Liberation theology is a school of Roman Catholic thought which teaches that a primary duty of the church must be to promote social and economic justice. In this book, Christian Smith explains how and why the liberation theology movement emerged and succeeded when and where it did.

Daniel Bell assesses the impact of Christian resistance to capitalism in Latin America, and the implications of theological debates that have emerged from this. He uses postmodern critical theory to investigate capitalism, its effect upon human desire and the Church's response to it, in a thorough account of the rise, failure and future prospects of Latin American liberation theology.

Looking beyond prominent figures or major ecclesial events, Liberation Theology and the Others offers a fresh historical perspective on Latin American liberation theology. Thirteen case studies, from Mexico to Uruguay, depict a vivid picture of religious and lay activism that shaped the profile of the Latin American Catholic Church in the second half of the 20th century. Stressing the transnational character of Catholic activism and its intersections with prevalent discourses of citizenship, ethnicity or development, scholars from Latin America, the US, and Europe, analyze how pastoral renewal was debated and embraced in multiple local and culturally diverse contexts. Contributors explore the connections between Latin American liberation theology and anthropology in Peru, armed revolutionaries in highland Guatemala, and the implementation of neoliberalism in Bolivia. They identify conceptions of the popular church, indigenous religiosity, women’s leadership, and student activism that circulated among Latin American religious and lay activists between the 1960s and the 1980s. By revisiting the multifaceted and oftentimes contingent nature of church reforms, this edited volume provides fascinating new insights into one of the most controversial religious movements of the 20th century.

Emmanuel Levinas' Conceptual Affinities with Liberation Theology analyzes Levinas' work in relation to two important liberation theologians, Gustavo Gutiérrez and Jon Sobrino, whose scholarship, like his, needs to be brought into greater contemporary debate about the subject's encounter with the other. More specifically, this book argues that for Levinas, Gutiérrez, and Sobrino, commitment to the neighbor is the necessary context for «understanding» God. They posit the human other as the possibility of the subject's subjectivity. To be human is to act with love toward one's neighbor. Thus, the author articulates the possibility of reading Levinas' philosophy as a revalidation of one of the truths of Christianity: the concern for the humanity of every human person as expressed in Christian theology in general and liberation theology in particular. In order to show the relevance of Levinas' philosophy for Christian theology in general, the author discusses three Christian scholars, Enrique Dussel, Jean-Luc Marion, and Michael Purcell. Although they challenge some aspects of Levinas' philosophy, they nevertheless see its significance for Christian theological anthropology. The discussion concludes by proposing Levinas' philosophy and liberation theology's turn to the neighbor as significant for addressing contemporary socio-political and ethnic conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa.

This exploration of Iberian, Latin American, and US-Hispanic representations of Christ focuses on outliers in art, literature, and theology: Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, Spanish existentialist Miguel de Unamuno, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff, and Mexican philosopher José Vasconcelos, some of the most brilliant stars in the Spanish and Latin American firmament. Their work, and that of others, stands out from the conventional and the traditional, stretching our imagination by opening our eyes to what we do not want to see. The author also reflects on such significant lesser-known writers as New Mexican author, painter, and priest Fray Angélico Chávez; Argentine writer and political leader Ricardo Rojas, author of The Invisible Christ; Mexican American theologian Virgilio Elizondo; and Chicana feminist Gloria Anzaldúa, author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. He shows how artists project their concerns onto representations of Christ and how the perceptions of the reader and viewer reflect their culture and their psychology. Along the way, Candelaria explores the philosophical issues of representation in aesthetics and the problems of hermeneutics and identity.

The Future of Liberation Theology envisions a radical new direction for Latin American liberation theology. One of a new generation of Latin American theologians, Ivan Petrella shows that despite the current dominance of 'end of history' ideology, liberation theologians need not abandon their belief that the theological rereading of Christianity must be linked to the development of 'historical projects' - models of political and economic organization that would replace an unjust status quo. In the absence of historical projects, liberation theology currently finds itself unable to move beyond merely talking about liberation toward actually enacting it in society. Providing a bold new interpretation of the current state and potential future of liberation theology, Ivan Petrella brings together original research on the movement, with developments in political theory, critical legal theory and political economy to reconstruct liberation theology's understanding of theology, democracy and capitalism. The result is the recovery of historical projects, thus allowing liberation theologians to once again place the reality of liberation, and not just the promise, at the forefront of their task.

Marcella Althaus-Reid has drawn together a number of the most exciting Liberation Theologians currently working in Latin America and beyond whose work offers a wider and more complex critique of reality which is prepared to engage with issues of sexuality, race, gender, culture, globalization and new forms of popular piety. The contributors show that Christianity in Latin America cannot avoid taking into account and engaging with issues concerning sexuality and poverty when reflecting on the construction of Christian faith and identity. They represent Liberation Theology in motion: dynamic, unsettling, still struggling with orthodoxy while engaging in the broad struggle for justice that includes sexual justice. This is the paperback edition of a ground-breaking book by one of the UK's most interesting theologians of the current generation.

“Here sleeps the Indian Manuel Quintín Lame Chantre, October 7, 1967. He was a man who did not bow his head before injustice.” In the Colombian Andes, Indians wrote that epitaph on the cross above Lame’s grave because he led them in a just struggle against “civilization”: against the “whites” and their system that has oppressed and dehumanized the Indians. The first part of this book is a thorough introduction to Lame’s life, his thought, and his historical context: the world of the Indians of the Colombian Andes. The second part of the book contains “Los Pensamientos,” a work written by Lame about a series of theological themes: nature, injustice, God, rebellion, oppression, hope, liberation . . . Gustavo Gutiérrez has written: “One day a theology should develop that comes from the poor themselves. Liberation theology is just one step along the way in this search. I see it as a kind of theological crutch, to be used until the poor create a theology of their own experience, their own world.” Lame’s work answers Gutiérrez’s call. It is a theology that “comes from the poor themselves,” and in its originality, boldness, and propheticism, Lame’s theology surpasses that written by those with ties to the unjust “civilization” that Lame spent much of his life combating.

A substantial and definitive introduction to public theology by one of the leading experts in the field.A key text for third year undergraduate modules and MA courses in Social Ethics, Political Theology and Public Theology.

Christian Realism and Liberation Theology provides the best interpretation and critique we have of liberation theology. Equally important, however, is McCann's interpretation of Reinhold Niebuhr. For it is McCann's contention that Niebuhr is best appreciated as attempting to provide a form of spirituality sufficient to sustain the frustrations of political struggle. By bringing Niebuhr and liberation theology into creative contrast McCann not only illuminates the contributions and shortcomings of each but helps us better understand the issues confronting the development of an adequate Christian social ethic. This is a book that has needed writing for some time. We are in McCann's debt. -- Stanley Hauerwas, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics Divinity School, Duke University