Future of Liberation Theology

There is a notion amongst some academics that Latin American Liberation Theology has had its day, a dream killed off by the Nicaraguan and Salvadoran revolutions, the 1989 demise of socialism and the "end of history" claims of the champions of capitalism. However in this book Petrella proves this to be an ill-conceived notion, and shows that this theology can be reinvented to bring its preferential option for the poor into the real world. The actualisation of historical projects is possible by adopting the methods developed by the Brazilian champion of critical legal studies, Robert Unger. Doing so will entail the rejection of these theologians' unitary concepts of a despised and rejected capitalism and a canonized and accepted socialism. Petrella argues for a reconstruction of these concepts and those of democracy and property too. He closely analyses the differences in democracy and capitalism as practised across the USA and Europe in support for the reconstruction of these concepts bringing about far-reaching suggestions for the future of liberation theology.

Ivan Petrella

Ivan Petrella is Associate Professor at the University of Miami in Florida, USA. He is author of numerous articles and contributions to collected works, and in addition to this book, also Latin American Liberation Theology: the Next Generation, 2005.