Liberation theology is a representative theology of various political theologies and was formed through the state of political and economical oppression in Latin America. Therefore it is a theology which concentrates the Bible upon the theme of libera...
Liberation theology is a representative theology of various political theologies and was formed through the state of political and economical oppression in Latin America. Therefore it is a theology which concentrates the Bible upon the theme of liberation from situations of oppression. Owing to the situation of Latin America, philosophical thoughts of humanism, secularism and optimism were added to it. The more concrete influences on it was theological elements as secular thoughts of liberal theology and the decisions of Vatican II in which the Roman Catholic churches emphasized the church's social activities. This Liberation Theology expressed many differences from orthodox teachings of many theological themes. Especially the differences in opinion between Liberation Theology's conception of salvation and orthodox teachings of salvation are distinct. Liberation Theology's conception of salvation emphasized salvation as political liberation in which social salvation, salvation of the whole man or of all present situations of man, universal salvation, and salvation within history were formed as its core points. Liberation theology's point of view of salvation concentrates on an improvement of social evils because of its conceptions of salvation as an accomplishment of an ideal society through solving the problems of oppression and exploitation. Then social evils are only a phenomenon or result of sin, so that Liberation Theology's salvation is not related with any solution to the essence of sin itself. In this trend Liberation Theology emphasized Jesus Christ as the liberator rather than the redeemer. Therefore the church's work for salvation is to do activities according to the example of Jesus as the liberator. This teaching of Liberation Theology's salvation is different from the salvation which is given from God through Jesus. On that ground it is very important for the true teaching of salvation to be proclaimed.