Jedd’s Reviews > A Theology of Liberation > Status Update

Further along but factoring in all the notes which extends the Kindle version of the book to at least 468 pages.

...and action for the Poor. I think ultimately, such may be the wiser approach/resolution to the question of Christ's existence in this world and in the universe — which is Not to say that we are God and God is I, more that the only way to encounter the Holy in this imperfect world is through Love and Service for others...powered by a genuine, reflective, prayerful dialogue with God and the Word...true or not.

Final, final, FINAL notes for tonight:

I've always struggled with the concept of apologetics i.e. using logic + reason to prove the inevitability of the existence of the Christian God.

What I find refreshing and rewarding about this reading + reflection is that Gutierrez and similar theologians take a completely opposite tact to proving God's existence, calling followers instead to find Him through service...

...the emergent and new public space, whom the Church used to violently suppress in the name of power and the desires of its orthodox (mostly elite) patrons, and the need, post-enlightenment, post-war, post-Vatican II, to defer to praxis as the central "arbiter" of one's Christian faith and the Church's readiness to participate in the lives of its members...

Action at the center.

...with which to aide struggling parishioners and Christians looking to do something about the dire situations their communities and church members in 1960s-1980s Latin America finds themselves in, what with all the military dictatorships and repression and crony capitalism and corruption.

...it's not a divergence per se from Church teaching but rather his means of helping find a Christian "guide" towards...

P.S.

Gutierrez's affinity for Marx seems to lie in his praxis-led scholarly orientation above all else. The more I reflect, the more I realize that the Church has just as rich a history of scholarship on the duty of humankind to the poor and the weak. In that aspect Marx is no different/no better (and might not even be as compelling). It is in the bias to action that Gutierrez seems to find a wealth of new ideas...

Last reflection fragments:
1. Creation is salvation — see the "Word made flesh"
2. Humanity = "human history" — to be in service of humanity is also to be in service of history
3. Hope in the Promise of Christ's resurrection is both future-leaning and an empowerment of our power in the present to drive towards it, with God's blessing and will; will = desire and ACTION

Following along with his thinking: in the same vein that Christ's life, death, and resurrection transformed/transfigured our relationship with sin and death, and given that thru the Holy Spirit God now dwells within us, we are empowered as God's agents to thus radically reshape the world around us in the image of His Love i.e. in service solely to the dignity of every human, in whom God also dwells.

To Gutierrez — the post-Resurrection world is a call to expand the basic callings of Christ:

Love for one's neighbor = love for community, solidarity with the least: the poor and marginalized.

Faith thru works = active participation in liberation movements, emancipation of poor, suffering, sick, hungry, etc.

Acceptance of salvation = creation of a New Society, rejection of Old Ways e.g. capitalism and colonialism