Prophets and Populists: Liberation Theology, 1968-1988

Author(s): Jeffrey L. Klaiber

Source: The Americas, Vol. 46, No. 1 (Jul., 1989), pp. 1-15
Published by: Academy of American Franciscan History
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1007391
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PROPHETSAND POPULISTS:
LIBERATIONTHEOLOGY, 1968-1988

Although

liberation theology may still be considered a "current

event," nevertheless,given its very evident and widespreadimpact

on Latin AmericanChristianityand elsewhere, it seems fairly safe
to state that it is the most important theological movement which has
emerged in Latin America in the four centuriessince evangelization. Many
authors would further contend that liberation theology symbolizes the
coming of age of the Latin Americanchurch:from a peripheral,somewhat
dormant and intellectually dependent church to one which actively contributesto Catholic and Protestantthought throughoutthe world.' For this
reason alone, withoutmentioningthe many political ramificationsof liberation theology, it meritsattentionas one of the key themes in LatinAmerican
church history. The aim of this article is threefold: to briefly outline the
origins and development of liberation theology; to examine the different
ecclesial, social and political factorswhich influencedits development,and
finally, to indicate what direction liberation theology seems to be taking
currently.
Before going to the origins, however, it is well to make an important
distinction: between liberationtheology as an intellectual currentand the
dynamic grassroots church movement which has sprung up throughout
Latin America in the wake of Vatican II and the bishop's conference at
Medellin. Liberationtheology as a school of thoughtconsists of a relatively
small group of well-known theologians and a more largergroup of lesserknown academiciansand intellectuals who disseminate the basic ideas of
the formerin universities, seminariesand churchcircles. Although there is
no "official" list, most surveys of mainstreamliberationtheologians will
include the Peruviandiocesan priest, Gustavo Guti~rrez;the Jesuits, Juan
Luis Segundo and JuanCarlos Scannone, from the SouthernCone; Segundo
SFor general accounts of liberation theology and the progressive church, see Edward L. Cleary,
Crisis and Change: The Church in Latin America Today (Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1985); and, Philip
Berryman,LiberationTheology (New York: PantheonBooks, RandomHouse, 1987).

LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Galilea, a Chilean diocesan priest; the Brazilians, Hugo Assmann and

Leonardo Boff; in El Salvador, the Jesuit, Jon Sobrino; in Costa Rica, the
Chilean-born Pablo Richard; among the Protestants, Rubem Alvez, a Brazilian, and Jos6 Miguez Bonino, an Argentinian. The Belgian priest, Jos6
Comblin, was one of the original thinkers along liberation lines and the
Argentinian layman, Enrique Dussel, has written much in the area of the
history of liberation in Latin America.
Beyond this small group of intellectuals, who make up an elite within the
church, there are thousands of more ordinary church-going Latin Americans, principally from the middle and lower classes, who participate actively in different church groups and organizations. For these Christians,
who constitute what may be termed the "church movement," liberation
theology is not perceived so much as a cluster of well-defined ideas to be
fought for and defended, but rather as a symbolic banner which expresses in
a general way their basic aspirations and expectations. Under this banner
are to be found persons of the most diverse cultural and intellectual backgrounds: middle class university students, professors and politicians, who
have a relatively sophisticated grasp of the main lines of liberation theology; lower class urben catechists in Sio Paulo or Lima who may have
only the vaguest notion of what lay behind the polemic between Cardinal
Ratzinger and Leonardo Boff; and highland peasants in Ecuador or Peru
who enjoy listening to Gustavo Guti6rrez, but whose concept of liberation
theology is more like to be an original mixture of biblical liberation themes
and traditional popular religiosity. These widely diverse groups all share a
common sympathy for liberation theology, but they do not necessarily subscribe to all of the ideas of the theologians, and more to the point, many
may not even understand the implications of some of the basic theses of
liberation theology, much less the nuances between the lines.

In this sense, it would be quite erroneousto presumethat the streamof

articles and books produced by the theologians represents the worldview of
thousands of Christians in Latin America, who otherwise consider themselves very much a part of the progressive church. There is, therefore, no
direct equivalency between liberation theology and the progressive church:
the latter is a much wider and more complex reality which includes the
former. There exists, for example, a moderate sector among the progressives which rejects the political right but which also maintains a critical
distance from liberation theology. Finally, there are many brands of liberation theology within Latin America, which vary from author to author and
from region to region.
For their part, the liberation theologians are conscious of this distance
between themselves and the ordinary people. Indeed, most of them believe

