LATIN AMERICAN LIBERATION THEOLOGY: JUAN LUIS SEGUNDO 

Juan Luis Segundo is one of the most prolific writers among the Latin American liberation theologians, having authored more than fifteen books.  Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1925, Segundo, a Jesuit, studied philosophy in Argentina, received a licentiate in theology Louivain, Belgium, in 1956, and earned a doctorate of letters from the University of Paris in 1963. Ordained a priest in 1955, he later founded the Peter Faber Pastoral Center in Montevideo and served as its director until it closed in 1975 (Ferm, op. cit., pp. 22-23).

Segundo was already spreading the seeds of Liberation Theology prior to Vatican II and the emergence of European political theology.  His early writings-Funcion de la iglesia en la realidad rioplatense (1962) and Concepcion cristiana del hombre (1964)-refute the common charge that Latin American Liberation Theology is the stepchild of European political theology.  Segundo faults Ruben Alves for aligning himself too closely with Jurgen Moltmann and other European political theologians.  In his writings, Segundo has called attention to what he considers the flaws in European political theology, primarily its failure to give sufficient credit to human beings for their political role in fashioning the future and to appreciate the close causal connection between divine and human intervention (Ibid., p, 23).

Like Gutierrez, Segundo views theology not as an academic discipline for scholars, but as the reflection of the real-life experiences of ordinary believers.  This approach can be seen in Segundo's five-volume series entitled "A Theology for Artisans of a New Humanity," a course in theology produced by and for the grassroots communities of the Peter Faber Center during the late 1960's, and early 1970's.  In this interaction with lay Christians, Segundo focuses on several issues directly related to their daily lives. First is the crisis of the Church in the modern world.  Vatican II had issued the the challenge to the Church to enter into a dialogue with the world, a challenge that often left the Church with the insecure feeling that it had no easy answers to the immense social problems the world faced.  Yet, rather than seeing this as a threat, Segundo welcomes this insecurity, insisting that it can liberate the Church from a false complacency and enable it to become a "sign of salvation" to encourage Christians to lead more constructive and authentic lives (Juan Luis Segundo, The Community Called Church. Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1973, p 98).

The Church should admit that it does not possess all the answers. And then it should get on with its first order of business, which is serving the people (Ferm, op. cit., p. 3).

Along this same time line, Segundo disavows the traditional notion of grace as prepackaged in a sacramental system.   He argues that a careful reading of the New Testament reveals that Jesus never intended to institute a formal sacramental system, and he bemoans the the fact that this system has played such an important role in the history of the Church.  Sacraments are indeed important, but primarily as "community gestures and signs," encouraging Christians to get with the process of liberation.  Segundo says that a community gathered together around a liberative paschal message needs signs which fashion it and question it, which imbue it with a sense of responsibility and enable it to create its own word about human history.  This is precisely what the sacraments are-and nothing else but that.  Through them God grants and signifies to the Church the grace which is to constitute it truly as such within the most human community (The Sacraments Today, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1974, p.99). 

One of Segundo's most valuable contributions to Latin American Liberation Theology is his concern for the relationship between faith and ideology.  In his Faith and Ideologies he elaborates on this theme, contending that "faith is never faith without ideologies," and that ideology without faith is never an ideology."  He notes, for example, the variety of meanings attached to the term "Marxism."  Therefore, one can no more talk about an abstract "Marxist ideology" than one can extrapolate a capitalist ideology. Segundo would prefer to find new terminology that is not so laden with emotion-terminology reflective of the basic concern for Latin Americans to reconstruct their society "from the roots of their relational base up." (Our Idea of God, Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1974, p. 4).

Faith and Ideologies is but the first of a five-volume series that could turn out to be one of the stunning theological achievements of our time.  This series may do for the Liberation Theology of this generation what Paul Tillich's writings did for the relationship between theology and culture in the previous generation.  Segundo is especially important because he is a Latin American Liberation theologian whose fertile and original mind ranges far and wide over a vast spectrum of theological issues.  He creates his theological thinking as a response to grass-roots communities, while keeping his Christian faith at the very core of thinking and action ( Alfred T. Henley, Theologies in Conflict: The Challenge of Juan Luis Segundo. Maryknoll, Orbis Books, 1979).

This short article demonstrates what I have said and will continue to say, i.e that Liberation Theology is not monolithic by any stretch of the imagination.  There is as much diversity and variety in Liberation Theology as there is in classical theology.  Each theologian of Liberation takes a different approach to the issue.  Each one comes up with a different paradigm.  As we study each theologian individually, we see that there are differences as well as similarities. 

This, of course, makes it difficult to characterize Liberation Theology as "conservative, liberal, or progressive," because in the final analysis, each theologian has her/is perspective as to where to begin and as to what are the "means and norms."  These are among the things that make Liberation Theology both challenging and exciting.

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. 

Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona,

Past Visiting Professor of Liberation Theology 

Tainan Theological College/Seminary