Gustavo Gutiérrez
Encyclopedia
Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, O.P.
, (born 8 June 1928 in Lima
) is a Peru
vian theologian and Dominican
priest regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology
. He holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame
.He began studying in the faculty of medicine of the National University of San Marcos
in Peru
in order to become a psychiatrist
, then he realized he wanted to become a priest. He has been professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.
Gutiérrez is also a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language, and in 1993 he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government for his tireless work. In 2002 Gutiérrez was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and in 2003 he received the prestigious Príncipe de Asturias
award. He has also published in and been a member of the board of directors of the international journal, Concilium.
Gutierrez spent much of his life living and working among the poor and oppressed of Lima
. He has studied medicine and literature (Peru), psychology and philosophy (Leuven
), and obtained a doctorate at the Institut Pastoral d'Etudes Religieuses (IPER), Université Catholique in Lyon.
Gutiérrez is of Native American heritage, being of mixed Quechua and Spanish descent, and he is probably the most influential Peruvian scholar of all time. Gutiérrez's groundbreaking work, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation (1971), explains his notion of Christian poverty as an act of loving solidarity with the poor as well as a liberatory protest against poverty.
, Gutiérrez was frequently bed-ridden and had to use a wheel chair from age 12 to 18.
When his condition improved he studied medicine and humanities in Peru while also militating with Catholic Action, where he developed his first outlines of theological reflection. It was in this period that he felt the need to go deeper with his theological studies. His relationship with the realities of his country became a commitment which obliged him to deepen his knowledge of God:
“I shared with friends the urge to know more christian doctrine and to know it better. It was… training which we saw as a necessary condition for action according to the famous principle: "No-one can give what he doesn't have."
He studied theology in various European universities, having as teachers Henri de Lubac
, Yves Congar
, Marie-Dominique Chenu
and Christian Ducoq. Being in touch with modern European theology gave him access to the theologians of the Second Vatican Council
, in addition to those already mentioned, Edward Schillebeeckx
, Karl Rahner
, Hans Küng
and Jean Baptista Metz. In contact and dialogue with the world of Protestant theology, he came to know the work of Karl Barth
thoroughly and he also maintained an interest in theologians like Jürgen Moltmann
and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
and in social scientists like François Perroux
. Gutiérrez was ordained a priest in 1959.
"I come from a continent in which more than 60% of the population live in a state of poverty, and 82% of those find themselves in extreme poverty."
originally developed as a Christian response to the conditions in which a great part of the Latin American population live. For Gutiérrez, the centre of the problem in Latin America is sin manifested in an unjust social structure. The theologian puts emphasis on the dignity of the poor.
Liberation theology "has arisen out of the experience of the poor, the oppressed, the "wretched of the earth" in Latin America, with whom [Gutiérrez] lives six days each week".
In Teología de la liberación, perspectivas Gutiérrez carries out a biblical analysis of poverty. In this work he distinguishes two kinds of poverty: a scandalous state and a spiritual infancy. Gutiérrez observes that while the first is abhorred by God, the second is valued. However, for Gutiérrez these two states of poverty live together side-by-side in the faith of the believers of Latin America. On the one hand there is a hunger for God, and on the other hunger for bread:
"I desire that the hunger for God may remain, that the hunger for bread may be satisfied… Hunger for God, yes; hunger for bread, no."
Furthermore, poverty for Gutiérrez is the result of unjust and sinful social structures:
"Poverty is not fate, it is a condition; it is not a misfortune, it is an injustice. It is the result of social structures and mental and cultural categories, it is linked to the way in which society has been built, in its various manifestations."
Firstly, Gutiérrez makes a call for understanding of the reality of the poor. To be poor is not simply to lack the economic resources for development. On the contrary, Gutierrez understands poverty as "a way of living, thinking, loving, praying, believing and hoping, spending free time and struggling for life".
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
, (born 8 June 1928 in Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
) is a Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian theologian and Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
priest regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology
Liberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
. He holds the John Cardinal O'Hara Professorship of Theology at the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
.He began studying in the faculty of medicine of the National University of San Marcos
National University of San Marcos
The National University of San Marcos is the most important and respected higher-education institution in Peru. Its main campus, the University City, is located in Lima...
in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
in order to become a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, then he realized he wanted to become a priest. He has been professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Pontifical Catholic University of Peru is a private university in Lima, Peru. It was founded in 1917 by F. Jorge Dintilhac SS.CC. as Peru's first non-profit private institution of higher learning. Academically, PUCP ranks second in Peru, behind the National University of San Marcos.-History:The...
and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe.
Gutiérrez is also a member of the Peruvian Academy of Language, and in 1993 he was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government for his tireless work. In 2002 Gutiérrez was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
and in 2003 he received the prestigious Príncipe de Asturias
Prince of Asturias Awards
The Prince of Asturias Awards are a series of annual prizes awarded in Spain by the Prince of Asturias Foundation to individuals, entities or organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, and public affairs....
award. He has also published in and been a member of the board of directors of the international journal, Concilium.
Gutierrez spent much of his life living and working among the poor and oppressed of Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
. He has studied medicine and literature (Peru), psychology and philosophy (Leuven
Catholic University of Leuven
The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...
), and obtained a doctorate at the Institut Pastoral d'Etudes Religieuses (IPER), Université Catholique in Lyon.
Gutiérrez is of Native American heritage, being of mixed Quechua and Spanish descent, and he is probably the most influential Peruvian scholar of all time. Gutiérrez's groundbreaking work, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation (1971), explains his notion of Christian poverty as an act of loving solidarity with the poor as well as a liberatory protest against poverty.
Youth and training
Afflicted in adolescence with osteomyelitisOsteomyelitis
Osteomyelitis simply means an infection of the bone or bone marrow...
, Gutiérrez was frequently bed-ridden and had to use a wheel chair from age 12 to 18.
When his condition improved he studied medicine and humanities in Peru while also militating with Catholic Action, where he developed his first outlines of theological reflection. It was in this period that he felt the need to go deeper with his theological studies. His relationship with the realities of his country became a commitment which obliged him to deepen his knowledge of God:
“I shared with friends the urge to know more christian doctrine and to know it better. It was… training which we saw as a necessary condition for action according to the famous principle: "No-one can give what he doesn't have."
He studied theology in various European universities, having as teachers Henri de Lubac
Henri de Lubac
Henri-Marie de Lubac, SJ was a French Jesuit priest who became a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, and is considered to be one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century...
, Yves Congar
Yves Congar
Yves Marie Joseph Congar was a French Dominican cardinal and theologian.-Early life:Born in Sedan, in northeast France, in 1904, Congar's home was occupied by the Germans for much of World War I...
, Marie-Dominique Chenu
Marie-Dominique Chenu
Marie-Dominique Chenu was a progressive Roman Catholic theologian and a founder of the reformist journal Concilium. He entered the French Province of the Dominican Order in 1913. His earlier theological work was on St. Thomas Aquinas, employing an historical method...
and Christian Ducoq. Being in touch with modern European theology gave him access to the theologians of the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
, in addition to those already mentioned, Edward Schillebeeckx
Edward Schillebeeckx
Edward Cornelis Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian born in Antwerp. He taught at the Catholic University in Nijmegen. He then continued writing. In his nineties, he still wanted to finish a major book about the Sacraments.He was a member of the Dominican Order...
, Karl Rahner
Karl Rahner
Karl Rahner, SJ was a German Jesuit and theologian who, alongside Bernard Lonergan and Hans Urs von Balthasar, is considered one of the most influential Roman Catholic theologians of the 20th century...
, Hans Küng
Hans Küng
Hans Küng is a Swiss Catholic priest, theologian, and prolific author. Since 1995 he has been President of the Foundation for a Global Ethic . Küng is "a Catholic priest in good standing", but the Vatican has rescinded his authority to teach Catholic theology...
and Jean Baptista Metz. In contact and dialogue with the world of Protestant theology, he came to know the work of Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
thoroughly and he also maintained an interest in theologians like Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann
Jürgen Moltmann is a German Reformed theologian. The 2000 recipient of the Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion.-Moltmann's Youth:...
and Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and martyr. He was a participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and a founding member of the Confessing Church. He was involved in plans by members of the Abwehr to assassinate Adolf Hitler...
and in social scientists like François Perroux
François Perroux
François Perroux was a French economist. He was named Professor at the Collège de France, after having taught at the University of Lyon and the University of Paris...
. Gutiérrez was ordained a priest in 1959.
