Talk:María Pilar Aquino

This part of the translation needs more sources to be put up. I am not sure they are the heart of her theology, but in any case, this part of the translation is under sourced for English language Wikipedia.

Opposition to neoliberal spirituality

According to Aquino, "neoliberal spirituality" is opposed to the feminist spirituality of Wisdom, which believes the way to God is through action in the world. Neoliberalism is based on the "dogmatic principles" of economic efficiency, competitiveness, and individual gratification, and it represents the global market as the determinant that orders, directs, and gives meaning to human existence.

In the neoliberal perspective, the elites exercise the "priestly functions" of maintaining the global market that functions as a new religion. It's a religion that creates an inverted image of reality, in which people do not perceive the ravages of neoliberalism, including "women's bodies consumed by patriarchal discipline." The spirituality of the global market generates a state of resignation and political paralysis in the social imagination. Worse than that, it tends to destroy critical traditions and eliminate identity pluralism in both the religious and cultural dimensions.

In opposition to this neoliberal spirituality, Aquino proposes the deconstruction of the mechanisms that sustain patriarchal determinism by strengthening and transforming feminist worldviews, supporting struggles against globalization, and strengthening plural feminist struggles.

Interculturality

Unlike the mujerista ("womanist") theology proposal of Ada-María Isasi Díaz, Aquino insists on claiming the name of "feminist" for her theological proposal. With this, the Mexican-American theologian intends to dismantle the myth that feminism is non-existent among Latin women from popular sectors, or that it is exclusively for white, middle-class women. Aquino rejects the cultural homogeneity of some feminist theological proposals, including some Latinas, and insists on the interculturality of religious experience in Latin America, beyond race and religious identity.

Aquino maintains that theological activity should not be neutral in the face of conflicts since it is a field of struggle. Therefore, she argues that theological practices must be evaluated according to their ability to support or hinder social and ecclesial processes aimed at generating paradigms of justice. In tune with the theologies of liberation, she believes that the relevance of a theology should not be measured by its discursive eloquence in the relations between God and the world, but rather in its ethical-political capacity to repair the unjust suffering of the victims. Theological knowledge should not, therefore, function as a mechanism that generates dehumanizing discourses or legitimizes systems of domination, but rather as a principle of liberation.

Among the characteristics of interculturally articulated theology, the following stand out:

1. The development of alternative proposals aimed at promoting emancipatory cultural models, which implies deconstructing the cultural and religious traditions that generate violence, since they do not correspond to God's plan.
2. The strengthening of the theological community's commitment with the rereading, in intercultural terms, and the reconstruction of the Christian tradition itself, in its fundamental nucleus that is the history of liberation.

Aquino does not deny the dialectic of Christianity in Latin America and, therefore, affirms that Latin American Christianity has legitimized the use of structural violence in the system and that there are important sectors that maintain monocultural, dogmatic theologies and absolutist institutional practices. On the other hand, she recognizes that there are sectors that defend human rights, social justice, and a culture of peace. This progressive sector had its origin with the actions of Bartolomé de las Casas and was strengthened by the documents approved at the Second General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate, held in Medellín, Colombia in 1968.

Aquino is in favor of the option for hope in another possible world, through a theology of liberation that supports alternatives to globalization, which concerns itself with the material conditions of peoples' lives, and which denounces the injustices of a system that prevents people from living humanely. RosPost 16:35, 10 September 2023 (UTC)