An earlier version of this article was presented at a conference on “La Theologie de la Liberation,” sponsored by the Asociation Francaise de Sociologie Religieuse in Paris, 1–2 December 1986. I am grateful to Thomas Bruneau, Daniela Gobetti, Michael Lowy, Scott Mainwaring, and Guy Petitdemanges for comments and criticisms.

^1. There is a large and rapidly expanding literature on liberation theology. I review recent Latin American debates in “Religion and Politics: Drawing Lines, Understanding Change,” Latin American Research Review 20, no. 1 (Winter 1985): 185–201Google Scholar, and place the issues in a comparative context in “Religion and Politics in Comparative and Historical Perspective,” Comparative Politics 19, no. 1 (10 1986): 95–122CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Holiness, Faith, Power, Politics,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 26, no. 4 (12 1987): 551–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Liberation theology has drawn emulation and stirred sharp debate outside Latin America. In the Philippines, for example, there has been much discussion of liberation theology and its links to grass roots movements. See Liberation Theology and the Vatican Document Volume I: The Vatican Document and Some Commentaries (Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 1985)Google Scholar; Liberation Theology and the Vatican Document Volume II: A Philippine Perspective (Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 1986).Google Scholar Two recent North American contributions on liberation theology are Rodes, Robert, Law and Liberation (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986)Google Scholar, and Novak's, Michael sharply critical Will It Liberate? Questions About Liberation Theology (New York: Paulist Press, 1986)Google Scholar. The transformation of American black religion from quiescence and resignation to activism is relevant to these debates. See Raboteau, Albert J., Slave Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978), chaps. 5 and 6Google Scholar; and Morris, Aldon D., The Origins of the Civil Rights Movement (New York: The Free Press, 1984).Google Scholar

^2. Berryman, Phillip, Liberation Theology (New York: Pantheon, 1987), pp. 6, 205.Google Scholar

^3. On this point see Zaret, David, The Heavenly Contract: Ideology and Organization in Pre-Revolutionary Puritanism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985)Google Scholar, and two books by Hill, Christopher: The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas in th English Revolution (New York: Penguin, 1982)Google Scholar and The Century of Revolution (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982).Google Scholar

^4. For a general discussion, see Walzer, Michael, Exodus and Revolution (New York: Basic Books, 1985).Google Scholar The exodus paradigm of “oppression-wandering in the desert-the promised land” runs through much liberation theology. In this vein, Gustavo Gutiérrez compares being poor in Latin America to being in a foreign land in these words: “Exiled, therefore, by unjust social structures from a land that in the final analysis belongs to God alone… but aware that they have been despoiled of it, the poor are actively entering into Latin American history, and are taking part in an exodus that will restore them what is rightfully theirs” (We Drink From Our Own Wells [Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1985], p. 11).Google Scholar

^5. For a useful review of Latin American Christology see Bussmann, Claus, Who Do You Say? Jesus Christ in Latin American Theology (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1985).Google Scholar

^6. Cf. Hellwig, Monika, “Good News to the Poor: Do They Understand It Better?” in Tracing the Spirit: Communities, Social Action, and Theological Reflection, ed. Hug, James E. (New York: Paulist Press, 1983), pp. 122–48.Google Scholar

^7. Liberation Theology: From Confrontation to Dialogue (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1986), p. 11.Google Scholar

^8. The phrase has come to symbolize the conclusions reached at this important meeting of Latin America's Catholic bishops. For the complete text of the Puebla documents, along with selected commentaries, see Eagleson, John and Scharper, Phillip, eds., Puebla and Beyond (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1979).Google Scholar

9. For example, Novak, Will It Liberate? or the first Vatican instruction on liberation theology written by Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Instruction on Certain Aspects of the ‘Theology of Liberation,'” Origins NC Documentary Service 14, no. 13 (09 1984): 193–204.Google Scholar The second Ratzinger instruction is more muted in tone. See “Instruction on Christian Freedom and Liberation,” Origins NC Documentary Service, 15, no. 44 (17 04 1986): 714–28.Google Scholar

