Leonardo Boff

Genésio Darci Boff (b. in Concórdia, Brazil, December 14, 1938), better known as Leonardo Boff, is a theologian, Catholic clergyman (in his first religious stage) priest, and Franciscan for years, Brazilian philosopher, writer, professor and environmentalist. His brother, Clodovis Boff, is a Catholic theologian from the order of the Servants of Mary from which he left, one of the greatest exponents of Liberation Theology.

Biography

He is the grandson of an Italian who came from Veneto to Rio Grande do Sul at the end of the 19th century. He did his primary and secondary studies in Concórdia, Río Negro and Agudos. He studied Philosophy in Curitiba and Theology in Petrópolis. In 1970 he received a doctorate in Theology and Philosophy from the University of Munich, Germany. He entered the Order of Friars Minor, Franciscans, in 1959.

For 22 years he was a professor of Systematic and Ecumenical Theology at the Franciscan Theological Institute of Petrópolis, a professor of Theology and Spirituality at various study centers and universities in Brazil and abroad, and a visiting professor at the universities of Lisbon (Portugal)., Salamanca (Spain), Harvard (USA), Basel (Switzerland) and Heidelberg (Germany).

He holds an honorary doctorate in politics from the University of Turin (Italy) and in Theology from the University of Lund (Sweden).

Between 1975 and 1985 he participated in the editorial board of Editorial Vozes. In this period he was part of the coordination of the Theology and Liberation collection and the edition of the complete works of Carl Gustav Jung. Working for 17 years alongside the pioneering Brazilian feminist Rose Marie Muraro who also fought for liberation theory, both were expelled from Vozes due to pressure from the Vatican in 1987. He has been editor of the Brazilian Ecclesiastical Magazine. i> (1970-1984), from the Vozes Culture Magazine (1984-1992) and from the Concilium International Magazine (1970-1995).

He is one of the founders of Liberation Theology, along with Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino. In 1984, due to his theses linked to liberation theology, set out in his book Church: Charisma and Power, he was subjected to a trial by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In 1985 he was sentenced to one year of “silence” (suspension “a divinis”) and deposed from all his editorial and academic functions in the religious field.

He was almost silenced again in 1992 by Rome, to prevent him from participating in the Eco-92 in Rio de Janeiro, which finally led him to leave the Franciscan order and the priestly ministry.

In 1993 he entered a competition and was approved as a professor of ethics, philosophy of religion and ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).

He is the author of more than 60 books in the areas of theology, spirituality, philosophy, anthropology and mysticism. He speaks fluent German; Most of his work has been translated into several modern languages (English, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Chinese).

He currently lives in Jardim Araras, an ecological countryside region in the municipality of Petrópolis-RJ, with his partner Marcia Maria Monteiro de Miranda.

Recognitions

He has been awarded several awards in Brazil and abroad. On December 8, 2001, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, in Stockholm. He received the title Doctor Honoris Causa from the National University of La Plata (UNLP) on August 16, 2016 at the Faculty of Journalism and Social Communication. On August 22, 2018, the Universidad Iberoamericana Puebla and the Jesuit University System (SUJ) awarded him an Honorary Doctorate in Theology and Earth Sciences.

Works

Editorial Trotta has published a large part of his works: