The Gospel According to the Marginalized

259 Pages·2005·1.89 MB·English

by  Harvey J. Sindima

The Gospel According
to the Marginalized
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Studies
in Religion, Culture, and
Social Development

Mozella G. Mitchell
General Editor

Vol. 6

PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Harvey J. Sindima

The Gospel According
to the Marginalized

PETER LANG
New York (cid:121) Washington, D.C./Baltimore (cid:121) Bern
Frankfurt am Main (cid:121) Berlin (cid:121) Brussels (cid:121) Vienna (cid:121) Oxford
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sindima, Harvey J.
The gospel according to the marginalized /
Harvey J. Sindima.
p. cm. — (Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial studies
in religion, culture, and social development; vol. 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Liberation theology. 2. Christianity and culture.
3. Church work with the poor.
BT83.57.S625 230’.046—dc20 94040674
ISBN 978-0-8204-2685-3
ISSN 1052-181X

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Printed in the United States of America
The Reverend Dr. Bruce F. Gannaway,
An excellent teacher and an inspiration
Acknowledgments
I am very thankful and I indeed feel honored by Dr. Peter Paris for reading the
manuscript and offering support and encouragement. I am grateful to Colgate
University for supporting the publication of this book. I cannot thank my wife
enough for her unending supporting, encouragement, and interest in my work.
She is a wonderful partner in work and life.
Mercy Oduyoye and Virginia Fabella, With Passion and Compassion.
Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1989. Reprinted by permission of Orbis Books.
All rights reserved.
John S. Pobee and Barbel vin Wartenberg-Potter, eds. New Eyes for Reading:
Biblical and Theological Reflections by Women From the Third World.
Geneva, Switzerland: World Council of Churches, 1986. Reprinted by
permission of the World Council of Churches. All rights reserved.
Contents
Introduction 1
1. Latin American Liberation Theology 5
2. The Forgotten Oppressed 37
3. Currents in African Liberation Theology 61
4. The Liberation Motif in Asian Theologies 109
5. Liberating the United States of America 145
6. Room to Be People 189
Works Cited 223
Index 245
Introduction
Very few theological movements arising outside North America and Europe
have received as much wide attention as liberation theology. Originating in
Latin America, liberation theology has followers in the academy and churches
around the world. Popularity of liberation theology was widened by its critics
in the magisterium within Latin America and Rome. Criticisms at home came
from Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, former President of Latin American
Bishops’ Conference (CELAM).1 In 1972 Trujillo, then bishop, became the
executive secretary of CELAM. Cardinal Baggeo in Rome, supervised Bishop
Trujillo. The cardinal used CELAM to limit the influence of Cardinals Silva in
Chile, Arns in Brazil, and other Brazilian bishops. CELAM was the principle
vehicle for criticizing and censuring liberation theologians.
In the 1980s criticism from the Vatican was led by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XIV) and the Prefect and Secretariat of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. On August 6, 1984 and again in
1986, the Congregation issued the highly publicized “Instruction,” a kind of
censure of liberation theologians by the Vatican. Other activities by the Vatican
which added reputation to liberation theology include the silencing of Leornado
Boff, attempts to censure Gustavo Gutiérrez, and the investigation of Jon
Sobrino.
Liberation theology is now a worldwide phenomenon: there are liberation
theologies in Africa, Asia, North America, and other parts of the world. Latin
American liberation theologians have succeeded in their “desire to contribute
to the life and reflection of the universal Christian community.”2 However,
there is no single world liberation theology and no one method. There are
liberation theologies because liberation theology is always contextual; it arises
from and speaks to a particular situation. The particularity of the issues and
contexts lead to different approaches and methods. Thus, in one area, Africa,
for example, one finds four currents within liberation theology.
Since its beginning in Latin America, liberation theology has gone through
many changes in method and emphasis, while still retaining the original themes
and paradigm. This book evaluates the whole liberation theology enterprise as
it has developed in Latin American, Africa, Asia, and the United States. The
book explores the issues and emphasis particular to each region, and discusses
the common elements within liberation theology as a whole. The voices, works,
experiences, and reflections of women in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the
United States (womanism, mujerista, the Han of Korean American Women),
2 The Gospel According to the Marginalized
are included in this book because women are struggling for what Malawians
call umunthu—identity, dignity, respect, and fullness of life or personhood.
Briefly, the book examines the issues in liberation and feminist genre.
Although liberation theology is an ecumenical and universal theological
movement, only four continents are discussed in this book. Generally, people
identify liberation theology as a theology of the people outside the north
Atlantic quadrant, but in this book attention has been given to theologies from
racial ethnic minorities in the United States of America. This book shows that
their struggle for umunthu, mirrors that of the people outside the northern
hemisphere. This is one of the reasons for including United States in a book on
liberation theologies. The other reason, however, is that the United States
government, directly or through its multinational corporations, has tremendous
influence on the socio-economic and political life of Latin American countries
and the rest of the non-western world.
The World Council of Churches
From its early days, liberation theology has enjoyed the support of the
world’s largest ecumenical movement, the World Council of Churches (WCC).
The Bangkok assembly (1973) on “Salvation Today,” discussed liberation
theology. The World Conference on Salvation Today urged member Churches
to be involved in social action as a form of praxis which substantiates the
Christian community’s proclamation of the Gospel to the poor. In the report of
Section 1 on “Culture and Identity,” the Bangkok assembly stated: “The
moment the ‘agents of salvation’ are even equivocally on the side of the
oppressor, the Christian message is distorted and Christian mission is in
jeopardy.”3 At the Fourth and Fifth General Assemblies at Uppsala in 1968 and
Nairobi in 1975, discussions on liberation theology were part of the agenda.
Report of Section 1 on “Confessing Christ Today” of the Fifth Assembly, on
the “Whole Gospel” said:
The Gospel always includes: the announcement of God’s kingdom and love
through Jesus Christ, the offer of grace and forgiveness of sins, the invitation
to repentance and faith in him, the summons of the fellowship of God’s
Church, the command to listen to God’s words and deeds, the responsibility
to participate in the struggle for justice and human dignity, the obligation to
denounce all that hinders human wholeness, and the commitment to risk life
itself.4
Statements and declarations from various commissions and committees of
the WCC reflect support for liberation. The liberation motif can easily be
discerned in WCC publications such as those by the following commissions:
Churches Participation in Development, Church and Society, Ecumenism,
Justice and Peace, among others. At one time or the other, there is a notable
Latin American liberation theologian working at, or as a consultant at the WCC