Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009
The theology of liberation poses social, hermeneutical, and theological issues when it asks, ‘Who is Jesus Christ for us today?’ The social question of human and political liberation is a matter in which theology cannot remain indifferent, though theology qua theology is not simply social analysis. The hermeneutical question of the influence of social context and ideology on biblical interpretation casts suspicion on methodological naïvety, though theology qua theology is not simply epistemology. Without ceasing to confront the social and hermeneutical aspects of theologizing, liberation theology unavoidably poses the Christological question, ‘Who is Jesus Christ?’
1 Gutiérrez, Gustavo, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, trans, and ed. Inda, Sister Cariad and Eagleson, John (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1973), p. 226Google Scholar.
2 Boff, Leonardo, Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time, trans. Hughes, Patrick (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1978)Google Scholar.
3 Sobrino, Jon, Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach, trans. Drury, John (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1978)Google Scholar.
4 Athanasius, , On the Incarnation of the Word, trans. Robertson, Archibald, in Christology of the Later Fathers, ed. Hardy, Edward R. (Phila.: Westminster, 1954), pp. 69, 97fGoogle Scholar.
5 Ibid., pp. 103, 106.
6 Gregory of Nazianzus, Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy, trans. Charles G. Browne and James E. Swallow, ibid., pp. 218ff.
7 Gregory of Nyssa, An Address on Religious Instruction, ed. and trans. Cyril C. Richardson, ibid., p. 304; also pp. 291ff, 304ff.
8 Torrance, James B., ‘The Vicarious Humanity of Christ’, in The Incarnation: Ecumenical Studies in the Nicene-Constanlinopolitan Creed A.D. 381, ed. Torrance, Thomas F. (Edinburgh: Handsel, 1981), p. 138Google Scholar.
9 Ibid., p. 141.
10 Sobrino, , Christology, pp. 37, 105.Google Scholar
11 Ibid., p. 115.
12 BofT, Jesus, p. 20.
13 Ibid., p. 221.
14 Sobrino, , Christology, pp. 338fGoogle Scholar.
15 Ibid, pp. 340, 342.
16 Ellacuria, Ignacio, Freedom Made Flesh: The Mission of Christ and His Church, trans. Drury, John (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1976), p. 58Google Scholar.
17 Ibid, pp. 132, 140.
18 Ibid, p. 82.
19 BofF, Leonardo, ‘Salvation in Jesus Christ and the Process of Liberation’, in The Mystical and Political Dimensions of the Cross, ed. Geffré, Claude and Gutiérrez, Gustavo (N.Y.: Herder & Herder, 1974), p. 84)Google Scholar.
20 Lochman, Jan M., Reconciliation and Liberation: Challenging a One-Dimensional View of Salvation, trans. Lewis, David (Phila.: Fortress, 1980), pp. 5ffGoogle Scholar.
21 Cleage, Albert B., The Black Messiah (N.Y.: Sheed & Ward, 1968), pp. 3fGoogle Scholar.
22 Cone, James H., A Black Theology of Liberation (Phila.: Lippincott, 1970), pp. 218fGoogle Scholar.
23 Daly, Mary, Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation (Boston: Beacon, 1973), pp. 96fGoogle Scholar.
24 Ruether, Rosemary Radford, To Change the World: Christology and Cultural Criticism (N.Y.: Crossroad, 1981), pp. 35, 43, 54ff.Google Scholar
25 Russell, Letty M., Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective — a Theology (Phila.: Westminster, 1974), pp. 135ffGoogle Scholar.
26 Boesak, Allan Aubrey, Farewell to Innocence (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1977), pp. 143f.Google Scholar; Roberts, J. Deotis, Liberation and Reconciliation: A Black Theology (Phila.: Westminster, 1971), pp. 24f., 138ffGoogle Scholar.
27 Anderson, Ray S., ‘The Resurrection of Jesus as Hermeneutical Criterion: A Case for Sexual Parity in Pastoral Ministry’ (Parts I and II), TSF Bulletin, Jan./Feb., Mar./Apr. 1986Google Scholar.
28 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics, III/4, ed. Bromiley, G. W. and Torrance, T. F., trans. Mackay, A. T., et al. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1961), pp. 294fGoogle Scholar.
29 Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics, IV/3, ed. Bromiley, G. W. and Torrance, T. F., trans. Bromiley, G. W. (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1962), pp. 899fGoogle Scholar.
30 The ‘ecopersonal’ reality of salvation, by which I mean the total social and natural context of human existence and reconciliation, is a topic which I will explore elsewhere.