Theological Reflection on the Root Causes of Poverty

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In our contemporary modern and global context, theology more concretely understood, is critical reflection on historical praxis. This definition emphasizes human action (praxis) as the point of departure for all reflection and as the determining factor in our encounter with the Lord and with other humans. Our actions in history (past, present, and future) shape has to shape our theological reflection and understanding. Today’s society has many problems such as poverty that causes numinous members of the society to look for solutions to these issues. A common way that the people of today’s society use as a solution to solve the problem of poverty is to give money to those individuals who are subjected to this way of life. The problem with this solution is that many of these people do not see the logical flaw that is bottled up in this answer to the problem. They do not see that they are not attacking the root causes of what caused poverty. The root causes of poverty are caused by the political, economic, social and, cultural structures that have been in place for the last 500 years that have created a new way of thinking about life and a new God to go along with this way of life. First, this new way of life is one that makes a human more of a selfish being. It gets the people to strive for more personal goals, success, and prosperity that benefit people as individuals and not as a whole community. To achieve these personal goals and reach some “high” level of success the person must strive for copious amounts of money. The amount of money that a person hold is used to judge their success and their worth in the society. This is where the new God comes into play. The new God is the god of material. The society uses this ideal of ... ... middle of paper ... ...person has to get inside the experience of poverty. To get inside of the experience of poverty is to understand what a person who lives in poverty goes through on a daily basis, such as alienation from the rest of society. Second, they must understand the economic situation of the poor. This person has to understand what it feels like to barely make it in a society that is driven to focus on an idea of success and prosperity. Lastly, they must understand the spirituality (Vocatio) of theology. To understand this Vocatio the person must change their social class and live the way of poverty. To move beyond these ideas that have corrupted our society, we must see that we cannot seek the answer to our conflict in the ideas that have caused the conflict. We must embrace new ideas by understanding the human experience throughout history and embracing the mystery of God.

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