Event series International Talks
Religion and Social Justice. Reflections andExperiences from Latin America
The International Talks always take place during the semester. Always online. Always discussion format. Always socially relevant, international topics. The format includes an impulse with discussion, in which the participants can take part via chat. The talks get a special dynamic through the moderation of different experts. The International Talks are open to all students, colleagues and interested persons, especially including international students.
Bigger isn’t always better: a necessary Utopia. Perspectives from the Old Testament. (José Ramíres Kidd – Costa Rica)
Thursday, 17th of October, 2024, 6:00 – 7:30 pm
Abstracting from many particular elements, the narrative argument of the Old Testament can be summarized in two theses of marked optimism: the vital situation on the social and historical level of a society is always an asymmetrical fight in terms of forces and possibilities. But seen from their point of view, there is an unexpected outcome: the (possible) victory of the weak, David overcomes Goliath.
The official narrative established today always assures the triumph of the mighty as self-evident. The originality of the Old Testament lies in the fact that it is perhaps the only fundamental intellectual production in the history of ideas in the West, that assumes, represents and articulates in an elaborated way the point of view of the weak, their rationality and possibilities. This makes that, in today’s society (characterized by an unprecedented polarization of forces), the contribution of the Old Testament to a current worldview, namely: the angle of the possible, the belief in a just moral order, the utopian as being really probable or necessary, has an enormous social and political relevance. This is a point of view relegated today to the marginality and periphery. What we call ’social justice‘ today is the articulation of a sense of restitution that, in the absence of an economic theory, cries out for compensation.
José Ramírez Kidd is Professor Emeritus of Old Testament of the Universidad Bíblica Latinoamericana, 1981-2022. During the years 1978-1981 he was in charge of a national youth ministry program. Further more, he worked as a professor of Pastoral Psychology at the Latin American Biblical Seminary during the 1980’s. He was in charge of editing the magazine Vida y Pensamiento of the UBL for 25 years, as well as the publications department of the same university.
Participation
All Talks will be realized as videoconference.
Zoom-Link
Access under the following link: https://eu01web.zoom.us/j/63441535535