La revelación interpretada como «manía» y posesión o como «dictado» divino ha terminado su ciclo. La crítica bíblica desmontó el literalismo. La autonomía del mundo impide verla como intervencionismo milagroso; y la del sujeto, como imposición extrínseca y autoritaria. El sentido histórico deslegitima todo particularismo etnocéntrico. Tales son las cuestiones que afronta este libro, desde un principio radical: Dios, creando por amor, quiere revelarse plenamente a todos, desde siempre y en todas partes. Las limitaciones, oscuridades y aun horrores del proceso nacen de la limitación o la resistencia creatural; jamás de un «silencio» u «ocultamiento» por parte de Dios. Al contrario, la revelación avanza gracias a su «lucha amorosa» para vencer las resistencias y comunicar su salvación. Desde ahí esta obra estudia tanto el surgir originario como la transmisión histórica. La revelación no es un dictado milagroso, sino un «caer en la cuenta» de la Presencia fundante y siempre activa: «Dios estaba aquí, y yo no lo sabía». Lo descubre uno —profeta o fundador—, pero Dios está queriendo manifestarse a todos con idéntico amor. Por eso el anuncio ejerce de «mayéutica histórica»: el creyente crítico es despertado por el profeta, pero no cree porque lo dice el profeta, sino porque él o ella se reconocen en lo dicho: «ahora ya lo hemos escuchado nosotros» (samaritanos); «la Biblia y el corazón dicen lo mismo» (Franz Rosenzweig). Esto vale para el individuo y vale para toda religión. El diálogo de las religiones se sitúa así en un espacio común, postulando nuevas categorías —pluralismo asimétrico, teocentrismo jesuánico, inreligionación— y propiciando un nuevo espíritu de acogida, respeto y colaboración. La obra se cierra analizando el significado de la revelación como Escritura y la ulterior formalización en el dogma y la teología.

Since the Enlightenment, the churches have progressively suffered a severe loss of status because of their belief that revelation is realized only in Christianity. The suggestion that Christian revelation might be truer than other so-called revelations seems to be preposterous. This book argues that this insistence has often remained unnuanced and simplistic, with the consequence that not only unbelievers as well as believers of other religions, but even numerous Christians no longer agree with the primacy of a truth revealed in Jesus Christ. The book addresses the difficulties affecting the interpretation of belief, given modernity's concerns. The volume sets out a provisional synthesis on revelation and it makes available much expository and historical information. It correlates distinctions between pair members such as the natural and the supernatural, conceptualism and intellectualism, heart and reason, subjectivity and objectivity, limited perspective and universal viewpoint, permanence of doctrine and historicity, Christian and non-Christian claims regarding truth, revelation and divine speech, moderate and radical pluralism, Jesus absolutized and Jesus relativized. The thrust of the argument is towards an appropriation of what is best in ancient, medieval, and modern traditions on revelation. This book delineates, in an original way, a position on revelation that is at once traditional and relevant for today. It accepts many values brought to the fore by modernity and draws from exegetes, historians, philosophers, and theologians. Its inspiration comes principally from the Bible, Thomas Aquinas, John Henry Newman, and Bernard Lonergan.

In a playful foreword that isn't, Juan Luis Segundo calls his present work posthumous - both because the sensitivity of the topic puts any future works in jeopardy, and because it provides the logical key to all his previous theological work. Thirty years a theologian, Segundo has tried to interpret the meaning of the gospel for believers today. One of the pioneers of Latin American liberation theology, he has tried especially to discern the relevance of faith to the emancipation of human beings from conditions of oppression. In 'The Liberation of Dogma' he turns to foundational questions of Christian faith seldom addressed by liberation theology: the meaning of revelation, and its articulation in dogma. Beginning with a brilliant historical survey of the development of scripture, Segundo lays the basis for his understanding of revelation as a process of divine pedagogy, an interaction between God and the human community in which the latter learn how to learn. The subsequent history of dogma reflects a continuation of the biblical story as the church learns to test and apply paradigms of faith to the challenges of an unfolding cultural and historical situation. Segundo examines the collision that occurred in the Middle Ages, when Greek dogmatic formulations -carefully worded to address problems posed by Hellenistic culture - were imposed on the new barbarian tribes as ready-made truths. This resulted in the loss of a dynamic understanding of revelation and faith, from which the church has only emerged since Vatican II. In his conclusion, Segundo develops a theology of revelation attuned to the signs of the times, a perspective influenced by the experience of Latin America's base communities. According to Segundo, Knowledge of God as 'revealing' something occurs to us when we are discovered to have a historical sensitivity that converges with God's own intentions. It is from a perspective and practice attuned to the Reign of God that we are free to discern God's revelation in history today.

We live in a time when the most appalling social injustices and unjust human sufferings no longer seem to generate the moral indignation and the political will needed both to combat them effectively and to create a more just and fair society. If God Were a Human Rights Activist aims to strengthen the organization and the determination of all those who have not given up the struggle for a better society, and specifically those that have done so under the banner of human rights. It discusses the challenges to human rights arising from religious movements and political theologies that claim the presence of religion in the public sphere. Increasingly globalized, such movements and the theologies sustaining them promote discourses of human dignity that rival, and often contradict, the one underlying secular human rights. Conventional or hegemonic human rights thinking lacks the necessary theoretical and analytical tools to position itself in relation to such movements and theologies; even worse, it does not understand the importance of doing so. It applies the same abstract recipe across the board, hoping that thereby the nature of alternative discourses and ideologies will be reduced to local specificities with no impact on the universal canon of human rights. As this strategy proves increasingly lacking, this book aims to demonstrate that only a counter-hegemonic conception of human rights can adequately face such challenges.

Charlie Slater is sixty - the age limit for active police work. Lately, he's been a glorified receptionist for the deputy chief. But then a Toronto lawyer is murdered, and the prime suspect is a prostitute in a pair of silver boots. The case doesn't ignite any interest until high-powered lawyer Calvin Gregson shows up, supposedly on Flora's behalf, insisting the police solve the case quietly. Deputy Mackenzie figures the assignment will keep Salter temporarily occupied, and puts him on the case with a young Scotsman new to the force and city. Salter is thrilled. As he searches, he meets the law profession's elite and, among others, the victim's sister, MPP Flora Lucas. But it's the lawyer's book group that brings Salter the clues he needs to solve the case - and to discover why Gregson is so eager to wrap the case up quickly and quietly.