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The Reaction Against Liberation Theology
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13587 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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4 / 1988 |
1,527 Words |
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Robert Royal
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Last year, after a trip to the Soviet Union, the prominent Brazilian liberation theologian Leonardo Boff remarked in a Sao Paulo newspaper: "It was a clean and healthy society. You never have the feeling for a moment of being persecuted, or even of being watched." Boff also told of an interview he had given to Izvestia, in which he had explained to Soviet readers "the new relationship we have established between Marxism and religion."
Boff's comments are almost a caricature of some of the worst elements of liberation theology. Many liberationists deny that they look to the USSR as a model or fail to see the dangers of totalitarianism. Contrary to widespread impressions, however, Boff's extremism is not even typical of the Catholic Church in his country, let alone in the rest of South America. While there are large leftist followings in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and elsewhere, some countercurrents have also emerged; others that have been there all along have grown stronger.
Brazil is the largest South American country and stands a good chance of becoming a significant world power in the coming decades. What happens in Brazil has strong echoes elsewhere in the continent. Leftward-tending Brazilian theologians like Leonardo Boff, his brother Clodovis, and Hugo Assmann have exerted a strong influence in intellectual circles. One Brazilian bishop has even called on theologians to adapt Karl Marx's ideas to Christianity in the same way that medieval theologians adapted Aristotle's.
But in the day-to-day life of the church, reality tends to intervene, and democratic sentiments show themselves to be more common than might be expected. Liberation theologians usually point to the comunidades de base (base communities) as a sign of socialist ferment. In Brazil alone there are an estimated 100,000 of these small groups in which people meet for spiritual support and social action. Some of these are indisputably Marxist in orientation. Studies have shown, however, that the overwhelming majority are moderate, democratic, and reformist. As one veteran observer of Latin America put it, "This is not the first time that the Left has successfully distorted media coverage of a basically democratic phenomenon for its own purposes."
In spite of some outspoken left-wing bishops, Brazil's episcopal conference has played an important moderating role in the return to democracy. Two years ago, following a trend throughout Latin America, the military allowed elections in Brazil. The Brazilian bishops, who had earlier been a strong force calling for democratization, issued a shrewd statement on forming a democratic constitution that closely paralleled emerging Episcopal thinking in countries ranging from Nicaragua to Chile. CELAM, the episcopal organization for all of Latin America, has become one of the most consistent and thoughtful advocates of democracy throughout the region.
A new situation
This represents a true step forward that should not be overlooked in the media attention given to flamboyant theologians. The general democratization of South America--Chile, Paraguay, and Suriname remain exceptions--has somewhat belied the liberationists' claim that only revolution could change what they regard as oppressive structures held in place by international capitalism. The fact that so many military groups have willingly conceded power to civilian
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