Gutiérrez Summary

Gustavo Gutiérrez lays out a theology that aims to understand the condition of poverty and oppression in Latin America. Gutiérrez was a Catholic Marxist who believed that both the spiritual and the material mattered. Karl Marx claimed religion was a tool of oppression which constrains the poor in poverty. Gutiérrez agrees that religion can be a tool of oppression, he also disagrees and claims religion as a potential tool of liberation. To achieve liberation humanity needs to: be set free from the material; change corrupt political systems; end an oppressed consciousness; and move towards freedom from self-centeredness. For Gutiérrez salvation is liberation, and God’s first salvific act is creation. Gutiérrez explains that liberation in the context of liberation theology is the “complete communion of human beings with God and among themselves” (196). The notion that God creates a world that needs God’s salvation is problematic because God causes oppression with the intention that only God can liberate people from that oppression. According to Gutiérrez …show more content…
“The liberation from Egypt, linking to and even coinciding with creation, adds an element of capital importance: the need and the place for human active participation in the building of society” (83). According to Gutiérrez the participation of humans puts humanity in the salvific process. Gutiérrez claims that humanity moving towards a just human community is part of the process. Gutiérrez’ idea is further complicated with the addition of human activity. Humans play a small role in the creation and Exodus because it is the work of God that liberates them, but it is also the work of God that causes their suffering. God was the agent in the first part of the process, but that responsibility is on humanity now. Humanity is in the process of rebuilding and repairing society, which is necessary because the nature of creation as a salvific