Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology represents a major change in the way Christianity approaches the social problems of Latin America. The changes began in the 1960s with the Second Vatican Council and the growth of Christian Base Communities. The first major publication was the Spanish edition of Gustavo Gutiérrez's A Theology of Liberation (1971). Gutiérrez is still a key figure.

Liberation theology has eight basic themes: (1) praxis (our action in the world) is the starting point of theology; (2) history is the locus of theology (God acts in historical time); (3) the world should be viewed as a whole, favoring the Hebraic holistic view over Greek dualism; (4) sin is social and systemic, not just individual; (5) God is on the side of the oppressed; (6) the present world order must be transformed; (7) the purpose of theology is primarily to act and to change the world, not just to understand it; (8) the kingdom of God (the reign of God) has begun in this life, and the purpose of humanity is to increase the kingdom by human actions in the world.

In the colonial period and until about 1960, the church generally promoted the fatalistic view that the poor would receive their reward in the afterlife, implying that they should not strive for social change in this life. Liberation theology uses biblical themes like the Exodus to teach the poor that God is on the side of the oppressed and favors their liberation. Thus the post-Vatican II Church (Second Vatican Council) has a "preferential option for the poor." The focus is to work for justice and social change in solidarity with the poor.

Liberation theology is closely connected to Christian base communities (comunidades eclesiales de base), small communities that began about 1960 to empower the poor to work for social change. There are thousands of base communities all over Latin America. The movement is strongest in Brazil, Nicaragua, and El Salvador, and weakest in Bolivia and Colombia.

There is much controversy over liberation theology and the base communities. They are a challenge to the current power structures in both civil society and the Catholic Church. Because they have empowered the poor in many countries, the Vatican fears a laity that sees power as coming from the grass roots and not just from the hierarchy. Liberation theology has redefined the church. Thus, Leonardo Boff's Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church (1986) defines the church as the people, and deemphasizes the institutional church. Governments are threatened by the poor masses who are organizing as a result of this movement and who have rising expectations of more control over their lives. These organized groups work for social change, sometimes in a revolutionary mode, as happened in Nicaragua in the 1980s.

Liberation theology is often linked with Marxism, but most liberation theologians do not accept all of Marxism, and certainly not its atheistic materialism. Rather they use Marxism as a source for their questions, not their answers. Liberation theologians use Marxist economic analysis to ask probing questions about the economic injustice endured by the poor in Latin America.

Liberation theology defines theology as reflection on praxis (experience); that is, theology is the work of the corporate community of Christians reflecting on the happenings in their lives in light of the Scriptures. Thus the poor who are members of base communities reflect on their economic and political oppression and see that God liberated his people in the Exodus and elsewhere. Their faith in the Scriptures gives them hope, and the organization of their Christian communities gives them the means. The power of religion is no longer a magic formula reserved for priests; it is also held by the people, according to liberation theology. Power is to be used for good, so politics is a proper field for Christian action.

Liberation theology has been criticized for being too naive about Marxist economics and Dependency Theory. In its early years biblical scholars criticized its weakness in exegesis (interpretation). Over the decades, the Catholic Church hierarchy, including the Vatican, largely has not supported the theology of liberation; it has appointed more conservative clergy in an attempt to restrain the movement. Its greatest competition from within Christianity comes from the Pentecostal and Evangelical groups, which concentrate on individual conversion and avoid community politics and social issues. These groups do not require literacy and commitment to social action, as the base communities usually do. In some areas of Brazil, for instance, the base communities are in direct competition with Pentecostals for the population in poor barrios or favelas (slums). Despite philosophical differences, however, these groups have on occasion collaborated.

Major Latin American liberation theologians include Gustavo Gutiérrez, a priest who lives in a poor section of Lima; Leonardo Boff, a former Franciscan seminary professor from Brazil who resigned his priesthood in 1992, after many battles with the Vatican; Juan Luis Segundo, an Uruguayan Jesuit; Jon Sobrino, a Spanish Jesuit who has lived in El Salvador for many years; Hugo Assmann, a Brazilian priest who founded the Departamento Ecuménico de Investigaciones (DEI) in Costa Rica, a Christian institute that publishes books on liberation theology; José Míg uez Bonino, an Argentine Methodist pastor; Segundo Galilea, a Chilean priest who was director of the Latin American Pastoral Institute for many years and writes on Christian spirituality; and Pablo Richard, a Chilean priest who has worked at DEI in Costa Rica for many years. All but Gutiérrez and Galilea have spent most of their careers as university professors. A major publisher of liberation theology books is Orbis Books, in Mary-knoll, New York.

In the history of ideas, liberation theology may be the first intellectual movement from Latin America that has been adopted as part of a global culture. European and U.S. cultures have sought, translated, and integrated a Latin American idea system into their own.

Liberation theology remains relevant in the twenty-first century despite a changed global context—the breakup of the Soviet Union and democratization throughout Latin America. Priests and laypeople demanding a "preferential option for the poor" generally face less violence than did their predecessors. Those who espouse liberation theology are paying attention to new issues, such as the environment, race, gender, and feminism. Protestantism continues to pose challenges to Catholicism, though some progressive Protestants have adapted liberation theology tenets and joined with Catholics in their struggles.

See alsoGutiérrez, Gustavo; Religion in Mexico, Catholic Church and Beyond.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, translated and edited by Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (1973).

José Míguez Bonino, Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation (1975).

Jon Sobrino, The True Church and the Poor, translated by Matthew J. O'Connell (1984).

Phillip Berryman, Liberation Theology: The Essential Facts About the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America and Beyond (1987).

Leonardo Boff and Clodovis Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, translated by Paul Burns (1987).

Juan Luis Segundo, The Liberation of Theology (1988).

Arthur F. Mc Govern, Liberation Theology and Its Critics (1989).

Alfred Hennelly, ed., Liberation Theology: A Documentary History (1990).

Warren Edward Hewitt, Base Christian Communities and Social Change in Brazil (1991).

Ronald G. Musto, Liberation Theologies: A Research Guide (1991).

Additional Bibliography

Barber, Michael D. Ethical Hermeneutics: Rationality in Enrique Dussel's Philosophy of Liberation. New York: Fordham University Press, 1998.

Boff, Leonardo. Ecology and Liberation: A New Paradigm. Translated by John Cumming. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.

Dussel, Enrique D., and Eduardo Mendieta, eds. Beyond Philosophy: Ethics, History, Marxism, and Liberation Theology. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2003.

Hopkins, Dwight N. Introducing Black Theology of Liberation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1999.

Schüssler Fiorenza, Elisabeth, ed. The Power of Naming: A Concilium Reader in Feminist Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books; and London: SCM Press, 1996.

Tombs, David. Latin American Liberation Theology. Boston: Brill Academic Publishers, 2002.

                                    Thomas Niehaus