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Gustavo Gutiérrez

Author profile

born

June 08, 1928 in Lima, Peru

gender

male

website

http://theology.nd.edu/people/all/gutierrez-gus...

genre

Religion & Spirituality, Social Sciences

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Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, O.P. is a Peruvian 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 has been professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe. He is 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. He has also published in and been a member of the board of directors of the international journal, Concilium.

He has studied medicine and literature (Peru), psychology and philosophy (Leuven), and obtained a doctorate at the Institut Pas...more Gustavo Gutiérrez Merino, O.P. is a Peruvian 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 has been professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and a visiting professor at many major universities in North America and Europe. He is 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. He has also published in and been a member of the board of directors of the international journal, Concilium.

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.

The founder of liberation theology, he was born in Peru, and spent much of his life living and working among the poor of Lima.

In September 1984, a special assembly of Peruvian bishops were summoned to Rome for the express purpose of condemning Gutiérrez, but the bishops held firm.

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.

According to Gutiérrez true "liberation" has three main dimensions:

First, it involves political and social liberation, the elimination of the immediate causes of poverty and injustice.

Second, liberation involves the emancipation of the poor, the marginalised, the downtrodden and the oppressed from all "those things that limit their capacity to develop themselves freely and in dignity."

Third, Liberation Theology involves liberation from selfishness and sin, a re-establishment of a relationship with God and with other people.

Liberation theology and Gutiérrez have both been the subjects of repeated Papal scrutiny. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation was reviewed directly by then-Cardinal Ratzinger and found to contain ideas which, in the view of conservative Catholics, were disturbing. Although Gutiérrez himself was not censured, many other liberation theologians received Papal censure. Because of the perceived connection between followers of Liberation theology and leftist groups like the Sandinistas many liberation-minded clergy were killed in Central American countries during the 1980s, most notably, Archbishop Oscar Romero.
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Books by Gustavo Gutiérrez

Average rating: 4.08 · 1,498 ratings · 145 reviews · 14 distinct works

	A Theology of Liberation 4.03 avg rating — 319 ratings — published 1971 — 8 editions	My rating:
	On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent by Gustavo Gutiérrez, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Matthew O'Connell (Translator) 4.07 avg rating — 88 ratings — published 1987 — 2 editions	My rating:
	We Drink from Our Own Wells: The Spiritual Journey of a People by Gustavo Gutiérrez, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Matthew J. O'Connell (Translator) 4.17 avg rating — 66 ratings — published 1984 — 4 editions	My rating:
	The God of Life by Gustavo Gutiérrez, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Matthew O'Connell (Translator) 4.35 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1991	My rating:
	Gustavo Gutierrez: Essential Writings 4.25 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 1996	My rating:
	The Density of the Present: Selected Writings 4.57 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Power Of The Poor In History 4.12 avg rating — 8 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:
	La libération par la foi 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1985	My rating:
	Sharing The Word Through The Liturgical Year 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 3 editions	My rating:
	The Truth Shall Make You Free: Confrontations 4.50 avg rating — 8 ratings — 2 editions	My rating:

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Quotes by Gustavo Gutiérrez

“Charity is today a 'political charity.'. . . it means the transformation of a society structured to benefit a few who appropriate to themselves the value of the work of others. This transformation ought to be directed toward a radical change in the foundation of society, that is, the private ownership of the means of production.”
― Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation

tags: democracy , egalitarian , equality , freedom

10 people liked it

“But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.”
― Gustavo Gutiérrez

8 people liked it

“The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimize the established order.”
― Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation

tags: freedom , theocracy

5 people liked it

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