The First Page: Liberation Theology

THE FIRST PAGE

Liberation Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Latin America

edited by Pablo Bradbury and Niall H.D. Geraghty

5 June 2025

The First Page presents the first page of books that are launched as part of the IAS Book Launch Programme. On 11 June 2025, Pablo Bradbury and Niall H.D. Geraghty will present the interdisciplinary edited volume Liberation Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Latin America which brings together approaches from history, theology, cultural studies, architecture, sociology, and anthropology to reevaluate the legacy and significance of the liberation theology movement which emerged in the late twentieth century in Latin America.

Introduction: As it was in the beginning?

It is now more than fifty years since liberation theology emerged from Latin America with a prophetic vision for the Catholic Church that would alter its social mission, as well as its relationship with the laity, with other religions and with the world. With the benefit of historical hindsight, however, it can seem that the first wave and the high watermark for the discourse were one and the same. If, amidst the febrile revolutionary atmosphere of 1968, the second meeting of the Consejo Episcopal Latinoamericano (Latin American Bishops Conference, CELAM) in Medellín proclaimed the influence of liberation theologians on the institutional Church, the publication of Gustavo Gutiérrez’s seminal Teología de la liberación: Perspectivas in 1971 seemed to cement its importance. What was being proposed was not merely a new theological movement but, in Gutiérrez’s famous words, a ‘new way of doing theology’ (Gutiérrez 1988, 12).

Such bold claims seemed matched by a wave of clerical innovations and a groundswell of radicalism across the continent whose ethic and aesthetic brought together both revolutionary Marxists and Catholic militants. By the CELAM meeting in Puebla in 1979, however, the tide had seemingly turned. Key liberation theologians who had done so much to shape Medellín were sidelined from Puebla, the result of a concerted effort by an unsympathetic Latin American episcopal leadership. Exiled to a convent a few blocks from the conference proceedings, a large group of liberation theologians managed to interact with participating bishops and influence the tightly guarded discussions indirectly, however, resulting in a mixed final document demonstrative of the divergent theological interests and influences of different members of the Church (Smith 1991, 209–21).

Although key figures sought to claim Puebla and its final document as a victory for liberation theology, in retrospect it appeared to be confirmation of its declining status in the institutional Church, and its proponents were increasingly on the defensive.

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PABLO BRADBURY teaches at the University of Greenwich and holds a PhD in History from the University of Liverpool. His research focuses on left-wing political cultures and social movements during Latin America’s Cold War, exploring religion, international solidarity and strategies for resisting state repression.

NIALL H.D. GERAGHTY is Associate Professor in Latin American Cultural Studies at UCL. His first book was The Polyphonic Machine: Capitalism, Political Violence, and Resistance in Contemporary Argentine Literature (2019). He has published articles and book chapters on literature and film from Latin America, with a particular interest in memory, urban culture, and religion in the region.

On 11 June 2025 Pablo Bradbury and Niall H.D. Geraghty will launch their book at the Institute of Advanced Studies. More information.

Liberation Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Latin America is published by University of London Press.

Lead Image by Manidip Mandal via Unsplash.