The Ecclesiological Significance of Gutierrez‘s "A Theology of Liberation": A Book Review
I. Introduction:
The outward show of liberation theology from the Latin American Church has gave us an alternative way of how the church must act regarding its mission on earth, on how it looks on the conditions of the people of God. This emergence has given the Church a new perspective towards the reality within and outside the church and even to the point of going through the cultural and even in the economic and political arenas that has a lot to say regarding poverty and injustice. This book “A Theology of Liberation,” will bring us to a radical consciousness implicit in the realities that are present in Latin America vis-à-vis, in the individual lives of the people in our contemporary times and in the whole Church.
Gustavo Gutierrez, a prominent and a best-known liberation theologian from Peru, has written a very good book that shaped a kind of theology that is predominantly a struggle looking for the emancipation of the poor and marginalized from poverty and alienation and gearing towards liberation in the Latin American Church context. His book, “A Theology of Liberation,” was the result of this reality reflected upon, based from both his own and the experience of the poor people in Latin America.
II. Development:
The book according to Gutierrez has three parts:
· The first part of the book is a “reflection on the theological meaning of the process of the liberation of man throughout history.”(Intro. x) Gutierrez’s theologizing does not stop from the previous works from known theologians or the classic way of understanding theology, rather, he went to the very basic of theology and that is the very situation of the people and their relationship to God. He was able to see this through the constant dialogues and reflections with the realities and to himself. Thus, he is reflecting in theologizing. The author at the same time, are putting stress in going beyond to the things he have reflected – to be critical. “Theology is reflection, a critical attitude. Theology follows; it is the second step.”(p. 11). Being critical is not only addressed to the church but mostly in the society where social justice is unclear. It goes down in the historical praxis in which the author is giving emphasis. This historical praxis is goes on what the people experience where the rich is getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Part of which is their past history of being a colonized country down to the present situation where the concept of development arises. This developmental theory brought about the aftermath of World War II has brought havoc to poor countries like that of the Latin America. The “dependency theory” and the hegemony of powerful countries – in case of Latin America – the United States of America worsen the situation of the these countries.
· The second part of the work deals with the Problem. For the author, “…the problem which the theology of liberation poses is simultaneously traditional and new.”(Intro. x)…Traditional that goes to the typical ideas, theology of the Roman Catholic Church and that of the theology coming from the experience of the people. This would also deal with the classic question of the relationship between faith and human existence, faith and social reality, between faith and political action, or in other words, between the kingdom of God and the building up of the world; the Church-society or Church-world relation. How the church would respond to it. Moreover, different responses given along the history to the question of the relationship between faith and temporal realities, between Church and the world are still relevant nowadays. Along the course of time, the church has been in a Christendom mentality, which points out that the temporal realities lack autonomy that only the Church has a say. The first response is the new Christendom arose from the new historical circumstances of the sixteenth century influence by the French revolution and some modern ideas. More so, are some critical analysis of the situation through the various disciplines like that of the social sciences, psychology and the like that would help in seeing the their context. Along with this is the use of Marxist analysis that has a far longer history in Latin America. This ideology has contributed a lot in shaping the kind of analysis in the context where there are exploitations. The second response is the view that the church as a power in relation to the world modifies profoundly, continues to be the center of the work of salvation. A third response is the church-world relationship. This has the advantage of being clear and achieving a difficult balance between the unity of God’s plan and the distinction between Church and world. Here, the pastoral level and the level of theological reflection are important to balance and to have a more holistic grasp of the problem.
· After establishing the jumping board, the third part is the question how “the Latin American Church is present in the process of liberation-especially among the most committed Christian groups-will allow us to establish the question for an authentic theological reflection,”(Intro xi), as what Gutierrez has seen it, the different sectors of the people of God are gradually committing themselves in different ways to the process of liberation. They are becoming aware that this liberation implies a break with the status quo that it calls for a social revolution. The Christian community is beginning to read politically the signs of the times in Latin America. Hence, the new theological thinking now occurring in Latin America comes more from the Christian groups committed to the liberation of their people than from the traditional teaching of theology.
