Liberation Theology on the God Question

If we have to consider the etymological meaning of theology and that from the common dictionary which describes theology as “the study of God and of religious doctrine and matters of divinity,”[1] it would follow that in dealing with liberation theology we would inevitably investigate how this theology treats about the God question. To answer the questions on God is not easy, according to Juan Luis Segundo, since our religious reality is complex.[2] Today, the problem of God’s existence might not be so important than that of the situation when the people were still grappling with polytheism. “In pastoral and theological sense the ‘God question’ becomes not whether there exists some referent to the term ‘God’ but which God is meant.”[3]
How does a liberation theologian see God? Gustavo Gutierréz says that “human beings believe in God in the context of a particular historical situation; after all, believers have their place in a cultural and social fabric.”[4] Thus we can situate the perspective on God at where liberation theology originated, the experience in Latin America. It is discovering God in the signs of the times whereby it is described in one of the text of Medellin documents:
“Let us recall once again that the present moment in the history of our peoples is characterized in the social order, and from an objective point of view, by a situation of underdevelopment. Certain phenomena point an accusing finger at it: marginal existence, alienation, and poverty. In the last analysis it is conditioned by structures of economic, political, and cultural dependence on the great industrialized metropolises, the latter enjoying a monopoly of technology and science (neocolonialism). From the subjective point of view it is characterized by a growing cognizance of this situation. In broad sectors of the Latin American population this growing cognizance provokes attitudes of protest and aspirations for liberation, development, and social justice.”[5]
This situation lets “the poor proclaim a God who liberates and gives life.”[6]
Gutierrez’s treatment on the God problem starts with the action of God in history that is the experience and perspective of liberation in Scriptures more clearly in the Exodus event. In this event God is shown to be a liberator. Also in the New Testament we find God taking side with the oppressed to liberate them. “The good news the Messiah proclaims to the poor is focused on liberation.”[7]
Ronaldo Muñoz describes two periods in the Christian consciousness in Latin America. At the first stage (the late 1960s and early 1970s), the principal biblical referents were the God of the Exodus, the pre-Exilic prophets, and Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. Here, God as such appears especially as the God who delivers from oppression. In the second (the late 1970s and 1980s) the central biblical referent for the renewed experience of God are the prophets of the Exile, the psalms and the apocalypses, and Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem. Here, God appears especially as the God of life amid so many forces of death. In the first stage the crucial task was the arousal of social awareness and of practices of political liberation, hence the focus of reflection was on the “oppression/liberation” antithesis. As the fortitude in suffering and the hope of future liberation become more evident, the focus develops on “death/life” antithesis.[8]
With this concern on the prevailing earthly human situation, liberation theology is sometimes accused of ignoring the transcendence or “beyondness” of God. Jon Sobrino puts a twist on the traditional concept of God’s transcendence.
“God’s preferential love for the poor introduces a tension within human history between what is and what should be. ‘And history that is generated when one attempts to live according to God’s love transcends itself, and is therefore a mediation of God’s transcendence.’ In accordance with the traditional notion, Sobrino says God is always greater than any human realization or even any human ability to conceive. But far from that being a motive for quietism (if God is utterly ‘beyond,’ why bother to act within human history, since it is ultimately insignificant?) it should be a pull toward making love effective within human history.”[9]
Christianity’s most transcendent assertion could be about the Trinity. On this concept, Leonardo Boff outlines various kinds of systematization. That of the Greeks begin with the person of the Father as the source and origin of all divinity and generates the Son as its Word, at the same time as it spirates the Spirit as its Breath. Thus, the persons are “consubstantial” possessing the same nature as the Father, so the persons are but one God. Here there is the risk of subordinationism. The Latins begin with the single divine nature. The person of the Father generates an absolute expression of itself: the Word or Son. In generating the Son, God is revealed as Father. Father and Son love one another so completely that they spirate the Holy Spirit as the expression of their reciprocal love, thus consummating the trinitarian circle. Here there is the risk of modalism. Boff adopts the appropriation of many modern theologians considering the relations among the divine persons. This proposition insists upon a perichoresis among the persons: an “intimate, perfect indwelling of each person in the others,” such that among the persons prevails the unity of one God. The persons are three infinite subjects of a single communion, or three lovers in the same love.[10]
The approach of modern theologians cited by Boff “responds to the deepest needs of the poor, who seek participation, communion, and a more egalitarian coexistence, maintained in respect for differences.” Thus, the holy Trinity is the source of inspiration of the poor and the foundation of the commitment to liberation—a liberation carried out with a vision to social justice, equity, and the construction of a society of sisters and brothers that will be viable in the existing condition. In this sense the trinitarian dynamic enables liberationists to construct a social and ecclesial critique. The capitalist system values individual differences to the detriment of communion while the socialist system tends to constitute a mass rather than a people. But the trinitarian mystery invites social forms that value all relations among persons and institutions in which differences are respected.[11]
Final note:
Liberation theologians assert that the traditional doctrine of God manipulates the divine being such that He appears to favor the capitalistic social structure. Some of them claim that the traditional belief of God depicts Him as static being – distant and remote from human history. This distorted view of a transcendent divine being has yielded a theology that understands God as “out there,” far removed from the affairs of humankind. As a result, many have adopted a passive attitude in the face of oppression and exploitation.
Liberation theologians have thus tried to communicate to their compatriots that God is not impassive. Rather, He is dynamically involved in behalf of the poor and the oppressed. And because God stands against oppression and exploitation, those who follow Him must do likewise.

[1] “Theology,” Webster’s New World Dictionary.
[2] Juan Luis Segundo, Our Idea of God, trans. John Drury (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1974), 3.
[3] Phillip Berryman, Liberation Theology: Essential Facts About the Revolutionary Movement in Latin America – and Beyond (New York: Pantheon Books, 1987), 153.
[4] Gustavo Gutierréz, The God of Life, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (Manila, Philippines: St Pauls, 1994), xv.
[5] Medellin, “Lay Movements,” I. (qtd. in Segundo, op. cit., 16.)
[6] Gutierréz, loc. cit.
[7] Ibid., 9.
[8] Ronaldo Moñuz, “God the Father” trans. Robert R. Barr in Systematic Theology: Perspective from Liberation Theology (Readings from Mysterium Liberationis) eds. Jon Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuría (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996), 90-95.
[9] Berryman, op. cit., 155.
[10] Leonardo Boff, “Trinity” trans. Robert R. Barr in Systematic Theology: Perspective from Liberation Theology (Readings from Mysterium Liberationis) eds. Jon Sobrino and Ignacio Ellacuría (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1996), 83.

[11] Ibid., 85.