WHY DID my letter regarding liberation theology evoke a response against Marxism? The two are not synonymous.
The starting point for liberation theology is God's creation and our responsibility for it — making the Incarnation a reality in our world. So we denounce a capitalist world in which God can never be incarnate because of the exploitation of its people who are denied reasonable food and water, health care, work and political freedom — which is the case for much of Latin America.
This theology also proclaims the Kingdom of God which is founded on the traditions of human dignity and justice, what Jesus and the scriptures teach us.
I would claim that God's Kingdom is more likely to be found now in Cuba and Nicaragua, which have achieved dramatic improvements in food consumption, health and political participation, than under the regimes of Batista and Samoza. I do not claim
perfection for these societies, merely that awareness of shared *ernnc;1"'"'',?c is both more divine and more human than insistence on individual freedoms. .
Come off it, Mr Blake! God made us whole — physical; spiritual and social. We can no longer cry wolf every time we meet a Marxist.
Liberation theology accommodates Marxism in much the same way as Thomas Aquinas came to terms with Greek philosphy — as a useful tool for improving our understanding of our world.
It also demands that our faith is not private, but that we find salvation in our own history.
Liberation theology challenges us to return to the orthodox Christianity of the early Church. The real enemy of Christianity in Latin America is not Marxism, but poverty and we who cause it.
Paul Chidgey Didsbury, Manchester