How Authentically Christian is Liberation Theology?

1988 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Tunstead Burtchaell
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
Good For ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Dominant Paradigm

This is a friendly critique of the Liberation Theology being elaborated in Latin America. The preferential option for the poor constricts its attention to economic disadvantage, and ascribes virtually all impoverishment to purposeful oppression. The poor are, simply in virtue of their deprivation, said to be so morally exalted that the gospel has for them no call to conversion. Theirs is a salvation without further ado. Yet their salvation turns out to be predominantly, if not exclusively, economic and political. A predilection for the Exodus displaces the death and resurrection ofJesus as the dominant paradigm for liberation. It is maladapted to a Christian vision of liberation, which must aim at communion with the enemy, not mere triumph. By claiming justice as its goal and fulfillment, liberation theology seems to suffer from a loss of Christian nerve. Looking to the socialist state as the sure guarantor of justice, it seems politically naive, and barren of the Christian hope that both exploiter and victim must be transformed into more than just persons (because prepared to return good for evil) well before the society around them has become a fit home even for justice.

Liberation Theology in Latin America

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Historical Reality ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Political Turmoil ◽  
The Church

This chapter examines the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America. It offers three cases studies illustrating the economic and political turmoil in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s: Chile, Brazil, and El Salvador. The chapter then turns to the theology of two prominent liberation theologians, Gustavo Gutiérrez and Ignacio Ellacuría. Gutiérrez proposes that God calls us to make a preferential option for the poor, and to work for integral liberation in history. Similarly, Ellacuría explains that God offers his salvation in history, and the church is called to realize the Reign of God in the midst of historical reality, siding with the “crucified people” with whom Jesus identifies.

scholarly journals IDENTIDAD DE LA TEOLOGÍA LATINOAMERICA Y LA TEOLOGÍA DE LA LIBERACIÓN

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Jorge Costadoat Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Theological Method ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Age Of Maturity ◽  
The Status ◽  
Original Speech ◽  
America Latina ◽  
The Church

RESUMEN: El objetivo de esta investigación es suministrar argumentos para identificar la Teología latinoamericana con la Teología de la liberación, y viceversa. Entre estos argumentos se debe considerar la conciencia de alcanzar la “mayoría de edad” de la Iglesia en América Latina en el postconcilio; la convicción de los teólogos de la liberación de estar elaborando una “nueva manera” de hacer teo­logía; una toma de distancia del carácter ilustrado de la teología; y la posibilidad de reconocer en los acontecimientos regionales, particularmente en los pobres, un habla original de Dios. Este artículo pretende hacer una contribución al status quaestionis del método teológico.ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to provide arguments to identify Latin American Theology with Liberation Theology, and vice versa. Among these arguments, one should consider the awareness of the Church in Latin America reaching its “age of maturity” in the post-conciliar period. Other arguments are the conviction of liberation theologians to be elaborating a “new way” of doing theology; a distance from the illustrated characteristic of theology; and, the possibility of recognizing in regional events, particularly in the poor, God’s original speech. This article aims to contribute to the status quaestionis of the theological method.

scholarly journals AGAMA DAN POLITIK: TEOLOGI PEMBEBASAN SEBAGAI ARENA PROFETISASI AGAMA

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Wasisto Raharjo Jati
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Comparative Study ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Relationship

<p class="IIABSBARU">This article aims to analyze the comparative study of the liberation theology perspective. The notion of liberation theology is a form of transformative theology that concerned within issues of equality and social justice. The relationship amidst religion and politics is reciprocal due to there are conflicts of interest between both entities. Emergence of liberation theology itself arises because of the politicization of religion has become more acute and chronic so it needs to be transformed. The thought of liberation theology is basically grown in the famous case of Latin America with the spirit church of the poor. However, within Islam, it also found a similar essence that Islam also teaches that there egalitarianism, equality, and social justice. Article will elaborate about this comparison of liberation theology.</p><p class="IIABSBARU" align="center">***</p>Artikel ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis studi perbandingan perspektif teologi pembebasan. Gagasan teologi pembebasan adalah suatu bentuk teologi trans­formatif yang bersangkutan dalam isu-isu kesetaraan dan keadilan sosial. Hubungan di tengah-tengah agama dan politik adalah timbal balik karena ada konflik kepentingan antara kedua entitas. Munculnya teologi pembebasan itu sendiri timbul karena adanya politisasi agama telah menjadi lebih akut dan kronis sehingga perlu diubah. Pikiran teologi pembebasan pada dasarnya tumbuh dalam kasus terkenal Amerika Latin dengan semangat gereja kaum miskin. Namun, dalam Islam, itu juga menemukan esensi yang sama bahwa Islam juga mengajarkan bahwa ada egalitarianisme, kesetaraan, dan keadilan sosial. Pasal akan menguraikan tentang perbandingan ini teologi pembebasan.

