Simultaneously arising out of such diverse contexts as the black community in the United States, grassroots religious communities in Latin America, and feminist circles in North Atlantic countries, theologies of liberation have emerged as a resource and inspiration for people seeking social and political freedom. Over the last three decades, liberation theology has irrevocably altered religious thinking and practice throughout the Americas. Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity and the Americas provides a meaningful and spirited debate on vital interpretive issues in religion, philosophy, and ethics. The renowned group of scholars explore liberation theologies' uses of discourses of emancipation, revolution and utopia in contrast with postmodernism's suspicion of grand narratives, while assessing what the postmodernism/liberation debate means for strategies of social and political transformation. Guided by the experiences of those at the margins of social power, liberation theologies demystify the eurocentric myths of secularization and modernity, and calls for a re-appraisal of religion in contemporary societies. Contributors: Edmund Arens, David Batstone, Maria Clara Bingemer, Enrique Dussel, Gustavo Gutierrez, Jurgen Habermas, Franz Hinkelammert, Dwight Hopkins, Lois Ann Lorentzen, Eduardo Mendieta, Amos Nascimento, Elsa Tamez, Mark McLain Taylor, and Sharon Welch, Robert Allen Warrior

Introduction--David Batstone, Eduardo Mendieta, Lois Ann Lorentzen, Dwight N. Hopkins; Part One:DANGEROUS HOPE & LIBERATING MONEY: 1. Liberation Theology in the Economic and Social Context of Latin America: Economy and Theology, or the Irrationality of the Rationalized -- Franz J. Hinkelammert 2. When the Horizons Close upon Themselves: A Reflection on the Utopian Reason of ohlet --Elsa Tamez 3.Renewing the Option for the Poor --Gustavo Gutirrez 4.A Post-Christian and Postmodern Christianism --Marña Clara Bingemer 5. Black Masks on White Faces: Liberation Theology and the Quest for Syncretism in the Brazilian Context--Josu A. Sathler and Años Nascimento Part Two: CROSSING BORDERS: REMAPPING THE SACRED/SECULAR: Section Introduction 6. Dancing with Chaos: Reflections on Power, Contingency, and Social Change--Sharon D. Welch; 7. Writing for Liberation: Prison Testimonials from El Salvador--Lois Ann Lorentzen; 8. Charting (dis)Courses of Liberation -- David Batstone 9. Vodou Resistance/Vodou Hope: Forging a Postmodernism That Liberates--Mark McClain Taylor 10. William Apess: A Pequot and a Methodist Under the Sign of Modernity--Robert Allen Warrior Part Three: POSTMODERN PRAXES AND LIBERATION THEORIES: 11. Postmodernity, Black Theology of Liberation and the U.S.A.: Michel Foucault and James H. Cone--Dwight N. Hopkins; 12. Interruptions: Critical Theory and Political Theology Between Modernity and Postmodernity--Edmund Arens 13.Israel and Athens, or to Whom Does Anamnestic Reason Belong: On Unity in Multicultural Diversity -- Jürgen Habermas 14.From Christendom to Polycentric Oikonum Modernity, Postmodernity, and Liberation Theology --Eduardo Mendieta 15.The Architectonic of the Ethics of Liberation: On Material Ethics and Formal Moralities--Enrique Dussel.