The Prophet and the Professor: Leonardo Boff and Pope Benedict XVI

Liberation theology insists the poor are our teachers and the church is not an end-in-itself. The church that serves itself is different than the church that serves the world. The church that wants to return to the 19th century with little interest in social issues is a caricature. "Outside the poor there is no salvation" (Pedro Casaldaliga) is an important corrective to "outside the church there is no salvation."

The church, universities, media and unions are independent greatnesses that have largely lost their critical and independent nature. "In a thought-provoking age, we have lost our ability to think" (Martin Heidegger). In a consumer age, memory and hope, festivity and fantasy fall by the wayside (Harvey Cox in "Feast of Fools").

Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian liberation theologian and prolific author, shows there is life beyond doctrines and laws. Emotional intelligence (empathy, devotion and community) and spiritual intelligence are vital counterparts to instrumental-analytic intelligence.

to read interviews with Leonardo Boff, click on

http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/93684/index.php