Prophetic Preaching, Liberation Theology and the Holy Land

2004 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-244
Author(s):  
Duncan Macpherson
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Jewish People ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Prophetic Preaching ◽  
Oppressed People ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
Theology Of Liberation

For Christian preachers the Holy Land is essential to understanding the Bible. Preachers often leave modern Israel-Palestine out of their preaching picture. Others, fundamentalist preachers, support modern Israel for its part in an apocalyptic drama of the last times. A third group sees the land as the recompense to the Jewish people for their sufferings – reinforced for some by a residually literalist interpretation of Scripture. Still others show solidarity with indigenous Palestinian Christians, developing a theology of liberation emphasising God's preferential option for the poor – the Palestinians and all oppressed people. Homiletic strategies will be sketched to illustrate this last approach.

Theologies of Liberation

2015 ◽  
pp. 802-819
Author(s):  
Roberto Goizueta
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Catholic Action ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
The Third World ◽  
Early Influences ◽  
Do So

The term ‘theologies of liberation’ refers to a global theological movement that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s among Christians working for justice among the poor of the Third World. Most systematically articulated, initially, by Latin American theologians such as the Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, liberation theology is rooted in the Gospel claim that Jesus Christ is identified in a special way with the poor and marginalized of our world. Early influences on the emergence of liberation theology in Latin America included: the Catholic Action movement, base ecclesial communities, Vatican II (especially Gaudium et spes), and the Medellín Conference of 1968. The central insight of liberation theologies is that, because God makes a ‘preferential option for the poor’, we are called to do so as well; if Christ is identified with the marginalized, the lives of the poor is the privileged locus for practising Christian theological reflection.

Liberation Theology: the Option for the Poor

1987 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 407-421
Author(s):  
Peter Hebblethwaite
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The People ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Church Structures

One fairly obvious difference between this paper and those you have heard so far is that liberation theology, whatever it means, is still being discussed, attacked, caricatured, and defended with great vehemence and passion. The theme does not possess the completeness and neatness that historians prefer. It sprawls and proliferates. The bibliography is immense. We have already reached the stage of the overarching survey. D. W. Ferm has provided a 150-page summary with a helpful ‘reader’ for the use of college students. Ferm’s survey includes African and Asian theologians as well as Latin Americans. I can understand his desire to include Archbishop-elect Desmond Tutu in South Africa and to provide some hints as to why President Marcos could be deposed in the Philippines. And there is indeed a body called the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians—its unfortunate acronym is EATWOT—which gives some substance to this universalizing claim. But I am going to confine myself to Latin America because it was there that the ‘option for the poor’ was first spoken about. The date was 1968. CELAM, the regional association of Latin American Bishops, met at Medellin in Colombia in August. Pope Paul VI was present, and was the first Pope to kiss the soil of Latin America. There was a feeling abroad that at the Second Vatican Council, which had ended three years before, an essentially European agenda concerned typically with ecumenism and Church structures (collegiality) had prevailed; the Council had yet to be ‘applied’ to the Latin American situation. One phrase, however, provided a stimulus and a starting-point. Gaudium etSpes, the pastoral constitution on the Church in the World of Today, begins with the ringing assertion that ‘the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this time, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties, of the followers of Christ’.

