Liberation Theology from its Origins
ML 320
Prof: Thomas Ward
Dept: Modern Languages and Literatures
Office: Maryland Hall 351i
Tel: x2370; email: tward@loyola
Office hours MWF 12-12:50, Fall 2007
Course meets MWF 1-1:50, Fall 2007
Course material:
Liberation theology will be examined in a trajectory that arcs from the 1500s and continues to the present day. To study such a complicated history in all of its permutations would be impossible in one three-credit class. Liberation Theology from its Origins will concentrate on liberating theologies at three defining moments: the Renaissance, the late 19th century, and the latter half of the 20th century (when Latin America comes into its own).
Our
quest to understand liberation theology will begin with two of Catholic
Europe’s great reformers, Thomas More and Desiderius Erasmus whose proposals arrived in the
Curiously, similar ideas were adopted by philologists and theorists during the 19th-century which heralded a quest for moral purity in the face of the materialism given form by the Industrial Revolution. Tolstoy wrote a two-volume work whose title says it all: “The Kingdom of God is within You.” Ernest Renan’s Life of Christ looked at Christianity’s founder in a new and innovative way by peeling away Church doctrine. Manuel González Prada took Renan’s idea and proposed that all political activity should be moral shutting out all other considerations.
Liberation theology came into its own as a discipline worthy of study during the late twentieth century when intense theological debate raged, especially in the wake of the Second Vatican Council (1965). The Nicaraguan revolution of 1979 took many of its tenets from the Bible. Priests such as Ernesto Cardinal and Jean Bertrand Aristide took active roles in the governments in Nicaragua and Haiti. Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated in 1980 for adopting some views that were derived from liberation theology. Important members of the Jesuit faculty at the Universidad de Centroamérica were deprived of their lives for similar reasons in 1989. The eighties were a tumultuous time. By 1983, Gustavo Gutiérrez’ theology had become the subject of Cardinal Ratzinger’s “Ten Observations.” More recently Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, has found reason to be concerned with Father Jon Sobrino’s writings. These three pivotal moments, the 16th, 19th, and late 20th centuries will be looked at in comparative fashion.
Course objectives:
The primary objective of this course is that students will develop an understanding and appreciation for the primary texts being read and learn how to apply the theologies that they propose to their own lives. Two secondary objectives pertain to diversity and service-learning. Regarding the former, students will come to understand the intellectual diversity concerning approaches to justice that these texts suggest as well as the educational, social and national contexts in which they were written. Regarding the latter, students will be able to choose a service-learning option if they are interested in community service. If some of the students in this course chose this option the idea would be to formulate an applied liberation theology while working with the poor in Baltimore.
Honor code:
“The Honor Code states that all students of the Loyola Community have been equally entrusted by their peers to conduct themselves honestly on all academic assignments. The students of this College understand that having collective and individual responsibility for the ethical welfare of their peers exemplifies a commitment to the community. Students who submit materials that are products of their own mind demonstrate respect for themselves and the community in which they study. All outside resources of information should be clearly acknowledged. If there is any doubt or question regarding the use and documentation of outside sources for academic assignments, your instructor should be consulted. Any violations of the Honor Code will be handled by the Honor Council.”
Sixteenth-Century Readings:
Erasmus. The Education of a Christian Prince with the Panegyric for Archduke Philip of Austria. Ed. & Trans. Lisa Jardine. Cambridge/NY: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
More, Thomas. Utopía. Ed. Clarence Miller. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001.
Las Casas, Bartolomé. The Only Way to Bring People to True Religion. E-texts.
Seventeenth-Century Reading:
Guamán Poma de Ayala, Felipe. The First New Chronicle and Good Government, Abridged. Ed. David L. Frye. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co., 2006.
Nineteenth-Century Readings:
Tolstoy, Leo. The Kingdom of God is within You. Trans. Constance Black Garnett. USA: Dover, 2006.
Renan, Ernest. Life of Jesus. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1991.
González Prada, Manuel. Selected essays on Christianity. E-texts
Twentieth-Century Readings:
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History Politics and Salvation. Tr. Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. Las Casas: In Search of the Poor of Jesus Christ. Tr. Robert R. Barr. Selections. (Optional)
Sobrino, Jon. Archbishop Romero: Memories and Reflections. Tr. Robert R. Barr. USA: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2004.
