Liberation Theology

Liberation Theology Is a post-Enlightenment theologi­cal movement that seeks to unite theological and social con­cerns on an equal footing. Liberation Theology owes its genesis to the epistemological philosophies of Kant, Hegel and Marx. It has been greatly influenced by the European Political Theology movement and by the radical North American the­ologians J.B. Metz, Jügen Moltmann and Harvey Cox. These men have not really been criticizing Orthodox Christianity. It is not clear if they know what it is or if they care. Their dis­pute has been with Protestant liberal theology or the histori­cal and individ­ualistic nature of existential theology. According to them an emphasis must arise that shifts away from the individualism which is the whole focus of existentialism, and to the needy masses. The causes espoused by liberation theology are across the whole spectrum of modern move­ments: children are to be liberated from parents, women from men and particu­larly husbands, homosexuals from the bondage of normal hetero­sexual behavior, Christians from religion and the Bible, and the underprivileged of this world from ethical and ma­terial bondage.

To liberation theology, truth must alter itself to ad­dress the social needs of its time and culture as seen situational–not by any fixed set of moral and spiritual criteria. Liberation theologians feed their ego by building a noble repu­tation of being for the underdog, whoever and whatever he might be, with no thought given to the morality of his position or whether the unsolicited efforts of the liberation theologian are helping or hurting the underdog in the long run. It is often questioned whether the liberation theologian is for the underdog at all, or if he is merely playing the game to make personal merchandise out of his dilemma. His disadvantaged position makes it all right for the liberation theologian to take charge of his life and begin to help him, whether he wants it or not.

Praxis
The theological device of Liberation Theology is Praxis. This term, which literally means practice rather than theory, refers to the discovery and formation of a theology that is a truth born of the situation through personal participa­tion. It might be called Enlightenment, anthropological, epis­temologi­cal, socially relevant, experiential truth. Liberation theology is basically a theology of autonomy, as per the En­lightenment perspectives of Immanuel Kant and his “autonomy of reason.” This theology is not worked out by any disclosure from God or the Bible. It comes from “outside” revelation born out of individual intercourse with history. And then Liberation Theology involves the political philosophy of Karl Marx. This argument is that man as a complete being can only emerge when he is able to throw off the impersonal and hos­tile economic establishment of society. While some the­ologians argue that Marxism and Liberation Theology are indis­tinguish­able, others say that this is not quite accurate.