Liberation Theology: Essential Facts about the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America--and BeyondIn the chaos that is Latin American politics, what role does the Catholic church play with regard to its clergy and its members? How does the church function in Latin America on an everyday, practical level? And how successful has the church been intervening in political matters despite the fact that Latin American countries are essentially Catholic nations? Philip Berryman addresses these timely and challenging issues in this comprehensive.Unlike journalistic accounts, which all too frequently portray liberation theology as an exotic brew of Marxism and Christianity or as a movement of rebel priests bent on challenging church authority, this book aims to get beyond these cliches, to explain exactly what liberation theology is, how it arose, how it works in practice, and its implications. The book also examines how liberation theology functions at the village or barrio level, the political impact of liberation theology, and the major objections to it posed by critics, concluding with a tentative assessment of the future of liberation theology. Author note: Phillip Berryman was a pastoral worker in a barrio in Panama during 1965-73. From 1976 to 1980, he served as a representative for the American Friends Service Committee in Central America. In 1980, he returned from Guatemala to the United States and now lives in Philadelphia. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Going to the Poor | 29 |
The Bible Read by the Poor | 45 |
Christian Base | 63 |
From Experience | 79 |
Shifting Contexts | 96 |
A Critical | 111 |
Faith Politics and Ideology | 125 |
Observations | 138 |
The Religious Vision | 151 |
Does It Liberate? Objections to Liberation | 179 |
Looking Ahead | 201 |
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Common terms and phrases
Assmann barrio base communities basic become began believe Bible biblical bishops Black Theology Boff Brazil Brazilian called capitalism Catholic church CELAM Chapter Christ christendom Comblin concientización countries critical critique Cuba culture death Democratic dependence theory dialogue discussion doctrine document economic El Salvador elites example exodus experience feminist theology freedom Freire God's gospel groups Gustavo Gutiérrez Gutiérrez Hispanic human rights ideology involved Jesus Jon Sobrino Juan Luis Segundo kind kingdom Latin American theologians leaders Leonardo Boff liberation theology Marxism Maryknoll means Medellín military movement national security Nicaragua oppression Orbis Books organizations parish pastoral peasants political pope popular poverty praxis primarily prophets Puebla questions radical Ratzinger reflection religion religious revolution revolutionary role Romero Salvador Sandinista says Scriptures seemed Segundo sense simply Sobrino social society structures struggle teaching term Theology of Liberation theory Third World tion Torres traditional Vatican Vatican II violence