Gustavo Gutiérrez: A Catalyst for Liberating Theologies
Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928–2024) was a Dominican priest from Peru. He was one of the co-founders of liberation theology in Latin America.
Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928–2024) was a Dominican priest from Peru. He was one of the co-founders of liberation theology in Latin America. Some say that Gutiérrez was the ‘father of liberation theology’ in Latin America plus the global theological scene.
As a graduate student, i had the honour of serving as Gustavo’s research assistant twice in the 1990s when he took his sabbatical at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas), to research and write on Bartolomé de Las Casas.
Gustavo was not a very tall person, but he was a giant thinker and theologian. I received three key learnings from Gustavo – in his down-to-earth and gentle personhood, and in his writings:
First, Gustavo flipped the way of doing theology by putting praxis before theory and reflection – ‘praxis first’ was one of his mantras. His approach was controversial because it violated the way of doing theology that came from the West, which indoctrinated that theory should be first and that praxis is not a concern of ‘theology’ (proper). At his early days, in the 60s and 70s, there was a clear distinction between ‘theology’ versus ‘mission’ and ‘ministry’, and praxis was reserved for the latter; today, this perspective is preserved by mainline theological enterprises.
Second, Gustavo called for preferential option for the poor. Poverty was a crunching social and political evil, and preferential option means being present with and struggle among the poor. The keyword here is ‘solidarity’, which was deeper than ‘advocacy’ and ‘activism’. Advocates and activists may come and go; ‘solidarity’ requires one to dwell among the poor because, to rephrase the words of one Palestinian-Galilean Jew, ‘the poor are everywhere among us’ (see Matt 26:11).
Third, the primary objective for Gustavo was to present and witness to the ‘good news’ among the ‘body of Christ’ (church communities). I recall one of our dinner conversations, at an unflashy Chinese restaurant (behind a 7-Eleven), on a Saturday evening after i picked him up from the airport. I asked him, ‘What do you miss the most about being away from home?’ His response was blunt: ‘That I will not serve mass to my community tomorrow morning’!
On 22 Oct 2024, Father Gustavo Gutiérrez joined another community where i imagine that he will seek out the poor, to serve them the body and blood of Christ, and to call for praxis first.
In light of my series of catalyst reflections (see here on climate, and here on bodies and contexts), i pay my respects to Father Gustavo as a catalyst also. This is because the liberation theology that he co-founded (foregrounding the poor and class struggles) became a platform for many liberating theologies – including liberation theologies that have arisen in Asia, Africa and across the world, feminist and womanist theologies, black and race-conscious theologies, contextual and postcolonial theologies, minoritized and queer theologies, among many others.
50+ years since Gustavo’s A Theology of Liberation (1972), liberating theologies are ongoing, and unending. The vibes of liberating theologies rattle in my own work including, and please pardon this plug, two recent collections of essays:
- Stirring up Liberation Theologies (SCM, 2024)
- Haunting Questions of Liberation Theology (SCM, 2025)
These works are among the many that come into the tall shadows of Gustavo Gutiérrez – an enduring catalyst for liberating theologies.