Towards a Liberating Latin American ecclesiology: the local church as a socially and culturally transformative historical project

Abstract

Because of the drastic changes (political, socio-cultural, and ecclesial) in Latin
 America since the genesis of Latin American Theology in the 1960s and 70s and the
 persistent and pernicious presence of poverty and injustice, it is imperative for
 theology to confront the present socio-cultural and ecclesial context. Through the
 development of a sociological and historical survey of Argentina during the past
 half-century, this thesis argues that the present holds little hope for a revitalization of
 the triumphalist, macro-social historical project of Latin American Liberation
 Theology, but instead demands an informed theological reflection on the micro-social.
 It also engages various Latin American theological perspectives (Liberationist,
 Progressive Evangelical, and Pentecostal/neo-Pentecostal) and argues that
 community is at the centre of their conceptions of transformation and that,
 accordingly, the local church is a potential transformative historical project. It
 examines this transformative potential through ethnographic and theological case
 studies of two local Baptist churches (Progressive Evangelical and neo-Pentecostal)
 in Greater Buenos Aires, Argentina, demonstrating that the present ecclesial context
 is diverse and contentious, but nevertheless a potential location of transformation. It
 contends that the local church is a fitting historical project for Latin American
 Theology as it functions as a bridge between the exilic present and the utopia of the
 Kingdom of God, between individual and social transformation, and between the
 hermeneutically-focused historical sciences and the emancipatory-focused critical
 social sciences. It concludes that the local church is a transformative historical
 project as a gathering community that seeks to be faithful and effective through non-violent
 confrontation, reconciling unity, and discernment.