has liberation theology died

Has Liberation Theology Died? Reflections on the Relationship between Community Life and the Globalization of the Economic System

Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro

Over their history, the Christian churches in Brazil have developed a rather limited understanding and practice of the mission of the church. On the Protestant side, 19th- century puritan, pietist and fundamentalist missionaries from North America brought an understanding of the mission of the church as the conversion of people, especially Roman Catholics, to the Protestant faith. This meant adhering to the North American way of life and rejecting the Brazilian culture. The social, political and economic situation of the country was seen as unimportant in this process, since the aim of believers is only the salvation of “souls”. These missionaries advocated submission to the secular powers while awaiting the time of redemption.

Since the second half of the 19th century, ordained ministers in Brazilian Protes- tant churches have learned to be the leaders of this mission process. For many years most of them have been trained to carry out this limited vision. Theological education reinforced this perspective, creating a whole generation of ministers trained to repro- duce the traditional pastoral profile.

The history of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil has also shown a limited understanding of mission. When Portuguese ships arrived in the 16th century to colo- nize the land and exploit its natural resources, they killed indigenous people and brought black slaves from Africa. Millions of indigenous people were slain and their cultures completely destroyed by the process of colonization. A similar fate has befallen black communities over more than five centuries. The Roman Catholic Church helped to legitimize this process, taking part in colonization under the rubric of evangelization.

While there were always some rare exceptions to this overall portrait, it was in the 1950s that some Protestant laity and ministers in Brazil began to go beyond the traditional model of mission. They learned new ways of being church and accepted new

Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro is a Methodist minister in Baixada Fluminense (Rio de Janeiro). Brazil. Earlier this year he was a visiting scholar at Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, UK.

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HAS LIBERATION THEOLOGY DIED?

mission challenges, especially through their participation in the ecumenical movement. The profound changes in the Roman Catholic Church, particularly due to the openness of the Second Vatican Council (1 962-65), gave many lay people and priests the opportunity to rethink mission in a Brazilian way.

The rise of liberation theology some decades later can be seen as an outcome of their efforts.’ The formation of Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs)* in the Roman Catholic context, the renewal of many Protestant local churches and the organization of ecumenical groups and service centres made possible a new mission understanding.

But if liberation theology provided a theoretical framework to base communities in the 1970s and 1980s, the 1990s have brought many new challenges for mission and new approaches have been necessary. One of the major challenges that must be faced is neo-liberalism - or “late capitalism”, in which financial power has become greater and stronger than the productive forces of human labour. The globalization of the economy has considered national borders as relative, and the free market has become the dominating reference point and aim for society. The power of neo-liberalism is destroying community life worldwide. The situation in Brazil and Latin America as a whole has become more difficult because poverty is rising to inhuman levels and people are unable to achieve social liberation.

At the same time, it is possible that liberation theology has worked with a too-ide- alistic view of community life. Coming closer to reality is thus one of the most important tasks for liberation theology. If this is not done, there is a danger that it will become empty slogans unconnected with everyday life.

Theological reflection in Latin America has made a particular contribution to theology as a whole with its popular methodology of see-judge-act. At any given time, it is necessary to look at the social context and identify the main aspects that characterized society. Our focus here will be on economic globalization and social exclusion, because the main question to be considered is the relation between community life and the neo-liberal system with its individualism, competition, unemployment and poverty. The methodological proposal mentioned above means that the first step is to see the situation.3

Aspects of social reality Biblical and theological thought must be related to reality. This is one of the most

important issues of agreement among 20th-century theologians; and liberation theology has emphasized it powerfully. Thinking theologically today, especially in solidarity with the poor, means seeking light on how to build community life in the context of neo-liberalism.

Concerning the contemporary social and economic situation, it is possible to find ideological support for the neo-liberal system coming from religious quarters. It is very important for church people and theologians who are looking for new ways of being church to be able to discern and describe those forms of religion which grow out of neo-liberal thinking. This kind of experience - we will call it “prosperity theology” - is growing throughout the world and is especially strong in Latin America.

Moreover, the status of liberation theology and the experiences of the base ecclesial communities need to be considered. In the 197Os, base ecclesial communities and liberation theology, especially in Brazil, had their roots mainly in two experiences: urban trade unions and rural poor communities.

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THE ECUMENICAL REVIEW

The urban trade unions were concerned with the relationship between work and capital. Christians were encouraged to think about their work in relation to their faith. Strug- gles against unjust conditions of work and for better distribution of wealth were linked to the biblical injunctions of justice. Theological reflection was done in a context of liberation experiences. At the end of the 1980s and in the 199Os, the situation has become very different. The main tension is not work versus capital, but the accumulation of money and concentration of power in the hands of the financial and banking actors.

A second impetus for liberation theology in the 1970s came from communities who had a small piece of land on which to plant crops. They were trying to achieve land reform and struggling against large companies and landowners. Many poor fami- lies had lost their land and were forced to move to urban areas or remain in desperate conditions in rural areas, in either case facing social exclusion.4 What are the main fea- tures of this situation now?

The power of neo-liberalism 1. The international economy. The 1990s have been marked by globalization and

social exclusion.5 The political practices seen in Brazil and in Latin America are con- sistent with neo-liberal policies established worldwide. The expression “third world” can no longer be used to describe the poor world, because the internationalization of the market is drawing an entirely new map. Today, new borders of an economic order are being set, and these borders reinforce exclusion.

The dominant force in the world today is the market. The countries that are able to take part in the world of the market are those which are able to produce and consume. If not, they are “out”. They cannot change these rules or influence the global system. The neo-liberal ideology, spread through the globalization of information, is making people believe that the market or consumption is the solution for humankind. This is leading people to forget solidarity, making them more individualistic and strengthen- ing prejudices against the poor.

In Brazil, the same logic prevails: people who are able to produce and consume are “in”; those who cannot become obstacles to the “success” of the system. They are not necessary and so they can simply be excluded. There is no time to be devoted or money to be spent to address the situation in which this growing mass of people lives. Eco- nomic globalization is therefore an unbalanced and asymmetrical system. It is based on monopolies sustained by dominant groups and nations.6

Since the defeat of the socialist system, neo-liberalism, the new stage of the capitalist system experienced at the end of 20th century, has been presented as the only way to organize society. One analyst of this process (Francis Fukuyama) has even said that the triumph of capitalism as a political and economic system has meant that the world has reached the “end of history”. This new stage of liberalism, the new international economic order, has three main characteristics that we may briefly note here.

The first is the globalization of the economy. This perspective considers national borders as relative, so that they lose political relevance and the nation-state is weak- ened. The second is the technological revolution, which has transferred the central axis from private property accumulation to an appropriation of technical and scientific knowledge, described by some analysts as intellectual property. And finally, the third aspect is the displacement of the North Atlantic ax is as an economic bloc with hege- mony by the Pacific Rim.

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Since these changes relativize the importance of the contradiction between capitalism and socialism - a basic element in the international political order during the last decade - social analysis needs to take into account the following three points: the international reorganization already referred to, the end of real socialism and the changes in international capitalism.

Some of this analysis has already been done at the beginning of the 1990s. Julio de Santa Ana has written:

Readjustment, which demands high social cost, is a euphemism for sacrifice; that is, if it is true that a process of homogenization of power seems to take place, it is also necessary to recognize that it does not imply “unification” of the peoples of our inhabited world. As far as homogenized powers enforce readjustment on the powerless around market dealings, it is evident that coercion is exercised by the strongest on the weak. Rather than speak of “unification”, i t is more appropriate to talk about “exclusion”. That is, in the emerging situation it seems that one has not the right to be different; to put it in others terms: to affirm people’s identity. Those who have power in the market and who manage the “laws of money” impose their standards upon the views of the rest.’

This new stage of the capitalist system has devalued the labour force through automation and technical specialization, to the detriment of other aspects of public expenditure, such as health and education. This results in the formation of huge masses of humanity who are excluded from the economic system and reduced to inhuman situations of survival or eliminated by death. Paradoxically, in the midst of the process of globalization of economics and information, ethnic, racial and regional conflicts have emerged all over the world.

