A Theology of Liberation

Introduction

Gustavo Gutiérrez, a Peruvian priest who worked in a poor district of Lima, first sketched the ideas in a lecture in Chiclayo in 1968 and published the book in Lima in 1971 (English 1973). It followed the 1968 conference of Latin American bishops in Medellín, which had denounced “institutionalised violence” and structural injustice. Gutiérrez defines theology as critical reflection on Christian practice in the light of the Word of God – a second step that follows commitment. Salvation includes liberation from economic and political oppression, and the Church must side with the poor. Because it drew on Marxist social analysis, liberation theology was criticised by the Vatican in the 1980s; Gutiérrez later joined the Dominicans and was received by Pope Francis in 2013.

Connections

Builds on

• Seven Interpretive Essays on Peruvian Reality1928 · José Carlos Mariátegui