2024/10/24

Gustavo Gutiérrez - Wikipedia

Gustavo Gutiérrez - Wikipedia


Gustavo Gutiérrez

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Gustavo Gutiérrez, see Gustavo Gutiérrez (disambiguation).
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gutiérrez and the second or maternal family name is Merino.
The Reverend
Gustavo Gutiérrez
OP
Gutiérrez in 1988
Born
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino

8 June 1928
Lima, Peru
Died22 October 2024 (aged 96)
Lima, Peru
Alma materCatholic University of Leuven, Catholic University of Lyon
Occupation(s)Priest and professor
EmployerUniversity of Notre Dame
Known forLatin American liberation theology,[1] preferential option for the poor
AwardsPacem in Terris Award, Príncipe de Asturias award, Legion of Honor, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Ecclesiastical career
ReligionChristianity
ChurchRoman Catholic Church
Ordained1959
Congregations served
Iglesia Cristo Redentor, Rimac

Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino OP (8 June 1928 – 22 October 2024) was a Peruvian philosopher, Catholic theologian, and Dominican priest, regarded as one of the founders of Latin American liberation theology.[1][2] He was the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.[3]

Gutiérrez studied medicine and literature at the National University of San Marcos, where he also became involved with Catholic Action, which greatly influenced his theological arguments. At the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and Lyon, France, he began studying theology. He taught at the University of Michigan, Harvard, Cambridge, UC Berkeley, and University of Montréal and other schools.[4]

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. Gutierrez proposed that revelation and eschatology have been excessively idealized at the expense of efforts to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth.[5] In this way, his methodology is often critical of the social and economic injustice he believes to be responsible for poverty in Latin America and the clergy within the Catholic Church. The central pastoral question of his work is: "How do we convey to the poor that God loves them?"[6]

In 1974, Gutiérrez founded the Lima branch of the Bartolomé de Las Casas Institute. The Institute, in its mission statement, sought to use theology as a means of addressing contemporary social issues and educating through research, engagement with lawmakers, and collaboration with grassroots organizations.[7]

Gutiérrez was a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language. In 1993, he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government for his tireless work. In 2000, Brown University awarded Gutiérrez an honorary Doctor of Divinity.[8] In 2002, Gutiérrez was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 2003, he received the Príncipe de Asturias award. In 2014, he was awarded the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize from Brandeis University.[9] In 2016, he received the Pacem in Terris Award from St. Ambrose University.[10]

Early life and education

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On 8 June 1928, Gustavo Gutiérrez was born in Lima to mestizo parentage, being half-Hispanic and half-Indigenous.[11] He was afflicted with osteomyelitis as an adolescent and was frequently bed-ridden. He had to use a wheelchair from age 12 to 18.[12] However, he described this time as a formative experience, claiming it instilled the value of hope through prayer and the love of family in friends. Gutierrez lived in Barranco, and studied at Colegio San Luis; among his close friends during those years was Javier Mariategui, both will later study medicine together. As he describes it, this experience had a profound impact on his interest in theology.[13]

He initially studied medicine at the National University of San Marcos in Peru in order to become a psychiatrist, then he realized he wanted to become a priest.[14] He completed his theological studies in the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and at Lyon in France, where he studied under Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, Marie Dominique Chenu, Christian Ducoq, and several others.[15] It was also here where Gutiérrez was introduced to the Dominican and Jesuit ideologies, and was influenced by the work of Edward Schillebeeckx, Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and Johann Baptist Metz.[16] His time in Europe influenced Gutiérrez to discuss the openness of the Church to the contemporary world. He was also influenced by Protestant theologians such as Karl Barth and social scientists such as François Perroux and his idea of development.[17][18] In 1959, Gutiérrez was ordained a priest.[19]

While studying in Europe, Gutiérrez was exposed to other, non-religious thinkers who had a profound impact on his ideology and the eventual formation of Latin American liberation theology.[13] At the Faculty of Theology in Lyons, France he studied Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud - who he did a philosophy licentiate on at the University of Louvrain - and evolutionary theorists traditionally opposed or discouraged by the church.[20] Marx's discussion of class struggle and the material conditions of poverty provided Gutiérrez a framework for understanding socio-economic inequality.[20]

Gutiérrez was at one time a parish priest of the Iglesia Cristo Redentor (Church of the Holy Redeemer) in Rimac, Peru.[19]

Foundations of liberation theology

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When he returned to Peru, Gutiérrez began to formulate his understanding of Latin American "reality" – the foundation and driving force of Latin American liberation theology.[21] He states: "I come from a continent in which more than 60% of the population lives in a state of poverty, and 82% of those find themselves in extreme poverty."[22] Gutiérrez focused his efforts on the rediscovery of love thy neighbor as the central axiom of Christian life.[23][24] He felt the European theology he had studied did not reflect the oppressive material conditions in Latin America. In 2003, Gutiérrez reminisced that his "parishioners in Lima would... teach me volumes about hope in the midst of suffering". This relationship with Christianity would inspire his book On Job, published in 1987.[13]

Gutiérrez in 2007

An outline of Gutiérrez's theological proposal was drafted in his conference "Towards a Theology of Liberation" during the Second Meeting of Priests and Laity in Chimbote, Peru, between 21 and 25 July 1968.[25] In this proposal, he cites on multiple occasions Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes and Paul VI's Populorum Progressio. To Gutiérrez, the source of the problems of Latin America was the sin manifested in an unjust social structure. His solution to this problem was to emphasize the dignity of the poor by prioritizing the glory of God present in them.[15] This perspective would be refined over the next three years, until Gutiérrez published A Theology of Liberation in 1971.[26]