In such a situation, all groups whose direct or indirect points of reference have been the socialist experiences and utopias have come to at least two conclusions: the absence of a global project as an alternative to neo-liberalism; and the set of perplexi- ties in different fields of knowledge that have usually been called the “crisis of para- digmf.8

2. The growth ofprosperity theology. The 1990s have also seen the rise of new theologies which have supported the market economic ideology in the churches. A pre- dominant concept of mission in the neo-liberal age focuses on the challenge of build- ing large buildings and filling them with people, with worship that seeks to be entertaining but displays little sense of concern for the community. “Efficient” ministers are those who work in large churches with large budgets. This ideology gives no encouragement to young ministers, theological students or lay leaders to involve themselves in popular ministries alongside the people in poor areas. On the contrary, the aim is to see ministry as developing a “successful” ecclesiastical career: to work in a large and rich congregation, earn a good salary, drive a late-model car. Charity work may be developed, but there is no reflection on the causes of poverty. People from the local congregations also internalize the idea that wealth is God’s blessing. The majority of them would like to be rich, thinking that it means being closer to God. Moreover, the Christian life has become a way to consume: T-shirts with evangelistic slogans, large concerts with popular evangelical singers.

As a result of this development some Christian groups have even elaborated what has been called a “theology of prosperity”. While it is especially prominent in some Pentecostal churches and the charismatic movement, it can also be found in the traditional churches, including the Roman Catholic. The advocates of this “theology” pro-

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claim that all those who are faithful to God will prosper in life; that God transforms the gifts received from believers and gives them back for them to enjoy. The logic runs: “If we must give our life to God, pray and contribute our money to the church, all our problems will be solved, because the children of God cannot be poor or ill. The poor and the ill are those who do not have enough faith to have a better life.”

There is an irony that this ideology of “success” has arisen in countries like Brazil where poverty is on the increase, unemployment is a sad and growing reality and public health is neglected. Hearing this message, people have searched for God in order to overcome illness, and to acquire a house, a car, money, a job or even a factory or small business.

Nothing could be more neo-liberal. The reasoning of the prosperity theologians is the same as the logic of the market economy which says: “the poor are poor because they are not able to earn money and consume”; prosperity theology says: “the poor are poor because they do not have enough faith”.

The neo-liberal capitalist system is presented as the victory of nations that are efficient and capable of adapting to the new rules of financial institutions. Adaptation has meant political security. Prosperity theologians present God as all-powerful king, who blesses the success and glory of people and nations who are well adapted to the system.

At the end of this millennium, prosperity theology as a way of understanding God’s action in people’s lives is in direct contrast to the vision presented by liberation theology.

Views from liberation theology 1. The role of Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs). Liberation theology and its

pastoral efforts have contributed significantly to theological and pastoral thought. The theoretical and practical roots of this experience have had a major social relevance and have brought new perspectives for action and reflection, not only in Latin America but internationally.9

The base ecclesial communities movement in Brazil is the result of the attempt to be a church involved with society as its mission. The movement, born in the 1960s, particularly within the Roman Catholic Church, has worked to strengthen lay participation in the life of the church. The place of Bible study has been important, mobiliz- ing Christians for action in community and solidarity with the poor in a struggle for human rights.

The method of education for engagement drew from Paulo Freire’s reflections on education for liberation. As noted above see-judge-act was the formula to be followed: see the events of life, analyze the political situation and the social reality that affect all people; judge the reality analyzed using the Bible - highlighting the narratives of the God of the oppressed who has since the beginning acted with his people towards full- ness of life in solidarity; act based on the needs identified and on biblical reflection.

Through the base communities movement, communities in different parts of Brazil learned about democracy and participation, solidarity and sharing as new ways of being a church. The large number of base communities in rural areas learned about the struggle for land in the Bible, linking it to their struggle in the present; women learned about the struggle of women in the Bible and linked it with their struggle in the present; the poor learned about the injustices committed by the powerful in the Bible and were inspired by the action of the prophets.

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In Brazil this process generated a series of political actions led by Roman Catholics, especially during the time of dictatorship (1964-85). Since then, the Chris- tians’ calling to be involved in the political life of the nation has been reaffirmed, con- fronting the capitalist system. Periodic national meetings, gathering thousands of people from all over the country, have made the base communities movement an “engine” of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil. However, they have also been seen as a threat to the conservative hierarchy.

