Liberation theology’s public witness

Among social trends anchored in the ’60s, none have been as resourcefully mobilized by Christians as situation ethics (popularized in 1966 by Joseph Fletcher) and liberation theology (articulated at the 1968 Medellín Conference in Colombia). The reach and fecundity of the latter in particular continues to winnow theological sensibilities, challenge the timid, and clarify current cultural realities.

Raúl Zegarra is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago and a faculty colleague of the now 95-year-old Gustavo Gutiérrez—author of the classic A Theology of Liberation—at Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Zegarra finds in liberation impulses not only the leading edge of Christian witness but the mirror in which public religion and public reason can behold one another, toward their mutual edification.

Because the quest for liberation is a nesting place for transcendent faith and ethical commitment as well as a launchpad for political hope, Zegarra roots his discussion in such intellectual luminaries as Jacques Maritain, Paul Ricoeur, David Tracy, John Rawls, and Martha Nussbaum. Zegarra analyzes each of these five thinkers with care and dexterity in support of his main thesis: that liberation theology articulates and expands our best hopes for a democratic future. The optimistic tone of this book is not compromised by the last sentence of the penultimate paragraph: “The struggle continues; it never ends.”