Latin American liberation theology thus emerged as a biblical analysis of poverty. Gutiérrez distinguished two forms of poverty: a "scandalous state" and a "spiritual childhood." He noted that, while the former is abhorred by God, the second is valued. Gutiérrez identified that each form of poverty was present in Latin America, wherein one hungers for bread and for God. It is only through the manifestation of a committed faith that the purposes of God can be manifested to man, regardless of the color or social class under which he was born. Liberation theology insists on prioritizing the gift of life as the supreme manifestation of God.[27]

Gutiérrez asserts that his understanding of poverty as a "scandalous state" is reflected in Luke's beatitude "Blessed are you poor, for the kingdom of God is yours", whereas his interpretation of it as "spiritual childhood" has precedent in Matthew's verse, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven". He argues that there are forms of poverty beyond economic.[28]

Writings on the option for the poor

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Gutiérrez calls for understanding the reality of the poor, and contends that being poor is not simply lacking the economic resources for development.[29] On the contrary, Gutiérrez understands poverty as "a way of living, of thinking, of loving, of praying, of believing and waiting, of spending free time, of fighting for life." He simultaneously emphasizes that poverty is the result of flawed social institutions.[29] While many theologians oversimplify poverty's social roots, for Gutiérrez the origin of poverty is much more complex. In Latin America, it originates from the times of the conquest and to that is added several political, geographical, and personal factors.[29]

The proclamation of the gospel in the midst of the unjust situation in Latin America leads to a praxis based on principles derived from the word of God. In the article Theology and Poverty, Gutiérrez recalls that this option should lead to three well-defined actions, with the preferential option for the poor unfolding as a fundamental axis of the Christian life on three levels:[29][30]

  1. The announcement and testimony of the reign of God denounces poverty.
  2. The intelligence of faith reveals essential aspects of God and provides a perspective for theological work.
  3. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus, otherwise known as spirituality, is, on the deepest level, the basis on which everything else rests.

The main biblical foundation for this praxis lies in the kenotic incarnation of Christ. To Gutiérrez, the ministry of Christ among the rejected and despised of his time is a clear example for the contemporary Church. Furthermore, "the incarnation is an act of love. Christ becomes man, dies and rises to liberate us, and makes us enjoy freedom. To die and be resurrected with Christ is to overcome death and enter into a new life. The cross and the resurrection seal our freedom." The freedom of Christ is seen by Gutiérrez as the source of spiritual and economic freedom.[31]

Theological reflection on liberation extends beyond a simple discourse lacking in practical and concrete implications. Reflection on the situation of the poor leads to what liberation theologians call "liberating praxis", where they attempt to rectify the process by which the faith of the Church builds the economic, spiritual and intellectual liberation of socially oppressed peoples as fulfillment of the kingdom of God. The liberating praxis, then, has its basis in the love that God manifests for us and in the sense of solidarity and fellowship that should exist in interpersonal relationships among the children of God. These are concepts that Gutiérrez developed in concert with education activist/philosopher Paulo Freire, whose 1968 seminal work Pedagogy of the Oppressed explored the concept of praxis and a preferential option for the poor.[32][33]

Death

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Gutiérrez died from pneumonia in a convent in Lima on 22 October 2024, at the age of 96.[34][35]

Legacy

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Gutiérrez was an influential figure within 20th century theology, and responses to his work have been polarized. Arthur F. McGovern identifies liberation theology as an anomaly within theologian fields, arguing that theology discourse is generally limited to academic circles. He argues that Gutiérrez's theories, however, have considerable and tangible impacts on the Latin America's socio-economic conditions.[36]

Liberation theology was intended as a call to all believers in Latin America to act on the biblical commitment to the poor. Gutiérrez's message on material and economic conditions serves to place inequality in both religious and political discourse. Gutiérrez's thought has influenced theology, both in Latin America and abroad. This influence can be observed from the evangelical proposal of the "integral mission" developed years after the origin of liberation,[37] to the development of social ministries within the evangelical churches in the last decades.[38]

Among his most prominent followers are Hugo Echegaray and Luis Felipe Zegarra Russo. His friends include the German theologian Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On the subject of Gustavo Gutiérrez's thought, of which he was a student, Müller stated: "The theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, how it is considered, is orthodox because it is orthopractic and teaches us the correct Christian way of acting, since it derives from authentic faith."[39] On Gutiérrez's 90th birthday, in 2018, Pope Francis thanked him for his contributions "to the church and humanity through your theological service and your preferential love for the poor and discarded of society."[40] While Gutiérrez's positions were never censored by the Church, he had been asked to modify some of his propositions.[41]

Criticisms

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In the early 1970s, Gutiérrez gave a controversial lecture in Córdoba, Argentina upon being invited by the Movement of Priests for the Third World.[42] He refused to speak unless Father Jerónimo Podestá - a fellow liberation theologian who, unlike Gutiérrez, fought for the right of priests to marry - left the room.[42] Years after, Podestá's widow and fellow critic of mandatory celibacy within the church, Clelia Luro [es] deemed Guiterrez's attitude towards the issue to be discriminatory and wrote to him:[43][44]

I am Clelia Luro, the partner of Jerónimo Podestá, if you remember? You came to Córdoba for a Movement of Priests for the Third World talk. Jerónimo had been invited for the first time by Marimichi. He went to Córdoba very happy, this having been the first time the Priests invited him. The next day Jerónimo came back home. I asked him what happened, and he answered "Gustavo didn't want to start if I was in the room", without hiding any pain. I thought, "liberation Theology, what liberation did he offer?" The clerical liberation of false values? And I pitied you. I know you also behaved the same way towards Leonardo Boff, the best theologian the Church has today. Last Saturday Francis called me, and I reminded him of that incident, and he replied that he remembered because I had already told him back when he was still our Cardinal Bergoglio. Gustavo, if liberation theology leads us to judge our brothers, we would have to liberate ourselves from that theology.

