Latin American Liberation Theology Research Articles

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.

Henri Nouwen: Deeply Wounded and Beloved Healer

This article tracks the life of Henri Nouwen focusing on his years at Yale Divinity School, particularly 1972-73 when he taught a course on Thomas Merton in which the author participated. The author recounts his interaction with Nouwen both personally and academically. Following Yale, the article describes Nouwen’s immersion in Latin American liberation theology, his teaching at Harvard Divinity School, and eventually finding his vocational calling fulfilled at a L’Arche community, Daybreak, in Toronto. Henri’s ministry to the profoundly disabled at Daybreak turned tragic as his workaholic schedule of ministry, speaking and writing was disrupted by a wintertime accident. Amidst this Henry was forced to deal with his own profound insecurity and depression stemming in part from his homosexuality, which he kept hidden. An analysis of his book, The Return of the Prodigal Son, demonstrates how Henri used his own anxieties, doubts and failures to bring spiritual growth and healing to a global audience. Henri’s hectic lifestyle and psychological stress finally brought the life of this deeply wounded and beloved healer to an early end.

The Prophet and the Poet: Richard Shaull and the Shaping of Rubem Alves’s Liberative Theopoetics

This article explores the intersection between history, mission, and theology in Latin America by shedding light on the encounter between North American missionary Richard Shaull and Brazilian theologian and poet Rubem Alves. It examines Shaull’s impact on Alves as Alves became, first, one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology and, later, one of its challengers as he moved away from normative theological language towards theopoetics. In this article, I underscore particular snapshots of Alves’ vast work, noting that the images of the poet and the prophet that permeate much of it are not mutually exclusive. I argue that Rubem Alves’ provocative work remains an important resource for a theory of action that takes subjectivity and beauty seriously. Throughout this article, Shaull and Alves are presented as different but complementary thinkers, representative of Alves’ prophetic and poetic types. It is argued that a closer look at the similarities and complementarities in the works of this duo may provide us with new insights through which Rubem Alves’ poetic voice and Richard Shaull’s prophetic persistence can come together as resources for the reimagination of our hopes for a more beautiful and just world.

Latin American liberation theology: Does it fit in the schema of African theology of reconstruction?

Three decades after the proposal for a shift of theological paradigm, from liberation to reconstruction in an African context (1990-2020), it is worthwhile to ask: Was this proposal timely? Did the proposal speak for other related theologies of liberation in the majority-world such as Black theology of North America and more specifically, Latin American liberation theology? In this proposal, African theologies of liberation were urged to embrace this shift as the new norm. Such African theologies includes: African theology (the mother), Black theology of South Africa, and African women’s theology among others. Hence the proposal was contextual in that Africa was moving towards total independence from ‘Pharaohs’ who had colonised Africa since the Berlin conference of 1885/1886. With the African agenda appearing to have been taken care of, it is worthwhile to ask: Does this ‘well-taken care of’ African agenda mean anything to other liberationists theologians in the majority-world such as the Latin American liberation theology? This article sets on the premise that liberation theology can be done within reconstruction theology and vice versa, and as the situation and context demands. Hence, it is possible to cry for ‘liberation’ when in reality, it is liberation to reconstruct and/or liberation to consolidate the gains of previous liberation hence reconstruction. In its method and design, the article reviews the existing literature while making a critical analysis on matters under consideration.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This article explores the notion of reconstruction in an African context and gives it a global dimension by drawing from other contemporary theologies of the Majority-World such as Latin American theology and Black theology of North America. It involves the disciplines of Systematic theology, Contemporary theology, Liberation and Reconstruction theologies, and Missiology.

