Liberation Theology

The term liberation theology was first used by Latin-American priests and theologians (mainly Catholic) and U.S. African-American clergy and theologians (mainly Protestant) during the latter part of the 1960s. It refers to an interpretation of the Bible and the Christian faith from the standpoint of the poor and their struggles for justice in society. Without knowledge of the political activities and theological reflections of each other, Latin-American priests working among the masses and U.S. African-American ministers working with exploited blacks began to claim that God was involved in the history of oppressed people, empowering them to fight against poverty and racism.

Latin Americans focused their concern primarily on economic exploitation, particularly the great gap between large poor majorities and rich landowners. African Americans focused their concern primarily on racial oppression, the extreme dehumanization of black people arising from 244 years of slavery and more than a hundred years of segregation. Both Latin Americans and U.S. African Americans, however, emphasized that the world should not be the way it is and that it is therefore the task of Christians to change it.

Liberation Theology in Latin America

A key moment in the development of Latin-American liberation theology was a meeting of priests in Chimboté, Peru, in July 1968. A Peruvian priest and theologian, Gustavo Gutierrez, made the first statement on liberation theology, delivering a paper entitled "Toward a Theology of Liberation." He outlined the methodology for which liberation theology has become famous. "Theology is a reflection—that is, … a second act … that comes after action. Theology is not first; the commitment is first." Theology, therefore, does not tell people what to do; rather, it arises out of what they do. For Christians, therefore, the truth of the gospel of Jesus is discovered only in practice.

One month after the Chimboté meeting, the wellknown Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops was held at Medellín, Colombia, from August 26 to September 6, 1968. The Medellín conference marked a turning point in the history of the Church in Latin America analogous to the impact of the Second Vatican Council on the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. At Medellín, the Latin American Bishops, with much encouragement from Gutierrez and other theological advisers, "discovered" the world of the poor, the exploited masses who "hunger and thirst after justice." This inspired a continent-wide preferential option for the poor.

While the Medellín conference is often cited as the beginning of liberation theology, Gustavo Gutierrez's A Theology of Liberation is regarded as its most influential text. Published in Spanish in 1971 and translated into English in 1973, the continuing and worldwide influence of this book is the major reason Gutierrez has been called the "father of liberation theology." The book is an extended interpretation of his Chimboté paper on liberation theology. In it, Gutierrez emphasizes that liberation theology is not a reflection on the abstract and timeless truths about God; rather, it is chiefly a new way of doing theology, a "critical reflection on historical praxis." Liberation theology "does not stop with reflecting on the world, but tries to be part of the process through which the world is transformed" (Gutierrez, 1973, p.15).

Liberation Theology in the United States

The key moment in the development of black liberation theology was the publication of the Black Power statement in the New York Times on July 31, 1966, by an ad hoc committee of radical black clergy who later organized themselves as the National Conference of Black Christians (NCBC). In this statement, they opposed the white church's rejection of Black Power as unchristian and instead expressed their solidarity with the urban black poor in their communities, affirming the need for black self-determination and empowerment. Two years later, responding to the widespread Black Power movement in the black communities throughout the United States, James Cone published an essay titled "Christianity and Black Power." He defined the liberating message of Black Power as the message of Christ. Cone deepened the theological meaning of Black Power in the book Black Theology and Black Power (1969). During the same year, using Cone's book as the main source of their deliberations, the Theological Commission of the NCBC issued an official statement on "Black Theology," defining it as a "theology of black liberation." One year later, Cone's A Black Theology of Liberation (1970) was published, making liberation the organizing principle of his theological perspective.

Like Latin-American liberation theology, black theology also emphasized praxis. It was defined as a specific kind of obedience that organizes itself around a social theory of reality in order to implement in society the freedom inherent in faith. If faith is the belief that God created all for freedom, then praxis is the social theory used to analyze what must be done for the historical realization of freedom. To sing about freedom and to pray for its coming is not enough. Freedom must be actualized in history by oppressed peoples who accept the intellectual challenge to analyze the world for the purpose of changing it.

Liberation Theology in Africa and Asia

Soon after the appearance of liberation theology in Latin America and in African-American communities in the United States, other expressions of it appeared in Africa, in Asia, and among women in all groups. Black and contextual theologies of liberation were created by Christian communities struggling against apartheid in South Africa, with Desmond Tutu and Alan Boesak as prominent leaders. African theology appeared in other parts of Africa with an emphasis on indigenization and Africanization. John Mbiti of Kenya and Engelbert Mveng of Cameroon were prominent interpreters. An Asian liberation theology emerged out of Christian communities encountering the overwhelming poverty and the multifaceted religiousness of the continent. Aloysius Pieris of Sri Lanka and Samuel Rayan of India were important representatives.

