"Alberto Flores Galindo: Historian and Public Intellectual"

Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology, 2000

Full-text available at http://hdl.handle.net/10523/12753. David Tombs, ‘The Legacy of Ignacio Ellacuría for Liberation Theology in a “post-Marxist” Age’, Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology 8.1 (August 2000), pp. 38-53. Note This paper was originally presented at the American Academy of Religion Meeting, Boston, 20th November 1999, at the Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean Group in a session on ‘Liberation Theology in a “Post-Marxist” Age’ to mark the tenth anniversary of Ellacuría’s assassination. It was subsequently published as David Tombs, ‘The Legacy of Ignacio Ellacuría for Liberation Theology in a “post-Marxist” Age’, Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology 8.1 (August 2000), pp. 38-53. It is reproduced here with kind permission from the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology. Abstract The shifts in global politics in the last two decades have been described as the demise of Marxism and the triumph of capitalism. In this context, the murder of Ignacio Ellacuría SJ, five other Jesuits and two women (who had sought protection in their residence at the Universidad Centroamericana in San Salvador), was one of the last military operations conducted in twentieth-century ideological conflicts over Marxism. As Rector of the University, Ellacuría was an ‘engaged intellectual’ who was well-known for his commitment to the poor. In response members of the Salvadoran military, church and business community repeatedly claimed that Ellacuría was a Marxist subversive and eventually these accusations precipitated his assassination. The analysis of his relationship to Marxist movements, analysis and thought presented here demonstrates that this was never the case. Ellacuría had contacts with leaders of the armed opposition but was never a member of any armed or Marxist group. He drew on Marxist analysis and terminology but, as his response to the Vatican Instruction on liberation theology shows, despite recognising the value of parts of its analysis he always remained critical of Marxism as a system and distanced himself from aspects that he saw as incompatible with his Christian faith. He insisted that he was a Christian not a Marxist, and that the most significant influence on his thought was his faith in God in a world of inhuman suffering. Since Ellacuría’s death, El Salvador’s peace process and transition to democracy in the 1990s has changed the social and political context in which he worked. However, the structural violence and poverty remain a crucial challenge to Christian faith in El Salvador and elsewhere in Latin America. Ellacuría’s understanding of the virtues and potential pitfalls of theological engagement with Marxist social analysis will continue to be relevant for liberation theology as it seeks to present Christian faith in a prophetic way in the new so-called ‘post-Marxist’ context.

Journal of Ecumenical Studies, Volume 54, Number 3, Summer 2019, pp. 431-441 (Article), 2019

Malankara Sabha Tharaka , 2024

Gustavo Gutiérrez, widely known as the "Father of Liberation Theology," revolutionized Christian thought by integrating theology with the lived realities of social injustice and oppression in the Global South. Born in Lima, Peru, in 1928, Gutiérrez’s groundbreaking work emerged from the struggles of Latin America's marginalized communities, offering a theology deeply rooted in praxis and justice. His seminal book, A Theology of Liberation, challenged traditional paradigms, asserting that faith must actively engage with the socio-political conditions of the poor. This article explores Gutiérrez's profound impact on Christian theology, examining his emphasis on the preferential option for the poor, the interplay between faith and politics, and the transformative potential of spirituality grounded in liberation. As a trailblazer for contextual theology, his contributions extend beyond academia, inspiring movements worldwide to reimagine the church's role in advocating for human dignity, equality, and justice. In reflecting on his legacy, the article underscores the enduring relevance of Gutiérrez's vision in addressing contemporary global inequalities.

History of Education, 2022

Avaiable here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/0046760X.2021.2011965 Book Review - Education in revolutionary struggles: Iván Illich, Paulo Freire, Ernesto Guevara and Latin American thought, by Andrés Donoso Romo. New York/London: Routledge, 2021

Sacra, 2021

The essay offers a critical re-reading of the life and works of the Colombian Catholic priest Camilo Torres Restrepo (1929–1966) through the prism of resistance to order and authority in the Catholic religion. Torres was a priest, a guerrilla, and a sociologist, combining all these three characteristics into an organic whole. During his life, he developed hostility towards Catholic authority (also due to his dialogue with Marxism) and concluded that violence was indispensable to change the situation of the Colombian poor. Even though he is often associated with the liberation theology approach, he cannot be properly considered a theologian of liberation since this Christian theological approach fully developed at the end of the 1960s, shortly after his death. The essay assesses the issue of whether he can be considered an integral part of liberation theology or a merely symbolic, iconic figure.

