Global IssuesLIBERATION THEOLOGY IS MORE VALID, AND MORE NEEDED, THAN EVER
Since its beginnings in the 1960s, Liberation Theology has adopted a global perspective, focusing on the conditions of the poor and oppressed throughout the world, victims of a system that thrives off the exploitation of labour and the plundering of nature, writes Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer and co-author of the Earth Charter.
In this column, Boff writes that today this theology has transcended the borders of religion and become a socio-political force. In addition to Brazilian President Lula, the current presidents of Ecuador, Paraguay, Venezuela, and the UN Assembly have all identified themselves publicly with Liberation Theology. Its primary force lies not in the pulpits of theologians but rather in the innumerable grass-roots church communities (there are about 100,000 in Brazil alone) and Bible-reading groups that see scripture in the context of social oppression and the so-called pastoral missions.
Rome remains caught in the profound illusion that its doctrinal documents, emitted by cold bureaucracies far from where the faithful live, will succeed in reining in Liberation Theology. As long as the poor continue their lament and the Earth suffers the rage of consumerism and the mania of production, there will be a thousand reasons to listen to the call of a revolutionary and liberational interpretation of the scriptures. Liberation Theology is a response to an unjust reality and is saving the central church from its alienation and cynicism.
(*) Leonardo Boff, a Brazilian theologian and writer, is co-author of the Earth Charter.
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