The social structure of freedom: Hegelian conceptual affinities with liberation theology

This is a study of Hegel's concept of freedom and its affinities with Latin American liberation theology. The primary aim of the study is to lift from Hegel's social and political thought relevant themes which intersect with key elements of liberation theology, enriching both Hegel scholarship and the further development of liberation theology. In Chapter One attention is given to the way in which Hegel both appropriates and transcends the Enlightenment, viewing it as a historico-conceptual phenomenon in which freedom is a fundamental concern. Chapter Two presents Hegel's critique of the notion of individual autonomy, the abstract doctrine of freedom that issues from Enlightenment thought. A close examination of The Phenomenology of Spirit and the Philosophy of Right establishes that for Hegel freedom is a social phenomenon of ethical life (Sittlichkeit), not a precondition for morality (Moralitat). Chapter Three examines the institutions of ethical life, the family and civil society, and their limited form of freedom. Chapter Four focuses on the state and the way in which existing institutions of ethical life are transformed by its emergence. Finally, Chapter Five considers liberation theology and its instrumental relationship to existing ideologies, including Marxism, suggesting that specific affinities between liberation theology and Hegel's concept of freedom can enrich the reflective process without reducing one body of thought to the other. The affinities proposed follow the presentation of the first four chapters. It is claimed that both Hegel and liberation theology (1) take a similar critical stance toward the Enlightenment; (2) protest against abstract individualism; (3) affirm the importance of small communities in promoting the actualization of freedom; (4) reflect a contextual understanding of freedom as the product of a particular historical process; and (5) see the realization of freedom as an integral development in which inadequate forms of social life are overcome, a new community of just relationships is established, and the life of Spirit (Geist) is manifest.