ABSTRACT
An influential movement within Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, the “theology of liberation” views Jesus Christ as the champion and liberator of poor and oppressed people. Christ’s teachings, as interpreted by liberation theologians such as Father Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928–) of Peru, are aimed as much at social justice in this world as salvation in the next. Far from being “normal” or “natural” features of human life, poverty and oppression are the products of sin—of greed and lust for power—among the affluent. Liberation theology aims at raising the consciousness not only of the poor but also of affluent people, who are asked to confront and overcome their own sin by exercising the “option for the poor.” Since 2001, Gutiérrez has been a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana.
