Liberation Theology

(Note: I wanted to share a bit about a class I am taking, but this is not a blind endorsement of Liberation theology in it's totality, and its authors, ideas, etc.):
Liberation theology is a movment that arose in the predominantly Roman Catholic regions of Latin America during the late 60's and early 70's. "Latin American Liberation tehology is a reflection on God's activity and God's transforming grace amongst those who are the victims of modern history" (Rebecca S. Chopp). This is a theology that stresses Jesus' way of living with the poor and opressed, offering them dignity and salvation as God's beloved children - especially favoring the term "liberation"; this theology is often critical of social structures, and is inherently practical.

This theology arose largely in response to the oppression of the poor by their situations in life: for example, select national and international coprorations were pillaging the resouces of South America, in the form of cheap labor from people, and natural resouces such as minerals, metals, and the trees of the raiforests along the Amazon, while destroying any indegineous people in their way. Totalitarian governments were commonplace, and military governments often sided with the rich and powerful; the poor often had little or no voice - and at large the church stood by and watched, until a bishops conference in Medellin Columbia in 1968, where what might be called the founding documents o liberation theology were chartered. Liberation theology seeks to re-view Jesus and his teachings about the Kingdom of God, and calls the church to be in solidarity with the oppressed and downtrodden, also seeking their liberation.

I will be covering all of the books read for this class, but fo now here is the Bibliography for those interested:

Daniel M. Bell, Jr. Liberation Theology After the End of History: The Refusal to Cease Suffering.
Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor.
William T. Cavanaugh, Torture and Eucharist.
James H. Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation.
Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, En la lucha=In the Struggle: A Hispanic Woman’s Liberation Theology.
Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” [Xerox].
Jon Sobrino, Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach.
Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor.

Shalom~Thomas