In 1984, the Holy See, under Pope John Paul II, criticized aspects of liberation theology, taking particular issue with its use of Marxist economic theory. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger asked Peruvian bishops to examine Gutiérrez's writings, voicing concerns that Gutierrez's arguments embodied a concerning "idealization of faith".[45] As a result, he and liberation theology were the subjects of 36-page Vatican report, which declared Marxism to be incompatible with Catholic teachings. The Catholic Church in Peru then held a vote to rebuke Gutiérrez's ordination within the group, which ended in a tie.[20]

According to Arthur F. McGovern, assessing the movement and its critics is complicated by the fact that it became the subject of popular controversy outside of theological and academic circles, including stories and advertisements in the popular press that evoked passionate responses by identifying liberation theology with Communism and fear of radicalism in Latin American politics.[46]

Selected works

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  • On the Side of the Poor: The Theology of Liberation. Co-authored with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller. Orbis Books, 2015: ISBN 978-1626981157[47]
  • In the Company of the Poor: conversations between Dr. Paul Farmer and Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez. Ed. Michael Griffin and Jennie Weiss Block. Orbis Books, 2013: ISBN 978-1626980501[48]
  • Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ, trans. Robert R. Barr (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1993). Originally published as En busca de los pobres de Jesucristo: El pensamiento de Bartolomé de las Casas (Lima: CEP, 1992).[49]
  • The God of Life, trans. Matthew J. O'Connell (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1991). Originally published as El Dios de la vida (Lima: CEP, 1989).[50]
  • On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent, trans. Matthew J. O'Connell (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1987). Originally published as Hablar de Dios desde el sufrimiento del inocente (Lima: CEP, 1986).[51]
  • The Truth Shall Make You Free: Confrontations, trans. Matthew J. O'Connell (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1990). Originally published as La verdad los hará libres: Confrontaciones (Lima: CEP, 1986).[52]
  • We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People, 20th anniversary ed., trans. Matthew J. O'Connell (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2003; 1st ed., Maryknoll: Orbis, 1984). Originally published as Beber en su propio pozo: En el itinerario espiritual de un pueblo (Lima: CEP, 1983).[53]
  • A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, 15th anniversary ed., trans. Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1988; 1st ed., Maryknoll: Orbis, 1973). Originally published as Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas (Lima: CEP, 1971).[54]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Løland, Ole Jakob (July 2021). Usarski, Frank (ed.). "The Solved Conflict: Pope Francis and Liberation Theology" (PDF). International Journal of Latin American Religions. 5 (2). Berlin: Springer Nature: 287–314. doi:10.1007/s41603-021-00137-3. eISSN 2509-9965. ISSN 2509-9957.
  2. ^ Cornell, George W. (6 August 1988). "Founder of liberation theology deals with acclaim and criticism". Lawrence Journal-World. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  3. ^ "Gustavo Gutierrez, O.P." Department of Theology: People. University of Notre Dame. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  4. ^ "Bigorafía de Gustavo Guitiérrez". unmsm.edu. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. Archived from the original on 8 July 2019. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  5. ^ Müller, Gerhard. ""La teología de la liberación hoy"". In Gutiérrez (ed.). Iglesia pobre y para los pobres. Lima.
  6. ^ Gutiérrez, Gustavo (1995). Hablar de Dios desde el sufrimiento del inocente. Una reflexión de el libro de Job. Lima: Instituto Bartolome de Las Casas.
  7. ^ "Las Casas Institute". Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Honorary Degrees". Corporation | Brown University. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  9. ^ "Gustavo Gutiérrez". www.brandeis.edu. Retrieved 9 May 2024.
  10. ^ "Pacem in Terris Past Recipients". Catholic Diocese of Davenport. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  11. ^ Humphrey, Kimberly (2011). "Gustavo Gutierrez's Liberation Theology". Denison Journal of Religion. 10. Retrieved 2 November 2019.
  12. ^ Hartnett, Daniel (3 February 2003). "Remembering the Poor: An Interview with Gustavo Gutiérrez". America Magazine. Retrieved 1 September 2010.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hartnett, Daniel (3 February 2003). "Remembering the Poor: An Interview With Gustavo Gutiérrez". americanmagazine.org. America Magazine. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  14. ^ "Gustavo Gutierrez biography (spanish)". Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928). Steven Casadont. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  15. ^ Jump up to:a b Botella Cubells, Vicente (8 de noviembre de 2011)). «Gustavo Gutiérrez, padre de la Teología de la Liberación». Facultad de Teología. Valencia.
  16. ^ Gutiérrez, Gustavo (2001) "Quehacer teológico y experiencia eclesial"; J.J.Tamayo y J.Bosch, eds., Panorama de la Teología Latinoamericana, Estella.
  17. ^ Gorringe, Timothy (12 August 1999), "Theology and Human Liberation", Karl Barth, Oxford University Press, pp. 268–290, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198752462.003.0007, ISBN 9780198752462, archived from the original on 20 July 2018, retrieved 20 July 2018
  18. ^ Sagasti, Francisco R.; Alcalde, Gonzalo (1999). Development Cooperation in a Fractured Global Order: An Arduous Transition. IDRC. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-88936-889-7.
  19. ^ Jump up to:a b "Gustavo Gutiérrez". www.britannica.com. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b c Klabier, Jeffery (July 1989). "Prophets and Populists: Liberation Theology, 1968-1988". The Americas. 46 (1): 1–5. doi:10.2307/1007391. JSTOR 1007391. S2CID 147016879.
  21. ^ "Gustavo Gutiérrez: Essential Writings"; Nickoloff, James. Fortress Press, 1996
  22. ^ Gutierrez, Gustavo (1991). "Juan de la Cruz desde America Latina". Retrieved 9 March 2015.
  23. ^ Hahnenberg, Edward P. (1 July 2010). Awakening Vocation: A Theology of Christian Call. Liturgical Press. ISBN 9780814657331.
  24. ^ "Gutiérrez highlights Pope's 'preferential option for the poor' // The Observer". The Observer. 26 September 2014. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  25. ^ Gutiérrez, Gustavo (1968) "Hacia una teología de la liberación. Consultado el 23 de julio de 2014.
  26. ^ "R.I.P. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the prophet who revolutionized Catholic theology for the poor". America Magazine. 23 October 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  27. ^ "Gustavo Gutierrez and the preferential option for the poor". National Catholic Reporter. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  28. ^ Gagliarducci, Andrea. "Fr Gustavo Gutierrez: the poor are the starting point of liberation theology". catholicnewagency.com. Retrieved 4 November 2019.
  29. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "A THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION" (PDF). Orbis Books. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  30. ^ "A Hermeneutic of Hope" (PDF). Vanderbilt.edu. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  31. ^ Gutiérrez, Gustavo. Essential Writings. Fortress Press. p. 300. ISBN 9781451410242.
  32. ^ Smith, Christian."The Emergence of Liberation Theology". University of Chicago Press, 1989
  33. ^ Freire, Paulo; Macedo, Donaldo (1 September 2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition. Translated by Ramos, Myra Bergman (30th Anniversary ed.). Continuum. ISBN 9780826412768.
  34. ^ "Peruvian theologian the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, father of influential liberation theology, has died". Associated Press. 23 October 2024. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  35. ^ Friskics-Warren, Bill (23 October 2024). "Gustavo Gutiérrez, Father of Liberation Theology, Dies at 96". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  36. ^ Duncan, William (1995). "The Political Philosophy of Gustavo Gutiérrez". Graduate Faculty of University of Texas. Retrieved 20 November 2019.[page needed]
  37. ^ "Latin America Consultation on Integral Mission | Micah Network". www.micahnetwork.org. Archived from the original on 20 July 2018. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  38. ^ "Latin America – World Council of Churches". www.oikoumene.org. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  39. ^ Vatican Insider: "Un teologo della liberazione al Santo Ufficio?" 15 October 2011
  40. ^ "Francis wishes 'father of liberation theology' on 90th birthday". La Croix International. 8 June 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2024.
  41. ^ Kirchgaessner, Stephanie; Watts, Jonathan (11 May 2015). "Catholic church warms to liberation theology as founder heads to Vatican". the Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  42. ^ Jump up to:a b Luro, Clelia (12 September 2013). "Carta abierta a Gustavo Gutiérrez". atrio.org. Atrio. Archived from the original on 6 April 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  43. ^ "Una aclaración necesaria: Gustavo Gutiérrez ¡no estaba!" (in Spanish). Amerindiaenlared.org. 25 January 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  44. ^ "Carta abierta de la indignada esposa de un ex obispo al 'retrógrado' Gustavo Gutierrez" (in Spanish). Religion Confidenical. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  45. ^ "Gustavo Gutiérrez, father of liberation theology, dead at 96". Angelus News. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  46. ^ McGovern, Arthur F. (1989). Liberation Theology and its Critics: Toward an Assessment. Wipf & Stock. p. ix.
  47. ^ "On the Side of the Poor: The Theology of Liberation". Good Reads. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  48. ^ "Gutierrez and Farmer's 'In the Company of the Poor'". NCR Online.org. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  49. ^ "Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ". Google Books. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  50. ^ "The God of Life". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  51. ^ "On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent". Good Reads. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  52. ^ "The Truth Shall Make You Free". Google Books. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  53. ^ "We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey Of A People". Good Reads. Retrieved 23 October 2024.
  54. ^ Maduro, Otto (2008). "Liberation Theology". In Darity, William A. Jr. (ed.). International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Vol. 4 (2nd ed.). Detroit, Michigan: Macmillan Reference USA. pp. 434–437. ISBN 978-0-02-866117-9. Retrieved 31 March 2022 – via Encyclopedia.com.

