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FINAL SYMPOSIUM OF THE RESEARCH PROJECT TRANSMISSION OF FAITH IN SOCIETAL AND RELIGIOUS PROCESSES OF TRANSFORMATION. AN INITIATIVE OF THE PHILOSOPHISCH--THEOLOGISCHE HOCHSCHULE MUENSTER (PTH) OF THE GERMAN CAPUCHINS AND THE INSTITUTE M. DOMINIQUE CHENU (IMDC) OF THE DOMINICANS IN BERLIN Munich, Germany

SECULARITY AND POSTSECULARITY IN LATIN AMERICA ngel F. Mndez Montoya, OP, Ph.D. Latin America may provide an insightful illustration of the diverse ways of understanding the complex phenomena of both secularity and postsecularity, and may even help us conjecture their mutual implication. If, postsecularity is taken to mean a return to the religious and its implications upon secular societies, then Latin America indeed has demonstrated a strong retrieval of religion, showing an ongoing increase in religious affiliation and a greater participation of religious groups in public debates.1 However, even such a return is not an exact replica of religious beliefs and traditional practices as in pre-modern Western societies. For instance, while the Christian religion is still hegemonic in Latin America, statistics show that there is growing affiliation to religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islamamong others. The multiplicity of Latin American cultural symbolisms, the diversity of political and economic contexts, and the myriad historical backgrounds and socio-cultural traditions generate an interesting phenomenon of emergence of new popular religions and religious hybrids (or mestizajes) that may problematize a strictly normative and homogenized understanding of both religion and secularity, and further question the rigid borders raised between them. From a historical and geopolitical perspective, the origins of secularity in Latin America could be traced back to the early stages of colonial times in the first half of the sixteenth century, when Christendom was brought to these newly invaded lands. The Spanish, Portuguese and British empires were the main forces that played a crucial role in implementing both empire and Christendom in the socalled New World. Monarchy and Church, in spite of being allied partners in the project of global expansion of the Western territory, often faced strong conflicts of interests between each other and struggled to dominate over the other. However, as Leonardo Boff has pointed out, whether power came from Monarchy or from
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http://latinoamericana.org/2003/textos/castellano/Damen.htm. Retrieved in June /17/2013.

2 Western Christendom, the great wave of European colonization was indeed accompanied by a massive destruction of the pre-Colombian civilizations and a brutal subjugation of their populations Soldiers and traders killed to establish themselves: in order to profit from the labour of the indigenous population and later of the blacks [brought from Africa], reducing them to slavery (Boff, 1990: 133). As coloniality started to take over, profitable mercantile enterprises also increased their dominion, and gradually new emerging mechanisms of early forms of capitalism often overpowered the crown as much as the ecclesial authorities, consequently setting a new secular agenda leading the course of the geopolitics of a colonial Latin America beyond monarchy and the Church. The influence of the principles of the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the movements of independence taking place throughout Europe set a further historical precedence for a strong political divide between religious and secular societies. The eventual separation of Church and State and the birth of independent nation-states gave way in Latin America to societies with a new geopolitical hermeneutics and practice beyond the control of monarchical and ecclesial authorities, setting an agenda in which religious institutions were no longer considered the main protagonists in the continents history. While these historical movements brought positive transformations to emergent secular societies particularly with regards to attempts to build post-colonial and pluralistic culturesnevertheless coloniality continued being a threat. By coloniality I mean a living legacy of European colonialism that replicates supremacist and exclusivist epistemologies and disciplines, which further disenfranchises others. It replicates and deepens the caste systems from early colonial times, which have continued until now, ranking people and communities as inferior because of their ethnicity, economic status, and cultural background. Since the 1800s, for instance, the United Kingdom and later the United States of America became the new capitalist and globalizing powers that instrumentalized a particular Modern and Postmodern agenda in line with this expansionist and exploitative project of coloniality. This new form of coloniality has left painful wounds and has further marginalized those who are most vulnerable, constructing subaltern individuals and communities that become easy targets for manipulation and exploitation. This new form of coloniality

