I don’t think black radio host Joe Madison was correct when he told Glenn Beck that Martin Luther King Jr. was a proponent of liberation theology. It’s my understanding that liberation theology is a Catholic affair. King was not a Catholic. Yet, the point that Madison was trying to convey still stands. King was an advocate for the poor. Maybe Glenn Beck could teach people at his university about the Poor People’s Campaign. It would be, uh, educational. But first he’d have to learn about it himself.
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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He might want to finish Tom Paine’s books, too.
Since liberation theology developed in Latin America, it necessarily took on a Catholic cast. However, it became an ecumenical movement that brought Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Evangelicals together. It’s hard to pin down whether King ever used the term, but his beliefs certainly echo black liberation theology as developed over time in some black churches. I think Madison’s point was valid.
As to Beck, he doesn’t know or care what kind of society the Jesus message would require if taken seriously. That would take some thinking, and he certainly wouldn’t want to be accused of cognitive elitism.
from what I know of Wright he is indebted to James Cone. Martin Luther King, Jr really was not working in a liberation theology context
There is agreement across denominations on the issues but liberation theology makes use of a completely catholic concept of the church. Interesting thing to look at, however, is liberation theology’s concept of hope as a dynamic of progressive reform (sound familiar?)
It’s valid in a way. But considering that Beck is coming to the issue from his understanding of Ratzy’s rulings in 1980’s, it’s kind of misleading. Beck is a Mormon but he’s using Catholic dogma to attack the concept of social justice as defined by the Liberation Theology movement. MLK Jr. is an example of using Christianity to further social justice, including economic justice, but it had no real Cold War component or Marxist elements. It’s basically a historical anachronism to conflate King’s theology with Liberation Theology. It’s also misleading to conflate Black Liberation theology with Liberation Theology.
So, Beck isn’t quite as stoopid as that exchange makes him look.
yes, Liberation theology really uses the catholic concept of the church, in fact was developed in dominantly catholic countries, which is important because liberation theology works with a social concept of sin – it’s not really marxist either, but expands the concept of sin in terms of “sinful structures” (which alters the discussion of individual right and wrong, though the individual is still responsible for right and wrong actions). I think Cone may redefine the categories with Black Community taking the place of liberation theologies concept of Catholic Church – haven’t read him for a while. Maybe I’ll write a diary on this in a couple months since I am scheduled to give a talk on it.
That’s debatable. Certainly, Ratzy’s opposition was based on his belief that Liberation Theology involved and furthered Marxist goals. So, the Catholic Church took a position based on that understanding. The right-wing in this country has certainly accepted that interpretation and run with it, so it created a backlash from the left denying any Marxist component. The true history is mixed.
yes, and I guess I say it isn’t because of what ppl understand that to mean in the usa. they’re looking at the social conditions but differ with marxism in what can be attained by humans and in discussion of what the dynamic of achieving social justice is.
well, what I’m thinking has more to do with the intertwining of Latin American politics (and war, frankly) and Liberation Theology. It’s less of an intellectual relationship than a personal and political one.
Not sure I understand what you mean in your comment – but I think Ratzy and the Church phrased it that way partly because of the cold war; whether they understood the theology I don’t know, but I’m assuming that what upset them was what Gutierrez called “the preferential option for the poor” which is fundamental in Liberation Theology i.e. that point of view of the church must be that of the oppressed. It’s more anti-corporate and anti-oligarchic than an alignment with Marxism, but Marxist thinkers were studied and were a major resource along with other social historians by European theologians and some were/ are marxists. Severino Croatto’s book Exodus A Hermeneutics of Freedom, for example, struck me as a marxist reading more than Segundo or Gutierrez’s work (the amount I’m familiar with). I’m trying to find some other docs (which are on line) – back at my desk but can’t find my files (but did spill alot of files on the floor in the process). Since I can’t find any of my sources right now I’m sure I’m missing some nuance. But partly I’m thinking about Leonardo Boff and Luis Segundo’s, for example, emphasis on the sacraments. it’s not a materialist discussion at heart.
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-15952387/liberation-theology-sacramental-theology.html
well, what I mean is that on the surface there isn’t much to discuss between a Catholic and a Marxist. One believes in God and one doesn’t. So, how did a Catholic intellectual movement get intertwined with a wholly materialist one? It wasn’t really an intellectual intersection. It was making common purpose in the political sphere.
yes, I see what you’re saying. they used/ accepted the marxist analysis of the context
Liberation Theology was developed by Latin American theologians, who studied in Europe (Leonardo Boff, Juan Segundo Jon Sobrino, Gustavo Guttierez) but soon picked up and contextualized around the world as theologies of the oppressed. African American Liberation theology developed by James Cone in a 1969 book, but this was later than Martin Luther King, Jr.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hal_Cone
Current prez of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, is a liberation theologian and former bishop.
Errol (or DaveW), know of any good general books on this subject for the layman?
There are some web sites that give the writings of the major figures – google the names I listed above (have no links with me here). also there are some other major docs – I’ll look for them right now.
this is good – the mid 20th century catholic context is important, Vatican II, worker priest movement, etc
http://www.landreform.org/boff2.htm
For books lots of Orbis publications
http://www.orbisbooks.com/
some links I can’t locate, hopefully will have time to post later
Thanks a lot.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was a proponent of the social gospel.
it is the tradition of the social gospel that is the basic underpinning of the Black Church until the prosperity gospel hustle burst forth.
Martin Luther King, Jr. combined the pre-World War II social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch re-anchored to orthodox Chrisianity through the likes of the Niebuhr brothers, Tillich, Bonhoeffer. Plus the theology of his dad, Martin Luther King, Sr. Plus the influence of Mahatma Gahdhi. It is a very complex mixture, that defies the label of “Liberation Theology” of such Catholics as Gustavo Gutierrez and Juan Luis Segundo. The main works of liberation theology date from after King’s assassination. It is a movement of the 1970s.
Liberation Theology was developed in the Catholic church, but it has had an influence among Protestant theologians. Examples: Rubem Alves, José Míguez Bonino, Jurgen Moltmann, Frederick Herzog.
Thanks to all above, especially Errol, for the discussion and insight.
James Cone’s “Black Theology and Black Power” was published in 1969. In 1970, he published “A Black Theology of Liberation”. Gustavo Gutierriez’s “A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation” was published in 1971.
These are obviously matters of interpretation, but I think it’s best to think of liberation theology not as originating in one place or church, but rather as emerging almost simultaneously around the globe in response to the post WW II era of freedom movements—not least of which was the US civil rights movement.