Further reading

[edit]
  • Christian Smith (2002). "Las Casas as Theological Counteroffensive: An Interpretation of Gustavo Gutiérrez's Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ". Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 41: 69–73. doi:10.1111/1468-5906.00100.
  • Alexander Nava (2001). The Mystical and Prophetic Thought of Simone Weil and Gustavo Gutiérrez: Reflections on the Mystery and Hiddenness of God. SUNY Press. ISBN 0-7914-5177-1.
  • Robert McAfee Brown (1980). Gustavo Gutierrez: Makers of Contemporary Theology. Atlanta: John Knox Press. ISBN 0-8042-0651-1.
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Gustavo Gutiérrez.

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https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/23/gustavo-gutierrez-champion-of-christian-liberation-theology-dies

Gustavo Gutierrez, champion of Christian liberation theology, dies
An advocate for the world’s ‘poor and exploited’, Gutierrez promoted ideals that revolutionised the Latin American church.


Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez attends a press conference at the Vatican, Tuesday, May 12, 2015. The founder of the once-criticized liberation theology has praised the "new climate" at the Vatican under Pope Francis that has focused the church's attention on serving the poor. Rev. Gustavo Gutierrez made his first appearance at an official Vatican press conference Tuesday. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Peruvian Christian theologian Gustavo Gutierrez focused on supporting the poor and exploited [File: Alessandra Tarantino/AP]

Published On 23 Oct 2024
23 Oct 2024
Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutierrez, regarded as the father of Latin American liberation theology, has died aged 96.


