Latin American Liberation Theology Research Articles

‘The Crucified People’ in Latin American Liberation Theology: An Expression of ‘Jesuit Populism’?

‘The Crucified People’ in Latin American Liberation Theology: An Expression of ‘Jesuit Populism’?

Minjung Theology as a Project of Profanation: Focusing on the Minjung-Event Theory of Byung-Mu Ahn

The relationship between minjung theology and the process of social change called secularization or theoretical and practical projects based on such processes of social change is complex. It requires more detailed discussions. Therefore, this paper seeks to reinterpret minjung theology as a theological minjung project using the methodology of new-style phenomenology of religion with a theoretical basis on Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben’s conceptions of secularization and profanation as projects with religious intentions and orientations. Through this reinterpretation, the paper demonstrates that minjung theology in relation to secularization is a unique theological project with very different goals from those of Latin American liberation theology as well as other political and situation theologies. In order to accomplish this purpose, the paper first introduces French sociologist Émile Durkheim who has explained secularization differently from German sociologist Max Weber. It then shows that secularization is not the only way in which the sacred is reappropriated through Agamben’s discussions of secularization and profanation. To identify the passage from secularization to profanation of the concept of minjung, this paper analyzes the minjung-event theory of Byung-Mu Ahn, a representative first-generation minjung theologian. This theory emphasizes the importance of “event” as a way of understanding minjung instead of defining it conceptually. Insofar as it presents the minjung as an intrinsically unnamable, invisible, and unpredictable event, a form of religious phenomenon called “the sacred”, minjung-event theory involves an attempt to secularize Jesus-Messiah as the Minjung-Messiah. In conclusion, this paper argues that beyond the secularization of the Messiah into the Minjung, minjung-event theory moves toward a dialectical project of desacralization and re-sacralization, in which the minjung itself is profaned into an event.

The Poor in Society, Resurrection from Social Death, and Latin American Liberation Theology

Does Latin American liberation theology, with its option for the poor, still have something to contribute in a global scenario marked by neoliberal globalization and the discussion of identity politics? Based on the practices of Father Júlio Lancelotti against aporophobia (phobia against the poor) and the hostile architecture in Brazil, this article discusses the notion of the priority of orthopraxis over orthodoxy, the process of reordering the place of the poor in society and in the state budgets, and the notion of liberation practices and criticizes the process of dehumanization in neoliberal culture, in which personal identity and belonging to a community are marked by the pattern of consumption and wealth. Finally, it shows how the practices of recognizing the humanity of the poorest can been seen as a resurrection from social death, as a form of liberation within history, and as the affirmation of faith in a God who does not distinguish between human beings, while the idol demands sacrifices of life from the poor.

Martin Luther’s Theory of “Two kingdoms” and Its Practical Dimension

Luther’s “theory of two kingdoms” outlines “the kingdom of God” governed by “spiritual government” and “the kingdom of the world” governed by the “secular government”. It also emphasizes the obedience to the secular rulers regardless of their tyranny. Luther’s solution to the problem of their tyranny made him controversial, especially after the oppression of civilians and Jews by the extreme power politics in Auschwitz tragedy in World War II. Some scholars argue that it has kept religion indifferent to society and politics. To address this issue, Niebuhr and Moltmann proposed a political theology that focuses on the reality of human conditions in this earthly life. Latin American liberation theology further applied secular theology to practice, but it eventually shifted to spiritual construction in the face of the spiritual crisis of the loss of theological identity. The relationship between the two kingdoms can be explored from the perspective of spirit (πνευματικῶς pneumatikoos), soul(ψυχήν psychēn) and flesh (σαρκίνοις sarkinois). This paper aims to demonstrate the inherent affinity between the two kingdoms and respond to the criticism of the “two kingdoms” theory.

Towards a theology of human praxis: A proposal from liberation theologies in a neoliberal world

Neoliberalism is an anti-utopian and kind of patron–client theory that threatens not only the human utopian thought, and therefore the human praxis, but also the ‘conditio humana’. Therefore, this threat also challenges the current visions of praxis in contextual theologies. From a dialogue between the traditions of praxis present in Latin American liberation theology and black liberation theology, particularly from a renewed understanding of human relationships in terms of God’s grace and human spirituality-kenosis, it could be possible to overcome the ideological character of neoliberalism by offering some elements for the development of a human praxis oriented to the creation of possible worlds that reproduce the natural circuit of life and acknowledge the rising and dignity of the new subjects.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The critical analysis of the ideological character of neoliberalism implies an interdisciplinary approach that considers the contribution of Christian theology. From the inductive orientation of Latin American liberation theology and black liberation theology, this research proposes some theological elements to discuss the feasibility of a human praxis that orients the creation of possible worlds.

