Liberation Theology in Latin America

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglass Sullivan-González
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Preferential Option ◽  
History Of ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Exodus Narrative ◽  
Theological Understanding

Liberation theology is a critical reflection on the workings of God in the history of humankind that emphasizes the active, divine redemption (liberation) of humans from the sinful bonds of political and economic oppression. The biblical Exodus narrative became the core metaphor for the theological understanding of liberation and freedom. The Latin American bishops, during their second meeting at Medellín, Colombia, in 1968, coined a signature tenet of liberation theology: “the preferential option for the poor.” Liberation theology emerged formally among theologians in South America in response to rising expectations produced by two key external factors: the successful Cuban revolution (1959) and the ecumenical zeitgeist associated with Vatican II (1962–1965). The movement spread quickly while increased literacy among the faithful inspired lay leaders, trained by sparse clergy and women religious, to organize Christian base communities (CEBs), to “read” their own reality in light of the Exodus story, and to campaign for social justice in alliance with secular political actors. The swift repression and assassination of clergy, nuns, and lay activists by security forces hostile to democratization of the political economy in the 1970s and early 1980s fueled international awareness of liberation theology. Heightened internal opposition within the Vatican in the 1980s to some of liberation theology’s fundamental tenets culminated with the ten-month silencing in 1985 of the Brazilian theologian and Franciscan priest Leonardo Boff. Liberation theology has since inspired other marginalized social actors to explore what liberation means for those forced to live on the periphery due to racial, ethnic, and/or gender-based discrimination; homophobia; and a rapidly deteriorating environment threatened by unsustainable development models.

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.

A Brief History of Theosemiotic

Theosemiotic ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 15-42
Author(s):  
Michael L. Raposa
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
William James ◽  
Jonathan Edwards ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Causal Influence ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
Book Of Nature ◽  
Religious Significance ◽  
History Of

This chapter supplies a historical survey of theosemiotic, focused less on demonstrating actual lines of causal influence than on exposing the resonance of certain ideas articulated by thinkers sometimes far removed from each other in space and time. It links Peirce’s thought to that of earlier figures (like Augustine, Duns Scotus, John Poinsot, Jonathan Edwards, and Ralph Waldo Emerson), certain contemporaries (especially William James and Josiah Royce), and later thinkers and developments (most notably, H. Richard Niebuhr, Simone Weil, and Gustavo Gutierrez). The chapter begins with an examination of the religious significance of talk about the “book of nature” and concludes with the observation of a certain natural affinity between a theosemiotic inspired by Peirce’s pragmatism and Latin American liberation theology.

scholarly journals Por uma transformação intercultural da teologia

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 (311) ◽  
pp. 695
Author(s):  
Sinivaldo Silva Tavares
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Modern Culture ◽  
Strong Polarization ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Culture History ◽  
The World ◽  
Christian Message ◽  
Intercultural Dialog

O anúncio cristão tem se dado mediante um diálogo intercultural que, historicamente, caracterizou-se por uma cerrada polarização entre fé e cultura. Esta polarização foi desconstruída pelo Vaticano II, ao propor-nos a transparência da cultura em relação à fé. A Teologia da Libertação latinoamericana explicitou as contradições internas da cultura moderna, propondo-nos relacionar fé e culturas provenientes do “reverso” da história e do “mundo dos pobres”. Nos dias que correm, as teologias se sentem desafiadas a se submeterem a um processo de transformação intercultural, onde o intercultural seja assumido como perspectiva e método e não apenas como tema.Abstract: The Christian message has been proclaimed through an intercultural dialog that, historically, was characterized by a strong polarization between faith and culture. Vatican II deconstructed this polarization, by proposing to us the transparency of culture with regard to faith. The Latin American Liberation Theology made explicit the internal contradictions of modern culture, inviting us to relate faith and cultures from the “other side” of History and from the “world of the poor.” In our days, theologies feel challenged to undergo a process of intercultural transformation, where the intercultural is assumed as a perspective and method and not just as a topic.Keywords: Faith; Reason; Culture; History; Interculturality.

