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The Power Of The Poor In History
Gustavo Gutierrez, the doyen of the Latin American liberation theologians, published his landmark 'A Theology of Liberation' in English in 1973. In 'The Power of the Poor in History' he presents in eight major essays his developing theological insights.
Unknown Binding
First published January 24, 2012
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About the author
Gustavo Gutiérrez
99 books127 followersGustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz was a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest who was one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America. His 1971 book A Theology of Liberation is considered pivotal to the formation of liberation theology. He held the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and was a visiting professor at universities in North America and Europe.
Gutiérrez studied medicine and literature at the National University of San Marcos before deciding to become a priest. He began studying theology at the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and in Lyon, France.
His theological focus connected salvation and liberation through the preferential option for the poor, with an emphasis on improving the material conditions of the impoverished. Gutiérrez proposed that revelation and eschatology have been excessively idealized at the expense of efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. His methodology was often critical of the social and economic injustice he believed to be responsible for poverty in Latin America, and of the Catholic clergy. The central pastoral question of his work was: "How do we convey to the poor that God loves them?"
Gutiérrez studied medicine and literature at the National University of San Marcos before deciding to become a priest. He began studying theology at the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and in Lyon, France.
His theological focus connected salvation and liberation through the preferential option for the poor, with an emphasis on improving the material conditions of the impoverished. Gutiérrez proposed that revelation and eschatology have been excessively idealized at the expense of efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. His methodology was often critical of the social and economic injustice he believed to be responsible for poverty in Latin America, and of the Catholic clergy. The central pastoral question of his work was: "How do we convey to the poor that God loves them?"
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June 27, 2024
A COMPILATION OF EIGHT OF GUTIÉRREZ’S TEXTS ABOUT LIBERATION THEOLOGY
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino (born 1928) is a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest who is regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology. He holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He has written other books such as A Theology of Liberation; We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People; On the Side of the Poor: The Theology of Liberation; The Power of the Poor in History]], etc.
The publishers wrote in the Foreword to this 1979 book, “[We] are pleased to publish this compilation of eight works by Gustavo Gutiérrez, the pioneer of liberation theology in Latin America. The eight selected texts represent complementary moments and focuses on his theological reflection from 1969 to the present. What these moments and focuses have in common in their point of departure, their presence ‘from within’---their author’s continuous attention to the particular set of problems being encountered and worked on in the Latin American church through the course of those so rich and demanding years… The author has reviewed all these texts for publication as a single collection, making numerous revisions and updating.”
In the first essay, Gutiérrez notes, “our reading of the Bible will be a MILITANT reading. The great questions about the word of the Lord arise out of Christian practice. It is time to reclaim this militant reading of the word of God in faith. It is time to open the Bible and read it from the perspective of ‘those who are persecuted in the cause of right’ [Mt 5:10], from the perspective of the condemned human beings of the earth---for, after all, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is for them that the gospel is destined, it is to them that the gospel is preferentially addressed. But they will receive it only insofar as they warry it with them.” (Pg. 4)
He adds, “the nucleus, of the biblical message… is in the relationship between God and the poor. Jesus Christ is precisely GOD BECOME POOR. This was the human life he took---a poor life. And this is the life in and by which we recognize him as Son of his Father. He was poor indeed. He was born into a social milieu characterized by poverty. He chose to live with the poor. He addressed his gospel by preference to the poor. He lashed out with invective against the rich who oppressed the poor and despised them.” (Pg. 13)
In another essay, he states, “The prophets proclaim a reign of peace. But peace presupposed the establishment of justice, the defense of the rights of the poor, the punishment of oppressors, and a life free from the fear of enslavement A benighted spiritualization has often caused us to forget the human power imbedded in the messianic promises and the transforming effect they might have on unjust social structures. The conquest of poverty and the abolition of exploitation are signs of the Messiah’s arrival and presence… The messianic promises establish a close tie between the kingdom of God and living conditions that are worthy of human beings. God’s kingdom and social injustice are incompatible.” (Pg. 32)_
