BAYLOR UNIVERSITY

GEORGE W. TRUETT THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

LIBERATION AS A MEANS OF WITNESS

SUBMITTED TO:

DR. MICHAEL W. STROOPE

FOR THE COURSE:

WOCW 7385 CHRISTIAN WITNESS AND MISSION

BY

ELI GUTIERREZ
 The deep-rooted social differences, the extreme poverty, and the violation of human
rights found in many areas pose challenges to evangelization. Our mission to bring
God to human beings, and human beings to God, also entails the task of fashioning
a more fraternal society here.1
Gustavo Gutierrez

Introduction

Liberation theology is an important theological force in Christianity. It emerged in the middle of

the 20th century in Latin America but has influenced also North America and Europe. The main

argument of liberation theology is that God is on the side of the poor and Christians should be also

on their side. Liberation theology interprets Scripture from the perspective of the oppressed and in

response to the historical context. Since the socio-political and economic context of Latin America

is the systemic injustice of an oppressive structure of power absolutely incompatible with the main

values of the kingdom of God, Christians should fight actively against such system. In this essay,

I will examine the implications of liberation theology for our Christian witness. First, I will briefly

describe liberation theology. Next, I will review the theme of liberation throughout the Scripture.

And finally, I will discuss how the theme of liberation can be introduced in the understanding of

our Christian witness toward the world.

Liberation Theology

In their book Introducing Liberation Theology, Leonardo and Clodovis Boff summarize the history

of the Liberation Theology. They maintain that the historical antecedents of Liberation Theology

can be found in the ideas of some missionaries that came to America in the colonial era as

Bartolome de las Casas.2 Some of these missionaries defended the indigenous and poor people of

America from the oppression they suffered. In the 20th century, the social, economic, and political

1
Gustavo Gutierrez, The Power of the Poor in History (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1983), 149.
2
Leonardo and Clodovis Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1987), 67.

1
situation of the Latin American countries led to the creation of popular movements that were stirred

by a theology that recovered some of the ideas of the missionaries of the 16th century. The church

took an important place in these movements taking seriously her social mission. According to

Leonardo and Clodovis Boff, in these movements, the theology of development was substituted

by a theology of liberation. In this process, the Second Vatican Council produced an adequate

theological atmosphere of freedom and creativity. 3 In the 50’s and 60’s, books, meetings, and

congresses intensified the ecumenical reflection among Catholics and Protestants about faith,

poverty, the gospel, and social justice. This was the creation a theology of the periphery dealing

with the concerns of the periphery.

The main argument of the Liberation Theology is that God is on the side of the poor and

therefore, Christians should be on the side of the poor too. To understand liberation theology, it is

necessary to know the real situation of all the oppressed in our society. Poverty is not only a matter

of vice or backwardness, it is a matter of a political system of oppression, and a socio-economic

structure that perpetuates injustice. The understanding of the poor embraces all kinds of oppression

such as race, ethnic, and gender-based. However, the socio-economically oppressed are not only

among other oppressed (e.g. blacks and women) but as an expression of the power structures that

create a system that perpetuates oppression.

Liberation Theology is a response to the context. The gospel is not an otherworldly

experience but an experience that addresses the hard realities of this world. Roger Haight argues

that one of the main characteristics of liberation ecclesiology is “that the church should be

understood in relation to the world.”4 It is an undeniable reality that the church exists in the world.

3
Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, 68.
4
Roger Haight, An Alternative Vision. An Interpretation of Liberation Theology (Mahwah, New York: Paulist Press,
1985, 163.

2
Haight adds that “Christian consciousness and thus the Church should be publicly critical of social

injustice and positively engaged in ameliorating human life in society according to its nature and

capacity and specific means.”5 The church is a historical reality and must respond to the historical

circumstances of her own time. The circumstances of Latin America and many other parts of the

Third World are people living under the oppression of a systemic injustice. The political and

economic system perpetuates oppression and creates conditions where the rich become richer and

the poor poorer.

Theologians of liberation make a call for action against this oppressive system. The Boff

brothers say that “we are on the side of the poor only when we struggle alongside them against the

poverty that has been unjustly created and forced on them.”6 This action of liberation should go

beyond aid and reformism. Aid action treats the poor as objects of charity increasing their

dependence. Reformism perpetuates the existing social relationships and the basic structure of

society. For liberation theologians, the only way to break the poor’s situation of oppression is to

destroy the system by liberating strategies.

For the Boff brothers, what liberation theology accomplishes is that the oppressed come to

understand their situation through a process of “conscientization, discover the causes of their

oppression, organize themselves into movements, and act in a coordinated fashion”7. Liberation is

the strategy not only for the poor but of the poor. In the process of conscientization, the poor study

the Scripture and develop a life of prayer in community through which they come to understand

the source of their oppression. In this “base communities” they continue the process of

comprehension and exploration of their own situation, and through the reading of Scripture and

5
Haight, An Alternative Vision, 165.
6
Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, 4.
7
Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, 5.

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the understanding of the gospel, they are empowered to put into action the struggle for their own

liberation.

One of the main critiques against liberation theology is its use of Marxist categories. The

Boff brothers argue that liberation theology only uses the Marxist methodology as an instrument

and that Christian theology should never adopt the Marxist ideology.8 Another critique against

liberation theology is that it overstresses the political aspect of the human condition. However,

many liberation theologians affirm the importance of the mystical roots of liberation theology.9

For example, Gustavo Gutierrez, considered for many as the father of liberation theology,

maintains that “salvation embraces all persons and the whole person”10 Liberation theology not

only cares about the economic situation of people which is produced by political structures of

power, but takes seriously the whole condition of people which includes the material situation.

Liberation in Scripture

The Boff brothers argue that “we can be followers of Jesus and true Christians only by making

common cause with the poor and working out the gospel of liberation.”11 For liberation

theologians, liberation theology is not only one aspect of the gospel but the gospel itself. They find

that the God delivering people is the major theme of the Biblical narrative from Exodus through

Jesus. According to Gutierrez, the salvific acts of God for his people are creative and liberating.12

The Exodus has a paradigmatic significance of the intention of God toward humanity. God wants

to save and liberate those who are suffering all around the world under the oppression of many

8
Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, 28.
9
Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, 64.
10
Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation. History, Politics, and Salvation, 2nd ed., Translated and edited by
Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson ((Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1973), 97.
11
Boff, Introducing Liberation Theology, 7.
12
Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 88.

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different pharaohs. The Exodus was also a political act that expresses the love of God for his

people. Furthermore, the covenant relationship of God with his liberated people give meaning to

such liberation. This memory of the Exodus pervades the message of the Bible up to the New

Testament where the work of Christ is also a liberation and a new creation (Colossians 1:15-20).

The portrait of God in the Bible presents a living God that sees the suffering of his people

and acts with compassion toward them. It was God’s compassion what led him to perform acts of

liberation for his suffering people (Exodus 3:7-9). Moreover, the Scripture also teaches that the

worship that pleases God is justice (e.g. Isaiah 1:10-17; Mark 7:6-13). In one of Jesus’

eschatological discourses recorded in Matthew, Jesus implies that the acceptance or rejection of

the poor is a major issue in relation to eternal salvation or condemnation (Matthew 25:31-46). The

Bible message is that believers in God are required to have the same compassion for those who

suffer just as God cares especially for the oppressed.

Many scholars have pointed out that the main theme in Jesus’ preaching was the kingdom

of God.13 According to the gospel of Mark, when Jesus began to preach his gospel the content was

that “the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 3:15 ESV). Glenn Stassen and David Gushee argue

that Jesus frequently referred to the book of the prophet Isaiah when he spoke about the kingdom

of God.14 Thus, the picture of Isaiah about the coming reign of God is important to understand the

teaching of Jesus. This picture was characterized by God’s salvation and deliverance, God’s

presence, justice, peace, and great joy. The kingdom of God was understood as the active

intervention of God not only in the future but also in the present, and not only spiritual but material

as well. For Stassen and Gushee the main virtues found in teachings of Jesus are humility,

13
For example, Glenn H. Stassen and David P. Gushee, Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context
(Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2003).
14
Stassen and Gushee, Kingdom Ethics, 23.

5
righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking, endurance, and joy. They argue that such

virtues are found throughout the Bible and are grounded in God’s grace, faithfulness, and

deliverance. These virtues picture what is it to be a follower of Jesus.

In the New Testament, the theme of God’s deliverance for the poor can be found especially

in the gospel of Luke.15 In Luke, Jesus has a particular concern for the poor as well as for other

marginalized people such as women, tax-collectors, and Samaritans. In the Magnificat, which is

unique to Luke, we read:

50
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
51
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
52
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
53
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
(Luke 1:50-53 ESV)

Other passages unique to Luke are the woe-saying of the rich (Luke 6:20, 24), the parable of the

rich fool (Luke 12:16-21), the parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), the narration

of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10). All of them present a high view of the poor and marginalized, and a

very low view of the rich. David Bosch argues that in Luke “a bias toward the dispossessed

becomes evident.”16 Also, he states that in Luke “poverty is a social category”.17 Furthermore, one

of the most well-known liberation passages in the Old Testament is quoted by Jesus in his first

words in the gospel of Luke:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

18

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

15
David Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, American Society of Missiology
Series, No. 16 (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1991), 86.
16
Bosch, Transforming Mission, 98.
17
Bosch, Transforming Mission, 99.

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 and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
(Luke 4:18-19 ESV)

For many scholars, the narration in Luke 4 represents the beginning of Jesus ministry and the

foundation of his mission. It shows that for Jesus, the reversing of the poor’s destiny was at the

heart of his purposes. However, it does not mean that the rich are out of Jesus’ intentions. Actually,

many of the teachings of Jesus in Luke are directed to the rich. Jesus wants the rich to be

transformed by his message and to act according to its social implications.

It is clear that the message of Jesus is not only a message for the private life but it is a

message for the social life as well. It cannot be different since God is interested in the whole being

of humans and that includes relationships. Through the whole Bible, there is an emphasis on God

as the deliverer of the oppressed. Thus, a community that follows Jesus as the son of God should

be a community where members love and help each other. Rich and poor are to build a community

where none is better because all are sinners and everyone has been saved by the same God. This

is clearly expressed in one of the New Testament documents that says “let us not love in word or

talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18 ESV).

Liberation and Christian witness

For liberation theology, there is a close relationship between the proclamation of the gospel and

the struggle for social justice. Gutierrez states that “given the concrete situation of the poor in Latin

America, this evangelization will take on a liberating perspective.”18 The mission of the church is

to proclaim an integral liberation. Since we have been liberated from the power of sin we should

fight for the liberation of others as well. Gutierrez maintains that “The task imposed on those

18
Gutierrez, The Power of the Poor, 149.

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whom he [God] sets free is to proclaim the saving truth that he came to bring us. The mission of

the church, as the community of Jesus’ disciples, is to communicate and bear witness to this total

liberation of the human being.”19

Liberation theologians find in the structures of power that oppress people the main

impediment for the fulfillment of God’s intention toward humanity. For Gutierrez “The

fundamental obstacle to the kingdom, which is sin, is also the root of all misery and injustice, […]

the very meaning of the growth of the kingdom is also the ultimate precondition for a just society

and a new humanity”.20 There is a profound and absolute incompatibility of the Christian values

and the injustice of society. Therefore, to be Christian is to assume a liberating commitment. Jesus

announced the coming of the kingdom, which main values are love and justice. Thus, his followers

must seek those values and oppose to any force that limits God’s intention for people, which is the

fullness of life, a worthy human life.

Salvation is an action of God and from God toward humanity. It is a salvation of the whole

human being and not only of an inner part of us. It is the realization of God’s purposes for people.

He saves also in this world and not only in the cosmic realm of souls. For liberation theologians,

this holistic salvation is at the heart of God’s character revealed in Scripture. Gutierrez says that

“Biblical faith is, above all, faith in a God who gives self-revelation through historical events, a

God who saves in history.”21 The church that worships the God who saves in history and follows

Jesus who preached the coming of a kingdom of justice, should fight for the realization of the

purposes of this God. Gutierrez argues that “the scope and gravity of the process of liberation is

19
Gustavo Gutierrez, Essential Writings, edited by James B. Nickoloff (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1996), 259.
20
Gutierrez, Essential Writings, 262.
21
Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 86-87.

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such that to ponder its significance is really to examine the meaning of Christianity itself and the

mission of the church in the world.”22

The church, as the extension of the message of Jesus Christ to the world, should fight actively

for justice for those who suffer. We are to pray with our master “your kingdom come” (Matthew

6:10). And, as Gutierrez says “the elimination of misery and exploitation is a sign of the coming

of the kingdom”.23 The Church is to participate in the salvific work of God toward humanity not

only “sharing the gospel” but practicing the gospel. We are to be the body of Christ on earth. His

hands with which he touched the eyes of the blind, with which he healed the sick, and with which

he threw away the tables in the Temple. We are to be the whole body of Christ with which he

liberates people and not only his voice. God wants to transform people to make them be someone

they were not before, and not only to give them information that they did not know before. For

