The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13

A Hermeneutic of Hope

Gustavo Gutiérrez1 with an introduction by Fernando F. Segovia2

Vanderbilt University

September 2012

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1 is the acclaimed author of A of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation. 2Fernando F. Segovia is the Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament at Vanderbilt.

The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13

Introduction: The Elegant Cry of Commitment

Fernando F. Segovia, Ph.D. ______

THE TASK OF INTRODUCTION Theology, on the part of his own Order of entrusted to me is one to be cherished Preachers, an ancient university degree deeply, and so I do indeed, but it is by no bestowed on such Dominican luminaries means an easy one. How, I ask myself, as Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas does one introduce the figure and role of and reserved today for theologians deemed Gustavo Gutiérrez? eminent in the promotion of theological studies through doctrinal reflection and The tradition of celebratory introductions research as well as publications of exceptional value. In between, moreover, such as this one calls for a pointed and it would mean summarizing an ecclesial generous review of the speaker’s life and academic life of truly heroic experience, educational trajectory, proportions: academic achievements, and professional —Sustained pivotal involvement distinctions. How can anyone possibly in the church Catholic Roman as well as convey the achievements of Father the church catholic universal, from the Gutiérrez in any one of these areas, let years of the alone all four? This would mean through the present, with the recently beginning in the 1940s with his early years concluded celebration of the five- as a student of medicine at the National hundredth anniversary of the presence of University of San Carlos in and his the Order of Preachers in the New World, involvement in the then-prominent which took place during October 2010 in movement of Catholic Action. This would the Dominican Republic. also entail concluding with the summer of —A distinguished philosophical 2010 itself, with the conferral upon him of and theological education at the Catholic the honorary degree of Magister Sacrae University of Leuven and the University Theologiae, or Master of Sacred of Lyons, respectively, and the founder of ______the San Bartolomé de Las Casas Institute * During Vanderbilt University’s year-long commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of in Rimac, Lima. , the Reverend Professor —An untold number of key Doctor Gustavo Gutiérrez, a member of the publications and lectures, of which The Order of Preachers and the holder of the John Theology of Liberation: Perspectives— Cardinal O’Hara Chair in the department of published in 1971—stands as an theology at the , served undisputed classic. as the keynote lecturer. We are pleased to —A host of honors, including publish a transcribed version of Father Gutiérrez’ lecture, sponsored by the University’s Center for more than twenty honorary doctoral Latin American Studies, as well as the degrees and the 2003 Award in introduction by Fernando F. Segovia, the Oberlin Communications and Humanities given by Graduate Professor of New Testament. The text the Príncipe de Asturias Foundation, of Father Gutiérrez’ lecture was transcribed by headed by the heir to the throne of Spain. Zacharey Austin Carmichael, BA’10, MA’12, MDiv3.

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The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13

