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<\/a>Photograph of Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez Merino, courtesy of user Mohan<\/p><\/div>\n
Rise of Liberation Theology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Throughout the 19th<\/sup> century, the Church aligned itself with the upper classes and only minimally addressed the grievances of the poor.\u00a0\u00a0 The great Latin American independence movements, which had promised liberation and new hope through separation from the Iberian empire, only benefitted an elite sector of society, the light-skinned creoles (Tombs 27).\u00a0 Essentially, the creole class assumed the gaps in governance left behind by the peninsulares and did little to alleviate the struggles of the lower classes.\u00a0 These nationalistic uprisings maintained a Catholic church that tended to identify itself with the rich (Brown 9-10).\u00a0 Since religion had played a major role in the conquering of Latin America, the Church naturally aligned itself with the ruling elite (Tombs 15).\u00a0 Rather than a reflection of the people, the Catholic Church acted as a privileged model of success and power.<\/p>\n By the early 20th<\/sup> century, despite a consistent reinforcement of the status quo social structure, the Church began to exhibit evidence of slight moves towards a social tradition.\u00a0 The Church transitioned from simple encouragement of individual charity to an acknowledgement of distributive and social justice.\u00a0 Inspired by Leo XIII\u2019s 1891 Rerum Novarum<\/em> (Of New Matters), the notion of \u201can option for the poor\u201d or special consideration for lower classes began to become more prominent (Tombs 44).\u00a0 Throughout this time period, Latin American states experienced growing urbanization and industrialization as efforts increased to create a more independent economic system through nationalizing programs like import substitution (Skidmore, Smith and Green 358).\u00a0 Such rapid economic changes led to increasing pressure for similar political and social reforms (Tombs 49-50).\u00a0 Rapid change forced the Church to either fall behind or reevaluate its practices if it wished to maintain its position of influence.\u00a0 One of the most important manifestations of a changing religious ideology was the advent of the Catholic Action movement.\u00a0 In Peru, this movement was led by Holguin of Arequipaand Farf\u00e1n of Cusco, who established some separation between the Church and the state and introduced a more militant Catholicism (Pe\u00f1a 1994, 39). This initial organization helped to link social activists and leftists who would later work to create liberation theology (Pe\u00f1a 1995, 2). The Catholic Action movement helped to alter the role of religion in society, linking the Church to political action.\u00a0 These changes underlay a growing desire to break the allegiance between the Church and the rich.\u00a0 Slowly, the Church began to recognize the possibility of a crucial role in the world of the oppressed (Brown 9-10).<\/p>\n Pope Leo XII, author of Rerum Novarum, courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress<\/p><\/div>\n Among these participants in the Catholic Action movement was Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez, the most famous figure in the founding and promulgation of liberation theology (Pe\u00f1a 1994, 39).\u00a0 Guti\u00e9rrez was a Peruvian theologian and priest, ordained in 1959.\u00a0 Part Quechua Indian, Guti\u00e9rrez did not represent a part of Lima\u2019s aristocracy, but rather rose from the oppressed class.\u00a0 As a result of his intellectual prowess and success as a student at San Marcos University, Guti\u00e9rrez was offered the opportunity to pursue graduate studies in Louvain, Belgium and Lyon, France, where he was exposed to the canon of traditional European theology (Brown 22).\u00a0\u00a0 This experience abroad provided Guti\u00e9rrez with valuable intellectual skills and an understanding of traditional theology.\u00a0 Later on, such formal knowledge of the Catholic structure and teachings, when coupled with the views of the popular constituency, allowed for effective organizing and dramatic change (Pe\u00f1a 1994, 38).\u00a0 Upon his return from Europe, Guti\u00e9rrez began to realize how little the theories that he had learned abroad applied to the current situation of poverty and oppression in Latin America\u00a0 (Pe\u00f1a 1995, 5).\u00a0 The texts that he had studied covered in depth the path to salvation, but focused little on the physical situation of the poor.\u00a0 Guti\u00e9rrez felt that the Church had a duty to recognize these structural inadequacies and help the impoverished of Latin America.\u00a0 Hoping to address some of this social injustice, Guti\u00e9rrez became a lay militant of the Catholic Action movement as archdiocesan adviser and later national adviser to the UNEC (The National Union of Catholic Students) (Klaiber 238).