Key Ideas
What is noticed first and foremost in the thought of Gutiérrez is Latin American reality – the foundation and driving force of liberation theology as Gutiérrez understands it. His own life undoubtedly affected his theological development. The world which he knew in his youth was a world of injustice and oppression against the poor. As he says himself:"I come from a continent in which more than 60% of the population live in a state of poverty, and 82% of those find themselves in extreme poverty."
Liberation theology
Liberation theologyLiberation theology
Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
originally developed as a Christian response to the conditions in which a great part of the Latin American population live. For Gutiérrez, the centre of the problem in Latin America is sin manifested in an unjust social structure. The theologian puts emphasis on the dignity of the poor.
Liberation theology "has arisen out of the experience of the poor, the oppressed, the "wretched of the earth" in Latin America, with whom [Gutiérrez] lives six days each week".
In Teología de la liberación, perspectivas Gutiérrez carries out a biblical analysis of poverty. In this work he distinguishes two kinds of poverty: a scandalous state and a spiritual infancy. Gutiérrez observes that while the first is abhorred by God, the second is valued. However, for Gutiérrez these two states of poverty live together side-by-side in the faith of the believers of Latin America. On the one hand there is a hunger for God, and on the other hunger for bread:
"I desire that the hunger for God may remain, that the hunger for bread may be satisfied… Hunger for God, yes; hunger for bread, no."
The Preferential Option for the Poor
For Gutiérrez the problem increases when one sees that among the poor there is an "absence of recognition of their own human dignity and of their condition as daughters and sons of God". This problem is much older than liberation theology. The Old Testament repeatedly provides that the wealthy should not reproach or oppress the poor, but should show compassion as an expression of the love of God. Already in the early church, Saint James warned people not to be contemptuous of the dignity of poor believers. Saint Paul also condemned this situation which was arising in the Corinthian church. Gutiérrez exhorts the Christian community to remember the teachings of the apostles.Furthermore, poverty for Gutiérrez is the result of unjust and sinful social structures:
"Poverty is not fate, it is a condition; it is not a misfortune, it is an injustice. It is the result of social structures and mental and cultural categories, it is linked to the way in which society has been built, in its various manifestations."
Firstly, Gutiérrez makes a call for understanding of the reality of the poor. To be poor is not simply to lack the economic resources for development. On the contrary, Gutierrez understands poverty as "a way of living, thinking, loving, praying, believing and hoping, spending free time and struggling for life".
See also
- Black liberation theologyBlack liberation theologyBlack liberation theology, sometimes shortened to black theology, is a relatively new theological perspective found in some Christian churches in the United States. It maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage — political, social, economic, and religious...
- Christian communismChristian communismChristian communism is a form of religious communism based on Christianity. It is a theological and political theory based upon the view that the teachings of Jesus Christ compel Christians to support communism as the ideal social system...
- Christian leftChristian leftThe Christian left is a term originating in the United States, used to describe a spectrum of left-wing Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice....
- Christian socialismChristian socialismChristian socialism generally refers to those on the Christian left whose politics are both Christian and socialist and who see these two philosophies as being interrelated. This category can include Liberation theology and the doctrine of the social gospel...
- Class struggleClass struggleClass struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
- Liberation theologyLiberation theologyLiberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
- Progressive ChristianityProgressive ChristianityProgressive Christianity is the name given to a movement within contemporary Christianity characterized by willingness to question tradition, acceptance of human diversity with a strong emphasis on social justice or care for the poor and the oppressed and environmental stewardship of the Earth...
- Radical Christianity
- Social gospelSocial GospelThe Social Gospel movement is a Protestant Christian intellectual movement that was most prominent in the early 20th century United States and Canada...
- Social justiceSocial justiceSocial justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being. The term and modern concept of "social justice" was coined by...
External links
- http://theology.nd.edu/people/all/gutierrez-gustavo/index.shtml Gustavo Gutiérrez on the University of Notre Dame website.
- http://www.alastairmcintosh.com/general/1995-Gustavo-Gutierrez-Audio.htm Audio downloads of Gutiérrez's 1995 Drummond Lectures in Scotland.
- http://www.newadvent.org/library/docs_df84lt.htm Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith-August 6, 1984. Instruction on certain aspect of "Liberation Theology".