Liberation Theology At The Crossroads

Liberation theology originated in Catholic Latin America at the end of the 1960s in response to prevalent conditions of poverty and oppression. Its basic tenet was that it is the primary duty of the church to seek to promote social and economic justice. Since that time it has grown in influence, spreading to other areas of the Third World, along with bitter controversy about its ties to Marxist ideology and violent revolution. Drawing on both English and Spanish sources, this critical study examines the history, method, and doctrines of liberation theology. Sigmund considers the movement's origins in political circumstances in Latin America and provides case studies of its role in such events as the revolution and counter-revolution in Chile, and in the revolutionary movements in El Salvador and Nicaragua. Examining the thought of major liberation theologians, as well as the critical responses of the Vatican, Sigmund shows that liberation theology is a complex phenomenon, comprising a variety of kinds and degrees of radicalism. He discerns a general trend away from the Marxist rhetoric that has often characterized the movement in the past and towards the kind of grassroots populist reform typified by the Basic Christian Communities Movement.

What Gutierrez has done for overall theological understanding, what Segundo has done for theological method, and what Miranda has done for biblical studies, Jon Sobrino has now done for Christology; He has provided a substantial and enduring theological contribution from a Third World perspective. This book will have long life, since it not only argues for the necessity of a Christology 'from the underside of history, ' but offers an extensive example of how such a Christology should be constructed, showing the basic connection between the radical historicity of Jesus and the suffering and pain of oppressed people. The thoroughness of the author's survey of other positions, the fullness of his documentation, and the pervasive power of his own affirmations make clear that 'Christology at the Crossroads' will not leave us stranded at the crossroads but will start us down exciting and demanding new paths. Robert McAfee Brown Professor of Ecumenics and World Christianity, Union Theological Seminary The publication of 'Christology at the Crossroads' in English is most opportune. It is not only the Christology presented in this book, but the Christology of the church at large (indeed of the churches) that stands at the crossroads at present. Those of us who have been working in this field know that in order to break through some deadlocked situations we need a Christology more soberly rooted in soteriology, more honestly founded upon the historical Jesus, and more realistically turned towards a future yet to be realized. Yet in the affluent and basically contented northern nations of the western world, this kind of Christology has not so far been written. To find it one must turn to the Third World theologians for the present, and among these Jon Sobrino's book is a landmark. Monika K. Hellwig Associate Professor of Theology, Georgetown Universit

This book offers a theological reflection on the praxis of struggle for human and ecological liberation. It critically appropriates the framework of the emerging ecological theology of liberation, which expands the notion of the preferential option for the poor--privileging those who suffer from class oppression, racial discrimination, sexist ideologies, and ecological exploitation. With the analytical mediation of the social and ecological sciences, this book investigates the oppressive ideologies that produce poverty and the ecological crisis. It maps out existing advocacies that may awaken a sense of solidarity and serve as embers of hope for a sustainable world.

David Tombs offers an accessible introduction to the theological challenges raised by Latin American Liberation and a new contribution to how these challenges might be understood as a chronological sequence. Liberation theology emerged in the 1960s in Latin America and thrived until it reached a crisis in the 1990s. This work traces the distinct developments in thought through the decades, thus presenting a contextual theology. The book is divided into five main sections: the historical role of the church from Columbus’s arrival in 1492 until the Cuban revolution of 1959; the reform and renewal decade of the 1960s; the transitional decade of the 1970s; the revision and redirection of liberation theology in the 1980s; and a crisis of relevance in the 1990s. This book offers insights into liberation theology’s profound contributions for any socially engaged theology of the future and is crucial to understanding liberation theology and its legacies. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.

The Future of Liberation Theology envisions a radical new direction for Latin American liberation theology. One of a new generation of Latin American theologians, Ivan Petrella shows that despite the current dominance of 'end of history' ideology, liberation theologians need not abandon their belief that the theological rereading of Christianity must be linked to the development of 'historical projects' - models of political and economic organization that would replace an unjust status quo. In the absence of historical projects, liberation theology currently finds itself unable to move beyond merely talking about liberation toward actually enacting it in society. Providing a bold new interpretation of the current state and potential future of liberation theology, Ivan Petrella brings together original research on the movement, with developments in political theory, critical legal theory and political economy to reconstruct liberation theology's understanding of theology, democracy and capitalism. The result is the recovery of historical projects, thus allowing liberation theologians to once again place the reality of liberation, and not just the promise, at the forefront of their task.

Details the achievements and shortcomings of the past and the risks, challenges and opportunities religious education will meet in moving into the next century

Emmanuel Levinas' Conceptual Affinities with Liberation Theology analyzes Levinas' work in relation to two important liberation theologians, Gustavo Gutiérrez and Jon Sobrino, whose scholarship, like his, needs to be brought into greater contemporary debate about the subject's encounter with the other. More specifically, this book argues that for Levinas, Gutiérrez, and Sobrino, commitment to the neighbor is the necessary context for «understanding» God. They posit the human other as the possibility of the subject's subjectivity. To be human is to act with love toward one's neighbor. Thus, the author articulates the possibility of reading Levinas' philosophy as a revalidation of one of the truths of Christianity: the concern for the humanity of every human person as expressed in Christian theology in general and liberation theology in particular. In order to show the relevance of Levinas' philosophy for Christian theology in general, the author discusses three Christian scholars, Enrique Dussel, Jean-Luc Marion, and Michael Purcell. Although they challenge some aspects of Levinas' philosophy, they nevertheless see its significance for Christian theological anthropology. The discussion concludes by proposing Levinas' philosophy and liberation theology's turn to the neighbor as significant for addressing contemporary socio-political and ethnic conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa.