How Authentically Christian is Liberation Theology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6403371 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James Tunstead Burtchaell (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1988 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 264-281 |
| Publication date | 1988-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Review of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0034-6705 • E-ISSN: 1748-6858 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0034670500015679 |
| OpenAlex | W2026157609 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 6 |
This is a friendly critique of the Liberation Theology being elaborated in Latin America. The preferential option for the poor constricts its attention to economic disadvantage, and ascribes virtually all impoverishment to purposeful oppression. The poor are, simply in virtue of their deprivation, said to be so morally exalted that the gospel has for them no call to conversion. Theirs is a salvation without further ado. Yet their salvation turns out to be predominantly, if not exclusively, economic and political. A predilection for the Exodus displaces the death and resurrection ofJesus as the dominant paradigm for liberation. It is maladapted to a Christian vision of liberation, which must aim at communion with the enemy, not mere triumph. By claiming justice as its goal and fulfillment, liberation theology seems to suffer from a loss of Christian nerve. Looking to the socialist state as the sure guarantor of justice, it seems politically naive, and barren of the Christian hope that both exploiter and victim must be transformed into more than just persons (because prepared to return good for evil) well before the society around them has become a fit home even for justice
Economic Justice · Environmental ethics · Gospel · Liberation theology · Oppression · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Theology · Law · Philosophy · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics · Religion, Society, and Development · Religious and Theological Studies
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,09 |
| Citation span | 1991 - 2013 (23) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |