Yesterday I posted a twitter/facebook update about liberation theology that appears to be asking for a bit more context (as nearly all twitter/facebook updates do). Quoting Dr. Wayne Bouwer in a class at Western Theological Seminary, I wrote: “The emergence of liberation theologies transitioned us from victory to victim.”
Dr. Bouwer offered this quote as part of his list of ten critical incidents in church history (as a part of a larger conversation regarding culture and culture change). What he was speaking to was the shift liberation theologies (liberation, feminist, queer, black, womanist, etc.) brought moving the theological perspective from Christ’s victory to Christ’s suffering. Liberation theologies invite the “victim” to identify with Christ’s victimization and suffering.
Most misleading in this quote is the overly vague “us.” I understand Bouwer to imply the “us” to mean the church at large. We no longer see simply Christ’s victory, but we see Christ’s suffering in a new and essential way.
While Bouwer was critiquing this emergence, I think it is an essential one. For in seeing Christ only as the victor, we continue to ignore the victimization that continues to exist in our world. Oppression and suffering are sad realities in far too many corners of our world and our theology must not ignore it, jumping immediately to victory, but must enter into it, hearing the cry of the oppressed and identifying with our implicit suffering.