3 destroys cultural traditions as much as endangers the continents ecological resources. Amidst a long colonial history of dictatorship, abuse and corruption by political leaders and capitalist global corporations, there is a long history of the peoples struggles to create democratic societies respectful of the great plurality of cultures and traditions throughout Latin American countries. At the beginning of the second decade of the twenty-first century, Latin America continues struggling to find new de-colonization alternatives, for a national and international practice of mutual respect, and for the preservation of pluralityan attitude which also includes the voice of diverse religious traditions eager to cultivate dialogue and mutual collaboration not only between diverse religious traditions but also between secular sectors of society, as well as between any community willing to care for those who most suffer from poverty, hunger, violence and abuse. From a geopolitical perspective, then, a current Latin American post-secular retrieval is engaged with diverse faith communities and shows signs of willingness to overcome frontiers that separate us from one another and from our mother earth. Moreover, Latin America displays a long history of post-secular responses to hegemonic impositions. Despite this dark history of coloniality in Latin America, there has been a continuouslythough with several interruptionssubversive narrative encouraged by diverse religious voices. Since the beginning of the evangelization of this New World, there were many missionaries that not only were open to learn from these new cultures, languages, and religious traditions, but also became great defenders of Amerindians, and consistently denounced the cruelties and injustice committed against peopleGods childrento both civil and ecclesial authorities.2 The Dominican friars, Antonio de Montesinos, Francisco de Vitoria, and Bartolom de Las Casas became strong critics of an early secular agenda that created a greater divide between the so-called soulless and the souled people; an agenda that was invented in order to implement slavery and colonial power, and thus annul the sacred. Although it may sound as an anachronism, I
Angel F. Mndez Montoya, Latin America in James J. Buckely and others (Eds), The Blackwell Companion to Catholicism (Wiley-Blackwell: Oxford, 2011), 176.
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4 consider that these Dominican friars, among those from other religious Orders, set a precedent to the post-secular response to a secular agenda that objetified the Other as a subaltern, soulless, and uncivilized mercantile figure that can be dominated as it pleases. This is not to say that domination did not come from religious and ecclesial authorities that equally implemented violence and abuse over the Amerindian people and their lands. But perhaps such a theology of soulless people and of desacralized creation may have become an early practice of the secularization of both humanity and creation, subordinating the sacred and Gods creative gift to a mechanistic, positivist, and capitalist schema. This schema created a further divide between nature and God. For sure, the early Dominican friars responded with a strong voice against such a theological flaw and promoted a theology of the human person and of creation contemplated as a gift from God. Soul and body are interwoven into every single human being, therefore what these kripto-secular agendas call the Other is Gods child as well. Again, secularity and postsecularity have multiple meanings, and there is a mutual influence between them. The Dominicans early postsecular gesture, for instance, gradually was secularized by a discourse within international law protecting the natural right to personal dignity and respect. This Dominican anthropological theology became a model for the international defense of the human rights, which further developed into a defense of the ecology. The Latin Americas Liberation theology was echoing a prophetic theological practice that created a deeper dialogue with secular sociology and politicsamong other disciplines and sciences, particularly within the humanities. Herein we also find a blurring divide between secularity and postsecularity, for the Latin American liberation theology understood the secular sphere as a locus theologicus, particularly by addressing the suffering of the poor and the preferential option for the outcast. The project of liberation became holistic or integral, so that any soteriology must not be blind to the multi-layered everyday life, the concrete historical struggles, practicing radical solidarity with the crucified people. Herein, we find an inheritance of the transmission of Gospels values, even beyond religious frontiers. From this postsecular standing we could echo E. Schillebeeckxs argument that politics is also

