Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology

By Elsa Tamez

Liberation theology is defined as critical reflection on the historical praxis of liberation in a concrete situation of oppression and discrimination. It is not a reflection on the theme of liberation but "a new manner" of doing theology. The perspective of the poor and the commitment of Christians to the transformation of the world are the privileged places of the theological task. This theology should be considered as a theological and pastoral movement and not as theoretical expositions by important personages.

The stages of development of liberation theology are: preparation (1962–1968), formulation (1968–1975), systemization (1976–1989), and diversification of specific perspectives (since 1990).

THE STAGE OF PREPARATION (1962–1968)

The first reflections in the direction of liberation theology have their origins in the 1960s. This was a period characterized by a structural crisis (economic, political, and ideological) of the systems of domination, the proliferation of popular liberation movements, and the appearance of military dictatorships. Critical reflections from the Christian faith emerged as an answer to the challenges that were presented not only by the liberation movements but above all by Christians who became involved in those movements.

Although elements were taken from new German political theology (Johann Metz, Jürgen Moltmann, Dorothee Sölle), the theological themes coming from the European academy were considered insufficient to accompany the faith of Christians in a time of an "awakening of consciousness" of belonging to a dependent and oppressed continent that needed to free itself. This "awakening of consciousness" appeared in different parts of Latin America and from different rationales. Among those, Frantz Fannon wrote against colonialism in The Wretched of the Earth. Paulo Freire of Brazil spoke out in Education as the Practice of Freedom (1967) and Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1970). Many writers expressed themselves through literature, for example, Gabriel García Márquez with his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). Philosophy spoke of the social movements on the continent; economics produced the theory of dependence in confrontation with the theory of development (André Gunder, Theotónio Dos Santos, Celso Furtado, and others). In fact, the history of this continent was read from Eduardo Galeano's The Open Veins of Latin America (1973). The awakening of Christians to the challenges of the liberation movements and their active participation in those movements led theologians to elaborate a theology that took seriously the reality of poverty and exploitation and to take up the clamor of the poor. The climate of the church in the Catholic world was opportune. The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) had begun a great opening with its concern and reflections on Christianity confronted by the modern world, and the Medellín Conference of Latin American Bishops contextualized its significance for the "oppressed and believing" Latin American continent. Within the Protestant tradition there were also groups (ISAL; Iglesia y Sociedad en América Latina, or Church and Society in Latin America) and theologians (Rubén Alves, Richard Shaull, and José Migues Bonino) who bore witness on the basis of Christian faith in the face of a reality that needed liberation.

THE FORMULATION (1968–1975)

Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Catholic Peruvian theologian, is the principal figure in the formulation of liberation theology. His classic book A Theology of Liberation (1972) appears as an amplified and deepened version of previous expositions. Among other important persons who contributed to the debate of this reformulation were, among Catholics, Hugo Assmann, Leonardo Boff, Juan Luis Segundo, Enrique Dussel, and later Clodovis Boff; among Protestants, Rubén Alves, José Migues Bonino, and Julio de Santa Ana.

(Page 5439) In this stage, theology is defined as a critical reflection on historical practice in the light of faith. The poor, as in "exploited classes, marginalized races, depreciated cultures" (Gutiérrez), is the privileged place of the theological task. It becomes clear that liberation theology is more than a theology with a single theme, or one of fixed contents. It is a manner of doing theology. Interested in the relation of theory and practice, the major contribution of liberation theology is precisely its method, considered as "an epistemological rupture" with traditional theology in which ideas are applied to practice. Its newness, thanks to the method, is in the application of the social sciences as instruments that help it analyze the reality out of which the theological reflection comes. Theology, insists Gutiérrez, is a second act. It is the rationality or intelligence of faith that emerges from the praxis of transformation and the encounter with God in history: praxis and contemplation are the first act.

THE SYSTEMIZATION (1975–1989)

This is a productive period in writings as well as in the growing eruption of Christian base communities. Theologians during this period took great care to spell out the method and to re-create Christology and ecclesiology.

As for the method in the process of the theological task, there are three mediations. The socioanalytic mediation analyzes the reality where theology is done. Here the social sciences are used as tools to reflect theologically on the analyzed reality. The hermeneutical mediation interprets the Bible and tradition to reflect theologically on the analyzed reality. The praxiological or pastoral practice seeks to make visible the commitment to justice in favor of the poor. This method is common in the Christian base communities; it is expressed in a simple way with the terms: "see, judge, and act." Later the term "celebrate" was added in the sense that within the communities, in the process of a contextual rereading of the Bible, God's solidarity is celebrated as read in the Scriptures and in life.

