Trust women: a progressive Christian argument for reproductive justice

Abstract

traditions are necessary for social change, but new visions and languages have to be created as well (113f f.). In addition, Grelle’s attention to Gramsci’s understanding of “ideal interests” in chapter 6 is worth noting (122 ff.). Gramsci challenges orthodox Marxism’s reductionist focus on material interests showing that human life is driven by ideals as well. Moreover, this humanist emphasis allows Grelle to criticize overly suspicious approaches that denigrate human rights as “bourgeois freedoms.” Instead, Grelle stresses the importance of these freedoms in the struggle for justice of subaltern groups. With Gramsci, Grelle criticizes the denigration of certain ideas due to their “sectional” origin. Rather, he offers a compelling argument to see how these ideals can go beyond sectional interests and be universalized for the enhancement of all human life (127–28). What the reader misses in this fine book is some engagement with social movements of Gramscian inspiration. It is unfortunate that Grelle only mentions liberation theology once and in passing (64). To take an example, Gustavo Gutiérrez was deeply influenced by Gramsci and José Carlos Mariátegui’s creative, humanist interpretation of Marxism, an interpretation that he retrieved critically in the development of his theology. Closer attention to this and other concrete appropriations of Gramsci could have enriched the book greatly, especially in its constructive section.