Of course, once you go there to investigate, if you are serious, you immediately recognize that you face a bit of a challenge, thanks to the fact that the concept, as reflected in the literature, takes off in so many different directions and is related to so many different people groups and issues. Further complicating any basic understanding of this particular theological point of view are the many ways the interpretive tool has been used and abused by countless and vastly different groups.

In summary, Liberation Theology recognizes...

The clear commitment of God and of God's various earthly representatives to the plight of suffering and oppressed peoples in every age and everywhere.

The interpretive perspective of Liberation Theology will not allow one to read past the hundreds of scripture passages that fill our bibles dealing with the poor, the oppressed, the marginalized, the victimized and the abused.

The liberationist "school of thought," broadly understood grew out of circumstances where extreme poverty, oppressive politics and organized resistance to any meaningful social/political change to improve living conditions for the impoverished intersected the world of faith, especially and initially as understood by poor Roman Catholics and their priests in Third World nations. The epicenter for the initial emergence of Liberation Theology was Latin America, though its influence now extends around the world.

Liberationists believe that God in both the Hebrew and the Christian bibles expresses and exercises a "preferential option for the poor" and the marginalized.

This preference can be traced out in an unbroken line from the Law of Moses, through the historic narratives of Israel and Judah, on to the hymnology and wisdom literature of Judaism and culminating in the prophetic literature spanning the period from the 8th to the 5th centuries B. C. E.

For Christians, this same line can be picked up again from the birth of Jesus on through the gospel narratives, into the first community of Christians, in the early writings of the church and finally on to the Apocalypse.

An epistle like the book of James, for example, exemplifies the combination of Hebrew prophetic tradition and the influence of the life and teachings of Jesus on subjects that are very much bound to everyday human experiences such as work, wages, compassion, wealth and fairness in the marketplace.

Once scripture is held up to this thematic measure -- God's commitment to those who suffer injustice, oppression and systemic marginalization -- a broadening of one's understanding of salvation, redemption, community and mission sets in logically.

Eyes are opened to what has always been present in the literature of faith, but blocked in various ways by other choices as to priority and interpretive weight or importance.

Most oppressed communities resonate naturally with this emphasis.

Those who reside closer to and benefit from the centers of power that most often perpetrate the oppression, express bewilderment, concern, disdain and, at times, outrage at the ideas espoused by those who employ a liberationist lens to interpret the biblical texts.

Liberation theology resists the typical impulses of religion and the traditional religious to spiritualize out of the biblical narratives any real concern for the material world and its pain.

While heaven or afterlife is a component of liberation thinking, the matters of here and now, of the earth, of the material, the economic and of the socio-political assume a central place in liberationist world-views.

As one writer once put it, "There is no way to heaven but through the earth." Sounds a lot like Martin Luther, the father of the Protestant Reformation who once wrote, "If I knew Jesus was returning to earth tomorrow, I would still plant a tree today."

Liberation Theology refuses to allow a system of personal salvation, redemption or justification to block or to wall off the faithful from their responsibilities to do justice, to love mercy and walk humbly with their God in the here and now of this present reality and life.

For the adherents of liberation thinking, no understanding of the faith that relieves believers from responsibility regarding the plight of the poor, the oppressed, the captive, the shut out and the marginalized can be considered a legitimate theological paradigm.

No interpretive framework can be regarded as acceptable that places a concern for the poor at the margins of personal or corporate mission or that considers such concern as in any way optional for the person of faith or the larger community of faith.

Reading the gospels through this interpretive lens can be quite an experience, especially when coupled with a day-to-day experience of working and living among people who know and experience poverty.

[Note: the logo above is that of Orbis Books, one of the leading publishers of Liberation Theology.]