Gibanje teologije osvoboditve

Zametki latinskoameriške teologije osvoboditve kot družbenega gibanja segajo v 50. leta minulega stoletja. Gibanje je nato počasi rastlo do svojega vrhunca v začetku 70. let 20. stoletja. Sledeč relacijski sociologiji Pierra Bourdieuja, trdimo, da so formaciji gibanja botrovali tako objektivno-strukturni družbeni pogoji kakor tudi primerna percepcija družbenih akterjev. Med ključnimi družbenimi pogoji, na katere se osredotoča prispevek, so industrializacija Latinske Amerike, institucionalna kriza latinskoameriške RKC, drugi vatikanski koncil, nastajajoča intelektualna neodvisnost celine ter izoblikovanje v Evropi in ZDA izobraženih teologov osvoboditve. Razcvetu gibanja v začetku 70. let je sledila odločna sprva notranja, nato pa tudi vatikanska konservativna restavracija, ki je v dobrem desetletju uspela uspešno zatreti gibanje teologije osvoboditve. Ob upoštevanju končne predstavitve zatona teologije osvoboditve se kot nastavek za nadaljnje raziskovanje ponudi priljubljenost binkoštnega protestantizma, gibanja, ki se opazno povečuje v zadnjih 30 letih, sočasno s pojavom neoliberalnih strukturnih reform na globalnem jugu.

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology

The World Come of Age: An Intellectual History of Liberation Theology

Puebla «Desde Fuera». Il diario della Terza Conferenza generale dell’episcopato latinoamericano del padre Cecilio de Lora SM

This contribution provides an unpublished source of the Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate held in Puebla between January and February 1979. It is the journal of the conference of an important witness of this ecclesial event, the Marianist Father Cecilio de Lora, former assistant secretary of CELAM, invited to Puebla by the presidency of CLAR to coordinate the group of theologians, pastors, and sociologists who helped extra muros many bishops and religious participating in the assembly. It was a composite group of more than thirty people, “uninvited” to the conference by a CELAM directed by López Trujillo, but deeply involved, “from outside,” in the works of the assembly, both through contributions given to the bishops in the form of diagrams or proposals of amendments, and through daily press conferences. Written ad usum privatum, the journal published here gives, with the author’s brightness, some personal impressions and evaluations of the experience of Puebla. It also provides new information on the intense “parallel” work of this group of theologians, among whom were many of the most significant names in the new Latin American liberation theology.

The Historical Jesus in the Context of Latin American Liberation Theology

본고는 라틴 아메리카 해방신학에서 비롯된 그리스도론을 연구하기 위하여 역사적이고 주제적인 접근을 열거하고 있다. 이는 해방신학의 배경과 역사적 차원이 그리스도의 정체성과 사명을 새롭게 이해하는 데에 핵심적인 역할을 수행함에 초점을 맞춘다. 본고는 세 개의 장에 걸쳐 전개된다. 먼저 유럽인들의 정복과 식민지의 시대에 그리스도교에 의해 남겨진 그리스도교 유산에 대해 간략하게 소개한다. 이는 왜곡된 그리스도교 유산을 바로잡는 데에 있어 해방신학이 왜 스스로를 필수적이라고 여기는지에 대한 이유를 이해하는 데에 도움이 될 것이다. 두 번째 장에서는 역사적 예수와 가난한 사람들을 위한 우선적인 선택이라는, 그리스도론에 대한 해방주의자의 접근을 뒷받침하는 주요한 방법론적 주제들을 연구한다. 본고는 라틴 아메리카 해방주의자의 그리스도론이라는 특징을 지닌 주된 그리스도론적 주제들을 연구함으로써 결론을 맺는다.This article enlists an historical and thematic approach to examine the Christology that has emerged from Latin American liberation theology. It focuses on the central role this theology’s context and historical dimensions have played in a renewed understanding of Christ’s identity and mission. The essay unfolds over three main sections. It first provides a brief overview of the Christological legacy left by the European conquest and colonial Christianity. This will help us under-stand why liberation theology understands itself as necessary correct-ive for a distorted Christological legacy. The second section examines the key methodological issues that undergird a liberationist approach of Christology - that is, the historical Jesus and a preferential option for the poor. The paper concludes by examining the main Christological themes that characterize Latin American liberationist Christology.

Translating the Lotus Sūtra into Social Action: Hermeneutics and Public Dharmology

In this article, I investigate the principles and possible applications of scriptural exegesis of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra (SDP, Lotus Sūtra)—a core Mahāyāna Buddhist scripture—for social advocacy and activism. I approach this process of emic-critical interpretation in dialogue with Christian Public Theology as Public Dharmology and suggest utilizing the principles of established in Christian 'theological hermeneutics' (Klemm 1986). By adducing the existentialist philosophical theology of Paul Tillich (Systematic Theology 1951-1963) and Martin Buber's theology of relationality (I and Thou [1923] 1970), a Buddhist dharmological prius can be analogously established. An applied scriptural dharmology emerges in dialogue with Christian theologies, in particular Latin-American Liberation Theology (La Teologia de la Liberacion Latinoamericana), Feminist, Queer and 'Crip' Theology. The latter becomes the focus of a case study; on textual, literary, philosophical and theological levels ableist language and imagery in the SDP are scrutinized and the potential of translating the Lotus Sūtra for 'crip liberation' is gauged.

