Overview

“It would be difficult to name another theological book these past five decades that has been more influential, has inspired more believers and non-believers alike to think differently about the Christian faith, and has engendered so much controversy.” So begins Michael E. Lee’s introduction to this 50th anniversary edition of the classic work that signaled a new style of doing theology. The theological project launched in this book was, as Fr. Gutiérrez wrote, “based on the gospel and the experiences of men and women committed to the process of liberation in the oppressed land of Latin America.” It was “born of the experience of shared efforts to abolish the current unjust situation and to build a different society, freer and more human.” Yet its influence was quickly felt around the world, inspiring numerous offshoots, as well as provoking critical reactions, both inside and outside the Church. A Theology of Liberation has won wide acclaim as one of the most influential works of Christian theology of the last century. Yet Gutiérrez himself concluded the book by noting that any theology of liberation “is not worth one act of genuine solidarity with exploited social classes. They are not worth one act of faith, love, and hope committed . . . in active participation to liberate humankind from everything that dehumanizes it and prevents it from living according to the will of God.”

Full Product Details

Author:   Gustavo Gutierrez ,  Lee Michael E. ,  Robert Ellsberg
Publisher:   Orbis Books (USA)
Imprint:   Orbis Books (USA)
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.544kg
ISBN:  

9781626985414

ISBN 10:   1626985413
Pages:   368
Publication Date:   10 November 2023
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Book
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contents Introduction to the 50thAnniversary Edition by Michael E. Lee. . . . . . . xi Introduction to the Original Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii Introduction to the Revised Edition: Expanding the View . . . . . . . . . . xxvii Part I Theology and Liberation Theology: A Critical Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Classical Tasks of Theology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Theology as Wisdom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Theology as Rational Knowledge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Theology as Critical Reflection on Praxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Historical Praxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Critical Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2. Liberation and Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Concept of Development. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Origin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Process of Liberation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 From the Critique of Developmentalism to Social Revolution. . . . . . . 24 Humankind: the Agent of Its Own Destiny. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Concept of Liberation Theologically Considered. . . . . . . . . . . 33 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Part II Posing the Problem 3. The Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 4. Different Responses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 The Christendom Mentality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 New Christendom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 The Distinction of Planes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 5. Crisis of the Distinction of Planes Model. . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 The Pastoral Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Crisis of the Lay Apostolic Movements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Growing Awareness of an Alienating Situation . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The Level of Theological Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 An Entirely Worldly World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 One Call to Salvation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Part III The Option before the Latin American Church 6. The Process of Liberation in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . 73 A New Awareness of the Latin American Reality. . . . . . . . . . . 73 The Decade of Developmentalism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 The Theory of Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 The Liberation Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 7. The Church in the Process of Liberation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 The Commitment of Christians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Lay Persons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Priests and Religious. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Bishops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Statements and Attempts at Reflection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101 Towards a Transformation of the Latin American Reality. . . . . . . . 102 A New Presence of the Church in Latin America . . . . . . . . . . . 113 8. Statement of the Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Part IV Perspectives Section One: Faith and the New Humanity 9. Liberation and Salvation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Salvation: Central Theme of the Christian Mystery. . . . . . . . . . 135 From the Quantitative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 . . . to the Qualitative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 History Is One. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Creation and Salvation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Eschatological Promises. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Christ and Integral Liberation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Temporal Progress and the Growth of the Kingdom. . . . . . . . . . . 160 The Horizon of Political Liberation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Christ the Liberator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167 10. Encountering God in History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Humanity: Temple of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Conversion to the Neighbor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 To Know God Is to Do Justice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Christ in the Neighbor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 A Spirituality of Liberation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188 11. Eschatology and Politics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 To Account for the Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 The Political Dimension of the Gospel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 The “New Political Theology”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Jesus and the Political World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Faith, Utopia, and Political Action. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220 Section Two: The Christian Community and the New Society 12. The Church: Sacrament of History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 Universal Sacrament of Salvation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 A New Ecclesiological Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Sacrament and Sign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Eucharist and Human Fellowship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 “In Memory of Me”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Denunciation and Annunciation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248 Faith and Social Conflict. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 13. Poverty: Solidarity and Protest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Ambiguities in the Term “Poverty” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266 Biblical Meaning of Poverty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Poverty: A Scandalous Condition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Poverty: Spiritual Childhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 An Attempt at Synthesis: Solidarity and Protest. . . . . . . . . . . . 279 Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 Index of Biblical References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 General Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Reviews

"One of Christianity Today's Top 100 Books of the Twentieth Century One of Church Times (UK) Top 100 Christian Books of All Time ""One of the best books of its kind ever written.""--America ""The movement's most influential text.""--Time"

Author Information

Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP, a native of Peru, was educated in Lima, Chile, and at the Catholic University of Louvain. Professor emeritus of theology, University of Notre Dame, he has served as a principal professor, Pontifical University of Peru, and has taught at many universities throughout North America and Europe. His many books include On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, The Power of the Poor in History, We Drink from Our Own Wells, The Truth Shall Make You Free, The God of Life, and The Density of the Present. Among many other honors, he has received over 25 honorary doctorates, Spain’s Prince of Asturias award, and membership in the Peruvian Academy of Language, the French Legion of Honor, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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