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An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

Introduction

Throughout this paper, key theological themes will be discussed and analysed in relation to
the development of liberation theology which emerged as a consequence, and in response
to, both theological and economic changes. The first part will discuss the circumstances
which gave rise to liberation theology with attention given to Vatican II, the reasons behind
the decision to call the Council, and explore the ‘new’ theological and spiritual orientation.
The second part takes into account world events and subsequent economic development
from the period between the end of the second world war through to the fall of the Berlin
Wall c.1989. Here, the changing theological situation and the new emerging theologies will
also be included. The third part of the paper will look closely at the theological backdrop
and will take into account how liberation theology came into being; analysing its
foundations with the importance of praxis over faith. And finally, the theological issues will
touch upon the universality of theology, ‘base-line up’ approach versus the traditional way
to understand the Christian faith, the history of Jesus and the perceived threat to the Church.

Vatican II:

Until the mid twentieth century the theology of the Roman Catholic Church was
predominantly Thomistic. People attending seminary school were provided innumerable
discourses on theology by Thomas Aquinas, the traditional way to do theology had not
changed for centuries. However, that was about to be challenged when Angelo Giuseppe
Roncalli was elected as the 261st Pope of the Roman Catholic Church and Sovereign of
Vatican City on October 28, 1958. When Pope John XXIII called a Council, Known as
Vatican II (1962-65) it inadvertently ignited a theological storm that fanned the flames for
militant political motivations that went beyond “denominational borders” in an attempt to
bring about a “new universality for which the classical church divisions are supposed to
have become irrelevant”.1 It had “opened up perspectives that have not ceased to provoke

1
Ratzinger. J., Liberation Theology, [Http://www.Christendom-
An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

wondrous surprise, fear, or alarm-depending upon one’s point of view”.2 So, what was this
all this about? Firstly, Vatican II was about reforming the Church to bring it up to date, a
process called aggiornamento3 was used to mean a spirit of change and open-mindedness.
As Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger puts it “a new theological situation had arisen…” and
“…existing theological tradition was largely no longer adequate, and that, as a result, an
entirely new theological and spiritual orientation needed to be sought directly from
Scripture and from the ‘signs of the times.’”4 The net result of this was a stimulation of
progressive thinking around the Catholic world but most noticeably in Latin America out of
which came liberation theology. However, something must be said of the surrounding
world events that shape our experience of the world and which ultimately had inevitable
influence on Vatican II and subsequent liberation theology. The consequences were that
alternative kinds of theology other than Thomistic, began to emerge and take shape as an
integral manifestation of “the many voices of our age”.5

World Events and its Economic Development:

After World War II, the non-communist nations lead by America wanted to make the world
safe for the economic market. To achieve economic growth, a work force must be
sufficiently 'educated' to maintain the new developing free market. Consequently a peasant
based economy, such as mid 20th century Latin America, needed to change to generate a
modern industrial society. With freedom and independence as the theme of the ‘50s to ‘60s,
the world between 1950 and 1989 was fast changing witnessing the end of the colonial
empire with the struggle for freedom from the colonies such as Kenya and south Africa
becoming a reality. The later period from the 1960s onwards can be divided into two parts.
Firstly, the struggle between communism and free market capitalism, ending in 1989 with

awake.org//pages/ratzinger/liberationtheol.htm].
2
Gutierrez. G., The Power Of The Poor In History, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004).p.26.
3
Grenz. S.J & Olson. R.E., 20th century theology: God & The World in a Transitional Age,
(Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995).p.237.
4
Ratzinger. J., Liberation Theology.
5
Gutiérrez. G., .A theology of liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, (London: S.C.M. Press,
1974).p.9.
An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

