1. Return to Contents.

Chapter 7: Latin America, Theory and Praxis, Part 2

Theological Reflection

408. Abraham, K.C., ed. Third World Theologies. Commonalities and Divergences. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

See 197.

409. Adriance, Madeleine. Opting for the Poor: Brazilian Catholicism in Transition. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1986.

This book examines the church in Brazil amid the contexts of military rule and oppression. The author contends that a new church has emerged in Brazil from the grass roots of the base Christian communities despite persecution and authoritarian rule. Traces the Brazilian church’s actual experience as a model for liberation theology: from its alliance to power to its preferential option for the poor, the creation of base Christian communities and its difficult struggle toward liberation. A good introductory case study.

410. Alves, Rubem A. A Theology of Human Hope. New York: Corpus Books, 1971.

Alves is a Protestant theologian from Brazil who uses the insights of Mannheim, Kuhn, Fanon, Marx, Moltmann, and Barth to demonstrate the exhaustion of First-World theologies, with which he is thoroughly familiar, when dealing with Third-World issues of poverty and oppression. Like Moltmann, Alves essays a new theology of hope, but unlike his European counterpart, Alves bases his hope on the experience of the marginalized in the concrete reality of Latin America. This book examines the theological theme of freedom and its similarities to and differences with political humanism, existentialism, “humanistic messianism,” and the politics of liberation. Ultimately theology itself is a method of talking about freedom.

411. Amirtham, Samuel, and John S. Pobee. Theology by the People. Reflections on Doing Theology in Community. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1986.

See also 199.

412. Anderson, Gerald H., and Thomas F. Stransky, C.S.P., eds. Mission Trends No. 3. Third World Theologies. New York: Paulist Press; Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1976.

Selections illustrating the varieties of new theologies that have arisen in the Global South.

413. —. Mission Trends No. 4. Liberation Theologies. New York: Paulist Press; Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1979.

A good introductory collection of readings.

414. Araya, Victorio. God of the Poor. The Mystery of God in Latin American Liberation Theology. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

A work of synthesis of the major lines of thought on the nature of God and God’s relationship to a suffering humanity in Latin American liberation theology, including the work of Boff, Gutiérrez and Sobrino. Excellent bibliography.

415. Arias, Esther, and Mortimer Arias. The Cry of My People. Out of Captivity in Latin America. New York: Friendship Press, 1980.

This is an introduction to the people of Latin America, from the viewpoint of a spiritual geography. Themes include relations to North America, the mirage of development, human rights, women’s liberation, the church and the poor in liberation theology.

416. Assmann, Hugo. Practical Theology of Liberation. London: Search, 1975.

Topics include the political dimension of faith: the liberation of humanity in history, the theology of liberation, and the impact on theology of the struggle for liberation. The book includes discussion of the Christian contribution to liberation in Latin America. How hotly contested this issue is, and how open to various forms of interpretation, is highlighted by the contrast between the piece written by poet Ernesto Cardenal, who seems to reduce liberation to communist revolution, and Gustavo Gutiérrez, whose carefully laid out theology provides the basis for much liberation thought.

417. —. Theology for a Nomad Church. Paul Burns, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1975.

Assmann’s nomadism is that of the radical reformer forced to flee from one area of persecution to another, much like Erasmus or the new Protestants of the Reformation. In another sense his nomadism is of the temporary nature of grace and the active work of making justice, rather than upholding laws and institutions.

His themes include the development of a relevant political theology, the birth and meaning of liberation theology, its key concepts, sources and methods, its ties to theology of revolution, political theology, and the theology of hope. It then discusses the particular context in which liberation theology arose: a revolutionary situation that cannot truly gain inspiration from other forms, the influence of Vatican II, and the concept of the people of God, among others.

The final chapters deal with the relationship between our sociological and political outlooks and true theology, and the contribution – or possibility of contribution – of individual Christians to liberation.

418. Avila, Rafael P. Worship and Politics. Alan Neely, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981. 

Avila seeks to make the Eucharist, and through it Jesus Christ, once more the center of the life of the church through a theological and historical critique of the church’s ritual. The Eucharist today is an appendage to an empty rite that celebrates the corporate status quo of the church and its alliance with the powers that be. Avila therefore seeks to give the sacrament new life by tying it to the political struggle for liberation in the context of Vatican II.

Surveys the rise of ritual in Israel from its break with Chaldean religion, through Exodus to the Exile and the criticisms of the prophets. Then traces the passage from Jewish ritual in the life of Jesus to the Primitive Church and the history of Christianity to Vatican II. Chapter 3 then seeks out the elements for a new theology and practice of the Eucharist as the center of a liturgy of liberation and as a sacrament of the church’s relationship to the world, as the objectification of history, and as the affirmation of justice in the world and community.

419. Bavarel, Michel. New Communities, New Ministries. The Church Resurgent in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Francis Martin, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983.

See 206.

420. Berryman, Phillip “Latin American Liberation Theology.” See 550, pp. 20-83.

A solid, and sympathetic introduction to the subject.

421. —. Liberation Theology. Essential Facts About the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America – and Beyond. Oak Park: IL: Meyer Stone Books, 1987.

For the lay North American reader, and for the student wishing a good teaching text or review, this is the best introduction to liberation theology available. Berryman places the theology in its historical and structural context, laying out the political and economic forces at work in Latin America since the 1960s that have brought about the new way of talking about God.

As the title indicates, Berryman’s emphasis is on the facts of the phenomenon, and less on the actual theology itself. For its audience, however, this is exactly the right balance since one of the themes of the book, as of liberation theology itself, is how theology is born out of, and gives its critical insights to, praxis, or action. Contains excellent background for Latin America, the theology’s basic tenants of God, the world, ethics and society, the theologians themselves, the movement for change within the church since Vatican II, the questions of violence and Marxism that have been unjustly attached to the movement, the criticisms of, and attacks on, liberation theology from both inside and outside the church. Good notes and bibliography.

422. “Black Theology and Latin American Liberation Theology.” See 918, pp. 510-15.

Reflections by Paolo Freire, Assmann, Cone and others. Attempts at dialog between the two religious traditions in the face of European assertiveness.

Return to Contents

The Boffs

423. Boff, Clodovis. Feet-On-The-Ground Theology. A Brazilian Journey. Phillip Berryman, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

The theology of liberation was not born in the academy or the seminary but on the ground, among the poor and the oppressed. From these realities, and from the actual praxis of Christian life in the face of reality, the open mind and heart derives the categories and the languages to talk about God and God’s relationship to a humanity in need of salvation. Boff’s book is a journal of meetings with remarkable men and women whose ordinary lives reflect the grace of creation.

424. —. Theology and Praxis. Epistemological Foundations. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

This is a solid and a hefty work of theology: a full-blown methodology of doing liberation theology. After thorough discussions of socio-analytic and hermeneutic mediations: on its most simplistic level the meeting of theology and the social sciences, Boff then goes on to detail the stages of the dialectic of theory and praxis: the workings of theology and the theologian amid the contexts of politics, and socioeconomic structures. Exhaustively annotated, with a remarkable bibliography.

425. —, with Leonardo Boff. Introducing Liberation Theology. Paul Burns, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

This short introduction is clearly a work written after the papal inquisition of Leonardo Boff and the issuance of the Vatican’s Instruction. (See 123-124). It shows a more tempered, circumspect approach to the theology that is also genuinely concerned with taking into account the mystical as well as the prophetic, the Magisterium as well as the evolution of theology from the praxis among the poor.

Essential to the Boffs’ introduction is the theme that liberation theology is only a way of doing theology, not a radical new departure. It seeks to refocus attention on the reality of oppression from a biblical and evangelical perspective. Chapters deal with the context of theology in a world of suffering, the three levels of theology (popular, pastoral, and professional), the process of liberation theology, beginning with work among the marginalized, using various analytical methods, including those of Marxism, but focusing primarily and essentially on the Bible, then on the social teachings of the church.

Key themes of the theology of liberation include the practice of liberation as a true sign of faith, the “preferential option for the poor” against the potentates of the world, the centrality of God’s kingdom in this struggle and of Jesus Christ as its model, and true liberator, and the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit in the daily struggle of the oppressed. The role of Mary as the model and inspiration for much of the popular devotion to liberation is also stressed. The church is the sacrament of this liberation, the “sign and instrument.”

Useful sections also include a brief history of liberation theology and a survey of its influences and forms around the world. The book is not a work of apology or an instrument of rebuttal to accusations against liberation theology but clearly a good-faith effort to explain current thought and practice in the context of the church as a whole.

426. —. Salvation and Liberation. In Search of a Balance Between Faith and Politics. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

“Integral liberation” is the definition of this apology for liberation theology, set in the context of attacks against the Boffs and other liberation theologians during the pontificate of John Paul II but also in the aftermath of Evangelii Nuntiandi by Paul VI and of Puebla. The balance between faith and politics is resolved and restored when the individual Christian and society as a whole realize the integral connection between the liberation of the soul and the individual from sin and that of society at large from the structures that enshrine sin. They stress that liberation is not the same as political apocalyptic, in which the individual remains unchanged while society is dragged through upheaval.

427. —, with George V. Pixley. The Bible, the Church, and the Poor. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.

A close reading of the Hebrew Bible and of the New Testament lays the foundation for this analysis of the church’s preferential option for the poor, with special emphasis on the situation in Latin America.

428. Boff, Leonardo. “Christ’s Liberation via Oppression. An Attempt at Theological Construction from the Standpoint of Latin America.” See 480, pp. 100-132.

The book of Exodus and Christ’s temptations in Luke 4:1-13 serve as the model for the new Christian who rejects both the power and despair of the world in doing God’s will.

429. —. Church, Charism, and Power. Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church. John W. Diercksmeier, trans. New York: Crossroad, 1985. 

This work grows out of the inquisition carried out by Cardinal Ratzinger and his Office of the Congregation of the Faith against Boff in the spring and summer of 1984.  While the resulting Vatican document Instructions (123-124) seemed to endorse liberation theology on its deepest level, the entire process of the inquisition and its expansion to include other theologians – and eventually to demand loyalty oaths from all teachers of theology in Catholic universities – seriously put into question the Vatican’s commitment to the new reform ecclesiology of Vatican II.

