Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology

1. Should Christian theology engage with aetheist secular ideologies?

   • • God created the material world: matter and spirit are not separate but different aspects of the same reality
       • bottom-up theology: begins with material rather than imposing law
   • Guttierez: Being a christian requires being political: "unity is one of the notes of the church and yet the class struggle divides men...it is a part of our religious reality"
   • religion is the opiate of the people because it stalls revolution and maintians order, stops people focusing on present: moral ideas are determined by society, universe is material and determined by science, no life after death
     • M focuses too much on future
   • Cardinal Ratzinger (voiced Catholic Church's concern): dangerous because Marxism includes intolerant aspects e.g. denial of individual, revolution over evangelism and only God can remove suffering
     • if we understand God's power as love this is not true
       • Denys Turner: LibT should use the apophatic way to engage with Marx. If C loses langauage of affirmation, then M can lose language of denial. Only a theology based on God beyond language can interact with M
     • Marxism: workers can liberate themseleves through revolution v Christianity: humans sin but can liberate by turning back to their creator. Economic v spiritual analysis
       • Christian theology has adapted to scientific, evolutionary (genesis) and psychological advances (Jesus' miracles) and Jesus came to REFORM the law
         • Alexander McGrath
         • God is in all things
     • Bonino: The Marxist scheme cannot be taken as dogma, its method can be applied to chirstian reality. L Boff: Christians must be vigilant in their use of M (and its closed world view that denies individual dignity)
   • Christianity must engage with all aspects of life including the secular

2. Does Christianity tackle social issues more effectively than marxism?

   • Ratzinger: you cannot seperate it from its unchristian ideology. The Church will help the poor through their own means
   • Communism has been unable to stop human suffering, hold back globalisation e.g. China and Cuba
     • M does not offer comfort to those suffering, Christianity provides hope and solace
   • Both M and Bible emphasise history and that a future event will bring about change (parousia)

3. Has liberation theology engaged with Marxism enough?

   • Marx's teaching on alienation and exploitation
     • alienation occurs when humans are dehumanised and unable to live fulfillng lives
       • human relationships are defined by our part in the capitalist machine. We won't meet the person who makes our jeans, only the postman: disconnected from what we produce
         • happiness (cheap jeans) comes at prce of another's exploitation
           • wants to increase human well being not profit
     • exploitation occurs when humans are treated a objects and used for an end
   • liberation theology has used Marxist to analyse the deeper structural causes of social sin that have resulted in poverty vuolence and injustice: current system embraces structural inequality and this creates structural sin
     • capitalism
       • libT grew when Latin America was in the cold war conflict between communist USSR and capitalist USA. It was at the cross roads between the two. The revolution Marx had predicted seemed to be happening
         • "Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution"
         • "capitalidm has clearly been incapable of satisfying basic needs in Latin America despite the fact that governments are professed Christians. Socialism has not provided a satisfactory solution either...Nontheless the soicalist ideal is more suitable" FITZGERALD
         • Kloppenburg; what happens if movemtn fails, has thelogy failed?
     • the organisational structure of society that support structural sin: institutions (schools, churches, the state)
     • man's relationship with God has been disrupted, freedom misused, world
     • Jesus reached into personal lives and spoke of the individual coming back to G through personal reconciliation (Bonaventure Kloppenburg)
   • drew on post-Marxist Paulo Friere: "conscientisation" is the process of developing a critical awareness of social reality through reflection and action. Action is key because it is process of change
     • education is not movement of knowledge from one person to another/ aquiring dominant social myths but uncovering real problems
   • Lib T is not Marxist but uses it for "methodological pointers" ..."it does not venerate it as it venerates the Gospel" BOFF
   • LibT doesn't appreicate significance of M revolution
     • priests taking up arms in the south
   • Jose Miranda: Both M and Xnity have demonstrated inability to recognise their own error and remedy them

4. Is it right for Christians to prioritise one group over another?

   • "preferential option for the poor" the Gospel demans that Christians give priority to the poor and act in solidarity with them
     • right action (orthopraxis) before offical Church teaching (orthodxy)
       • in an ideal revision of Church teaching they would coincide: conscientisation
       • • critical of institutions which impose laws rather than work for those who don't have power e.g. The Church
       • starting from action cannot determine which actions are right and wrong
         • keeping the knowledge to themsleves
           • a new way of teaching: through action - con
     • trend in Bible that shows preference for individuals on the margins of society
       • Matthew 22:30 "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me"
       • human beings were made in the image and likeness of God. For Juan Segundo this places humans at centre
       • Gutteriez: social and econmic liberation must procede liberation from sin whereas Segundo: lib from sin 1st bc it might not be possible to change world structure
       • God is defender of the poor and oppressed
       • Pope John Paul 2: church should have "constant concern for and dedication to people who are especially beloved to Lord Jesus" however he goes on to say that this is not limited to material poverty but cultural and spiritual poverty also e.g. over emphasis on material products and consumerism
         • Pope Francis rejects papal luxury e.g. drives his second hand car, white gown
       • LibT focuses exclsuively on Biblical themes and prefers Luke's Gospel to John's: Richard McBrien
         • defines oppression in economic terms
     • sidelines the christian message
     • L Boff: "Out of love for them God takes SIDES, takes their (the poor) side against repressive measures of all pharoaohs."
       • wrong to prioritisre the poor , all must be saved
         • poverty must have wider definition: spiritual and maerial
           • Money is an idol: You cannot serve both God and money. (Matt 6:24)
             • poverty is consequence of sin of exclusive posession: expressed suymbolically by banquet of the Kingdom
               • So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matt 6)
           • Jesus: Luke 12:14: The Parable of the Rich Fool 13Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14But Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed Me judge or executor between you?” 15And He said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourselves against every form of greed, for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

5. liberation theology grew out of the socio-political situation of Latin America in 1960s: disparagement between rich landowners and poor who lived in favelas

6. kingdom of God is the world today

   • Oscar Romero: assasinated 1980 "As a Christian I do not believe in death without resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadorian people."
     • named a matyr by Francis
   • too much emphasis on personal lib, Kingdom brought by G's intervention

7. MARXISM

   • KEY CONCEPTS
     • polarisation: classes dive into rich v poor: proletariat vs bouregoisie; unity breaks down
     • socialism: all means of production are given to common ownership e.g. the state
     • communism: all goods are evenly distributed
     • alienation: awareness of class consciousness
   • INFLUENCES
     • Influenced by Hegel's dialectic (thesis, antithesis, synthesis) process of questioning
       • eventually question gets narrower
     • economic theory
       • source of value is difference between value the labourer is paid and value he creates
         • when society could make surplus, it fractured into class divisions between those who control the means of production and those who dont CAPITALISM= an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit
           • wage labour becomes like any other commodity: "the worker is depressed, both intellectually and physically to the level of a machine...dependent on every fluctuation in the market price" MAX
     • revolutionary theory: revolutions of 1848
       • 'The Commnunist Manifesto' and 'Das Capital'
     • ethical theory (rest of Judeo-Christian presuppositions) concept of individuality, freedom, community and worth
       • "society does not consist of individuals, it expresses the sum of connectiosn and relationships in which individuals find themselevs
         • individual is product of human society not God