Chapter 2 - METHODOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL ANALYSIS: A PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR PROSTITUTES?

Summary

The option for the poor, with all of the pastoral and theological consequences of that option, is one of the most important contributions to the life of the church universal to have emerged from the theology of liberation and the church on our continent. As we have observed, that option has its roots in biblical revelation and the history of our church. Still, today it presents particular, novel characteristics. This is due to our better understanding of the depth and complexity of the poverty and oppression experienced by most of humanity: due to our perception of the economic, social, and cultural mechanisms that produce that poverty; and before all else, it is due to the new light which the word of the Lord sheds on that poverty.

Probably the concept or phrase most associated with liberation theology is its “preferential option for the poor.” The thesis of this book is that this option has not been extended fully to prostitutes, a subcategory of the poor and oppressed. I wish to examine why this is so and attempt to push beyond the limits of liberation hermeneutics to include prostitutes into this option. This chapter first examines the concept of “a preferential option for the poor,” first tracing it from its usage in the writings of Gustavo Gutierrez, one of its major theorizers.