In 1985, a leader of the conservative wing of the Roman
Catholic church in Latin America, Bishop Hoyos, denounced
liberation theologians, saying: "When I see a church with a machine
gun, I cannot see the crucified Christ in that church....We can
never use hate as a system of change. The core of being a church is
love."[1]
Theological controversies are often confined to seminary
classrooms or theological journals. But the controversy provoked by
Latin American liberation theology has been _public_ and it has
been _worldwide_ -- involving the Vatican, orthodox and
not-so-orthodox priests, lay people, sociologists, socialists,
capitalists, economists, government leaders and their military, and
much more. Liberation theology has certainly not been the passing
fad some analysts thought it would be when it first emerged in the
late 1960s.
Strictly speaking, liberation theology should be understood as
a _family_ of theologies -- including the Latin American, Black,
and feminist varieties. All three respond to some form of
oppression: Latin American liberation theologians say their
poverty-stricken people have been oppressed and exploited by rich,
capitalist nations. Black liberation theologians argue that their
people have suffered oppression at the hands of racist whites.
Feminist liberation theologians lay heavy emphasis upon the status
and liberation of women in a male-dominated society.
This article, the first of a three-part series on liberation
theology, will focus on the Latin American variety -- examining its
historical roots, growth, doctrine, and present status in the
world. Primary emphasis will be on how the movement has changed
since its emergence in the late 1960s. In Parts Two and Three
respectively, I will examine the Black and feminist varieties.
With a few notable exceptions, Latin American liberation
theology has been a movement identified with the Roman Catholic
church. For this reason, I shall direct most of my attention to the
views of Roman Catholic liberation theologians. First, however, we
must become acquainted with the roots of this controversial
theology....
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