A identidade e a relevância da igreja na sociedade atual, à luz da nova teologia política de Johann Baptist Metz

Abstract

The theme of this dissertation is the identity and relevance of the Church in today's society in light of Johann Baptist Metz's new political theology. The relationship between Church and society is of fundamental importance in this work. The presence and mission of the Church in the public space, an environment marked by globalization, by the diversity of cultures and religions, as well as by the advance of science and technology, is seen to be weakened with regard to the relevance of the Church. Thus, reflection on the relationship between the identity and the relevance of the Church becomes necessary. Johann Baptist Metz is the theologian who will guide us in this research. Metz developed his political theology with a view to affirming the public mission of the Church. He tried to react to a tendency to privatize the discourse about God, and consequently, the self-privatization of the Church, closed in on itself. Throughout history the understanding of "political theology" was at the basis of civil religions, and in the 20th century, with Carl Schmittt, it was consolidated as a juridical political theology, in which juridical concepts were considered theological concepts. Metz, aware of this history, emphasizes the "new" political theology, in which the concept of the political is reworked in critical and liberating terms, centered on human life, and without its ideological ethos. Thus, the Church is understood as an institution of socio-critical freedom. From the reading of the works of this theologian, as well as from an extensive research in works that converge with the theme presented, we will seek to expose the possibility of the relevance of the Church from the affirmation of its identity.