JEFFREY
L. KLAIBER

that the principal aim of their whole intellectual enterpriseis to enter the
minds and heartsof the poor of Latin America and to speak in their name.
In the early sixties the theologians began their mission as lonely
"prophets": thinkerswith new and exciting ideas, but with few people to
hear them. As the church movement grew, fanned by the changes set into
motion by Vatican II and most of all by the spirit of Medellin, the theologians set out in quest of the people, and in the process they have nuanced
many of their ideas, rejected others and adopted a more pronouncedpastoral stance. By the late eighties most liberationtheologians have become
"populists": thinkers more attuned to the needs and expectations of the
grassrootsthanto theirown originalabstractand utopianvisions. Liberation
theology in its currentstate can be conceived, therefore,as a meeting of the
minds of two radically different cultural worlds within the same Latin
Americancontinent:the avant-gardeintellectuals, on the one hand, and on
the other, the newly politicized and socially awakened lower and lower
middle classes who make up what the intellectualscall the "people."
As a group, the liberation theologians were influcenced by the same
forces and currentsthat combined to produceVatican II. In this sense, the
Latin Americanswere not significantlydifferent, at least in their initial formation, from their Europeancounterparts.Most are from the urbanmiddle
classes and some participatedin Catholic Action. Almost all of them at one
time or another studied in one of the centers of the Catholic intellectual
renovation following World War II: the University of Louvain, Belgium,
the InstituteCatoliqueof Paris, the Jesuit Faculty of Theology at Lyons, or
the universitiesof Innsbruckor Munich. FatherGustavo Guti6rrezis fairly
representativeof the group as a whole. Born into a lower middle class
family in Lima, he studiedmedicine at San MarcosNational University. At
the same time he participatedin Catholic Action and became presidentof
the Catholic Center of Barranco,Lima. From his Catholic Action days he
was significantly influenced by two men who were both precursorsof the
socially progressive church in Peru: Jos6 Dammert, later bishop of Cajamarca, and C6sarArr6spide, longtime lay leader of Catholic Action.
In 1950 Guti6rrezdecided to become a priest, and after a year at the
seminary of Santiago, Chile, he studied philosophy at the University of
Louvain. Between 1955 and 1959 he pursuedhis studies in theology at the
Faculty of Theology in Lyons, France. During those years he lived and
breathedthe stimulatingintellectualatmosphereof a EuropeanCatholicism
in full renovationand in searchof a deeperdialogue with the modernsocial
sciences, and even with certain currents,philosophies and ideologies still
condemnedor viewed with suspicionby the church:Marxism, freudianism,
the differenttheoriesof evolution, etc. At the Universityof Louvain, Father

LIBERATIONTHEOLOGY

Guti6rrezdid his licentiate in philosophy on Freud. The theologians he

studied were the leading progressive luminariesof the day: Yves Congar,
Karl Rahner, ChristianDuquoc, EdwardSchillebeeckx, PierreTeilhardde
Chardin,etc. At Lyons he studiedprivatelyunderHenride Lubac, who like
his fellow Jesuit, Teilhard de Chardin, was not permitted to teach in
public.2Most of the other LatinAmericaliberationtheologiansfit the same
general profile. LeonardoBoff, after initial priestly studies in Brazil, obtained his doctoratein theology in Munich. Juan Luis Segundo studied at
Louvainand Paris. Camilo Torres, the Colombianpriest-revolutionarywho
was killed in 1966, though not strictly speaking a theologian, was a classmate of Guti~rrezat Louvain University.3
Given this common Europeanbackground,it is not surprisingthat the
liberationtheologians all relied heavily upon their Europeanmentorsin the
beginning. Indeed, a frequent criticism of liberation theology, and Guti6rrez'first work, was that, in spite of theirclaim to be forging a new Latin
Americantheology, they were really restatingthe ideas of theirteachersin a
differentway. Nevertheless, Europewas a necessarystage in theirdevelopment. Vatican II, in which the ideas of the Europeantheologians came to
fruition, paved the way for liberationtheology. The Christian-Marxistdialogue, for example, far from being an aberrationof Third World theologians, was an officially approvedmove in Europe, inspiredby the spirit of
Vatican II, before it became popularin Latin America.
If Vatican II was the catalyst, then Latin America in the sixties was the

cauldronin which liberationtheology was forged. The young thinkersreturned to a continent experiencing the winds of revolutionary change in the
wake of Fidel Castro and a wave of rising expectations fanned by the Alliance for Progress. In almost all universities and intellectual circles Marxism
was in the ascendancy. Particularly in vogue, too, was dependency theory,
as expounded by Fernando Cardoso and Enzo Faletto, which traced a cause
and effect link between the development of the First World and the underdevelopment of the Third World. Indeed, dependency theory is a helpful
key to grasp the essential notion behind liberation theology. Liberation theology conceives the history of Third World peoples not so much as a slow
2
Privateinterviewwith FatherGustavoGutidrrez,Lima, March21, 1983. On the evolution of Father
Gutidrrrez'theology, see Roberto Oliveros, Liberaci6n y teologia: ginesis y crecimiento de una reflexidn (1966-1976), 2d. ed. (Lima:Centrode Estudiosy Publicaciones, 1980); and Miguel Manzanera,
Teologia y salvacidn en la obra de Gustavo Gutidrrez(Bilbao: Universidadde Deusto, 1978).
3On Camilo Torresand GustavoGuti6rrez,see JohnWilliam Hart, "Topia y Utopia in Colombiaand
Peru:The Theory and Practiceof Camilo Torres and Gustavo Guti~rrezin Their HistoricalContexts"
(PH.D. diss., Union Theological Seminary, 1978); on Segundo, see Alfred T. Hennelly, Theologies in
Conflict: The Challenge ofJuan Luis Segundo (Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1979).

