Library : The Retreat of Liberation Theologyby. Edward A. Lynch. Description. Professor Edward Lynch, of Hollins College in Roanoke, VA, explains how the Vatican dealt with liberation theology as part of the larger secular challenge to the Faith. Larger Work. Homiletic & Pastoral Review. Pages. 12- 2. 1Publisher & Date. Catholic Polls, Inc., February 1. ![]() Few intellectual movements have begun with more immediate, favorable attention than the theology of liberation, developed by Latin American scholars in the 1. Encomia to the "new way of doing theology" came from North American and European scholars and from many Latin American bishops. At the Second General Conference of the Latin American conference of Bishops (CELAM), held in Medellin in 1. English publication of Gustavo Gutierrez's 1. A Theology of Liberation. Twenty- five years later, however, liberation theology has been reduced to an intellectual curiosity. While still attractive to many North American and European scholars, it has failed in what the liberationists always said was their main mission, the complete renovation of Latin American Catholicism. ![]()
Instead, orthodox Catholic leaders, starting with Pope John Paul II, have reclaimed ideas and positions that the liberationists had claimed for themselves, such as the "preferential option for the poor," and "liberation" itself. In so doing, the opponents of liberation theology have successfully changed the terms of debate over religion and politics in Latin America. At the same time, liberation theology had to face internal philosophical contradictions and vastly altered political and economic circumstances, both in Latin America and elsewhere. Having lost the initiative, liberation theologians are making sweeping reversals in their theology. The response to liberation theology was sophisticated and multi- faceted. Nevertheless, it is possible to describe its essential ingredient rather briefly. The Retreat of Liberation Theology Professor Edward Lynch, of Hollins College in Roanoke, VA, explains how the Vatican dealt with liberation theology as part of the. Ebook3000.com is the best free ebooks download library. It's the open directory for free ebooks and download links, and the best place to read ebooks and search free. If you are interested in The Gospel Coalition, you will probably be interested in some of the ebooks that are on sale during the conference. Gospelebooks.net has a. John Paul II and the other opponents of liberation theology offered it a cultural challenge. That is, they took issue with what liberation theology tried to say about the basic meaning of human life and what is most important to living that life. Liberationists seek to change the object to which theology devotes its attention. They reject, with disdain, the notion that getting people to heaven is more important than getting them tolerable living conditions. Liberation theology is an attempt to change people's minds about what is most decisive and significant in their lives. In other words, liberation theology is a cultural challenge. Liberation theology and Antonio Gramsci Liberation theology's critics responded to it as they would to a Gramscian cultural offensive. Although Gramsci's thought is difficult to summarize without distortion, some opinions are universally connected with his name. Of particular importance to Gramsci was the cultural unity of Christian Europeans. So long as poor people thought that their Christian identity was the most important, they would readily join forces with Christian elites against atheistic revolutionaries. Changing the culture, for Gramsci, meant inducing people to alter their primary self- identification. Liberation theology and Gramsci are both determined to persuade people to identify themselves according to their economic status. Poor people, in particular, must be induced to think of themselves first and only as poor people. Moreover, the poor ought to feel resentment toward the rich and to blame the rich for their poverty. Gutierrez declared that "Liberation expresses the aspirations of oppressed classes and people," underlining "the conflictual aspect of the social, economic and political process" (Quoted in Moreno, 1. Juan Segundo exhorted his readers to undertake "conscientization" of the poor, which he described as "social mobilization that seeks to inculcate an . Revolutionaries must concentrate on taking over social institutions, until all the transmitters of culture, such as schools, works of art and literature, media outlets and, most especially, churches, convey the belief that material progress, material wealth, and material comfort are the most meaningful elements of human life. Succeed here, Gramsci promised, and taking over government "becomes a relatively painless adjustment to the changed social situation" (Finocchiaro, 1. In their early writings, liberation theologians openly tried to change the focus of religious thought, from concern about the next life to concern about this one. Liberation theologians hotly dispute the notion that they are interested only in the material progress of man (O'Hare, 1. III, for example). Nevertheless, liberation theology clearly rejected what it constantly called