In another essay, he explains, “The theology of liberation is an attempt to understand the faith from within the concrete historical, liberating, and subversive praxis of the poor of this world---the exploited classes, despised ethnic groups, and marginalized cultures. It is born of a disquieting, unsettling hope of liberation. It is born of the struggles, the failures, and the successes of the oppressed themselves. It is born of a manner of seeing oneself as daughters and sons of the Father, as a deep and demanding community of brothers and sisters… [This] is the reason why the theology of liberation, as reflection, takes a different approach to the relationship of practice with theory.” (Pg. 37)
A later essays notes, “Only… in a revolutionary perspective, can one adequately understand the legitimate narrowing of the term---orientation to political power. All human reality, then, has a political dimension. To speak in this way… positively implies, the multidimensionality of the human being. For it is within the context of the political that the human being rises up as free and responsible being, as a truly human being, having a relationship with nature and with other human beings, as someone who takes up the reins of his or her own destiny, and goes out and transforms history.” (Pg. 47)
He rejects the vow of poverty, pointing out, “The gospel, however, gained nothing. And the poor and exploited of this world gained nothing. For there was a graver---and more subtle---evil afoot here. Poverty was proclaimed as a Christian ideal. And … the door was open to all sorts of abuses. In the Bible, material poverty is a subhuman situation, the fruit of injustice and sin. This poverty should not be a Christian ideal… [It would] mean the justification, however unintentional, of the situation of injustice and exploitation that is the basic cause of poverty.” (Pg. 54)
He argues, “‘Progressive’ theology seeks to answer the questions of the NONBELIEVER; liberation theology confronts the challenge of the NONPERSON. The spirit of modernity, typically skeptical, or even frankly nonbelieving, where religion is concerned, calls the faith into question by challenging the meaning of religion for human life… It takes its point of departure in its own proclamation of the modern freedoms. It prefers to situate the debate on religious terrain, attacking the philosophical presuppositions and historical truth of religion, along with the role of the church in traditional society.” (Pg. 92)
He continues, “In the perspective of liberation theology, theology ‘comes second.’ We call theology ‘second act.’ ‘First act’ is involvement in historical liberation praxis, and the simple proclamation of the word in relation to that praxis…the theologian is to be an ‘organic intellectual,’ a thinker with organic links to the popular liberation undertaking, and with the Christian communities that live their faith by taking this historical task upon themselves as their own.” (Pg. 103)
In a later essay, he asserts, “Thus political theology seeks to face up to the question of the modern story of freedom, enlightenment, and a Marxist critique of religion. It is a new kind of fundamental theology, one that … demands public notice for the Christian message… Today political theology has entered into fruitful dialogue with the theology of liberation, and interesting points of convergence are emerging. The first encounters, however, were uncomfortable---perhaps because the theological undertaking centered on the liberation process comes from a different purview… from an essential opposition … to the principal elements of the historical process we summarized…” (Pg. 184-185)
In the final essay, he concludes, “The theology of liberation begins from the questions asked by the poor and plundered of the world… by those who are oppressed and marginalized precisely by the interlocutor of progressivist theology. The modern forms of this oppression must not deceive us… This is why we said that theologies of liberation could arise only after a popular movement had attained a certain maturity… It is a matter of a different theology. The difference is clearly seen in the real world, where persons live and die, believe and hope, and where it is reprehensible to obscure social conflict with generic affirmations and a false universalism.” (Pg. 212-213)
This collection will be of great interest to those studying Liberation Theology.
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino (born 1928) is a Peruvian theologian and Dominican priest who is regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology. He holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He has written other books such as A Theology of Liberation; We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People; On the Side of the Poor: The Theology of Liberation; The Power of the Poor in History]], etc.
The publishers wrote in the Foreword to this 1979 book, “[We] are pleased to publish this compilation of eight works by Gustavo Gutiérrez, the pioneer of liberation theology in Latin America. The eight selected texts represent complementary moments and focuses on his theological reflection from 1969 to the present. What these moments and focuses have in common in their point of departure, their presence ‘from within’---their author’s continuous attention to the particular set of problems being encountered and worked on in the Latin American church through the course of those so rich and demanding years… The author has reviewed all these texts for publication as a single collection, making numerous revisions and updating.”