Boff therefore seems here to meet the central questions of papal, episcopal, theological and lay authority within the church head on and ahead of the issue. Topics discussed include models of authority and pastoral life within the church, the church in the struggle for justice, the rights of the poor, the violation of basic human rights within the structure of the church, converting the power aggrandizement within the current church to service, and the strengths and pathologies of Roman Catholicism as an ecclesiological structure.

The book then goes on to offer some directions for hope and change, including a renewed emphasis on syncretism and ecumenism, the church’s need to meet the realities of class in the modern world, the hope born in the base ecclesial communities, the role of the people in framing theology and ecclesiology, and the image of the church not as authoritarian structure but as a sacrament of the work of the Holy Spirit within the world. It is one organized by the charism of its mission and ministry, not by its hierarchies and power structures.

430. —. Faith on the Edge. Religion and Marginalized Existence. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990.

Not seen.

431. —. God’s Witnesses in the Heart of the World. Robert Fath, C.M.F., trans. Chicago: Claretian Center for Resources in Spirituality, 1981.

This is a new spirituality for the clerical life from a liberationist point of view. Boff examines every aspect of the religious life, from its symbolic, sacramental, and phenomenological points of view, including its meaning in Catholicism; the experience of God; the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience; the relationship between the religious and the “secular” lives; the role of prayer and action; and the mission of the clergy to liberate both the individual and society from oppression and sin.

432. —. Jesus Christ Liberator. A Critical Christology for Our Time. Patrick Hughes, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

This is a Christology – an examination of the nature and role of Jesus Christ – born out of the Latin American experience. Reviews the history of Christology and various schools of interpretation, the hermeneutics of knowing Jesus the Christ, Jesus’ understanding of his own ministry, and the implications of the kingdom of God for our situation today. Jesus is also seen as a role model of the creative, imaginative, realistic, and deeply human individual. Boff then meditates on the meanings of Christ’s death and resurrection for his followers and believers, and the mythologizing of his life and its cosmic meaning in our lives today. The study concludes with the implications for Christologies from the periphery.

433. —. Liberating Grace. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

This interpretation of grace, ironically, seems to revive the old debate posed between the Renaissance Humanists and the Protestants on the same biblical texts: is grace a substance infused into the world, or is it the result of human action, and the working out of love? Boff’s analysis sides with the Humanists – and his own Franciscan forbearers – but he insists that the insights of liberation theology are fully compatible with traditional and orthodox teaching on grace, acts, and salvation. He expands traditional ways of looking at, even of experiencing, grace for the modern world: especially that of the marginalized of Latin America, through and in whose actions and solidarity the spirit works to produce liberation.

434. —. The Lord’s Prayer. The Prayer of Integral Liberation. Theodore Morrow, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books; Melbourne: Dove Books, 1988.

A close rereading of the text in Matthew with an eye to present realities. Each verse is accompanied by Boff’s reflections and his analyses of current experience of human suffering and faith.

435. —. Passion of Christ, Passion of the World. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

The subtitle reads: “The Acts, Their Interpretation, and Their Meaning Yesterday and Today.” This is a book of liberation Christology, for it delves into the problem of Christ’s passion, its meaning in divine and human terms, Jesus’ own understanding of his passion and death, and interpretations of these events by his early followers and in the Christian tradition. Boff then examines the meaning for modern theology and praxis and offers suggestions for preaching the cross and for the cross as a focus of spirituality.

436. —. Sacraments of Life. Life of the Sacraments. John Drury, trans. Washington, DC: Pastoral Press, 1987.

Even in today’s technocratic world, the sacraments, and the sense of the sacramental, remain profound realities in our psyches. Boff therefore attempts to reexamine the sacraments as deeply aligned with the most elemental experiences of human life, their symbolism, their roots in Jesus’ mission, and their place in the process of liberation.

437. —. Trinity and Society. Paul Burns, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

The Trinity is a model for all human society: for it lives and creates through its unity and equality, its diversity and its harmony, in the perfect justice of the workings of its individual persons. After an overview of the question Boff examines the history of interpretation. He then focuses on the doctrine of the Trinity and its meaning for today’s culture and society and the role of each person of the Trinity. As with many of his other works and with the growing awareness of all liberation theologians, Boff concludes with a discussion of the role of the Trinity for all creation.

438. —. Way of the Cross. Way of Justice. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.

The way of the cross is the backward-looking focus of theology: the reflection of the historical event of Christ’s birth, life, suffering, and death. The way of justice is theology’s forward-looking glance: the meaning of Christ’s death, resurrection, and our salvation in the context of the present world of suffering. Today Christ’s passion is continued whenever any of his followers suffer for justice’s sake. The book takes the form of the traditional stations of the cross, each brought to new life by Boff’s contextualizations.

439. —. When Theology Listens to the Poor. Robert R. Barr, trans. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.

A collection of essays. Topics include the influence of Vatican II, the mission of the church in Latin America, including prophesy, defense of the poor, the reinvention of the church on the grass-roots level; the rights of the poor as the rights of God; the place of the supernatural and of salvation in this process of liberation, or vice-versa; the place of the Eucharist in a world of injustice, the preaching of the cross in a crucified world; and preaching the resurrection in a world obsessed by death.

440. —. with Clodovis Boff. Liberation Theology. From Dialogue to Confrontation. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.

This is a review of the young history of liberation theology in the wake of the inquisition of Boff and other leading liberation theologians and the issuance of the Vatican’s Instruction. The author begin forthrightly by demonstrating the very public and political nature of liberation theology, born as it is in the face of hunger, poverty and desperation; they discuss the experience of a faith that liberates, the nature of their theology as one that reflects on the praxis of liberation. They then insist that liberation theology is only a method of doing theology, not a new theology, and then go on to confront some of the myths that enemies have raised against it: that it is the product of a few intellectuals, that it is reductionist, that is it “Marxist” inspired, and that it is unscientific and a popularizing theology. They then go on to demonstrate the “axes” of this theology: in the nature of God, Christ, Mary, the Church, moral theology, and spirituality.

The Boffs then lay out what they consider the positive achievements of liberation theology and the challenges that lay ahead of it. The second part of the book is a dialog that discusses the Instruction, the nature of an “orthodox” liberation theology, the Christian faith that motivates this theology, its agents among the people themselves, the practice of liberation, and an analysis of the Vatican’s charges of Marxism. The book concludes with an account of the summons to Rome and the Christian value of resistance to ecclesial pressure.

For a defense along similar lines, see also Segundo, Theology and the Church (533).

441. —, with Virgilio Elizondo. Convergences and Differences. James Aitlen Gardiner, ed. Concilium 199.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1988. 

A collection of essays on Third-World theologies, in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and on U.S. black theology and others that discuss their emergence and their cross-fertilizations. Authors include Engelbert Mveng, Tissa Balasuriya, Julio de Santa Ana, James Cone, Justin Upkong, Pablo Richard, Dorothy Folliard, Hyun-Kyung Chung, Sergio Torres, Samuel Rayan, and Maria Clara Bingemer. Includes bibliographical essays.

442. —, eds. Option for the Poor. Challenge to the Rich Countries. Concilium 187.  Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1986.

Essays by Santa Ana, John Kavanaugh, Casalis, Rainer Kampling, David Flood, Greinacher, Dussel, Rayan, and others on the realities of wealth and poverty, the theological meanings of poverty, the poor in Christian tradition, and the irruption of the poor into the consciousness and make-up of the church today.

443. —, eds. The People of God Amidst the Poor. Concilium 176, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1984. 

Essays by Molina Oliú, Pablo Richard, Pixley, Alberigo, Dussel, Cardinal Lorscheider, Gutiérrez, Floristan, Boff, Schillebeeckx, and others on the history of the people of God, its emergence in recent councils, in new ecclesial roles, in theological reflection, all with a focus on Latin America.

444. Bussmann, Claus. Who Do You Say? Jesus Christ in Latin American Theology. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.

Part 1 examines the theology of liberation as a new way of doing Christian theology, its antecedents, and its basic premises. It then examines critically certain controversial aspects: Marxism, the concept of liberation and salvation, and the relationship between faith and politics.

Part 2 presents the Christologies of leading liberation theologians, including Assmann, Gutiérrez, Galilea, Segundo, Hernandez Pico, Leonardo Boff, Sobrino, Jímenez Límon, Ellacuria, and Pironio. It then examines the notion of the political Jesus, the use of violence, Jesus’ death and resurrection, and the kingdom of God as the aim of prophetic criticism and political action.

445. Castillo-Cárdenas, Gonzalo. Liberation Theology from Below. The Life and Thought of Manual Quintín Lame. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

Manuel Quintin Lame Chantre was a poor Indian of Colombia who lived and died about 200 km from Bogotá. He was an native American leader who fought on behalf of their land rights and dignity with the weapons of the law and the courts. He left behind the manuscript of a work, “The Thoughts of the Indian Educated in the Colombian Forests.”

In it Lame describes the nature of the native American in union with the earth, the state of the pre-Colombian Indian spirit; and then delivers a series of discourses on humanity, wisdom, marriage and passion, injustice against the native Americans, spiritual manna, and other topics. They are united under what Lame called “the doctrine and the discipline,” a prophetic theology that looks forward to the restoration of the native American life destroyed by the Columban discovery. Jesus, Mary, and the saints all aid in this process of eventual liberation.

Thus the dichotomy between domination and liberation and a reverence for nature and creation are essential themes in his theology. Lame insists on the right and duty to denounce injustice and crimes against the native Americans.

446. CELAM (General Conference of Latin American Bishops). The Church and the Present-Day Transformation of Latin America in the Light of the Council. 2 vols. Bogotá: CELAM, 1970; official U.S. edition, Louis M. Colonnese, ed., Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 1970.

These are the documents of Medellin. Volume 1 includes position papers; while volume 2 contains the conclusions, or official documents, of the conference. An excellent source.

447. Cleary, Edward L., O.P., ed. Path From Puebla. Significant Documents of the Latin American Bishops Since 1979. Phillip Berryman, trans. Washington, DC: U.S. Catholic Conference, 1989.

