| Summary: | <p>This thesis aims to study the hermeneutic scope of the concept of non-person based on the fundamental texts of Gustavo Gutiérrez.</p>
<p>Taking as a starting point his major work, Teología de la liberación: perspectivas (Salamanca: Ediciones Sígueme, 1972), then following the first use and developments of the non-person in his later texts, this study seeks on the one hand, to trace its origins, and on the other, to analyze Gutiérrez’s hermeneutical contributions on the matter. Finally, it proposes a systematic elaboration of the concept.</p>
<p>Beginning with the man behind the concept, the first chapter focuses on the biographical circumstances that may have contributed to Gutiérrez's intuitions about non-personhood. By following his family events, his struggles, his failures, and his theological victories, we arrive at a more precise vision of the economic and social context as well as of the set of personal experiences at the origin of his theological reflection.</p>
<p>The second chapter identifies three main sources—texts and authors—which have contributed conceptually to the notion of non-person. The first is the study on the poor of Yahweh developed by the exegete Albert Gelin and published in 1953 (Les pauvres de Yahvé, Paris: Éditions du Cerf). The second is a collection of reports from South American missionaries, published in 1971 by the Latin American Episcopal Conference (La pastoral en las misiones de América Latina, ed. Departamento de Misiones de la CELAM, México: Iglesia Nueva), which exposes the pastoral challenges of evangelization among Amazonian communities. The third source is an assortment of texts by Bartolomé de Las Casas, assembled and commented by Gutiérrez himself, which he published in 1992 (En busca de los pobres de Jesucristo: el pensamiento de Bartolomé de las Casas, Lima: Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas). The chapter highlights the connection between these three texts and the categorical developments of dehumanization, depersonalization, lack of recognition and exploitation in Gutiérrez's writings.</p>
<p>The third chapter deals with the development of the concept itself. The precursor texts (1964-1968), as well as the first editions of his Teología de la liberación: perspectivas (1971-1976), provide a first sketch of Gutiérrez’s non-person, which coincides with his reflections on the role of theological praxis and on the advent of a “new man”. But it is not until the Conference of the Americas, in Detroit in 1976, that the concept of non-person definitively sees the light of day. It first appears as a discursive instrument allowing Gutiérrez to distinguish his work from other currents of modern Western theology. The use of the concept proving itself, its success offers him the opportunity to deepen and universalise it, thus inaugurating a more ambitious hermeneutic, task that he undertakes through subsequent publications, notably in his exegesis on the text of Job (Hablar de Dios desde el sufrimiento del inocente: una reflexión sobre el libro de Job, Rimac-Lima: Instituto Bartolomé de las Casa, 1986), which seals the categorical maturity of the concept.</p>
<p>With these elements at hand, the last chapter systematizes Gutiérrez’s theological insights and demonstrates their universality, first through praxis, by examining its hermeneutic components in the light of a situation of real dehumanization. To this end, my personal experience of captivity provided an accessible area of study. Second, driven by the intuition of David Tracy - for whom the challenge posed by non-persons must serve to elucidate that posed by non-believers of the rich world -, the last part of this thesis updates the tensions specific to the non-person, between freedom and alienation on the one hand, and between love and justice on the other. In this regard, it seemed useful to revisit the fundamental symbols of Christology based on the hermeneutic inversion posed by the concept of non-person. The theological values thus deduced demonstrated their capacity to respond to the requirement of universality introduced by Tracy.</p>
<p>We conclude this research by noting how, once the concept of non-person is established, it becomes impossible to reflect on today's world from the perspective of Christian theology, without taking it into account. The dimension of Gustavo Gutiérrez’s legacy must be recognized as such and valued as the indispensable hermeneutic tool for today’s theological work.</p>
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