2. The challenges from economy and culture. The influence of Pope John Paul 11, who has not always welcomed liberation theology, and the crisis in the socialist system especially after 1989 were among the factors which brought a time of crisis to the base communities movement. Some of its allies among the bishops and priests were silenced - either by the Roman Catholic hierarchy or by their own perplexity at the new order. Members broke ranks: some engaged in political movements and gave up on the church; others moved to Pentecostal and evangelical churches, searching for support for their existential and financial issues. Those who were faithful to the proposal of liberation found themselves lost, lacking perspective.

Trying to pursue the method see-judge-act, to continue the educational process in the communities, the movement has been searching for ways to learn from and overcome the crisis. It has reaffirmed the need to be firmly rooted in the realities of life, not losing the method of keeping one eye on what is going on around them and the other on the Bible. It has learned that the socio-political emphasis which was encouraged from the 1960s to the 1980s overlooked some dimensions of life which are as important, such as existential and cultural issues and spirituality.

The economy and the culture are two key elements related to the mission of the community. The economy represents the continuing need to understand neo-liberal policies and the system of social exclusion. Some theologians such as Franz Hinke- lammert, Hugo Assmann, Julio de Santa Ana and Jung Mo Sung, are trying to rethink liberation theology in the light of these new economic realities. Jung Mo Sung has shown that liberation theology, although it has socio-analytical mediation as the first step of its method, has in fact largely overlooked the economy in its analysis.10

The links between theology and economy are some of the most important issues for Latin American theology.II There is a concern to offer a critique of the ideologies and realities supported by prosperity theology. The base ecclesial communities understand the logic of the market system to be very distant from the gospel; and their concrete experience needs to be reflected on in the light of this conviction. The same applies to the relation between the economy and the ecological crisis.12

Addressing the second issue - culture - is also very necessary for an understanding of the reality of people’s lives.13 Reflecting on cultural identity, some theologians and groups within the Latin American ecumenical movement have criticized the “real socialist” system until 1989 as being unable sufficiently to respond to the communities’ needs in precisely this area.

There is another aspect related to the issue of the comprehension of reality. The analysis based on Marxism has been demonstrated as insufficient to make the socio- analytical mediation of theological reflection. 14 Such analysis, starting from the con- tradictions present in the socio-economic area, finds it difficult to unveil other aspects of reality, especially those moved by a social dynamic. Added to this in Latin America is the growing importance of social conflicts which are not class-based - such as eth-

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nic, racial and gender conflicts. This seems to suggest that Marxist analysis needs to be complemented by elements of systemic theory, anthropology and social psychology. In the first half of the 1980s, these issues were already being engaged by several theologians and social scientists and may be revisited and broadened.15

Facing some aspects of social reality, especially the power of neo-liberalism at the end of the millennium, it is possible to indicate some challenges for future theological reflection.

I

Pastoral and theological challenges

The option for the poor God’s activity in history defines the nature of God as one who is constantly lead-

ing his people forward out of situations of exclusion and oppression into situations in which they can become what they were intended to be, the people of God. And this divine care has its ultimate expression in God’s kingdom, which is the trans-historical process by which people are set free from everything that makes them less than human.16

Latin American theological reflection has been based on liberation experiences. This is its object of reflection. Despite this, there is an a priori based on the notion of oppression, il belief that the Latin American situation results from oppression.l’ Even if the social situation does not reveal a liberation process - as is the case during the 1990s - liberation theology continues to maintain a vision of possibilities and challenge because it focuses on any situation of oppression. Therefore, behind this is the criticism of all forms of oppression. In this sense, it is possible to articulate the idea of freedom from a Protestant perspective through the notion of liberation.’*

The main biblical point of reference for liberation theology has been the Exodus experience. Other references important for poor communities have been the books of the prophets, the gospels, Acts and Revelation. However, the feeling of suffering, despair and lack of perspective has also led many communities in Latin America to read and identify with the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs and Lamentations. At this time of questioning and absence of answers many people read the Old Testament Wis- dom books and recognize their own experience reflected there. At the end of the millennium, one of the challenges for liberation theology is to articulate biblical notions of liberation and wisdom.19

God the Liberator and the kingdom of God are two biblical perspectives drawn from the biblical story and salvation-history. That is a Latin American understanding.20 In this sense, theology and pastoral ministry must look to concrete experience, and the “option for the poor” was the way taken by the churches in their awareness of the process of liberation, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. The “option for the poor” has characterized all development of liberation theology.21 The effects of this have spread throughout the world, inspiring people in many different places, groups and churches to a deeper life of faith and commitment. In the 1990s, the “option for the poor” has been rearticulated within black and indigenous communities and in gender struggles. The concepts of solidarity and “otherness” have become stronger.

