Liberation of the Oppressed: What Is Liberation Theology?

Liberation theology emerged in South America in the 1960s and 1970s as a response to widespread poverty and the sliding legitimacy of the Catholic Church in relation to real-world problems. Among its most influential proponents was Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian Catholic theologian, philosopher, and Dominican priest. Gutierrez argued that excessive emphasis on eschatology (the doctrine of the last things) and divine revelation should not take precedence over the church’s responsibility to work toward the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

The movement for a theology of liberation in Latin America also inspired similar theologically driven efforts to confront social injustice in countries from India to the United States. 

During the Second Vatican Council, commonly known as Vatican II (1962-65), the Catholic Church sought to become more attuned to the modern world. In this context, a broad section of South American theologians seized the opportunity to address the pressing global challenges of their time. 

In 1968, Larin American bishops convened in Medellin, Columbia to discuss and expand on the principles of Vatican II. Critically, they reframed poverty not as the predetermined fate of the poor but as a form of “institutionalized violence” against the children of God (Morales-Franceschini, 2018). This marked a profound shift in the discourse of the church, as poverty became a universal sin that implicated all Christians until it was eradicated on earth. 

The result was that a theology of liberation took root across Latin America during the 1960s and early 1970s, giving rise to a movement that combined Christian faith with a radical commitment to social justice. 

A Theology of Liberation (1971)

The term “liberation theology” was coined by Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez in his 1968 lecture “Hacia una teologia de la liberación” (“Towards a Theology of Liberation”). Gutierrez elaborated and fleshed out these ideas in his seminal, foundational text A Theology of Liberation (1971).

Gutierrez’s work defined a new way of doing theology. Engaging with Marxist ideas, he called for a theology rooted in practical action (praxis) that interpreted the lives of the poor in light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Critically, he argued that liberation must go beyond spiritual salvation to encompass the fight against the sins of political, social, and economic injustice. 

For Gutierrez, salvation was not a promise to be realized in heaven but a worldly problem to be solved. In his vision, a new church must be realized and charged with the mission of standing as a prophetic institution, in active solidarity with the poor, championing justice and social renewal for all. 

A powerful tradition of black liberation theology emerged in the United States during the 1960s. Born out of frustration with the struggle for civil rights and the failure of the “white” church to meaningfully engage with the realities of black life. Rooted in the principles of the Black Power movement, the teachings of Malcolm X and Dr Martin Luther King Jr, the theology of black liberation emphasized solidarity with the oppressed as its central tenet. 

In the fight for black civil rights, white supremacy was condemned for corrupting white Christians and rendering the white church incapable of speaking for the oppressed. In response, black theologians such as James Cone (1938-2018) reinterpreted the Christian gospels to identify the crucifixion of Jesus Christ with the lynching of black Americans. 

Theologians of black liberation take the historical Jesus as their inspiration – a radical figure who spoke for the oppressed and ran the moneylenders out of the temple. Through the lens of black experience, liberation is revealed as the message of Jesus Christ, affirming unequivocally that God stands firmly on the side of the oppressed. 

Dalit Theology 

Dalit activism in India has long been shaped by global influences and connections. From the collaboration between Dalit leader B.R Ambedkar and American activist-intellectual W.E.B Du Bois in the 1940s, to the formation of the Dalit Panthers in 1972, inspired by the Black Panther movement in the United States, and the mass conversion of Dalits to Navayana Buddhism in 1956, Dalit activism in India has always been international. 

In the context of liberation theology, Arvind P. Nirmal’s (1936-1995) Dalit Theology reimagined Christianity through the lens of Dalit experiences. Drawing inspiration from the Latin American tradition, Nimral proposed a theology ‘from below’ uniquely attuned to the realities of Dalit oppression in India. He was critical of the colonial legacy of a “Western Christ” brought to India by missionaries and condemned the silence of the Indian Church on Dalit oppression. Dalit theology was accordingly positioned as a theology “of the Dalits, by the Dalits, and for the Dalits.’