JEFFREY
L. KLAIBER

move up from underdevelopment, but rather like the children of Israel

leaving Egypt, as a march toward freedom from the First World, economic
imperialism and multinationals, and from the forces within-local
oligarchies, the military, ignorance and apathy, etc.-which hold the people in a
state of servitude. It was in their own latitutde, and especially in dialogue
with dependency theory and Third World Marxism, that liberation theologians began moving significantly away from and beyond their European
counterparts. Furthermore, throughout the whole Third World the concept
of wars of national "liberation" had acquired a preeminence in Marxist
thought that displaced classical European Marxism. In this context, a "theology" of liberation was an imaginative concept that appeared at a most
propitious time. In Petropolis in 1964, at a meeting of theologians organized by Ivan Illich, Guti6rrez presented his views on theological reflection
on "praxis," In other meetings-Havana,
Bogota, Cuernavaca-the
makers of liberation theology grew to know each other and acquired a distinct group identity. The actual term, "liberation theology," was coined
almost simultaneously in different places and in different moments. In the
northern Peruvian fishing city of Chimbote in 1968 Guti6rrez delivered a
talk with the title, "Toward a Theology of Liberation," to the newly
formed progressive priest's organization, ONIS. That same year in St.
Louis the Protestant theologian, Richard Shaull, delivered a paper at the
annual CICOP (Catholic Inter-American Cooperation Program) entitled,
"A Theological Perspective on Human Liberation."4 But it was Gutidrrez'
book with the title, A Theology of Liberation: Perspectives, published in
1971 which consecrated the term and made the concept a topic of debate in
Catholic and liberal Protestant intellectual circles in both the First and Third
worlds.
In addition to the political events of the sixties and seventies, there were
certain specifically church trends that also favored the liberation theology
movement. In the thirties and forties the different Catholic Action groups
that sprang up throughout the continent produced a core of militant priests
and laypersons who sought to bridge the widening gap between the secular
world and the tradition-laden Latin American church. Some of these
leaders, such as Jackson de Figueiredo in Brazil or Jos6 de la Riva-Agitero
in Peru, saw Catholic Action primarily as a means to combat liberalism,
Communism and Protestantism. But others, inspired by the writings of
Jacques Maritain, went on to become the founders of the different Christian
4 Liberation theology became the principal subject of the annual CICOP meeting in 1971: see,
Thomas E. Quigley (ed.), Freedom and Unfreedomin the Americas: Towarda Theologyof Liberation
(Washington:Latin AmericanBureau, U.S. Catholic Conference, 1971).

LIBERATIONTHEOLOGY

Democraticpartiesin LatinAmericaand the modernprogressivechurch. In

Chile, EduardoFrei began as a lay leader in university circles and Jos6
Dammertin Peru, main organizerof thatcountry'sfirst Social Week (1959)
and currentlybishop of Cajamarca,was an active memberof Catholic Action in Italy. He also influencedGustavoGutirrrez,who was presidentof a
Catholic Action group before becoming a priest.5
In the sixties the universitysubdivisionsof Catholic Action, such as the
JUC (CatholicUniversityYouth) in Brazil or the UNEC (NationalUnion of
Catholic Students) in Peru, went througha radicalizationprocess.6 These
groups readily embracedliberationtheology because it provided the intellectual bridge they sought to cross over to the new left that rose up in the
wake of the Cubanrevolution. In Perumany of the leadersof the "Catholic
left," which wields considerableinfluence in the coalition of socialist and
Marxist parties that make up the parliamentaryleft, received their initial
formationin the UNEC or in the ChristianDemocraticparty. In the case of
these middle class university-trainedCatholics, their move to the left was
inspired by the church's own social teachings and not by their reading of
Marx.
Another importantchurch factor was the combined crisis of the priest
shortageand the populationexplosion. These two crises led many bishops
to try out innovativepastoralexperimentsthat would have long-rangeconsequences for the church. In Brazil, for example, many bishops of the
poorest dioceses in the late fifties began sending out lay catechiststo abandoned parishesor setting up radio schools that emphasizedlearningto read
and write. The Christiangroups which these experimentsspawnedbecame
the forerunnersof the "Ecclesial Base Communities" which now number
some 80,000 and include some two million Brazilians,principallyfrom the
lower classes.7 In the late seventies certain conservative bishops of Latin
America broughtinto question the concept of a "popularchurch" because
it seemed to foster the creationof a separatistlay churchin oppositionto the
5 Jeffrey Klaiber, "The Catholic Lay Movement in Peru: 1867-1959," The Americas XL (October
1983): 164.
6 See Emanuelde Kadt, Catholic Radicals in Brazil (London:OxfordUniversityPress, 1970); Henry
Landsberger(ed.), The Churchand Social Change in Latin America (Notre Dame: Universityof Notre
Dame Press, 1970); FrederickTurner,Catholicismand Political Developmentin LatinAmerica(Chapel
Hill: University of North CarolinaPress, 1971).
7 On the origins of the "ecclesial base communities" in Brazil, see MarcelloAzevedo, Comunidades
eclesiais de base de inculturagdoda fe (Sio Paulo: Edig6es Loyola, 1986); Scott Mainwaring, The
Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil, 1916-1985 (Stanford:StanfordUniversity Press, 1986). See,
also, the delightfulaccountby Jane Kramer,"Letterfrom the Elysian Fields," TheNew Yorker,March
2, 1987, pp. 40-73.

