Gustavo Gutiérrez

by Robert McAfee Brown

Book by Brown, Robert McAfee

Genres: Theology, Biography Memoir

89 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Robert McAfee Brown was a minister in the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, a theologian, and an activist.

He earned a bachelor's degree from Amherst College in 1943 and was ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1944. Brown earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1945, and served as a United States Navy chaplain from 1945 to 1946. The recipient of a Fulbright grant, Brown studied at the University of Oxford before completing a doctorate in the philosophy of religion at Columbia University in 1951. He married Sydney Thomson, and had four children.

Initially, Brown taught at his alma mater, Union Theological Seminary, before accepting an appointment as Professor of Religion at Stanford University in 1962. There he became an international leader in civil rights, ecumenical and social justice causes. Brown campaigned against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and was a co-founder of the group "Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam". He was also a Protestant observer at the Second Vatican Council.

Brown left Stanford in 1975 to return to Union as Professor of World Christianity and Ecumenism, but quickly found his new post unfulfilling. He resigned and moved back to the Bay Area, where he taught at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley until his retirement in 1984. Brown was the author of 29 books, and his papers are now held at the Graduate Theological Union. Brown died on 4 September 2001, survived by his wife. A lecture series is named in his honor.

Reviews

[Glen Gersmehl · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the first, and best intros to the hugely important Latin American liberation movements and thinking by an early leader

[Tommy Briggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10

This books serves as a great introduction to Liberation Theology through a narration of the life, conflicts, and theology of Gustavo Gutiérrez.
The author is biased on the side of his subject, but makes a good case that there is no such thing as being nonpartisan with liberation theology: one either has to be for or against it. This is best summed up in the repeated response Gutiérrez gave to accusers who thought he was telling the church to take a side in history: “The church has always taken a side, specifically the side of the rich. It is time we change sides.”

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a great introduction to both Gutierrez and to Liberation Theology more broadly. It felt at times like a conflict of styles - at times incredibly personal, recounting the author's own relationship with Gutierrez; at times technical, when delving into theological methodology; at times historical, when it recounted the conflicts between Gutierrez and the Catholic magisterium; at times accessible and visual, with all of the images of "staging the play;" and at times pastoral and prophetic, challenging the reader to engagement.

All in all, though, I appreciated Brown's blending of style as part of what made it a great primer for Liberation Theology. It wasn't simply a book to learn "about" some topic, but one that draws you into Brown's own transformation as a theologian, and one that engages the reader on an existential level. Would definitely recommend to anyone interested in learning about Liberation Theology.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regarded as the founder of Liberation Theology, Gustavo Gutiérrez is a Peruvian Dominican priest who lived in Lima. For Gutiérrez, the central problem in Latin America is sin manifested in an unjust social structure. His foundational work, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation (1971), described how Liberation Theology originally developed as a Christian response to the conditions in which a great part of the Latin American population live. Gutiérrez's emphasis is revealed in his notion of Christian poverty as being an act of loving solidarity with the poor. In living this way, a liberating protest is enacted against the scandalous condition of poverty. This can only be achieved when the Church acknowledges “Christ the Liberator” as we perceive Christ in our neighbour.

Brown, Robert McAfee. Gustavo Gutierrez: An Introduction to Liberation Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1990.

[Parker]

I disagree with liberation theology's foundation, but Gutierrez makes the best argument for why Christians should adopt this theology. I don't believe God has a preferential option for the poor, but it's worth reading, if for no other reason to challenge the way you think about God and his treatment of the poor