2025

holds a PhD in History from the University of Liverpool, writing his thesis on the emergence and mobilisation of liberation Christian ity in Argentina, and particularly its political responses to state terrorism. His research more broadly focuses on left-wing political cultures and social movements in Latin Amer i ca's Cold War, exploring religion, international solidarity and strategies towards state repression. He currently teaches at the University of Greenwich.

2012

The liberation theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez has offered an effective postcolonial critique of the conditions of life of the Latin American poor, and of a theological method that legitimated them. The present article studies early writings of Gutiérrez that show his critique taking form. In the first instance, Gutiérrez argued, theological truth is not something beheld in philosophical theoria, but is rather a performance of agonistic practice. One may usefully abstract to theoretical expressions of the truth about divine matters; however, the abstractions are only useful if—indeed only true if— they play back upon that practice to effect greater freedom for the poor. So Gutiérrez drew upon and pointed toward a ‘new spirituality’—a theological and practical reorientation away from the spirit of a Eurocentric faith, enmeshed in the geopolitics of colonialism and neocolonialism under which most Latin Americans have suffered for centuries, toward the spirit in which the poor whom he served live. Eventually, in pursuing this reorientation himself, Gutiérrez became persuaded that methodology is not the primary mode of critique, and began a turn from conceiving theology as ‘critical reflection on practice’ to conceiving it as ‘thought about a mystery’. This study’s limited purpose is to understand Gutiérrez’ development to this pivotal moment.

