Monday, May 1, 2006

American Liberal Theology

Gary Dorrien's survey in CrossCurrents includes this.
Peruvian liberationist Gustavo Gutierrez, speaking at a conference in Tanzania, offered a classic statement of the differences between liberation theology and the "progressivist" liberal and neo-orthodox theologies that preceded it. Modern theology from Schleiermacher onward concerned itself with questions posed by the Enlightenment, historical criticism, science, and technology, Gutierrez observed. It fixated on the criticisms of unbelievers, seeking to make Christianity credible and relevant in the context of an industrialized, capitalist, increasingly secular social order. But the problems of European and North American theologians did not reflect the concerns of the marginalized Christians who created liberation theology, he argued.

Actually liberation theology is the creation of theologians like Gutierrez claiming to be a vanguard party for marginalized Christians. That might be why I see those full Evangelical and Pentecostal churches in Guatemala and never meet anyone who professes liberation theology.

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