Liberation Theologies Unit

Temporalities of Liberation in the Age of Settler Futurity 

There is a strong parallel between discourse on progress and settler colonialism. The drive to expand and occupy the land is often accompanied by the thought of a linear time in which history progresses toward a singular telos. Might the energy that fuels settler colonialism, ancient and present, be also the drive for settling the future?  

This panel invites contributions that challenge notions of linear, progressive time and invite us to reflect on future thinking as an invitation to imagine alternative futures. Such perspectives challenge dominant and oppressive futures driven by extraction, settler colonialism, and capitalist accumulation. As many scholars and activists have suggested, nonhegemonic religious communities and Indigenous traditions offer alternative ways of conceiving of temporality. Here, future thinking is not necessarily an act of imagination oriented towards a time ahead of us, but a way of imagining and demanding a different time, a different form of relating to the past, to the ancestors, and, ultimately, a different way of inhabiting the present moment. We are after reflections that generate a more ethical and just understanding of our relation to time in all of its interlocking tenses.

We especially welcome papers that center Indigenous understandings of time, including cyclical, ancestral, and land-bound temporalities that disrupt linear narratives of progress and “development.” 

Possible areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to:

• Indigenous temporalities as resistance to settler futurity.
• How might imaginations drawing from times past serve as models for liberation that can guide one’s aspirations? 
• How do Indigenous and various religious traditions situate time differently, such as a circular, infinite or ethical time, and how can that help orient collective liberation and movements for justice?
• What does it mean to critique the notion of future thinking as solely about a time ahead of us?
• How could one reimagine temporalities of liberation interreligiously and interregionally?

Performances of the Future: Liberation Theologies for Different Times

Liberation theologies have always been deeply entangled with questions of time and the future: expectation and endurance, kairos and crisis, memory and imagination. Yet, the future in liberation theologies is never presented as a stable goal. It is rather a site for contestation, denunciation of injustice, and annunciation of justice. In the tradition, future-talk is not prediction, but a form of engagement with the “signs of the times.” Future-talk analyzes the present moment and demands the advent of a new epoch.

Today, as fascist temporalities harden, as techno-futurist markets market artificial inevitabilities, and as institutions grapple with post-DEI retrenchment, the temporal assumptions underlying liberationist discourse demand renewed interrogation. This session invites scholars, organizers, activists, and practitioners to explore how contested visions of time shape the possibilities and limits of liberation in the present moment.

We invite proposals that examine how liberation theologians and movements have deployed the language of the future. We encourage reflection on numerous iterations of the “Kairos Documents” and the prophetic word they offer, addressing multiple forms of injustices. We furthermore invite reflections on other documents and movements that perform similar functions across various religious traditions. 

This panel will also consider critiques of capitalist futurity, including analyses of realized eschatology as realized capitalism; examinations of how progress narratives entrench racial, economic, and ecological violence; and reflections on how AI-driven techno-futurism seeks to replace political imagination with algorithmic inevitability.

Possible areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to:

• Liberation theology’s multiple and contested accounts of eschatology, futurity, utopia(s), and historical agency.
• Temporalities of exhaustion, breath, and embodiment; practices that sustain liberative work in prolonged crisis.
• Critiques of science-as-progress, AI-generated futures, and other techno-utopian visions.
• Solidarity across temporal divides: generations, ancestors, geographies, and trans-human frames of collaboration.
• Liberation amid calamity: ecological catastrophe and possibilities of ecological liberation. 

Co-Sponsored Session: Psychology of Liberation 

The Liberation Theology Unit and the Psychology, Culture, and Religion Unit invite proposals for a co-sponsored session on liberation psychology, with particular attention to the legacy and ongoing influence of Ignacio Martín-Baró. A social psychologist and Jesuit priest from Spain who lived and worked in El Salvador and the United States, Martín-Baró drew from liberation philosophy, Marxist, feminist, and decolonial thought, as well as liberation theology, to critique dominant psychological paradigms and call for socially engaged, community-centered praxis. 

We welcome proposals that critically examine Martín-Baró’s contributions, extend liberation psychology in diverse cultural or geopolitical contexts, or explore its implications for contemporary approaches to the psychology of religion. We are also interested in proposals that consider how liberation theology and related movements continue to inform, challenge, and reshape the study of religion, spiritual care, chaplaincy, clinical counseling, and pastoral practices in congregational, community, and non-profit settings. Papers that bridge liberation theology, the psychology of religion, and the social sciences, especially those employing interdisciplinary, intercultural, or community-based perspectives, are particularly encouraged.