Rather than attempting to do so in greater A foundational thinker, secondly, insofar detail, let me offer instead a personal as his voice, as part of its visionary role, vision of the life and work of Gustavo helps to pry open the dominance of Gutiérrez. For me, Father Gutiérrez Western theology on the non-Western represents an imperative marker of the world and thus opens the way for religious and theological production of contextual of all sorts—from Christianity since that fateful decade of the and the Caribbean, from 1960s. His name and his labor signify in and the Middle East as well as from exemplary fashion a turning era in church Asia and the Pacific, and from minority and theology as well as in society and formations within the West. With and after culture. This was an era that began with Liberation, not only does the face of two events that took place within days of theology change but also its voice, making one another in January of 1959: on the one the theological enterprise perforce a global hand, the triumph of the Cuban endeavor. Revolution, with all of its consequences for Latin America in particular and for the A critical thinker, lastly, given the fact Third World in general, still very much that he has never stopped revisiting, unfolding; on the other hand, the call of deepening, and recasting his original John XXIII for a new ecumenical council, insights. Anyone who moves from his the Second Vatican Council, with all of its early study of 1968 “Notes for a Theology ramifications for the in of Liberation,” where the term “liberation” particular and for the Christian church in appears for the first time (Theological general, still very much unfolding as well. Studies 31 [1970] 243-61); through his Since then, throughout the intervening reflection of 1988 on “Expanding the fifty years, Father Gutiérrez has been the View,” (A Theology of Liberation, voice of a visionary, foundational, and Fifteenth Anniversary Edition [Maryknoll: critical thinker. Orbis Books, 1988), marking the twentieth anniversary of Liberation Theology; to his A visionary thinker, first of all, because he study of 2003 on “The Theology of brought into the optic of theological Liberation: Perspectives and Tasks” reflection and construction a number of (Fernando F. Segovia, ed., Toward a New components that have become constitutive Heaven and A New Earth: Essays in of theology since then: a relentless Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza foregrounding of the Other in society and [Maryknoll: Orbis Books] 287-299) where culture, of the poor and the oppressed, as he argues that the historical juncture that human beings worthy of dignity and life; a gave rise to Liberation has by no means view of theology as an act of reflection on disappeared but rather become even more practice in the light of the Word of entrenched—anyone, I repeat, who moves and thus of theology as a profoundly through these works realizes that this is a contextual exercise, materially as well as mind ever self-critical, ever shifting, and discursively, yet of universal reach and ever radical. impact; and the vision and proclamation of a Reign of God that offers liberation and All of this, I should add, with a unique redemption, fullness of life, to all, but combination of elegance and humility, above all to those in captivity, the erudition and charity, conviction and marginalized and the forgotten. commitment. To this effect, let me quote the final paragraph of an autobiographical piece, “Theological 2

The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13

Task and Ecclesial Reflection,” written in grief, we see that our wives bear children 2000: while ill with tuberculosis, that our children die, that our children grow up What we have just said above is a weak and without future,” and then added, consequence of a realization already “but, despite all this, we believe in the brought to mind: the peoples of Latin God of Life.” This is a context, or even America are, for the most part, poor and better a vital reality, that a reflection on believing at the same time. At the very faith cannot elude. To the contrary, such heart of a situation that excludes and ill- reflection must find nourishment in it. treats them, and from which they seek to Unceasingly. liberate themselves, the poor believe in the God of Life. As our friends Victor (now Such nourishment Gustavo Gutiérrez has deceased) and Irene Chere, townspeople been imbibing and imparting, unceasingly, from Villa , said to John Paul for over forty years. That has been his II during his visit of 1985 to our country, quintessential cry—elegant and humble, speaking in the name of all the poor of erudite and loving, full of conviction and Perú, a million of whom were in totally committed. attendance: “With our hearts broken by

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The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13

A Hermeneutic of Hope

Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P. ______

FORTY YEARS AGO, WE BEGAN Latin America at the end of the 1950s and speaking in Latin America about liberation the beginning of the 1960s, we had a theology and how important it was for us new presence—the poor sectors. The poor “to live liberation,” to be in with people of our population were more the poor. Reflection is very important also; present than before, and this was a for the first time in centuries we have significant challenge not only for theology theological reflections coming from but for politics and for the democratic countries outside of and North nations. The “absent people” became America. We have today, theologies present, more and more, but when I say coming from Africa and Asia—reflections absent, I mean they were not physically on the human condition from minorities in absent from history, but they were not the rich countries. Behind these reflections relevant. The poor were more and more we have movements. We have realities. present; consequently, a new We have a people committed. We have consciousness about emerged. people killed for their commitments. For a long time, humanity has seen In the academic milieu, we were poverty as a fact and as a fate. This idea, accustomed to theology coming from prevalent in the Greek milieu, is ever Europe, and maybe for you younger present among the poor of today who say, students of theology, it is not unusual for “It is a pity, but I was born poor.” you today to speak about theologians from different areas of the world or from We are then only one logical step away different social groups in rich countries, from saying, “It is the Will of God you are but this was not the case when I was a poor while other persons are rich.” student of theology in the middle of the twentieth century. While the theologies We can ask the poor to be humble, to from outside Europe and accept their fate, and to be helped by the are referred to by the curious expression rich people whose “duty” is to be generous “contextual theologies,” any theology is with the poor; however, it remains contextual. Our ideas are not original, but difficult for humanity, not only for the rich we believe even today we are and for the churches, to understand that confronting important challenges of the poverty is the result of “our hands.” Our Christian life, not only in Latin America, hands have made poverty, and poverty has but in the world, and our reflections causes—social structures and mental involve two processes. categories; for example, the superiority of Western Civilization in relation to other The Absent Become Present areas of humanity or male superiority over women. I am not speaking about a past The first process comes from human fact—finished or overcome. The recent history, from the daily lives of people. In movement of liberation theology the middle of twentieth century, and in identified these causes of poverty and

