Halim Wiryadinata: An Evaluation Of Liberation Theology in The Light Of Its Praxis

This article is presented to see how Liberation Theology uses the Scripture wrongly in interpreting their mission. Liberation Theology brings also to the new approach for the third world country. This is how Christian should response Liberation Theology from its praxis.


The Tehology Of Liberation
From what has been said above, it can be drawn that the methodology of "Liberation Theology" is that "the view from below". As a result, the starting point of theology, according to them is in the context of the pain of the downtrodden and outcast.
Theology, therefore, "gains a concrete understanding of the world in which faith is lived and therefore of question which it must respond to in order to enable Christians to test and strengthen the efficacy of their obedience." 11 David Smith sees a difference between traditional theology, which relies on the Holy Scriptures for its structure and on the other hand, "Liberation Theology" learning toward the social science. 12 For "Liberation Theology", therefore, theology is fundamentally critical reflection on action. 13 Gutierrez asserts very strongly that "it [Christian community in its activity of reflection] is the soil into which theological reflection stubbornly and permanently sinks it s roots and form which it derives its strength." 14 The critical reflection on praxis according to Gutierrez, is that, "the reflection would be then necessarily be criticism of society and the church insofar as they are called and addressed by the Word of God; it would be a critical theory, worked out in the light of the Word accepted in faith and inspired by a practical purpose and therefore indissolubly linked to historical praxis." 15 The influence of Marxism is explicit with regard to use of praxis in the theology of Liberation. 16 Gutierrez acknowledges that the concept of praxis is influenced by Marxist thought, focusing on praxis and geared to transformation of the world. 17 The most important area of Marxist influence is on the base of Liberation Theology, which is history and history itself denotes the social, political and economic realities of daily existence. Leonardo Boff asserts that Liberation Theology uses Marxism as a tool to understand the world of the oppressed in terms in economic and class struggles and the 11  Smith says methodology critical reflection on praxis as a "meaning something different from the familiar practice, praxis describes the circular traffic this is always going on between action and reflection...It is the never ending dialectical process...in which action forces me to reflection and reflection forces me to action again...Through praxis people seek not merely to understand the world, but to change it."(p. 204) 14 Gutierrez, Gustavo, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, (New York, Orbis Book, 1973) The obvious result of Marxist philosophical influence as the point of departure for theological reflection is that not only is Latin America society analysed by social science, nor only theological reflection, but also is praxis itself. So, it is not surprising that theology is the product of pastoral activity, which is the presence and activity of the Church in the world. 20 In other words, theology is the second step where praxis precedes reflection.

The Hermeneutics of Liberation Theology
According to the Liberation Theology, theology has a liberating function in its close relationship to historical praxis, so then truth can change. Gustavo Gutierrez seems to deny the orthodoxy of theology himself, but he criticises the evangelical theology, as a static and in long run, sterile. 21 He asserts strongly that theology, which "grows and in certain sense changes a truth, which is also the way" 22 , is not a matter of the relationship between systematic theology and historical theology, but the relationship between theory and practice and between understanding faith and social practice. words, sin is not individual, but social. Gutierrez asserts the evidence of sin is in oppressive social class structure. Therefore, "sin appears as the fundamental alienation, the root of a situation of injustice exploitation". 26 As a result, it demands a radical liberation, which in turn necessary implies a political liberation. Thus, it leads liberation theologians to consider that salvation is 'in historic', not 'a historic', where it is the action of God here and now. Salvation is for the total man and has also economic and social dimensions. 27 Thus, salvation, for Gutierrez, is the work of God and the work of man in a synergism of faith and works.
According to Liberation Theology, the understanding of Jesus must be based in

II. Assessment of Liberation Theology
Evangelical Response The 'new way of doing theology' has been seriously challenged by the Evangelicals. Andrew Kirk argues that Liberation Theology has accepted Marxism uncritically as a tool to discover and to interpret the problems in the society. As a result, "Liberation Theology is not either an explanation of reality or future projection of theoretical ideal; rather it is a project -something that has to be worked for by stages with sacrifice and determination." 33 The outcome is that, Marxism distorts, as well as clarifies, the total dynamic of human history and church to be a means of social change, God and man and consequently between man and his fellows and his environment through the atoning death of Christ, not liberating in terms of social justice.

A Critical Evaluation
We have already seen how Liberation Theology tries to re-read the Bible and Church pronouncements from the perspective of the oppressed classes. They, however, challenge evangelicals to see how theology can put it into practice. The author agrees with McKay when he says that "it has become common in this century to find evangelical being dismissed as socially irrelevant or having concern only soul of men and women, regardless of the conditions in which they must live and work." 44 Evangelicals often react to the "Social Gospel" by an exclusive concentration on the saving of soul and limiting the aspects of life addressed by the Good News. As John Corrie see the 39 Ibid.,p. 13 inadequacy of the relevance of the Western Church in a post modern context, because the Church is not involved and identified as the 'church-with-others'. 45 Evangelicals, perhaps, are afraid of social issues, because they can lead to an abandonment of evangelism. 46 The argument, however, is that 'social issue' has deteriorated in the past years, because of poor theology. The sad thing is that those who have the right theology have not applied it to social issues. We, however, have to ask: how far can we go for social action? It is true, for Evangelicals, that we must continue to believe the Bible and in fact the Bible is the Word of God. In other hand of the Holy Spirit, it is capable of communicating its message to our life as well as to Latin American people. 47 This means in no way that we ignore the contribution of the Biblical sciences, nor does it mean that we do not listen to the cry of Latin American people.
Moreover, the social context must be seriously taken into account for a legitimate contextualisation of the Biblical text. Nunez is right when he says "the interaction in theological task between the Biblical text and the social context is only valid as long as Scriptures is allowed to speak for itself." 48 For the Liberation Theologians, theology does not consist of a critical, sociological analysis of the Latin American situation, but includes much more than a description of economic, social and political reality. 49 Their philosophy level emphasises action or praxis, which is the philosophy of transforming the society. If they have done so, would their work be described as a philosophy or sociology, rather than theology of Liberation?
For Liberation Theology, using Marxism as a tool to analyse the form of society is unwise because this leads to the creation of a new humanity and a new world. 50 McKay sees Marxism providing a complete worldview, which cannot be reconciled with a consistently Christian worldview. 51 He seems to be right, because it is not surprising to see that Liberation Theology defines creation as the first salvific act, because God, according to them, creates a new man. 52 They affirm that if there is an old creation, thus there is possibility of a new creation, because history is a continual process in which man carries out creative work. 53 Gutierrez seems to prove his thesis by asking a question, but "if man does not contribute to his own creation, but rather is merely an object of the divine fiat, how can creation become integrated into history, which is constructed by the effort of man? Did God bring about creation by the help of man?" 54