Although very seldom explored, the relationship between philosophical pragmatism and liberation theology is not terribly difficult to establish.1 A shared emphasis on the continuity between theory and practice supplies one point of contact. Common recognition of the crucial role in human inquiry played by properly engaged communities constitutes another. The eschewing of a rigid contrast between nature and the supernatural, or between body/materiality and spirit, is a further tendency that both pragmatists and liberationists tend to display. All of these convergences are significant and will merit some attention here. Nevertheless, to observe them is only to scratch the surface of a relationship that runs surprisingly deep. In making this claim, I am talking primarily about the intellectual resonance of one way of thinking with another. I am not denying that there might be actual historical connections between pragmatism and liberation thought, but neither am I choosing to explore them...
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