Has Liberation Theology Died?

Ecumenical Review, The, July, 1999 by Claudio de Oliveira Ribeiro

The first is the globalization of the economy. This perspective considers national borders as relative, so that they lose political relevance and the nation-state is weakened. The second is the technological revolution, which has transferred the central axis from private property accumulation to an appropriation of technical and scientific knowledge, described by some analysts as intellectual property. And finally, the third aspect is the displacement of the North Atlantic axis as an economic bloc with hegemony by the Pacific Rim.

Since these changes relativize the importance of the contradiction between capitalism and socialism -- a basic element in the international political order during the last decade -- social analysis needs to take into account the following three points: the international reorganization already referred to, the end of real socialism and the changes in international capitalism.

Some of this analysis has already been done at the beginning of the 1990s. Julio de Santa Ana has written:

   Readjustment, which demands high social cost, is a euphemism for sacrifice;
   that is, if it is true that a process of homogenization of power seems to
   take place, it is also necessary to recognize that it does not imply
   "unification" of the peoples of our inhabited world. As far as homogenized
   powers enforce readjustment on the powerless around market dealings, it is
   evident that coercion is exercised by the strongest on the weak. Rather
   than speak of"unification", it is more appropriate to talk about
   "exclusion". That is, in the emerging situation it seems that one has not
   the right to be different; to put it in others terms: to affirm people's
   identity. Those who have power in the market and who manage the "laws of
   money" impose their standards upon the views of the rest.(7)

This new stage of the capitalist system has devalued the labour force through automation and technical specialization, to the detriment of other aspects of public expenditure, such as health and education. This results in the formation of huge masses of humanity who are excluded from the economic system and reduced to inhuman situations of survival or eliminated by death. Paradoxically, in the midst of the process of globalization of economics and information, ethnic, racial and regional conflicts have emerged all over the world.

In such a situation, all groups whose direct or indirect points of reference have been the socialist experiences and utopias have come to at least two conclusions: the absence of a global project as an alternative to neo-liberalism; and the set of perplexities in different fields of knowledge that have usually been called the "crisis of paradigms".(8)

2. The growth of prosperity theology. The 1990s have also seen the rise of new theologies which have supported the market economic ideology in the churches. A predominant concept of mission in the neo-liberal age focuses on the challenge of building large buildings and filling them with people, with worship that seeks to be entertaining but displays little sense of concern for the community. "Efficient" ministers are those who work in large churches with large budgets. This ideology gives no encouragement to young ministers, theological students or lay leaders to involve themselves in popular ministries alongside the people in poor areas. On the contrary, the aim is to see ministry as developing a "successful" ecclesiastical career: to work in a large and rich congregation, earn a good salary, drive a late-model car. Charity work may be developed, but there is no reflection on the causes of poverty. People from the local congregations also internalize the idea that wealth is God's blessing. The majority of them would like to be rich, thinking that it means being closer to God. Moreover, the Christian life has become a Way to consume: T-shirts with evangelistic slogans, large concerts with popular evangelical singers.