5 theological and theology is also political, or, as he puts it, politics is mystical and mysticism is politics.3 The Liberation theology in Latin America gave birth to multiple liberationist and contextual theological movements that also attempt to promote dialogue, solidarity, and mutual enrichment between secular and postsecular communities, and thus build strong bridges between them. These early Latin American liberations theologies gave voice to current Contextual, Feminist, Mujeristas, African-American, Latino/a, Indigenous, Ecological and Postcolonial theologies among others. This multiplication of voices may also imply that the transmission of faith must undergo a process of practicing self-criticism, dialogue and collaboration with other religious and non-religious communities, rather than being fundamentalist and indifferent to the urgent realities that we are currently facing both as a Continent and as inhabitants of the planet. At the same time, and beyond a secular globalization that exploits both people and the ecology, labeling them as profitable objects to exploit, this postsecular project of the transmission of faith must subversively becomes a prophetic voice and practice in favor of those who most suffer hunger, poverty, injustice, violence, and abuse. The relationship between secularity and postsecularity is cultural as well. The queer Argentinean theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid, who passed away in 2009, is an example of the current cultural post-liberational and postcolonial turn in Latin Americas theology.4 While she acknowledges the positive impact the Latin American liberation theology has had, she also criticizes the early liberation theologians for becoming gender- and sexuality-blind. The poor became just an abstract term that erased the fact that they are bodily, gendered and sexual persons, and that a holistic cultural liberation equally matters. Althaus-Reid promotes a Queer theology that welcomes sexual diversity and the never-ending process of imagining and creating our individual and communal identities. Thus, a
See, ngel F. Mndez Montoya, Performing the Reign of God: The Mystical and the Political Co Existing in Edward Schillebeecxs Philosophical Theology, in Thomas Eggensperger, Ulrich Enge l and Angel F. Mendez Montoya (Eds), Edward Schillebeecks: Impuse fr Theologien/Impetus Towards Theologies (Berlin: Mathias Grnewald Verlag, 2012), 148-155. 4 Marcella Althaus-Reid, Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics (Routledge: London, 2000).
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6 political transformation and transmission of faith in both the secular and postsecular spheres must also become engaged with collaborative efforts to ensure cultural transformation, promoting respect of all people regardless of race, social class, gender, and sexuality. For sure, the Latin American Catholic Church in particular needs to undertake much healing in order to allow new cultural paradigms to enlighten theological insight and thus transform Catholicism from within. The Mexican Catholic Church, for instance, still suffers from a tradition that is extremely colonialist, supremacist, misogynist, heteronormative, and homophobic. In Mexico, there are high statistics of womens discrimination that go from daily violence and harassment to a large number of feminicides, as well as from exploitation to what is called the feminization of hunger. Despite a slow increase in defending the rights of women and people with diverse sexualities in Latin America, theology should benefit from a respectful and honest dialogue with secular cultures that are willing to care for and protect the plurality of the humanum, radically echoing the Dominicans theology of being Imago Dei. Moreover, the interwovenness of secularity and postsecularity in Latin America must be willing to start healing the colonial wounds that left profound marks in the cultural ethos and pathos. Currently, indigenous people around Latin America still suffer cruel discrimination and exploitation. Most indigenous communities live below the poverty line, are under-nourished or suffer from starvation, lack opportunities to have their basic human needs met, are abused and their human rights are often violated. Globalization is a new form of coloniality that resonates with Latin Americas early colonial hegemony whereby the Other is constructed as a subaltern. Althaus-Reid, Walter Mignolo, Eduardo Mendieta, and other US Latina/o theologians argue in favor of a de-colonial theology, particularly attentive to these subaltern realities in order to not only unknot a long thread of power abuse but also to seek ways of transforming both theological insight and secular practices.5 The geopolitical reality of migration throughout the Latin American countries also illustrates a need for a change of paradigm both in the secular and
See, for instance, Ada Mara Isasi-Daz and Eduardo Mendieta (Eds), Decolonizing Epistemologies: Latina/o Theology and Philosophy (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012); Walter Mignolo, The Idea of Latin America (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005); Stephen D. Moore and Mayra Rivera (Eds), Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011).
