THE CHURCH AND LIBERATION THEOLOGY

DR. JUAN A. CARMONA 

One of the many issues that arises frequently in the life of the Church is that of "what does theology have to do with the Church?"  It is, indeed, a very strange question, in that it is assumed that theology emerges from and is constructed by the Church.  Nevertheless, it appears from time to time, that theology exists in a world of its own, and making occasional inroads into the life of  the Church.  There are many in the Church that believe that theology is not only irrelevant, but also unnecessary for the Church.  Those who think this way believe that theology amounts to ivory tower speculation that has no relationship whatsoever to the practice of the faith.

Throughout this series of essays, we have seen that Liberation Theology is a movement within the Church that seeks to address the ills of society, i.e namely those of oppression and injustice of all kinds.  Liberation Theology, therefore, in some sense, seeks to be the voice of Christ on  behalf of the downtrodden of this world.  Liberation Theology takes the message of the Gospel and that of Scripture as a whole, seriously, in both its contents and approaches.  We now turn our attention to the issue of Liberation Theology in the life of Christians , both individually and collectively.  As we will discover, Liberation Theology is not a mere activity of intellectual pursuit or abstract speculation, but rather a movement, which to a certain extent, is the driving force for the Church of Christ to engage in the quest for social justice.

A New Model: A Church from the Poor

In the 1970's, there arose a growing consciousness of the true causes of underdevelopment as a problem that is not simply technical or political.. It is the consequence of a type of capitalistic development in the countries of the North Atlantic which in order to maintain the current levels of growth and accumulation, needs to establish unbalanced relationships with those countries that are technologically backward, though rich in raw materials.  These latter countries are kept in underdevelopment, that is, the other side of development.  This dependency creates oppression on economic, political, and cultural levels.  In view of this, the long-range Christian strategy is to achieve a liberation that guarantees a self-sustained development that meets the need of the people, and not the consumerist needs of rich countries and groups associated with those countries (Leonardo Boff, Church: Charism and Power. Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1985, p. 7).

The historical subjects of this liberation are the oppressed who must develop a consciousness of their oppressed situation, organize themselves, and take the steps that will lead a society that is less dependent and less subject to the injustices.  Other classes may and should join this project of the oppressed, but without trying to control it.  In this way, beginning in the early seventies, countless young people, intellectuals, and a whole range of movements arose to make such a liberation viable. They made an option for the people: they entered the world of the poor, embracing their culture, giving expression to their claims, and organizing activities that were considered subversive by the forces of the status quo.  More than a few took on the violence of urban guerrillas and campesinos, and were violently repressed (Ibid., p. 8).

Countless Christians and organizations took part in this process.  They were generally individuals and groups of middle class extraction, full of idealism, but lacking political sense in terms of the concrete viability of such a popular liberation (Ibid.).

Later, after years of harsh repression, the bases of the Church took on exceptional importance both ecclesiologically and politically. The people themselves took responsibility for their destiny.  This generally began with reading the Bible and proceeded to the creation of small-base (grass-roots) ecclesial communities.  Initially, such a community serves to deepen the faith of its members, to prepare the liturgy, the sacraments, and a life of prayer.  At a more advanced stage, these members began to help each other.  As they became better organized and reflect more deeply, they came to the realization that the problems they  encountered have a structural character.  Their marginalization is seen as a consequence of elitist organization, private ownership, that is, of he very socioeconomic structure of the capitalist system.  Thus, the question of politics arises and the desires for liberation is set in a concrete and historical context.  The community sees this not only as liberation from sin from which we must always liberate ourselves, but also a liberation that has economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions.  Christian faith directly seeks the ultimate liberation and freedom of the children of God in the Kingdom, but also has historical liberation as an anticipation and concretization of the ultimate liberation (Ibid.).  

Latin America 

The present conditions and the future prospects of Christianity in Latin America cannot be analyzed as if Christianity wee a self-contained and autonomous reality.  The qualification, "in Latin America" has to be taken consciously, seriously, and responsibly as a conditioning framework for any significant reflection on the question.  To unpack what is contained at present and future in "Latin America" seems such a theologically and sociologically risky enterprise as to be almost folly.  We must, however, try to suggest some lines that we might explore, in order to point out some significant variables.  We can propose some approaches, even while we are aware of the ambiguity inherent in this exercise, and consequently of the provisional and contingent nature of all the hypothesis that we may formulate (Jose Miguez Bonino, "The Conditions and Prospects of Christianity in Latin America," in New Face of the Church in Latin America, Guillermo Cook, ed. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1994, p. 260).