\u00a0 Work for this movement allowed Guti\u00e9rrez to gain essential connections and networking opportunities that would later assist in the dissemination of liberation theology.<\/p>\n Moved by the Cuban Revolution of 1959 and increasing pressure for similar change, progressive clergy members began meeting to discuss the future of the Church and its role in the politics of society. CELAM or the Latin American Episcopal Conference worked to push the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican or Vatican II, a series of meetings from 1962 through 1965 that focused on Church unity and renewal,\u00a0 toward a more progressive stance. Vatican II represented an international conference where high-level Catholic religious figures rethought Church policy and discussed processes of modernization (Vatican II Online Documents).\u00a0 In 1968, CELAM organized a meeting in Medellin, Colombia, with the hope of supporting base ecclesiastic communities and continued reformation of the Church (Sigmund 23).\u00a0 It was at this conference that Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez first presented the term \u201cliberation theology\u201d in a paper called \u201cToward a Theology of Liberation\u201d in which he articulated a commitment to actions and expressed the importance of theology as critical evaluation, stating that \u201ctheology is reflection\u201d (Tombs 105).\u00a0 The concepts referenced during this talk in 1968 were more clearly laid out in his 1971 magnum opus, \u201cA Theology of Liberation.\u201d\u00a0 In an atmosphere of increasing clerical reform, liberation theology emerged as a new way of \u201cbeing human and Christian\u201d (Guti\u00e9rrez in Gibellini, 2).\u00a0 A highly networked group of religious figures began a movement to align Christianity with the needs of the poor.<\/p>\n Major Components of Liberation Theology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Liberation theology looks to understand Christianity and religion through the salvific process of liberation. Such a theology does \u201cnot stop with reflecting on the world, but rather tries to be a part of the process through which the world is transformed\u201d (Guti\u00e9rrez 1973, 12).\u00a0 People are encouraged to become active agents of their own destiny and in effect to liberate themselves from the confines of injustice.\u00a0 This theology extends beyond development to three distinct levels of real freedom or liberation, representing the aspirations of oppressed peoples, a means to look at history and a new approach to Biblical interpretation (Guti\u00e9rrez 1973).\u00a0 At the first level, the poor were to liberate themselves from economic exploitation.\u00a0 Overcoming poverty became a fundamental tenant of liberation theology.\u00a0 At the second level, the hope was liberation from fatalism, the recognition of free will.\u00a0 Lastly, at the theological level, liberation from sin would result in ultimate liberation and communion with God (Tombs 123-125).\u00a0\u00a0 Espousing these three tenants helped to recognize the varying ways in which Catholic teachings could be applied, creating a space for liberation in both a worldly economic and highly spiritual sense.<\/p>\n By creating a process to overcome historical constraints, liberation theology presented the possibility of liberation at the political, existential and theological levels (Tombs 125).\u00a0\u00a0 Rather than focusing solely on the potential of the afterlife, liberation theologians encouraged the pursuit of a satisfactory life on Earth. Proposing a \u201cpreferential option for the poor,\u201d the Church was encouraged to extend its work to directly address the struggles of the impoverished and to work specifically to ameliorate \u201cphysical and spiritual oppression\u201d (Sigmund 21-22).\u00a0 Rather than small ineffective reforms, liberation theology supported work towards systemic change and even the possibility of revolution as a means of freeing the poor from oppression (Hillar).\u00a0 While violence was not encouraged, it was justified as a possible last resort or necessity of the revolution (Lynch 1991).\u00a0 For the first time, formal religious theology used Biblical interpretation to promote the political and social influence of the Church in the empowerment of the poor.<\/p>\n Traditional Opposition to the Movement<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Pope Benedict XVI during a trip to Brazil in 2007, courtesy of Ag\u00eancia Brasil<\/p><\/div>\n As followers of liberation theology grew in numbers, the Vatican felt increasingly threatened by the movement\u2019s connections to radical movements and leftist tendencies. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a part of the Vatican\u2019s office, issued a number of critical instructions that questioned the movement\u2019s Biblical usage and its emphasis on Marxist notions of class struggle. Then Prefect Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger\u00a0 (now Pope Benedict XVI) writes that the purpose of the instruction is to alert religious figures and the faithful of \u201cthe deviations, and risks of deviation, damaging to the faith\u2026brought about by certain forms of liberation theology which use, in an insufficiently critical manner, concepts borrowed from various currents of Marxist thought\u201d (CDF Vatican Website).