JEFFREYL. KLAIBER

bishops. But in Brazil it was the bishops who created the "popular church"
and conferred upon it full legitimacy from the beginning. In almost every
part of Latin America the church met the priest shortage and the population
explosion by sending out teams of priests, sisters and lay volunteers to attend to the needs of the inhabitants of the favelas, callampas or barriadas
that were springing up everywhere. From the very beginning of these settlements the church became a focal point for community organizing, which
included such varied activities as mediating in conflicts between different
neighborhood groups, joining in a march to the Ministry of Housing to
demand power lines for the barrio, or organizing clubs for mothers and the
youth. Even running a mother's club in a squatter village is an activity
fraught with social and political implications. The topics to be discussed,
usually under the supervision of a woman religious, will typically range
from better baby care to machismo and womens' rights in society. In this
context of massified and dehumanizing poverty, only a theology that emphasized creative community organizing could respond adequately to the
felt needs of the people.
The cycle of military takeovers in the sixties and seventies (Brazil and

Bolivia in 1964; Argentinain 1966; Peru in 1968, and Chile in 1973), as

well as repressive forces that extralegally attacked the church in certain
other countries that were nominally "democratic," formed the immediate
background in which liberation theology grew to maturity. In almost every
case (the Argentinian hierarchy was noticeably silent during most of the
military rule) the official church adopted a line of resistance and opposition
to harsh national security states which violated human rights on a regular
basis.8 Peru was an anomaly among these regimes. The Peruvian military
that seized power in 1968 openly sought the church's legitimization for
their reforms, which by and large the church provided.9 In all of these
situations, liberation theology became the banner that united Christians,
both Catholics and liberal Protestants, in a common struggle for justice and
human rights.
In the middle of these social and political crises of the seventies, liberation theology itself underwent a major transformation. The change within
liberation theology was so significant that Juan Luis Segundo refers to the
"Two Theologies of Liberation." The first theology was that which was
born in the sixties and decisively influenced the bishop's conference of Me8 On the churchin Brazil underthe military, see Mainwaring;for Chile, see BrianSmith, The Chilean
Catholic Church (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1982).
9 See Thomas J. Maloney, "The Catholic Churchand the PeruvianRevolution:Resource Exchange
in an AuthoritarianSetting" (Ph.D. diss., Universityof Texas at Austin, 1978).

LIBERATION
THEOLOGY

dellin in 1968. That conference, as Segundo notes, was largely the work of
university-trainedintellectualswho were steeped in Marxismand who were
highly critical of popular religiosity.10The first liberationtheology quite
clearly revealed its Europeansecular theology biases. The decisive factor
which transformedliberationtheology was the rise of an authenticpopular
movement throughout Latin America which forced the theologians to
rethinkmany of theiroriginalassumptions.Increasingly,the workers,campesinos and youth who participatedenthusiasticallyin the Ecclesial Base
Communities,or the Indiancatechists in the Andes, respondedto the theologians and formulated their own interpretationsof religion and social
change. By the late seventies and early eighties most liberationtheologians
had changed or revised some of their earlier stances and added entire new
dimensions to their original insights.
Two important examples that underline this shift are the ChristianMarxist dialogue and the prevailing views of popular religiosity. In the
early sixties most radicalizedChristiansconsideredCatholicsocial doctrine
to be out of tune and embracedmany elements of Marxism. In the back of
theirminds was the belief thatthey shouldbe preparedto take an active role
in the Marxist-inspiredstrugglesfor liberationthat would soon engulf most
of Latin America. But these secular-mindedChristians, like most leftist
leaders at the time, had little contact with the poor themselves; who were
often the subject of, but rarelythe participantsin, these intellectualdiscussions. Furthermore,most sociologists and anthropologists,Christianor not,
viewed Latin America's popularreligiosity as a symptom of social "alienation," and thereforelittle more thanan "opium of the people." As priests,
religious women and lay volunteers, however, began working with the
newly politicized poor in the squattersettlements or in the Andean highlands they discovered that many of their original notions were either naive
or superficial. The poor who had gone throughthe experience of political
awakeningmade their own new syntheses of religion and justice. In many
cases they used traditionalsymbols, taken from their own popularreligiosity, to espouse a modernjustice cause, such as the Chicanofarm workers
in the United States who carriedthe bannerof Our Lady of Guadalupein
their marches. On the contrary, materialistic Marxism has made little
headway among these non-university poorer classes. Indeed, in almost
every situationin which Christians,whetherfrom the lower or the middle
classes, have fought for justice, from Nicaraguato Brazil, their main inspi1o Juan Luis Segundo, "The Shift Within Latin American Theology," lecture delivered at Regis
College, Toronto, March22, 1983; and, "Two Theologies of Liberation,"TheMonth (October 1984):
321-327.