2008

This study is a systematic analysis of "mediated immediacy" in the production of the Brazilian professor of theology João Batista Libanio. He stresses both ethical mediation and the immediate character of the faith. Libanio has sought an answer to the problem of science and faith. He makes use of the neo-scholastic distinction between matter and form. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, God cannot be known as a scientific object, but it is possible to predicate a formal theological content of other subject matter with the help of revelation. This viewpoint was emphasized in neo-Thomism and supported by the liberation theologians. For them, the material starting point was social science. It becomes a "theologizable" or "revealable" (revelabile) reality. This social science has its roots in Latin American Marxism which was influenced by the school of Louis Althusser and considered Marxism "a science of history". The synthesis of Thomism and Marxism is a challenge Libanio faced, especially in his Teologia da libertação from 1987. He emphasized the need for a genuinely spiritual and ethical discernment, and was particularly critical of the ethical implications of class struggle. Libanio's thinking has a strong hermeneutic flavor. It is more important to understand than to explain. He does not deny the need for social scientific data, but that they cannot be the exclusive starting point of theology. There are different readings of the world, both scientific and theological. A holistic understanding of the nature of religious experience is needed. Libanio follows the interpretation given by H. C. de Lima Vaz, according to whom the Hegelian dialectic is a "rational circulation" between the totality and its parts. He also recalls Oscar Cullmann's idea of God's Kingdom that is "already" and "not yet". In other words, there is a continuous mediation of grace into the natural world. This dialectic is reflected in ethics. Faith must be verified in good works. Libanio uses the Thomist fides caritate formata principle and the modern orthopraxis thinking represented by Edward Schillebeeckx. One needs both the Writing a dissertation on a Latin American theme is, without doubt, a timeconsuming operation. There is no gain without at least a slight amount of pain, and the same holds for an academic work. The challenge to write something, or anything, on the issue of liberation theology carries a double difficulty. One must be aware of the ambiguities of politics and philosophy, and also be well informed about popular and social Catholicism, new ecclesial groups and the history of theology. One stands on the top of the mountain from where many views are possible. This is one of them. My interest in Brazil was kindled during a trip in 1990-1991 and has continued ever since. I had the opportunity to study at the PostGraduate Institute of the Escola Superior de Teologia of the Lutheran Church of the Evangelical Confession in Brazil during the academic year 1996. Most of my time was spent, however, gathering the material for a future study, which now lies before you. First of all I wish to thank Professor J. B. Libanio himself for giving me access to the material I needed for the study. With the help of Mr. Alex Fabiano de Toledo, a student, I was able to process a complete bibliography of Libanio's production in the past century, which is my topic. I was also able to meet Libanio in São Leopoldo, and to visit his institution in Belo Horizonte. Professors Peter Hünermann and Bernd-Jochen Hilberath in Tübingen helped me to put Libanio's theology in its Catholic perspective. Academic colleagues in Finland have been of invaluable help. Professor Miikka Ruokanen was responsible for starting the project "Gospel and Cultures", which helped to finance my first year of doctoral studies at the University of Helsinki. During his time abroad, assistant professor Pauli Annala contributed to the study with his knowledge of both classical and modern theology. Professor Vesa Oittinen has provided a good understanding of postwar Marxism. Assistant professor Timo Vasko examined the text during the final process of having it approved as a doctoral dissertation. vi Mrs. Joan Nordlund adeptly revised the translation. She is not, however, responsible for any stylistic inadequacy, or for the voluntary choices I have made in the editing process. I wish to express my gratitude to the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation, the Academy of Finland, the Research Institute of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Parish of Myllykoski, the university fraternity Hämäläis-Osakunta, the Foundation for the Support of Christian Science and Art, and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for making this study financially possible. The time has come to give something back to the community, whether it be this greater community, or the ones in which I live and work. Last but by no means least, all this would not have been possible without the kind support, first and foremost, of all my family. No formal thanks are ever sufficient, no words are ever enough to express the gratitude. Thank you, kiitos, for your patience. And a warm obrigado to all my Brazilian partners: Walter Altmann, Ênio Mueller, Johan Konings, and during the final stage, to professor Érico J. Hammes of PUCRS who came to Finland as the opponent at the defense of the dissertation. 1.2. Previous studies and the scope of this study The basic contours of Libanio's theology have not so far not been expounded in any doctorate-level study. Not much has been written about it in general, although he is often mentioned, particularly in Brazilian books on liberation theology. Libanio is referred to in a major study on liberation theology conducted by Paulo Fernando Carneiro de Andrade. His dissertation Fé e eficácia: O uso da sociologia na teologia da libertação, which he produced for the Gregorian University in Rome in 1989, was published in 1991. 32 Andrade sees Libanio as a mainline liberation theologian of the late 1970's, and considers his article "Teologia no Brasil: reflexões crítico-metodológicas" of 1977 a sign of the fact that he accepted the basic arguments of Clodovis Boff's liberation theology. He thought it echoed Clodovis Boff's study in some way. Libanio, however, emphasized the role of the Christian community as the birthplace of theological production, as distinct from the place in which theology was taught. 33 Like C. Boff, Libanio considers it to be the basic tenet of liberation theology to use data and categories "taken from the social sciences, to read them in the light of the revelation, in contact with the Christian Scriptures". 34 The main point in the article and in Andrade's work is that theology is a "self-regulated" discipline in the sense that it is a discourse in its own right. This is evident in the way Libanio 32 A lot really happened in Latin American theology in those two years 1989-1991. The subchapter on pp. 196-200, "A crise do Socialismo Real e a atualidade do marxismo", is based precisely on the many statements by Brazilian liberation theologians in 1990, directly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Paulo Fernando Carneiro de Andrade quotes articles by Frei Betto, Clodovis and Leonardo Boff, and L. A. Gómez de Souza, and stresses that there have been many of them: "Muitos foram os artigos publicados sobre este tema durante o ano de 1990." Andrade 1991, 196 n. 210. 33 Teologia no Brasil: reflexões crítico-metodológicas. PerTeol 9 n. 17 (1977), 27-79. Quoted in Andrade 1991, 79. Andrade thought that Libanio was following the C. Boff line, yet emphasizing the community as the place where theology was born: "No ano seguinte, no Brasil, João Batista Libanio, teólogo jesuíta, publicava um longo artigo acerca da Teologia no Brasil que de certo modo faz eco ao estudo de Cl. Boff. Em seu artigo, em primeiro lugar, J. B. Libanio chama a atenção para a diferença entre o lugar de produção teológica e o lugar de ensino da teologia. Embora muitas vezes se identifiquem, os dois lugares são distintos e deve-se superar esta identificação. A teologia é um discurso auto-regulado que tem como lugar de produção fundamental a praxis pastoral da Igreja local. A teologia é produzida antes de tudo na e para a comunidade." 34 "O seu elemento específico, segundo J. B. Libanio, é apropriar-se de dados e categorias 'tirados das Ciências do Social, lendo-os à luz da Revelação, em contato com as escrituras cristãs'."