Leonardo Boff

Liberation Theology is the sort of thing which might make a true believer out of me. It is a very healthy tonic to the complacent televangelist mega-church Christianity which is getting really suffocating around election season.

This little pamphlet, just under 100 pages, is a solid introduction to the tenets, history, and methods of liberation theology - a subset of Christianity which aims primarily at social justice, radical pacifism, and doing good works to empower and liberate the poor. show more Liberation theology has made significant inroads in Latin America, and aims for redress against systematic oppression which has existed since the time of Pizarro and Cortez. Practice over doctrine.

This book also addresses Marxism, making note of its useful terminology and analysis. It is a tool, but not the end. Interesting.

Of course, such teachings are unacceptable to Caesar and Pharaoh, and make them tremble. Reagan sent army troops and supported tinpot dictators to slaughter them, and the gilded Vatican condemned their theology. Perhaps more proof of their power and influence, and what good they might do.

I wish them all way more than luck. show less

Boff and Hathaway give birth to a great marriage between liberation theology and creation spirituality… I welcome the dimensions of ecology, cosmology and feminist philosophy… as well as the deep ecumenism which is so beautifully and aptly evoked in the use of the great Tao Te Ching throughout the text. Matthew Fox

Ensayo interdisciplinar sobre lo femenino y sus formas religiosas. 298pp. Colección experiencias cristianas. Se cuentan por millares los libros de teología y piedad sobre María, la Madre de Jesús. En la sistematización de las varias verdades marianas —la virginidad, la maternidad, la asunción, la mediación universal— se parte o de Cristo, o de la Iglesia, o de la historia de la salvación, o de la maternidad divina de María. El autor intenta un camino nuevo e innovador. Aprovecha show more un concepto antropológico esencial para entender el ser humano: lo femenino. Sobre lo femenino y la liberación de la mujer se ha estudiado, discutido y profundizado mucho en las últimas décadas. El enorme caudal de conocimientos y el consiguiente enriquecimiento que este debate aportó para una comprensión más equilibrada del ser humano (hombre y mujer) ha sido poco aprovechado por la teología. El autor trata de refundir la meditación católica sobre María a la luz de lo femenino: después de elaborar esta categoría de lo femenino en el registro de las ciencias, de la filosofía y de la teología, la aplica al hombre, a la mujer, a María y a Dios. show less

Written in 1972 with an epilogue added in 1978, this book is too out-of-date. I struggled to read it and write a critical review of it for a class...Yes, in the end it was worth it, but it was the worst 6 week struggle of my academic career. Recomend it? No.