LIBERATION THEOLOGY
- It appears to be a distortion of the gospel with respect to
salvation
faith
sin
church
scripture
- It is appealing inasmuch as
(i) it takes seriously socio-economic history
and its relation to political history
(ii) it lifts up an aspect of scripture too readily
forgotten
(iii) it is related to life, to people, to the
majority of the world’s people,
rather than to academia
- It followed a theology of hope (Moltmann) — hope for the
entire creation — and borrowed heavily from Marx’s
understanding of human distress
- Its basic premises are
(i) people are economically depressed and therefore
dehumanized
(ii) the gospel (re)humanizes people
(iii) the gospel is this vehicle of economic liberation
(iv) Jesus is the paradigm for and the facilitator of the embodiment of such liberation
Question: How thoroughgoing is Liberation Theology’s Marxism?
- Liberation theology magnifies
(i) Hebrew prophetism
(ii) Hebrew messianism
(iii) the exodus tradition
- In addition to traditional Christian vocabulary (albeit retranslated) there is also a new vocabulary:
“conscientization”
“false consciousness’
“praxis”
Question: Are we aware how violent the world is?
- Lessons to be learned from Liberation Theology
(i) we must attend to those whom scripture defends:
the underprivileged.
(ii) more than “charity” is needed
(iii) we must resist colluding with the principalities and powers, and avoid providing religious sanctions for them.
(iv) the gospel must not be falsely spiritualized
(v) to be a-political is impossible
(vi) no church should be subservient to any political arrangement (i.e., no caesaropapism)
(vii) biblical texts which discomfort should not be ignored
(viii) we must re-think the “marks” of the church
(ix) all Christians are called to self-renunciation
(x) who writes history?
(xi) we defend the faith best by living it consistently
- Questions concerning Liberation Theology
(i) Can the gospel be reduced without remainder to social transformation?
(ii) Can socio-economic transformation, however far- reaching, effect human transformation?
(iii) Is Marxist theory the only instrument of social
analysis?
(iv) To what extent does scripture provide the tools
for social analysis?
(v) Is Liberation Theology free from the ideology of
its own praxis?
(vi) If all human reflection is socio-economically determined, then is not Liberation Theology as well?
(vii) Cannot the living God address us, penetrating our
ideological blindness?
(viii) Does Liberation Theology undervalue the doctrine of
justification?
(ix) Is its understanding of original sin weak?
(x) Does it confuse our attempts at “doing justice” with the Kingdom of God?
(xi) Does it say too little about the corruption of all human hearts?
(xii) Does it dismiss too readily the evangelical thrust for social transmutation?
(xiii) Does it tend to use the bible in a way for which it faults other theologies?