The pastoral implications of human freedom according to Juan Luis Segundo

Abstract

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.