Gustavo Gutiérrez
Peruvian priest and theologian from Lima, who set out a theology of liberation in an article of 1970 and a book of 1971. He was closely involved in the bishops’ conference of 1968 that produced the Medellín documents.
Gustavo Gutiérrez was born in Lima on 8 June 1928 and ordained priest in 1959. He taught at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru and later at the University of Notre Dame, was closely involved in the conference of Latin American bishops of 1968, and founded the Instituto Bartolomé de las Casas in Lima in 1974. He joined the Dominican order in 2001 and died in Lima on 22 October 2024. The archive that holds his papers describes him as widely recognised as the father of liberation theology (University of Notre Dame Archives, Gutiérrez Collection (GGT), biographical note).
In an article of 1970 he defined theology as critical reflection on the church’s presence and action in the world, coming after commitment and not before it (Gutiérrez, Notes for a Theology of Liberation, pp. 244–245). He preferred the word “liberation” to “development” and gave it three levels of meaning: the political liberation of oppressed peoples and classes, the liberation of humanity in the course of history, and liberation from sin (Gutiérrez, Notes for a Theology of Liberation, pp. 247–248). His book on the subject appeared in 1971 (University of Notre Dame Archives, Gutiérrez Collection (GGT), biographical note). See Medellín and Liberation Theology.
In the timeline
- 24 August 1968, firm dateMedellín and Liberation Theology
In 1968 the Catholic bishops of Latin America apply the Second Vatican Council to a continent of mass poverty and speak of liberation. Gustavo Gutiérrez builds a theology on that word, and Rome answers with a warning in 1984 and a positive statement in 1986.