This raises the question of the power of the poor and of the option for them. In the 1970s and 198Os, especially in Brazil, many groups and theologians were expecting to see power coming from poor people’s movements. Enthusiasm was great, and there

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were many cooperative efforts by popular movements hoping for real and lasting change. It has not happened. The situation of the poor in the 1990s has not improved but worsened. The power of neo-liberalism has brought a feeling of powerlessness, weakness and despair among the poor as the possibilities of social changes have not been realized. Now more than ever, the option for the poor must be grasped. This option means being committed in costly ways, living a life of instability and risk, with- out a chance to be in power or to get power. It is a spiritual and a prophetic calling to follow the way of Christ.

Inculturution as a necessity The expression “self-theologizing” shows how Latin American theology has tried

to find ways of inculturation. This task is different from adaptation, accommodation or even indigenization, in which the main characteristic remains a “one-way traffic” and the criterion has continued to be Western culture, along with feelings of superiority associated with ecclesiocentrism, clericalism, racism and so on.

Inculturation emphasizes the local situation. The local culture involves the entire context: social, economic, political, religious, educational. This process also has to articulate local and regional issues in terms of such macro-cultural manifestations as racial, ethnic and gender issues.22 As David Bosch has written:

These differences on the macro-level explain why, in Latin America, inculturation takes the form of solidarity with and among the poor; in Africa it may be solidarity and communion within and across autonomous cultures; and in Asia the search for identity amid the density of religious pluralism.2’

The practice of inculturation is linked to the notion of incarnation. For the churches it means not so much expansion as the “churches being born anew in each context and culture”.24 This suggests a double movement: inculturation of the faith and evangelization of the culture. The reason for this movement is because the gospel is foreign to every culture. It will always be a sign of contradiction.

Inculturation, as “two-way traffic”, needs to become interculturation. Particularity does not mean isolation. The process of interculturation breaks the isolation produced by an excessive concern about local or sectoral issues. Therefore, the communities and different groups should “act locally and think globally”.

Base ecclesial communities’ national gathering The world has never had as much wealth and technology at its disposal as today.

Yet social problems such as unemployment, hunger, exclusion and genocide have grown. In the midst of all these problems, groups - both religious and secular - insist on resisting them and proclaiming their hope for a different society. They nourish life- values against a culture of death. They proclaim solidarity for those who are suffering, in preference to a society of selfishness and greed. They live a shared life together in opposition to a world of unfair competition. They search for light in the historical practice of Jesus against the false guides of the people. This new spirituality expresses the depth of the gift of life and service: a community of the base, a radical option for the poor and the excluded. They relish the celebration of moving forward together - all this in a hopeful faith in a Liberator God.

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This is the way the base ecclesial communities in Brazil are walking on their journey to celebrate the tenth national gathering in July 2000. The theme will be “CEBs: People of God, Journeying for 2000 Years”; and the motto is “Memory and Journey, Dream and Commitment”. They will have an opportunity to celebrate 25 years of encounters, recalling the memories of day-by-day journeying in the communities, cel- ebrating all signs of life, sharing dreams and confirming their commitment and continuing vision for the future. There has been a collective effort to make the entrance into a new millennium a cry of faith and hope from the communities that aim at being a seed and a sign of the kingdom of God in the world.

There are thousands of communities spread out over Latin America and the Caribbean and on other continents. The majority are very poor people who love their cultural roots and struggle for a better life. Base communities are made up of lay men and women and they are planted, as it were, in the churches and in the people’s struggles, making an effort to witness to a living faith.25

Is there hope? The challenges to mission at this end of the millennium must be connected with

the ways people find to build community life. Theological and pastoral approaches need to offer a critique of individualism and consumerism, including religious expres- sions of these.

Behind all the pastoral initiatives and their biblical and theological concerns lies the question of how to build community life at the present time, in the context of the neo-liberal system and its devastating effects. Is there hope?

