Towards a Reconstruction of Enrique Dussel’s Theological System

Abstract

The article is devoted to seeking the elements of a theological outlook from a set of writings of the Argentinean philosopher Enrique Dussel and recon­structing them into a complex system. The author questions whether it is re­levant to believe that Dussel can be described as one of the founders of the libe­ration theology. Hence, the paper represents a brief analysis of the liberation theology and philosophy. Furthermore, the author overviews the literature re­ferring to the topic and shows that Dussel’s considerations on the theological questions have not been significantly covered in the academic milieu yet. Next, the author analyzes fundamental views of Enrique Dussel upon such as­pects as christology, hamartiology, soteriology, eschatology, ecclesiology, maryology and describes his attitude towards such burning issues for the Latin American region as poverty, violence, guerrilla, etc. The research is based on the writings of Dussel which are compared with the general tendencies within the theology of liberation as well as a range of ideas of Karl Marx whose works had a profound impact on Dussel’s worldview. The concluding part summarizes that Dussel can be called one of the most prominent represen­tatives of the liberation theology. Nevertheless, the author presupposes that along with that Dussel contributed to making the realm of the liberation theo­logy vaguer. The main direction of such erosion deals with shifting from chal­lenge of poverty to the concern of discrimination in general which implies a wider understanding of who the oppressed are.