An excellent collection of documents, with introductions and outlines, from the Latin American church on renewal and ecumenism, the political order, development and liberation, economic life, critical local issues, including land, refugees and drug addiction and trafficking; and transnational issues, especially war and peace. Documents are culled from nearly every country in the region. This book is essential for every student of liberation theology and its developments in the 1980s.

448. Comblin, José, Cry of the Oppressed, Cry of Jesus. Meditations on Scripture and Contemporary Struggles. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988. 

The call for liberation can be traced to the roots of the Biblical tradition, in the Hebrew Bible, in the Gospels, as in the reality of Latin America today.

449. —. The Holy Spirit and Liberation. Paul Burns, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989. 

Like Leonardo Boff (437) Comblin examines the theological nature and role of the Holy Spirit and the meaning of the Christian doctrine for the reality of the oppressed today. The poor and the oppressed have always been the place where the Spirit dwells most particularly. Examines the Holy Spirit as seen in the world, in the church, in individuals, and finally the relationship of the Spirit to the Trinity and to our notion of the workings of divinity.

450. Conway, James. Marx and Jesus. Liberation Theology in Latin America. New York: Carlton Press, 1973.

After surveying Marx’s critique of religion and its influence on Third-World theology and its methodology, Conway examines the reality of life in Brazil – poverty, oppression, and illiteracy – and then goes on to examine the thought of Comblin, Freire, Assmann, Camara, and Alves in response to these and to the popular religious life of the Brazilian people.

He then examines the theologies of Gutiérrez and Segundo and concludes with sections on praxis in Chile under Allende and a final analysis of liberation theology between praxis and Marx. This book is based on extensive research of the original texts and interviews with all the major theologians discussed. Good bibliography.

451. Cosmao, Vincent. Changing the World. An Agenda for the Churches. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.

This is a book on the church’s role in the process of “development” for a new world. The book is framed as a series of theses around several central themes: the need for a new economic order that is essential if humanity is to survive; the causes and problems of underdevelopment, seen as the natural outcome of the uneven development of the few at the expense of the many, and the need to conscienticize the oppressed to their condition; the sacralization of inequality through social structures and the creation of “idols;” the church’s role in the transformation of the world in liberation, conscientization, the fight for justice, all in drawing on its traditional strengths. These are the Gospels, the praxis of Jesus, the work of the early church for justice.

Cosmao then briefly reviews the “perversion” of Christianity in becoming the civil religion of the West and the need for a critical reading of church history that will free it from this Constantinianism. He goes on to examine the liberative role of realizing the structuralization of sin, the role of liberation, and the role of humanity as steward of the earth. Finally, Cosmao calls on the church to realize the essentiality political role and consequences of its work in transforming the world, the place of God, and the role of theology in accounting for the praxis of the faith.

452. Cox, Harvey. The Silencing of Leonardo Boff. Bloomington, IN: Meyer-Stone, 1988. 

Retraces the history of Boff’s inquisition and silencing and then attempts to draw some conclusions on the ramifications of the current Ratzinger administration for ecumenism, ecclesiology, inculturation, and the traditions of religious liberty, the search for truth and community that the silencing threaten. An excellent bibliography of Boff’s and Ratzinger’s works, and on works about the inquisition and liberation theology.

453. Cussiánovich, Alejandro. Religious Life and the Poor. Liberation Theology Perspectives. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979.

An attempt to examine the religious life of the clergy from the prophetic commitment to the poor and oppressed and to attempt to forge a new concept of vocation in terms of solidarity. Topics include the poor as the starting point of all discussion, various historical approaches to religious life, Latin American reflection, the political consequences of such an option for the poor, and the emerging knowledge of the kingdom of God that stems from this life of solidarity.

454. Demarest, Bruce. General Revelation. Historical Views and Contemporary Issues. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1982.

An historical survey of epistemology and revelation from its roots in Augustine, through the Protestant formulations of Luther and Calvin, the Puritans, the Enlightenment, liberalism, Barth, the Reformed Church, the neoliberals, Vatican II Catholicism, Third-World theologies, including forms of liberation theology (pp. 201-26), and scriptural approaches.

455. Dupertius, Atilio René. Liberation Theology. A Study in its Soteriology. Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1987.

This published dissertation discusses the background in Latin America, both historical and theological, and the general issue of salvation in history and in Exodus. It concludes with remarks on the poor, the praxis of liberation, and social responsibility. Excellent, if unannotated, bibliography.

456. Dussel, Enrique. Ethics and Community. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

This is really a handbook of ethics in the classic tradition of Thomas Aquinas, a glossary of definitions and postulates that run from the simple definitions of terms to more complex discussions of structures and relationships. Liberation theology is really not a radical new theology, but a way of talking about God that derives from new experience that is not Eurocentric. Its therefore requires new nuances and definitions of terms, both biblical and classical, in order to demonstrate how this theology affects the lives of the poor who both make it and draw inspiration from it.

Such terms as love, community, kingdom, Jerusalem and Babylon, good and evil, idolatry and sin, poverty, product, work, capital and wealth, body and flesh, morality and ethics, class, people, and Christendom lead to discussions of the international financial system, production for war amid poverty, class struggle and violence, culture and ecology, the church’s social teaching on all these matters, and the new contributions of liberation theology. While the format of the work is imposing, dividing each chapter into a series of smaller headings in the manner of a medieval scholastic text, the discussion is really quite informal and leisurely as Dussel constantly refers back to his own earlier definitions and ties discussions solidly to actual experience.

457. —. Ethics and the Theology of Liberation. Bernard F. McWilliams, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978.

This is a continuation of Dussel’s History and Theology of Liberation and of his attempt to examine deeply the theological underpinnings of liberation theology to present it as a genuine, and original, theological movement of Latin America. Topics include theological anthropology, the meaning of the ethical as both a destructive and liberating criticism of existing structures and states of mind, the formation of a theology of politics and a Latin American ecclesiology, stressing the church’s prophetic role in society, the role of women in the church, women’s alienation, feminism, and the “erotic” (male-female relationship) in Christian thinking. Dussel also addresses the situation of the Christian thinker in Latin America, the role of thought on action and society, a new hermeneutics, and finally a detailed examination of the epistemological status of liberation theology.

458. —. History and Theology of Liberation. A Latin American Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976.

This is a spiritual history of Latin America, the role of the church, the meaning of salvation and liberation, and a presentation of the main tenets of a theology of liberation.

459. —. Philosophy of Liberation. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985

Concentrates on the more secular conditions and outcomes of the move toward liberation in Latin America. The imperialisms of the First and Second Worlds – of the U.S., U.S.S.R. and Europe – in everything from culture to economic and political systems, has left the Third World on the margins of existence. Solutions must therefore recognize these agents and must devise ways of overcoming these diverse forms of oppression.

460. —. “Historical and Philosophical Presuppositions of Latin American Theology.” See 479, pp. 184-212. 

Liberation theology grows out of praxis, from the experience of Latin America from Bartolomé de Las Casas (65–81) on. While liberation theology must be understood in the context of the universal Catholic church, the voice of that church is not a monolog. Latin American theology is the child of both European and Amerindian cultures, not only of European Christendom. Its tasks are therefore suited to the conditions of Latin America. It must serve to foster independence from authoritarianism and to unmask exploitation, as did Christ and Las Casas.

461. Eagleson, John and Philip Scharper, eds.; John Drury, trans. Puebla and Beyond. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1980. 

See 113.

462. Ellacuría, Ignacio. Freedom Made Flesh. The Mission of Christ and His Church. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976. 

Ellacuría’s words are those of the prophet who reads the signs of his own times and realizes that they speak to him directly and intimately. This is the strength of liberation theology and of its proponents, and this is why it is the most important and irresistible form of theology in the world today, and it explains why soldiers and empires cannot stop the spread of the Gospels that speak the truth. For, like Ellacuría himself, they are written by the world’s prophets and martyrs.

Like Christ himself, who lived and died in the real world of political repression and liberation, his church today must take up its mission of liberation, even if this again involves the cross of suffering and death. Christ’s salvation is not purely spiritual – he came to save the world, which means flesh and blood as well as spirit. Ellacuría examines the problems of discussing a political ideology of salvation, the political and social elements of Jesus’ mission, his relationship to the state and political movements of his time, and then relates these to the situation of the church in Latin America.

Part 3, “Violence and the Cross,” examines the problems of aggressiveness and violence, finds their roots in human nature, and examines the choices open to Christians in pacifism (Charles de Foucauld), nonviolence (Martin Luther King) and revolutionary violence (Camilo Torres), and concludes that Christianity is too rich and multifaceted to be restricted to one attitude toward violence. Ellacuría’s words carefully avoided passing judgment on any of these forms. His life spoke of choice most elegantly. His death at the hands of El Salvador’s military, along with five Jesuit companions and two laywomen, demonstrates the threat that the truth gives to power.

463. Fabella, Virginia, M.M., and Sergio Torres, eds. Doing Theology in a Divided World. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.

A collection of essays from the sixth annual conference of the Ecumenical Association of Third World theologians. Includes work by some of the world’s leading liberation theologians, among them Richard, Ruether, Sölle, Wallis, Balasuriya, and Cone.

464. —. Irruption of the Third World: Challenge to Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983.

A collection of essays on the need for the theological and ecclesiological renewal that must accompany, and spur, socioeconomic and political renewal in the Third World. Contributors include Pieris, Elizondo, Gutiérrez, and Cone.

465. —, and Mercy Amba Oduyoye, eds. With Passion and Compassion. Third World Women Doing Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.  See 214, pp. 125-90.

Essays by Ivone Gebara, Luz Beatriz Arellano, Nelly Ritchie, Maria Pilar Aquino, Ana Maria Tepedino, and Elsa Tamez.

The context of Latin American women’s theology is terrible oppression – economic, social, and – because Latin American is predominantly Christian – political oppression of Christian women. Martyrdom, both in witness to Christianity and in the cause of revolution, is a very real option and reality for these women.

