Here is a 20th anniversary edition of the book by Dominican priest and theologian Gustavo Gutierrez that has been hailed by many within Christendom as a classic in liberation theology. It has been translated from the Spanish by Matthew J. O'Connell. In the introduction, Henri J. M. Nouwen writes:
" 'Poverty means death,' Gustavo writes. This death, however, is not only physical but mental and cultural as well. It refers to the destruction of individual persons, peoples, cultures, and traditions. In Latin America, the poor and marginalized have become more and more aware that these forces of death have made them strangers in their own land. They recognize more clearly the ways in which they are bound by hostility, fear, and manipulation, and they have gradually come to understand the evil structures that victimize them. With this new self-consciousness, the poor have broken into history and have rediscovered that the God whom they have worshipped for centuries is not a God who wants their poverty but a God who wants to liberate them from those forces of death and offer them life in all its dimensions."
This inspired reading of the book hits the nail on the head. Gutierrez, a Christian from Peru who has held the John Cardinal O'Hara Chair in Theology at the University of Notre Dame since 2001, states: "Spirituality is like living water that springs up in the very depths of the experience of faith." He sees the poor in Latin America as being on an exodus journey that will restore them to what is rightly their own. He covers many stages in this journey with chapters on encounter with the Lord, walking according to the Spirit, conversion as a requirement for solidarity, efficacious love, joy as a victory over suffering, and living in community. Savor this classic on the spirituality of liberation.
