Departments of Philosophy and Political Science, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya

Title and Précis:

Christianity and the Battles for Remembering: Reflections on the Debate Surrounding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Peru

     The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) was created by the transitional Peruvian government (after the fall of President Alberto Fujimori, 2000-2001) to examine the violence Peru lived through between 1980 and 2000.  The TRC made its Final Report public at the end of August, 2003.  The document provoked an intense and bitter debate.  This research examines the participation of Catholics in this debate and the reference to Catholicism to justify the arguments presented in the debate over the public recuperation of the country’s memory, as well as the ethical and political ramifications of the concept of reconciliation.  The conceptual tools of contemporary political philosophy (especially liberalism, neo-Hegelian thought and hermeneutics) and reflection on the suffering of the innocent (especially in the works of Johann Baptist Metz and Gustavo Gutiérrez) will be used.  Because the aim is to analyze a public debate, the work will consist partially in unveiling the philosophical and theological categories implicit in the different positions in dispute.

Biography:

     Lic. Gonzalo Gamio Gehri is Professor of Ethics and Philosophy at the Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya.  He received his Certificate of Advanced Degree in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of Comillas in Madrid, Spain in 2003, with a dissertation titled "Practical Deliberation and the Good Life: A Study on the Ethics of Charles Taylor." Lic. Gamio Gehri has published widely in the fields of philosophy, ethics, theology and social/political science.