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The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13 initiated a solidarity with the poor. The also cultural death. The anthropologists question that emerged was not “How do like to say culture is life. When we despise we help the poor?” but “How do we fight a culture, we are killing the persons the causes of poverty?” belonging to this culture. Bartolomé de las The French philosopher, Paul-Michel Casas and the Dominican missionaries in Foucault, remarked some years before the sixteenth century protested this Liberation Theology, “We are not really cultural death of the indigenous people of with the poor, if we are not against Central America. The natives were dying poverty.” Are we really committed to the before their time, and this happens poor if we are only critical of the causes of today—in Africa and in Haiti people are poverty? We must be more than critical; dying from sicknesses already overcome we must fight against the causes of by humanity because they have no money. poverty. Today it is not enough to say this You only have to remember the continual person is very generous with the poor, but struggle of the South Africans to receive to ask what is the position of this person treatment for HIV-AIDS. People are dying against poverty, against the structures of before their time—this is poverty. And today. from our perspective in liberation theology, we resist addressing poverty Another factor which has changed our only as a social fact, as a social difference, understanding of poverty is the realization or as economic progress. From this of the complexity of poverty. Poverty has historical movement, we learned how to one very clear, important, economic do theology by reflecting on our social aspect, but it is not the only aspect; contexts and social aims, and I believe we poverty is more formidable. In liberation need to recuperate this process of theology, we speak about the poor as the theology. insignificant person: insignificant socially, but not insignificant in front of The other process is more ecclesial. In the God before Whom no one is insignificant. middle of the twentieth century, the And a person could be insignificant for Second Vatican Council deliberated on the several reasons: for economic reasons, or question of poverty. Pope John XXIII for the color of a person’s skin, or because encouraged the council to recognize that these persons are not fluent in the the Church is “the Church of the poor.” dominant language of a country, or We often repeat the expression, “the because they are women. For these Church of the poor,” but the expression reasons, and many others, persons are has a limited context. We must desire a judged insignificant. When we speak Church of everyone, where no one is about the preferential , excluded, especially the poor—what we we take into account these complexities of call the Christian community. This point, poverty. In the , the poor are not only however, was not so present in the formal the economic poor, but persons considered documents of the council but was more inferior, the Samaritans, for example, in present in the corridors of the council. I the time of . cannot justify this omission, but I can understand the reasons for the omission Protesting Cultural Death because the most important persons in the Poverty is more than a social fact. In an council—bishops and theologians—came ultimate analysis, poverty means death— from rich countries where poverty is death early and unjust— physical death treated as an abstract social question. through sickness and through hunger, but Poverty is a human question, a Christian

