Theology, crisis and knowledge-constitutive interests, or towards a social theoretical interpretation of theological knowledge

The author provides a social theoretical interpretation of the theological crisis marked by the emergence of the theologies of liberation from the point Of view of the theory of knowledge of the early Habermas as a tension between the practical interest of the historical-hermeneutic sciences and the emancipatory interest of the critically oriented sciences. Modern theologies have understood themselves within the limits of the historical-hermeneutic sciences to the extent that they have established theological knowledge through the interpretation of the meaning of transcendence. The theologies of liberation are not satisfied with the practical cognitive interest of the historical-hermeneutic sciences. Rather, they overcome the practical cognitive interest through an emancipatory cognitive interest that interlocks knowledge and interest. The theologies of liberation generate a theological knowledge that theoretically aims to grasp the invariance that exists between God-as-limit and the socio-historical conditions of misery, and praxeologically aims to overcome this invariance in the interest of liberation.