Liberation Theology

Author(s):  
Mario I. Aguilar

This chapter identifies theologies of sacraments in the context of liberation theology, rooted primarily in work among poor Christians in 1960s Latin America. In doing so it addresses the “first step” (“the experience of God through the poor and the marginalized”) and the “second step” (“the historical and theological developments that led to the beginnings of liberation theology as a reflection on Christian experience”). The seminal work in liberation theology developed by Gustavo Gutiérrez and Juan Luis Segundo is described, as is the impact of the 1968 Latin American Bishops Conference in Medellin. In addition, the work of Ernesto Cardenal, a Nicaraguan Catholic priest, poet, and politician, in viewing the Eucharist in connection to the prophetic work of Jesus Christ among the poor is examined—specifically in the context of celebrating Eucharist in the Nicaraguan peasant communities of the archipelago of Solentiname.

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Jorge Costadoat Carrasco

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.


Author(s):  
Matthew A. Shadle

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.


Author(s):  
Roberto Goizueta

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.


Horizons ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-95
Author(s):  
Todd Walatka

Vatican II'sGaudium et Spes(GS) has had an unmistakable and demonstrable impact on Latin American liberation theology. Likewise, any sufficient account of the impact of GS on the wider church would need to attend to liberation theology. This article affirms this basic point, then explores the often-underappreciated relationship between liberation theology andLumen Gentium(LG).In particular, it investigates how Gustavo Gutiérrez and Jon Sobrino interpret a fundamental ecclesiological affirmation of LG: the church as a sacrament of salvation and unity. Gutiérrez's early work provides, and Sobrino deepens, the basic point that the church's work as a sacrament inherently demands an option for the poor. Rather than being simply part of its social teaching, this option is at the heart of the churchquachurch. It is essential both for an adequate interpretation of LG and for a church seeking to be a credible sign and effective instrument of salvation and unity in the world.


1987 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 407-421
Author(s):  
Peter Hebblethwaite

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’.


Author(s):  
Iñaki Ceberio de León ◽  
Clara Olmedo

Ernesto Cardenal, Latin American theologian and one of the main references of Liberation Theology, offers us a poetic work that aims to reconstruct a Latin American identity inspired by the worldviews of the original peoples of the region, while questioning the current neocolonial models supported in neo-extractivism. In the poetry of Ernesto Cardenal the identity of an «ecological subject» can be traced, whose being, feeling and doing are in harmony with non-anthropocentric worldviews. This study is carried out from an ecocritical point of view, which studies the relationships between humans and nature present in the literature and, in a particular way, the tensions between native peoples who vindicate the rights of nature and the neo-extractivist advance typical of the neoliberal policies in Latin America. For this, we include some poems dedicated to the original peoples of Mesoamerica in a decolonial key.


2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (289) ◽  
pp. 69-101
Author(s):  
Afonso Murad ◽  
Élio Estanislau Gasda ◽  
Geraldo De Mori

O Congresso Continental de Teologia, realizado na Unisinos, em São Leopoldo, RS, entre os dias 7-11 de outubro, por ocasião da celebração dos 50 anos do Concílio Vaticano II e dos 40 anos da publicação da obra de Gustavo Gutierres que inaugurou a Teologia da Libertação, foi sem dúvida um dos maiores eventos teológicos ocorridos nesta região. Momento de celebração e de memória do caminho feito, com seus avanços e recuos, mas também momento de olhar para o presente e o futuro da América Latina e do Caribe, perguntando-se sobre o futuro da Igreja e da reflexão teológica nesta região. O texto apresenta os principais momentos e conteúdos do Congresso, mostrando sua importância para a teologia latino-americana e caribenha, além de apontar para as novas tarefas que parecem emergir deste momento ímpar da teologia na contemporaneidade.Abstract: The Continental Congress of Theology, held at Unisinos in São Leopoldo, RS, between 7-11 October, on the occasion of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Vatican II and the 40th anniversary of the publication of Gustavo Gutierrez’ work that inaugurated the Liberation Theology, was undoubtedly one of the greatest theological events occurring in this region. A time of celebration and of remembering the path we covered with its advances and retreats, but also a time to look at the present and future of Latin America and the Caribbean, wondering about the future of the Church and the theological reflection in this region. The text presents the key moments and main contents of the Congress, showing its importance for the Latin American and Caribbean theology, as well as pointing to new tasks that seem to emerge from this unique moment in contemporary theology.Keywords: Latin America and the Caribbean. Continental Congress. Vatican II. Liberation Theology.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Jorge Costadoat Carrasco

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.


Worldview ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Neuhaus

Gustavo Gutierrez is a native of Peru and professor of theology at the Catholic University of Peru. He is also chaplain to the National Union of Catholic University Students and advisor to the Latin American Bishops Conference. Gutierrez is widely credited with having coined the term "liberation theology," and with the recent publication of his A Theology of Liberation (Orbis; 323 pp.; $7.95/4.95) North American readers are challenged by a major systematic effort to articulate the meaning of the Christian gospel in terms attuned to the revolutionary ferment in Latin America.


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