The Poor as Symptom: A Lacanian Reading of the Option for the Poor

Latin American liberation theology contributed perhaps the most significant theological contribution of the twentieth century in the “preferential option for the poor”. This insight has been an uneasy call to conscience for the magisterial Catholic Church, which has often buttressed the positions of the powerful. However, despite the central significance of this discovery, liberation theologians themselves often betray their own positions by romanticizing the poor, speaking on their behalf, diluting the meaning of poor and other such seeming shortcomings. This article argues that the incongruence regnant in discussions of the preferential option can best be understood through the Lacanian notion of a “symptom”. As “woman is the symptom of man”, the poor are the symptom of the upper classes. In order for nonpoor to understand their own socioeconomic position—including academically trained clergy—they must posit the poor as an Other against whom they understand themselves. As such, reaching “the poor” is an impossibility for anyone who is in a position to truly advocate for them. However, the insight of the preferential option tells us that the impossibility should be pursued nonetheless, with full understanding that it is an impossibility.

Liberation Theology Today: Tasks of Criticism in Interpellation to the Present World

Latin American liberation theology appears to be an obsolete phenomenon that is unable to speak about the realities of today’s world. Since the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published two instructions on liberation theology, the Vatican has been considered to have condemned it. Likewise, the Vatican of John Paul II and Benedict XVI focused on the reprobation of several liberation theologians attempting to silence their voices. However, liberation theology aimed at the realisation of justice in a world in which the injustice that gave birth to this phenomenon still prevails in new ways. This article establishes a relationship between liberation theology and critical thinking to offer an alternative to the future of liberation theology. We insist that, despite the end of the era in which both were born, they continue to challenge the present world. Using Adornian optics, we establish how critical thought constitutes a prophetic denunciation. Thus, liberation theology will be understood within this critical tradition and how it critiques the current reality, in which the logic of late capitalism prevails. Afterwards, the contemporary world will be studied from this point of view to try to discover the pending tasks of criticism. It is the question of discovering the tasks of critiques to challenge the present.

Communal Holiness in the Liberation and Methodist Movements

Abstract In this article, aspects of the Methodism tradition are put in dialogue with characteristics of Latin American liberation theology to explore communal holiness. The article focuses primarily on the words of John Wesley and Gustavo Gutiérrez, considered founders of these movements. The Wesleyan ‘means of grace’ by ‘works of mercy’ is a similar concept to Liberation's ‘encountering God in the poor and oppressed.’ Traits of liberation spirituality are compared to Methodism. The concluding section asserts that in order to be sanctified (made holy), Christians must do it together. This holiness can be activated through works of mercy with the poor and oppressed.

Donald Macleod: Free Church liberation theologian?

AbstractDonald Macleod (1940–) has been called one of the two most important Scottish Reformed theologians of the twentieth century. This article shows that by the 1990s Macleod in his public theology consistently used language and concepts which were also trademarks of Latin American liberation theology. By comparing his work to the three mediations of liberation theology, I show it is possible to speak of Macleod as exhibiting a distinctive Scottish Reformed theology of liberation. I propose this connection should be understood through Macleod's constructive engagement with his own Scottish (and specifically Highland) Reformed tradition, whose interest in liberation carries surprising parallels with Latin American liberation theology.

Living Witnesses and Moral Agency

This chapter focuses on how the life and work of anthropologist, physician, and global health equity activist Paul Farmer provides a model for theologically-informed moral agency that transgresses the roles established by current hierarchies of being, knowledge, and power in order to relieve suffering without reproducing the iniquitous circulation of power and resources. Latin American liberation theology’s “preferential option for the poor” is Farmer’s primary moral lens. The chapter examines how Farmer lives out this commitment in his work as a health care provider alongside communities around the world fighting to survive in the face of grievously iniquitous social and economic conditions; and also as a university professor at one of the world’s wealthiest and most elite institutions of higher education. The analysis engages womanist ethicist Marcia Riggs’ conception of a mediating ethic to characterize Farmer’s moral praxis: it is a move toward justice that generates momentum in the face of a complex moral dilemma. The chapter contends that Farmer’s moral praxis contributes to the field of theological ethics by critically engaging the fraught intersection of positionality and agency, and by framing moral responses to the extremely challenging current social, economic, and political conditions in Haiti, where Farmer’s work began in the 1980s.

Liberation Theology and Public Health Ethics: The Tradition Behind Paul Farmer

This chapter approaches Paul Farmer’s work from the lens of liberation theology in public health, particularly the activism of liberation theologians for universal healthcare coverage in Brazil, stressing health care as a human right. This liberation approach in medicine precedes Paul Farmer’s work. The text presents experiences of liberating approach to health care developed in Brazil that began before Farmer’s activism and scholarship. The author argues that Farmer can be seen as part of this liberation perspective, that he incorporated in his medical service after his reading of earlier Latin American liberation theology’s material. Hence, he brought to the US context (and English readers) a liberation approach to medicine, also present in his public discourse and practice around the world, through his own voice/hands and the actions of the organization he co-founded, Partners In Health. Doing so, Farmer helped to expand the liberation approach to public health, offering a new pluralism that mediates the dialogue between the global and the local.

