Liberation Theology

Liberation theology originated in Latin America in the 1960s as a critical, theological response to overwhelming conditions of poverty and oppression. Grounded in a century of focused development in Roman Catholic social teaching, beginning with the 1891 papal encyclical Rerum Novarum and culminating with the Second Vatican Council's 1965 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, numerous Latin American theologians began to articulate a distinct theological method identified as critical reflection on praxis in light of the Word (as expressed in scripture and ecclesial tradition). This method highlights the primacy of experience as a source for theological reflection, noting that experience precedes theological formulation, and advances a preferential option for the lived experience of the poor. Liberation theology has both been informed by and informed the critical pedagogical work of the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, with liberation theologians evidencing particular reliance on Freire's understanding of conscientization as critical participation in emancipatory, transformative action within history. Curriculum studies scholars have explored parallels between liberation theology and the method of currere as developed by William Pinar and identified a language of possibility and transformation within liberation theology that can inform a practice of critical pedagogy.

Early Latin American liberation theologians include Peruvian Dominican Gustavo Gutierrez, Uruguayan Jesuit Juan Luis Segundo, Brazilian Franciscan Leonardo Boff, and El Salvadoran Jesuit Jon Sobrino. Articulating a theology of the periphery, in contrast to a European and North American theology of the center, liberation theologians emphasize solidarity with God and others that acts against oppression within the current historical moment. Concerned primarily with the circumstances of those living in poverty, expressions of this theology have also considered political, cultural, and gendered oppression. It identifies temporal liberation within history as a sign of the eschatological liberation to come beyond history. Critiques within the Roman Catholic hierarchy that led to institutional restrictions on the practice and role of liberation theology center on two related concerns: (1) the view that its emphasis on the pursuit of liberation within history negated anticipation of the fullness of liberation in the Kingdom of Heaven and (2) the perception that its use of Marxist analysis, particularly in relation to class struggle, prioritized political revolution. Liberation theologies have been articulated by scholars working from a range of distinct perspectives, including Rubem Alves' analysis from within Protestant Christianity, Sharon Welch's proposal of a feminist theology of liberation, Cornell West's discussion of Black liberation theology, and Marc Ellis' development of a Jewish theology of liberation.

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed and subsequent works, Freire theorizes education as a liberatory project advanced through conscientization, described as a process of critical reflection through which people gain insight into the sociopolitical structures of their world as well as the capacity to act to transform oppressive dimensions of those structures. Developed from within his experience advancing literacy among poor and indigenous persons in Brazil, a goal critically oriented toward obtaining the political right to vote in presidential elections, Freire's view of conscientization informed both liberation theology and critical pedagogy. Specifically, it affords each a language of possibility and hope oriented toward action. Drawing on Boff, Henry Giroux, and Peter McLaren, Thomas Oldenski provides historically important documentation of both Freire's influence on the thinking and experience of liberation theologians in Latin America and that theology's influence on Freire's own thinking. An example of Freire's influence is seen in the Brazilian Bishops' 1963 adoption of his method of literacy through the movement [Page 545]of education from the bases and the subsequent role of Christian base communities as an experiential source for liberatory theological reflection.

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