liberation theology

liberation theology belief that the Christian Gospel demands "a preferential option for the poor," and that the church should be involved in the struggle for economic and political justice in the contemporary world—particularly in the Third World. Dating to the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and the Second Latin American Bishops Conference, held in Medellin, Colombia (1968), the movement brought poor people together in comunidades de base, or Christian-based communities, to study the Bible and to fight for social justice. Since the 1980s, the church hierarchy has criticized liberation theology and its advocates, accusing them of wrongly supporting violent revolution and Marxist class struggle.

Bibliography: See studies by P. Berryman (1987), A. Hennelly (1989), and J. R. Pottenger (1989).

liberation theology Several Roman Catholic theologians working in impoverished communities in Latin America have emphasized that both in the OT and in the NT injustice and oppression have been condemned in the name of God. The books of Exodus and 1 and 2 Macc. encourage the oppressed to refuse to submit to their sufferings. Jesus was on the side of the poor and against the exploitations by the rich (Luke 16: 19–31); the first Christians liberated themselves from inequalities of wealth (Acts 4: 32). In some countries (e.g. Peru, Brazil, Central America, South Africa) the Bible has been used as the basis for, and justification of, political action on behalf of those discriminated against.

Liberation theology has not been favourably received by those theologians who detect in it a Marxist analysis of society. They fear that Jesus is interpreted in predetermined categories and made to fit into them, and also that much liberation theology is indifferent to established critical scholarship.But the influence of liberation theology (and movements such as feminist theology which are akin to it) is enormous. There is steady progress in teaching oppressed groups to understand their situation and to change it—a process called ‘conscientization’. An example is the use of the poem in Lam. 5: 1–5 by priests in Brazil to give hope to the poor; if they feel that their own plight is described thus in the Bible, then they too are not abandoned by God. And Is. 50: 4–9 suggests that their sufferings may even further the purposes of God, and final vindication is assured (Is. 53: 12).

One or two theologians in the West have adapted liberation theology to apply to what they call the ‘culture of contempt’ which erodes standards of moral and intellectual achievements. To reverse the ever-declining value set on high standards of competence and integrity, they welcome liberation theology as offering a challenge to the ideals of a decent, caring society to look beyond its own self-interest.