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MADISON BOOKS
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Copyright© 1986, 1991 by Michael Novak
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In homage to
Carlos Rangel
Mario Vargas Llosa
and all who work tirelessly in Latin America
for liberty
BritCisaht alioPngu ibnlgiI cnaftoiroAmnva atiiloanb le
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
V
Introduction to the 1991 Edition
lX
Introduction
TOWARD A THEOLOGY FOR THE WESTERN
HEMISPHERE 1
Liberation Theology and the Liberal Society
One
LOOK NORTH IN ANGER 13
Two
BUT WILL IT LIBERA TE? 33
Three
A SHORT CATECHISM 44
Four
LIBERATION THEOLOGY AND THE POPE 65
Five
CREATION THEOLOGY IN LATIN AMERICA 75
1. The Power of Creativity 76
2. The Institutions of Creativity 82
3. The Virtues of a Creative Society 92
4. Conclusion 95
LATIN AMERICA: A SAMPLING OF STATISTICAL
PROFILES 96
Six
BASIC CONCEPTS OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY 106
lll
IV WILL IT LIBERAT E?
Seven
WHAT IS DEPENDENCY? WHO ARE THE POOR? 126
Eight
WHAT DO THEY MEAN BY SOCIALISM? 154
1. The Cuban Model 154
2. The Traditional Socialism of the Intellectuals 160
3. Juan Luis Segundo 163
4. Gustavo Gutierrez 165
5. Democratic Socialism 170
6. The Issue Between Capitalism and Socialism 173
Nine
WHAT IS THE INNER WILL OF SOCIALISM? 179
1. The Socialism of the Incas and the Jesuits 182
2. The Inner Will of Socialism 188
Ten
THE CONSTITUTION OF LIBERTY 197
Eleven
EPILOGUE: THE SECOND VATICAN INSTRUCTION
ON LIBERATION 218
Appendix: Vignettes from Latin America 231
1. CHILE WANTS DEMOCRACY! 233
2. NOTES ON DINNER WITH ASSMANN 236
3. BRAZIL-CATHOLICISM IN CRISIS 243
4. LIBERATION THEOLOGY BEGINS TO HEAR ITS
CRITICS 246
5. THE U.S., ARGENTINA, AND THE BISHOPS 249
6. THE LIBERAL REVOLUTION 252
NOTES 255
NAME INDEX 308
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Six of the longest chapters below appear for the first time in this book.
Four of the others, although previously published in journals or mag
azines, appear here in a new and considerably longer version. Al
though some unavoidable repetitions and differences in tone remain,
I have worked hard to shape the whole by the standards of the book
writer's craft, rather than solely by the standards proper to the essayist.
This book goes substantially beyond my earlier writings on liber
ation theology. In The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (1982), the reader
will find three chapters on Latin America, which supply statistical data
of relevance to the present inquiry. (These were later condensed in the
Atlantic Monthly under the title "Why Latin America Is Poor.") The
reader may also wish to consult two volumes I have edited at the Amer
ican Enterprise Institute: Latin America: Dependency or Interdependence?
(1985) and Liberation Theology and the Liberal Society (1987). Other vol
umes in that series may also be of interest.* In addition, Chapter 10 of
Freedom with justice (Harper & Row, 1984), "Liberation Theology in
Practice," should also be consulted.
I am particularly grateful to the following publishers and editors
for their permission to reprint, usually in revised and enlarged ver
sions, material first appearing in their pages. Among these are The New
York Times Sunday Magazine, for a shorter version of Chapter One
(published October 21, 1984, under the title "The Case Against Lib
eration Theology"); the Notre Damej ournal of Law, Ethics and Public Pol
icy ( 1986) for earlier and shorter versions of Chapters Two and Three;
and Commentary magazine, for a somewhat different version of Chap
ter Four O une 1979). Seven chapters are new for this book.
In particular I want to thank Robert Sirico, C.S.P. of St. Paul's Col
lege in Washington, D.C., who proposed the idea for this book, and
*Capitalism end Socialism: A Theologfral Perspective (1979); Democracy and Mediating
Structures: A Theological Inqui ( 1980); and The Corporation: A Theologicallnqui ( 1981).
ry ry
V
VI WILL IT LIBERATE?
Dr.John Farina of the Paulist Press for his able and dedicated editorial
assistance. I am thankful, too, for the research assistance that Scott
Walter and James Muldoon have lent to my otherwise poorer efforts;
their work on the endnotes was herculean. Gayle Yiotis has for several
years done immense amounts of word-processing, with an uncanny
ability to read my original handwriting and (too often) my mind. Judy
Shindel kept our office functioning and good-spirited during the
friendly chaos entailed in meeting multiple and conflicting deadlines.