In the first place, people involved in concrete experiences in different parts of the world can share what is going on in their “minds and hearts”. The experience of the poor - even if it does not always follow the political expectations of some thinkers - always gives new signs and new challenges. Theological reflection must be connected with this reality, to hear what the poor are saying now and to find the ways to be up-to- date.

Second, it is necessary to be aware of the need for biblical reflection and action. The biblical understanding of faith in the Liberator God, the emphasis on the kingdom of God and the option for the poor need to be reaffirmed. This task must be done col- lectively. At the same time it is necessary to be open to new challenges such as inculturation of the faith, the search for liberation spirituality and ecumenical experience. This dream of hope implies creativity and openness to the future.

NOTES

1 Liberation theology as theoretical reflection takes as its starting point the book of Gustavo Gutitrrez, A Theology of’ liberation: History, Politics and Sulvution, London, SCM Press, 1974, originally published in Spanish in Peru in 197 1. See also Rubem Alves. A Theology of Huniun Hope, Washington, Corpus Books, 1969.

* Different English translations are used for the expression Comunidudes Eclesiuis de Ease (CEBs): “Basic Ecclesial Communities”, “Basic Christian Communities” and so on. In this paper I use the term “Base Ecclesial Communities”. with the understanding that CEBs are living and free communities that belong to the Roman Catholic Church. Where I refer simply to “Base Communities’’ or “Communities”, this includes both CEBs and Protestant communities with a similar profile.

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Cf. Clodovis Boff, Theology and Praxis: Epistemological Foundations, Maryknoll NY. Orbis Books, 1987.

4 For a broader view, see Leonildo Gaede, “Christian Mission and the Fight for the Land”, International Review of Mission, Vol. 85, No. 338, July 1996, pp.389-93; and Francisco de Assis Silva, “Jubilee and Land in Brazil: ‘People not Consumers”’. Thinking Mission, (USPG) April 1999.

5 Among many analyses, see Julio de Santa Ana. ed., Sustainability and Globalization, Geneva, WCC, 1998. Cf. “Search for a New Just World Order: Challenges to Theology”, Voices, (EATWOT) Vol. 20, No. 1, June 1997, pp.9-26.

7 “Mission towards Reconciled Communities”, International Review of Mission, Vol. 79, No. 3 16, Oct. 1990, p.437.

8 Some of these ideas were first written in “Novos DesaFios para urn Novo Milenio: Reflexoes em torno da Teologia e da Pastoral Latino-americanas” [“New Challenges for a New Millennium: Reflections on Latin-American Theology and Pastoral”]. Perspectiva Teologica, Vol. 27, 1995, pp.189-212.

9 There is a large bibliography about liberation theology published in English. For general overviews see Ignacio Ellacuria and Jon Sobrino, eds, Mysterium Liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1993; and Clodovis and Leonardo Boff, Introducing Liberation Theol- ogy, Tunbridge Wells, UK, Burns & Oates, 1987, pp.28-29.

lo Cf. Jung Mo Sung, Teologia e Economia: Repensando a Teologia da Libertacao e utopias [‘Theology and Economy: Rethinking Liberation Theology and Utopias”]. Petropolis, Vozes, 1994; and “Hunger for God. Hunger for Bread, Hunger for Humanity: A Southern Perspective”, in Oscar Bolioli, ed., Hope and Jus- tice for All in the Americas: Discerning God S Mission, New York, Friendship, 1998, pp.35-42; and “Evil in the Free Mentality”, in Concilium, No. 273. 1997, pp.24-32.

11 For an impressive example of how Latin American theology can creatively articulate complex social issues in trying to be closer to reality, see Elsa Tamez, “Globalization and its Effects on the Third World: A Response from Latin America Focussed on Gender”, Voices, Vol. 20, No. 1, June 1997, pp.166-73.

l 2 See Leonardo Boff and Virgil Elizondo, eds, Ecology and Poverfy. Concilium, 1995, No. 5, especially the essay by Julio de Santa Ana, “The Present Socio-Economic System as a Cause of Ecological Imbalance and Poverty” (pp.3- I I ) ; Leonardo Boff, “Liberation Theology and Ecology: Alternative, Confrontation or Complementarity?” (pp.67-77); and Jose Ramos Regidor, “Some Premises for an Eco-Social Theology of Liberation” (pp.78-94).

