Here's an excerpt:
Much of traditional theology is individual focused. It is concerned with an individual’s relationship with the triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It focuses on strengthening this relationship so that a person’s life is transformed and he or she becomes more Christ-like. Most Christian theology recognizes the inability of a Christian to become fully perfect before death, but it also recognizes the responsibility to strive for perfection and to live out the teachings of Jesus.
Sometimes, traditional theology neglects to deal with the sinfulness of the structures in which we live.
Corporate responsibility is shoved to the back-burner and dealt with in secondary fashion if at all.
Liberation theology offers a very strong corrective to this as it tends to focus more on corporate responsibility and corporate sin. It challenges the ways and means in which we order ourselves as human beings. It points out the sinfulness and injustice created by economic systems and governments. It challenges the Church to speak and act in a manner consistent with the teachings of Jesus and the prophets to confront the sin perpetrated by governments and economic systems in the world.
Liberation theology has offered some important challenges to traditional theology, and in all three cases outlined above, it has offered some positive contributions to Christianity. Yet, the movement is not above reproach. There are some very real concerns I have with liberation theology, and since I have not come across too many meaningful critiques, I offer the following.
Chapter 1: The Danger of Starting with Human Experience
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