More large groups of Christians of political commitment are committed to the creation of a more just society. These are the laymen, who experience more the poverty in Latin America. On the one hand, there are some priests and religious in ever-increasing proportions seek to participate more actively in the pastoral decisions of the Church. And above all, looking for the Church to break its ties with an unjust order and be with the oppressed… the poor.
Gutierrez’s model of the Church
Avery Dulles’ model of church as sacrament expresses the Church as the sacrament of Christ and, as a sacrament of salvation, the Church’s community expresses something of what salvation essentially consists of. It brings about the continuation of Christ’s ministry and a sacrament of salvation build a community of salvation in the world. The same as Dulles, evident in this book is Gutierrez’s model of the church as a sacrament. The Church has to be defined in relation to the plan of salvation, whose fulfillment in history the Church reveals and signifies to men and women. These plans are concretize and the author pushes the church to be radical and to stand prophetically in the cause for the total change, to be the conscience, educate and to make them aware of the oppression and vis-à-vis to teach them to stand on their own. Another challenge given by the author is not only to bring a mirage image of being a poor by talking a lot about it but also by being true to it.
Another model that visible is the Pilgrim Church where the people are gathered together for one cause and that is liberation. The church must be a poor Church that is in the structure and to the life style of the people in the Church. The church must rethink its mission. Its purpose is not simply to “save in the sense of guaranteeing heaven but it should be in the sense that our work of salvation is in the history.” The Church must go down from heaven, go to earth, and live with the poor people, to join them in their struggle in the economic and even in political aspects.
Gutierrez’s message is clear. The church must become politically involve with the poor and with the struggles to liberate themselves from poverty and oppression. The church cannot evade involvement by claiming that its mission deals with the spiritual and not with the temporal, the “two planes.” The church as the institutional church: its bishops, priests, religious men and women, and pastoral agents, Gutierrez hopes, would become a church for the poor.
III. Conclusion/Reflection:
“We will have an authentic theology of liberation only when the oppressed themselves can freely raise their voices and express themselves directly in society and in the heart of the people of God, when they themselves “account for the hope” which they bear when they are the protagonist of their own liberation.”
The people in the Latin America have been for years of poverty. Injustice is also prevalent. In the same way, it is on those same long years that they have been waiting and longing for liberation. Gustavo Gutierrez’s “A Theology of Liberation” is an attempt, according to him, on the meaning of the faith based on the commitment to abolish injustice and to build a new society; must be verified by the practice of that community, by active effective participation in the struggle which that exploited social classes have undertaken against their oppressors. The Church in Latin America has done a great example in trying to answer the signs of the times. The emergence of this liberation theology is a concrete example on how the church gave birth to a new theology out from their experiences.
Their experience is not alien to us, not only because we are a Catholic nation but also more on our situation where poverty and injustice is a common thing. This phenomenon has given attention by the Latin American Church along side with the opening of the Vatican II. The conference at Medellin in 1968 is a good manifestation of how sincere they are in addressing the problem and put a strong stand against it, very late if we to compare here in the Philippines with the PCPII that is only on the year 1992-93 declaring the Philippine Church as the church of the poor. On the part of the Church as a whole, there are still lots of things to do. It’s never a hidden book that the Vatican is sometimes irritated with this kind of theology but they can never deny its relevance to the faith of the people and their hope in attaining liberation.
We have many models of the Church where we can choose from if ever one model doesn’t anymore fit in trying to protect, perhaps the dignity of the Church as an institution. Nonetheless, we should always be aware of the very essence why we have a Church today. We should never forget the cause of all these things in the person of Jesus. I don’t think Jesus would be happy if ever he saw injustices, saw poverty by millions of people. I don’t think Jesus would only be standing still and do nothing about it. The same with church as sacrament of Christ, the Church must have a bias with these people. The Book “A Theology of Liberation” is a great contribution in these causes in the Latin American context and in the Church as a whole. Like what Gutierrez is trying to emphasize in achieving liberation“…when the oppressed themselves can freely raise their voices and express themselves directly in society and in the heart of the people of God.” The Church on the other hand must be with them in their struggle in achieving that liberation.