\u00a0 The Vatican felt that the connection between the movement and Marxism where incompatible with Catholic teachings.\u00a0 Marx encourages class struggle and social disruption that conflicted with the traditional order and stability of the Church (Pe\u00f1a 1995).\u00a0 The Vatican feared that these forms of social unrest and questioning would weaken the power and influence of the Church.<\/p>\n However, the connections between Marxism and liberation theology are not as clear-cut as critics have tried to argue.\u00a0 Though liberation theology recognizes the power of man as a master of his own fate and proposes revolutionary praxis in a manner similar to Marxism, liberation theology lacks many fundamental aspects of Marxism.\u00a0 Liberation theology attempts to draw on certain aspects of Marxist theory, while denying others, which directly conflicts with Marx\u2019s requirement that his work be taken as a whole.\u00a0 The theology makes no claims against the incompatibility between religion and empiricism and maintains Christian doctrine, which Marx vehemently opposed. When more carefully compared to each other, the sole clear connection between Marxism and liberation theology is a focus on empowering the poor and class struggle (Lynch 20, 26).\u00a0 Despite the fairly scant theoretical connections between the two, words like revolution and socialism linked and continued to link liberation theology with the highly controversial and often feared doctrine of Marx, preventing more widespread acceptance and formal approval of the Vatican. Opposing the notion of class struggle, supporters of traditional theology felt that the movement\u2019s promotion of a \u201cpeople\u2019s church\u201d could undermine Catholic institutions by departing from classic doctrine and weakening the authority of Catholic teachings (Pe\u00f1a 1995).<\/p>\n To some extent, the fears of the Vatican were indeed enacted by the liberation theology movement through the creation of Christian Base Communities (CEBs) and Theological Reflection workshops.\u00a0 Christian Base Communities were small Christian groups led by lay figures in individual towns or small areas that embodied the teachings of liberation theology.\u00a0 They encouraged popular participation and worked to try to avoid pastoral problems by creating an emphasis on community work and support.\u00a0 CEBs taught peasants basic skills like reading and writing along with religious teachings in an effort to empower and liberate them (Hillar).\u00a0 From these groups, the poor were able to organize and create a sense of unity that allowed for social questioning.\u00a0 Later into the movement, the base communities not only acted as a means to disseminate liberation theology, but also as a means of inspiration for the liberation theology movement.\u00a0 CEBs allowed the poor to direct the movement and to emphasize the struggle of the oppressed (Tombs 199).<\/p>\n Similar to the CEBs, Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez organized the Jornadas de Reflexi\u00f3n <\/em>(Theological Reflection Workshops).\u00a0 These workshops, held throughout the summer, allowed for discussion of liberation theology and created a space for dialogue between activists, theologians and all those who had an interest in learning about the theology. Initially started in 1971 with two hundred participants, the workshops grew over the 1970s and 80s to reach 2.496 participants by 1987 (Pe\u00f1a 1994, 42).\u00a0 The workshops created a space for popular exchange and allowed for deeper explanation of the concepts of the movement.\u00a0 The sense of power and autonomy that the CEBs and the Theological Reflection Workshops created within the lower classes was exactly what the Vatican had feared.\u00a0 The ability of the poor to work to redefine their own fate and their own relationship with the Church exemplified the kind of loss of traditional authority of which Ratzinger spoke.\u00a0 However, rather than the feared deviation from the Christian faith, this empowerment of the poor and inclusion of a popular sentiment created a more tangible way for the oppressed to access and interact with their Christianity.\u00a0 Though the opposition greatly feared this empowerment, liberation theology ands its programs undeniably educated and enhanced the lives of lower classes by providing the outlets and tools to more actively address their own situations.<\/p>\n Ultimate Decline and Lasting Impact of Liberation Theology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n By the late 1980s and early 1990s, the movement had begun to lose its push as new economic and social concerns arose that liberation theology could not directly address.