Well systematized, with clarity and depth, as the topic demands; open, liberating, interrelated, the new book of Juan José Tamayo“Towards a liberating spirituality” (Herder 2024), traces and develops, in my opinion with great success and relevance, the complex aspects and dimensions of a current spirituality from a perspective in dialogue with other positions. I interpret it as a spiritual synthesis of her thought, her extensive and committed theological work, her militant cultural, epistemological, political, feminist, ecological, mystical dedication…
Written from Christian liberating inspiration and option, motivated by the warm encouragement and utopian perspective of another possible world, developed in his dense and extensive theological work, it shows the pressing challenges of the technological age in a world of injustices that Spirituality is the key so that we do not succumb to dehumanization. It constitutes, in effect, the “fundamental dimension of the human being” and in it “the true identity of the human being, its humanization, is at stake…”.
The trip of your dreams, with RD
I found his reflection on the Christian spirituality of following Jesus very important, in his “liberating praxis” with its original characteristics, which surpasses all spiritualism, distanced from the world, to “become a force of liberation” from the authority of the victims. from the margins, in the prayer and practice of justice.
Especially interesting and original, in my opinion, is his reflection in chapter III on the “new paradigm of spirituality on the horizon of the cultural pluriverse.” to build that “new paradigm” in interculturality, in dialogue, in interliberation, against all imperialism, compassionately, liberatingly immersed in the injustice of the marginalization that our world causes.
I emphasize “ethical, political, sapiential, holistic ecofeminist feminist spirituality…”. Specifically, “the gender perspective must play a fundamental role today in this new paradigm of interspirituality” that leads us to a reinterpretation of our theological categories, a task that Tamayo has been carrying out in his extensive publications.
With his friend José Saramago he discovers us “in the great silence of the universe”… “the solidarity of believers and non-believers to suffer evil and fight it.” Its last chapter develops a deep and luminous reflection on mysticism related to science, philosophy and atheism. I highlight the important contribution of María Zambrano to lead to what she calls “mystical atheism”, supported by Bloch together with Fiore, Eckhart, Müntzer, Saint John of the Cross, Wittgenstein, Weil…
I very much agree with Juan José Tamayo that “the search for a new universal consensus… is the great challenge for the 21st century.” That consensus must be spiritual. Only by discovering the humanizing-liberating Spirit, in the mystical experience that beats at the core of every person, in their spirituality, will we give meaning to that admirable and risky technological world and prevent artificial intelligence from being invasive, to achieve humanization and avoid succumbing to the dictate of capitalist and imperialist algorithms guided by selfish profit and overwhelming hatred.
In this complex, contradictory, polarized and uncertain moment, in disorienting and pessimistic circumstances for many people, This reflection by Juan José Tamayo, which responds to his coherent vital convictions that I admire, contributes to encouraging, with motivating lucidity and clarity, a spirituality of liberating search, hope and realization..
