liberation theology Flashcards
alienation and exploitation
Kubitschek - ‘sin against christ’
The liberation theologian Gutierrez warned against using all of Marxism but said that Christianity could benefit from using Marx’s theories of alienation and exploitation
Marx introduced the idea that when humans are unable to live fulfilling lives due to being ‘dehumanised’, this results in a form of alienation.
Humans are dehumanised when they are exploited, and this is a result of being treated as objects and used as a means to an end.
Marx believed thatwage labour(paying people to do a job)alwaysinvolved exploiting them. This is because to make a profit the employer has to pay the labourer less for their work than the economic value of the thing they produce
poverty and oppression alienated people from their God-given human nature. Capitalist society had been guilty of seeing people as a raw material for making money rather than as fellow human beings created in the image of God. Liberation theologians aimed to restore the dignity of the poor by giving them autonomy and some control over their own destiny.
Miranda - alienation is caused by humans falsely objectifying the world end treating it as a possession
should christianity be influenced by marx
MARX - religion is one of the more powerful tools to oppress the workers. - “It is the opiate of the people” (from the introduction to a book on Hegel). Opium as a drug was used to dull pain and get away from the troubles of this world. The alienated and exploited people were ‘given’ religion in the same way.
Christian theology should keep away from atheist ideologies - Church should be prepared to remain distinctive and not try to assimilate with such beliefs because it would suggest that truth can be found outside the revelation of Jesus Christ and the Bible.
Kee - Liberation theologians can’t pick and choose which bits of Marxism fit their own theories.
an attempt to faithfully follow Jesus’ teaching to help the poor and the influence of Marx is merely in detailing the method for efficiently achieving that goal. There is nothing antithetical to Christianity about that kind of influence. In fact, it is helping Christians be true to the teachings of Jesus.
L. Boff also agreed with this stance, arguing that liberation theology can draw on Marx’s ‘methodological pointers’ to help understand ‘the role of the oppressed’.
Cardinal Ratzinger - should be remembered that atheism and the denial of human rights and freedoms is at the core of Marxism. Marxism is intrinsically unchristian and so Christianity should not use it as a lens to view society.
A. F. McGovern claims that liberation theologians are not Marxist because they are not atheists nor even materialists. They avoid starting their analysis with class struggle, which is where Marx starts.
If Christianity was reformed along liberation theology’s doctrines, it would no longer simply be a tool of capitalist exploitation (due to the presence of base communities - self-reliant worshipping communities - and lack of hierarchy). So, there is no problem with a Christian movement like liberation theology being influenced by Marx since his anti-religious arguments do not apply to liberation theology
Dom Helder Camara
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist”.
traditional Church is fulfilling Marx’s critique of religion as serving the interests of the powerful, by refusing to deal with the economic structural causes of poverty
The preferential option for the poor
phrase first used by Father Pedro Arrupe - Jesus said the poor and less fortunate were blessed, especially in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. This suggests that addressing poverty is part of the example for us set by Jesus - responds to jesus’ call
parable of the Sheep and the Goats, that humans will be judges based on their recognition of Jesus in the needy
Even Jesus taught “the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me” (Matthew 26:11)
Liberation theologians think that Marx’s economic analysis of society shows that addressing poverty requires addressing the structural causes of economic inequality.
Segundo, for example, argued that the preferential option for the poor meant that Christians should not be neutral when it comes to injustice and its political causes. The church should fight for the rights of all people but especially the poor, he thought
- Romero - The church cannot remain silent before such an abominable situation
Pope John Paul II thought that the preferential option for the poor was an important part of ‘Christian charity’. However, he added that dealing with spiritual poverty was an important focus not just economic poverty. Paul II talks about charity, implying the solution is charity not political action
Guitierez’s argument that economic poverty needs to be addressed before spiritual poverty since economic poverty is an impediment to spiritual liberation. Liberation theologians claimed that capitalism has failed the basic needs of people in Latin America, even though the government and business leaders are all Christian. The implication therefore is that Christianity plus capitalism are insufficient and so true Christianity should advocate for something other than mere capitalism.
biblical basis
Jesus said “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God’ – Matthew 19:24
“Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” Matthew 6:25
Kloppenburg - fusing theology and political action diminishes the spiritual message of Christianity. Liberation theology focuses on the injustice and sin in the structure of society, but Jesus spoke about the sin and forgiveness of individual people, he didn’t speak about society in general
Exodus involved the liberation of Jews from the oppression of the Pharaoh - God clearly cares about freeing people from social oppression which seems to back up liberation theology. Christianity sees itself as an expansion of the Jewish covenant to all humanity
At his trial, Jesus claimed ‘My kingdom is not of this world’
Pope John Paul II draws on this verse, arguing that overly focusing on earthly socio-economic progress is “anthropocentric”, meaning human-focused (leading to secularisation and lack of genuine spirituality
orthopraxis (right action) before orthodoxy (official Church teaching)
for Marx, the solution to the problem of exploitation was for the workers themselves to own the means of production. This would remove the problem of exploitation because they would not be being paid less for their work than the value of their work.
The 1968 Medellin document was a manifesto of a new church committed to social and economic transformation. It blamed Latin America’s poverty on its economy of exporting of raw materials and resulting dependency on the richer countries who bought them. (but didnt induce a lot of action/change
liberation theologians supported the land reforms which sought to end the uneven distribution of land in Latin America. In addition to this some CEBs were able to organise trade cooperatives which gave the poor the option of selling the product of their labours for a fair price in return.
in some ways the CEBs could be seen as an attempt to ‘own the means of production’ in religious terms. Rather than being passive consumers of religion provided for them the poor became theologians and interpreted the bible in the light of their own situation.
Jose Porfirio Miranda made the point that liberation theology does not have the necessary (Marxist) focus on revolution in order to bring about real change.
For example, the CELAM conferences 1955 made good headway with ideas on how to liberate the poor (develop a radical theology from a conservative church), but did not actually enact any change. (+were all bishops)
