Franz Hinkelammert

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Franz Hinkelammert (born 1931) is a German-born theologian and economist, an influential theorist of liberation theology who writes theological critiques of capitalism.

He holds a doctorate in economics from the Free University of Berlin. He served on the faculty of Catholic University of Chile from 1963 to 1973. After the Pinochet coup, he went to the Departmento Ecuménico de Investigaciones in San José, Costa Rica. He has written extensively and critically about the neoliberal economic model, anti-utopian and anti-socialist views within religion and politics as well as the syncretism of Marxism and Christianity. His criticisms include those of the economists Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek as well as the philosopher Karl Popper.

Theological antiutopianism leads toward death. Theology becomes one big effort to justify the kind of life that lives by killing others. That is why its key symbol can be the crucifixion of crucifiers. It does not really have a readiness to be crucified, although that is how the first step is always presented. By averring their own willingness to be crucified, antiutopian theologians are simply pointing out who the crucifying enemy is. They then call for a crusade to crucify this crucifier. [The Ideological Weapons of Death, p. 226]

[edit] References

The Ideological Weapons of Death: A Theological Critique of Capitalism, Hinkelammert, F., translated by Phillip Berryman with an introduction by Cornel West, 1986
Crítica de la Razón Utópica, Hinkelammert, F., 1983
Property for People, Not for Profit: Alternatives to the Global Tyranny of Capital, Duchrow, I. and Hinkelammert, F., 2004