He passed away on Tuesday night in Lima, said the Dominican Order of Peru, without giving a cause.

Gutierrez was an eminent Catholic theologian and philosopher, whose 1971 book – titled A Theology of Liberation – deeply influenced church doctrine and practice in Latin America.


It holds that Christian salvation goes beyond spiritual matters, also demanding that people be freed from material or political oppression. He famously wrote: “The future of history belongs to the poor and exploited”.


Archbishop Carlos Castillo, Lima’s cardinal-designate, remembered Gutierrez, who in his younger years served as a local parish priest in Lima, as a “a faithful theologian priest who never thought about money, or luxuries, or anything that seemed to make him superior”.

“Small as he was, he knew how to announce the Gospel to us with strength and courage in his smallness,” said Castillo.

US politics, Canada’s multiculturalism, South America’s geopolitical rise—we bring you the stories that matter.

Gutierrez’s thinking attracted many who were outraged by the inequality and dictatorships in several Latin American countries in the 1960s and 1970s. He inspired figures like Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 after taking a stand against rights abuses in his country’s civil conflict.


Initially, the Vatican harshly denounced liberation theology, claiming it held Marxist undercurrents, and spent decades disciplining some of its advocates.


Gutierrez, who himself was never disciplined, told reporters in 2015 that liberation theology as a whole was never condemned, but he acknowledged that the Holy See had engaged in “very critical dialogue” with its proponents and that there were “difficult moments”.


The arrival of the first Latin American pope, Pope Francis, focused the Vatican’s attention on social justice and the poor and led to something of a rehabilitation of liberation theology.


When Gutierrez turned 90 in 2018, Pope Francis wrote him a letter thanking him for his contributions to “the Church and to humanity, through your theological service and your preferential love for the poor and the discarded of society”.==
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260021/gustavo-gutierrez-peruvian-dominican-priest-and-liberation-theology-pioneer-dies-at-96

Gustavo Gutiérrez, ‘father of liberation theology,’ dies at 96
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Gustavo Gutirrez Merino OP Photo courtesy of Notre Dame Matt Cashore CNA 5 8 15
Father Gustavo Gutierrez Merino, OP, who is regarded as the father of liberation theology. | Credit: Photo courtesy of Notre Dame/Matt Cashore
Walter Sánchez Silva
By Walter Sánchez Silva


ACI Prensa Staff, Oct 23, 2024 / 04:35 am


Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, the Peruvian Dominican priest considered the ”father” of liberation theology, died Oct. 22 at the age of 96.


The Dominican Province of St. John the Baptist of Peru announced the death of Gutiérrez, noting he was the author of the influential 1971 book “A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation.”


“We ask for your prayers to accompany our dear brother so that he may enjoy eternal life,” stated the announcement signed by Father Rómulo Vásquez Gavidia, OP, the provincial prior.




The Dominicans indicated that Gutiérrez’s remains would lie in state at the Santo Domingo convent in Lima’s historic center.


The Vatican and liberation theology
The theology of liberation is a school of thought that explored dimensions of liberation from the standpoint of Catholic social teaching. In some of its radical expressions, in particular in Latin America, liberation theology embraced many elements of Marxist theory and advocated for social change through various forms of revolution. At times, it also cast Christ as a form of revolutionary figure.




Its more orthodox expressions emphasized a closeness with the poor and the suffering and called for authentic liberation in Christ.


In a January 2017 interview with Spanish newspaper El País, Pope Francis said: “Liberation theology was a positive thing in Latin America. The Vatican condemned the part that opted for Marxist analysis of reality. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [the later Pope Benedict XVI] issued two instructions when he was prefect of the [then-Congregation for the] Doctrine of the Faith: One very clear about the Marxist analysis of reality, and the second taking up positive aspects.”


During St. John Paul II’s papacy, the Congregation (now Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith conducted an investigation that resulted in two documents: “The Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation,’” Libertatis Nuntius (1984), and the “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation,” Libertatis Conscientia (1986).


Over many years, the Vatican examined Gutiérrez’s writings. In 2006, the Peruvian bishops’ conference reported that the Vatican had “concluded the path of clarification of problematic points contained in some works of the author” in 2004, with a revised second version of Gutiérrez’s article “Ecclesial Koinonia.”


Life and writings
Born on June 8, 1928, Gutiérrez was ordained a priest in 1959 and joined the Dominican order in 2001. He studied medicine and literature at the National University of San Marcos while participating in Catholic Action. He later studied theology at the University of Louvain in Belgium and the Institut Catholique of Lyon in France.




Gutiérrez served as the John Cardinal O’Hara Endowed professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana. His books have been translated into multiple languages.


John Cavadini, the former head of Notre Dame’s theology department, recruited Gutiérrez to his post.


“Unlike a number of liberation theologians, Father Gustavo was concerned to remain with the boundaries of orthodox Catholic faith and ecclesial discipline. As a result, he expanded ecclesial sensibilities in ways that permanently affected, you could say, developed, Catholic social teaching and beyond that, into its theological presuppositions,” Cavadini told the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, on Wednesday.


“Father Gustavo practiced what he preached,” Cavadini added. “He always worked with the poor, offering catechesis and connection with the Fathers of the Church and Thomas Aquinas (among others), adapted for their educational level whatever it might be. May he rest in peace!”


(Story continues below)


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One of Gutiérrez’s last international appearances was in Rome in October 2019 at a congress held at the Jesuit General Curia. There, at the invitation of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (CAL), he delivered a lecture on “The Preferential Option for the Poor.”