Sorcery in the Black Atlantic: The Occult Arts in Comparative Perspective

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Derby
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Atlantic World ◽  
Black Atlantic ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Comparative Framework ◽  
History Of

Three recent volumes—Parés and Sansi (eds.), Sorcery in the Black Atlantic; Paton and Forde (eds.), Obeah and Other Powers; and Sweet, Domingos Álvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World—set a new bar for scholarship about Caribbean and Latin American sorcery, stressing its contingency as well as its transnational and cosmopolitan aspects. Their richly contextualized case studies of African-derived practices related to illness and health, as well as the quotidian experience of slaves outside the plantation, challenge the most entrenched assumptions about sorcery and extend its use to a range of social actors, not just slaves. In the process, they serve to relocate the practice of sorcery in Latin America within a broad comparative framework that includes Europe and the Americas as well as Africa.

Women in Northern African History

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fadma Ait Mous ◽  
Kmar Bendana ◽  
Natalya Vince
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
Woman Question ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Postcolonial State ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Male Feminist ◽  
Mass Participation

The 20th century witnessed the emergence of individual women as political actors, women as a category of political and social actors, and women (or “the woman question”) as a theme for political action across North Africa. This history is both intertwined with, and for a long time has been overshadowed by, that of colonialism, nationalism, and postcolonial state-building. Without being linear or homogeneous, the stages and processes of making women visible and extending women’s rights have been similar across Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria: increasing access to education, the emergence of pioneering female “models,” the mobilization of women as a group in the anti-colonial struggle, postcolonial state feminism and then a shift towards women speaking, writing and organizing themselves as women. Specificities of Tunisian, Algerian and Moroccan history have also given rise to distinctive features in the history of women and the writing of the history of women in each country. These include the long history of male feminist thought expressed in Arabic in Tunisia, the mass participation of women in armed struggle in Algeria, and the reformist feminism, based on women reinterpreting religious sources and history, which originated in Morocco.

Can Liberation Theology Survive 1989?

1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duncan B. Forrester
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Pastoral Theology ◽  
Third World ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
European Academy ◽  
Theological Debate ◽  
The Third World

There was a widespread assumption in the 1980s that liberation theology had come of age. The early passionate manifestos of those such as Hugo Assmann had been replaced by a deluge of substantial theological works which entered the theological debate bearing the wounds of oppression and injustice in Latin America, and also the clear marks of the European academy. Liberation theology remained highly controversial, but it had to be taken seriously. It suggested a new way of doing theology which was at one and the same time a recovery of older understandings of the nature of theology and rooted in Latin American reality. It plundered and turned on their original possessors the weapons of post-Enlightenment and post-Vatican II theologising, and it was viewed with deep suspicion by most of the authorities in church and state. The movement found resonances and allies in many countries of the Third World, and spread from systematics into biblical studies, ethics and pastoral theology.

Crisis Management and the Institutions of Austerity: A Comparison of Latin American and Greek Experiences

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Panageotou ◽  
Jon Shefner
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Debt Crisis ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Debt Crises ◽  
Neoliberal Restructuring ◽  
Austerity Policy

The proliferation of debt crises around the world since the 1980’s has generated debt-repayment negotiations prioritizing austerity in debtor countries. This forty-year history of debt crises in the Global South and North now allows comparison of these negotiations and their impacts. We examine the distinct and historically specific trajectories in Latin American and Greece, highlighting the foundations of each experience of debt crisis. We focus on the institutions responsible for managing crisis and their reliance on similar austerity strategies to compel debtor countries into a neoliberal restructuring of their economies. This paper examines the similarities and differences in austerity policy through a comparative-historical analysis of Latin American and Greek experiences of debt crisis. The results of such policies and the political actors involved in implementing austerity are also examined.

scholarly journals PORTRAIT OF A POLITICAL LIBERATION THEOLOGIAN: LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND THE MAKING OF ABEL MUZOREWA’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SUBJECTIVITY IN RISE UP AND WALK

Imbizo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Hazel Tafadzwa Ngoshi
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Practical Theology ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Narrative Discourse ◽  
Textual Production ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Liberation Theologian

