Liberation Theology And Marx Flashcards
What did Oscar Romeo’s death birth
Liberation theology
What is liberation theology
Liberation theology is a contextual theology which believes at the heart of the Christian message is to provide spiritual and material justice and freedom to the poor and oppressed
What is a contextual theory
A contextual theory si a type of theory in which theologians reflect on particular situations in light of experiences and within Christian tradition
- liberation theology is a contextual theology responding to the situations if the plight of the poor politically and spiritually
Why has liberation theology been deemed dangerous by the church and authorities
- due to it putting the needs of the poor before the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church
- deemed as radical and subversive
Why is liberation theology described as a bottom up theology
- LT believes it is right for the church to be involved in material conditions of society
- because good cretaed the material world, matter and spirituality, they are all parts of the same reality
- called bottom up because it begins with the material conditions of the poor rather than imposing official church teaching on the poor
- Marx agreed with this
What is Marx idea of historical materialism
- central to his philosophy is that world processes are governed by material physical forces
- when humans are in harmony with the material forces they feel useful, purposeful and productive
- however this is never stable, historical materialism talks about how we are in a cycle of working towards harmony, then harmony being destroyed and rebuilt
What was Marx interested in investigating
What causes this social instability
- one answer to this was exploitation and alienation
- alienation is the degrading of a human to a object rather being valued as an individual
What was one of the causes of alienation (2 reasons why)
Marx argued one of the causes of alienation kf people was belief in god
1. Marx rejctes the notion that god is the driving force of history. The belief that god is in control not material forces leads to false hopes and illusions
2. Religions gives power to the state of ruling group and provides them with justification for the power such as gods natural order is that people are born to rule and some are to be slaves. Everyone will be sorted out in heaven
- abolitions of god would be the first step to overcome exploitation and alienation
What was another cause of alienation and exploitation
Capitalism
- one cause of exploitation and alienation is the ownership of the means of production. In a capitalist society what matters is the production of goods
- due to this everyone becomes alienated and exploited especially the worker who has no control over production and is “an appendage to the machine” he has no input and hates his work
- even when he receives his wages it goes to the bourgeoise and is further exploited
What happens when the exploited realise their postition is not ordained by god or natural order
- they try and free themselves
- however the bourgeoise respond with violent oppression as a means of keeping their power
- proletariats are workers
What is praxis
Praxis is the idea that history is constantly changing, humans have the ability to understand the material conditions of any situation and change them
- praxis begins by analysing a situation where there is injustice or oppression, working out what has caused it and then changing it
What si the problem with philosophy according to Marx
Philosophy anlayses the world but does nothing to change it
- liberation theologians agree, the point of philosophy is to change the world not to think about it theoretically
Why do liberation theologians find Marx’s analysis useful
As it refocuses theology on the world whereas traditional theology has focused on abstract notions such as the original sin
What impacts has Marx’s notion of historical materialism and reversal have on liberation theologians
- Marx’s notion of historical materialism is what causes liberation theology to become a bottom up than top down theology, as Marx argued that when we can understand the material and economic basis of society we can understand the