13 Ecumenical forums have extensively discussed the importance of culture for theological and mission thinking. The relation between gospel and culture in particular has been placed on the agenda of the World Council of Churches since the sixth assembly (Vancouver 1983), leading to the conference on world mission and evangelism in Salvador. Brazil, in 1996. For a broader view see Konrad Raiser, “Gospel and Cul- tures”, International Review of Mission, Vol. 83, No. 331, Oct. 1994, pp.623-29.

14 On this see Enrique Dussel, “Theology of Liberation and Marxism”, in Ellacuria and Sobrino eds, op. cit.,

15 Cf. Rubem Cesar Fernandes, “Qua1 a Medida da Ferramenta Marxista?” [“What is the Measure of the Marxist Tool”] Comunicap5es do ISER, Vol. 2, No. 6, 1983. A number of well-known theologians and social scientists responded to Fernandes, deepening the discussion of the issue.

I6 Cf. Charles Elliott, I s There a Liberation Theology for the UK?, York University, UK, Heslington Lecture, 1985: for another British understanding of liberation theology see John Vincent and Chris Rowland, eds. Liberation Theology, Sheffield, UK, Urban Theology Unit, 1995.

17 Cf. Felix Alexandre Pastor. 0 Reino e a Historia: Problemas Teoricos de uma Teologia da Praxis [“The Kingdom and History: Theoretical Problems of a Theology of Praxis ”I, Sao Paulo, Loyola, 1982.

18 As Walter Altman has well done in Luther and Liberation: A Lafin-American Perspective, Minneapolis, Fortress, 1991 ; “The Reception of Luther’s Concept of Freedom in Latin American Liberation Theology”, in Lutherjahrbuch, Vol. 62, 1995, pp. 167-68; “A Latin-American Perspective on the Cross and Suffering”, in Yacob Tesfay, ed., The Scandal of a Crucified World: Perspectives on the Cross and Suffering, Mary- knoll NY. Orbis, 1994; and “Methodology of Latin-American Liberation Theology and a Contextual Re- reading of Luther”, in Andreas Nehring, ed., Prejudice: Issues in Third World Theologies, Madras, Gurukul Summer Institute, 1996.

19 See Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink,from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People, London, SCM Press, 1985; On Job: God-talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1987; The God of Life. Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1991.

2” At the end of the 1970s. Gustavo GutiCrrez systematized the theological experience “from the underside of history” in his book The Power of the Poor in History: Selected Writings, London, SCM Press, originally published in Spanish in Peru in 1979. In this work, Gutikrrez offers a biblical overview of the sources of liberation theology, liberation praxis and Christian faith from Medellin to Puebla, and theological understanding from the underside of history through historical power of the poor.

pp.85- 102.

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It could be said that Latin American theological reflection as whole has taken the “option for the poor” as its reference point. See especially Clodovis Boff and Jorge Pixley, The Bible, the Church and Poor: Bib- lical, Theological and Pastoral Aspects of the Option for the Poor, Tunbridge Wells, UK, Bums & Oates. 1989; Julio de Santa Ana, ed., Towards a Church of the Poor, Geneva, WCC, 1979; Victorio Araya, God of the Poor: The Mystery of God in Latin American Liberation Theology, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1987; Jon Sobrino, The True Church and the Poor, London, SCM Press, 1985.

22 For the Brazilian case, see International Review of Mission, Vol. 85, No. 338, July 1996, especially the articles by Jaider Batista, “Forms of Indigenous Missionary Action: A Brief Survey” (pp.395-401); Silvia Regina de Lima Silva, “Mission and Afro-Brazilian Cultural Reality”, pp.403-408; and Nancy Cardoso Pereira, “Damned, Pleasure-Loving and Devout: Women and Religion”, pp.447-59.

23 D. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigms in the Theology of Mission, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1991,

24 [bid. In this sense, Leonard0 Boff has indicated the task of reinventing the church using the concept of “ecclesiogenesis”: cf. Ecclesiogenesis: rhe Base Communities Reinvent /he Church, Maryknoll NY, Orbis, 1986.

25 Cf. briefing notes from National Committee of Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) in Brazil (May 1999).

p.454.

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has liberation theology died

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