Social and Liberation Theologies

Far too many Catholics are not familiar with the basic content of Catholic social teaching. More fundamentally, many Catholics do not adequately understand that the social teaching of the Church is an essential part of Catholic faith. This poses a serious challenge for all Catholics, since it weakens our capacity to be a Church that is true to the demands of the Gospel. We need to do more to share the social mission and message of our Church.”

U.S. Catholic Bishops  Sharing Catholic Social Teaching: Challenges and Directions

In Old Testament times the relationship of God with humanity was seen very much as the relationship with a people. Even when particular individuals were picked out, notably Moses and the kings, their role was very clearly conceived in terms of God saving His people and they were representatives or mediators in that process. In that sense OT theology is strongly communitarian – God’s relationship is first and foremost with a community, not with individuals.

In more recent times, and certainly since about the C18th, the focus has been very largely on God’s relationship with the individual. Personal piety became the basis for reflection on God’s relationship with humanity. But most recently theologians have swung back to greater consideration of the community and its relationship with God. This has been particularly apparent where theology intersects with the recent explosion of community consciousness – as in black, feminist, third world, etc. All these movements have drawn strength from a sense of shared experience, creating a shared identity, and usually based on feelings of exclusion or marginalization with respect to the power structures of today’s world.

Not surprisingly many of these movements have gained a religious dimension – people identifying with the community have sought to express a theological perspective grounded in the experience (current and historical) of the community. Christianity provides a fertile ground for such a perspective. It is abundantly clear that Christ’s message was preached primarily to the marginalized in his society, that the church in its earliest days was at the margins of Roman society, and that the Hebrew story on which both Christians and Jews draw, was expressed first and foremost in terms of liberation – the exodus, the freeing from slavery, being the foundational event.

Equally it is clear that the evolution of Christianity from the time of Constantine onwards occurred very largely as a dominant force within Western society. Thus there is a clear historic tension between the founding context for Christianity and the preaching of the Gospel, and its later manifestation as representing the powerful, be they cardinals, conquistadors, kings, or factory owners.

This tension is often visible in the dialog (or sometimes lack of dialog) between the new theological perspectives based on liberation as a fundamental principle and having a strongly communitarian basis, and those (more traditional?) based on exploring the relationship between the individual and God. This is not a simple dichotomy: individualist faith movements (charismatic & Pentecostal) can also have strong appeal to the marginalized. These issues affect not only theology but also spirituality, and create challenges in respect of the formation of conscience for both rich and poor.

Some earlier Christian social movements:

Methodism (1739):  A reform movement within Anglicanism – the British State religion. Methodist preachers took their message (open-air services) to laborers and criminals who tended to be left outside of organized religion at that time.

Catholic Worker Movement (Dorothy Day, 1933). Aim: “live in accordance with the justice and charity of Jesus Christ.” One of its guiding principles is hospitality towards those on the margin of society. Over 185 local Catholic Worker communities providing social services. Each house has a different mission, going about the work of social justice in their own ways, suited to their local region. The group also campaigns for nonviolence and is active in opposing war, as well as the unequal distribution of wealth globally.

Worker priest movement – France 1945-53. Influenced John XXIII and Second Vatican Council.

Development of Catholic Social Teaching

Leo XIII Rerum Novarum (1891) subtitled “On Capital and Labor”. The starting point of modern Catholic teaching on social questions; expanded and updated all through the C20^th.  Promotes the value of social solidarity among the classes with respect for the needs and rights of all. In the more Catholic countries of Europe was the inspiration for the formation of new Christian-inspired Socialist parties.

The role of the State is to promote social justice through the protection of rights, while the Church must speak out on social issues in order to teach correct social principles and ensure class harmony. Restated the Church’s long-standing teaching regarding the importance of private property rights, but recognized that the free operation of market forces must be tempered by moral considerations:

Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accept harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.

Pope Pius XI Quadragesimo Anno (1931). Reiterated Leo’s defense of private property rights and collective bargaining, condemned socialism (not just communism) and repeated his contention that blind economic forces cannot create a just society on their own:

Just as the unity of human society cannot be founded on an opposition of classes, so also the right ordering of economic life cannot be left to a free competition of forces. For from this source, as from a poisoned spring, have originated and spread all the errors of individualist economic teaching. Destroying through forgetfulness or ignorance the social and moral character of economic life, it held that economic life must be considered and treated as altogether free from and independent of public authority, because in the market, i.e., in the free struggle of competitors, it would have a principle of self direction which governs it much more perfectly than would the intervention of any created intellect. But free competition, while justified and certainly useful provided it is kept within certain limits, clearly cannot direct economic life…

Vatican II: Gaudium et Spes (“Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World”, 1965)

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.