The utilization of some Marxist elements as instruments for the analysis of reality generated controversy with the Vatican and certain Protestant sectors. The Sacred Congregation for Doctrine and Faith published Instruction on Various Points of Liberation Theology (1984), questioning this aspect because of the risk of ideologizing faith. If indeed liberation theology has adopted some elements of Marxism for class analysis and social change, it has rejected its atheism.

The Christology of liberation theology is characterized by the insistence on following Jesus (Jon Sobrino), who preached not himself but the reign of God. The following of Jesus underlines the practical character of the demands of a liberating Jesus Christ, whose "passion is also the passion of the world," in the words of Leonardo Boff (1987), which suffers injustices. In the Christology of liberation, historic liberations also form a part of the eschatological promise of salvation in Christ, although it is not identified with salvation in Christ. Because of certain critiques, theologians are careful to make clear that the reign of God is not limited to human history. From the beginning Gutiérrez affirmed that the reign of God "is realized in liberating historical acts, but denounces their limitations and ambiguities. It announces complete fulfillment and moves toward total communion." Because of the "radicality of the salvific gift, nothing escapes it, nothing is outside the action of Christ and the gift of the Spirit" (1973, p. 240).

The ecclesiology of liberation has as its point of reference the experience of a new way of being a church in the Christian base communities. It is a church that understands itself and emerges from the poor. For that reason it has been called the church of the poor or church that is born from the people. This ecclesiology is critical of a form of church that gives privilege to power concentrated in hierarchy instead of privileging charisma. According to Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff (1981), charisma is the spiritual force that maintains the life of institutions and is more fundamental for the church than institutional element. Neither the hierarchy nor the institution constitutes what is fundamental in charisma, though they are not excluded (p. 254). This theme caused certain difficulties with the official Catholic Church. In 1984 Boff was called on by Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the Catholic Church's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to clarify some aspects of his book, published in English as Church: Charism and Power in 1985. Boff was silenced; the punishment was suspended a year later.

The term iglesia popular (church of the poor) was refuted in the document of the Episcopal Conference held in Puebla (1979) because of the danger of seeing it as a parallel church to the official church. In the 1980s a shift began within theology: reflection based on the deepening of the dialectical relation between faith-politics and life-economy. According to Enrique Dussel, it is not the Christian demand to opt for the poor and to commit oneself in the process of liberation, but rather "the hunger of the majorities is the imperative to modify unjust systems of production. It is the relationship bread-production and from there the centrality of the Eucharist as bread of life through justice" (1995, p. 152). La idolatría del mercado by Hugo Assmann (1989) and Franz Hinkelammert; Hinkelammert's A idolatría do mercado (1989); and the Costa Rican Ecumenical Department of Research's La Lucha de los dioses (1979) are reflections from the economy that mark Latin American theological thought. Within the movement of the theology of liberation there are different emphases; some give more importance to political action, others to church ministries, and others to liberating spirituality.

THE DIVERSIFICATION OF SPECIFIC PERSPECTIVES (FROM 1989)

New contributions followed in the 1990s. Among those that stand out are reflections on the significance of evangelization in light of the five-hundred-year commemoration of the Spanish and Portuguese conquest; human beings as subjects (agents); law and grace; and more contributions to Christology. But what was new at this time were two facts: the participation of new subjects in the theological reflection and the biblical movement.

(Page 5440) Women, blacks, and indigenous peoples have always participated in the movement of liberation theology. Since the 1980s women and black theologians have declared themselves as specific subjects in writings and at congresses. Nevertheless, since the 1990s, the recomposition of the world and the strengthening of the struggles for the emancipation of women, indigenous peoples, and blacks have multiplied and given much more strength to these particular perspectives of liberation theology. New challenges appeared. Liberation theology had included the aspirations of these sectors in its preferential option for the poor. In fact, Gustavo Gutiérrez frequently made clear that the word poor was a broad term that included the races and ethnic groups depreciated by racism and women who are doubly exploited for being poor and being women. But that was not sufficient for these groups. On becoming agents of theological production and assuming the method of liberation theology, they prefer to speak of the "option for those excluded" because it is a more ample category than the "option for the poor." These groups are introducing new themes that challenge the discourse of liberation theology: racism, the spirituality of the non-Christian African and indigenous ancestors, and a nonpatriarchal ecclesiology and epistemology. These perspectives seek to transcend the limited use of economics and sociology in analytic mediation and introduce new tools that take into account sexism, racism, and culture. Liberation theology has also in this decade confronted problems that had not been dealt with deeply, such as ecology, culture, and interreligious dialogue. These themes are now being taken up from the liberation perspective by some theologians. Nevertheless, because of the Latin American context and the presence of men and women theologians in church institutions, theological reflection from the perspective of those discriminated against because of their sexual orientation and reflections on reproductive rights, especially for women, are still pending. Recently there have appeared timid initiatives produced by the new generation.

