scholarly journals The Prophet and the Poet: Richard Shaull and the Shaping of Rubem Alves’s Liberative Theopoetics

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 251
Author(s):  
Raimundo C. Barreto

This article explores the intersection between history, mission, and theology in Latin America by shedding light on the encounter between North American missionary Richard Shaull and Brazilian theologian and poet Rubem Alves. It examines Shaull’s impact on Alves as Alves became, first, one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology and, later, one of its challengers as he moved away from normative theological language towards theopoetics. In this article, I underscore particular snapshots of Alves’ vast work, noting that the images of the poet and the prophet that permeate much of it are not mutually exclusive. I argue that Rubem Alves’ provocative work remains an important resource for a theory of action that takes subjectivity and beauty seriously. Throughout this article, Shaull and Alves are presented as different but complementary thinkers, representative of Alves’ prophetic and poetic types. It is argued that a closer look at the similarities and complementarities in the works of this duo may provide us with new insights through which Rubem Alves’ poetic voice and Richard Shaull’s prophetic persistence can come together as resources for the reimagination of our hopes for a more beautiful and just world.

Author(s):  
Lilian Calles Barger

This chapter examines the differences within liberationists’ ranks, and how counter-challenges from a consensus theology in its last throes tested the coherency of liberation theology. As the new Latin American theology challenged the U.S. empire, black and feminist theologians within its borders found an institutional space in which to incubate a new orthodoxy and engage in internal debate. Latin America, historically an object of North American missionary and political expansion, drew the bulk of the relevant attention, casting the entire enterprise of liberation theology as a Latin American product and a problem for U.S. regional political and cultural dominance. The fragmented liberal theological establishment of the United States and the weakened Catholic cultural hegemony in Latin America shaped the reception of liberation theology, allowing the establishment of a new orthodoxy.


Worldview ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Neuhaus

Gustavo Gutierrez is a native of Peru and professor of theology at the Catholic University of Peru. He is also chaplain to the National Union of Catholic University Students and advisor to the Latin American Bishops Conference. Gutierrez is widely credited with having coined the term "liberation theology," and with the recent publication of his A Theology of Liberation (Orbis; 323 pp.; $7.95/4.95) North American readers are challenged by a major systematic effort to articulate the meaning of the Christian gospel in terms attuned to the revolutionary ferment in Latin America.


1978 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 343-370
Author(s):  
Alan Neely

Liberation theology surfaced at Medellin in 1968. Professor Neely, whose eleven-year service in Colombia included that date, fully acknowledges the importance of the CELAM conference. However, he feels that the beginnings or antecedents of this movement can be traced to a number of sources both in Latin America and elsewhere. We're deeply indebted to the author for this careful, objective analysis which views the Latin American developments in terms of a broader historical perspective.


2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Jorge Costadoat Carrasco

RESUMEN: El objetivo de esta investigación es suministrar argumentos para identificar la Teología latinoamericana con la Teología de la liberación, y viceversa. Entre estos argumentos se debe considerar la conciencia de alcanzar la “mayoría de edad” de la Iglesia en América Latina en el postconcilio; la convicción de los teólogos de la liberación de estar elaborando una “nueva manera” de hacer teo­logía; una toma de distancia del carácter ilustrado de la teología; y la posibilidad de reconocer en los acontecimientos regionales, particularmente en los pobres, un habla original de Dios. Este artículo pretende hacer una contribución al status quaestionis del método teológico.ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to provide arguments to identify Latin American Theology with Liberation Theology, and vice versa. Among these arguments, one should consider the awareness of the Church in Latin America reaching its “age of maturity” in the post-conciliar period. Other arguments are the conviction of liberation theologians to be elaborating a “new way” of doing theology; a distance from the illustrated characteristic of theology; and, the possibility of recognizing in regional events, particularly in the poor, God’s original speech. This article aims to contribute to the status quaestionis of the theological method.


