Critical-Liberative Theology: Towards an Understanding of Januarius Asongu's Theology

Abstract

George Chrysostom Nchumbonga Lekelefac*

This article offers a systematic and contextual theological interpretation of Beyond Doctrine: A Critical-Liberative Theology of Faith and Emancipation [1]. Combining close textual analysis with semi-structured interviews conducted with the author between 2022 and 2026, the study reconstructs Asongu’s theological project as an integrated method uniting (i) liberation theology’s praxis-oriented criterion of truth, (ii) Newmanian doctrinal development as a grammar of reform without rupture, (iii) conscience- centered moral reasoning as the interior forum of responsible discernment, and (iv) a critical epistemology grounded in Asongu’s philosophical framework of Critical Synthetic Realism (CSR). The article argues that Critical-Liberative Theology (CLT) is best understood as a realist-liberationist method in which conscience mediates between doctrine’s historical development and the Church’s pastoral credibility, and that its canonical significance lies in a teleological construal of authority ordered to the salus animarum (c. 1752 CIC) and accountable to justice. The study situates CLT within debates on ecclesial authority, clericalism, institutional sin, and reform, emphasizing that Asongu’s critique of the Church arises from ecclesial loyalty and sacramental commitment rather than hostility. Finally, the article shows how CLT expands liberation theology beyond classical socio-economic horizons to include ecological devastation, gender and sexuality, technological domination, migration, and epistemic liberation— illustrated concretely in Asongu’s CSR-based argument that witchcraft is metaphysically incoherent and theologically unsound, and that superstition persists even among the educated as a form of epistemic captivity [2,3].

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