Women are active not only in combatting their own oppression on all these levels but also within the church and its patriarchal structures. The entire tradition of the church, from the Bible to the early history of Latin America, can be seen as a source of hope for this struggle, as many examples of liberation exist within this tradition. Yet the source of this tradition, the Bible itself, must be read with a new eye, and a “hermeneutic of suspicion” because it was written by men and then codified by men who sought to exclude the very real role of women as among Jesus’ chief disciples. The contrast between the Synoptics and John’s Gospel and the actual role of Martha as an activist leader of the church are examples of this problem.

466. Ferm, Deane William. Profiles in Liberation. Thirty-Six Portraits of Third-World Theologians. Mystic, CT: Twenty-Third Publications, 1988.  See 215.

Theologians from Africa, Asia, and Latin America are discussed, including their lives, work and thought. Bibliographies of books and articles, as well as photographs, are provided for each. An excellent introduction. Latin American theologians include Assmann, the Boffs, Míguez Bonino, Cardenal, Comblin, Dussel, Galilea, Gutiérrez, Libanio, Maduro, Miranda, Richard, Segundo, Sobrino, and Tamez. See also 320.

467. —. Third World Liberation Theologies. An Introductory Survey. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.  See 216.

Discusses the various forms of liberation theologies, their resemblances and differences, studies, and criticisms of this theology. See also 321.

468. —. Third World Liberation Theologies. A Reader. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.  See 217.

Selections from a host of liberation theologians, including Boff, Gutiérrez, Segundo, Tamez, Galilea, and others. See also 322.

469. “The Final Document: International Ecumenical Congress of Theology, Feb. 20-March 2, 1980, Sao Paolo, Brazil.” See 593, pp. 231-46. 

On the theological and practical life of the basic Christian communities.

470. Galilea, Segundo. The Beatitudes. To Evangelize as Jesus Did. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.

The practical application of the Sermon on the Mount for today’s experience.

471. —. Following Jesus. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981.

The “imitation of Christ” has long been at the center of orthodox Christian spirituality and activism. To walk in the footsteps of Christ fulfills the biblical call to follow Him. Here Galilea attempts to demonstrate how the modern Christian can follow Christ in his salvific work for the poor and the marginalized.

472. —. The Future of Our Past. The Spanish Mystics Speak to Contemporary Spirituality. Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1985.

To speak to the growing awareness of, and need for, a living spirituality growing in the church today Galilea draws on the historical tradition of Latin America, most especially in St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and Ignatius Loyola, all great mystics and reformers who combined inner spirituality with a life of action.

473. —. “Liberation Theology and New Tasks Facing Christians.” See 479, pp. 163-83. 

Reviews the accomplishments of the Medellin and Sucre church conferences. Then outlines the tasks that face liberation theology: cultural liberation and conscientization. The new theology must also pursue liberation from violence, both the institutionalized and subversive types. Yet this cannot be overcome by human means, or through violence, but only through the Cross. Christians must shoulder the burden of prophetic proclamation, of denunciation of power and injustice, and the announcement of solidarity with the poor and oppressed, of repentance and reconciliation. "Christian liberation, then, implies reconciliation; hence liberation theology implies a theology of reconciliation.”

474. —. Liberation Theology and the Vatican Document. Vol. 1: A General Survey. Quezon City, Philippines: Claretian Publications, 1988.

An introduction of liberation theology by one of its major proponents as prelude to a reading of the Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation.” The reprint of the document is followed by varied analyses written by Jaime Sin, Peter Hebblethwaite, Philip Scharper and The Tablet.

475. —. Spirituality of Hope. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

Hope is to be distinguished from such bourgeois sentiments as optimism, which assumes a sense of mastery and control, and idealism, which lives remote from the suffering of the world and seeks to impose ideologies. Instead, the Christian must live on hope, which is based on a profound faith in God as well as a keen sense of experience, of disappointment and of struggle, and of commitment to and love for individuals and God’s creation.

476. —. The Way of Living Faith. A Spirituality of Liberation. John W. Diercksmeier, trans. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, 1988. 

This is an examination of Christian spirituality from the viewpoint of liberation theology. Topics include the identity and sources of Christian spirituality, conversion, the experience of God, the Christian demand of love and mutuality, the love of the poor and of poverty as essential ways, the taking up of the cross, and the spirituality of mission.

477. Garcia, Ismael. Justice in Latin American Theology of Liberation. Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1987.

Despite the emphasis of Latin American liberation theologians on the theological interpretation of the realities of oppression and injustice around them, Garcia contends that they fail to provide a consistent definition of what they mean by “justice.” His work is therefore an attempt to analyze this concept in four major theologians and to describe the implications of these meanings for the impact of the theology on economic and political life.

The theologians examined are Assmann, Míguez Bonino, Gutiérrez, and Miranda. While historical consciousness of the development of conditions in Latin American is central to their theological reflections, “liberation” is multidimensional, working on economic and socio-political, historical-utopian, and religious levels.

Final chapters deal with the implications of these ideas on their political and economic outlooks, with practical and realistic outlooks both on the national and international level. Garcia concludes that, despite the claims of critics, the theological outlook is the basis of these thinkers’ positions on justice, not vice-versa. Christian motives and forms of discourse are essential, not mere appendices to their thought. Christian faith precedes this commitment to justice, and Christian realization of God’s transcendence brings a realistic appreciation of the limitations of human attempts to bring about justice and to create the kingdom of God. Good bibliography.

478. Geffre, Claude, and Gustavo Gutiérrez, eds. The Mystical and Political Dimension of the Christian Faith. Concilium 96. New York: Herder & Herder, 1974. 

Articles by Galilea, Dussel, Gutiérrez, Leonardo Boff, Comblin, Segundo, Vidales, Muñoz and Míguez Bonino on the role of a prophetic theology. Topics include liberation theology as the meeting ground of politics and contemplation, the domination-liberation dynamic, the Christocentrism of liberation theology, freedom and liberation as theological concepts, and the contradictions between capitalism and socialism. A final section of the book examines popular piety and religious movements in Latin America.

479. Gibellini, Rosino, ed. Frontiers of Theology in Latin America. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979. 

A collection of essays by the region’s leading intellectuals, including Boff (428), Dussel, Galilea (473), Gutiérrez (488), Segundo (530), and Vidales (552).

480. —. The Liberation Theology Debate. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

This brief but well annotated study examines the impact of the Vatican Instructions on the practice and formulation of liberation theology. Topics covered include the origins and method of liberation theology, themes and research topics, the Vatican controversy, including outline analyses of both the Instruction on Certain Aspects and the Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation. Gibellini then provides some commentary by leading liberation theologians.

481. Goizueta, Robert S. Liberation, Method and Dialogue. Enrique Dussel and North American Theological Discourse. Atlanta, GA: Scholar’s Press, 1988.

This is a rather technical examination of Dussel’s contribution. Topics include the emergence of the liberation paradigm, a survey of the history of dialectic from Plato through Hegel to Latin America today; the new “universal” history emerging in Latin America today, the unity of “economies”: erotic, pedagogical, political and theological in the analysis of Dussel; and the North American response, concluding in a series of “conversion” to the “other” as “other.”

The book includes a survey of the critiques by Novak, McCann, and Roger Vekemans and a discussion of Dussel’s and Bernard Lonegran’s contributions. Specialized bibliography.

482. Goulet, Denis. New Moral Order. Studies in Development Ethics and Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1974.

This book is an attempt to formalize an ethical outlook to the process of “development” in the Third World and is thus a more secular version of the theological investigation undertaken by Enrique Dussel from a historical and theological point of view. Essentially Goulet seeks a rebirth of moral philosophy that will place the vast societal changes and struggle underway in the Third World into an ethical framework: he does so by examining both sociological and ethical thinkers, the church’s prophetic role, and the Christian role in turning a faceless process of dialectic and historical development into a human and religious one.

Traces the development of ethical thought among the originators and proponents of liberation theology, including L. J. Lebret, Orlando Fals-Borda, Gonzalo Arroyo and Gustavo Gutiérrez.

Return to Contents

Gustavo Gutiérrez

483. Brown, Robert McAfee. Gustavo Gutiérrez. His Life and Work. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

Sets his biography of Gutiérrez into the context of Latin America, the history of liberation theology, the Vatican’s attacks, the reactions to and interpretations of the theology. A careful reading of Gutiérrez’ work and thought.

484. —. Makers of Contemporary Theology. Gustavo Gutiérrez. Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1980.

Surveys the origins and broad sweep of liberation theology, the career and thought of Gutiérrez, the emphasis on praxis, his method, and the deeply theological content of his work. Concludes with a survey of the criticisms and the impact of liberation theology on North America. Contains a brief, selected bibliography of Gutiérrez’ works.

485. Cadorette, Curt. From the Heart of the People. The Theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez. Oak Park, IL: Meyer Stone Books, 1988.

This is an intellectual analysis of Gutiérrez’ work. Topics include the socio-economic and political background, the cultural and religious world of Peru’s poor and marginalized, the place of his theology in Peruvian thought, the role of Marxism and social science in his theology, and a resume of his theology. Includes a full bibliography of Gutiérrez’ works since 1970 and a good select bibliography of primary and secondary works on liberation theology.

486. Ellis, Marc H., and Otto Maduro, eds. Expanding the View. Gustavo Gutiérrez and the Future of Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

These are the papers of a conference at Maryknoll held to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Medellín and to honor Gutiérrez. Contributors include Schüssler Fiorenza, Pieris, Arthur McGovern, Harvey Cox, Schillebeeckx, Ruether, Penny Lernoux, Leonardo Boff, Johann-Baptist Metz, Gregory Baum, Míguez Bonino, Pablo Richard, McAfee Brown and others.

487. —. The Future of Liberation Theology. Essays in Honor of Gustavo Gutiérrez. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.

This collection is both a gathering of the most important religious writers of the world today and a broad-based meditation on the roots, history, nature and future of liberation theology. Contributors include Arns, Betto, Boff, Brown, Cone, Cox, Lernoux, Metz, Ruether, Schillebeeckx, Schüssler Fiorenza, Sobrino, Tutu, and Wiesel, among many others.

488. Gutiérrez, Gustavo. “Liberation Praxis and Christian Faith.” See 479, pp. 1-33.

A basic summation of liberation theology.