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The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13 question—because poverty is death; it is reflection of what we call liberation inhuman; it is anti-evangelical. theology. Theologians, among them my friends, will I am absolutely convinced this question is say, “I know you are very concerned with greater than our capacity to answer. I do poverty because you are Peruvian.” I not pretend liberation theology has the reply, “No my friend, I am concerned complete answer to the question; because I am Christian.” liberation theology is a serious attempt to be coherent in preaching God’s love. Theologies come from the challenges of historical events; modernity is a historical Living Into the Lives of Others event that was not immediately recognized Liberation theology began from a need to by the church. You know the name of a define theological reflection: the practice great man, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a of interpreting the Word of God and Lutheran theologian and martyr. proclaiming God’s Kingdom in a language Bonhoeffer questions our ability to speak not of heavenly origin but of human. of God in the modern world because it Theology is marked by historical moments seems for many contemporary people that captured by human language to help we do not need to speak about God. I Christian communities proclaim the labor in Bonhoeffer’s question. evangelical message. We must use language appropriate to the problems of In my parish, I was preaching a more the moment, and if we neglect the history hypothetical, theoretical, and familiar of our people—the history of humanity— message—God loves you. Whether we are we inhibit our abilities to reflect speaking about the gospel or a parable, the theologically. As a source of theology, we final answer always is, “God loves you.” must live into the daily lives of others. We have no other message, and we change it very little because we want the people to Although Christ instructs His disciples, in come back next week. the Gospel of Matthew, to go into the world and make disciples of all nations, One day while preaching from my we do not have any instructions for going theoretical hypothesis, a person from my into the world to do theology. I have never community said, “You know, you are a found these words in the Bible, and I have great humorist because you speak about read the Bible many times. My intention the love of God, and you are living in our here is not to say that all theology is neighborhood; you know our lives—we irrelevant—that is not the question— have no work; we have no food; and you theology is very relevant, but we must say, ‘Not only does God love you, but you locate its place exactly. Theology is a are the first for God.’” human effort, coming from grace, and involves our going forth to communicate We must try always to be serious in our this grace—our receiving the gift of the preaching, and I have no doubt how God kingdom and our communicating the loves all of us—I have no doubt— but this kingdom—this is theology. Theology is is not the question. The question is: What not a religion of physics; theology is a is my commitment to this affirmation of reflection of life. To follow Jesus is a the love of God? I ask myself how can I practice; in praxis, you are following say to the poor person, “God loves you.” Jesus, not only affirming we need to This is the question in the beginning of the follow Jesus, but following Him. This is a spirituality; this is following Jesus

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Christ—theology comes from our In theology, there also is a question of following. liberation, and we take the word liberation One of my teachers, Marie-Dominique for two reasons. The Hebrew and Greek Chenu, a French Dominican, wrote a book words in Scripture, translated as salvation about this question of theology. He and redemption, may be translated also as affirms, “If we want to understand a liberation. Liberation was a very important theology, we must go to the spirituality word in civil society in Latin America. which is behind the theology.” If we want Several people were speaking about to understand Thomas Aquinas, we must liberation, movements of liberation, and I go to Dominic, the founder of the think it is the duty of contemporary Dominicans. If we want to understand theology to take the language of civil Bonaventure, we must go to Francis. society and to define the word from a Discovering this approach during my first theological perspective. Liberation is year of theological studies has led me to salvation. A theology of liberation means understand that the soul of theology is a theology of salvation; if poverty is an spirituality and that theology is oriented unjust reality, an anti-evangelical reality in toward the proclamation of the Gospel. which the ultimate analysis is death, then We affirm this approach very strongly in liberation is the word that is against this Liberation Theology and are criticized for reality; to liberate is to give life. having “a utilitarian view about theology.” We say, “No, theology is useful because Three Dimensions of Liberation the meaning of theology is to help a We then speak of three dimensions of Christian community announce the liberation; social liberation from unjust Gospel.” Here is the place of theology, structures, personal liberation from located between spirituality and a prejudices, and spiritual liberation from proclamation of the kingdom. The sin—because in a theological analysis, the Kingdom of God is the center of the root of injustice is sin. Sin is to break our message of Jesus Christ, and in the communion with God and to break our kingdom, according to Scripture, the least communion with other persons. With are first and must be first—the forgotten sociological methods, you cannot arrive at persons must be recalled. this understanding of sin; however, a theological analysis certainly leads to such Two decades ago, a very humble biblical an understanding. We speak about one scholar and friend from France, was liberation in three dimensions. visiting countries in Latin America— Chile, Bolivia, —and at one moment, Dimension is a geometric expression. This he told me, “You know, I understand one podium from which I speak has three point; it is impossible to speak about the dimensions, but it is only one podium. kingdom of God without speaking about When attempting to answer the question the poor.” of God’s love for the poor, we identify different aspects of liberation. For I replied, “My friend, I admire your example, one aspect is acknowledging that humility and your discovery, but you have the condition of the poor is not the will of been dealing with the Bible for more than God. In my parish, I fought for years forty years, and this message was not clear against the view, expressed mostly by to you before now?” women: “We are born to suffer.” If they are born to suffer, suffering is their destiny. No one is born to suffer, but to be