the collapse of the Berlin Wall, a symbol of free finance capitalism and secondly, a world
which was increasingly being shaped by the dogma of finance capital and privatization. As
Ratzinger observed, “The moral challenge of poverty and oppression presented itself in an
ineluctable form at the very moment when Europe and North America had attained a
hitherto unknown affluence.”6 What followed was a “changed theological situation…which
corresponded roughly to the end of the Council, (1965) a tangible vacuum of meaning had
arisen in the Western world.”7 In other words, world events had climaxed resulting in
greater awareness for economic growth. The net result was a greater disparity between
third world countries such as Latin America and the economic drivers of North America
and Europe, which caused a spiritual vacuum in the Christian tradition of faith to open up.
This ‘spiritual poverty’ combined with economic poverty in which the poor of Latin
America were (and still are) suffering incalculable misery from extreme social deprivation
was the consequence of both spiritual and economic neglect. This fed into the socio-
religious consciousness of the day in which theological questions for the suffering church
had come to a head. Thus, in order to fill the social and theological “vacuum”, Rome was
required to listen to the ‘many voices’ and the big voice in Latin America was Marxism.
With the bible now in the forefront of educational policy, the peasant class of Latin
America began to ask questions that would never have previously challenged religious
authority. Despite the so called new global prosperity, why were people still living in
poverty when the bible asserts that “material poverty is a subhuman situation, the fruit of
injustice and sin”, such questions required answers.8 Out of this politically dynamic period
was born liberation theology. Since Rome was not immune to the new fertile landscape, its
response had inadvertently laid the foundation for a new theological voice, a theology of
liberation couched in militant Marxist language.

Theological Background:

6
Ratzinger. J.
7
ibid.
8
Gutierrez. G., The Power Of The Poor In History, (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004).p.54.
An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

In 1968 Gustavo Gutierrez began writing A Theology of Liberation, was eventually


published in 1971 whereupon the concept of liberation theology was born. The published
work was considered one of the most important theological treatises of the 20th century. At
the time of writing, the bishops of Latin America convened in Medellin. Here, the Consejo
Episcopal Latinoamericano or CELAM came together and discussed “The Present-Day
Transformation of the Council in the Light of Latin America” and when it had adjourned
the Council “had a different message than the originally perceived in Rome” consequently
it had “initiated a revolution in Latin American church life…”9 Answerable to itself and not
Rome, CELAM developed a four stage plan. The first was called the Foundational Stage,
this was a ‘base line up’ approach starting with the poor rather than the hierarchy, with faith
second to praxis. Second was the building Stage or "fundamental theology" as an opening
up of new horizons and perspectives creating a new outlook on the whole of theology. The
third phase was the Settling-in Stage of theological reflection and finally, the Formalization
Stage.10 In other words, in 1968 a theological revolution had begun. Fed into this, was the
work of Jorgen Moltman. In his Theology of Hope (1964) Moltman was writing at the same
time as Vatican II and re-thinking eschatology. According to Richard Bauckham, Marxist
criticism of religion is taken up in Moltmann’s eschatological ideas and Bauckham’s
analysis of Marxist thought in relation to Christian eschatology is a “compensation for
human misery…helps to perpetuate the conditions which cause it instead of changing
them”11 Furthermore Marxism sees human misery and its protest against it with the view to
“direct it into the transformation of this world”.12 For Moltmann Christian eschatology has
nothing to do with another world, rather through praxis it is about the transformation of this
world into a new creation in the here and now. Bauckham notes that Moltmann’s Theology
of Hope cannot be separated from praxis. Moltmann as well as many liberation theologians
were frequently quoting Marx famous eleventh thesis on Feuerbach: “Philosophers have

9
Brown. R. McAfee., Gustavo Gutiérrez: An Introduction to Liberation Theology, (Maryknoll,
N.Y: Orbis Books, 1990).p.11.
10
Boff. L & Boff.C., Introducing Liberation Theology, Tunbridge Wells: Burns & Oates,
1987).pp.71-72.
11
Bauckham. R., The theology of Jürgen Moltmann, (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1995).p.103.
12
Bauckham. R., The theology of Jürgen Moltmann.p.103.
An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it".”13 Thus, the
only true orthodoxy is therefore orthopraxy, “To these factors can be added the influence of
Marxist thought, focussing on praxis and geared to the transformation of this world”.
Meaning theology is understood as being about the transformation of the world, so theology
learns from Marx. In summary, it was in this period, the 1970s, where the whole definition
of theology was re-thought. Theology was now about human freedom for blacks, colonials
and women. Liberation theology became the dominant theological form through out the
1970s.