The outward show of liberation theology from the Latin American Church has gave us an alternative way of how the church must act regarding its mission on earth, on how it looks on the conditions of the people of God. This emergence has given the Church a new perspective towards the reality within and outside the church and even to the point of going through the cultural and even in the economic and political arenas that has a lot to say regarding poverty and injustice. This book “A Theology of Liberation,” will bring us to a radical consciousness implicit in the realities that are present in Latin America vis-à-vis, in the individual lives of the people in our contemporary times and in the whole Church.
Gustavo Gutierrez, a prominent and a best-known liberation theologian from Peru, has written a very good book that shaped a kind of theology that is predominantly a struggle looking for the emancipation of the poor and marginalized from poverty and alienation and gearing towards liberation in the Latin American Church context. His book, “A Theology of Liberation,” was the result of this reality reflected upon, based from both his own and the experience of the poor people in Latin America.
II. Development:
The book according to Gutierrez has three parts:
· The first part of the book is a “reflection on the theological meaning of the process of the liberation of man throughout history.”(Intro. x) Gutierrez’s theologizing does not stop from the previous works from known theologians or the classic way of understanding theology, rather, he went to the very basic of theology and that is the very situation of the people and their relationship to God. He was able to see this through the constant dialogues and reflections with the realities and to himself. Thus, he is reflecting in theologizing. The author at the same time, are putting stress in going beyond to the things he have reflected – to be critical. “Theology is reflection, a critical attitude. Theology follows; it is the second step.”(p. 11). Being critical is not only addressed to the church but mostly in the society where social justice is unclear. It goes down in the historical praxis in which the author is giving emphasis. This historical praxis is goes on what the people experience where the rich is getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Part of which is their past history of being a colonized country down to the present situation where the concept of development arises. This developmental theory brought about the aftermath of World War II has brought havoc to poor countries like that of the Latin America. The “dependency theory” and the hegemony of powerful countries – in case of Latin America – the United States of America worsen the situation of the these countries.
· The second part of the work deals with the Problem. For the author, “…the problem which the theology of liberation poses is simultaneously traditional and new.”(Intro. x)…Traditional that goes to the typical ideas, theology of the Roman Catholic Church and that of the theology coming from the experience of the people. This would also deal with the classic question of the relationship between faith and human existence, faith and social reality, between faith and political action, or in other words, between the kingdom of God and the building up of the world; the Church-society or Church-world relation. How the church would respond to it. Moreover, different responses given along the history to the question of the relationship between faith and temporal realities, between Church and the world are still relevant nowadays. Along the course of time, the church has been in a Christendom mentality, which points out that the temporal realities lack autonomy that only the Church has a say. The first response is the new Christendom arose from the new historical circumstances of the sixteenth century influence by the French revolution and some modern ideas. More so, are some critical analysis of the situation through the various disciplines like that of the social sciences, psychology and the like that would help in seeing the their context. Along with this is the use of Marxist analysis that has a far longer history in Latin America. This ideology has contributed a lot in shaping the kind of analysis in the context where there are exploitations. The second response is the view that the church as a power in relation to the world modifies profoundly, continues to be the center of the work of salvation. A third response is the church-world relationship. This has the advantage of being clear and achieving a difficult balance between the unity of God’s plan and the distinction between Church and world. Here, the pastoral level and the level of theological reflection are important to balance and to have a more holistic grasp of the problem.
· After establishing the jumping board, the third part is the question how “the Latin American Church is present in the process of liberation-especially among the most committed Christian groups-will allow us to establish the question for an authentic theological reflection,”(Intro xi), as what Gutierrez has seen it, the different sectors of the people of God are gradually committing themselves in different ways to the process of liberation. They are becoming aware that this liberation implies a break with the status quo that it calls for a social revolution. The Christian community is beginning to read politically the signs of the times in Latin America. Hence, the new theological thinking now occurring in Latin America comes more from the Christian groups committed to the liberation of their people than from the traditional teaching of theology.