489. —. On Job. God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent. Matthew J. O’Connell, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

This is a remarkable work that leaves the reader hoping for commentaries on all the books of the Bible from the perspective of liberation theology. “God talk” is the literal translation of theology, and Gutiérrez’ book focuses on how the story of Job is essentially about how his suffering as an innocent brought him to a new revelation about the nature of God and about how humans talk about God.

Job’s suffering is undeserved in the traditional context of a theology of retribution and guilt, what the creation spirituality would call fall and redemption in another context: that is, God rewards the good with prosperity and health and punishes the evil with poverty and disease. Rather than admit to any guilt, for he is guiltless in this context, Job protests his innocence and calls for a trial before God. So strong is his conviction that his present reality of oppression and marginalization is undeserved that he stretches the traditional theology of his friends to the breaking point: it can no longer address the reality of the suffering of the innocent.

Job’s illumination in the ways of God is gradual, first through a discovery of God’s solidarity with the poor and oppressed whose fate he now shares, then of his renewed realization that God has spoken through the prophets, psalms and wisdom literature: that God actually does side with the poor against the mighty who have caused their oppression. Yet this is not enough, for after Job’s own insistence that he is innocent even on this score God reveals divinity’s true nature to him: humbles him through a series of ironic questions that establishes the priority of God and creation before any human existence, before any human system of good and evil, retribution and reward.

God, Job learns, is the creator first and foremost, the just judge only secondarily, and human concerns are secondary to God’s freedom and God’s plan for all of creation, not just humanity. The abandonment of egocentrism is a central theme in this reading through liberation theology. Job discovers that his own sufferings are nothing in comparison with the social oppression of the poor as a whole, that only through his embracing his fellow humans can his own suffering make sense, and secondly, only by abandoning anthropocentric preoccupations of God’s creation working in ways accessible to human reason can humans accept their own role in creation. In so doing, however, they learn that God has made them co-operators of creation: that is, just as social sin is caused by humans, so too the workings of God’s justice can only be accomplished through the cooperation of humans who seek justice. In this sense humans cooperate in the work of creation as a whole: God does not exist to aid human causes and concerns, but humanity exists to implement the divine plan: without human agents God’s work, as God has planned it, cannot be fulfilled.

The book ends with a profound contemplation on the joint roles of God’s liberating grace, which is essential to Job’s salvation as to the world’s, and of the works that stem from this gift of God. Gutiérrez also ponders the relationship between prophesy and mysticism in realizing this plan and then in attempting to fulfill it.

490. —. The Power of the Poor in History. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

A compilation of eight essays. After examining the biblical roots of liberation theology, Christ’s revelation and its proclamation by the poor, Gutiérrez traces the development of theology written by the poor themselves from Medellin, through the 70s to Puebla and beyond. Concludes with reflections on doing theology in the modern world and theology set amid a world of oppression and crisis.

491. —. A Theology of Liberation. Caridad Inda and John Eagleson, trans. and eds. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973; Fifteenth Anniversary Edition, 1988.

This is dense, often difficult, but fundamentally important reading for Catholic liberation and nonviolence, not only in Latin America, but around the world. The controversy that surround Gutiérrez’ works, the attempt of Cardinal Ratzinger’s Holy Office to silence Gutiérrez and Boff, and Pope John Paul II’s embrace and eventual vindication of liberation theology have made it the most important theological and practical movement in the church today. This book is the key text of that theology.

The church has finally entered an era that calls for a return to earlier Christian traditions: that faith is expressed through charity, that the church must raise a voice of prophesy, and that theology must once again flow from praxis, its working in the world, to illuminate the world and become the agent of the world’s transformation. The sources of liberation theology are papal documents, such as Gaudium et Spes of Vatican II (See 99), Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio (107), the Medellin Conference, and most importantly, the Bible. Key biblical texts include Galatians 5:1, Luke 4:1-13, and Exodus.

The major characteristics of this theology are the centrality of building the kingdom of God that rejects the old dualism between personal, inner salvation and the institutional action of the church in Constantinian alliance with the powers of the world. Salvation is now seen as integral, that is, the church saves not only souls, but complete persons; it liberates both the oppressed and the oppressors from sin and from the poverty, alienation, exploitation, and oppression that define sin. Its emphasis on change is thus radical and integral, a rejection of older models of change, such as Western-style development, that impose it from the top down, the work of elites either clerical or governmental. Instead, change must come from the poor and the oppressed themselves, first through “conscientization,” then through denunciation of sin, and then through the proclamation of liberation.

In this process the structure of the church plays an essential part, for the church must manifest the new society of peace and justice by changing its own life, opting for the poverty of the oppressed, changing its structure to reflect the voice of the humble, rejecting its alliance with power, while defying the threats of the secular state that it is “meddling in politics” when it speaks out for the oppressed. Yet just as Christ refused to hope in the forces of this world or to despair by casting himself down from the temple, the new theology refuses to despair. Neither does it seek utopian solutions to the problems of the world, for these utopias are the works of humans and of ideologies; while the kingdom of God, though implemented by men and women, is really the work of God, and it builds new men and women, not new societies. As such it demands individual conversion, not compulsion or the leadership of enlightened elites.

The church, then, is the visible manifestation of God’s kingdom in the world and in history. The church exists not for itself, for its own structures and power, but for the world; it is the self-reflective part of the world. It is thus truly the sacrament of Christ’s liberation in history and time. All history, then, is sacred history, the history of salvation, and the growth of God’s kingdom is the process of liberation in the world. Only by forging social justice and love, therefore, can the individual and the church know God, and the type of knowledge one has of God through love and action (“orthopraxis”) far excels the intellectual knowledge of God through “orthodoxy.”

Just as the new theology shifts emphasis from orthodoxy to orthopraxis, so too the sacramental and liturgical life of the church must focus away from individualistic piety and empty cultic worship and to a renewed emphasis on the Eucharist and Christ as the source and symbol of this new solidarity.

Much has been made of the “Marxist” and revolutionary elements of liberation theology. Here Gutiérrez emphasizes that liberation must be the work of love and not of hate, but at the same time he recognizes that the oppressor is the enemy, and that physical poverty and oppression are real evils that must be combatted.

492. —. The Truth Shall Make You Free. Confrontations. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

A reflection upon his own work and its impact. It focuses around his call to Rome and his apologia given to the theology faculty of Lyons. In addition, this volume examines Gutiérrez’ thinking on the relationships between theology and social science, Christology and ecclesiology, and the essential integralism between the salvation of the soul and of society, between spirit and matter that he has made the hallmarks of liberation theology.

493. —. We Drink From Our Own Wells. The Spiritual Journey of a People. Matthew J. O’Connell, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983. 

The working of liberation theology in praxis, in the lives of the poor in Latin America. Part One discusses the contextual experience of Latin American liberation, the region’s oppression, alienation, and poverty. Part Two examines forms of Christian spirituality based on biblical paradigms. Part Three traces the actual developments in contemporary Latin America, blending theological reflection with the recollection of events as concrete manifestations of Christian faith, hope, and love.

494. —, and Richard Shaull. Liberation and Change. Atlanta, GA: John Knox Press, 1977.

This is a dialog concerning the meaning of North American revolution on Third-World revolutions and North America’s response to these revolutions. Gutiérrez holds that liberation theology and Third-World revolution are in many ways incompatible with the American revolution, in that they are predominantly concerned with liberating the proletariat from the middle classes that the North American revolution made ascendent. In Gutiérrez’ thought freedom means not only liberation from all obstacles to salvation but also the political consequences of such freedom, including an endorsement of Latin America’s revolutionary impulse and its confrontation with North American reaction.

Shaull takes a similar viewpoint from within North American society. North American society, he contends, has become a meaningless dead end: a society of irrelevant affluence and self-fulfillment in the face of quickly changing Third-World realities. American society can be matured, however, not by power from the top but by small groups and communities building a new world. A new koinonia rising from the death of the American empire can bring a new vision.

495. Gutiérrez, Juan. The New Libertarian Gospel. Pitfalls of the Theology of Liberation. Paul Burns, trans. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1977.

Today’s is a world of stark black and whites, of simple solutions, and of burning desire to have a paradise in this world, since no one believes in the next any more. Liberation theology is the result of this environment: “what a shame that its partial approaches and badly used judgments and methods have distracted the honest intentions of so many....”

This book is a critique, a judgment is more apt, of the theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, which though it has some merit, “contains...serious defects that should be remedied,” although most of his thought is beyond repair. Topics include the theology of liberation, Gustavo Gutiérrez’ theology, the classical functions of theology, theology as “historical praxis,” and theology as “critical reflection.”

*

496. Hennelly, Alfred T. Liberation Theology. A Documentary History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

Primary source readings from the 1950s through the 1980s, including the theology’s sources in Vatican II, Medellín, and Puebla; criticisms and friendly analyses, the Vatican Instructions and the debate over the papal assault on leading liberation theologians.

497. —. Theologies for a Liberating Church. The New Praxis of Freedom. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1989. 

Educated in the full flush of Vatican II. Hennelly’s aim is to develop a North American liberation theology by paying careful heed to this theology in the Third World. He therefore surveys the origins and development of liberation theology in Latin America, its sociology, content and method, with specific examples in Gutiérrez, Segundo and Sobrino. He then briefly discusses developments in North America before examining the sources for a theology of freedom. Subsequent chapters deal with Paulo Freire as a liberation theologian, with base Christian communities, and the human rights content of the theology. The last chapter examines the Vatican Instruction (see 123-124); while an epilog discusses the structures of sin and grace and other themes of the Instruction, which is printed in full as an appendix.

498. —. Theologies in Conflict. The Challenge of Juan Luis Segundo. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979.

This is an attempt to encounter liberation theology through a dialog with one of its chief proponents. After introductory materials on official church teaching, new forms of theology, liberation theology and the influence of Gutiérrez, the author discusses some basic tenets of liberation theology: the nature of the Christian, the church, praxis vs. theory, the hermeneutic challenge of liberation theology; the ideological aspects of Christianity in the Bible, in the churches, in eschatology and in its attitudes toward violence; a survey of Christian spirituality and the contribution of the new theology; and the challenge of Marxism.