JEFFREYL. KLAIBER

ration has been a Christian view of society, not Marxism. In the revolution
against Somoza, Chistians used symbols taken from their local religiosity to
motivate themselves in the movement.1' The conclusion for the liberation
theologians was obvious: the key to reach the masses of Latin American
was not Marxism, but the very popular religiosity that they had initially
viewed so skeptically.
A brief overview of the theological production of Guti6rrez and Boff will

also highlight this shift in direction. Though still the classic work in the
field, A Theology ofLiberation, seems to be less a reflection on the reality
of Latin America than a dialogue with Europeon America. But in his later
works Gutirrrezdelves more deeply into the history, culture and spiritual
mentality of his own hemisphere. Especially in The Power of the Poor in
History (1979) he emphasizesthe LatinAmericancontext of his theology.12
If his first work could be considered a type of "political-pastoral"theology, two later works clearly represent a "pastoral" theology, that is,
inspirationalcommentaries on the Bible intended to encourage believers
who live in conditionsof poverty and violence to continueto believe and to
have hope: We Drink From Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a
People (1983) and, On Job: God-Talkand the Suffering of the Innocent
(1986).13 In both works he stresses the prayfuland long-sufferingspirituality of the poor in Latin America. Finally, as part of his quest to discover
the roots of liberationtheology in America, for a numberof years Father
Guti6rrezhas been preparinga majorwork on the theology of Bartolom6de
las Casas.
If Guti6rrezis a theologian of a people on the move, LeonardBoff has
paid more attentionto the phenomenonof the popularchurch,especially the
base communities. In his first works the BrazilianFranciscananalyzes the
majorthemes of fundamentaltheology-Christ, grace and faith-from the
perspective of liberationtheology. But in 1977 he shifted emphasis to the
novel experiment occurring in Brazil and produced, Ecclesiogenesis: The
Base CommunitiesReinvent the Church.14 In 1981 he published Church,
" See Philip Berryman, The Religious Roots of Rebellion: Christians in CentralAmericanRevolutions (Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1984).
'2 The Power of the Poor in History (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1983). The original version in
Spanish, La fuerza histdrica de los pobres, was published in Lima in 1979 (Centro de Estudios y
Publicaciones).
'3 We Drinkfrom Our Own Wells (Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1984) appearedoriginally in Spanish
under the title, Beber de su propio pozo: En el itinerario espiritual de un pueblo (Lima: Centro de
Estudios y Publicaciones, 1983). "In 1988 Gutidrrezpublished the second edition of A Theology of
Liberation (Orbis Books)."
14Ecclesiogenesis: The Base CommunitiesReinventthe Church(London:Collins LiturgicalPublications, 1986). The original work in Portuguesewas published in 1977 (Petropolis:EditoraVozes).

10

THEOLOGY
LIBERATION

Charism and Power: A Radical Ecclesiology, in which he strongly criticizes

archaic and authoritarian structures in the Catholic Church that inhibit the
growth of the new church.15 This work, more than any other by the liberation theologians, became the principal target of the examination of liberation theology carried out by Cardinal Ratzinger.
In other parts, the liberation theologians stress themes with a particular

relevance to their own local reality. in CentralAmerica Pablo Richard, a

Chilean by birth, and the two Jesuits, Jon Sobrino and Xavier Gorostiaga,
highlight the influence which the "utopian message" of the Christian base
communities had on the revolutionary processes in Nicaragua, El Salvador
and elsewhere.16 In all of these situations, the authors insist that they are not
"inventing" a movement, but rather reflecting upon one which already
exists. In this sense, the theologians have become populists because, as
they claim, it is the ordinary believers in the base communities who provide
the themes upon which to theologize. Though this claim is somewhat exag-

