Liberation Theology

Liberation theology is a distinctive and controversial school of thought in the theology of the Catholic Church. It explores the relationship between Christian theology and political activism, particularly in areas of social justice and human rights. According to Phillip Berryman, liberation theology is an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor's suffering (i.e., their struggle and hope). It is a critique of society, as well as the Catholic faith and Christianity, through the eyes of the poor. As a new social and intellectual movement among Latin American Catholics after the Second Vatican Council, liberation theology attempts to unite theology and sociopolitical concerns. From a liberationist's perspective, the Gospel of Christ demands that the church concentrate its efforts on liberating people from poverty and oppression. In other words, the Christian Gospel demands “a preferential option for the poor” and the involvement [Page 855]of the church in the struggle for economic and political justice throughout the contemporary world—particularly in Third World countries. Often cited as a form of Christian socialism, liberation theology has had particularly widespread influence in Latin America and among the Jesuits, although its influence has diminished since important parts of its teaching were rejected by the Vatican. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, former priest and president of Haiti, is one example of someone who was greatly influenced by the tenets of liberation theology. The themes that have been developed in the Latin American context have served as models for other theologies of liberation.

Liberation theology, though explicitly mentioned for the first time in 1968 in a speech by Peruvian Roman Catholic priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, has its roots in religious and social movements that swept the Latin American continent during the 1950s. Concerned at the time with the increasing influence of Protestant missionaries, the growing secularization of the population, and the spreading of communist ideas, Catholic bishops insisted that these issues be addressed during the first plenary meeting of CELAM I (Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano, Latin American Bishops' Conference) in 1955 in Río de Janeiro. Church problems were further aggravated by the lack of clergy to serve poor people in the country and the visible complicity of the Church with an unjust social order. Following Vatican Council II in 1965 and the Second Latin American Bishops Conference (CELAM II) in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968, a significant number of Latin American leaders within the Roman Catholic Church pushed toward a more progressive stance, turning to liberation theology as the theological voice for the Latin American church. The Magna Carta of this new pastoral approach to social problems encouraged Christians to be engaged in the struggle to bring about society's transformation. The movement called for renovating societal changes, for the defense of human rights, for consciousness-raising evangelization, and for the creation of “comunidades de base” (i.e., lay-led groups of poor Christians as basic organic units of society and pastoral activity that join together to improve their lot and establish a more just society). The documents of CELAM II also denounced institutionalized violence and named it a “situation of sin.” The dominating role of the Roman Catholic Church in Latin America made it a significant vehicle for the spread of liberation theology throughout the South American continent.

...