As far as the social, political, and economic conditions, it is probable that the dominant tendencies which prevail today in most Latin American countries will continue for the immediate and perhaps mid-term future.  Latin America will remain, directly or indirectly under the unifying hegemony of the United States and the neo-liberal orthodoxy proclaimed and and supervised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the international banking and financial system of the new world.  It will continue under the security order which the UN seems to have taken on (Ibid.).

If such a hypothesis is valid, we can expect that there will be in Latin America a worsening conditioning of the economic condition of the large majorities-a growth in the gap between rich and poor.  There will be a tendency to revert to two-class societies with small and very conditioned middle sectors, and a large totally marginalized percentage of the population.  Politically, this will mean formal democracies with different types and measures of control or repression.  Possibly, there will be an increase of local social explosions and occasional violent confrontations, social and political protests, and certainly growth in delinquency.  But we should not be quick to expect an ideal revolutionary situation or profound structural changes.  All of this means, of course, a high degree of social anomie and marginality (Ibid.).

As we can see, theology cannot be divorced from life.  Theology has to be historicized.  And because theology is the Church's expression of its understanding of divine revelation, the Church and its mission cannot be divorced from life.  Liberation Theology seeks to make the Church "keep it real." In future essays, we shall continue to examine how the Church in Latin America, through Liberation Theology, seeks to address the various issues of economic, political, and social injustice.

This essay is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Rev. Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary 

 

CHALLENGES TO LIBERATON THEOLOGY 

DR. JUAN A. CARMONA 

Up until this point, we have examined and discussed the colonial and Neo-colonial history of Latin America and how this history has contributed to the emergence and development of Liberation Theology in this region of the world.  We have looked at 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 know deal with the "so what?" of the history that we have discussed.

As previously mentioned, 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 Egypt.  It continues throughout their history, including their exile to and return from 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 and mention.  I will list, but a few that we can consider relevant to our discussion and for our conversation.  Pablo Richard 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 Face of the Church in Latin America. Guillermo Cook, ed. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1994, p. 246)."

Richards's statement leads us to ask whether there should be a theology of liberation in the first place, and it so, what is its relevance?  Why should we continue with 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 meaning. The experiences of those who enjoy the privileges of the New Economic Order is that never again there shall be a people motivated by hope. This triumphalism and this expectation of the oppressor's brutality in the face of the reality of poverty, misery, and oppression that continues to dominate a huge majority of the human race (Ibid., p. 245)." 

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.).

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 to "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, to human life?  What is to become of their liberation and 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 dint of repeating old formulas.  We will also need to reconceptualize Liberation Theology at this juncture in history.  We must recreate and reprogram Liberation Theology with an eye to the future (Richard, op. cit., ops. 245-246).

Liberation Theology in the Latin American context was born in the 1960's and evolved in the 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 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 point of its reflection concerning God were the poor and the threat to life and justice in the Third World.  Liberation Theology 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 "practice" helped Liberation Theology to understand history critically, from the perspective of the oppressed.  While classical theology used Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophy, Liberation Theology made use of the more critical and liberating stream of the social sciences (Ibid.). 

Oppressors hide their oppression 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 becoming transforming practice.  This is its only logical rationale (Ibid., p. 247)

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 the rationale have not changed because today, more than ever, God is present in a special way in the world of the oppressed.  He reveals Himself in their struggle for liberation.  But 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.).

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 our theology.

This essay is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary 

 LIBERATION THEOLOGY AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF NEO-COLONIZATION

DR. JUAN A. CARMONA 

In the previous essay, we dealt with how Spanish colonization and imperialism had an impact on Latin America.  We can see how the conquest planted the seeds of rebellion and resentment, and, at the same time, the emergence of a theology that would address those economic. political, and social ills.