gerated, it does reveal the growing strengthof a popularlay churchin Latin

America. As the journalist Penny Lernoux noted, the bishop's conference
of Medellin (1968), in which liberation theology made its debut on a continental basis, was largely the work of an elite corps of theologians. By way
of contrast, the next major bishop's conference, at Puebla, Mexico in 1979,
reflected a wide consensus which grew out of a grassroots debate
throughout all of Latin America.17
In September, 1984, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a document which constituted
the beginning of a formal inquiry into the orthodoxy of liberation theology.
Ratzinger was moved in part by the complaints of many conservative
bishops, especially the cardinal of Medellin, Colombia, Alfonso L6pezTrujillo, who would have been pleased to see the entire liberation theology
movement condemned. But Ratzinger was also motivated by another, and
perhaps weightier, reason: the growing popularity and acceptance of liberation theology, not only in Latin America and the rest of the Third World,
but in the United States and Europe as well. Although the ensuing contro-

versy which he sparked produced few substantiallynew insights, it was

'5 Church,Charismand Power: A Radical Ecclesiology. TowardA MilitantEcclesiology (New York:
Crossroad, 1981). Translatedfrom the Portuguese(Petropolis:EditoraVozes, 1981).
16On the views of the CentralAmericantheologians, see George Irvinand XabierGorostiaga(eds.),
Towards an Alternativefor Central America and the Caribbean (London: George Allen and Unwin,
1985); and the differentissues of the Revista Latinoamericanade Teologia, publishedby the Centrode
Reflexi6n Teol6gica of the UniversidadCentroamericanaJose Sime6n Cafias, San Salvador.
17 Penny Lernoux, Cry of the People (New York: Penguin Books, 1982), pp. 413-425.

JEFFREY
L. KLAIBER

11

importantfor another reason. As the Jesuit theologian Roger Haight observed, the Ratzingerversus liberationtheology polemic constituteda debate between the "Center" and the "Periphery," that is, between Europe,
the traditional center of western culture and thought, and the newly
emerging Christianchurchesin the ThirdWorld.'"
Whatbegan as a tense confrontationended as a fairly reasonabledialogue
as both sides ceded a bit and revised their original perspectivesof the other
side. This shift in perspectivescan be observedin the historyof threedocuments: the first Ratzinger document, Instruction on Certain Aspects of
"LiberationTheology" (March, 1984), a documentof the Peruvianbishops
on the same subject (October, 1984), and a second Ratzinger document,
Instructionon ChristianFreedom and Liberation(March, 1986). The first
Ratzinger document, although it accepts a type of liberation theology,
rather indiscriminatelyaccuses most forms of liberation theology of reducing Christianityto Marxism. The accusation was based upon several
fundamentalmisconceptions:that liberationtheology representsa uniform
patternfrom Nicaraguato Peru and Brazil; that it proposes to create a popular church in opposition to the official church;that it constitutesa sort of
political theology designed to mobilize people against dictatorsand unjust
economic structures;and, finally, that it is a thinly veiled religious legitimization of Marxism.
By the time of the second Ratzingerdocumentalmost all of these views
had been considerably modified and nuanced. Immediatelyfollowing the
first document, Ratzingerrequestedthe Peruvianbishops to conduct an examinationof liberationtheology, perhapswith an eye towardputtingthings
in orderin the very countrywhere liberationtheology had arisen. The Peruvian bishops were also busy preparingfor the papal visit scheduledfor February, 1985. On two different occasions Pope John Paul II conferredwith
delegationsof Peruvianbishops, and in so doing very clearly influencedthe
agenda to be included in their own document. In contrast to Ratzinger's
document, the statementof the Peruvianbishops was much more positive
toward liberation theology. It was also a model of didactic clarity as it
explains for the benefit of the ordinarylaypersonwhich precise elements of
Marxismare incompatiblewith the Christianfaith and why.19 In the meantime, both Gustavo Guti6rrezand LeonardoBoff were consulted by their
respective local hierarchiesand by Ratzingerhimself in Rome. In January
'8 Roger Haight, "The LiberationTheology of the Centre" Grail: An EcumenicalJournal (Canada),
2(September, 1986): 23-32.
9 Documento de la ConferenciaEpisocpal Peruana sobre la teologia de la liberacidn (Lima: Editorial Salesiana, 1984).