10. Cf. Dodson, Michael, “Liberation Theology and Christian Radicalism in Contemporary Latin America,"Journal of Latin American Studies, 11, no. 1 (05 1979): 203–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11. All citations from the Theses on Feuerbach are from the text in Tucker, Robert, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972).Google Scholar

12. On Central America, see Berryman, Phillip, Religious Roots of Rebellion: Christians in the Central American Revolutions (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1984).Google Scholar

13. Gutierrez, , We Drink From Our Own Wells, p. 2.Google Scholar

14. Ibid., p 29.

15. Gutierrez, Gustavo, Teologia de la Liberacion (Lima: CEP, 1971).Google Scholar

16. Collier, David, ed., The New Authoritarianism in Latin America (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979)Google Scholar, remains a useful overview of political developments. On Central America, see Berryman, Religious Roots, and Baloyra, Enrique, “Reactionary Despotism in Central America,"Journal of Latin American Studies 15, no. 2 (11 1983): 295–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

17. Smith, Brian, “Churches and Human Rights: Recent Trends on the Subcontinent,” in Churches and Politics in Latin America, ed. Levine, Daniel H. (Beverly Hills: SAGE Publications, Inc, 1980), pp. 155–93.Google Scholar

18. Adriance, Madeleine, Opting for the Poor (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1986).Google Scholar

19. Levine, , “Religion, the Poor, and Politics in Latin America Today,” in Religion and Political Conflict in Latin America, ed. Levine, Daniel H. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1986), pp. 3–23.Google Scholar

20. The literature on CEB’s is large and growing fast. Recent collections of evidence with useful bibliographies include Azevedo, Marcelo, Basic Ecclesial Communities in Brazil: The Challenge of a New Way of Being Church (Washington: Georgetown University Press, 1987);Google ScholarBruneau, Thomas, The Church in Brazil: The Politic of Religion (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1982)Google Scholar, Hewitt, W. E., “Strategies for Social Change Employed by Comunidades Eclesiaes de Base (CEB’s) in the Archiodese of Sâo Paulo,” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 25, no. 1 (03 1986): 16–30;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Levine, Religion and Political Conflict in Latin America; and Levine, Daniel and Mainwaring, Scott, “Religion and Popular Protest: Contrasting Experiences,” in Power and Popular Protest: Latin American Social Movements, ed. Eckstein, Susan (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming, 1988).Google Scholar

21. For details on Brazilian and Colombian cases, see Levine and Mainwaring, “Religion and Popular Protest.”

22. This point is made forcefully by Azevedo, in his Basic Ecclesial Communities esp. pp. 80–98 and 119–57.Google Scholar See also Wolterstorff, Nicholas, Until Justice and Peace Embrace (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983), especially chap. 7.Google Scholar

23. Berryman, , Liberation Theology, p. 56.Google Scholar

24. For a detailed discussion, see Levine, Daniel H., “Colombia: The Institutional Church and the Popular,” in Levine, Religion and Political Conflict, pp. 187–217.Google Scholar

25. Two fascinating cases involving North American pastoral agents who were killed in Latin America are James Guadelupe Carney and Jean Donovan. See Carney’s, revealing autobiography, To Be a Christian Is to Be a Revolutionary (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987).Google Scholar For Donovan, see Carrigan, Ana, Salvador Witness The Life and Calling of Jean Donovan (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985).Google Scholar I review the broader implications of Donovan's life and death in “‘Whose Heart Could Be So Staunch?’” Christianity and Crisis, 22 07 1985.Google Scholar

26. See Levine, , “Colombia: The Institutional church and the Popular"; “Religion and Politics: Dimensions of Renewal,” Thought 59 (06 1984): 117–42;CrossRefGoogle Scholar and “Church and Politics: Basic Trends and Likely Futures,” in The Signs of the Times: church and Politics in Latin America, ed. Keogh, Dermot (London: Macmillan, forth-coming).Google Scholar

27. Smith, Brian, The Church and Politics in Chile: Challenges to Modern Catholicism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), esp. chaps. 5–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28. Mainwaring, Scott, “The Catholic Church, Popular Education, and Political Change in Brazil,” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs, 26, no. 1 (02 1984): 92–125CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and his The Catholic Church and Politics in Brazil, 1916–1985 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1986).Google Scholar