Theology in Public Space and Social Movements: Notes from Alain Badiou’s Concept of Event

Abstract

Abstract The debate over the public role of religion and of theology has become quite urgent. Not only by the evident religious presence in the party politics sphere, nor by its influence in the Brazilian social culture and life, but by the role that theology and, in this case, the churches can have to transform the social order. The present work reinforces the emancipatory potential of theology and the action of the church in the public space, pointing to a priority locus, from which both reflection and practice can be emancipatedly formulated, namely, social movements. Social movements, it will be argued, are the space in which the spark that gives rise to social and political change emerges in reality. In this sense, some notes will be made from the notion of Event of Alain Badiou, which recognizes, so to speak, the unique epiphanic character of the Events that can divide history between before and after, which effectively have a radically transforming character. In this sense, the heuristic potential for the church and theology will be emphasized to engage in the struggles of movements in the experience of the Badiousian Events that we could characterize as based on the paradigm of revelation.