499. Hinkelammert, Franz. The Ideological Weapons of Death. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.

At its most profound level liberation theology tackles questions about the very nature of God, which is, after all, the meaning of theology. Here the author delves into the most basic Hebrew meaning of idolatry: which is the establishment of fetishes: material goods of the world as ends in themselves, which become the focus of worship, the projections of power. Country, capital, power, status, wealth are all idols that we have erected that obscure the true God of life and that become weapons of death for the world’s poor.

500. Kirby, Paeder. Lessons in Liberation. The Church in Latin America. Dublin: Dominican Publications, 1981.

Discusses the historical and social situation, the base Christian communities, the role of conscientization, structural supports to organize the poor in their struggle, the role of the theologians in articulating the people’s faith, the role of the missionary as servant of popular needs, the bishops as sharing in the suffering of the people. Concludes with a discussion of the hopes raised by the Puebla conference of 1979 and for a new church emerging.

501. Kloppenburg, Bonaventura. Christian Salvation and Human Temporal Progress. Paul Burns, trans. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1979.

Examines the relationship in liberation theology between liberation and salvation; between moral progress and human secular progress through a study of the documents of Vatican II, Medellin, the 1974 Synod of Bishops, and Evangelii Nuntiandi. A final chapter surveys non-Catholic thought.

502. —. The People’s Church. A Defense of My Church. Matthew J. O’Connell, trans. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1978.

This is an examination of the theological underpinning of the program of Christians for Socialism in Latin America. The aim of the book is frankly apologetic: to defend “the church” against those who would “promote an ideological struggle within the church and thereby ‘deideologize’ and ‘reinterpret’ the Christian faith, to effect a rereading of the Bible, to liberate the conscience of the masses, to appropriate the liturgy for themselves, and by all these means create a new ‘Church of the People.’”

503. —. Temptations for the Theology of Liberation. Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1974.

Not seen.

504. Lara-Brand, Jorge. What Is Liberation Theology? Atlanta, GA: General Assembly Mission Board, 1980.

Not seen.

505. Lopez Trujillo, Alfonso. Liberation or Revolution? An Examination of the Priest’s Role in the Socioeconomic Class Struggle in Latin America. Huntington, IN: Our Sunday Visitor, 1977.

The author’s subtitle gives away his approach and political outlook: to be involved in the process of liberation theology is to be engaged in the class struggle of the Marxists. Lopez Trujillo’s purpose here, however, is more strictly concerned with priests who are members or supporters of the “Christians for Socialism” movement, and who, he claims, have abandoned their sacerdotal role for otherwise commendable goals of social justice and liberation. The assertion that the class struggle must also be waged within the church is additional cause for alarm. While Christian theology may call for the necessary participation in politics, it is not exclusively nor wholly equated with the political process.

The author discusses the urgency – and fashion – of the call to liberation today, the Judeo-Christian religious tradition of liberation, the poor in reality and spirit, the mystery of liberation embodied in the Paschal celebration, Christian eschatology vs. secular utopianism; the divergences between Christian liberation and revolution, including the issue of violence; the dangers of manipulation of the priest’s role and trust, of the Gospels, and of theology; and the role of the church as a liberated and liberating community. He concludes with some warning remarks against the politicization of the priesthood. He has been amply rewarded for his loyalty to the Vatican line with a recent promotion to the Roman Curia.

506. Míguez Bonino, José. Christians and Marxists. The Mutual Challenge to Revolution. Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1976.

Not seen.

507. —. Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975.

The book is divided into two parts. The first examines the phenomenon of a new type of Christianity freed from both the colonial and neocolonial Constantinianism that have characterized Latin America and its new links to an integral approach to faith and action.

The second part of the book examines the theological meaning of this movement: a new hermeneutics of action, an examination of the dynamics of Christian love and the problems of poverty, oppression and class; the eschatological element of liberation theology in its quest for a new world and new society; and finally the ecclesiological aspects of this new theology as the people themselves begin to change the meaning of the church and the people of God.

508. —. Revolutionary Theology Comes of Age. London: SPCK, 1975.

Not seen.

509. —. Toward a Christian Political Ethics. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983.

Discussions include the need for a political ethics in the face of the realities of technocratic rule on the continent; Christian responses to the ethical dilemma of political action, including the issue on nonviolence; the connections between praxis and theory and the influence of sociology and theology; the historical development of Latin American politics from authoritarianism to democracy to the national security state; the meanings of justice in a Christian sense; and the role of hope and power in attaining the kingdom of God.

510. —, ed. Faces of Jesus. Latin American Christologies. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.

Includes essays by Boff, Ellacuria, Galilea, and Vidales, among others. The nature of Jesus Christ interpreted through the eyes of leading Latin American liberation theologians.

511. Miranda, José. Being and the Messiah. The Message of St. John. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1977.

Not seen.

512. —. Communism in the Bible. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982.

“This is a manifesto” that seeks to show, through meticulous scholarship that Marxism – as correctly understood and not associated with any of its historical manifestations – and Christianity are fundamentally the same. Both, for example, stress that the kingdom is to be achieved here on earth, as in an understanding of true Christianity lived in the Acts of the Apostles through a society free of oppression. Both spurned the accumulation of wealth, saw evil as a social problem, and dismissed the profit motive.

Miranda contends that we have misinterpreted Jesus’ statements: that the poor will always be with us, that we must render to Caesar, and that his kingdom is not of this world. Instead, the author contends, Jesus’ life and message was inherently and explicitly political, and finally that Jesus explicitly approves the use of violence to redress injustice. Jesus approves all the vindictive violence of the Old Testament and himself used physical violence.

513. —. Marx Against the Marxists. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1980.

A person’s Christianity does not hinge solely on his or her beliefs about God, but in actions and attitudes toward the rest of humanity and one’s neighbors. Thus Marx’s thought was truly Christian at base. In fact, we must learn to deconstruct Marx from his Marxist accretions, to demythologize and to get to the man and his own pure thought.

As Christianity is “solid, unequivocal humanism,” Marx must be a Christian. Deeply moral ethics, just like those of Christianity, are the essence of Marx and Engels. Like Jesus Christ, Marx denounces the God mammon; and like primitive Christianity, Marx and Engels seek a community of goods. Marx’s hostility to religion and his concept of God are illogical and self-contradictory, however, and cannot be ascribed as a true part of his philosophy.

514. —. Marx and the Bible. A Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression. John Eagleson, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1974.

The influence of Marx on Catholic social teaching has been clear and irreversible since Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno, which accepted most of Marx’s analytic categories, while changing some of his wordings. This tradition holds true through to Progressio Populorum, despite its conscious attempts to distance itself from Marx. Yet the Marxist influence runs deeper than that. Marx himself belonged to the prophetic tradition of the Bible, and many of his concerns are inherently those of Christian social thought. Miranda’s analysis is based on long biblical study in Rome.

Topics include the modern critique of private ownership and its biblical roots, the biblical understanding of God as transcendent of our categories, and as the God of Exodus and liberation. The book concludes with a discussion of Christian faith and dialectic in history, prophetic faith, eschatology and the role of history as a process of liberation.

515. Moser, Antonio, and Bernardino Leers. Moral Theology. Dead Ends and Alternatives. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

One of the remarkable achievements of liberation theology, and of the Orbis Books’ Theology and Liberation Series (545) is that it has reexamined not only the larger role of theology in society and in God’s creation, but has also revamped all areas of traditional Christian theology from metaphysics and liturgy, to ecclesiology and ethics. Here the authors trace the development of Catholic moral theology and then use the insights of liberation theology to lay out a new direction for it in the face of obvious injustices and oppressions in the world today. Discussions range from the place of Marxism and capitalism to the nature and role of individual conscience.

516. Muñoz, Ronaldo. The God of the Christians. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

One of the chief themes of all forms of liberation theology is that atheism is no longer a problem in the world; but that belief in too many and different gods may well be. Today we have erected many false idols and worship many gods: power and consumption gods, race and nationalistic gods, war and death gods. Middle class North Americans seem to have a god that comforts them in their affluence, that allows them to ignore the suffering of the starving and oppressed of the Third World and the justice-working of the Christian god. Muñoz therefore sets out to investigate what god is revealed by the life and work of Jesus Christ and to reexamine the biblical texts that reveal that god.

517. Navarez, Jorge. The Voice of a People in Struggle. The Life of Fr. Rafael Maroto. New York: Circus, 1986.

Not seen.

518. Nuñez, Emilio Antonio. Liberation Theology. Paul E. Sywulka, trans. Chicago: Moody Press, 1985.

Nuñez is an evangelical who was raised in a proletarian family of El Salvador and is therefore keenly concerned with the process of liberation in Latin America. He attempts to examine some key questions about the theology: its relationship to sociology, its biblical roots, its basic Christianity, its very claim to being theological. In certain circles, in North America, among Protestants, liberation theology is all the rage now. Despite his unfashionable stance, Nuñez insists that liberation theology is still out of touch with the vast majority of the continent’s people, and in fact, has made little inroad, especially among Protestants. Among Catholics, he contends, it has descended to the people from intellectuals and higher clergy.

Despite differences of approach and influence, however, the author does contend that liberation theology is here to stay in Latin America and will undergo transformation, for good or bad. He therefore attempts to highlight the problems of this theology for pastors and seminarians, while remaining true to the Bible and to the aspirations of Latin America’s poor.

Topics include the historical and social context in Latin America; the development of liberation theology; its methodology; its approach to salvation and liberation, Jesus the liberator, and ecclesiology. It concludes with a discussion of evangelical theology and praxis for Latin America. Adequate bibliography.

519. O’Brien and Shannon. Renewing the Earth. See 105, pp. 539-79. 

Includes an introduction to liberation theology and the documents of the Medellin Conference on Justice and Peace, as well as the “Conference’s Message to the Peoples of Latin America.” The Medellin Conference was the second general meeting of the Conference of Latin American Bishops, held in Medellin, Colombia from August 24 to September 6, 1968.  As such it was an official church council, and its final documents are part of the official teaching of the Catholic church around the world.

