The Bible in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed

One thing I found to be particularly interesting while reading Paulo Freire's The Pedagogy of the Oppressed is the extent that biblical themes permeate the work. After some further research on Google I found out that Freire was himself Christian, so this should come as no surprise! Freire writes of his model of education that "problem-posing education …

Pedagogy of the Oppressed 2

This post follows my last on the first chapter of Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I found the following chapters to be a bit more dense terminologically and would need to do a slower reread for some deeper reflections. Nonetheless, here are some of the little things I noticed. In the second chapter, Freire turns …

Pedagogy of the Oppressed 1

This week I've been in Perth, Australia for a theology conference (more on that soon). Today, though, I picked up Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed (trans. Myra Bergman Ramos; Penguin Classics, 2017; original Portuguese in 1968) for the first time and read the opening chapter with interest. Here are some quotes and comments. Early on in …

Free Speech, Lauren Southern, and Stefan Molyneux: A Short Comment

Background Auckland Mayor Phil Goff was recently involved controversy around the cancellation of an event booked at the Bruce Mason Centre involving the Canadian far-right speakers, Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux. He tweeted: https://twitter.com/phil_goff/status/1015056094945611776 Elsewhere he elaborated, "I'm not going to aid and abet people who spout racist nonsense by providing them with a venue." And, "I …

Moltmann, Bonhoeffer, and “Violence in Exceptional Situations”

I'm currently reading through Moltmann's The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics (Cascade, 2006). Moltmann's essays in this volume were originally available in English in Following Jesus Christ in the World Today (now open access), and republished in On Human Dignity: Political Theology and Ethics. Here they are paired with response essays from various Mennonite scholars, a newer …

Moltmann on Distinguishing between Liberal and Political Theology

I just read this today. It's helpful for clarifying some of the key differences Moltmann sees between himself and his contemporaries: Political theology is not the same as ‘progressive’ theology, whether this be liberal Protestant theology or modernist Catholic theology. The differences and conflicts between the conservative Protestant Wolfhart Pannenberg and myself, or between the …