the traditional Church's preoccupation with matters of faith, morals and getting to heaven. The emphasis on earthly things is more explicit in early liberation theology than in recent works. Still, as late as 1. Jon Sobrino defined sin as unjust social structure, or "that which deals death." Examples of sinners for him were oligarchies, multi- national corporations, various armed forces and "virtually every government." He even went so far as to restate the Beatitudes in earthly terms, changing "Blessed are the meek," etc. Happy are the meek" (1. For a time, it was not just a few liberationist intellectuals who wished to make the Church primarily concerned with this world. At the Medellin conference, generally recognized as the CELAM conference at which liberation theology was most influential, the assembled bishops listed three tasks for the Church, in this order: human promotion; evangelization and growth in faith. One commentator commented drily that this "alters the order most commonly used in the church before and after the conference," and noted, correctly, that at the CELAM conference at Puebla 1. John Paul II tried to change the order back again. Mc. Grath, 1. 99. There are numerous points of contact between liberation theology and the plans of Gramsci. Had Gramsci known about liberation theology, he would have embraced it. Opponents of liberation theology have incorporated their struggle against this particular philosophy into a more general attack on secularism, societal disunity and a culture confined to addressing economic conflict. The approach has been quite successful. Warring against secularism The pontificate of John Paul II has been marked by a determination to reinsert the Church and its beliefs into elements of human life from which secularism sought to expel them. John Paul is ably assisted in this endeavor by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, whom the Pope appointed head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Ratzinger authored a two- part refutation of liberation theology in the 1. Instruction on Certain Aspects of the "Theology of Liberation" and the Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation that came out two years later.) John Paul's main enemy, since his election in 1. For the Pope, liberation theology is part of this secularism. All human activity, John Paul has said, must have reference to the ultimate meaning of life, which is eternal salvation. While seeking to concentrate their efforts on life here and now, modern people have forgotten this essential truth. In his first encyclical, John Paul II insisted that all authentic humanism must refer to Christ. All else is folly (1. Soon afterwards, he added that: "awareness that man's work is a participation in God's activity ought to permeate, as the Council teaches, even the most ordinary everyday activities. Even by their secular activity [Christians] must assist one another to live holier lives" (1. Juan Segundo, among others, has criticized the Pope's writings, and attacked the 1. Instruction as "a general attack on Enlightenment humanism and modern thought, aimed at reestablishing an other- worldly and transcendantalist religion" (Quoted in Sigmund, 1. On this occasion, Segundo was quite right. Recapturing the language of Catholic liberation Thus the Vatican has dealt with liberation theology as part of the larger secular challenge to the Faith. Central to John Paul's specific response to liberation theology has been his determination to reclaim for the traditional Church many of the words that liberationists have tried to redefine. The most important of these is the word "liberation." For Gutierrez, and for most liberationists, there are three levels of liberation: first, liberation from unjust social situations; second, personal transformation; third, and "finally," liberation means liberation from sin. Liberationists implicitly claim that concern for human liberation among Catholics started with Vatican II or Medellin (Segundo 1. Colombian Primate Alfonso Lopez Trujillo reminded his countrymen, however, that the Church has been developing political and social theology since its beginning. Ricardo Durand, a Peruvian bishop critical of liberation theology, stated baldly: "Many of us were committed to the poor, and suffered for them, before the Medellin conference," Durand wrote (1. Starting with John Paul II, orthodox Catholics spoke more assertively of their own heritage of devotion to the poor. The Pope's supporters also began insisting on a more inclusive understanding of "liberation" than the liberationists offered. Only a few weeks after assuming the papacy, John Paul travelled to Latin America to open the CELAM conference at Puebla. For those curious about the new Pope's stand on liberation, his Opening Address was enlightening. He said: Pastoral commitments . Christian conception of liberation. The Church] has the duty of proclaiming liberation in its deeper, fuller sense, the sense proclaimed and realized by Jesus. That fuller liberation is liberation from everything that oppresses human beings, but especially liberation from sin and the evil one (Quade, 1.
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