A year earlier, in June 2018, Pope Francis sent Gutiérrez a letter for his 90th birthday, thanking him “for what you have contributed to the Church and humanity through your theological service and your preferential love for the poor and the discarded of society.”


Jonathan Liedl of the National Catholic Register contributed to this report.


This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.




Tags: Catholic News, Liberation Theology, Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez
Walter Sánchez Silva
Walter Sánchez Silva is a senior writer for ACI Prensa (https://www.aciprensa.com). With more than 15 years of experience, he has reported from important ecclesial events in Europe, Asia and Latin America during the pontificates of Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. E-mail: walter@aciprensa.com

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https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/23/world/americas/gustavo-gutierrez-dead.html


Gustavo Gutiérrez, Father of Liberation Theology, Dies at 96

Once considered revolutionary, his notion of empathy and advocacy for the poor has become a central tenet of Catholic social teaching.

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The Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez in an undated photo. In his teaching and writings, he asserted that the God of the Jewish and Christian traditions exhibits a preferential commitment to the poor.Credit...Bettmann/Getty Images


By Bill Friskics-Warren
Oct. 23, 2024Updated 3:47 p.m. ET


Gustavo Gutiérrez, the Peruvian priest and scholar who was regarded as the father of Latin American liberation theology, a far-reaching school of thought and action born of solidarity with poor and marginalized people, died on Tuesday at a convent in Lima, Peru. He was 96.

The cause was pneumonia, said a friend and former assistant, Leo Guardado, who is now a theology professor at Fordham University.

Father Gutiérrez, a Dominican priest, was best known as the author of “Teología de la Liberación,” a landmark work of social and theological analysis originally published in Spanish in 1971 and first available in English in 1973 as “A Theology of Liberation.” In that book, he asserted that the God of the Jewish and Christian traditions exhibits a preferential commitment to the poor.

The book anticipated movements in the United States to establish housing and health care as basic human rights, and it continues to be taught in seminaries and universities.


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Father Gutiérrez argued that the salvation of the poor was not achievable only in an otherworldly afterlife, as the church had long taught, but could also be realized within history. To know God, he insisted, people must work to eliminate poverty and unjust conditions on earth. The church must concern itself with life in this world, not the next.

To speak of a preferential option for the poor was not “a question of idealizing poverty,” Father Gutiérrez wrote, “but rather of taking it on as it is — as evil — to protest against it and to struggle to abolish it.”

Image
Father Gutiérrez’s landmark book, first published in 1971, anticipated movements in the United States to establish housing and health care as basic human rights. It continues to be taught in seminaries and universities.Credit...Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY; Sculpture by Edilberto Mérida Rodríguez; Photo by Joseph Vail, MM


Once considered revolutionary, the notion of empathy and advocacy for the poor is now a central tenet of Roman Catholic social teaching.

“We love God by loving our neighbor,” Father Gutiérrez contended. “Only then will God be with us.”

Like the Jesus of the gospels, who lived with the outcasts of his day, he worked much of his life in the Rímac barrio of Lima, Peru’s capital, where, as a parish priest and the director of the Bartolemé de Las Casas Institute, he ministered to the poor.


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His experience amid the squalor of Rímac led him to view poverty as a form of evil that has not only an economic dimension but also a spiritual one. To be poor, he said in a 2016 interview with America, a magazine published by the Jesuits, is to be invisible and, all too often, to suffer a premature and unjust death.



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“A Theology of Liberation” immediately gained traction among clergy and lay people struggling against oppressive economic and political systems in Father Gutiérrez’s native Latin America. The book inspired multitudes in Asia and Africa as well.

His ideas even found resonance outside the church, in the work of global activists like Paul Farmer, the physician, Harvard University professor and United Nations deputy special envoy for Haiti, who founded the nonprofit organization Partners in Health, which provides health care to poor people throughout the world.

Father Gutiérrez’s theology was not without its detractors. It was criticized by scholars living in capitalist countries for its use of Marxist social analysis to expose unjust political systems in the third world, many of them supported by first world powers.

Image
Father Gutiérrez in 2014 with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müeller of Germany (wearing a Peruvian poncho) during a book presentation in Vatican City.Credit...Domenico Stinellis/Associated Press


His work also came under fire from feminists for not explicitly addressing the sexual oppression of poor women in Latin America. And despite being steeped in the theological populism of the Second Vatican Council, sessions of which Father Gutiérrez attended in Rome in the early 1960s, his writings fell under the scrutiny of the Vatican for deviating from Catholic orthodoxy.


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More recently, his theology found favor with Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, who invited him to a meeting at the Vatican in 2013. In L’Osservatore Romano, the semiofficial newspaper of the Vatican, the pope declared that liberation theology can no longer “remain in the shadows to which it has been relegated for some years, at least in Europe.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, a mestizo of Hispanic and Quechua Indian descent, was born on June 8, 1928, in the Montserrat barrio of Lima. He had polio as a child and spent most of his teenage years confined to bed. His infirmity inspired him to pursue a career in medicine — he earned a degree from the National University of Peru in 1950 — before ultimately choosing the priesthood.

Father Gutiérrez did his graduate work in Europe, where he studied philosophy, psychology and theology at universities in Belgium, France and Italy. Returning to the slums of Lima in the late 1950s, he discovered that the dominant theology of the Northern Hemisphere had little relevance in the context of Latin America.

“The history of humanity has been written ‘with a white hand,’ from the side of the dominators,” he observed, echoing the writings of his friend and fellow Peruvian José María Arguedas, to whom, along with the Brazilian priest Henrique Pereira Neto, “A Theology of Liberation” was dedicated. “History’s losers have another outlook.”


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“The theology of liberation,” Father Gutiérrez insisted, “begins from the questions asked by the poor and plundered of the world, by those ‘without a history.’”