More large groups of Christians of political commitment are committed to the creation of a more just society. These are the laymen, who experience more the poverty in Latin America. On the one hand, there are some priests and religious in ever-increasing proportions seek to participate more actively in the pastoral decisions of the Church. And above all, looking for the Church to break its ties with an unjust order and be with the oppressed… the poor.
Gutierrez’s model of the Church
Avery Dulles’ model of church as sacrament expresses the Church as the sacrament of Christ and, as a sacrament of salvation, the Church’s community expresses something of what salvation essentially consists of. It brings about the continuation of Christ’s ministry and a sacrament of salvation build a community of salvation in the world. The same as Dulles, evident in this book is Gutierrez’s model of the church as a sacrament. The Church has to be defined in relation to the plan of salvation, whose fulfillment in history the Church reveals and signifies to men and women. These plans are concretize and the author pushes the church to be radical and to stand prophetically in the cause for the total change, to be the conscience, educate and to make them aware of the oppression and vis-à-vis to teach them to stand on their own. Another challenge given by the author is not only to bring a mirage image of being a poor by talking a lot about it but also by being true to it.
Another model that visible is the Pilgrim Church where the people are gathered together for one cause and that is liberation. The church must be a poor Church that is in the structure and to the life style of the people in the Church. The church must rethink its mission. Its purpose is not simply to “save in the sense of guaranteeing heaven but it should be in the sense that our work of salvation is in the history.” The Church must go down from heaven, go to earth, and live with the poor people, to join them in their struggle in the economic and even in political aspects.
Gutierrez’s message is clear. The church must become politically involve with the poor and with the struggles to liberate themselves from poverty and oppression. The church cannot evade involvement by claiming that its mission deals with the spiritual and not with the temporal, the “two planes.” The church as the institutional church: its bishops, priests, religious men and women, and pastoral agents, Gutierrez hopes, would become a church for the poor.
III. Conclusion/Reflection:
“We will have an authentic theology of liberation only when the oppressed themselves can freely raise their voices and express themselves directly in society and in the heart of the people of God, when they themselves “account for the hope” which they bear when they are the protagonist of their own liberation.”
The people in the Latin America have been for years of poverty. Injustice is also prevalent. In the same way, it is on those same long years that they have been waiting and longing for liberation. Gustavo Gutierrez’s “A Theology of Liberation” is an attempt, according to him, on the meaning of the faith based on the commitment to abolish injustice and to build a new society; must be verified by the practice of that community, by active effective participation in the struggle which that exploited social classes have undertaken against their oppressors. The Church in Latin America has done a great example in trying to answer the signs of the times. The emergence of this liberation theology is a concrete example on how the church gave birth to a new theology out from their experiences.
Their experience is not alien to us, not only because we are a Catholic nation but also more on our situation where poverty and injustice is a common thing. This phenomenon has given attention by the Latin American Church along side with the opening of the Vatican II. The conference at Medellin in 1968 is a good manifestation of how sincere they are in addressing the problem and put a strong stand against it, very late if we to compare here in the Philippines with the PCPII that is only on the year 1992-93 declaring the Philippine Church as the church of the poor. On the part of the Church as a whole, there are still lots of things to do. It’s never a hidden book that the Vatican is sometimes irritated with this kind of theology but they can never deny its relevance to the faith of the people and their hope in attaining liberation.
We have many models of the Church where we can choose from if ever one model doesn’t anymore fit in trying to protect, perhaps the dignity of the Church as an institution. Nonetheless, we should always be aware of the very essence why we have a Church today. We should never forget the cause of all these things in the person of Jesus. I don’t think Jesus would be happy if ever he saw injustices, saw poverty by millions of people. I don’t think Jesus would only be standing still and do nothing about it. The same with church as sacrament of Christ, the Church must have a bias with these people. The Book “A Theology of Liberation” is a great contribution in these causes in the Latin American context and in the Church as a whole. Like what Gutierrez is trying to emphasize in achieving liberation“…when the oppressed themselves can freely raise their voices and express themselves directly in society and in the heart of the people of God.” The Church on the other hand must be with them in their struggle in achieving that liberation.
-melskiens-
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