The Küme Mongen and the Reign of God

This paper attempts to offer a theological reflection that compares two concepts from two different religious traditions that deal with a similar concern: guiding humanity and the cosmos to flourishing and abundant life. On the one hand, I will consider the Küme Mongenthat comes from the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina. On the other hand, I will consider the concept of the reign of God, so central to the Gospels and re-articulated frequently in Christology, specifically, Latin-American liberation theology. First, I will explain the context from which Küme Mongenemerges and give an account of the central ideas of this concept. Second, I will give an account of the treatment of the reign of God in J.A. Pagola and J. Sobrino’s Christology. Finally, I will explore the possible connections between the Mapuche vision of fruitful life and the Kingdom of God, opening possible paths for mutual learning and understanding between the Mapuche and the Christian religious traditions.

Teologia litúrgica da libertação

Neste artigo o autor desenvolve um pensamento litúrgico-teológico que envolve conteúdo e formas metodológicas visando propor a criação de uma teologia litúrgica da libertação. A teologia da libertação latino-americana forjou um vasto campo de conhecimento teológico, mas nunca esteve plenamente interessada no campo da liturgia. Para preencher esse vazio, o autor propõe pensar a teologia da libertação a partir de uma práxis litúrgica, ou seja, como a vida toda dos pobres, se vivida toda na prática litúrgica pode se tornar o primeiro passo da teologia, fazendo assim o pensamento litúrgico/teológico o segundo ato teológico. Para isso, é preciso se refazer o entendimento da liturgia para que ela não seja somente o lugar da repetição da tradição, mas fundamentalmente o lugar onde a vida toda é vivida em cantos, orações e rituais que vão para além da tradição e também assumem o cotidiano e as crenças populares. Se a liturgia se torna a ritualização sagrada do que se vive amplamente no cotidiano, a partir das experiências todas de vida e de morte, a correlação entre a práxis/pensamento litúrgico e o pensamento/práxis teológico acaba por refletir o povo que vive e inventa a vida com Deus. No cerne dessa teologia litúrgica se encontra o corpo, microcosmo da terra e do universo, um mundo entre tantos mundos intermediários e relações complexas. O articular essa lacuna, depois de 50 anos de história da teologia da libertação latino-americana, mostra ser essa teologia vital, e ainda mais necessária para os nossos tempos.

Latin American Liberation Theology and Postcolonial Studies

Abstract This paper argues in favour of the need of a continuous decolonisation and contextualisation of theology. Global capitalism, modernity, and the persistent colonial attitudes of the Western world are the phenomena in which to frame the presence of striking inequalities among and within countries. By assuming a liberationist standpoint, the analysis points at the convergence in methods and scopes of the Western postcolonial thought and the Latin American Christian theology of liberation for an effective decolonisation of theology. Liberation, with all its implications, becomes the key term through which to understand this relationship.

Latin American and Ecumenical Insights in Laudato Si’

AbstractPope Francis' encyclical on “Care for our common home,” Laudato si', marked a turning point in the social doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. In this article I argue that the structure of the encyclical, using the “See‐Judge‐Act” methodology and the "cry of the earth and the cry of the poor" as leitmotivs, can be seen as contributions of Latin American liberation theology. Furthermore, I show with examples that the encyclical catalyzes what the ecumenical movement has been saying and doing for decades, especially through the leadership of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on ecological issues and the work of the World Council of Churches striving for eco‐justice.

Latin American Liberation Theology as a Transforming Political Theology

Latin American Liberation Theology is a transforming theology in two senses: It is able to transform reality, as it has shown in these past decades, and it is transforming itself. This article shows how both types of meaning interweave. The transformations of Liberation Theology enable it to continuously adapt itself to new challenges in history. At present, this global theological movement is diversifying, or even fragmenting, in order to propose creative and effective solutions to different problems. Specifically, the Option for the Poor, which is at Liberation Theology’s core, currently presents profound challenges to European and Western theologies.

