How is theology liberating? In this post-Gorbachev world in which many demand freedom, and which the West seems ill-equipped to deliver, can we even envisage a liberative theology? Taking as his starting point the Marxist complaint that Christianity is ideological, Dr Scott argues that it is not enough for Christian theology to talk about liberation. It must be liberative. Stressing with feminist and liberation theologies the embodied, contextual nature of theology, the constructive proposal made here locates God's liberating abundance towards society in an interpretation of resurrection as social. Only in this way can a trinitarian Christian account of liberation be adequately grounded. This study will be of interest to those who wish to know if theology may speak truthfully about the transformation of society. In a period of crisis and hope, the book offers the shape of a liberative theology that might nerve Christian practice towards social freedom.

From its beginnings, liberation theology has provoked a wide and diverse range of responses from a multitude of critics-theological, methodological, political, ecclesiastical. Liberation Theology and Its Critics is a comprehensive and systematic explication of these diverse criticisms, as well as a reasoned and rigorous defense of liberation theology. McGovern states his aim thus: to understand better the world of Latin America and the culture and conditions which prompt a liberation theology, while at the same time giving expression to some of the misgivings that many US Americans experience when reading about liberation theology. Liberation Theology and Its Critics begins by discussing the place of theology itself in liberation theology. The book offers an historical overview, shows us what liberation theologians see as most distinctive in their work, addresses the biblical interpretations and major areas of theology stressed by liberation theologians, and discusses other theologians' critiques. Next, McGovern explicates the use of social and political analysis in liberation theology, which has been one of the areas of particular controversy. He focuses on such issues as dependency theory, Marxism, class struggle, socialism, and the Nicaraguan revolution, addressing throughout the concerns raised by a range of critics, from the Vatican to Michael Novak. Finally, McGovern explores the role of the church and how liberation theology is lived out in practice. He examines base communities, ecclesiology, current political trends in Latin America, the varying status of liberation theology as well as its most recent developments. McGovern demonstrates that liberation theology encompasses a wide spectrum of theologians with different styles and emphases. It requires careful study, non-polemical debate, and an honest effort to present the views of both liberation theologians and their critics fairly. McGovern's book will be the benchmark against which subsequent work is measured.

Essay from the year 2017 in the subject Theology - Comparative Religion Studies, grade: MA, Yale University, language: English, abstract: This work focuses on liberation theology. The relevance of the study is determined by the fact that the variability of Christianity in the modern period has increased and made it extremely dependent on social processes. The all-human spiritual crisis promotes the spread of so-called "religiosity without faith." In some cases, this happens not spontaneously, but through the active transformation of the traditional religious system. More and more extremist and nationalist groupings turn to Christianity as an ideological basis, while they modify Christian theology in such a way that it justifies their methods of political struggle and supports their slogans. These groups rely on the experience of building similar ideologies using the dominant Christian confession as a religious component, namely, liberation theology. Liberation theology or, otherwise, political theology is a modification of Christianity used by freedom fighters as an ideology. In fact, it is a specialized consciousness of a separate social group, and it aims to liberate members of this group from oppression. The content and characteristics of the liberation theology are determined by the characteristics and interests of one or another oppressed social group. There are several types of liberation theology, in which there are three main ones: Latin American, Black, and feminist, created, respectively, in the interests of the poor, Negroes or women. The future of liberation theology directly depends on how much its representatives can move from ideal concepts to practical conclusions. The Church must take more seriously the problems of injustice and oppression, it must take the side of the outcasts and be a pioneer in the foreshadowing of all kinds of liberation: economic, social, political, and, of course, spiritual.

Liberation and political theologies have emerged powerfully in recent years, interrupting the way in which First World Christians both experience and understand their faith. Through an analysis of the cultural and ecclesial contexts of these theological movements, as well as a critical examination of four of their principal exponents--Gustavo Gutierrez, Johann Baptist Metz, Jose Miguez Bonino, and Jurgen Moltmann--the author demonstrates that political and liberation theologies represent a new model of theology, one that proffers a vision of Christian witness as a praxis of solidarity with suffering persons.