address these mammoth prob...
Abstract:The Religions special issue, "Transforming Encounters and Critical Reflection: African Thought, Critical Theory, and Liberation Theology in Dialogue," addresses the concern over the present postcolonial context in which African persons and societies find themselves. The issue attempts to gain a further understanding of this context through a dialogue between these three disciplines, but what emerges from this attempt? As a critical response to the issue as a whole, this article will reveal that each author presents different yet converging perspectives on the questions: 'what is liberation and from what are we being liberated?' This article begins by phrasing this question through Frantz Fanon's critique on the postcolony, where he sees that the same logic-what Schalk Gerber's article calls 'the logic of the colonizer'-is still employed in the postcolony. This article unpacks the entanglement created by this logic and how each author addresses it in different ways. Importantly, this is not a review of each article; rather, it seeks to reveal the narrative created by this interdisciplinary dialogue in order to further the conversation on oppression and liberation in an African context. In so doing, it reveals how each author addresses the concept of liberation or freedom and where they partially (or perhaps provisionally) agree that liberation entails embodied communal responsibility as being-with others, the importance of transparent dialogue, the need for new rationalities to enter the discussion of African self-determination, while also highlighting the dangers of appropriating these new rationalities when bringing them into an African context or when moving theory into praxis.
Continental philosophers of religion and the theologians who engage with them have recently began to blur the lines between the disciplines of philosophy and theology. This is particularly true after the so-called "theological turn" in phenomenology. I argue for an appreciation of their approaches but will also express that these explorations must remain interdisciplinary. Far too often philosophers and theologians alike appropriate freely within their interdisciplinary research with little regard for the presuppositions and methodologies latent within their appropriations. This article will demonstrate these appropriations through an exploration of Merold Westphal and Richard Kearney's use of hermeneutical phenomenology, and will claim that their use of this methodology falls upon two distinct discourses, a theological one for Westphal and a philosophical one for Kearney. The upshot of this exploration is an argument for a renewal of methodological restraint when appropriating from other disciplines and a respect for the difference between academic disciplines. Keywords: Richard Kearney; Merold Westphal; Paul Ricoeur; fundamental theology; philosophy of religion; interdisciplinary research Philosophy, Theology, and Merging BorderlandsOne of the current trends between theology and philosophy appears to be a merging of both disciplines into one; this is especially true concerning the foundational principles of faith and religious belief. After the so-called "turn to religion" in phenomenology, this has become readily apparent and the first, or at least the most famous, acknowledgement of this turn can be found in Dominque Janicaud's essay, "The Theological Turn of French Phenomenology" [1]. Published in 2000, Janicaud basically argues against this turn, believing that it has developed phenomenology into a crypto-theological enterprise, whose presuppositions run contrary to the foundations of the phenomenological method developed by Edmund Husserl ([1], pp. 18-22).Of course, the historical division between philosophy and theology is not as neat as Janicaud and others may wish it to be. This is especially true when reading medieval and early modern scholars. Even though this historical legacy tempers this divide somewhat, it is interesting that philosophers call this turn a theological one, not as if it were a recovery or ressourcement of theology and philosophy's shared history, but as if philosophy rediscovers theology in a different way; effectively creating a new (but not particularly original) dialogue between the disciplines. Janicaud, amongst others, points out that this turn might not be so philosophically innocent, that this turn is a movement of philosophy becoming a branch of theology and thus ceasing to be an independent discipline; something that modern and postmodern philosophers have worked so hard to establish.In spite of Janicaud's efforts, theology still turns within phenomenology and has become a key source in the hermeneutical detours that phenomenologists so-often love to take [2,3]. ...
This article takes up the onto-theological critique of metaphysics and questions whether onto-theology is not something to evade or overcome, but is inevitable. Consequently, it furthers the exploration of onto-theology by asking, if it is inevitable, then what comes after onto-theology? For the past half-century, onto-theology has been a central concern for philosophy, particularly in phenomenology where one sees a theological turn in order to understand and incorporate what might be beyond, or within, consciousness that does not readily appear to the self. In this turn, one often sees philosophers (and theologians) attempt to craft a post-metaphysical understanding. Resultantly, many of these philosophers herald what I call the 'end of everything,' often due to their onto-theological character: from the 'end' of philosophy of religion, to the 'end' of metaphysics, to the 'end' of theology. However, when investigating their findings, one often sees these concepts arise from the grave, perhaps showing that some onto-theological construction is inevitable. This paper proceeds by first giving a brief overview of the philosophers Jean-Luc Nancy, Richard Kearney, John Caputo, and Merold Westphal to propose how onto-theology is still an issue for their philosophies by revealing a necessary link between ontology and empirical reality. It then builds off of this proposal through the work of Joeri Schrijvers to show what might lie ahead of philosophy (and philosophy of religion in particular), arguing that if onto-theology is inevitable then philosophy should turn further into theology to explore how theology deals with this inevitability on an empirical basis. Basically, since theology always already accepts being in default (through concepts like original sin), then how does it help believers cope with this inevitability and how does it focus upon the empirical reality of this ontological gesture. Finally, this paper investigates the work of Colby Dickinson in order to solidify this finding into a programmatic, philosophical framework.Keywords: onto-theology; phenomenology; philosophy of religion; metaphysics; Jean-Luc Nancy; Richard Kearney; John Caputo; Merold Westphal; Joeri Schrijvers; Colby Dickinson Martin Heidegger's critique of the onto-theological constitution of metaphysics has, in a sense, stultified thinkers on how to either present a pathway that evades it altogether or nevertheless overcomes it through reconceptualizing traditional concepts such as transcendence and immanence. 1 After these various attempts, an emerging consensus is that perhaps lapsing into onto-theology is an inevitable result of employing these philosophical concepts within the world itself; lifting these ideas off of the paper, as it were, and attempting to use them in real, day-to-day life. Resultantly, whereas this critique sparked the kindling of philosophy's renewed engagement with theology's fundamental conceptions of God and the divine, perhaps philosophy must turn further into theology to see what comes after onto-th...
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