Even those who take exception to portions of what I write have always
made plain how much they admire Karen Laub-Novak, as the redeem
ing influence in my life, which she is. To her, too, public thanks.
Washington, D.C.
February 2, 1986
The overthrow by means of revolutionary violence of structures
which generate violence is not ipsfoa cthte boeg inning of a just
regime. A major fact of our time ought to evoke the reflection
of all those who would sincerely work for the true liberation of
their brothers: Millions of our own contemporaries legitimately
yearn to recover those basic freedoms of which they were de
prived by totalitarian and atheistic regimes which came to power
by violent and revolutionary means, precisely in the name of the
liberation of the people. This shame of our time cannot be ig
nored: While claiming to bring them freedom, these regimes
keep whole nations in conditions of servitude which are unwor
thy of mankind. Those who, perhaps inadvertently, make them
selves accomplices of similar enslavements betray the very poor
they mean to help.
Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith-"Instruction on
Certain Aspects of the 'Theology of
Liberation' "
Vil
INTRODUCTTOIT OHNE1 99E1D ITION
Novak and his associates are primarily concerned with the
economic and political framework utilized by liberation
theologians. The liberation theologians spend little time
defe nding that framework ... nevertheless, if their social
theory is fundamentally wrong, their whole enterprise is in
jeopardy. -Phillip Berryman
The original force of the social criticism of liberation theol
ogy was considerably weakened when its principal instru
ments of "social analysis"-dependency and Marxism-were
no longer considered adequate explanations of Latin Amer
ican poverty and underdevelopment.-Paul E. Si und
gm
THE CONVERSION OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY
The liberation theologians of Latin America have accomplished
something quite fantastic. They have captured the attention and
imagination of European theologians, indeed of the whole world, as
no other non-European theology, certainly none in North America,
has ever done. The bibliography of worldwide writings on liberation
theology already runs to six or seven thick volumes. Most commenta
tors have been admiring, even adulatory.
,/
Nevertheless, after the events of 1989, liberation theology was in
danger of slipping into a backwater of history because of the collapse
of the socialist regimes of Eastern Europe. At least one liberation
theologian publicly expressed fear that the two estranged parts of
"the North," East and West, would now embrace each other heartily
and forget the South. (The fear used to be "dependency"; now,
lX
X WILL IT LIBERATE?
apparently, it's independence). More generally, the collapse in univer
sal prestige suffered by international socialism after Tiananmen
Square (June 4, 1989), and even more after the "velvet revolution"
against socialist oppression in Eastern Europe, brought "marxist
analysis" into disrepute. The myth of the second world was punc
tured: the "second world" was in reality a heavily armed version of
the third world. Mikhail Gorbachev warned his own people that by
the beginning of the twenty-first century the Soviet Union was at risk
of becoming a third world nation (at about the level of India). Add to
this the unmasking of the abuses committed under the Sandinistas in
Nicaragua, and the unfavorable comparison of Castro's police state in
Cuba with glasnost and perestroika in the U .S.S.R.
For two decades, liberation theologians depended analytically on
blaming "capitalist methods" such as markets, private property, and
profits for their "oppression," and on a "socialist" strategy of "basic
needs." Often they had said of Eastern European socialist nations (as
of Cuba) that, unattractive as they were in some respects, "at least
they fulfill the basic needs of the people." But in 1989 Eastern
Europeans spoke contemptuously of basic needs as a strategy fit for
prisoners in jail, not for free human beings. And they clamored for
capitalist methods as a source of liberation from socialist oppression.
To help the poor of Latin America, the preoccupation of libera
tion theologians with useless socialist methods left them with little
practical to say. Take just one practical problem: massive unemploy
ment. In the year 2000, by all accounts, fewer Latin Americans than
today will be employed by transnational corporations, which for some
years now have been divesting in Latin America. In the year 2000,
fewer Latin Americans than today are likely to be employed in
agriculture. So where, then, will the growing number of Latin Amer
ica's unemployed and underemployed find work? Their only hope
lies in the growth of millions of new small businesses, making the
products desperately needed by Latin Americans, the poor especially,
and also providing necessary services. In all modern societies, small
/ businesses meeting these needs are the chiefj ob-creating engine.
J Given these huge numbers of unemployed persons, no resource
is more precious to the future of Latin America than enterprise.
Nothing else can fuse together the immense number of idle hands
with the immense amounts of work still to be done to improve the
living conditions of the poor. What other hope for the poor is there,
after the failure of socialism, except voluntary economic activity from
the bottom up? Economic activity not on the part of the transnation
als, but on the part of poor and middle class Latin Americans