\u00a0 Even the once \u201cnew-age\u201d theories of liberation began to seem outdated as notions of revolution and the hopes of the impoverished altered with the falling of the Berlin Wall and the continued rise of neoliberalism (Tombs 272).\u00a0 The Vatican\u2019s continued pressure against the movement began to take its toll.\u00a0 By arguing that liberation theology could lead to disunity and excessive focus on material success, opposition was able to successfully undercut the more noble goals of this movement (Lynch 1994, 3).\u00a0 Evidence that the movement was clearly in retreat could be seen by the frequent changes that it began to undergo, leaving little certainty as to its true direction.\u00a0 A new focus on spirituality added an \u201cother-worldly\u201d dimension that liberation theologians had long sought to avoid.\u00a0 By arguing that this movement secularized the Christian faith and effectively rid Catholicism of its connection to the afterlife, John Paul II and other prominent religious leaders were able to quell the movement and alarm people enough to associate liberation theology with a loss of faith (Lynch 1994, 10). By the 1980s, the Catholic right proposed reconciliation theology in direct opposition to liberation theology.\u00a0 Supported by the Vatican, reconciliation theology suggested that by reconciling oneself to God and to others, conflict could be avoided and class struggle skirted (Pe\u00f1a 1995, 23).\u00a0 Essentially, the Vatican and more traditional sects of Catholicism proposed a watered-down version of the theology that avoided the physical and social disruption that liberation entailed.<\/p>\n Despite its ultimate fall in popularity, liberation theology changed the role of the Church in Peru and all of Latin America forever.\u00a0 By giving a voice and sense of empowerment to the impoverished, liberation theology held the Church accountable for the welfare of the lower class, recognizing the essential role of social justice in Christian teachings.\u00a0 This movement rethought the power structures of Latin American society and showed that religion could promote highly politicized campaigns.\u00a0 Although the prospect of radical change alarmed the Vatican, the potential for an uprising finally incorporated the voices of the poor in religious discourse.\u00a0 Religious figures like Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez helped to use formal clerical training to integrate the liberation of the working class into Biblical interpretation.\u00a0 Followers of the movement demanded that the Church move beyond simple charity work towards a more active role in the promotion of social justice.\u00a0 Liberation theology brought the focus of the Church away from solely eternal salvation to the more pressing necessity of earthly liberation of the poor from oppression and suffering.<\/p>\n *********<\/p>\n Annotated Works Cited:<\/span><\/p>\n Brown, Robert McAfee. Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez<\/em>. Atlanta: John Knox, 1980.<\/p>\n This book provides an innovative look at the life of one of the founders of Liberation Theology, Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez.\u00a0 The book focuses primarly on describing the movement as a peoples movement and acknowledge Guti\u00e9rrez as one of the people.\u00a0 It fights against giving a solely fact oriented biographical account, looking into deeper themes and patterns.<\/p>\n “Documents of the II Vatican Council.” The Holy See Archive<\/em>. Web. 10 May 2010. <http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/hist_councils\/ii_vatican_council\/index.ht>.<\/p>\n This website has online versions of some of the documents created during the Vatican II meetings.\u00a0 These include transcripts of some of the conferences and general declarations formed as a result of the meetings.<\/p>\n Guti\u00e9rrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation.<\/em>Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1973<\/p>\n This book is the magnum opus of liberation theology.\u00a0 Written by the\u00a0movement\u2019s founder, Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez, this book outlines the majorcomponents of the theology providing theoretical explanation and historicalperspective.\u00a0 This work was the transformative piece that essentially beganthe more formally published aspect of the movement.<\/p>\n Guti\u00e9rrez, Gustavo. “Liberation Praxis and Christian Faith.” Ed. Rosino Gibellini.Frontiers of Theology in Latin America. (La Nuova Frontiera Della Teologia in\u00a0<\/em>America Latina, Engl.) Ed. by Rosino Gibellini<\/em>. 1979.<\/p>\n This chapter is written by the founder of Liberation Theology, Gustavo Guti\u00e9rrez.\u00a0 The piece focuses mainly on liberation praxis and the relationship between action and the Christian faith.\u00a0 It outlines some of the major components of liberation theology.<\/p>\n Hillar, Marian. “Liberation Theology: Religious Response to Social Problems. A Survey.” Ed. Marian Hillar and H. Richard. Leuchtag. Humanism and Social Issues: Anthology of Essays<\/em>. Houston: Humanists Involved in Greater Houston, 1993.