and their struggle for a new world of life , freedom and solidarity. The poor believe and trust in the word of the Bible as light and strength for their liberation struggle. Reporting what the people say in the base communities about this reading of the Bible, Carlos Masters indicates its significance and scope.
1. The Bible is read not only as a history of the past, but also and especially as a mirror of history occurring today in the life of the people
2. The main objective of this reading is not an interpretation of the Bible, but of an interpretation of life with the aid of the Bible. Thus the thrust of our interpretation is different. The poor read the Bible from the standpoint of their situation of oppression. This enables them …show more content…
The exodus account reminds us that God is concerned about socio-political as well as spiritual freedoms . We may rightly see esther as a model of one who risked the penalties of civil disobedience to stand up for her people rather than as one who was duly submissive to the authorities in her world. We should view Jesus, as already noted above, as a challenge to political as well as religious authorities and structures in his society. And in perhaps the most important biblical document that requires us to wrestle with the liberation agenda, the epistle of James we discover a community of largely poor, Christian day-labourers being opposed by their wealthy, often absentee landlords- a frightening parallel to the situation of many third world labourers today. Many of them Christian believers denied wedge and basic human rights by the large multinational corporations or corrupt national governments that employ them as virtual slave labourers. Whatever else we may question in a liberation hermeneutics, we obviously have much still to learn from it. We must listen to the voices of the disenfranchised, test each claim against the scriptures, and see if either their or our presuppositions have obscured the true meaning or significance of the
1. The Bible is read not only as a history of the past, but also and especially as a mirror of history occurring today in the life of the people
2. The main objective of this reading is not an interpretation of the Bible, but of an interpretation of life with the aid of the Bible. Thus the thrust of our interpretation is different. The poor read the Bible from the standpoint of their situation of oppression. This enables them …show more content…
The exodus account reminds us that God is concerned about socio-political as well as spiritual freedoms . We may rightly see esther as a model of one who risked the penalties of civil disobedience to stand up for her people rather than as one who was duly submissive to the authorities in her world. We should view Jesus, as already noted above, as a challenge to political as well as religious authorities and structures in his society. And in perhaps the most important biblical document that requires us to wrestle with the liberation agenda, the epistle of James we discover a community of largely poor, Christian day-labourers being opposed by their wealthy, often absentee landlords- a frightening parallel to the situation of many third world labourers today. Many of them Christian believers denied wedge and basic human rights by the large multinational corporations or corrupt national governments that employ them as virtual slave labourers. Whatever else we may question in a liberation hermeneutics, we obviously have much still to learn from it. We must listen to the voices of the disenfranchised, test each claim against the scriptures, and see if either their or our presuppositions have obscured the true meaning or significance of the