Today, we can continue to look at and evaluate what has properly been called "Neo-colonialism," under the aegis of the U.S.A.  While many people in the Caribbean and Latin America see the arrival of U.S.A. troops and the economic system of the U.S.A. as "liberation" from the cruelties of the Spanish empire, our coverage today will demonstrate that it is just the opposite, i.e. passing the goods (lands and resources) from one set of thieves to another set of thieves, and, how in both cases, that imperialism has done its utmost to protect the stolen goods.

Latin America and the Caribbean today, have become proving grounds for various experiments in neo-colonialism-transnational corporations, Japanese vehicles, tracking stations, satellite dishes, foreign television, military exercises, millions of tourists, and off-shore schemes.  It is in the light of these considerations that the realities of the Caribbean/Latin American conditions have to be understood.  They explain why the current structures of poverty continue to be overlaid with a veneer of progress instead of being dismantled altogether; why the prospects for the sharing of power among the broad masses of landless people are neither nearer nor clearer; why in some cases of political independence has essentially ushered in new forms of structured economic dependence; and why the ideals of racial, cultural, and regional integration are ignored more often than they are pursued.  The process of underdevelopment, which began in 1492, has never been substantially challenged. The only major shifts in the region have been from one form of  dependency to another (Kortright Davis, Emancipation Still Comin. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1990, pp. 3-4)

In the century after the wars for independence in Latin America, two powers-one prominent and one emerging-would vie for political and economic influence in Latin America. Great Britain, the preeminent power in the world at the beginning of the nineteenth century, would be the most potent external political and economic influence on Latin America into the 1930's. The United States, as it emerged as an industrial and economic powerhouse throughout the nineteenth century, would challenge the British for influence in the region.  In the first century after independence in the 1780's, the power and influence of the United States radiated westward and southward from the Old Thirteen Colonies.  It was on the North American continent and in the Caribbean basin that the United States would truly challenge and then supplant the British throughout the nineteenth century. U.S. influence was minimal south of Central America and the Caribbean.  British power in South America began to wane with the First World War, and would be completely replaced by the end of the Second World War (Marshall C. Eakin, The History of Latin America:Collission of Cultures. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2007, pp. 230-240).

The Spanish-American War in 1898 marks a watershed, not only in the role of the United States in Latin America, but also the U.S. role in the world.  In many ways, 1898 marks the emergence of the United States on the world stage, and the beginning of more than a rise to global supremacy that continues into the twenty-first century.  Throughout the nineteenth century, the United States marched across the North American continent, conquering, colonizing, and creating one of the largest domestic markets the world had ever seen.  By 1898, the Second Industrial Revolution was in full swing in the Unites States, built on iron and steel, the internal combustion engine, petroleum, power and a revolution in chemistry that would produce (among other things) fertilizers and explosives that would transform agriculture and warfare.  The Civil War in the 1860's had brutally halted expansion and integration of the continent.  In the decades after the war, railroads crisscrossed the nation, binding the regions together, and steamships carried U.S. troops and exports across the oceans (Ibid. p. 246). 

In the 1930's, several patterns were clear.  The British preeminence in nineteenth-century Latin America (especially South America) was rapidly disappearing and U.S. power in the region was growing dramatically.  U.S. investment in the region moved past that of Great Britain, the United States had decades of direct economic and military involvement across the Caribbean basin and the Gulf of Mexico, and U.S. policy-makers were hard at work on forging a Pax Americana in which the United States would "lead" the rest of the hemisphere.  The Second World War would accelerate all of the processes, opening an era of unprecedented U.S. power and influence in Latin America after 1945. As the peoples of the region forged their identities as Mexicans, Nicaraguans, Chileans, Brazilians-as Latin Americans-they did so in a complex and deeply conflicted relationship with the Colossus of the North (Ibid., ops. 251-252).  

Against this backdrop of history, we must stop to ask, "What is the relationship between theology and these historical developments in Latin America?"  As has pointed out several times before, theology does not emerge from or operate in a vacuum.  Theology is developed within the framework of human relations and historical occurrences. History shapes and at the same time is shaped by theology.  A knowledge of history helps us o understand the contents and nature of theology.  A knowledge of theology, on the other hand, enables us to give a meaning to history.

Liberation Theology, which addresses how the emergence and development of economic, political, and social structures under the influence of U.S. imperialism, seeks to identify, unmask, and denounce the environmental ills that these structures have generated.  Liberation Theology seeks to bring about a restricting of Latin American society, so that there will be a more fair, just, and equitable system for all of its inhabitants.  