<\/p>\n This article provides a very effective, critical survey of liberation theology with an explanation of its rise and fall along with the major features of the movement.\u00a0 The sections are separated to covered various themes of liberation theology such as the priority of praxis over theory or history as a focus of theology.<\/p>\n Klaiber, Jeffrey L. The Catholic Church in Peru, 1821-1985: a Social History<\/em>. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 1992.<\/p>\n This book provides a comprehensive look at changes that occurred within the Peruvian Catholic Church from 1821 to 1985.\u00a0 It covers all the major movements and events that the Church experienced throughout this time period.<\/p>\n Lynch, Edward A. Religion and Politics in Latin America: Liberation Theology and Christian Democracy<\/em>. New York: Praeger, 1991.<\/p>\n Lynch focuses the majority of the section on liberation theology discussing the conflicting relationship between Marx and the movement.\u00a0 He argues that liberation theology takes a great deal more from Engels than it does Marx.<\/p>\n Lynch, Edward A. “The Retreat of Liberation Theology.” The Homiletic & Pastoral<\/em>Review<\/em>, Feb. 1994.<\/p>\n In this article, Lynch outlines some of the reasons for the ultimate retreat of\u00a0liberation theology.\u00a0 He focuses on the inability of the movement to maintain\u00a0popular support and the influence of the Vatican on the Church\u2019s end.<\/p>\n Pe\u00f1a, Milagros. “Liberation Theology in Peru: An Analysis of the Role of Intellectuals\u00a0in Social Movements.” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion<\/em> 33.1 Mar.1994: 34-45. JSTOR<\/em>.<\/p>\n This article describes the influence that European trained intellectuals likeGustavo Guti\u00e9rrez had on the movement.\u00a0 Pe\u00f1a argues that their formal training significantly improved the effectiveness of the movement and\u00a0allowed for a more widely accepted appreciation.<\/p>\n Pe\u00f1a, Milagros. Theologies and Liberation in Peru: the Role of Ideas in Social Movements<\/em>. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1995.<\/p>\n This article provides a more in depth look at some of the arguments that Pe\u00f1a covers in her article.\u00a0 It looks at the role of intellectuals like Guti\u00e9rrez and also provides some excellent description of the opposition to the movement along with a clear account of the rise of reconciliation theology.<\/p>\n Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal. “Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology Of\u00a0 Liberation'” Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith<\/em>. Web. 10 May 2010. <http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/roman_curia\/congregations\/cfaith\/documents\/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html>.<\/p>\n This document is an online version of the original instruction issued by then Prefect Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger. It clearly expresses some the Vatican\u2019s major preoccupations with liberation theology, noting that its uncritical relationship to Marx might cause deviation from traditional Catholic teachings.<\/p>\n Sigmund, Paul E. “The Development of Liberation Theology: Continuity of Change?.” Ed. Richard L. Rubenstein and John K. Roth. The Politics of Latin American Liberation Theology: the Challenge to U.S. Public Policy<\/em>. Washington, D.C.: Washington Institute, 1988.<\/p>\n This article discusses the rise of liberation theology, discussing the history of the movement, the environment in which it formed and the critics to the movement.\u00a0 Sigmund discusses the Vatican and specifically former Prefect Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger\u2019s opposition to the theology.<\/p>\n Skidmore, Thomas E., Peter H. Smith, and James Naylor Green. Modern Latin America<\/em>. New York: Oxford UP, 2010.<\/p>\n This book provides relatively comprehensive coverage of the history of modern Latin America.\u00a0 For this paper, the section on economic systems in Latin America has been used in order to provide some understanding of economic changes towards ISI and neoliberalism that occurred in Peru.<\/p>\n Tombs, David. Latin American Liberation Theology<\/em>. Boston: Brill Academic, 2002.<\/p>\n This book provides an incredibly detailed anaylsis of the rise and fall of liberation theology in Latin America. It gives an in-depth look at the way in which liberation theology gained popularity and similarly explains how liberation theology came out of style. It also gives a detailed explanation of the theology itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Olivia Singer During the mid-20th century, disenchanted members of the clergy and the oppressed classes of Latin America united together to reinterpret the role of the Catholic Church in everyday society and to reclaim religion towards the pursuit of … Continue reading <\/a><\/a>