Latin American Liberation Theology: Past and Present

Latin American Liberation Theology emerged as the theological expression of the Catholic Church’s commitment to the poor in the decades following the Second Vatican Council. This article argues that its continuing relevance does not depend on the repetition of the socio-political formulations of the 1970s, but on the permanence and critical renewal of two structuring principles: the see–judge–act method, understood as a theological reading of historically interpreted reality, and the preferential option for the poor, understood as both an ecclesial criterion and a social location for theological reflection. The article reconstructs the conciliar and Latin American genesis of Liberation Theology, its methodological consolidation in the 1970s, its critical reception by the Roman magisterium in the 1980s, and the crisis of paradigms that followed the collapse of real socialism, the exhaustion of Fordism, and the rise of neoliberal globalisation. It then shows how new historical subjects, ecological challenges, religious pluralisation, and the crisis of political representation have required a reworking of liberationist categories. Finally, it argues that the magisterium of Pope Francis universalises key elements of the Latin American ecclesial tradition by placing the poor, ecological conversion, and the critique of exclusionary economic structures at the centre of Catholic social discernment.