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Gustavo Gutiérrez

1928–2024

A first way ina deliberate simplification – the portrait says more

God takes the side of the poor, so theology must start from the struggle for their liberation, not from abstract doctrine.

Placement

Latin American & Caribbean Philosophy · Latin America & Caribbean · Religion, Politics & Law, Ethics

Peruvian priest whose “A Theology of Liberation” (1971) gave liberation theology its name: theology as critical reflection on the practice of liberation, beginning from the poor – later summed up in the “preferential option for the poor”.

Key ideas

  • Preferential option for the poor
  • Theology as critical reflection on praxis
  • Structural sin

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Influence

Influenced by 3

  • Bartolomé de las Casas

    influenced by

    Gutiérrez saw in Las Casas a forerunner of liberation theology who found Christ in the oppressed Indigenous peoples (En busca de los pobres de Jesucristo, 1992). G. Gutiérrez, En busca de los pobres de Jesucristo: El pensamiento de Bartolomé de Las Casas (1992)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Bartolomé de las Casas › 1484–1566

  • Karl Marx

    influenced by

    Gutiérrez used Marxist social analysis and dependency theory to read poverty as structural injustice, a use the Vatican criticised in 1984 (Teología de la liberación, 1971). G. Gutiérrez, Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas (1971); Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Libertatis nuntius (1984)

    Evidence: AI draft

    Karl Marx › 1818–1883

  • José Carlos Mariátegui

    influenced by

    Gutiérrez took up Mariátegui’s call for a socialism that is no mere borrowing but a heroic creation of its own, in his Latin American theology (Teología de la liberación, 1971). G. Gutiérrez, Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas (1971); J. C. Mariátegui, “Aniversario y balance”, Amauta 17 (1928)

    Evidence: AI draft

    José Carlos Mariátegui › 1894–1930

Works

  • 1971A Theology of Liberation

    Theology as critical reflection on the practice of liberation, beginning from the poor of Latin America.

Position

Gutiérrez defined theology as “critical reflection on praxis in the light of the Word”: it comes second, after commitment to the poor. Poverty is not fate but the product of unjust structures – a sinful situation contrary to God’s will. The preferential option for the poor, prepared by the bishops at Medellín (1968) and formulated at Puebla (1979), calls the Church to liberation on the economic, historical and spiritual levels. His use of Marxist analysis and dependency theory drew Vatican criticism in the 1980s, though he was never condemned. Later books turned to spirituality, the Book of Job and Las Casas, whom he saw as a forerunner.

Life & context

Gustavo Gutiérrez was born in Lima in 1928. He studied medicine at San Marcos, then philosophy and psychology at Louvain and theology at Lyon, and was ordained in 1959. For decades he was a parish priest in Rímac, a poor district of Lima, founded the Bartolomé de Las Casas Institute in the city and taught at Notre Dame, among others. He joined the Dominicans late in life and died in 2024.

Further main works

  • We Drink from Our Own Wells (Beber en su propio pozo, 1983)
  • On Job (Hablar de Dios desde el sufrimiento del inocente, 1986)
  • Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ (En busca de los pobres de Jesucristo, 1992)

Appears in

Sources: Wikipedia · Wikidata

As of November 2026 · Sources · Improve this page · How Agora is made

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