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The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13 happy. Blessed are the poor in spirit; about the gospel, but you do not practice happy are the poor in spirit. And I must the gospel.” recognize a modest success in my fight Another text important to our because women, the poor women of my understanding of liberation comes from parish in Lima where I served for twenty- the Gospel of Luke, the narrative of the five years, received this destiny from their Samaritan. We have two questions in the mothers. It is not enough to say to the poor beginning of the parable: “What must I do person that God has not determined your to inherit eternal life?” and “Who is my condition of poverty; poverty is a human neighbor?” My neighbor—my is the construction; we have made these possessive of I, the first person. In other conditions. words, who around me is my neighbor? But Jesus also asks a question: “Which of I would like to recall two main texts from these three [the Levite, the , the the gospels that are important in liberation Samaritan] proved to be a neighbor to the theology. In Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus [wounded] man?” You see the shift? speaks of the and says if we Spontaneously, we think the Samaritan give food to the least of our siblings, we was the neighbor, but this is not the lesson give food to Him. This is a very bold of the parable because strictly speaking we affirmation of the gospel writer. In the first “have” no neighbors. When we approach testament we have several affirmations other persons, we are meeting neighbors; close to this, but certainly this text of we are converting a person to neighbor, Matthew is very relevant because Jesus is and I become, myself, the neighbor of this identified as the least. In the face of the person. poor, we must discover the face of Jesus Christ. Bartolomé de las Casas discovered Now which of these three is the neighbor? the face of Jesus in the faces of the The most important neighbor in the indigenous people, and he saw the face of parable is the wounded man because we Jesus in the faces of the African slaves. know nothing about his identity, only that None of his contemporaries in Spain made a wounded man has become impoverished. this claim. I think Las Casas had We do not know if he is a Jew; we do not evangelical intuition. He was not seeing in know if he is a Samaritan; we do not the faces of the indigenous people the know. The other persons have identities; faces of non-Christians; he saw the faces we know about their social functions and of the poor according to the Gospel. As a responsibilities. The priest and the Levite missionary, Las Casas’ evangelical have responsibilities in the temple; the intuition was not only to baptize them, but Samaritan is representative of a people to see them as “the first” just as we should despised by the Jewish people, and the see the poor as “the first” in our colonial innkeeper had at least one house for society. And another Christian, Felipe receiving people. Even the robbers have Guaman Poma de Ayala, a sixteenth- an identifiable function, to rob. century Peruvian, composed a letter of three volumes to the king of Spain in The wounded man is really an anonymous which Guaman Poma described the ill person. The question is: How do we treatment of the Peruvians, his native approach the wounded man as neighbor people, by the Spanish. By also citing and convert ourselves into neighbors? The Matthew 25, Guaman Poma criticizes the parable has no further reference on how to Spaniards when he writes, “You speak gain eternal life or to enter the kingdom, so I believe the greater lesson is that we

