The public in "Public Theology"

The essay offers a reflection on the meaning of the term public and its use in Public Theology writings. Its goal is to contribute to the continuous debate on the meaning and referent of the word public in the context of contemporary societies, together with its contribution to the development of the so called Public Theology. In its first section, it presents the contemporary discussion on the term by public theologians. In the second, it presents some reasons for the ambiguity of the term public, caused by the very ambiguity of the distinction between public and private in contemporary societies. In the final section, it turns to the writings of Dewey, Foucault, Agamben and Derrida in order to find their contributions to the ongoing debate of the Public Theology.