This essay is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary 

 COLONIAL HISTORY OF LATIN AMERICA 

DR. JUAN A. CARMONA 

In order to understand why Liberation Theology developed in Latin America, we must first come to grips with its colonial and neo-colonial history.  As has been pointed out before, Liberation Theology did not emerge in a vacuum.  There were circumstances and reasons as to why we see its emergence and development in  this corner of the world.  In essence, we will note that Liberation Theology is both an anti-colonial theology which denounces the status quo of economics, military, and political imperialism, as well as a post-colonial theology which seeks to address the concerns and issues prevalent in those societies which either are sovereign or in the process of becoming sovereign.

Following the lead of Columbus, the Spanish swept across the Caribbean within a generation, conquering and destroying the native people in their paths.  The Spanish moved through the conquest of a 'stepping stone process.'  They would conquer an island, establish a base of operations, and then move outward from there in a step-by-step pattern. Hispaniola, for example, became the staging ground for invading Cuba, and then Cuba for the conquest of Mexico.  From island to island, the Spanish replicated the original process on Hispaniola, while adding new features to respond to the different lands and peoples they encountered.  In a pattern that would be reproduced across Latin America for the next century, the conquerors divided the spoils-plunder, land, and natives among themselves.  The conquest operated on something of a seniority system.  The senior members of the expeditions got the best spoils, and those who got the smaller shares, along with those who arrived in the latter waves of conquistadors, were pushed outward to find their own riches and to conquer their own lands.  Unlike the Portuguese, who consciously set out to build their factories, or trading posts, the Spanish come to conquer, pillage, and then settle as colonists.  After the initial conquest, they recognized that all future wealth would have to come from the land, and the key to producing on the land was the exploitation of non-European labor (Marshall C. Eakin, The History of Latin America: Collision of Cultures. New York: Palgrave Mac Millan, 2007, p.62)

When put into a historical perspective, Liberation Theology is a theology which emerges within the framework of land-grabbing colonization, slave labor, and genocide.  It develops against the backdrop of conquest and eventual marginalization.  Liberation Theology is what Luis Rivera-Pagan calls "Theology from the margins," i.e. a theology which is generated among conquered and marginalized people.

Columbus's arrival brought a new economic system that also changed the socio-cultural organization of the indigenous people.  The native women were no longer equal to the men; they were raped and taken as objects of possession by the colonizers as a means to subjugate the population.  The Church allowed only men as the leaders of religion, and only white Spanish men at that. Not even the colonizer's own mixed blood offspring were acceptable as servants of God.  Five hundred years later, women are still submissive to men (Lydia Hernandez in "Even Today What Began Five Hundred Years Ago." New Face of the Church in Latin America, Guillermo Cook, ed. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1994, p. 19).

As the military conquest drew to a close in the sixteenth century, the Spanish and Portuguese turned to making their new possessions productive long-term enterprises. Cultivation and exploitation of the land became the primarily objective of the developing colonial regimes.  Land without labor, however, was useless to the colonizers.  The population of Spain and Portugal were not very large, perhaps 10 to 11 million, combined in the sixteenth century.  The monarchies of both had little interest in a large out-migration of their subjects; rather, they needed them to provide an adequate and compliant labor force in Iberia, Mexico, and Peru, on the other hand, had populations that were each possibly double that of Spain and Portugal combined.  Quite literally, the Americas were built from the sweat and blood of African and indigenous people.  And much of the economic expansion in Europe after 1500 was fueled by the wealth of the America produced by their sweat and blood.  Out of this coercive labor system emerged the most burdensome legacy of the colonial period -the large landed estate (Eakin, op. cit, p. 96).

As we continue to examine these negative historical realities in Latin America, we can then begin to understand why our theology is referred to as a "theology of liberation."  It is a theology which seeks to advocate for liberation from the oppressive structures which have come into being as result of imperialistic conquest, genocide, slavery, and colonization.  

In future essays, we will focus on the impact of U.S.A. neo-colonialism in Latin America.  The impact of the imposition of the U.S.A. structures and subsequent policies will be examined as we seek to evaluate the need for a theology of liberation this region.

This essay  is submitted in the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen!

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Professor of Theology

Tainan Theological College/Seminary