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The Center for Latin American Studies, Vanderbilt University–Occasional Paper No.13 are called to approach persons, foremost, contribution to say to the poor person, because they are in need. When we speak “Your conditions could change, perhaps about solidarity with the poor, we are not tomorrow, but it is possible.” We must speaking about our relationships with react against the idea that the poor are neighbors. The poor are persons, and they destined to live in an endless state of are many; the poor are human persons, and poverty by uniting with them as friends to among human persons we have very good criticize and to help change their present people and very bad people. We cannot circumstances. idealize the poor. When we speak about the preferential option for the poor, we are speaking about The Serious Reasons to Hope the “real poor”—those who are materially Liberation theology tries to offer a poor; the preferential option is not an hermeneutic of hope. Theology is one option for the poor in spirit. In the Gospel reflection, trying to find in different of Matthew, the poor in spirit are the moments in history, the reasons to hope. saints, the good disciples; however, the When I speak of hope, I am not speaking preferential option is not an option for the about easy optimism or illusion, but saints. The option is for the real poor who serious reasons to hope. In the first epistle live ceaselessly in dehumanizing by Peter, we are reminded that we must be conditions. ready to give reasons for our hope. Theology must be these reasons. We cannot understand the word “preferential” if we do not take into Despite the oppressive political situation account the universality of the love of in El Savador, Óscar Romero insisted, God. By employing the word preferential, “When I preach, I am always preaching we are reminded not only to recall God’s hope—hope.” It is important to discern in love for the poor foremost but to recall historical events what we refuse and what God’s love for all humanity. Preference we accept, and it is important to discern does not exclude anyone; preference is the signs of the times. It seems to me, we only to say that the poor are first—that the have today in the global world, a tendency love of God is universal and preferential at to eliminate hope from the social poor the same time. If we say, “We only love persons and the poor belonging to poor the poor,” or “All persons are equal,” we sectors. Today, people are speaking, for do not understand the Christian message. example, “We are living in a postmodern We must have the courage to confront the world.” Personally, I am not so sure, but tension between universality and maybe it is one manner to be modern, but preference—a tension, not a contradiction. postmodern, post-industrial, post- Tension is dynamic and is the meaning of capitalist, and postcolonial—people today preferential. The word “option” in Spanish love to be “post.” The consequences are differs from its English counterpart by very clear. To say to the poor that their meaning “to make a decision.” Option is a efforts to become agents of their destiny substantive word whereas the word belongs to the past is against hope. Hope optional functions objectively, and we does not exist in a moment; we must have the custom of saying that there create hope. Hope is a gift, a grace, and always exists a “non-optional option.” when we receive a gift, it is not for us; it is Faith is an example of a free option for our neighbor. To welcome the grace of because we live freely as human persons. hope is to create resources in history. Theology must be nothing more than a

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The preferential option for the poor may surprised because he could not understand be interpreted as our living and working the relationship between marriage and with the poor, but this interpretation is not liberation theology. He answered, “Yes, I complete. The preferential option for the am married.” And I asked, “How many poor has three dimensions: to be years have you been married?” He committed to the poor in the practice of shrugged, “I don’t know, twenty years.” I one’s faith and spirituality; to read human asked him, “Are you able to write a love history from the perspectives of the poor, letter to your wife in the same words from or as Walter Benjamin suggests, to read the time when you were her fiancé?” He human history against the oppressive said, “No.” “Well, this is my case, my grain; and to hear the Gospel as the friend.” announcement of the just kingdom. I have been asked many times in my life, Such is my situation. For me to do “If you were to write a book on liberation theology is to write a love letter to the God theology today, would your approach be of my faith, the church, and to my people; the same as in 1971?” I initially said, “No, my theology is a love letter. I cannot no.” Then people would ask me, “Do you phrase the letter in the same way, but the not agree with your book?” I replied, “No, love is the same. no. I would have written the book in the same way.” People responded, “Good, then your theology has not needed to change.”

But today I have a different answer to the question. When a polite journalist recently asked the question, I asked him, “My friend, are you married?” He was very

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