The most developed current of the new theologies is feminist theology. An analysis of the origins and development of this theology appears in Pilar Aquino's book, Clamor por la vida. Teologia latinoamericana desde la perspectiva de la mujer (1992; in English, Our Cry for Life: Feminist Theology from Latin America, 1993). One of the pioneers and representative theologians is the Brazilian nun Ivone Gebara. In recent years three currents can be distinguished: feminist theology of liberation, ecofeminist theology, and black feminist theology of liberation.

Another innovating fact in liberation theology is the Bible movement that extends over the whole continent. In communities, workshops, and courses the Bible is being reread from the perspective of the excluded—the poor, blacks, indigenous peoples, and women. This reading, which employs a liberating hermeneutic, is called a popular (communitarian or pastoral) reading of the Bible. Among its founders are Carlos Mesters and Milton Schwantes. The Journal of Latin American Biblical Interpretation (RIBLA), founded in 1989, constitutes a permanent contribution to biblical hermeneutics of liberation. This movement is distinguished by a solid group of women biblical scholars.

In this time of theological formulation there were two convergences with other theologies of liberation that were born simultaneously: German political theology and black theology within the United States. History registers dialogue and tensions between these theologies: in Geneva in 1973 with European theology and in Detroit in 1975 with black theology and feminist theology. The convergence with European political theology is in the analysis of the relation of faith-world, but they differ in their theological discourse given the great difference of the interlocutors. While European political theology reflects faith from an atheist, secularized, adult world, liberation theology is challenged to reflect from the nonperson and the scandal of poverty. The convergence with black theology is the search for liberation in a context of oppression, but black theology permanently critiques the theology of liberation for not taking seriously the problem of racism in Latin American society.

Apparently the theology of liberation that was launched originally as a theology with a universal vocation became a theology of the Third World after the foundation of the Association of Third World Theologians in Dar es Salaam in 1976. During these last years it has been conceived more as a contextual theology of Latin America. Liberation theology and Latin American theology have become synonymous.

BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Black liberation theology was born among African American clergy and theologians in the United States out of the experience of humiliation and suffering of blacks in the historical and contemporary system of racism. Its task is to analyze that condition of oppression in the light of the revelation of Jesus Christ with the goal of creating a praxis of liberation from white domination and a new understanding of black dignity among black people (James Cone). The praxis of liberation in a racist system and the affirmation of blackness are the privileged place of their theological task. To affirm God's solidarity with the oppressed, black theology refers to God and Christ as black.

The black slaves brought from Africa to the United States appropriated the Bible and read it in a liberation key, in spite of the fact that their white masters used the Bible as a tool of oppression. The book of Exodus was a source of inspiration for their own liberation. Before the beginnings of the formulation of black theology, a black community had already been founded by independent black churches, both Baptist and Methodist, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This explains why the clergy had permanent participation in the declarations, their position in the face of racism, and their place in the movements of black liberation. Also antecedent to black theology was the development of liberation thought among activists against slavery (Nat Turner, 1800–1831); against racial segregation (Marcus Garvey, 1887–1940), considered by many of his people "the apostle (Page 5441) of black theology"; in the struggle for human rights (Martin Luther King Jr., 1929–1968); and in the Black Power movement (the Muslim Malcolm X, 1930–1965).

Black liberation theology was born within the heat of political and racial tumults of the 1960s and 1970s. It searched for a Christian answer to the black political movement. The first work of black theology as a formal discipline came out in 1969 with the title Black Theology and Black Power, written by the most important figure in the formulation of black theology, James Cone. A year later, Cone published his well-known work Black Theology of Liberation, in which he presents the contents of that theology. The fundamental question behind this work is, "What does the gospel of Jesus Christ have to do with the struggle of blacks for freedom in a society that denies African Americans as human beings?"

There are two important theological affirmations that distinguish black liberation theology: (1) The knowledge of God that reveals God's self as liberator. The God of Exodus, the prophets, and Jesus can only be known in the liberation struggles of the oppressed. (2) The blackness of God and of Christ as a theological symbol that looks to articulate the concrete presence of Jesus Christ in the history, culture, and experience of African Americans. Blacks are oppressed in the United States; therefore, God is on the side of the oppressed blacks and takes on the condition of the black. God is black, Christ is black; the blackness of God and Christ means that God and Christ have made the condition of the oppressed their own condition. For Cone, there is a distinction of colors. To say there is no difference means that God makes no differences between justice and injustice, between reason and irrationality, between good and evil. God is in solidarity with the blacks. As for Christology, Cone refers to Jesus as the Oppressed par excellence and the Liberator par excellence. The black Christ is the norm, the hermeneutical principle that integrates black theology, that is to say, the black experience, black history and black culture. This black experience, history, and culture are illuminated by the biblical testimony, but above all by the norm, that is, the black Christ. For Cone, sin is all that denies the liberating dimension of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Salvation, therefore, is not reduced to a future without transforming the situation of this world. The liberation of African Americans involves empowerment and the right of self-definition and self-affirmation, in addition to the transformation of social, political, economic, and religious oppression.

The debate between black theologians has been fruitful. The historians Gayraud Wilmore (1972) and Cecil Cone (1975) propose religious experience as the point of departure for black theology and not the political struggle or black power. Deotis Roberts (1974) represents a more moderate line by proposing the need for a liberating reconciliation in black-white relations. Cornel West (1979) underlines the importance of the dialogue with Marxism.

The new generation is working from three perspectives: womanist theology (Jacquelyn Grant, Katie Cannon, Delores Williams, Emilie Towns), who do theology from the experience of black women within a racist and patriarchal system; biblical hermeneutics, which questions Eurocentric scholarship and begins to discover the African presence within the Bible as well as the racial problems that the Bible itself presents. Another important perspective appears in the 1991 collective work directed by Cain H. Felder, Stony the Road We Trod: African American Biblical Interpretation, and the religion of the black slaves (Dwight Hopkins, George Cumming) that gathers the religious experience of the black slaves through stories, meditations, sermons, petitions and songs.

Of these three perspectives, the most developed is womanist theology. Since the 1980s black women have protested their invisibility in black theology and in white feminist theology. They feel that these theologies do not take into account the experiences of black women, who have to endure both racism and sexism in a context of poverty. The term "womanist" is from Alice Walker's work In Search of Our Mother's Garden (1982). It comes from the black folk expression "You acting womanish," meaning outrageous, audacious, courageous, and willful. Womanist theology takes into account the daily situation of survival as well as the structures that affect the lives of women.

MINJUNG THEOLOGY

Minjung theology is a Korean liberation theology. It emerged in the 1970s as a Christian response to the struggle of the minjung, meaning "the people." This term comes from the combination of two Chinese characters. Min signifies people and jung means mass. Minjung theology is the theology of people who are oppressed politically and economically. It is a political hermeneutic of the gospel and a political approach to the experiences of the Korean people. For this theology Jesus was a minjung, was in solidarity with the minjung, and his life was an example of liberation. Among its most important contributions is the use of the term han (accumulated anger, just indignation), introduced by Suh Nam Dong. The term is taken from a poem "The Story of Sound" (1972) by the poet Kim Nam Ha. The poem expresses the pain of a poor prisoner. This is better understood in the following words of the poet Kim: "This little peninsula is filled with the clamor of aggrieved ghosts. It is filled with the mourning noise of the han of those who died from foreign invasions, wars, tyranny, rebellion, malignant disease and starvation. I want my poems to be the womb or bearer of these sounds, to be the transmitter of the han and to communicate a sharp awareness of our historical tragedy" (Minjung Theology, p. 26). For minjung theologians the term han refers to the sentiments of interiorized injustice of the oppressed; one of the tasks of minjung theology is to help people to recognize these feelings. The most important figures of this theology besides Suh Nam Dong are David Kwang Sun Suh, Ahn Byung Mu, Kim Yong Bock, and HyunYoung Hak. Within this current has emerged the feminist Korean Chung Hyun Kyung.

