Haiti's Troubles: Perspectives From the Theology of Work and From Liberation Theology

Abstract

This dissertation examines "signs of the times" in contemporary Haiti, concentrating on the harsh realities of work and workers in the context of entrenched poverty and ecological devastation. It seeks to formulate a Christian theological-ethical framework that will empower movements of both the Church and Haitian society to engage the problems of the degradation of work and exploitation of workers. This investigation adopts the critical method of correlation using insights from certain modern theologies of work (Chenu, John Paul II, and Miroslav Volf) and from liberation theology (Gutiérrez, Godefroy Midy, and J-B Aristide) to analyze key features of the realities of work and poverty in Haiti. This study shows that (i) a detailed and realistic analysis of the key features of work and poverty in Haiti suggests that the theological reflection on work and liberation theology must be made more adequate to the real challenges of poor peoples in the twenty-first century; and (ii) the theology of work and liberation theology need to be informed by both ecological understanding and economic development strategies. This dissertation concludes by arguing that the case of Haiti highlights both how theological understanding of human liberation requires ecologically-sensitive sustainable development and also how Catholic and Protestant traditions of reflection about human work need to be broadened to understand work and labor in an explicitly ecological frame.