Pope Francis and the Catholic Worker on the Ascesis of Attention

Pope Francis’s encyclical Fratelli tutti elevates some key themes of his papacy. Using the parable of the Good Samaritan as a framing narrative, Francis outlines an active, nonviolent style of politics and social engagement based on practices of attention and hospitality toward one’s neighbors. Francis refers to this mode of engagement as “social friendship.” Francis’s pastoral letters and homilies draw from the content and methodologies common to Latin American liberation theology, but many of his insights are mirrored in an Anglo-American context through the witness of the Catholic Worker movement. This paper looks to the Catholic Worker for a mode by which the Gospel of social friendship can be lived out through asceses of attention and hospitality to the unhoused. Social friendship leads one to responsible action, and universal membership in the Body of Christ calls into question the structures that oppress the vulnerable.

Unity that Liberates for an Embodied Mission

AbstractTaking into account the global and local challenges that we are going through, and from a theological‐historical perspective, the working hypothesis in this article is that the ecumenical movement (as part of missio Dei) helped to produce a scenario in 20th‐century Latin America that we could call “mission incarnated.” This is argued using two historical examples: the interaction and mutual enrichment between Latin American liberation theology and the theology of the Wesleyan tradition; and the ecclesial example of the Methodist Church in Argentina. Finally, some theological and missionary challenges that stem from this history are discussed, being important for the ecumenical movement and the Christian faith communities in Latin America at this key point in time.

Liberation Theology: A Pragmatist Perspective

Liberation Theology: A Pragmatist Perspective

The Option for Nonviolence in Latin American Liberation Theology: The Case of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero

The Option for Nonviolence in Latin American Liberation Theology: The Case of Archbishop Oscar A. Romero

Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation

Becoming Utopian: The Culture and Politics of Radical Transformation

Theological Education in and for Black and Brown Communities

This paper uses a critical pedagogical lens for evaluating North American theological education within Black and Brown communities. A Latin American epistemology, exemplified in Freire’s (2000) concept of conscientização, is highlighted throughout. Four major pedagogical themes from Latin American Liberation Theology are applied to North American theological education to evaluate its contribution to social justice education: consciousness raising, liberation, praxis, and contextualization.

Suffering, Injustice, and Interfaith Relations

AbstractThis article provides an overview of the expansion of the notion of the ecumenical in the course of the 20th century as the growing number of Christians living in the global South began to develop distinct Christian identities in connection with their participation in nation‐building projects, which included close relations with neighbours of other faiths. Far from being isolated, these “third‐world Christians” formed important transnational networks, through which they exchanged experiences and integrated emphases developed in different parts of the world. Among other things, a dialogue between Latin American liberation theology and Asian theologies of religion has evolved to bring together the religious and the suffering “other,” turning interreligious relations into not only a liberative event, but also a decolonial act.

Teologie osvobození v době politických a církevních proměn

This article examines how Latin American liberation theology has changed in the past decade. It begins with a major challenge posed to liberation theology by Clodovis Boff, an important author on methodology in liberation theology. The article then examines how liberation theologians at the time and since have responded to the challenge of making liberation theology more theological. They have done this against a backdrop of two events that have had a positive impact on liberation theology’s standing. The first negative event is the worsening political and economic situation that has highlighted liberation theology’s commitment to the poor. The second positive occurrence was the election of Pope Francis, whose language is full of the terminology used by liberation theologians. The effect of these developments is followed through a brief study of three major Latin American theological congresses.

Between Basilea and Utopia: Exploring the Impact of Kingdom Theology in US Latinx Pentecostalism

This article is a general exploration of US Latinx Pentecostalism’s explicit and implicit theology of the Kingdom of God and how it can contribute to US Latinx Pentecostalism’s socio-political engagement. An overview will be provided of traditional, US Pentecostal Kingdom theology and Kingdom theology in Latin American Liberation Theology. These will be contrasted with US Latinx Pentecostal perspectives. To locate US Latinx Pentecostal theology of the Kingdom of God, this paper will first provide a wide-ranging description of a traditional evangelical hermeneutical process. Afterward, an understanding of the Kingdom that is generally taught and accepted in most evangelical contexts will be discussed. This will be followed by a survey of dominant US Pentecostal theology of the Kingdom of God through the lens of the Assemblies of God doctrinal statements and Pentecostal scholars. The life and work of various Pentecostal ministers and author Piri Thomas will provide a Kingdom perspective of US Latinx Pentecostal practitioners. I will provide an analysis based on their life experiences and some of their writings. The writings of Orlando Costas will set the stage in order to examine the works of other US Latinx Pentecostal scholars. Thereafter, the theologies of Latin American Liberation Theologians Clodivis and Leonardo Boff and others will be surveyed. Before concluding, the article will provide a historical overview of Latinx Pentecostal social engagement in the northeast US with the goal of identifying Kingdom values and priorities.