(Page 5442) After the founding of Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, in which theologians from Latin America, Africa, and Asia and blacks from the United States began their dialogue, theologies of liberation multiplied. These theologies were not imports of the Latin American or black theologies but critical theological reflections that arose from their own particular contexts. What unites the theologies of liberation is the objective of the theological task: "liberation." All the theologies of liberation are ecumenical.

In Africa there are four strong currents: South African black theology, inspired by black theology from the United States and the struggle against racism; African (Christian) inculturation theology, which has culture as its point of reference; African liberation theology, which underlines socio-economic and political analysis along with religious and ecclesial analysis; and African women's theology, with it theological focus against androcentrism and patriarchalism present in church structures and in African traditions.

In Asia, along with minjung theology, the Filipino theology of struggle and other contextual theologies of liberation stand out. The theology of struggle of the Philippines is seen in its struggle of resistance. Asian theologies of liberation differ from the rest of the liberation theologies because of their predominant context of religious plurality. Christians are a minority among large non-Christian religions. In order for a theology of liberation to have an impact in this context, Christians are challenged to dialogue with the other religions and to reconsider valuable elements of Hinduism, Buddhism, or Shamanism that promote liberation and an enrichment of Christian theology. Among other theologies coming out of Asia are Indian dalit theology, which struggles against the caste system, and Burakumin liberation theology, which focuses on persons marginalized by ritual impurity systems. In Asia, as in the theologies of Africa, Latin America, and minorities in the United States, women theologians have a strong voice. Their publications appear in the well-known theological journal In God's Image founded by Asian women theologians.

Among the minorities of the United States new theologies have emerged: Latino theology reflects their racial mixture, culture, and popular religion. It does theology in the symbolic framework of "being" on the border. Within this theology women's voices have created the mujerista theology. Native American theology does theology out of their experience without forgetting their presence in America before the arrival of Christians and Christian American colonialism. This theology rescues ancestral spiritual values. Asian-American theologies present the particularities of the Japanese-, Chinese-, and Korean-American experiences.

These theologies of liberation recognize that a good number of Christians in their own countries do not share their point of view because of, above all, the political commitment inherent in liberation. Nevertheless, new contextual theologies of liberation continue to proliferate as this new way of doing theology, in which subjects take their concrete reality as the point of departure to speak of God, has spread throughout the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Boff, Clodovis. Teología de lo político. Sus mediaciones. Salamanca, 1980. English version, Theology and Praxis: Epistemological Foundations. New York, 1987.

Boff, Leonardo. Iglesia, carisma y poder. Santander, 1981.

Boff, Leonardo. Passion of the Christ, Passion of the World: The Facts, Their Interpretation, and Their Meaning, Yesterday and Today. Translated by Robert Barr. Maryknoll, N.Y., 1987.

Boff, Leonardo, and Clodovis Boff. Introducing Liberation Theology. New York, 1987.

Commission on Theological Concerns of the Christian Conference of Asia, ed. Minjung Theology: People as the Subjects of History. London and New York, 1983.

Cone, James. Black Theology and Black Power. New York, 1969.

Cone, James. A Black Theology of Liberation. New York, 1970.

Dussel, Enrique. Teología de la liberación. Un panorama de su desarrollo. México D.F., 1995.

Ellacuría, Ignacio, and Jon Sobrino. Mysterium Liberationis: Conceptos fundamentales de la teología de la Liberación. San Salvador, 1990. English version, Mysterium Liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology. New York, 1993.

Fabella, Virginia and R. S. Sugirtharaja, eds. Dictionary of Third World Theologies. New York, 2000.

Gutiérrez, Gustavo. Teología de la liberación. Perspectivas. Salamanca, 1972. English version, A Liberation Theology. New York, 1973.

Hopkins, Dwight. Introducing Black Theology of Liberation. New York, 1999.

Loysius, Pieris. An Asian Theology of Liberation. New York, 1988.

Martey, Emmanuel. African Theology: Inculturation and Liberation. New York, 1993.

Musala, Itumeleng J., and Tlhagalr Buti. The Unquestionable Right to Be Free: Black Theology from South Africa. New York, 1986.

Roberts, James Deotis. A Black Political Theology. Philadelphia, 1974.

West, Cornel. Black Theology and Marxist Thought. Boston, 1979.

Wilmore, Gayraud, and James Cone. Black Theology, a Documentary History, 1966–1979. New York, 1979.

ELSA TAMEZ (2005)

Source Citation: TAMEZ, ELSA. "Liberation Theology." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. Vol. 8. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 5438-5442. 15 vols.