Religion: Thought, Feeling, Liberation

James Carroll has a fascinating column in yesterday's Boston Globe. I finally got a chance to look at it and it's quite interesting.

Carroll looks at Benedict's visit to Brazil in terms of how it fits into the polarities of religion. He notes that religion serves two primary purposes -- 1) It explains the mysteries of life; 2) It helps people overcome the difficulties experienced in life. Thus, religion has both an intellectual and an emotional component -- which need to be kept in balance.

Benedict comes to a context that sees religion as a source of meaning and hope -- that is centered in feeling rather than intellect -- at least to an extent. What is true here is that Benedict's concern for European/Enlightenment categories don't mesh well in Brazil where two things converge -- a search for meaning and a search for political solutions. Thus both Pentecostalism and Liberationism retain their draw on the people.

In Latin America, impoverished people depend on religion for meaning and hope, but it is important that their beliefs not reinforce what keeps them impoverished. A piety that emphasizes rewards in heaven, downplaying the significance of the here and now, can do this. Fundamentalist religion has such tendencies, and should be criticized for them. But Latin American religion, even while increasingly fervent, can be expressly political. The Gospel is centrally a call to justice, and poor people throughout the continent are hearing it that way. The "base community" movement, spawned by Liberation Theology, is emotionally expressive and intellectually vital. Base communities -- grass-roots worship groups within a top-down church -- are explanatory and motivational centers both. When the critical mind and unleashed emotions come together in enthusiastic religion centered on social change (we saw this in the US civil rights movement), the results can be as politically transforming as they are spiritually transporting.

I appreciate this laying out of the convergence of piety and social justice. This isn't cerebral, but it's intellectually fervent.

He concludes:

Therefore, regarding what he saw in Brazil, Pope Benedict's skepticism toward religious enthusiasm is not nearly as significant as his long-established opposition to Liberation Theology. By silencing and banishing its intellectual leaders, the pope has been undermining the crucial connection between thought and feeling that keeps religion humane. He has been shoring up the power and wealth of that tiny oligarchy that cannot stand a growing mass of believers who see God as aligned with the poor, their religion as a mode less of rapture than of justice.

Enthusiasm, critical thought, concern for justice -- an important mix we can learn from!