These final documents are the Latin American response to Vatican II and Pope Paul VI’s Populorum Progressio, and they form the theological and ecclesiological basis for the church’s nonviolent struggle for liberation. Medellin has become the central event for Latin American liberation theologians and is the cornerstone of all later reflection, just as it was the summation of previous practice and theory. These documents are essential to any study of Latin American events and theory in the 1970s and 1980s.

520. O’Connor, James Thomas. Liberation. Towards a Theology for the Church in the World, According to the Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops at Medellín, 1968. Rome: Officium Libri Catholici, 1972.

An attempt to clarify the conclusions of the Medellin Conference in line with the church’s magisterium going back to Leo XIII. Discusses the various meanings of liberation: from sin, as conversion and as eschatology, the church as the sign of liberation; in overcoming the dichotomies of spirit and matter, of other-worldly and worldly salvation; Christian social ethics and utopianism; and the role of the church as critic. Includes an appendix of Medellin’s liberation texts. The bibliography contains source materials, including papal encyclicals and documents of the Latin American churches, books and articles on various aspects of liberation.

521. Pérez Esclarin, Antonio. Atheism and Liberation. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978.

“Atheism” here means both its twentieth-century meaning of a rejection of traditional notions of God and “atheism” as an attack on idolatry, almost in the ancient Roman sense of the Christians as atheists who rejected their gods and idols. These gods and idols are, for Pérez-Esclarin, the false idols of the capitalist-materialist world in which Christianity is an anemic vegetable: luxury, waste, and arbitrary whimsy of the few to possess and adore material comforts at the expense of those who make these and who lack them.

He begins by surveying the view of twentieth-century humanity in the view of the arts and of psychology: alienated and dehumanized. It is a civilization of idolaters who have no true god. Its idols are, instead, science and the machine, sex, and consumption. Opposed to this is a god of liberation found in Exodus, the prophets and the words and life of Jesus.

The author concludes his book with brief studies of the most prominent exponents of modern atheism: Nietzsche, Feuerbach, Freud, Russell, Marx, Sartre, Camus, and Merleau-Ponty and concludes that these critics of the modern, anemic, Christian God have actually purified our notion of Christianity and brought back to those who heed their words a realization that a life of activism, on behalf of justice and liberation, is the true meaning of the Judeo-Christian message. A fascinating perspective.

522. Peruvian Bishops’ Commission for Social Action. Between Honesty and Hope. Documents from and about the Church in Latin America. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1970.

A collection of thirty key documents for the modern church in Latin America, ranging from works of Helder Camara, to the selected Medellin documents. Themes of special prominence include the role of the laity, violence, the reception of Populorum Progressio, and the obligation of the church in overcoming social injustice.

523. Planas, Ricardo. Liberation Theology. The Political Expression of Religion. Kansas City, MO: Sheed & Ward, 1986.

An interesting introduction to the subject that emphasizes the political and economic aspects of the theology and its ties to the Latin American situation and Marxist thought.

524. Richard, Pablo. The Battle of the Gods. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.

A collection of essays centered around Richard’s themes of idolatries, Christendoms and true religious life.

525. —. Death of Christendoms, Birth of the Church. Phillip Berryman, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.

The subtitle reads “Historical Analysis and Theological Interpretation of the Church in Latin America.” Strongly structuralist in historical methodology and moderately deconstructionist in epistemological approach, this is a study of Latin American history through the perspective of ecclesiastical bonds to the political structures (Christendoms) of the continent from 1492 to the present.

Richard views this history as a series of clearly defined periods, actually cycles of Christendom and crisis, culminating in the present crisis of New Christendom that began in the 1960s. He sees a new period coming in which the popular church, which never entered into an alliance with the secular powers but which maintained the tradition of the early church, will finally come into its own, and the era of Christendoms finally end.

526. —, ed. The Idols of Death and the God of Life. A Theology. Barbara E. Campbell and Bonnie Shepard, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983.

One of the most profound insights of liberation theology, a strength that ties it back to the strongest moral strains of the Judeo-Christian tradition, is its use of the prophetic stance against false idols. The idols are the objects of worship of a materialistic, oppressive social and economic system that places profits, control, and process above human needs and aspirations and in the process attempts to topple the God of creation and life from the center of the universe. This is a collection of essays that examine this process in both biblical and socio-political terms and that call for an embrace of the God that gives life and liberation from false idols, sin and the death that they bring.

527. Santa Ana, Julio de. Good News to the Poor. The Challenge of the Poor in the History of the Church. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979.

An historical examination of the poor in biblical and Judeo-Christian tradition. Chapters treat the poor and poverty in the Old Testament, in the message of Jesus, in its call to the rich to convert, in the church of the first century, the radical demands of Christian life, the prophets of the church during the Constantinian era, in the Middle Ages and in our own time.

528. —. Towards a Church of the Poor. The Work of an Ecumenical Group on the Church. Geneva: World Council of Churches, 1977; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981.

This is an outcome of the work of the Commission on the Churches’ Participation in Development of the World Council of Churches. It reflects on the relationships of the poor to the churches amid the world reality that in the two previous decades the actual condition of the poor had deteriorated rapidly as development more and more benefitted only the upper and upper middle classes in the Third World. Poverty, dependency, marginalization, and oppression are enduring, and worsening, conditions.

Christians, therefore, are forced not only by tradition but also from their very biblical foundations to work in solidarity with the poor, not in charity, but in an attempt to change basic structures. In so doing, however, they not only form new communities, they found new forms of community within the church and begin to change the structure and nature of the churches themselves.

529. Schipani, Daniel S., ed. Freedom and Discipleship. Liberation Theology in an Anabaptist Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.

A collection of papers that brings together Anabaptist-Mennonite and Latin American Catholic theologians to discuss various elements of liberation theology, including hermeneutics, ecclesiology, Christology, base communities, and work for peace and justice.

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Juan Luis Segundo

530. Segundo, Juan Luis, S.J. “Capitalism Versus Socialism: Crux Theologica.” See 479, pp. 240-59. 

Liberation theology is a whole theology that speaks to the reality of Latin America. This reality is not dominated by the struggle between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. but derives from the plight of the vast majority of its people.

531. —. Jesus of Nazareth Yesterday and Today. John Drury, trans. 5 vols. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984-88.

Vol. 1: Faith and Ideologies.

Vol. 2: The Historical Jesus of the Synoptics.

Vol. 3: The Humanist Christology of Paul.

Vol. 4: The Christ of the Ignatian Exercises.

Vol. 5: An Evolutionary Approach to Jesus of Nazareth.

This immense work is a five-volume attempt to recast Christology in light of the realities of the Third World today. Volume 1 examines the groundwork that must be done in appreciating language, narrative, myth and religious systems: the means and the values imposed upon a set of data to create an interpretation of reality, thus the role and nature of ideology. Segundo delves into the thought of Machovec, Bateson and especially Marx to attempt to extract a modern methodology of analysis that will see past our own ideologies and religious systems. Theology is, in fact, little more than such a methodology: not stemming from praxis, but praxis itself.

Volume 2 then sets off to trace the quest for the historical Jesus as found in the Synoptic Gospels, focuses in on the parables, and finds a Jesus who seeks to liberate from religion and its narrow confines with the proclamation of the kingdom: effective love that both liberates the individual from sin and society and politics from systems of oppression.

Volume 3 examines Paul’s epistles – especially Romans – and their treatment of sin and redemption. Segundo disagrees with most of liberation theology’s rejection of Paul as neutral toward the world and sets out to demonstrate that Paul’s humanism sets the message of Christ squarely in the context of a very specific political system, on the side of a very specific set of people – the poor and the oppressed – but also teaches us to go beyond the specific forms of oppression, the specific sins of a time and place, to recognize sin itself and thus to seek means of liberating ourselves from it that go beyond dead ends.

In Volume 4 Segundo attempts to show how various Christologies can bridge the gap between present realities and the historical event of Jesus’ life. He chooses Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises because it embodies a Christology that is still so influential on the spirituality of Latin America. Finally, volume 5 attempts to trace out how we can develop a new Christology for our time by returning to the sources of Jesus’ life in the Gospels, finally putting Jesus and the universe in the contextual meaning of the Cosmic Christ in the recurring realities of birth, death and resurrection, the hope and faith that is kindled by the divine love of the universe.

532. —. The Liberation of Theology. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.

One of the essential revelations of Jesus and his life was that God speaks not in systems of thought or law but in the love that humans bear toward one another and that the universe bears toward all creation. Liberation theology, in its various forms, has begun to reawaken this revelation in a way that is irreversible. At the same time, however, a reaction has set in among both ecclesiastical authorities and among members of more traditional schools of academic theology. The effect has been to both demonize liberation theology as a radical, even revolutionary, movement for its very reiteration of church councils from Vatican II to Medellin or to pass it off as unprofessional, naive and transitory.

Segundo thus attempts to follow up the ground-breaking work of Gutiérrez’ A Theology of Liberation, which proved the serious theological content of the theology, with a parallel exposition of its methodology. He therefore discusses the hermeneutics, sociology, politics, and ideological underpinnings of the theology, its connections to popular religion and spirituality, and the problem of elites and change. A fundamental work.

533. —. Theology and the Church. A Response to Cardinal Ratzinger and a Warning to the Whole Church. Rev. ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.

Like the Boffs in their Liberation Theology. From Dialogue to Confrontation (440), Segundo attempts to place Cardinal Ratzinger’s Instruction (123-124) in context and to respond to the shadow of heresy that Cardinal Ratzinger has thrown over liberation theology. The issues that he seeks to address are the influence of European theology on Latin America, liberation and secular aims, the hermeneutical approach of liberation theology, and the ecclesiology of the movement, including the issue of the people of God and the popular church. He concludes with a warning to the whole church that Ratzinger’s target is not only liberation theology and all attempts at theological pluralism within the church, but the entire structure of the church brought about by Vatican II. Cardinal Ratzinger elevates the magisterium to an infallible and unquestionable voice of papal authority and a centralized papal monarchy that brooks no dissent. The volume concludes with a reprint of the Instruction.