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7 postsecular cultures. Secular and postsecular communities should no longer be blind to the increasing phenomenon of migration throughout Latin America, and the constant violation of the human rights that a large number of migrants suffer on the daily basis. Secular and postsecular communities should create collaborative efforts to also address the abuse to and ecological damage of many Latin American natural resources. The massive exploitation of its natural resources (often driven by national and transnational interests) is leading Latin America toward great ecological perils that [] create famine, drought, extreme climatic imbalance, and health-related problems.6 Finally, this need for interdialogue and collaboration between the secular and the postsecular communities could benefit from Ren Girards hermeneutics, which more and more is helping Latin American theologians to create bridges between the secular and the postsecular standings, finding ways for unifying efforts against a culture of violence and sacrifice. The transmission of faith in a secular world implies theological selftransformation. Current Christian theology must undergo a process of metanoia, i.e., a transformation of mind and heart, adopting new paradigms with which to analyze and understand a complex world. Perhaps this willingness to selfconversion may also help transcend rigid boundaries between the secular and the religious spheres. Again, building bridges requires an attitude of honest selfcriticism, listening to and collaborating with the Other, which should first start from within each religious community. From pre-Colombian times to date, religion in Latin America has never disappeared. Latin America contains a rich diversity of religious traditions, symbols, practices, and cosmovisions, which may question if the secular age actually ever took full place throughout these landsparticularly when compared to the phenomenon of secularity in Europe. There is a great mestizaje of popular religions in Latin America, which in fact never adopted a fulsome secularization of culture and of religious sensibilities. At any rate, given the deeply complex religious Latin American milieu, it is even more imperative that theology become open to the great plurality of religious practices and traditions, celebrating diversity and contributing with creative solutions to a world
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Angel F. Mndez Montoya, Op. cit., 186.

8 in crisis. As postsecular theology continues developing within Latin Americas milieu, it becomes imperative to create platforms for inter-religious dialogue, avoiding any fundamentalist biases and hatred between faith communities. For sure, and as it has been argued throughout this presentation, faith communities should open this table of dialogue to a secular culture and to people with no particular faith practice. At the same time, this implies that secular societies need as much to promote a culture of dialogue, inclusion, and mutual respect. Current movements of civil disobedience in Latin America, for instance, also demand attention and support from both secular and postsecular communities. Theologians should be critical towards a secular and religiously fundamental culture of discrimination, exclusion, and exploitationoften instituted by both secular and religious authorities. As for the Latin American Catholic Church, there is still a long road to undertake in order to transform itself and so practice true communion with every human person, regardless nation, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and creed. From a Christian tradition this discipline of metanoia requires a re-visitation of the main theological questions regarding the saeculum. The early Latin American Dominican theologians questioned the deeper separation between a soulless creation and the institutions of the sacred. Against an antagonistic theology, they proposed a theology of the in-between, where both God and creation embrace one another. For sure, they were often at odds with and were greatly hated by both secular and religious authorities. And yet, they became inspirational figures for a long history of Latin Americas struggle to overcome dominion and exploitation. In a way, Latin American postsecular Christian theology may be able to subvert such great divisions and antagonisms between the secular and the religious, an antagonism that ironically dematerializes and depoliticizes the world. This is not to say that there is not autonomy and difference between them. Neither does this imply erasing the urgent need for a mutual critique and transformation. Moreover, Christianity envisions all creation as participating of Gods eternally creative gift. Gods difference with creation is not indifference, but rather a perplex affinity and participation with creation. The incarnation is a paradigm of Gods radical option for the saeculum. Christ is sent to the world and acts in favor of the world. Perhaps

9 this divine gesture is the primal postsecular sign that subverts antagonisms and overcomes the violent war between the secular and the religious. For, creation is as well a mestizaje of divinity and the created world. In this postsecular sense, we could envision the transmission of faith as a resonance of divine gesture, inviting to celebrate plurality and to care for one anothermost particularly for those who are disenfranchised, ghettoized, and abused in our midst.