Key Theological Issues:

Without question the key theologian involved in liberation theology in the 1970s was
Gutierrez. In chapter one of A Theology of Liberation we read that “Present in all
believers…is a rough outline in theology”.14 Gutierrez is suggesting that theology is not
something simply given to the clergy and handed down to the laity, but the work of the
whole people of God. However, despite the theological changes that occurred since the
second world war and the subsequent reshaping of the world, Roman Catholicism had not
budged from tradition: “The classical task of theology….the essential effort to understand
the faith has remained”.15 In other words, the way to understand the Christian faith is two-
fold; theology as wisdom, meaning patristic theology and theology as knowledge or
Thomistic theology. Theology of wisdom is about spiritual ascent leading to spiritual
perfection. Theology of rational knowledge on the other hand “was classified a subaltern
science…” that is, a science in its broadest sense.16 Both wisdom (faith) and knowledge
(reason) flow into and meet each other. However, Christian faith and the understanding of
science in the 20th century are not of the same categories of those in the fourteenth century.
The corollary of this, for example, is that any understanding of the historicity of Jesus

13
ibid.
14
Gutiérrez. G., .A theology of liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, p.3.
15
Gutiérrez. G., pp.3-4.
16
Gutiérrez. G., p.5.
An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

cannot survive the rigor of the modern scientific approach. Add to this the view that faith
had become second to praxis was a deep source of anxiety for the Roman Catholic Church;
“Liberation theology reveals that it constitutes a fundamental threat to the Church” and “a
new total interpretation of the Christian reality”.17 A clear example of this is
Rudolf Karl Bultmann’s exegesis on the historical Jesus who had “separated from the
Christ of faith by a great gulf”.18 Essentially Bultmann’s exegesis undermines what
scientific credibility (in the broadest sense) the Church holds for the historical Jesus, is now
is now left to ‘dangle’. According to Ratzinger, Bultmann’s scientific approach had “torn
the figure of Jesus from its anchorage in tradition; on the one hand, consequently, tradition
hangs in a vacuum, deprived of reality, while on the other hand, a new interpretation and
significance must be sought for the figure of Jesus”.19 According to Stanley J. Grenz, The
Quest for the Historical Jesus (Albert Schweitzer - 1906) had ended in failure concluding
that the real Jesus of history was “an apocalyptic preacher who proclaimed the nearness of
the end of the world” and that the “person of Jesus that researchers had reconstructed from
the text, was nothing more than a reflection of their own image”.20 In sum, theology is truly
universal and not the ownership of the intellectual few but belonging to everyone. Further,
if the church is able to understand the world it must do so through renewed interpretations
that are able to keep apace of a rapidly changing world and respond in equal fashion.

In conclusion, there seems to have been several factors that coalesced contributing to the
development of a phenomena called Liberation Theology. Of course theology must be a
witness to history, interpret it and respond appropriately. Vatican II was a response to the
changing forces that surround us all and it was necessary for Church to respond, albeit
reluctantly and all too briefly. Nevertheless, world events made their mark resulting in both
a spiritual and economic poverty that was truly felt throughout the third world and out of

17
Ratzinger. J.
18
Ratzinger. J.
19
Ratzinger. J.
20
Grenz. S.J & Olson. R.E., 20th century theology: God & The World in a Transitional Age,
(Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1995).p.87.
An analysis of the development of liberation theology and its key theological themes

which sprang new theologies, including a theology of liberation that paralleled the call for
independence and freedom. It would appear that traditional Roman Catholicism was not
enough to address the dire social circumstances of the church of the poor and that left to
faith, people would perish twice as fast and so a new theological approach was required.
Out went Thomistic theology and in came new ways of understanding the Christian faith.
The new way had placed an emphasis on praxis over faith and although a major criticism of
liberation theology was that it was couched in Marxist language, it nonetheless raised old
fears both politically and theologically. Consequently, if liberation theology is going to
survive it must reshape itself in another form.

Bibliography:

Bauckham. R., The theology of Jürgen Moltmann, Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1995.
Brown. R. McAfee., Gustavo Gutiérrez: An Introduction to Liberation Theology, Maryknoll, N.Y:
Orbis Books, 1990.
Boff. L & Boff.C., Introducing Liberation Theology, Tunbridge Wells: Burns & Oates, 1987.
Grenz. S.J & Olson. R.E., 20th century theology: God & The World in a Transitional Age, Carlisle:
Paternoster Press, 1995.
Gutierrez. G., The Power Of The Poor In History, Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004.
Gutiérrez. G., .A theology of liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, London: S.C.M. Press,
1974.
Ratzinger. J., Liberation Theology,
[Http://www.Christendom-awake.org//pages/ratzinger/liberationtheol.htm].

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