12

THEOLOGY
LIBERATION

and February of 1985 the Pope was received by enthusiastic crowds in Venezuela, Ecuador and Peru. That same year Boff was "silenced" by Rome
for a period of a few months while his ideas were being reviewed. From all
parts of Latin America the other liberation theologians fired off essays in
defense of Boff and their brand of theology.20 Finally, in March, 1986,
Ratzinger produced his second Instruction. A far more positive and bal-

anced document than the first, it strongly underlines man's quest for
freedom in history as a major Christian pursuit. While the German cardinal
did not come to grips with the reality of the Third World, at least he laid the
basis for a continuing dialogue with the liberation theologians.
What the official examination clarified was that a general condemnation
of liberation theology would have gone against good historical and theological sense as well as the social teachings of the Catholic church itself. In the

first place, it became clear that there were many different currentswithin
liberation theology and what occurred in Nicaragua could not be taken as a
norm for either Peru or Brazil. In Peru, for example, Gustavo Guti6rrez
(who was never silenced) has always favored close ties wth the hierarchy
and avoided inner church confrontations. Also, the main interest of Boff
and Guti6rrez has been pastoral theology, not galvanizing the people to
revolution. Furthermore, many would argue that liberation theology, instead of favoring a conversion to Marxism, has actually become an alternative for Christians who might otherwise have been so tempted. But most
important, not only has liberation theology not given rise to an independent
popular church, but, as in the case of Brazil and Peru, it has actually served
to generate new life in the official, albeit renovated church. For millions of

poor in those and other Latin Americannations, the churchhas won a new
credibility that it had steadily been losing before. The liberationtheology
controversy passed from public view quite suddenly, but the long range
impact of this exchange between Rome and the Third World on the church
will be important. The liberation theologians quite clearly established the
right of liberation theology to exist, although in the process they were also
obliged to distinguish more sharply between what they propose and
Marxism. Rome spoke and the "periphery" listened. But the periphery also
spoke and Rome, too, listened.

In the short span of time since it first appeared,liberationtheology has

20 For defenses of liberationtheology, see JuanLuis Segundo, Theologyand the Church:A Response
to CardinalRatzingerand a Warningto the WholeChurch(Minneapolis:A SeaburyBook, 1985); and
Leonardoand Clodovis Boff,
Liberation Theology: From Confrontationto Dialogue (San Francisco: Harperand Row Publishers,
1986).

JEFFREYL. KLAIBER

13

exercised a considerable and creative influence on the entire Christian

world and set into motion certain intellectual trends which have already
become the subject of interest for many authors. In the first place, "religion" has been rediscovered as a vital force in Latin American social and
political life. Although religion and popular religiosity are far wider themes
than liberation theology, the latter current is the nerve center of progressive
or "revolutionary" Christianity in Latin America. Secular scholars have
learned to take theology seriously as an "independent variable," along with
major political and social themes, in order to understand what is happening
in most of Latin America.21 At the same time, liberation theology has reopened the Christian-Marxist dialogue, but this time the debate has shifted
from Europe to America and the rest of the Third World. But the terms and
the background of the dialogue, or debate, are radically different.

GrassrootsChristiancommunities in Latin America have been influenced

by Marxism, but they in turnhave also conditionedthe political atmosphere
from Nicaraguato Brazil.22 The papal visits have also had their impact on
popular sentiment. More and more it is fashionable in leftist circles to cite
the Bible and papal social encyclicals. To refer to oneself as a "Christian
socialist" is quite respectable, whereas to be known as "a classical" (hardlined and presumably atheistic) Marxist is less popular.
Certain authors have underlined the link between the liberation theology
movement, the growth of the Christian base communities and the rise of a
politically conscious popular movement throughout Latin America.23 The
Christians on the popular level, armed with liberation theology, lend both
religious motivation and ethical guidance to the popular movement. In this
sense, liberation theology contributes to the democratization process
throughout Latin America by strengthening community ties and reinforcing
civic consciousness. Critics, of course, claim that liberation theology really
facilitates the spread of Marxism.24 But defenders point out that liberation
theology aims to awaken the poor to the dangers of any form of political
manipulation, whether from the right or the left.
21 See, especially, Daniel H. Levine, Religion and Politics in LatinAmerica:The Catholic Churchin
Venezuelaand Colombia (Princeton:PrincetonUniversity Press, 1981); and Levine (ed.), Religion and
Political Conflict in Latin America (Chapel Hill: University of North CarolinaPress, 1986).
22 See Anselm K. Min, "The Vatican, Marxismand LiberationTheology," pp. 439-455, and Kenneth Aman, "Marxism(s) in Liberation Theology," pp. 427-428, in: Cross Currents 34(Winter
1984-1985).
23 See Charles A. Reilly, "Latin America's Religious Populists," in Levine (ed.), Religion and
Political Conflict in Latin America, pp. 42-47.
24 Among notable critics of liberationtheology are Michael Novak, Will it Liberate?Questionsabout
Liberation Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 1986); James V. Schall, Liberation Theology in Latin
America (San Francisco:IgnatiusPress, 1982). For a more complete list of both the defendersand the
critics of liberationtheology, see Ronald Nash (ed.), LiberationTheology (Mott Media, Inc., 1984).

