Liberation Theology and Basic Communities In Latin America and in Britain

Abstract

This article is inspired by an interest in basic Christian communities in Latin America, and also by a critical interest in some attempts to translate the Latin American experience to this country. The texts on which my criticism is based are John Vincent’s essay ‘Doing Theology’ in Agenda for Prophets (ed D Haslam and R Ambler, 1980), and, to a lesser extent, Basic Communities by David Clark (1977). I want to make it clear that I am concerned with David Clark’s view of the significance of the basic communities and not with the communities themselves. I shall be going on to argue that both writers implicitly deny the importance of a scientific study of society and the importance of intellectual work in social theory, politics and economics. They appear to be antiintellectual, preferring an instinctive, common-sense response with an emphasis on action. This means that they have no way of developing an awareness of their own ideological conditioning and so seem to accept many liberal middle-class values in an uncritical way. A comparison of the Latin American and British situations reveals that if the church in the west is ever going to stand with the poor and the weak, then western Christians must develop a critical attitude towards those class ideologies which they take for granted as common-sense. This is only possible through a social and political education, in theory and practice.