Ecclesial Opposition to Mining on Mindanao: Neoliberalism Encounters the Church of the Poor in the Land of Promise

2007 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Holden ◽  
Daniel Jacobson
Keyword(s):  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
Philippine Government ◽  
The Church

AbstractIn the developing world, environmental issues are often livelihood issues as the poor try to protect resources necessary for their subsistence. This paper examines the opposition of the Roman Catholic Church, on the Island of Mindanao, to neoliberal policies designed by the Philippine government to encourage nonferrous metals mining by multinational corporations. Mining is an activity with substantial potential for environmental degradation that can deprive the poor of their livelihood. The Church, demonstrating the influence of liberation theology and its preferential option for the poor, has taken a stance opposing mining as an activity that may harm the poor by degrading the environment upon which they depend for their livelihood and further impoverish them. The paper examines the Church's efforts to provide alternative development programs for the poor and discusses the potential for more conflict between neoliberalism, and its "top down" methods of implementing policies, and liberation theology with its "bottom up" perspective on achieving development.

Cartographies of Experience: Rethinking the Method of Liberation Theology

Horizons ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristien Justaert
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
Hierarchical Relation ◽  
The Way

The core of this article consists of a critical rethinking of the classical “see-judge-act” methodology of liberation theology. The article contends that this method threatens to install a dualism between a universal, secular experience of oppression and a Christian interpretation of it, thereby creating a hierarchical relation that reduces the complexity of the experience of poverty. The author investigates this issue by focusing on liberation theology's understanding of the “preferential option for the poor” (part 1) and the way in which the see-judge-act methodology affects this understanding (part 2). The article gradually moves on to alternative epistemologies, starting with a discussion of a hermeneutical approach (C. Boff and Schillebeeckx) and the method of “historicization” (Ellacuría), and eventually proposing a new phenomenologically and materially informed methodology for liberation theology that is called “cartography” and is grounded in a “new materialist” metaphysics as articulated by Deleuze, Braidotti, and Barad (part 3).

scholarly journals Miskin dan Kaya Dalam Injil Lukas dan Teologi Pembebasan

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Vasika Hananti ◽  
Bambang Subandrijo
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Good News ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract: Harvey J. Sindima observed Liberation Theology as it flourished in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the United States. The social situation in that society has some similarities in Luke's community. According to Philip Francis Esler's research, Luke's theology seeks to answer the social situation in Luke's community, especially regarding the relationship between the rich and the poor. This study aims to review Sindima's review of Liberation Theology based on Philip Francis Esler's thoughts on the relationship between rich and poor in Luke's Gospel. In Sindima's writings, the involvement of the rich has not been found as an effort to minimize the suffering of the poor. In this study, the author uses an analytical method. The result is that the good news for the poor in Liberation Theology is in line with the good news in Luke's Gospel. Moreover, in Luke's Gospel the liberation of the poor is not only the responsibility of the poor themselves as in the Theology of Liberation in Sindima's description, but also the responsibility of the rich as part of a sharing community.  Abstrak: Harvey J. Sindima mengamati Teologi Pembebasan yang berkembang di Amerika Latin, Afrika, Asia, dan Amerika Serikat. Situasi sosial dalam masyarakat tersebut memiliki beberapa kesamaan dalam komunitas Lukas. Menurut penelitian Philip Francis Esler, teologi Lukas berupaya menjawab situasi sosial dalam komunitas Lukas, terutama menyangkut hubungan orang kaya dan orang miskin. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk meninjau uraian Sindima tentang Teologi Pembebasan berdasarkan pemikiran Philip Francis Esler berkenaan dengan hubungan orang miskin dan kaya dalam Injil Lukas. Dalam tulisan Sindima masih belum ditemukan keterlibatan orang kaya sebagai upaya meminimalisir penderitaan orang miskin. Dalam penelitian ini, penulis menggunakan metode analitis. Hasil tinjauan ini adalah bahwa kabar baik bagi orang miskin dalam Teologi Pembebasan sejalan dengan pemberitaan kabar baik dalam Injil Lukas. Lebih dari itu, dalam Injil Lukas pembebasan terhadap orang miskin bukan hanya menjadi tanggung jawab orang miskin itu sendiri sebagaimana dalam Teologi Pembebasan dalam uraian Sindima, tetapi juga merupakan tanggung jawab orang kaya sebagai bagian dari komunitas yang saling berbagi.

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