 Autobiographical subjects are products of their experiential histories, memories, agency and the discourses of their time lived and time of textual production. This article explores the religious and political discursive economy in which Abel Muzorewa (former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia) narrates the story of his life and how this discursive context constructs his autobiographical subjectivity. The article examines how Muzorewa’s religious beliefs – com­bined with his experiential history of being a colonial subject – are deployed as a strategy of constructing his subjectivity. I argue that the discursive contexts of mass nationalism and his Christian religious beliefs grounded in Latin American liberation theology construct both Mu­zorewa as the subject of Rise up and walk and the narrative discourse. The article posits that the narrative tropes derived from Christian texts that Muzorewa deploys mediate his identity, and that his selfhood emerges with the unfolding of the narrative. What he claims to be politi­cal pragmatism on his part is also inspired by the practical theology which he subscribes to. I argue that his subjectivity is complexly realised through the contradictory relationship between missionary theology and liberation theology.

Excerpt from “The Priest as Agent of Secularization in Rural Spain”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stanley H. Brandes
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
Corporate Groups ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Institutional Hierarchy ◽  
The Impact

Stanley Brandes is an American sociocultural anthropologist whose work spans both European and Latin American peasantries. In this article Brandes describes a kind of Catholicism characteristic of peasant villages of the Iberian peninsula: locally inflected by rites and practices particular to specific regions, and organizationally overlapping with kinship and territorial corporate groups. At the broadest level, the essay offers a set of reflections about processes of modernization and secularization, viewed through a classic set of anthropological oppositions: collective/individual, rural/urban, great/little. More specifically, however, it tells us something interesting about the impact of Vatican II reforms on the ground. Brandes argues that what might be read as “secularization” is, in the village of Becedas, a function of processes internal to religion itself. Today, in light of works such as Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, this line of argument has become quite familiar. Yet as Brandes’s ethnography suggests, ruminations around the polemic between belief and unbelief have not merely been the preserve of scholars and philosophers; they have inflected the lives of ordinary Catholic peasants as well. Through Brandes we see how Becedas villagers narrate, in their own idiom, the development of the idea of “the secular” as something that is contingent upon the history of Christianity in the West. By exploring the disjuncture between Catholic “great and little” traditions Brandes touches on one of the most interesting pressure points within the anthropology of Catholicism: the division of labor between the clergy and the lay. Such a division may map with varying intensities onto other distinctions, such as those between elite and folk, or educated and uneducated, and even onto distinctly differing ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. Whether or not clergy are perceived as “cultural outsiders” in the communities they serve, where a person stands within the institutional hierarchy matters. That is, Catholic subjectivities are incontrovertibly shaped by an individual’s relationship to or position in relation to the church. Belonging to the priesthood thus diminishes the possibilities for certain abstractions and sensorial trajectories, just as it makes others imminently actualizable. In the particular context being described here, the priest, Don Sixto, sees “folk Catholicism” a bit the way a radical Protestant sees Roman Catholicism: as a Christianity contaminated. His work is one of purification: separating true belief from “blind adherence to custom.” For parishioners, however, there is no a priori concept of a religion “contaminated.” There is only a corpus of devotions whose gradual elimination leaves a sense of spiritual vacuum. By foregrounding a “perspectival” approach split between the view of the priest, the people, and the anthropologist, Brandes allows us to grasp the structural tensions that propel different versions of what is correct and what is proper in Christian forms of practice. Brandes’s article might be read in some ways as a tentative exploration of the interesting and often fraught role Catholic priests perform in their day-to-day ministry as mediators between the center and the periphery, and old and new, in the great march of Christian modernity.

The Catholic Lay Movement in Peru: 1867-1959

1983 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey L. Klaiber
Keyword(s):  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
Second Vatican Council ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Vatican Council ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

The dramatic changes in the Latin American church since the Second Vatican Council have taken many observers by surprise. In search of an explanation for these changes, much recent scholarship has devoted itself to analyzing the changing political climate, the influx of foreign religious personnel, the creation of radical priests' groups, the impact of Vatican II itself and the episcopal assemblies of Medellín and Puebla and, of course, the varying currents of liberation theology. In contrast, the tendency has been to overlook pre-Vatican II history. The pre-conciliar Peruvian church in particular has been characterized as tradition-bound, obscurantist or subservient to the upper classes. One author writing in the early seventies stated:“The intimacy between the church and the Peruvian upper class has been an unvarying characteristic of colonial, post-independence and modern eras in Peru.”

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