Evangelical Dictionary of Theology by Daniel J. Treier

Author:Daniel J. Treier [J. Treier, Daniel and Walter A. Elwell, eds.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Theology/Reference, Theology—Dictionaries, REL067000, REL054000
ISBN: 9781493410774
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-09-23T04:00:00+00:00

Liberation Theology. Liberation-oriented theologies share the burden of formulating strategies to confront the sociopolitical and socioeconomic structures that perpetuate poverty and dehumanization. These structures requiring identification, analysis, and transformation include laws, business policies, sociocultural values, and their expression. These investigations extend to church life and theological formulation. Theologians wrestle with Paul’s words in Galatians 2:10: “Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” (ESV), in structural terms. Concerns for oppression based on race, ethnicity, nationality, and gender have given rise to comparable structural analyses among black, feminist, womanist, Minjung, mujerista, and Native American theologies, to mention some.

Latin American liberation theology is the dominant focus here; as with any major movement, this theological community has many adherents and respondents. There is always danger of a monolithic portrayal. To present liberation theology as a concretized system, achieving a type of unchanging, ontological existence, would also be an injustice. Yet pervasive characteristics of the movement can be identified through examples drawn from determinative thinkers, focused on areas of definition, hermeneutics, and brief treatment of a specific theological area: Christology. Such reflections demand some response in terms of contributions that liberation theology makes to theological formulation in general, as well as concerns that it spurs.

Definition and Related Matters. Gustavo Gutiérrez (b. 1928), among others, voiced the challenge presented to Christian liberation theology by the poor. How can preachers proclaim God’s goodness demonstrated in the gospel of Jesus Christ to those facing hunger and experiencing radical dehumanization? Liberation theology forges a transformative bridge between these two realities through three interpenetrating levels. First, the reality of liberation arouses hope among the poor and inspires expression in the midst of conflict with economic, social, and political oppressors.

Hope and inspired expression contribute to the second level, which is the call for a particular understanding of history. The poor, through a pedagogical strategy, engage in “conscientization” (conscientização) toward a society of true freedom. This “critical reflection” on their situation of oppression makes it possible for the poor to embrace their own agency without fanaticism. They are not merely objects to be manipulated by the potentially oppressive facets of historical process (economics, politics, various forms of socialization that squelch the recognition of their full humanity). The marginalized capture a vision of a new and just society and then entrust themselves to God to build such a society.

Finally, Gutiérrez returns to liberation at a third interpenetrating level as that which fosters a different biblical approach. This requires the poor to study Scripture with the intent of identifying movements of liberation, embodied in particular people (Moses), events (the exodus), or instruction (the prophets). Scripture then becomes a source for theological formulation that inspires a critical distancing from the status quo, provides a way toward new beginnings, and arouses the motivation to walk in that way.

In the realm of biblical engagement and subsequent theological formulation, one can observe themes similar to those advanced among other theologians involved in politically oriented projects. Johannes Baptist Metz (b. 1928) and Jürgen Moltmann (b.

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