Liberation Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Latin America : As it Was in the Beginning?

Abstract

This interdisciplinary volume brings together approaches from history, theology, cultural studies, architecture, sociology, and anthropology to reevaluate the legacy and significance of liberation theology in Latin America.

Liberation theology was born in the 1960s at a time of Church renewal and socio-economic ferment, as many sought radical solutions to the perceived exhaustion of developmentalist projects and the institutionalised violence of capitalism and dependency. By focussing on praxis – the lived experiences, spiritual, and embodied practices of those engaged in social action – the book challenges the assumption that liberation theology had reached its twilight by the late 1970s. Indeed, it demonstrates that liberationist Christianity was more diverse and internally conflicted, more widely resonant outside ecclesial confines, and more interconnected over time, than often allowed.

The chapters provide new perspectives on liberationist engagements with, and influence on, ecclesiology, Participatory Action Research, architecture and urbanism, feminism, human rights, ecofeminist political theology, and more, from the 1960s to the present moment in Latin America. Drawing these threads together, the book invites us to reconsider liberation theology’s praxis in retrospect and the continuities and changes that reach into the present day.