Between context and conflict: the ‘boom’ of Latin American Protestantism in the ecumenical movement (1955–75)

AbstractThe article looks at the entanglement of the international ecumenical movement and Latin American Protestantism in the ‘long 1960s’. It investigates the influence and significance of Latin American liberation theology for the churches and theology around the world. During this period, it was particularly the World Council of Churches (WCC), a worldwide fellowship of Christian churches, which strengthened the efforts of churches from the ‘Third World’ to identify their own theological issues and questions. In this way, the WCC strongly supported Latin American Protestant church leaders and theologians in giving specific attention to their own context. The article argues that the ‘boom’ of Latin American Protestantism within the WCC in the 1960s and early 1970s brought into the global ecumenical movement both new theological concepts, such as revolution and liberation, and individuals exiled from Latin America. Yet this contextual and emancipatory approach revealed at the same time fundamental differences and conflicts between churches of the North and South.

Theology Facing Religious Diversity: The Perspective of Latin American Pluralist Theology

Life is plural and diverse, biodiverse. This reality has always provoked philosophy, the sciences, and also theology. But how does theological thinking reflect on this eco-human diversity? What about religious diversity? Are diversity and pluralism the same phenomenon? These questions express the aim of this article: to reflect on theology in the face of diversity and pluralism. With the methodology of bibliographic analysis, the article begins by discussing the challenges of this reality. Then it deals with how theology confronts diversity and pluralism. In the end, it reflects on the possibility of Latin American Liberation Theology being conceived as pluralist, articulating itself with the Theology of Religious Pluralism—especially from the 1990s. One of the exponents of the Latin American Liberation Theology that justifies such a paradigm shift is the theologian Leonardo Boff. With his outputs, Latin American theology starts to realize, from the ecological paradigm, the articulation between liberation and dialogue, then being called pluralistic liberation theology. The conclusions of the article point out that cultural change, the ecological paradigm and, recently, the questions of decolonial theology, have led theological thinking to transform more, facing the socio-environmental challenges of diversity, conflicts, and interreligious dialogue, accepting even more the awareness of pluralism.

History from the View of the Cross: An Exploration of Lonergan and Latin American Theologies of Liberation

The article deals with questions of the relationship of theories of history and theologies of liberation. More specifically, the guiding question is what theory of history does a theology of liberation require. To answer this, Marx and Lonergan are brought into dialogue with Latin American liberation theologians to compare and test the cogency of these two thinkers with Latin American thought.

PORTRAIT OF A POLITICAL LIBERATION THEOLOGIAN: LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND THE MAKING OF ABEL MUZOREWA’S AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SUBJECTIVITY IN RISE UP AND WALK

 Autobiographical subjects are products of their experiential histories, memories, agency and the discourses of their time lived and time of textual production. This article explores the religious and political discursive economy in which Abel Muzorewa (former Prime Minister of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia) narrates the story of his life and how this discursive context constructs his autobiographical subjectivity. The article examines how Muzorewa’s religious beliefs – com­bined with his experiential history of being a colonial subject – are deployed as a strategy of constructing his subjectivity. I argue that the discursive contexts of mass nationalism and his Christian religious beliefs grounded in Latin American liberation theology construct both Mu­zorewa as the subject of Rise up and walk and the narrative discourse. The article posits that the narrative tropes derived from Christian texts that Muzorewa deploys mediate his identity, and that his selfhood emerges with the unfolding of the narrative. What he claims to be politi­cal pragmatism on his part is also inspired by the practical theology which he subscribes to. I argue that his subjectivity is complexly realised through the contradictory relationship between missionary theology and liberation theology.

Towards a decolonial approach in Latin American theology

I would like to contrast some of the premises proposed by the so-called postcolonial approach with what some Latin-Americans scholars identify as “epistemological Decolonization.” Colonialism is not something of the past; it has new forms. That is the challenge of the Latin American Theology. I wish to show how Moltmann's critique of and dialog with Latin-American Theology help us in the process of elaborating more clearly a “decolonial epistemology.” At the same time, I wish to show how Latin American liberation theology resonates with many of the insights that the decolonial approach offers. I argue that since its inception Latin American theology has displayed a decolonizing content and impetus, which becomes clearer in our present global climate.