14

LIBERATION
THEOLOGY

The seeds of liberation theology have been carried to every Third World
country where there is a significant Christian population. Many Christians

who rebelledagainstMarcosin the Philippineswere influencedby the liberationistmentality. Indeed, one of the majorthemes for futureexplorationis
the unity of mind and purposewhich liberationtheology has conferredupon
ThirdWorld Christiansin general.25In the FirstWorld, liberationtheology
has notably influenced the black and feminist movements.26It has even
entered into the categories of progressive mainstreamAmerican Catholics
who are sensitive to social and Third World issues.27 Finally, liberation
theology has also served as an ecumenical bridge between social-minded
Catholics and liberal Protestantsin both the First and ThirdWorlds.28 Both
groups find dialogue among themselves far easier than with their conservative co-believers. In Latin America, many Protestants of the historical
churches who cooperate with the Catholic church find little common ground
to share with the growing and politically conservative fundamentalist
"sects."29
The Ratzinger document of 1986 officially put an end to the liberation
theology controversy. But both the controversy and the movement are very
much alive. In Brazil the editorial house Vozes has begun the publication of
the first of 50 books in a general collection on liberation theology: the collective efforts of nearly the same number of theologians from all over Latin
America. The volumes will be published simultaneously in Portuguese and
Spanish. Very clearly, progressive Christians in that continent will have no
lack of theological literature to guide them in the near future.
But liberation theology cannot be adequately understood solely as an in25 See Theo Witvliet, A Place in the Sun: An Introductionto LiberationTheologyin the Third World

(Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1985).

26See RosemaryRuether,LiberationTheology:HumanHope ConfrontsChristianHistoryand American Power (New York: Paulist Press, 1972); Letty M. Russell, HumanLiberationin a Feminist Perspective: A Theology (Philadelphia:The WestminsterPress, 1973); Sharon Welch, Communitiesof
Resistance and Solidarity:A Feminist Theologyof Liberation(Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1985).
27For two works which attemptto forge a theology of liberationfor North Americans, see Brian
Mahan and L. Dale Richesin (eds.), The Challenge of Liberation Theology:A First WorldResponse
(Maryknoll:OrbisBooks, 1981), and Roger Haight,An AlternativeVision:An Interpretationof Liberation Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 1985).
28For a survey of liberationtheology from a Protestantperspective, see Estherand MortimerArias,
The Cry of My People: Out of Captivityin Latin America (New York: FriendshipPress, 1982); Jos6
Duque, La tradici6n protestante en la teologia latinoamericana (Costa Rica: DEI, 1983); Samuel
Escobar, La fe evangdlica y las teologias de la liberacidn (El Paso: Casa Bautista de Publicaciones,
1987).
29On the relationsbetween the historicalchurches and the "sects," see Hans-JiurgenPrien, La historia del cristianismo en Amdrica Latina (Salamanca: Ediciones Sigueme, 1985), especially pp.
1093-1117. The original version of this work appearedin Germanin 1978.

JEFFREYL. KLAIBER

15

tellectual movement. For the millions of newly politicized Christians

throughoutLatin America, ideas alone do not inspire them, but rathercertain men, women and symbols thatincarnateand express those ideas. In the
past 25 years or more the progressive church of Latin America has given
rise to a numberof popular"heroes" among two classes of men not usually
considered for that honor:bishops and theologians. In centralAmerica the
people speak of "San Romero," an affectionate reference to Oscar Romero, the archbishopof San Salvador who was assassinatedin 1980.30In
all of Latin America and beyond Helder Cimara is a revered symbol of
non-violentresistanceto dictatorship.Other "hero bishops" to be included

in the list areCardinalAloisioLorscheider

of Fortaleza,Brazil,PedroCain
the
Brazilian
Amazon
and
Leonidas
saldiliga
Proafioof Riobamba,
Ecuador.Womenreligious,too, someof whomhave sufferedmartyrdom,
have become models for lower class women everywhere in Latin
America.31Both Leonardo Boff and Gustavo Guti6rrezcommand a following of admirersamong the poor in their countries. According to some
definitions, these theologians and church leaders may still be considered
"prophets." But in their search for the "people," most have also become
"populists": grassrootsthinkersand pastors, closer to the mainstream,less
demanding,more critical of theirown short-comingsand more open to outside comments. In so doing, they have also guaranteeda permanentplace
for their theology in universalChristianthought.
Catholic University
Lima, Peru

JEFFREYL. KLAIBER, S.J.

30See James R. Brockman, The WordRemains:A Life of Oscar Romero (Maryknoll:Orbis Books,
1982).
31 On modern martyrsand the cult to contemporaryreligious figures in Latin America, see Penny
Lernoux, Cry of the People, especially, pp. 463-470; MartinLange and ReinholdIblacker,Witnessesof
Hope: The Persecution of Christians in Latin America (Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1980); and Donna
Whitson Brett and EdwardT. Brett, Murderedin CentralAmerica:The Stories of Eleven U.S. Missionaries (Maryknoll:Orbis Books, 1988).