A construção do discurso teológico na obra de José Augusto Mourão

Abstract

The present investigation has the goal to study the work of the Dominican José Augusto Miranda Mourão (1947-2011), seeking to highlight an operation of constitution of a theological discourse. Herein, the epistemological framework is provided by Practical Theology as understood by Marcel Viau, as fides quarens verbum, "the faith that seeks a discourse". Hence, the fundamental mission of theological practice consists of the production of "theological artefacts", endowed with an epistemological, rhetorical and aesthetic dimension, capable of raising, in its interlocutors, a question and an experience of believing. The mission of Practical Theology, as Viau understands it, has its starting point in the linguistic nature of human intellect and praxis, highlighted by the Linguistic Turn. Within this context, we intend to highlight the way in which Mourão, in its multiple axes of reading language and textualities, allows to understand the theological exercise under the sign of text, reading and hermeneutics. The fact that Mourão extensive and multifaceted work fits, in its places of production and its axes of reflection, within the horizon of human sciences, particularly semiotics and literary studies, constitutes a challenge and at the same time an opportunity to provide theology with a capacity for interdisciplinary dialogue, in the conviction that theological discourse must be embodied in the multiple registers of language. This permanent inquiry into the human being as a producer of cultural objects of meaning (literary, artistic, religious) grants the theological discourse a capacity to renew its own language and the ways in which it seeks an enunciation of God. This theological project is based on the production of textual, homiletic and poetic objects, tattooed by the mark of the liturgical space, with the fundamental concern of providing the believing body, personal and community, with an enunciation of its desire and experience.

Date of Award	20 Jan 2025
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Sponsors	Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
Supervisor	Alfredo Teixeira (Supervisor)