534. —. A Theology of Artisans of a New Humanity. 5 vols. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1973-74.  Includes:

Vol. 1: The Community Called Church

Vol. 2: Grace and the Human Condition

Vol. 3: Our Idea of God

Vol. 4: The Sacraments Today

Vol. 5: Evolution and Guilt

This is an attempt to write a complete theology along liberation lines that addresses itself to all issues in Christian theology: from ecclesiology (vol. 1), grace, sin and human freedom (vol. 2); our knowledge of God in transcendence and immanence, the role of prayer, of salvation in time, demythologizing our concepts of divinity, God’s relationship to the world in Jesus, the politics of the Gospels, and nonviolence (vol. 3); the sacraments, their meaning and their role in the church and world today (vol. 4); and the place of grace, not for the individual but for society, its structures, and for the human species (vol. 5).

535. Tambasco, Anthony J. The Bible for Ethics. Juan Luis Segundo and First-World Ethics. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1981.

Uses the methodology of Segundo to address two main issues: the relationship of the Bible to Christian ethics; and the relationship of biblical eschatology to morality. Themes in Segundo’s theology include his hermeneutic model, social analysis, theology and ideology, his scriptural exegesis, critical appraisal of his Marxist analysis, biblical teaching on the kingdom, the Bible and violence, and his discussion of ideology. The book concludes with the dialog between Segundo and First-World theologians. Good bibliographies arranged by topic, including Segundo’s books and articles to date.

*

536. Sobrino, Jon. Christology at the Crossroads. A Latin American Approach. John Drury, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978.

Sobrino’s attempt here to place traditional views of Christ’s nature and mission into the context of Latin American political oppression and liberation were seen as stretching the limits of orthodoxy by making Jesus a model of revolutionary struggle.

537. —. Jesus in Latin America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987. 

This is a collection of articles published between 1978 and 1982.  It discusses the basic themes of Christology, its importance for Latin America, the meaning of the kingdom of God and the life of the poor, and the modern imitation of Christ – following Jesus as discernment – a basic moral theology that focuses on the poor and outcast, the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection for the “world’s crucified,” and the people’s faith in Jesus as son of God. This collection is also an answer to critics’ charges that his Christology at the Crossroads goes beyond orthodox discourse.

538. —. Spirituality of Liberation. Toward Political Holiness. Robert R. Barr, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988. 

This is a collection of articles published on spirituality between 1980 and 1984.  Though not specifically on Christian spirituality, it is an examination, in the light of liberation theology, of how any spirituality must have, and produce, a life of commitment in the world; and alternatively, of providing liberation practice with an underlying spirituality that insures its religious motivation and outlook. In both directions Sobrino follows the trend of all liberation theologies in bridging the gap between inner, private spirituality and social and political ethics.

Topics include the presuppositions and foundations of spirituality; the links between a new spirituality and liberation, the spirituality of liberation theology; and a new form of holiness: “political holiness.” Sobrino then discusses the spirituality of martyrdom and of suffering persecution, and the divine element in the struggle for human rights.

Part 2 of this book then examines Jesus’ proclamation and the reign of God, the place of spirituality in evangelization and discipleship, and conflicts within the church.

Part 3 discusses the concrete realities of the martyrdoms of the four North American churchwomen in El Salvador (642-647), the realities and hopes of the poor in Latin America, and the new spirituality that has grown out of the rediscovery of Christ in the region. A final chapter, which is witness to the importance and original vitality of liberation theology, tries to draw some applications for European churches.

539. —. The True Church of the Poor. Matthew J. O’Connell, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.

Bases this call for a liberating theology on his experience among the poor and persecuted in El Salvador. Discusses the differences in theological thought in Europe and Latin America, the promotion of justice as essential to the Gospel message, and the intimate connection between faith, inner spirituality and working for justice. Sobrino stresses how the church of the poor truly reflects the Gospels and constitutes the true church and examines the role of the church of the poor in mediating God’s grace to the world, the experience of the church in Latin America, its ramifications within the church itself as a new ecclesiology conflicts with an older, hierarchical one, the theological meaning of persecution and its significance in San Salvador, the role of evangelization, and the all-encompassing nature of a religious life for the Christian in Latin America.

540. —, with Juan Hernández Pico. Theology of Christian Solidarity. Phillip Berryman, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.

It is no accident that the Polish movement for liberation called itself “Solidarity,” for within the modern Catholic vocabulary since Vatican II “solidarity” means the form of effective love that turns faith and revelation of divinity into the works of peace and justice As the authors write in their proem, “Solidarity is another name for the kind of love/ that moves feet, hands, hearts,/ material goods, assistance, and sacrifice/ toward the pain, danger, misfortune, disaster, repression or death/ of other persons or a whole people.” In his essay Sobrino discusses the theological nature of this solidarity; while Hernández Pico speaks of its praxis in biblical study, work with Archbishop Romero, and in the life of service.

541. Swomley, John M. Liberation Ethics. New York: Macmillan, 1972. 

The theory and methods of nonviolent change and revolution. The moral conversion of the individual to liberation is necessary before such change can begin. Recent history offers many examples of successful nonviolent change in Latin America. These include the nonviolent revolutions in Chile in July 1931, in Guatemala in 1944, and in El Salvador in 1944.  All involved the withdrawal of consent from the dictators by the majority of the people across all classes and professions, often in the face of violent attempts at repression. They are testimony to movements that spring from the grass roots and flow from a Judeo-Christian tradition.

542. —. The Politics of Liberation. Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1984.

This book attempts to place the work of liberation theologians into a political context. It examines the meaning of political liberation, Judeo-Christian theories of government, and modern forms of political realism and idealism. It also examines the relationship of power and ideology to liberation and the biblical and secular roots of modern liberation.

543. Tamez, Elsa, ed. Bible of the Oppressed. Matthew J. O’Connell, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982.

A careful reading of the biblical texts and the meanings of “oppressed” and “oppressors.”

544. —, ed. Through Her Eyes. Women’s Theology from Latin America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989.

An important collection of essays by leading Latin American feminist theologians discussing such topics as gender, the Trinity, Christology, ecclesiology, spirituality, and the meaning of the kingdom of God.

545. Theology and Liberation Series. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.

This editorial undertaking is the English translation of the works of over 100 liberation theologians, historians, and pastoral agents. It originated in the Franciscan publishing house of Editora Vozes in Brazil. According to Penny Lernoux (120, pp. 113-14), however, it soon became the special target of the Vatican “Restoration,” which forced the resignation of the publishing house’s entire editorial board soon after Ratzinger’s unsuccessful inquisition against theologian Leonardo Boff. Despite the fact that all the volumes in the series had received imprimaturs from the proper church officials, Cardinal Ratzinger took personal umbrage at the undertaking and blocked its further publication.

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Camilo Torres

546. Broderick, Walter J. Camilo Torres: A Biography of the Priest-Guerrillero. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1975.

No collection of works on liberation theology would be complete without some discussion of Camilo Torres, the Colombian priest who abandoned the traditional role of the post-Tridentine cleric to become a guerilla fighter on behalf of the poor and marginalized. He was killed in 1966 in a jungle skirmish with Colombian army. While Catholic conservatives had always pulled out the theory of the just war to justify any recourse to violence on the part of states, they cringed in horror at the thought of church sanction of violence on behalf of the poor or in the cause of revolution, even though popes as recent as Paul VI continued to stress the Catholic right of “just revolution.” In fact, this was one of the underpinnings of the Nicaraguan revolution. Torres, ironically, was killed fighting for his brand of Catholic Christianity in the same year that Cardinal Spellman was in Vietnam blessing canons and ordering soldiers to kill for his.

Even more upsetting for the conservatives was the fact that a lowly priest decided to take such action upon himself, without the official sanction of the alliance of church and state that usually condones violence.

What does Torres and his career have to do with liberation theology? While not a formal theologian, Torres did write, mostly manifestos, in an attempt to rouse the people to fight against oppression. His style of fusing Christ and revolution could be seen as a form of theology in the making from the ground up, based on the realities of the people themselves.

There is no doubt that his specter is raised by every opponent of liberation theology, as if he were representative of the entire range of this movement. Whatever one’s uses of Torres, there is no doubt that his life and example pose a fundamental question to all Christians – and all religiously motivated people – who seek social and political change.

This is a biography based on personal observations, documents and interviews, told in a taut, journalistic style, much in keeping with the mood of the late 60s.

547. Garcia, John Alvarez, Christian Restrepo Calle, and Virginia M. O’Grady, eds. Camilo Torres. His Life and His Message. Springfield, IL: Templegate Publishers, 1968.

A collection of Torres’ writings, with an introduction on the social, political, economic and cultural background of Colombia. Pacifist Dorothy Day provided a lengthy preface.

548. Gerassi, John, ed. Revolutionary Priest. June de Cipriano Alcantara, and others, eds. New York: Random House, 1971.

The subtitle reads The Complete Writings and Messages of Camilo Torres. A good collection.

549. Guzman, German. Camilo Torres. John D. Ring, trans. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1969.

A sympathetic, and first-hand, account of the guerrilla priest by one who writes in the immediate shadow of the man, between present and past.

*

550. Torres, Sergio, and John Eagleson, eds. Theology in the Americas. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1976. 

A collection of essays by the leading theologians in both continents.

551. —, and Virginia Fabella, eds. The Emergent Gospel. Theology from the Underside of History. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1978.

This collection of essays is divided into four sections: on Africa, Asia, Latin America, and conclusions: the final statement and communique of the Dar es Salaam conference. Contributors include Patrick Masanja, Charles Nyamiti, Kwesi A. Dickson, Manas Buthelezi, Allan Boesak, Carlos Abesamis, S.J., D. S. Amalorpavadass, Enrique Dussel, and Gustavo Gutiérrez.

552. Vidales, Raul. “Methodological Issues in Liberation Theology.” See 479, pp. 34-57.

A discussion of liberation theology and its roots in theory and praxis. Summarizes its historical base and stresses that faith can only be understood via action. The basic features of liberation theology include solidarity with the exploited, a joyous unity among brothers and sisters, its operation in the midst of conflict, and a basis in Christian faith that is above all Christocentric.

553. Winter, Derek. Hope in Captivity. The Prophetic Church in Latin America. London: Epworth, 1977.

See 176.

554. Witvliet, Theo. A Place in the Sun. An Introduction to Liberation Theology in the Third World. John Bowden, trans. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.

See 242.

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