Theology, Ethics, and Politics

Participants will consider how theological claims (about Christ, Cross, and eschatology) are interpreted in relation to historical-political contexts and their ethical-political demands. We will engage World War II era German political theologians (Bonhoeffer, Metz, Moltmann, Slle), Reinhold Niebuhr, Catholic social encyclicals (e.g., Populorum progressio, Laudato Si), Latin American liberation theology (e.g., G. Gutierrez), African American theology (e.g. Katie Canon), African political theology (e.g., Emmanuel Katongole), and postcolonial feminist theology (e.g., Agnes Brazal). We will follow their specifically ethical-political dimensions; and relations among ethics, the arts, and social change (e.g., Nichole Flores, Aesthetic Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy).