Liberation theology and Marx.

In this short 12 minute film, Peter Baron discusses a possible Christian Thought (H573/3) exam question: “Liberation theology is too dependent on Marxism.” Discuss. Use it as a basis for your essay plan or to generate a discussion on how best to handle this question.
Notes:
“Liberation theology is too dependent on Marxism.” Discuss
- Master-slave relationship - slave is the other but without the slave the master is nothing.
- Alienation and False consciousness - four sources: Capitalism, ownership of wealth, institutions, God and religion
- “Private property has made us so stupid and partial that an object is only ours when we have it, when it exists for us as capital or when it is directly eaten, drunk, worn, inhabited etc, in short utilized in some way.....Thus all physical and intellectual senses have been replaced by the simple alienation of all these senses; the sense of having.” Marx
- Marx argues for despotic inroads into property rights “The communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations...the proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralise all instruments of production in the hands of the State...Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on rights of property...” Communist Manifesto
- Lt sees Praxis - context- is important as we need to change our context
- Leonardo Boff uses Marx consciously. Guiterrez is influenced by Marx.
- Discuss Boff using his three mediations. 1. Socio-analytical mediation looks at the situation of oppression, and asks why? Here Marx is useful as he analyses property, class and oppression using terms such as alienation and false consciousness. False consciousness means the poor accept their condition. LTs come into conflict with the Catholic Church because the hierarchy is taught as God-given and is bound up with those in power who oppress and even kill the poor.
- 2. Hermeneutical mediation tries to understand what God’s word says to the situation of the poor. It reads the Bible through the lens of suffering and poverty.
- 3. Practical mediation operates on the level of action. What can be doe to confront the powers of oppression?
- “Marx can never be the guide, only a companion on the way because “You have only one teacher, Christ” “(Matt 23:10). Boff pg 28
- “At no time either explicitly or implicitly have I suggested a dialogue with Marxism with a view to a possible ‘synthesis’ or to accepting one aspect while leaving others aside” Guiterrez
- Yes to the use of the social sciences of which Marx is one possible critique
- Marxism shows what happens when Christian social principles become too other worldly
- Theology is second act or second step just as Hegel said of philosophy ‘it rises after sundown’: it is used to over-come religious ‘fetishism’ which causes alienation.
- LT theologians use Marxist theory of alienation: religious means of production controlled by the Church (so need for inglesia populare eg in creation of base communities)
- Church as institution alienates the people because of its interest in power, therefore emphasis on the people’s Church
- Sin is be thought of not merely in spiritual terms but ‘the situation of sin’ (Medellin) = ‘structural’ ie social, material, violence, exploitation (= ‘original’ sin)
- Example - Mary’s Song known as The Magnificat ‘He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts’ - judgement of false consciousness
- ‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble meek’ - material reversal
- ‘He has filled the poor with good things’ - the poor will be rewarded not the rich
- The poor are their own subjects - existential reversal
- Four evaluative questions Has liberation theology become too this worldly?
- Has it reduced the ‘Kingdom of God’ merely to the level of the political and the material?
- Has it destroyed the traditional teaching on life-after death and replaced it with a Marxist type state?
- Is its notion of the telos a ‘utopia’ a no-place? Is Boff’s insistence that it is a ‘topia’ sufficient?
- Cardinal Ratzinger (became Pope Benedict) criticisms.
- Too much emphasis on one kind of sin
- Too much emphasis on one kind of liberation (political)
- Too much emphasis on liberation through praxis not Grace
- Too exclusive: other theologies also offer the means for salvation
- Too reductionistic - the Kingdom of God is not just a political struggle
Conclusion
Christianity has become too closely enmeshed in power structures - becoming private, individualistic and captured by prosperity. LT rediscovers the strong themes of justice which burst out of the OT in prophecies of Isiah (see chapter 60) or Amos. Moreover, read from a liberation perspective familiar stories such as the feeding of the 5000 and the curing of the demoniac assume a new and powerful meaning. Maybe it’s the church that needs to change.

[@jeannemarie3704]

Fabulous information. I just began studying liberation theology. This is extremely informative.

[@MasterKeyMagic]

Amen🙌🏽