Reflection on Education, Service and Community Management

Lecture 1
Liberation theology can only be truly understood by examining the situations in which it arose. There are more strictly defined ways of describing liberation theology but the most crucial question of liberation theology is “what does a Christian do in today’s society?” This emphasis of liberation theology on praxis indicates the need to study the situation where liberation theology was born. Two things which emerge from the first prescribed reading is that liberation theology is question of God and liberation. The two are not to be understood separately. The first encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI stated “Deus caritas est”, God is love and in liberation theology the love of God is expressed a compassion and action for the poor.One of the key figures of liberation theology, sometimes considered its founder, is Gustavo Gutierrez, a Peruvian priest who is both highly educated familiar with poor people especially in his native land. The combination of studying in elite institutions and then witnessing the poor people had a profound effect on Gutierrez. From his life’s work it would seem that he did not abandon his faith on seeing the suffering in the world but instead resolved to live the love of God that he preached. In essence, if God really is love then anyone who knows God by definition must help the poor, the suffering, the oppressed.According to Gutierrez the first act is a commitment to the poor and then theology is the second act. This commitment is shown by making a common cause with the poor. It cannot be emphasised enough that the heart of liberation theology is to encounter the poor and be in solidarity with them. The suffering of the poor inspired this commitment in Gutierrez in the light of Christian faith and that fundamental experience is still the centrepiece of liberation theology. Its is probably accurate to say that theology itself, being always the second act, has been gradually elaborated over time and is still being elaborated today. Gutierrez is not the only person elaborating theology and the cause is not confined to Peru or even the Americas. A large number of leading thinkers have contributed to the elaboration from all parts of the world including first world countries where the average Christian would not encounter such horrendous poverty.Our first prescribed reading makes it clear that Jesus is a liberator. Being a liberator however is not an abstract title, Jesus’ mission is to help the poor and first and foremost. This vision of Jesus as one who empowers people “is after long neglect in Christian History, being appreciated again.” In modern times it is clear from a brief survey of international media that there is no shortage of poverty and suffering in the world but this raises the question of where the response is that liberation theologians have their work cut out for them if the message of liberation theology is needed more urgently. The two options are not entirely the same. It is certainly worth pondering the words of Jesus “the poor will always be with you.” Did Jesus mean that the poor will never be entirely liberated or that the struggle will take longer than his audience at the time would have realised. Perhaps this quotation is not as relevant to liberation theology as it would seem because nowhere in the first prescribed reading did it say that the success or validity of liberation theology can be determined by how many poor people are liberated or when the entirety of them are. Liberation theology is a practice and a process, a process which does not have a set end date. The success can only be judged by whether a person actually loves the poor.