Liberation Theology Among Women

Responding to their struggles against sexism, women on all continents began to develop theologies of liberation out of their experience. In the United States, Mary Daly and Rosemary Ruether were among the leading voices in initiating the development of feminist theology; Delores Williams and Jacquelyn Grant helped to create a womanist theology out of black women's experience; and Ada Marie Isasi-Diaz made a similar contribution to the development of a feminist theology among Hispanics. Mercy Amba Oduyoye of Ghana, Chung Hyun-Kyung of South Korea, and Elsa Tamez of Mexico reflected on the liberating presence of God in the struggles of third-world women against patriarchal mechanisms of domination in the global context of the church and the society.

The Unity of Third World Theologians

Recognizing the commonality of their concerns, theologians of liberation in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and among U.S. minorities met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in August 1976 and created the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). Their concern was to break with theological models inherited from the West and to develop a new way of doing theology that would interpret the gospel in a more meaningful way to peoples of the third world and promote their struggles of liberation. In more than twenty-five years of dialogue, visiting each others' places of struggle, liberation theologians have debated one another about the most important starting point for doing Christian theology. Latin Americans have emphasized their struggle to overcome economic structures of domination, pointing to the wide gap between the rich and poor among nations and within nations and stressing the need for theology to make use of the social sciences in analyzing the world of the poor. Africans have talked about their struggle against "anthropological poverty" and the "despoiling of human beings not only of what they have but of everything that constitutes their essence—their identity, history, language, and dignity" (Mveng, 1983, p. 220). They have also stressed the need to liberate theology from the cultural captivity of the West. Asians have emphasized the need to develop a theological method that combines the analyses of religion, culture, politics, and economics. U.S. minorities, the smallest group in the association, have reminded all of the importance of race analysis in the doing of theology.

In their dialogues, which have often been intense, liberation theologians in EATWOT have learned much from each other. They have published eight volumes, including Sergio Torres and Virginia Fabella (eds.), The Emergent Gospel: Theology From the Underside of History (1978); Virginia Fabella and Sergio Torres (eds.), Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology (1983); Virginia Fabella and Sergio Torres (eds.), Doing Theology in a Divided World (1985); Virginia Fabella and Mercy Amba Oduyoye (eds.), With Passion and Compassion: Third World Women Doing Theology (1988); K. C. Abraham (ed.), Third World Theologies: Commonalities and Divergences (1990); and K. C. Abraham and Bernadette Mbuy-Beya (eds.), Spirituality of the Third World (1994).

All liberation theologians agree that the Christian gospel can best be understood and interpreted in the context of one's participation in the struggles of the poor for justice. Faith is not primarily intellectual assent to truths about God; rather, it is a commitment to God and to human beings, especially the poor. Theology, therefore, is a reflection on the commitment that Christians make in their effort to put into practice the demands of faith.

The contrast between liberation theologies and the dominant theologies of Europe and North America is quite revealing. The identity of the dominant theologies has been strongly influenced by the European Enlightenment and secularism, creating the problem of the unbeliever. The central task of theology, therefore, is to make the Christian faith intelligible in a world that can be explained without God.

The identity of liberation theologies has been defined by oppression—poverty, racism, colonialism, and sexism—creating the problem of the nonperson. In this context, theology asks, what is the relationship between salvation and the struggle for justice in society? Faith demands not only that it be understood, but that salvation be realized in the social, economic, and political lives of people.

Theologies of liberation have also emerged among gays, lesbians, and transsexual people and among other oppressed groups. Liberation theology is not limited to one group or continent but found wherever oppressed people of faith are empowered intellectually to reflect on their fight for freedom.

See also Black Power Movement; Catholicism in the Americas; Protestantism in the Americas

Bibliography

Boff, Leonardo, and Clodovis Boff. Introducing Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1987.

Cone, James H. For My People: Black Theology and the Black Church. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1984.

Gutierrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. Translated and edited by Caridad Inda and John Eagleson, Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1973.

Hennelly, Alfred T., ed. Liberation Theology: A Documentary History. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1990.

Mveng, Englebert. "Third World Theology—What Theology? What Third World?: Evaluation by an African Delegate." In Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology, edited by Virginia Fabella and Sergio Torres. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1983.

Wilmore, Gayraud S., and James H. Cone. Black Theology: A Documentary History, 1966–1979. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1979.

james h. cone (1996)
Updated by author 2005