2019 ◽  
pp. 95-126
Author(s):  
Sharon Erickson Nepstad

This chapter examines the conditions that fostered liberation theology in Latin America. The chapter provides a brief overview of liberation theology’s central themes and how it fueled revolutionary movements in Central America, particularly in Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. It surveys the Catholic hierarchy’s responses, ranging from sympathy to condemnation, and highlights several US religious movements that expressed solidarity with Central American Catholics who were fighting for social justice. These organizations included Witness for Peace, which brought US Christians to the war zones of Nicaragua to deter combat attacks, and also Pledge of Resistance, which mobilized tens of thousands into action when US policy toward the region grew more bellicose. Finally, the chapter describes the School of the Americas Watch, which aimed to stop US training of Latin American militaries that were responsible for human rights atrocities.


By 2025, Latin America’s population of observant Christians will be the largest in the world. Nonetheless, studies examining the exponential growth of global Christianity tend to overlook this region, focusing instead on Africa and Asia. Research on Christianity in Latin America provides a core point of departure for understanding the growth and development of Christianity in the “Global South.” This volume includes research from an interdisciplinary contingent of scholars whose studies examine Latin American Christianity in all of its manifestations, from the colonial to the contemporary period. Essays provide an accessible background to understanding Christianity in Latin America. They span the era from indigenous and African-descendant people’s conversion to and transformation of Catholicism during the colonial period through the advent of Liberation Theology in the 1960s and to conversion to Pentecostalism and Charismatic Catholicism.


1977 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Blanchard

The term ‘populism’ has been used to describe many of the popular movements that have appeared in Latin America in recent decades. It is an ‘imprecise term’, to use the words of Professor Skidmore, and the large number of definitions available, indicates how imprecise the term, in fact, has become. Definitions of a universal nature are of limited use, for populism seems to vary according to geographical region: the North American populist differs from the Russian populist, who differs from the African populist, who differs from the Latin American populist, and so on. Even when dealing with the specific area of Latin America there is no consistency. Writers disagree on whether Latin American populists are Left- or Right- Wing, anti- or pro-status quo, reformists or opportunists, rigid or flexible with regard to ideology.


1992 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 243-266
Author(s):  
Eugeniusz Górski

Abstract/ short description The article presents an overview of philosophical developments in Latin America. Its aim is to relate the Latin American philosophical thought to its Polish equivalents. For example: the emergence of the so-called Liberation Theology in the beginning was greatly contested by Polish Catholic philosophers. Later they became less critical as they started to compare Liberation theology to the ideas of 19th Century Catholic clergy that opposed the partition of Poland. Despite this and many other influences Górski concludes that relations between eastern European and Latin American philosophical thoughts were limited. Short description written by Michal Gilewski


Author(s):  
Lilian Calles Barger

This chapter turns to the critical 1975 Detroit Theology in the Americas conference, where liberationists encountered difficulties in establishing a coalition across race, class, and sex, and between North American black, feminist, and Latin American theologians. The relationship with the U.S. empire showed itself to be a critical point of difference. Nevertheless, reverberation from the conference changed the theological discourse, producing liberal resistance and marshaling conservatives against liberation theology.


Pneuma ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 477-499
Author(s):  
Néstor Medina

Abstract This article proposes that a new pentecostal social ethic is emerging in the region. Examining recent developments of Pentecostalism in Latin America along with Latin American scholars, I will discuss, in thematic form, some of the recent developments affecting pentecostal movements in the region from revising its historical origins, celebrating its internal diversity, reconsidering political involvement, reclaiming the crucial role of women’s contributions, to developing a social ethics seeking to respond in relevant ways to the social issues confronted by the Latin American population. Though the influence of liberation theology is noticeable, these groups are drawing on the pentecostal experience to reinterpret their relationship with the larger social context and internally. Particular attention is given to the great internal diversity within pentecostal movements in Latin America


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