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The God of Life
"My desire is that this book may help readers to know more fully the God of biblical revelation and, as a result, to proclaim God as the God of life." Who is God? Where is God? How are we to speak of God? Gutierrez looks at these classic questions through a review of the Bible, and his answers challenge all Christians to a deepening of faith.
234 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1989
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About the author
Gustavo Gutiérrez
106 books130 followersGustavo Gutiérrez-Merino Díaz was a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest who was one of the founders of liberation theology in Latin America. His 1971 book A Theology of Liberation is considered pivotal to the formation of liberation theology. He held the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and was a visiting professor at universities in North America and Europe.
Gutiérrez studied medicine and literature at the National University of San Marcos before deciding to become a priest. He began studying theology at the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and in Lyon, France.
His theological focus connected salvation and liberation through the preferential option for the poor, with an emphasis on improving the material conditions of the impoverished. Gutiérrez proposed that revelation and eschatology have been excessively idealized at the expense of efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. His methodology was often critical of the social and economic injustice he believed to be responsible for poverty in Latin America, and of the Catholic clergy. The central pastoral question of his work was: "How do we convey to the poor that God loves them?"
Gutiérrez studied medicine and literature at the National University of San Marcos before deciding to become a priest. He began studying theology at the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and in Lyon, France.
His theological focus connected salvation and liberation through the preferential option for the poor, with an emphasis on improving the material conditions of the impoverished. Gutiérrez proposed that revelation and eschatology have been excessively idealized at the expense of efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth. His methodology was often critical of the social and economic injustice he believed to be responsible for poverty in Latin America, and of the Catholic clergy. The central pastoral question of his work was: "How do we convey to the poor that God loves them?"
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 11, 2016
Gustavo Gutierrez completed this book during the same year that his friends, the six Jesuits at the Universidad Centroamericana in El Salvador, and their housekeeper and her daughter, were assassinated for their work on behalf of the poor. Writing from "a continent where the majority live in an indescribable poverty resulting from radically inequitable and unjust social relationships," and where "the price [the poor] have had to pay for recognition of their dignity as human beings has been, and still is, a heavy one," Gutierrez offers a description and a defense of the faith of the poor in a "God of Life," drawing widely from the Bible, the Catholic magisterium, and spiritual tradition and experience.
The book is structured as an answer to five classic questions: Does God exist? What is God? Where is God? How are we to speak of God? and Why God? Really, the middle three are central to the book, and form its organization in three parts. I think it's also fair to say that these three questions are taken up by Gutierrez as a way to develop a trinitarian theology, in which reflections on Father, Son, and Spirit correlate with and answer the second, third and fourth questions respectively. The fifth question, Gutierrez explains, is essential to and inseparable from all the others. He does not handle it separately. A short answer to it might be that the reason of God's being is to love, entirely beyond reason, and especially to love the poor. He has no doubt this God lives and calls us to live likewise.
Gutierrez expresses some hostility to philosophical thinking about God, because philosophers can think only abstractly about God, as a possible concept, and not as a living, loving power in the world. He has a point, but I think here, as in other of his books, he protests too much. True, there's no explicit metaphysics here, let alone speculation as to how God might be both three and one; but he is a canny theologian, and surely understands that his remarks on matters like the presence and absence of God beg questions that want intellectual satisfaction, not just practical resolution.
I hadn't read this book in years. I am very glad to read it again. It's a great introduction to the work of this great theologian of liberation.
The book is structured as an answer to five classic questions: Does God exist? What is God? Where is God? How are we to speak of God? and Why God? Really, the middle three are central to the book, and form its organization in three parts. I think it's also fair to say that these three questions are taken up by Gutierrez as a way to develop a trinitarian theology, in which reflections on Father, Son, and Spirit correlate with and answer the second, third and fourth questions respectively. The fifth question, Gutierrez explains, is essential to and inseparable from all the others. He does not handle it separately. A short answer to it might be that the reason of God's being is to love, entirely beyond reason, and especially to love the poor. He has no doubt this God lives and calls us to live likewise.
Gutierrez expresses some hostility to philosophical thinking about God, because philosophers can think only abstractly about God, as a possible concept, and not as a living, loving power in the world. He has a point, but I think here, as in other of his books, he protests too much. True, there's no explicit metaphysics here, let alone speculation as to how God might be both three and one; but he is a canny theologian, and surely understands that his remarks on matters like the presence and absence of God beg questions that want intellectual satisfaction, not just practical resolution.
I hadn't read this book in years. I am very glad to read it again. It's a great introduction to the work of this great theologian of liberation.
September 15, 2021
A review of biblical themes and passages meant to be a more broadly accessible introduction to liberation theology perspectives, framed as an exploration of how the poor and marginalized encounter the "God of Life" in scripture. I find Gutierrez to be a compelling writer, and appreciated the emphasis and focus of the book.
Two aspects that struck me in particular were his interpretation of the prophetic message of justice as drawing on something inherent in the identity of Israel, and his exploration of the figure of Mary in the context of Marian devotion in Latin America. Gutierrez points out that because of the Exodus, in which God liberated the enslaved Israelites, and because of the way that event of liberation was so formative for the identity of the people of Israel, the prophetic message to enact justice was appealing to something woven into the very fabric of their identity as a people. To do injustice was (is?) to negate and contradict their own identity as a people formed by God. I thought this was an insightful way to frame things. Gutierrez's exploration of Marian devotion in the poor of Latin America was also interesting to me, partly because, being Protestant, I have very little context for it. I found Gutierrez's way of writing about it intriguing and compelling in trying to give an account of just how and why there is such strong devotion to Mary among the poor and oppressed in Latin America.
Two aspects that struck me in particular were his interpretation of the prophetic message of justice as drawing on something inherent in the identity of Israel, and his exploration of the figure of Mary in the context of Marian devotion in Latin America. Gutierrez points out that because of the Exodus, in which God liberated the enslaved Israelites, and because of the way that event of liberation was so formative for the identity of the people of Israel, the prophetic message to enact justice was appealing to something woven into the very fabric of their identity as a people. To do injustice was (is?) to negate and contradict their own identity as a people formed by God. I thought this was an insightful way to frame things. Gutierrez's exploration of Marian devotion in the poor of Latin America was also interesting to me, partly because, being Protestant, I have very little context for it. I found Gutierrez's way of writing about it intriguing and compelling in trying to give an account of just how and why there is such strong devotion to Mary among the poor and oppressed in Latin America.
February 7, 2024
Quite insightful. Super interesting interpretations of biblical stories and sources that I had never heard of before. Led to great class discussions and gave me a lot to think about. I think it was well translated and easy to read, very accessible. Definitely setting me firmly on my journey of Liberation Theology.
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September 23, 2025It’s definitely far too much in academic theology for me to get anything out of this. Unfortunately reading this was pretty much a waste of time for me
August 16, 2014
pursuing and radicalizing discipleship beyond mere formalities and flat orthodoxy...
December 14, 2015
One of the most inspirational books of what it means to live in this world listening to God's guidance.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews