In this essay, I continue the thread of the Detroit conference, Theology in the Americas in 1975.
This essay, like the previous one, focuses on an article written by Phillip Berryman whom we have across in a previous writing. The name of this particular article which Berryman writes "Doing Theology in a (Counter) Revolutionary Situation.
Berryman points out that this article appeared in September 1973 as a military coup was overthrowing the Popular Unity Government in Chile. This government had been democratically elected, but the coup was initiated and funded by the U.S.A. government through the CIA for two basic reasons.
1. The duly democratically elected President, Salvador Allende Gossens wanted to nationalize some of the private American corporations like ITT in order to make the economy more beneficial to the majority of Chile's citizens.
2. President Allende wanted to move the economy and the government in the direction of a democratic socialism.
In the name of preventing "the spread of Marxist Communism," the U.S.A. government with the help of internal elites in Chile (oligarchies) violently overthrew the Allende government. Over ten thousand people were killed, and many tens of thousands more were jailed, tortured, fired from their jobs, or forced into exile. Subsequently, Chile once again fell subservient to the grips of transnational corporations, its economy "corrected," (with the help of Milton Friedman and Chicago-trained economists), while workers and peasants lost all their former gains and lived under terror (Berryman in Eagleson and Torres, p. 54).
After that time, there were rightist military coups in Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay, and Argentina. More than two-thirds of Latin America was living under military rule, even where there civilian governments, (Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Costa Rica), the army and the police were at work. There were long periods of a "state of siege" in Columbia (Berryman, p. 55).
The reader might ask, what does this all have to do with theology? The answer is that it is precisely in this environment of dehumanization and terror that present-day Latin American theology emerged and developed. Unlike traditional Western theology, which with some exception, tended to be aligned with and lend support to elitist-led governments. the new Latin American theology (Liberation Theology) initiated a process of biblical interpretation and theological reflection that emerged from those who were "under the boot" of these oppressive governments.
Berryman was among those at the Detroit conference who wanted to engage with North American theologians, not to import Latin American theology, but rather encourage North Americans to contextualize their own theology, especially relative to the economic, political, and social conditions of those who were alienated, marginalized, living in poverty, etc. in an environment where only a small minority were or are living in affluence and/or opulence.
Berryman presents the "chicken-egg" situation when he talks about eliminating class-differences vs. nation-building. For reasons of his own, he places priority on nation-building (Berryman, p.74).
Once again, one might ask, what does all of this have to do with theology? Latin American theology is concerned with reading the Gospel as a message of social justice, and not merely as a message of preparing for the "hereafter." For Latin American theology, the issue of social justice is not merely an abstraction nor a platitude, but rather an issue which requires action and participation in order to make justice a reality.
If we take Latin American theology as a contribution to contextualizing North American theology, we might ask, what are the issues that North American theology has to address? Here in North America we deal with class issues, though the economic gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" is not quite as acute or wide as it is in other countries of the so-called Third World. We deal with issues of race, which is a major problem. We also deal with issues of gender, and in recent times with issues of same-sex relations, both of which has forced the Church in North America to reevaluate it's theology and biblical hermeneutics.
In your opinion, what issues would you as a North American Christian consider important enough to be addressed? If you were a participant in the Detroit conference, what issues would bring "to the table" of discussion? Please share with us your own perspective on how we in North American can best contextualize theology.
Grace and peace,
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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