The pastoral implications of human freedom according to Juan Luis Segundo

• Main Author: Vicente de Paula Ferreira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais 2016-09-01
• Series: Horizonte
• Subjects: Liberdade; kênosis; salvação; cristianismo.
• Online Access: http://periodicos.pucminas.br/index.php/horizonte/article/view/11684

<p>The paper aims to reflect the issue of human freedom based on the underlying principles of the Christian faith in a time of anthropological vulnerability, especially in Latin American. It holds that Christianity must insist on its proposal to promote universal goodwill, despite a human horizon marked by selfishness and lust for power and money. This approach presupposes a radical position of a listener of the divine mystery, revealed in Jesus Christ, as a way to fulfill the human condition. Theoretical framework: Liberation Theology, in the view of Juan Luis Segundo, and its well-established tradition of transforming realities of injustice through faith, comprises the core argument of this text. Findings: Christian salvation necessarily implies the kenosis (κένωσις) of Jesus, i.e., Christ “emptied Himself” (Ph. 2:7), and through His humble dispossession, He broke with all closed systems of the world, and inaugurated a new venture of a liberated freedom: the agape of love. Conclusion: Christian praxis as daily care for the poorest and prophecy of forgiveness rescues the memory of the victims of all forms of human selfishness. </p>