In the first essay, Gutiérrez notes, “our reading of the Bible will be a MILITANT reading. The great questions about the word of the Lord arise out of Christian practice. It is time to reclaim this militant reading of the word of God in faith. It is time to open the Bible and read it from the perspective of ‘those who are persecuted in the cause of right’ [Mt 5:10], from the perspective of the condemned human beings of the earth---for, after all, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It is for them that the gospel is destined, it is to them that the gospel is preferentially addressed. But they will receive it only insofar as they warry it with them.” (Pg. 4)
He adds, “the nucleus, of the biblical message… is in the relationship between God and the poor. Jesus Christ is precisely GOD BECOME POOR. This was the human life he took---a poor life. And this is the life in and by which we recognize him as Son of his Father. He was poor indeed. He was born into a social milieu characterized by poverty. He chose to live with the poor. He addressed his gospel by preference to the poor. He lashed out with invective against the rich who oppressed the poor and despised them.” (Pg. 13)
In another essay, he states, “The prophets proclaim a reign of peace. But peace presupposed the establishment of justice, the defense of the rights of the poor, the punishment of oppressors, and a life free from the fear of enslavement A benighted spiritualization has often caused us to forget the human power imbedded in the messianic promises and the transforming effect they might have on unjust social structures. The conquest of poverty and the abolition of exploitation are signs of the Messiah’s arrival and presence… The messianic promises establish a close tie between the kingdom of God and living conditions that are worthy of human beings. God’s kingdom and social injustice are incompatible.” (Pg. 32)_
In another essay, he explains, “The theology of liberation is an attempt to understand the faith from within the concrete historical, liberating, and subversive praxis of the poor of this world---the exploited classes, despised ethnic groups, and marginalized cultures. It is born of a disquieting, unsettling hope of liberation. It is born of the struggles, the failures, and the successes of the oppressed themselves. It is born of a manner of seeing oneself as daughters and sons of the Father, as a deep and demanding community of brothers and sisters… [This] is the reason why the theology of liberation, as reflection, takes a different approach to the relationship of practice with theory.” (Pg. 37)
A later essays notes, “Only… in a revolutionary perspective, can one adequately understand the legitimate narrowing of the term---orientation to political power. All human reality, then, has a political dimension. To speak in this way… positively implies, the multidimensionality of the human being. For it is within the context of the political that the human being rises up as free and responsible being, as a truly human being, having a relationship with nature and with other human beings, as someone who takes up the reins of his or her own destiny, and goes out and transforms history.” (Pg. 47)
He rejects the vow of poverty, pointing out, “The gospel, however, gained nothing. And the poor and exploited of this world gained nothing. For there was a graver---and more subtle---evil afoot here. Poverty was proclaimed as a Christian ideal. And … the door was open to all sorts of abuses. In the Bible, material poverty is a subhuman situation, the fruit of injustice and sin. This poverty should not be a Christian ideal… [It would] mean the justification, however unintentional, of the situation of injustice and exploitation that is the basic cause of poverty.” (Pg. 54)
He argues, “‘Progressive’ theology seeks to answer the questions of the NONBELIEVER; liberation theology confronts the challenge of the NONPERSON. The spirit of modernity, typically skeptical, or even frankly nonbelieving, where religion is concerned, calls the faith into question by challenging the meaning of religion for human life… It takes its point of departure in its own proclamation of the modern freedoms. It prefers to situate the debate on religious terrain, attacking the philosophical presuppositions and historical truth of religion, along with the role of the church in traditional society.” (Pg. 92)
He continues, “In the perspective of liberation theology, theology ‘comes second.’ We call theology ‘second act.’ ‘First act’ is involvement in historical liberation praxis, and the simple proclamation of the word in relation to that praxis…the theologian is to be an ‘organic intellectual,’ a thinker with organic links to the popular liberation undertaking, and with the Christian communities that live their faith by taking this historical task upon themselves as their own.” (Pg. 103)
In a later essay, he asserts, “Thus political theology seeks to face up to the question of the modern story of freedom, enlightenment, and a Marxist critique of religion. It is a new kind of fundamental theology, one that … demands public notice for the Christian message… Today political theology has entered into fruitful dialogue with the theology of liberation, and interesting points of convergence are emerging. The first encounters, however, were uncomfortable---perhaps because the theological undertaking centered on the liberation process comes from a different purview… from an essential opposition … to the principal elements of the historical process we summarized…” (Pg. 184-185)
In the final essay, he concludes, “The theology of liberation begins from the questions asked by the poor and plundered of the world… by those who are oppressed and marginalized precisely by the interlocutor of progressivist theology. The modern forms of this oppression must not deceive us… This is why we said that theologies of liberation could arise only after a popular movement had attained a certain maturity… It is a matter of a different theology. The difference is clearly seen in the real world, where persons live and die, believe and hope, and where it is reprehensible to obscure social conflict with generic affirmations and a false universalism.” (Pg. 212-213)
This collection will be of great interest to those studying Liberation Theology.
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