Liberation theology was originally conceived as a progressive response to the traditional Catholic ethos, a kind of asocial spirituality. What is this ethos? In The Social Justice Agenda (1991), Donal Dorr writes:

"From the sixteenth century up to about the sixties of this century, the teaching of many Church leaders laid great stress on the God-given authority of kings and queens and of the State. This was matched in practice by a rather escapist spirituality which encouraged oppressed people to look for reward in the next life while here on earth they should submit to injustice and endure repression rather than struggling for liberation" (p. 39).

In 1971, Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian priest incited by the ferment then taking place within the ranks of the clergy, undertook to place within the Western intellectual tradition ideas that had been gestating in the Latin American Church for many years. Historically, the institutional Church had always been allied with the status quo, but the yawning gap between the elite and the poor, aggravated by the forces of industrialization in the developing world, gave rise within the Church to a movement to realign itself on the side of the poor. Drawing on two primary sources, Marxism and Catholic theology, liberation theology sought to give the poor a powerful voice, attempting a new synthesis in the process.

By this influential book, Gutierrez earns a permanent place in intellectual history. He merits at least a very large footnote in Church history, perhaps a smaller footnote in world history. His book instigated a fierce exchange that is far from concluded.

This is a difficult book to read. All throughout, the heavy jargon and the high level of abstraction throw up obstacles to understanding. The best preparation assumes knowledge of Marxism, Catholic theology, the Western intellectual heritage, and social and political conditions in Latin America. Jurgen Moltmann, Johanne Baptist Metz, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer--important theologians in themselves--are cited by commentators as notable sources. I might suggest that this book is best read with a good commentary as a companion.

There is an unmistakable mixture of Marxism and Catholicism here that, in my opinion, will never prosper. Between Marxism and Catholicism, certain fundamental ideas are incompatible. Marxism and Catholicism share a hostile, even violent history, so it is difficult to see how they can successfully intermingle. They make uncomfortable bedfellows. Plowing through this book, I felt that at various points it sounded incestuous. Some Marxist ideas, such as praxis, the dynamic of reflection and action, may perhaps be reconstituted as Christian praxis, but in this case as in others, there are themes in the Catholic tradition that already capture important meanings without the aggressive historical connotations of Marxism. It is especially difficult to see how ideas like class struggle, shaded with hatred, can be understood to be Christian.

In this connection, I observed the distinct lack of what I would describe as the transcendental quality, in the sense of classic Thomism, of traditional Catholic theology. But this characteristic is to be expected because of the essentially sociopolitical orientation of the book, concerned as it is with a societal transformation that is at bottom temporal. In this aspect, the book is influenced by Marxism's exclusive focus on the here and now.

Because liberation theology emerges in the context of the Catholic religion, it is only to be expected that an adequate reading of the book entails investigating what the Vatican, specifically, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, would have to say about it. For this reason, I would strongly recommend reading the two instructions on liberation theology issued in 1984 and 1986, respectively. They are available on the Internet.

In the Church, liberation theology is on the retreat or perhaps quiescent, but only for now. After all, the theme of liberation continues to provide a compelling rubric for encompassing the movement for social justice in the Christian tradition, and the value of this theology is shown by the fact that the Vatican itself has reworked and appropriated it. Liberation theology has made an enduring contribution to the Church so that the framework applies well to movements against far-ranging social evils--religious discrimination, racism, or forced prostitution, for example.

The significance of liberation theology lies not only in the advancement of Church doctrine but also in its participation in the continuing dialogue about development, "desarollo." Liberation theology introduces a religious or ideological dimension to "desarollo," but from the standpoint of development economics, especially in liberation theology's espousal of dependency theory, Western models of economic development and even specific positions propounded by the papal social encyclicals are more practicable.

Because of his intellect and insight, besides the fact that he is controversial and famous, Gutierrez is eminently quotable. Here is my favorite: "The human work, the transformation of nature, continues creation only if it is a human act, that is to say, if it is not alienated by unjust socio-economic structures. A whole theology of work, despite its evident insights, appears naïve from a political point of view" (p. 101). Yes!

...penned by the man who coined the term "Liberation Theology," which later inspired Ignacio Martin-Baro's "Liberation Psychology," for which he was martyred by a Salvadoran hit team.

My impression was that this was written mainly for clergy getting their activist feet wet. In that sense the book is an invaluable milestone. Because of this, it poses liberation (in the sense of liberation from oppressive social conditions like poverty and tyranny) as an intellectual issue, historically and theologically. Correction: it appeals to an intellectual understanding of what the author obviously has lived and felt very deeply.

Having just read LOVE IN A TIME OF HATE, I bought this book expecting to read flesh-and-blood examples of liberation theology as brought into the streets. You won't find much of that here. It's more of an account of how the movement has gone on in circles theological. As such, it poses vital questions to believers and clergy alike--questions of conscience, questions of the relevance of Scripture and the risks involved in living a Christian life of service and conscience in perilous situations.

This is the first and probably the most crucial book on Liberation Theology to follow Vatican II and the Medellin conferences. It's not an easy book to read, but it will challenge you, as well as challenge what you think you know about liberation theology. For any student of modern theology this book is well worth the time and effort. Robert McAfee Brown's summary book is no substitute for the real thing.