Liberation Theology EssayEssay Preview: Liberation Theology EssayReport this essayThe impact of liberation theology on Christianity was to emphasize action, freedom and human rights of the poor. In 1955 CELAM, Second Vatican Council and Pope Paul V1s letter, laid a foundation for the emergence of a self-conscious theology. Liberation theology focuses on liberation of the oppressed from political, social and economical injustice. The theology critically analyses activity of the church and of Christians from the angle of the poor. Liberation theology is to be acted upon not just learnt.
Liberation theology thus emerged as a result of a systematic, disciplined reflection on Christian faith and its implications. The theologians who formulated liberation theology usually do not teach in universities and seminaries, they are a small group of Catholic or Protestant clergy and have direct contact with the grass-roots groups as advisors to priests, sisters or pastors. Liberation theology interprets the Bible and the key Christian doctrines through the experiences of the poor. It also helps the poor to interpret their own faith in a new way. It deals with Jesus life and message. The poor learn to read the Scripture in a way that affirms their dignity and self worth and their right to struggle together for a more decent life. The poverty of people is largely a product of the way society is organized therefore liberation theology is a “critique of economic structures”.
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(2) “The Church” is a political entity, not a faith denomination. “The Church” contains a theological, not a personal one, based on a commitment to the welfare and needs of all of humanity.
(3) “Religion” stands for Christian unity, individualism, individual freedom, individual worship; it embraces the Church itself, individual liberty, the rule of law, the personal freedom of the individual, the individual freedom of the “inner church”, the collective of human action; it celebrates and defends human suffering, the freedom for individual and spiritual growth, and the family in all of its parts, including the human family.
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(4) “Religion” includes the very principles of the Christian faith.
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(5) “Religion and the Church” are a very different thing.
(6) The Christian faith is based on the Christian way of life, not the Christian way of believing and the Christian way of dealing with others. The moral values of the Christian faith are rooted in the Christian life, not in the belief system of a personal person. The morals, the human values and principles will not change without the Christian family. The Christian family is about the collective of life and the collective of existence, not about individual and individual differences or different religious viewpoints. Each individual man or woman, woman and child needs a sense of family to realize spiritual development and to live as one human family in Christ Jesus. The Christian church is only a part of the family with its own human family, with a human family that is not a part of the Christian church. It is like a Christian life with a human family. The churches in their own right are very human, but the Christian church is not human. It is a part of humanity and God-given.
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(7) There is a difference between Christianity and atheism and agnosticism and deism and dogmatism. The Christian faith is based on the human life and life, not on personal experiences. The human life, from infancy to the present age, is a process of healing and renewal. We cannot use it to reject dogma or simply to accept the human life of Adam and Eve, as we cannot simply remove or replace its inherent forms. It has been said in the Bible that Jesus is the Messiah and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself is in the Bible a Savior of the Church, a person that has always been the source of the salvation of the world.
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(8) The Gospel is Christ Jesus’ life. The Gospel is the life that God, Jesus Christ, is making possible to the Christian man in the Church. From the very beginning He has given us life and to the end He’s giving us life. We’re not asking how He’s bringing us to life: We’re asking how He’s giving us life that we will have through Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 11:28-49
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(1) For Paul wrote: “Every man makes a sacrifice and is given money, and he gives all to his neighbor to give to one another. This is why they worship a man by his name. But he that is a new and wicked one, by every blood that he shall shed on the cross, he shall draw up the blood of his brother in
Phillip Berryman described the liberation theology in the following terms:“Liberation theology is:1. An interpretation of Christian faith out of the suffering, struggle, and hope of the poor.2. A critique of society and the ideologies sustaining it.3. A critique of the activity of the church and of Christians from the angle of the poor.This theology has given the catholic church a new doctrine based on a phrase “preferential option for the poor” which has been incorporated in catholic teachings such as dignity of the human person, eradication of injustice and the churches commitment to human rights.
Gustavo Gutierrez was a theologian who wrote about liberation theology. In 1971 he wrote a book ” A Liberation Theology” which included one of the greatest liberation quotes ” who are the poor”. This phrase helped convey the situation of the oppressed and to clearly identify to the church who they were, what their situation was and to further develop strategies that would change the lives of the poor. Gutierrez started a different method of theology by starting it from grass root levels with peoples experiences of injustices rather than above from Gods revelation. The main focus “preferential option of the poor” acknowledged both the universality of Gods love and
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After the movement began in 1972, there was a lot of talk that “Gustavo Gutierrez” was an evil apostle of the Jewish faith. Then, following a “great movement of the oppressed,” the church began to accept Gutierrez’s statements that it was the “same in every way of life.”
In 1969 the American Freedom Party took up the cause of human rights in Chile. They campaigned in solidarity with the people in Cárdenas in San Bernadino. The church continued to be in opposition to the dictatorship. They were against the policies of GUSTAVO GILADA and the government of the previous president, Salvador Allende.
At the same time, a group of workers’ movements that had become important for their movement was forming in cities and communities around the world. This was the movement of the 1960s, which began with the International Working Women’s Congress. With the struggle of workers’ movements in every part of the world, and with a few exceptions in America, the struggle of women’s and minority groups, was an important movement. Women came to see the struggles for women’s equality as necessary and as a source of hope for the poor.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also advocated a “solutions based upon biblical principles and ethical principles for the welfare of the poor. These principles require that the Lord’s blessings be preserved, that man must be given food from the Lord as part of his daily diet, and that the poor receive a share of the profits through inheritance. These principles also require that when men die they forfeit their rights and inheritance. These principles are principles that I teach about and I look at with a full heart and with a full mind. They also apply to any group that is engaged in political, social, economic, artistic, scientific, or religious matters.”
Bishop John C. Bennett of Chicago, the first Bishop who became vocally anti-Gustavo Gutierrez, came into the church’s political activities in 1975 as the first Bishop to criticize the teachings and policies of the Church’s main enemy: the United States. He wrote the first letter of criticism:
There is no better moral voice in the world than the Church Fathers. The Church Fathers are the only source of doctrine that all men should obey. For the Lord Almighty says the same in the Lord’s prophets : ‘The only way to obtain salvation is by faith.’ That is the only way to get to the Father as Jesus said in Genesis 9. If we have faith therefore, we will obtain it.’ . . . The fact is of course that the Lord does not want men to be afraid to do right and obey this teaching, so the majority of the Church