liberation theology and Marx Flashcards
challenges
what is liberation theology?
-focuses on action first (orthopraxy - right practice) rather than belief (orthodoxy - right belief)
-requires Christians to reflect critically on their experiences in life
-focuses on the experiences of the poor and sees Christianity as an opportunity to respond to poverty and other examples of exploitation and alienation in the world
-it is a theory linked to Marx’s analysis of capitalism
-capitalism, Marx, creates a world in which the wealth and power are concentrated in the hands of the few at the expense of many
where did Liberation theology begin?
-theological movement that began in 1964 when young Catholic theologians met in Brazil and vowed to find what the true Christian message was in the face of the poverty of Latin America
-it is therefore both an intellectual movement but also a practical one
-two members of the group became leading liberation theologians: Jon Sobrino and Gustavo Gutierrez
-Freire, ‘conscientisation’ - when a person becomes aware of the power structures in society, education wasn’t the movement of knowledge from one person to the next but about finding ways to transform society
what does Liberation Theology promote?
-promotes Kingdom of God is central to LT
-it is the wold made anew - not where you go when you die
-the coming of the Kingdom of God is something that must be hoped and worked for in this world
-Gutierrez, liberation happens in two ways:
1. there must be social and economic liberation – poverty and oppression are caused by humans and can be alleviated by them, people must take responsibility and act
2. people must be liberated from sin, reconciled with God and all of God’s brothers and sisters in Christ
Marxism and Liberation Theology
-the more humans have the power to control the world, the more they feel they are not in control
-Marx’s writings (‘The Communist Manifesto’ and ‘Das Kapital’) often reflect these feelings
-Marx believed: it is human activity behind these experiences of powerlessness (alienation), humans do not have a fixed nature but have to work to survive, unlike animals we are conscious of our work and can develop new ways of doing things
how does Capitalism happen?
-when human society reaches a point hat it can create a surplus (produce more resources than what is needed for your direct community) it begins to fracture
-class divisions emerge between those who have control over the means of producing this surplus and those who do not
-evident through ownership of land: feudal lords - own the land so have means to produce food, the serfs - work the land but do not own it, are reliant on the lords for access to the land, must give surplus back to them, are alienated from the land and subservient to the lords
Marx’s views on capitalism
-capitalism = an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit
-capitalism changed the relationship between people and production resulting in social division = the wealthy owners vs the workers
-Marx: workers cannot work independently of capitalism, to work means to be part of the capitalist machine, work is a living death; labour becomes forced of the need to work for money and thus food
example: apple production line
-factor system, where the stages of production are separated, people only relate to the part of the process they are working on, they are dehumanised and unable to live fulfilling lives because they are being exploited by the factor owners as a means to an end
the problems with capitalism
-Marx predicted the emergence of a class struggle between the different groups in society and eventually in order to create a fairer society, those who were oppressed would begin to violently resist the structures that alienate them
-capitalism means everyone seizes the produce of others, alienating them from their own labour
-our happiness comes at a price = the exploitation of others (cheap labour), because we are part of the supply chain we are dehumanised as well
emergence of Liberation Theology and links to Marxism
-Latin America was an underdeveloped part of the world where many people lived in poverty
-cross roads: stick with capitalism or choose socialism?
-ideological battle impacted general elections, caused violence and revolution, socialist governments were overthrown with the help of the USA and communists led rebel movements
-violent uprising that Marx had predicted seemed to be happening in Latin America
-led to Liberation Theology, a focus on increasing human well-being not wealth
Gutierrez
-being Christian requires a person to be political (synoptic link: person of Jesus Christ)
-the Church must be a voice against alienation and exploitation, requiring orthopraxis before orthodoxy
-working to change people’s lives for the better should come before concerns about the official doctrines and teachings of the Church
-Marxist analysis of structural inequality (which we embrace) informs LT’s concept of structural sin
-structural sin = accepting the injustice suffered by the poor and oppressed masses
-what LT takes from Marxism:
1. understanding of the development of capitalism (means of production in the hands of the wealthy and powerful
2. belief that humans could change the world they live in
Gutierrez continued
-cautions against endorsing every aspect of Marxism (Marx didn’t support religion in society, was an atheist approach) but believed that the people of Latin America had a deep rooted desire for liberation from the burdens of capitalism
-“liberation theology freely borrows from Marxism certain ‘methodical pointers’ that have proved fruitful in understanding the role of the oppressed” - Boff and Boff
-liberation theology concluded that capitalism failed to satisfy the basic needs of the poor and although socialism may not be a perfect solution, the socialist is better than the capitalist ideal
-“According to liberation theology, capitalism has clearly been incapable of satisfying basic needs in Latin America, despite the fact that government and business leaders are professed Christians” - Fitzgerald
Liberation theology’s teaching on the ‘preferential option for the poor’
-used in 1968 by Father Pedro Arrupe, was picked up by the Catholic bishops of Latin America
-refers to:
1.the trend in the Bible that shows a preference for individuals who are on the margins of society and who are powerless
2.the way in which Jesus associated himself more closely with the poor and dispossessed
-became a central theme in liberation theology
-Segundo, Christians shouldn’t maintain an attitude of neutrality in the face of tragic and pressing problems of human misery and injustice, writes that the Church “intends to struggle, by her own means, for the defence and advancement of the rights of mankind, especially of the poor”
-differed from Gutierrez (held that social and economic liberation must precede liberation from sin) Segundo = believed that liberation from sin should come first because it might not be possible to change the world’s social and political structure
continued
-just as God is the defender and liberator of the poor and oppressed, so LT has a special concern for the poor and oppressed and it urges people to action to defend and liberate them
-1991, Pope John Paul II, said “i defined as a ‘special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity’”
-went to argue that the preferential option for the poor constitutes a great opportunity for the moral, cultural and even economic growth of humanity
-made it clear that the preferential option for the poor includes a concern for spiritual poverty and doesn’t focus exclusively on material or economic poverty
-spiritual poverty is something that can be caused by an over emphasis on material goods and consumerism writing “drugs, as well as pornography and other forms of consumerism which exploit the frailty of the weak, tend to fill their resulting spiritual void”
-following 2013 election, Pope Francis (from Latin America) has developed this thinking even further, rejecting the trapping of papal luxury and challenging the Catholic Church to be a poor Church for the poor
Catholic Church’s response to Liberation Theology
-became concerned with Liberation theology’s use of Marxist theories
-Ratzinger articulated the Catholic disquiet
-argued that the Catholic Church will continue to struggle for the poor but using its own means and its own ways
-Christianity cannot adopt a Marxist analysis without changing from a Christian world view to a Marxist world view because Marxism is inherently unchristian
-“let us recall the fact that atheism and the denial of the human person, his liberty and rights, are at the core of the Marxist theory” Theology of Liberation
Further criticisms towards Liberation theology
-Kloppenberg in ‘Temptations for the Theology of Liberation’ argues that by equating theology with political action, one side-lines the spiritual messages of Christianity
-emphasises structural sin over personal sin, despite the fact that Jesus spoke of individual forgiveness and reconciliation with God
-places too much emphasis on people being able to deliver liberation and salvation, whereas salvation is a gift from God
-McBrien adds that Liberation theology seems to focus almost exclusively on some biblical themes, e.g poverty in Exodus at the expense of others, defines oppression in economic terms, ignoring other kinds of oppression that derive from cultural forces (e.g sexism and racism)
-LT was formally viewed with suspicion by the Catholic Church, the election of the first ever Latin American Pope (Pope Francis) indicated a change of heart