This necessity of reading history from the underside, and of having theology issue from the perspective of oppressed people rather than being imposed from without by the academy or the church, became a hallmark of liberation theology. Likewise was Father Gutiérrez’s commitment to grass-roots ecclesial communities, as the locus of the struggle for liberation.

Image
Father Gutiérrez received an honorary doctor of divinity degree from Yale University in 2009. He shook hands with Peter Salovey, the university’s provost.Credit...Douglas Healey/Associated Press


The fundamental themes of Latin American liberation theology were first given voice in documents drafted by Father Gutiérrez and Oscar Romero — the Salvadoran archbishop assassinated in 1980 for speaking out against social injustice — after a historic series of meetings of priests that culminated in a gathering of bishops in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968.

Father Gutiérrez also wrote much of what emerged from the Latin American Episcopal Council held in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979. Ironically enough, he would not receive his doctorate in theology, from the Catholic University of Lyon in France, until 1985, almost 15 years after the initial publication of “A Theology of Liberation.”


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Father Gutiérrez wrote more than a dozen books and taught at several institutions over the years, including the Pontifical University of Peru and the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, where he was the John Cardinal O’Hara professor of theology from 2001 until his retirement in 2018, when he was named professor emeritus. He was made a member of the French Legion of Honor in 1993 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2002.

Even into his 80s — and long after he was recognized as one of most influential theologians of the 20th century — Father Gutiérrez spent half of each year away from Notre Dame working in the slums of Lima.

He is survived by an older sister.

Father Gutiérrez always knew that his vision of human redemption, with its summons to political action in solidarity with the oppressed, would be controversial; he was, after all, calling the basic assumptions of the capitalist-bred churches of the United States and Europe to moral and political account.

“Latin American misery and injustice go too deep to be responsive to palliatives,” he wrote in 1983 in “The Power of the Poor in History.” “Hence we speak of social revolution, not reform; of liberation, not development; of socialism, not the modernization of the prevailing system. ‘Realists’ call these statements romantic and utopian. And they should, for the rationality of these statements is of a kind quite unfamiliar to them.”

Ash Wu contributed reporting.

See more on: Roman Catholic Church Sex Abuse Cases, University of Notre Dame

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Philo Kalia

peordoStns9gcli1iaagf0m5i7il0amlg9tu442254t2l661715h130a1i16 ·



구스타보 구티에레즈(Gustavo Gutiérrez,1928년 6월 8일~2024년 10월 22일)

페루 출신 해방신학자가 그제 10월 22일 善終하셨다는 소식에, 그분을 기리고 싶은 마음 굴뚝같아 한자 적는다.
이 책 『해방신학』은 1971년도에 출간되어 우리말로는 1977년도에 번역되었고 나는 제대한 후 1980년도 쯤 입수한 것 같다. 그 당시 이 책은 금서였다. 나는 이 책을 두고두고 읽었는데, 서양의 그 어떤 신학자의 저서보다 예수의 말씀과 행위에 더 가깝게 접근하여 신학을 전개한다는 생각은 지금도 변함이 없다.
독일 유학시절 1986년 뮌스터 대학에서 “Latin Amerika und Deutschland im Dialog”가 열렸고 당시 브라질에서 온 유학생과 이틀 그 심포지엄에 참여했다. 빌레펠트에서 뮌스터까지는 한 시간 반 거리였다. 한 강연회에서 난 구티에레즈를 보았다. 그가 서두에 한 말을 이렇게 또렷이 기억할 수 있을까! 유럽의 철학(헤겔)은 하루의 일과가 끝난 후, 밤에 사색하는 것으로부터 시작하지만(미네르바의 올빼미는 석양이 진 후에야 날개를 펴고 날기 시작한다), 라틴 아메리카의 해방신학은 한낮의 일터에서 신학을 한다(Doing Theology).
그리고 또 이 말이 더 결정적이다. 예수께서 사흘 후 부활하셔서 제일 먼저 하신 일이 무엇이냐? 갈릴리 호숫가에서 아침에 잡은 고기를 제자들과 함께 드신 일이다. 삼 일간 굶으셨기 때문에 배고파, 제일 먼저 먹을 것을 찾아 함께 아침을 먹었다는 얘기였다. “예수께서 이르시되 와서 조반을 먹으라 하시니 제자들이 주님이신 줄 아는 고로 당신이 누구냐 감히 묻는 자가 없더라”(요한 21:12) 이렇게 점잖게 표현되어 있지만 먹는 자리에서 당신이 누구요, 따지고 물을 이유가 없다. 먹는 자리에선 당신들이 바로 나의 주님이 된다. 이론이고 믿음이고 깨달음이고 나발이고... 다 잠재운다. 모든것을 무화시켜 이기는 것은 육체의 배고픔이고 밥이다.
육체보다 정신, 정신보다 영과 영성을 추구해야 한다고 뇌까리는 사람 중 한 사람이지만, 육체가 가장 먼저고 원초적이다. 표층적이냐 심층적이냐는 구분보다는 육체의 배고픔이냐 정신의 산만한 풍요로움이냐의 구분이 더 중요하다.
“밥이 하늘이다”(김지하), 식일완만사지(食一碗萬事知, 해월), 배부른 부자도 권력자도 배가 쪼륵쪼륵 고파 간신히 밥 한 그릇 얻어먹게 될 그때, 만사의 이치를 알게 될 것이니, 한 그릇의 밥에 하늘의 땀과 알곡이 몽땅 담겨 있음이다.
나에게 신학의 주제와 방법과 방향에 새로운 깨달음을 주신 분, 구티에레즈!
그의 책에서 밑줄 친 몇 개를 인용한다.
“그러나 수세기 동안 교회는 진리를 정식화하는 데 관심을 기울이면서도 보다 나은 세계를 건설하는 데는 아무것도 한 바가 없다. 달리 말해서 교회는 정교(正敎)에다 전력을 집중하고 정행(正行)은 비신자들과 교회 성원이 아닌 사람들의 손에 맡겨 왔다.”
그리스도교는 “사생활을 강조하고 개인적 가치를 개척하는 데 역점을 두었고, 정치 분야는 저차원의 것, 소위 공동선이라는 제목만 붙여 놓고는 되도록 회피하고 외면하고자 했다.”
“다시 말해 해방의 영성이 시급히 요청되고 있다.”
“교회가 발언하지 않는다는 것은 또하나의 ‘침묵의 교회’가 된다는 뜻이다. 약자들이 권력자들에게 착취당하고 약탈당함을 보고서도 입을 봉하고 있는 침묵의 교회가 된다는 뜻이다.”
“우리가 투쟁하는 대상은 빈곤과 불의와 착취이지만, 그같은 대상을 ‘넘어서’ 혹은 ‘통해서’ 우리의 목표가 되는 것은 ‘새인간의 창조’임을 망각해서는 안된다.”
“일한다는 것, 이 세계를 변혁시킨다는 것은 곧 인간이 된다는 것, 인간다운 사회를 건설한다는 것이며, 다시 말해서 구원받는다는 것이다.”
“구원은 萬人을, 全人을 포함한다. 그리스도의 구원행위는 바로 인류역사의 한가운데서 이루어진다. 그리고 정의의 사회를 구현하려는 노력은 곧 구세사의 일익을 이루고 있다.”
“죄는 인간적이고 사회적이며 역사적인 실재이다. 죄는 사회적으로, 역사적으로 일정한 상황에 처해 있는 자유 그 자체에서 유래한다.”
“구원사업을 단지 ‘종교적’ 영역에만 국한시키고 그 보편성을 파악하지 못하는 사람들이야말로 구원을 유야무야로 환원시키고 격하시키는 자들이다.... 그리스도의 구원은 모든 형태의 비참과 모든 형태의 착취와 모든 형태의 소외에서 인간을 풀어주는 철두철미한 해방이다.”
“오늘날 남미 대륙에서 ‘가난한 자들’과 연대를 갖는 일은 개인적 모험, 때로는 생명의 위협을 무릅쓰는 일이다. ... 가난을 거부하고, 가난에 대항하기 위해서 스스로 가난해질 때에 비로소 교회는 ‘정신적 가난’이라는 것을 선포할 수 있다.”
“가난한 자들의 우선적 선택”(preferential option of the poor)!
하느님은 예언자나, 신자들을 선택하신 것이 아니라 세상의 모든 가난한 자들을 우선적으로 선택하셨다. 이제 비인간을 포함한 가난한 자, 곤경에 처한 피조물의 탄식과 자유의 외침과 전체적인 해방은 역사의 방향이고 자연의 마땅한 흐름이 될 것이다.












