Christian theological praxis
| Part of a series of articles on Christianity |
| Social Christianity |
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| Major figures |
| Francis of Assisi Wilhelm E.F. von Ketteler Pope Leo XIII · Adolph Kolping Edward Bellamy Margaret Wedgwood Benn Phillip Berryman · James Hal Cone Dorothy Day · Toni Negri Leo Tolstoy · Óscar Romero Gustavo Gutiérrez · Abraham Kuyper Daniel Berrigan · Philip Berrigan Martin Luther King, Jr. Walter Rauschenbusch Desmond Tutu · Tommy Douglas Joseph Smith, Jr. |
| Organizations |
| Confederation of Christian Trade Unions Catholic Worker Movement Christian Socialist Movement United Order |
| Key concepts |
| Subsidiarity · Christian anarchism Marxism · Liberation theology Praxis School · Precarity Human dignity · Social market economy Communitarianism · Distributism Catholic social teaching Neo-Calvinism · Neo-Thomism Bishop's storehouse |
| Key documents |
| Rerum Novarum (1891) Princeton Stone Lectures (1898) Populorum Progressio (1967) Centesimus Annus (1991) Caritas in Veritate (2009) |
Christian theological praxis is a term used by most liberation theologians to express how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be lived in the world.
Contents |
[edit] Description
Christian praxis is something that goes beyond practices, actions, or behaviors. Praxis is described as a combination of reflection and action that realizes the historicity of human persons. In this sense actions are realized in light of the way they affect history. History has to be seen as a whole, combining in an incarnational way, our salvation history and our "human" history.[1]
[edit] Expression
Most liberation theologians see Christian theological praxis mainly as lived and expressed in the life of community. "Any discourse of faith starts from, and takes its bearings from, the Christian life of Community"[2]. This is where a community is said to become an expression of the presence of the Kingdom of God, so long as it is being true to its calling to Christian praxis. This has been the vision shared by the basic ecclesial communities[3], which follow a pattern of Christian praxis based on what Gustavo Gutierrez said: "To be followers of Jesus requires that [we] walk with and be committed to the poor; when [we] do, [we] experience an encounter with the Lord who is simultaneously revealed and hidden in the faces of the poor"[4].
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Jon Sobrino, "Communion, Conflict and Ecclesial Solidarity," Mysterium Liberationis (1993): 616.
- ^ Gustavo Gutierrez, We drink from our own wells (Maryknoll/ Melbourne: Orbis Books/ Dove Communications, 1984), 37-8.
- ^ Marcelo Azevedo, "Basic Ecclesial Communities, "Mysterium Liberationis (1993): 650.
- ^ Gustavo Gutierrez, We drink from our own wells (Maryknoll/ Melbourne: Orbis Books/ Dove Communications, 1984), 37-8.