Scott’s Column: Gustavo Gutierrez

Earlier this year, Jurgen Moltmann died.  He was the great living theologian, at least the greatest Protestant theologian in the post-Second-World-War-Era.  And then last week arguably the greatest Roman Catholic theologian of this era also died–Gustavo Gutierrez.  It’s been a sad year for Christian theology.

For a good obit and summary of his life, here’s what the NYTimes wrote.  For a great discussion of his theology, I recommend this piece from the Jesuit magazine America.

Gutierrez wrote, “To know God is to work for justice.  There is no other path to reach God.”

He was the father of Liberation Theology.  A movement that began in Latin America in Roman Catholicism as a response to extreme poverty and the harsh politics of the region that did little to improve people’s lives.  Often the Church had been part of the power structure and the status quo, and Gutierrez was one of a generation of thinkers, priests, and bishops who moved the Church in a new direction.

But the ideas they inspired spread broadly and caused a global revolution in Christian theology.  Contemporaneous to the work in Latin America, Black theologians in the United States began to write about liberation.  Feminist theology soon burst upon the scene.  Followed by a whole series of liberationist movements–queer, womanist, disabled, etc.

Liberation theology taught that theology should be done by the people and not just in the ivory towers of the academy.  Where Christian theology had so often been the ideas of highly educated White Europeans (usually able-bodied, straight males), suddenly new voices in theology were heard from around the globe, from different cultures and perspectives.

And whereas much religion has focused on the afterlife and supernatural concerns, Liberation Theology focused on the here and now and issues of poverty, race, gender, oppression, violence, etc.  Surely the saving work of God is intended for this life.  Surely the work of the church is to make life better now.

Gutierrez’s masterwork, A Theology of Liberation, appeared in 1971 and forever altered Christian theology for the better.  On the day he died, I wrote a comment on a friend’s Facebook post “I am who and what I am because of the movement he began.”

With gratitude and celebration for his life, which was a blessing to the world, we remember and honor our Christian brother Gustavo Gutierrez.