A Reflection on the Journey Outward

The premise of this blog is that spirituality and action in the world are intimately and dynamically inter-related. And the movement between the two is dialectical, that is, it is a movement in both directions. Spiritual reflection and deepening lead to action in the world which, in turn, leads back to spiritual growth and then back to action, and on and on (thus the blog title: Journey Inward Journey Outward – Journey Outward Journey Inward.

The place from which I personally engage this process is as a Christian. I do so not as an over-against or exclusionary stance but simply as the place I have come to occupy through my personal history and choices. I am open and anxious then to journey with other Christians but also with those who journey from other spiritual places, believing that the exchange of diverse experiences and understandings will not only enrich us personally but will deepen the quality and outcomes of our shared journey.

In the first few posts I have written about some of my personal history, but from a perspective that already reflects themes and insights from my own journey inward. In the present post I want to begin looking at the question of how I view the journey outward. What kind of action in the world do I have in mind?

The criteria or quality I have come to believe needs to be upper-most in our action in the world has to do not with a what but with a who – who does the action prioritize? And the answer I find most instructive comes from Latin American liberation theology. Now it turns out that liberation theology, which developed in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, re-affirmed themes from the Jewish and Christian scriptures and tradition that in some cases had been forgotten or subverted for centuries, even millennia. And so even today, these are not themes that are given equal weight among all Christians or in all Christian communities. In fact, in my experience they continue to be disregarded, even rejected, in the majority of Christian settings.

Nevertheless, I think the Latin American liberation theologians got this right. In response to what is summarized as God's “preferential option for the poor,”¹ they argue that we are called to act in ways that are informed by the poor, and that our actions are to be judged based on how they affect the poor.

1  Preference for the poor was first elaborated in a document coming out of a meeting of the Latin American Conference of Bishops, meeting in 1968 in Medellin, Colombia. For the English language text of the document, go to http://www.shc.edu/theolibrary/resources/medpov.htm