Liberation Theology
Introduction:
The Catholic church has had an enormous
presence in the history of South America, one that began shortly after
the arrival of the first conquistadors, after the turn of the sixteenth
century. It might be said that, after the first fifty years
of Iberian military colonization, the cultural conquest of much of South
America was primarily religious in nature. The proselytizing efforts
of the Mendicant orders and secular clergy produced, over the span of four
centuries, the most predominantly Catholic region in the world. During
the three centuries of colonial rule , the Catholic church maintained a
tight relationship with the Iberian monarchies. This is not to say
that there were no conflicts between them, because there were many.
The point is that government and church worked together to achieve different,
yet complimentary goals. While Iberians worked to achieve financial,
political, and mercantile goals, church efforts were geared toward conversion
of the populace and toward the infusion of Catholic value systems.
This resulted in an uneasy but mutually supportive relationship which lasted
for many years. The struggles for independence in the first decades
of the nineteenth century seriously jeopardized Catholic interests in the
Americas, and the church withdrew into a wary conservatism in reaction
to the spread of liberal ideas. During the gradual expropriation
of their once vast resources, the church became more and more dependent
on the conservative elite classes for support; this brings us to our present
topic.
Over the last half century, major divisions
have emerged within the Catholic establishment over the conditions of abject
poverty and oppression that exist among the world's disinherited masses,
particularly in the case of Latin America. As discussed above, an
historically strong Catholic presence necessitates Rome's concern with
events and actions that directly affect the Catholic community there.
Yet, significant contradictions and differences of interpretation exist
within the church that preclude any substantial church action on behalf
of the poor. This has led certain biblical scholars to call for a
reevaluation of the lessons of the Bible as they apply to a changing and
oppressive historical reality. Liberation theology is a challenging
response to this dilemma.
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