It is imperative that no one, out of indifference to the course of events or because of inertia, would indulge in a merely individualistic morality. The best way to fulfill one’s obligations of justice and love is to contribute to the common good according to one’s means and the needs of others, and also to promote and help public and private organizations devoted to bettering the conditions of life.

For excessive economic and social differences between the members of the one human family or population groups cause scandal, and militate against social justice, equity, the dignity of the human person, as well as social and international peace

Economic development must … not be left to the sole judgment of a few men or groups, possessing excessive economic power, or of the political community alone, or of certain powerful nations. It is proper, on the contrary, that at every level the largest number of people have an active share in directing that development.

The arms race is one of the greatest curses on the human race and the harm it inflicts on the poor is more than can be endured.

John Paul II, Centesimus annus (1991)

100^th anniversary of Rerum novarum. Democracy and social conflict are discussed, lengthy discussion of communism and capitalism. The “fundamental error of socialism” is that it’s based on an atheistic view of humanity instead of a transcendent one; leads to a “social order without reference to the person’s dignity and responsibility.” Distinguishing, on the one hand, between “unbridled,” “radical,” or “primitive” capitalism and, on the other hand, a “business economy” that serves and protects the human person, “it would appear that, on the level of individual nations and international relations, the free market is the most efficient instrument for utilizing resources and effectively responding to needs”. Capitalism also recognizes the freedom of the human person. Warns, however, against: (1) The consumeristic tendency of modern capitalistic societies, saying it cheapens the person, harms society, and ultimately poisons the planet. (2) Elevating capitalism, as an economic tool, to the level of an all-encompassing ideology. 

US Conference of Bishops: Seven Key Themes of Catholic Social Teaching (1999) 

• Life and Dignity of the Human Person 
• Call to Family, Community, and Participation 
• Rights and Responsibilities 
• Option for the Poor and Vulnerable 
• The Dignity of Work and the Rights of Workers 
• Solidarity 
• Care for God’s Creation

Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est (2005)

The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God, celebrating the sacraments, and exercising the ministry of charity. These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.

The Church cannot and must not take upon herself the political battle to bring about the most just society possible. She cannot and must not replace the State. Yet at the same time she cannot and must not remain on the sidelines in the fight for justice.

Liberation theology  (Liberation Theology Lives On – www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4729)

Justice:  seen as a key part of the Christian message and promise – strong link to OT teaching and prophecy.

Preferential option for the poor “is implicit in the Christological faith in the God who became poor for us.” (Benedict XVI).  Jesus’ message was firstly directed to the poor and marginalized. Failure to serve the poor loses central purpose of church’s mission: in case of conflict church must stand with the poor.

Base communities:  religious organization starts from below – local groups expressing social solidarity. Strongly reminiscent of NT communities (Acts and Paul). Potential for conflict with hierarchical models of church. Shared faith (the church) is solidarity in the face of oppression rather than shared ideas/doctrine: orthopraxis vs. orthodoxy.
May 2007, estimated 80,000 base communities in Brazil. But Liberation Theology as a movement is declining. Challenge from Charismatic Renewal.

Black (Liberation) Theology

Focus on struggle against racism (in USA). Protestant movement, very similar arguments to LA (Catholic) Liberation Theology but no direct link. Pentecostalism promoting individual sanctity but also a strong community identity. Is other theology “white”? 

Feminist Theology

The relevance of gender for theological inquiry. Also a “liberation” movement; c.f. women’s lib. The maleness of God or of Christ. The social and ecclesial position of women. Sin defined in relation to masculine failings, e.g. pride (male), or lack of pride (female).

Core ideas

Social theology provides an alternative perspective on two fundamental concepts:

• Sin

Sin as doing wrong – individual or communal

Sin as injustice – communal or individual. Faith / action in a social context.

Sin as alienation – being wrong / wrong being

• Participation / Empowerment

If salvation is offered to all, then do all have equal rights, equal responsibility, and equal participation in the church? What is the response to inequality?

How do we reconcile Jesus’ radical egalitarian message and criticism of human power with the practical requirements of a functioning church (and society)?

Political involvement.  Eschatology – “the end times”. How much are the end times already present?  Does one work for the end times to be completed, or wait for it to happen – activism vs pietism.

The nature of theological truth

Contextualization.  Conscientization.  Relativism vs,. Absolutism