Challenges to Liberation Theology

Up until this point, we have examined and discussed the colonial and neo-colonial history of America, and how this history has contributed to the emergence and development of Liberation Theology in this region of the world.  We have examined the factors that have contributed to this emergence.  Against that background, we now proceed to raise questions about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for Liberation Theology in Latin America.  We now deal with the "so what" of the history that we have discussed.

As mentioned in the previous essays, Liberation Theology has its roots in God's liberating and salvific acts in human history.  From a Judeo-Christian standpoint, it can be said to begin with the emancipation of the Hebrews from bondage in Egypt.  It continues throughout their history, including their return from captivity in Babylon.  Subsequently, the story of liberation develops into a paradigm for all oppressed classes and social groups that experience bondage in one way or the other.

What are the challenges that lie ahead for "God talk" in Latin America?  There are, indeed, many challenges that we can think of.  I will list a few that we can consider relevant to this discussion.

Pablo Richards tells us "If the world has changed so profoundly, the theology of liberation must also change.  In faithfulness to its original spirit and methodology, we must recreate it.  In response to the present challenge, we need a new theology of liberation to follow upon that which we have known.  Furthermore, this reconstruction of Liberation Theology should be an essential part of a new process of resistance and affirmation of life.  In spite of the idolatry of Western Christianity, we need to renew our faith in the God of the poor and the God of life.  In order to rebuild our solidarity and hope, we need to find new ways of doing Liberation Theology (Pablo Richards, "Challenges to Liberation Theology" in New Faces of the Church in Latin America. Guillermo Cook, ed. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1994, p. 246)."

Richard's statement leads us to ask whether there should be a theology of liberation in the first place, and if so, what is its relevance?  Why should we continue with all this "razzle dazzle" of Liberation Theology?  Can't it just simply be incorporated into classical and traditional theology?  Can't we just continue to treat it as an appendix to classical theology?

Many people believe that with the fall of historical socialism in Eastern Europe-the crisis of Marxism and the imposition of the New Economic Order-that Liberation Theology has no future.  We are, as it is said, living in the end of history, the final triumph of capitalism.  Any alternative ideas, any hope for a different world, all liberating utopias are irrelevant and condemned to failure.  It is said that theology of liberation has no meaning.  The expectations of those who enjoy the privileges of the New Economic Order is that never again shall there be a people motivated by hope.  This triumphalism and this expectation of the oppressor's brutality flies in the face of the reality of poverty, misery and oppression that continues to dominate a huge majority of the human race.

The historic rationale for Liberation Theology is still in place.  As long as the scandal of poverty and oppression exists-while there are Christians who live and reflect their faith critically in the struggles for justice and life-there will be a Liberation Theology (Ibid, p. 245)."

Those who believe in the eventual total demise of socialism, also tend to believe that any ideology associated with it (including, but not limited to Liberation Theology), will also undergo a demise.  They believe that capitalism as an economic system is destined to prevail because it is a "God-ordained mandate."  Subsequently, their attitude with socialist ideology is "Pack up your bags, go home, and when you leave, take Liberation Theology with you."

The main question, however, is not what will happen to Liberation Theology.  More importantly, it is what will happen to the lives of the poor, and what will happen to human life? What is to become of their liberation and of the commitment of Christians to their lives, and to their emancipation?  We do Liberation Theology to keep their future alive, to keep our commitment alive.  Yet Liberation Theology will not continue to exist by mere inertia or by repeating old formulas.  We will need to reconceptualize Liberation Theology at this juncture in history.  We must recreate and reprogram Liberation Theology with an eye to the future (Ibid., pp. 245_246).

Liberation Theology in the Latin American context was born in the 1960's and 1970's as Christians became involved in the historical process of liberation.  It was born as we reflected-theologically, critically, and systematically-on our experience of God in the practice of liberation.  The content of this theology has always been our experience of God.  But we live, celebrate, and reflect upon it in the context of a liberation practice.  We are not dealing with a new theological subject matter, but rather with a new way of doing theology.  The object was not liberation, but rather God Himself.  As a matter of fact, the theology of liberation was never feared merely because it spoke about liberation or because it was political.  It was feared because the starting points concerning God were the poor and the threat to life and justice in the Third World. Liberation Theology was able to discover the unsettling presence of God in the lives of the oppressed and in the liberation struggles.  Conversely, it denounced the unsettling absence of God in the oppressor's world and in Western culture.  The concept of "praxis" helped Liberation Theology to understand history critically, from the perspective of the oppressed.  While classical theology used Aristotelian and Thomist philosophy, Liberation Theology made use of the more critical and liberating stream of the social sciences.  Oppressors hide their oppressive actions behind abstract and "universal" themes.  In marked contrast, Liberation Theology discovers oppression in history and reflects upon it with a view to overcoming it.  It goes beyond rational discourse to become transformative practice.  This is its only logical rationale (Ibid., p. 245).

The basic structure of Liberation Theology-a critical and systematic reflection on the experience of God in the practice of liberation-remains unchanged at this crucial juncture in history.  To be sure, the Liberation Theology structure and rationale have not changed because today, more than ever, God is present in a special way in the world of the oppressed.  God reveals Godself in their struggle for liberation.  Having said this, we must also recognize those elements which are new in the present historical juncture, making it both necessary and possible for us to rethink and recreate Liberation Theology (Ibid., p. 247).

In subsequent essays, we will continue to deal with the challenges and opportunities that Liberation Theology offers us.  It lays before us the possibilities of thinking and rethinking or theology.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona