These quotes are taken from the introductory handout in this section of the website and can be used to illustrate some key points in your essay.

“The poor are the authentic source for understanding Christian truth and practice”. Jose Miguez Bonino

“Theology has to stop explaining the world and start transforming it”. Jose Miguez Bonin

“When I see a church with a machine gun, I cannot see the crucified Christ in that church. We can never use hate as a system of change. The core of being a church is love.” (Bishop Hoyos)

“The God of Exodus is the God of history and of political liberation more than he is the God of nature.” (Gutierrez)

“Be careful, then, not to accept nor allow a Vision of human life as conflict nor ideologies which propose class hatred and violence to be instilled in you; this includes those which try to hide under theological writings.” (Pope John Paul II)

“A theology of the Church in the world should be complemented by a theology of the world in the Church” (Gutierrez).

“theology is a critical reflection on Christian practice in the light of the word of God”. Guttierez

“The church’s mission is at all times to protest against injustice, to challenge what is inhuman, to side with the poor and the oppressed.” (Gutierrrez)

“If Jesus were alive today he would be a guerillo”. Restrepo

“The notion that salvation has a history, the one that we are living now, means christians have a responsibility to shape that history according to the liberative ideals of Jesus”. Christopher Isherwood

“Liberation theologians in the last few years have become much less hopeful about social structures, and increasingly concerned with issues of spirituality. They seem to be turning less to politics, and more to faith.” (Novak)

“When I feed the poor. They call me a saint, but when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist.” (Dom Helder Camara)

“Theology has to stop explaining the world, and start transforming it.” (Bonino)

“The denunciation of injustice implies the rejection of the use of Christianity to legitimise the established order.” (Gutierrez)

“Liberation theology contains a fundamental rejection of the Enlightenment view that commitment is a barrier to knowledge”. Alister McGrath

“‘The hermeneutics of the kingdom of God’, observed Schillebeeckx, ‘consists especially in making the world a better place. Only in this way will I be able to discover what the kingdom of God means’. We have here a political hermeneutics of the gospel.” Guttierez

“This conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth does not tally with the church’s catechism.” (Pope John Paul II)