Reflection on Lecture 2 & 3
Saturday's workshop further developed the concept of the rivalry between the purity and prophetic projects but first I would like to refer back to the second lecture. The beginning of the material is to understand that the bible (in particular the first testament) is a text which was revised and edited over many generations and in this context the meaning of the events depicted in the first testament can be understood. The central event of the first testament is the exodus, the liberation of the Hebrew people from the oppression of Egypt and the pharaoh. It is worth noting that names like Hebrew, Jew and Israelite did not emerge in history until sometime after the event and this gives a hint that the text was written to fit in with the sentiment and understanding of writers after the fact. It is quite probable that the people referred to are the Apiru, a poor, citizenship-less underclass that existed throughout the city states of the area.The exodus is a sign of God's preference for the poor, which is not to say that God does not care for the wealthy but that when God acts he acts in defence of the poor at the expense of the rich. The exodus can be seen as a primitive social uprising of one people over the oppressors and the project can be called the Promised Land project. Having escaped into the desert, Moses hands down the Decalogue and all the associated laws. This is a necessary part of the formalization of the process that Moses had started but also gives berth to a rival project of achieving purity through obedience. Having received the law the Israelites proceed into Canaan and develop their own sovereign state although perhaps this did not happen in the conquering manner depicted in the bible, it could have been that the Israelites expanded the Promised Land project to include all sorts of downtrodden people in Canaan. After sometime the project grows stale and the people who had been liberated begin to lose the meaning of the original exodus, this heralds the time of the prophets. Throughout biblical history one of the main duties of the prophets is to speak out against the nations who had started to oppress people and lost the original sense of God. From here on the two rival projects are the prophetic project, concerned with justice and the purity project, concerned with the law. This brief outline of the bible sets up the theme of lecture three.Around one thousand years after the exodus, the figure of Jesus emerges in history. Understanding Jesus is not as simple as may at first seem. The schisms within the church and associated violence is a testament to the fact that Jesus is controversial. However it is clear that Jesus was controversial even in his own time (Mt 10:34-36). Jesus incurs the incredulity of the Pharisees when he cures a paralytic (Mt 10:3-8), heals a sick woman (Lk 13:14-17) and in many other places. Jesus was also scorned for dining with a tax collector, Zacheus (Lk 19:1-20). The tax collector is an interesting aspect of Hebrew society at the time. The tax collectors were considered the greatest of sinners and the reason is simple: it was the tax collector who was making injustice against the people. The Roman Empire instituted a policy of employing local people to assist in the administration of the empire. A tax collector was hired and told to collect tax from the people at a rate set by the empire and was given access to the roman army to enforce it. It was then the tax collectors own business if he decided to charge a higher tax and keep the remainder for himself. The Jews resented greatly the tax collectors because they were being victimised but could not rise up against their own. When Jesus dines with the tax collector it sends a message that Jesus forgives also the sin of injustice. Furthermore, after Jesus agrees to dine with Zacheus, Zacheus feels inspired to return all that he stole, in fact he declares he will make a four-fold restitution.
Regarding the Sabbath Jesus takes an unpopular view, that “the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). In these and other passages Jesus seems to favour the prophetic project over the purity project because he does not follow the laws strictly when they contradict the opportunity to do good. Later however Jesus speaks highly of the law and says that those who break the law will be considered the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. So this begs the question: was Jesus a prophet or a puritan? Michael Elphick articulated on this point by drawing attention to the pros and cons of each school of though: the purity project can restrict love and can even grow violent while the prophetic project can make any notion of truth relative and confusing (bumfuzzling). In a certain way Jesus is both pure and prophetic, he upholds and treasures the law himself while scolding those who make an idol of the law. In my personal opinion Jesus is perfect, he upheld the law perfectly, even when he apparently broke the law, because he understood that the law itself was made to improve relationships, which is to say to enshrine love for God and for one’s fellow man. This can be explained with a bible quote:
But when the Pharisees hear that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to put him to the test, one of them put to him a question, “Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?” Jesus said to him, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your, and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hand the whole law, and the prophets too.(Mt 22:34-40)
In this short passage Jesus succinctly explains the meaning of the whole history of Israel, from Abraham to Malachi.
The most though provoking component of the talk was the story of the passion of Christ, a theme made more topical by Mel Gibson. First of all it is necessary to understand why Jesus died and the reason why is very simple. When God became human, in the figure of Jesus, he became fully human, subjected to all the realities of humanity. Clearly then Jesus was going to die and of course Jesus became subjected to the injustice of others. Jesus died as a victim of the purity project. This however was not some script written by God, it is purely a consequence of humanity’s free will. Since Jesus was God, the passion can be seen as an act of solidarity, where God is willing to suffer alongside humanity. It may appear in the Gospels that Jesus acknowledges that the cross was God’s plan for him but these passages must be understood in their historical context. Most of these passages come from the Gospel of Luke, who was writing at the time of the destruction of the temple. He had a particular purpose which was to show that Jesus had great Jewish credentials. The non-planned nature of the cross can also be proved by examination of the scriptures. Throughout the New Testament God is described as a loving father, and this has been the fundamental theology of the church for 2,000 years, so how then can a loving Father require such a sacrifice of his own son? Clearly God does not intend all the suffering of the world. When Jesus says “anyone who does not take up his cross is not worthy of me” he is saying that all his followers must have a similar spirit of solidarity, not that God gives to each person a cross to carry.


Lecture 4
The course progressed in lecture 4 from a discussion of the basis for liberation theology to the application for today which is to say reading “the signs of the times”. The current situation of the world cannot be separated from the effects of globalisation. Globalisation means that the whole world lives in a globalised economy where a small scale economy which previously affected only one town, one city or one country is now reproduced on a global scale. The well being of each of the earth’s 6 billion inhabitants is intrinsically linked through trade, diplomacy and certainly warfare. The current situation is often referred to as the 80:20 divide, where 80% of the people control 20% of the wealth while the remaining 20% of the people control the remaining 80% of the wealth. Since the industrial revolution the wealth of the world has increased exponentially and this has created an even wider gap between the wealthy and the non wealthy (haves and have-nots).
The dominant country in today’s world, economically, socially, culturally and in terms of military is without doubt the United States. The influence is particularly strong in English speaking countries like Australia. It is worth reflecting on the Americanization of the Australian society during the ten years of John Howard being in office. The most vivid concern in today’s climate is terrorism. Terrorism was made apparent to everyone through the events of September 11, 2001. The televised images of innocent people dying by the thousands shocked the western world and paved the way for the invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq and perhaps North Korea and Iran. But then is terrorism really that new? In the previous lectures we examined the story of the Exodus, particularly looking at the mythologically free, historical context of the story. It could perhaps be said, especially with regard to the slaying of the first born, that the exodus involved terrorist practices. We have already said that the exodus was a social uprising where the Hebrew (or Apiru) liberated themselves from the oppressors and so it would seem logical to analyse 9/11 in terms of oppression and uprising.
As previously stated the military might of America has dominated the global landscape, especially since WW2. The involvement of America in the war in Europe and the Pacific was one of the elements which helped the allies win the war. In particular the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was an effective show of America’s dominance, albeit in the twilight period of the war. In the 60 years that have followed, the USA has become the most militant and aggressive country by far. Successive wars, in Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East have been interspersed by smaller scale military action performed by America or sponsored by America. The American military budget is larger than all the other military budgets in the world. It could be said that the American military is defending the wealth divide of the global economy. In the light of liberation theology, these issues start to become apparent.

Lecture 5
The final lecture examined further the American micro climate, the effect this has on the average citizen in the western world who may have scant political interest and only a limited understanding of theology. The situation of America today is very much linked to the theology of the people that arrived in the country more than 400 years ago.
At the time various pressures in Europe existed, such as the competitive nature of the numerous empires of Europe. The exhaustion of many avenues for wealth in the old world led to an age of exploration. One particular pressure going on was the schismatic nature of Christendom. Since the 15th century, various reformers of the church had received the backing of temporal powers to create breakaway churches (protestants) the most well known of these is Martin Luther but others existed, including John Calvin. Calvin bears the name of a reform movement that was forged by a large number of people. One of the doctrines of the movement is that of predestination where “God freely and unchangeably ordained whatsoever comes to pass." This idea was carried by Pilgrim Fathers to America. One of the realities of Europe at the time was that the different churches were warring against one another and puritans came to America to escape the oppression of their old country.
To make a side note, I do not think that religious reform was invented in the middle ages. I think the process has been going on far longer, Jesus himself was a reformer after all. Various saints of the church, in particular St Francis of Assisi, were also reformers: their actions changed the history and practice of the church. The reason for the reformation gaining such momentum is due to the expiry of Christendom. From the period of the expulsion of the moors, Christianity in Europe involved a sometimes awkward combination of politics, god, economics, academia and warfare. Christendom itself was a theological and cultural force was protected itself using the method of the time. By the 15th century the situation had changed and realistically the Pope’s support was not needed to defend Europe form invasion. Christendom started decay and gave way to a more unified expression of Christianity where the only concern of the church is fostering love in the same fashion as Jesus did.
Having arrived in the new world the Pilgrim Fathers would have been delighted to discover that this was the most exploitable land ever seen. The forests of the North West were torn down and made way for farming, the mineral deposits of the mountainous regions were exploited. The doctrine of predestination helped in colonising the interior of the continent and removing the indigenous population who, for various reasons, were unable to maintain a strong resistance. As technology improved and new infrastructure was created the forests in the north east were allowed to regrow, creating the rich Ivy League foliage for which it is famous. The newly tamed region of the Mississippi Valley created an immense agricultural gold mine that made so many other areas obsolete.
With the doctrine of predestination the status of the colonist grew from aspiring home builders to bearers of a manifest destiny. This idea that America’s right to exist and prosper was a plan of God has continued to this day. America’s fiercely competitive attitude to life finds its way into the consumer driven society we live in today. It is worthwhile to pause for a moment and consider when the last Australian election was held where the key issues did not relate to how much each person has in their back pocket. Consumerism is the goal of life today and it also drives the society. Japan’s recent economic downturn was caused by a lack of consumer spending, which in turn has put many skilled workers on the streets.
Amidst all this, what is liberation theology going to do? What is Jesus liberating us from? The oppression of our time is not any on particular person but rather a philosophy put into practice. It is the philosophy that all things in life are designed to gather more wealth. It creates a practice that ironically cheapens life, as all sense of Justice is given over for the might dollar. It is from this subtle but powerful slavery that God saves us. As can be seen in the following Bible quote:
‘And now a man came to him and asked, ‘Master, what good deed must I do to possess eternal life?’ Jesus said to him ‘Why do you ask me about what is good? There is one along who is good. But if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ He said, ‘Which ones?’ Jesus replied, ‘These: You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not give false witness. Honour your father and your mother. You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these. What more do I need to do?’ Jesus said, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But when the young man heard these words he want away said for he was a man of great wealth.’

Reference: A New Way of Encountering God. ‘Liberation Theology’ An Introductory Guide, Robert McAfee Brown. Chapter 3