All reactions:74You, 임덕수, 강길모 and 71 others

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임덕수
아. 훌륭하신 분이시네요. 밑줄 말씀 만으로도 감동입니다. 삼가 고인의 명복을 빕니다.
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Philo Kalia replied
 
1 reply
49 minutes ago
우희종
특정 종교를 떠나 신앙의 본질을 꿰뚫은 말씀…!
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Philo Kalia replied
 
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49 minutes ago
김무웅
직접 이 분을 만나뵀었군요. 무려 30여년이 지난 그날의 기억을 뚜렷이 하시네요. 저도 2016년 독일 출장 때 뮌스터에 가보긴 했습니다.
삼가 고인의 명복을 빕니다.
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Philo Kalia replied
 
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45 minutes ago
Young Ho Chun
참으로 훌륭하신 분이고 창의적이고 경건한 신학자이십니다. 제 기억으로느 이 그의 해방신학 (그가 처음으로 표현한 언어이고 그 이듬해에 James H. Cone 이 흑인들의 신학적 표현에 적용)이 1971년도에 출간되었고 영문 번역서가 1973에 나옴. 훌륭한 서평과 중요성에 감사.
Philo Kalia replied
 
1 reply
44 minutes ago
이용성
선생님의 포스팅을 유심히보고, 다양한 시각으로 생각하며 연구하며 선교교육을 하는 모습이 좋아보입니다. 다만,그렇지 않은 사람들이 100배는 더 많아 보입니다.
주진우 유투브 방송에서 전광훈 집회 동영상을 봤습니다. 10월 3일 개천절을 아예 하나님의 날로 둔갑을 시키고,이승만을 신격화 하며,모든 민주세력을 척살하자고,일반인 노인네들이 외쳐대는데,100%기독교인입니다. 증오의 종교, 역사와 현실을 부정하는 종교, 돈의 위력을 알고 극단적 휘몰이에 권력이 있다하며,우매한 민중을 양산하는 종교가 정상일까요? 너무 많은 사람들이 모여있는것도 참담하고,평범한 아저씨 할머니 할아버지라는 것도 소름끼치고, 이따구 발언들을 서슴없이 하는것을 보니,중국의 동북공정,일본의 역사왜곡등을 욕할 것 도 없다고 생각합니다. 저들은 그냥 미친 군중들로 보입니다..
Philo Kalia replied
 
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The Ref Oh No, referee covering his eyes sticker
이준협
학부 때 교수님 "해방신학" 수업에서 구티에레즈의 "해방신학"을 몇 번이나 정독하며 큰 도전을 받았습니다. 교수님께서 구티에레즈를 현대의 토마스 아퀴나스라고 극찬하시던 기억이 납니다.
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