Gutierrez, “Part of this mission is to meet the immediate needs of the poor, while at the same time

promoting structural changes in society so as to secure the conditions of life worthy of the human

person”.24

To bear witness is a life commitment that reveals through our whole life what God has done

in us. To be witnesses is not only about doing something but about being someone. We are

disciples of Jesus, people delivered by God. Our life displays that experience and proclaims who

God is and what he has done. Moreover, what God has done in the world is not only the salvation

of souls but the transformation of persons in totality. Therefore, to bear witness is not only to share

information but to participate in God’s deliverance in the world. Gutierrez states that “to struggle

against misery and exploitation and to build a just society is already to be part of the saving action,

22
Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 79.
23
Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 97.
24
Gutierrez, Essential Writings, 266.

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which is moving towards its complete fulfillment.”25 That does not necessarily mean a

revolutionary call. I really think that in some contexts there is no other option but revolution to

overcome the injustices that oppress people. But in many of our modern contexts, to bear witness

is to oppose the structures that perpetuate oppression, and to denounce the evils of society that

marginalize people.

However, we should not forget that the source of all evil is sin. We must be careful of not

locating the problems of humanity in political or social structures. The source of all injustice is the

sin in the world. We live in a fallen world and the ideals of the kingdom of God will never be

completely realized in this era. The Christian task is not to bring a political or social change, the

Christian task is to be the church of Christ, to incarnate the message of the kingdom of God, and

that, of course, will bring social and political results. But we do not seek to change the world for

the sake of changing the world but for the sake of God’s love and justice toward humanity. I agree

with Stanley Hauerwas in that:

The most interesting, creative, political, solutions we Christians have to offer our troubled society
are not new laws, advice to Congress, or increased funding for social programs –although we may
find ourselves supporting such national efforts. The most creative social strategy we have to offer
is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social
coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely,
a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.26

Being Christian is to be a certain kind of people. The Christian identity is shaped by an experience

with the narrative of God’s redeeming power. This narrative creates communities that are

grounded in the story about who God is and what he does toward humanity. This communities

shape the character of their members and transform them into a certain kind of people that display

the virtues of the kingdom of God Jesus preached. And, this transformation operates through

25
Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 91.
26
Stanley Hauerwas and William H. Willimon, Resident Aliens. Life in the Christian Colony (Nashville: Abingdon
Press, 1989), 82-83.

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constant practices of love and justice. That is the main task of Christians, to be the church of Christ,

a community where the message of God is incarnate and where we practice the values of the

kingdom in such a way that transform us in a kind of people that love and display justice to others.

There is oppression, suffering, and hunger everywhere around us and Christians simply cannot

turn I blind eye to the world. The transforming power of God’s love is intended for the whole

human being and not only for our spirit. Therefore, we all are called to share shuch love with all

those who God wants to love.

Conclusions

It is undeniable that God’s deliverance is at the heart of the Biblical message. Throughout the

Scriptures, God is a God who liberates his people. He performs acts of salvation that culminate

with the greatest self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ. In him, God also revealed that his intention

toward humanity is liberation. Jesus came preaching the nearness of the kingdom of God, a reign

of justice. Through his ministry, death, and resurrection he performed the ultimate salvific act of

God for the world. That is the intention of God for people, that they could be liberated from sin

and all its consequences, from the injustices that prevent their fullness as persons and do not allow

them to experience a worthy life. This is the witness that the church of Christ should bear. We are

to be a community that incarnates God’s message of deliverance revealed in the Bible and displays

the love and justice that he wants to pour out to every nation and every person on earth. And this

is only accomplished by a deep commitment with the causes of his kingdom and fighting as a

community against the injustices that perpetuates oppression. The strategy is being the church, a

community of people transformed by the power of God. People shaped by the practices of justice

modeled in the story of what he has done with his people. When we are this community, we love

11
others and we fight against the injustices that keep people apart from the intentions of God for

them.

Bibliography

Boff, Leonardo and Clodovis. Introducing Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis,
1987.

Bosch, David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. American Society
of Missiology Series, No. 16. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1991.

Gutierrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation. 2nd ed. Translated
and edited by Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1973.

Essential Writings. Edited by James B. Nickoloff. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1996.

The Power of the Poor in History. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1983.

Haight, Roger. An Alternative Vision. An Interpretation of Liberation Theology. Mahwah, New

York: Paulist Press, 1985.

Hauerwas, Stanley and William H. Willimon. Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony.
Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989.

Stassen, Glenn H. and David P. Gushee. Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary
Context. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2003.

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