The Church a Demon Lover
Subtitle: A Sartrean Analysis of an Institution
Publisher: University of Calgary Press
Published: May 1995
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 166
ISBN-13: 9781895176551
Subjects: Philosophy; Christianity - Theology - Ecclesiology; Christianity; Religion - Theology
Description: The New Testament message of love has been distorted in the process of being mediated by the institution of the Roman Catholic Church. Through interweaving Sartre's theory of historical categories in his Critique of Dialectical Reason, and his concrete personal relations in Being and Nothingness, one sees that the structure of the institution breaks the structure of love, a sovereign, free, reciprocal relationship among equals, and establishes in its place a structure of domination, that of sado-masochism.

The intentions of those who are involved in Church praxis are subsequently deviated. But herein lies the hope. The ability to reason dialectically, rather than analytically, offers the possibility of transcending the various distortions of the Gospel message, for dialectical reason helps one to understand the structure of Leonardo Boff's Trinity, which is analogous to that of Sartrean love in Being and Nothingness.

Through the use of Boff's paradigmatic Trinity, it is then possible to postulate a concrete structure for the "new" Church that is capable of being a proper vehicle for the expression of the Gospel message.