Movies
Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972, 1982)
The
Romero (1989)
Service-Learning:
There is an option to take this course with a service-learning option. Students who take this option must spend 20 hours during the semester at their service-learning placement. The instructor recommends ten weekly visits. Every other week students who do community service will report on their experiences to the class on Fridays. All students will take notes during these discussions relating the service-learning experiences to the texts being read. Themes will include but not be limited to spirituality in the temporal world; witnessing oppression; spiritual awakening; theology-politics; and other themes as they present themselves. All students will twice be required to write a one-page typed comparison of the texts being read with the student service-learners experiences. Service-learners will acquire up to five additional points on their final grade.
Research Papers:
Both papers for this course are research papers and should be done according to MLA Citation Style Sheet.
The general idea in writing these two papers is to take an element of liberation theology (understood broadly as including any of the primary authors we are studying) and apply it to a real-life problem, either in history or during the present day.
Library research is essential for secondary sources. Service-learning experiences can also be considered “secondary-sources” but they have to been deepened with readings in theology or in the social sciences. Approach internet sources with trepidation as many may not be verifiable or objective. Some are outright partisan or commercial. The best place for research is the library using books and paper journals that have been vetted by editorial boards improving chances for accuracy. A book is a great invention; it can be checked out and read anywhere. When the computer is turned off, along with e-mail and instant messenger systems, an undistracted reader can think more deeply, be carried away to other modes of thinking and understanding, achieving a more critical level of interpretation.
This is not to say that e-texts are inherently bad.
The library databases which include links to electronic journals, despite leaving a student researcher venerable to email and IM distractions, can still serve as a valid tool to conduct research.
Some recommended databases for theological, literary and cultural research are WilsonSelect, Eco,
ArticleFirst, ClasePeriodica, WorldCat, MLA, JStor ,ProjectMuse, Ebsco, and Dissertations and Theses (Proquest) and the impressive Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
There are others.
The internet (Google Books and Scholar, for example) is a great place to start, to get some inspiring ideas, maybe even recover some respectable secondary sources, but the library is The Place for academic research in the Humanities at Loyola College.
Extra Credit:
From time to time there are lectures on campus that are relevant to our course. As for the Latin American/Latino side of things, lectures and other cultural events are posted on the new LALS website. It can be found at the LALS website. Certainly, there will also be Theology and Catholic Studies lectures that could also help broaden the scope of what we are learning. I encourage you to attend up to three lectures (a speaker giving a lecture) for one-possible point of extra credit for each. For the credit, you must attend the lecture, hand in a one paragraph critique of the lecture within one week of it, and say a few words about it in class, also within one week of it. The main idea in this is to see if and how the lectures link up with our readings (and our movies, the first one by the way coming up). Extra credit, of course, is additional and optional.
Grade Conversion: 93-100 = A 90-92
= A- 87-89
= B+ 83-86
= B 80-82
= B- 77-79
= C+ 73-76
= C 70-72
= C- 67-69
= D+ 60-66
= D Less than 60 = F Course Point Distribution: 20% Two Hour Exams (Up
to 10 points will added to each exam grade based on the one-page service
learning papers.)
10% Pop
Quizzes 10% Class preparation
10% Class
participation 10% Mid-term
paper (library research for non-service learning; combination of library
research and experiential learning for service learners); three outside
sources, established bibliographic style such as Chicago or MLA, 10 pages. 20% Term
paper (library research for non-service learning; combination of library
research and experiential learning for service learners) six outside
sources, established bibliographic style such as Chicago or MLA, 15 pages. 20% Final Exam (Cumulative) Syllabus: Students should
complete the first half of a weeks reading by Monday’s class, the second half,
by Friday; Gutiérrez will be discussed weekly on Friday. Week 1: The
sixteenth-century world Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 1 Week 2: Erasmus,
Education of a Christian Prince Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 2 Week 3: More,
Utopia Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 3 For Friday: Brother
Sun, Sister Moon Week 4: Las Casas, The Only Way to Bring People to True
Religion Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 4 For Friday:
Service-Learning Discussion Week 5: Guamán Poma de Ayala,
The First New Chronicle and Good
Government (2nd half) Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 5 For Friday: The
Week 6: Exam one: The
Renaissance Mid-Semester Break Week 7: Tolstoy,
The Kingdom of God is within You The nineteenth-century
world Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 6 Week 8: Renan, Life of Jesus (1st half) Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 7 For Friday:
Service-Learning Discussion Week 9: Renan, Life of Jesus (2nd half) Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 8 Mid-Term Paper due Week 10: González Prada, selected
essays from Free Pages and Hard Times
“Catholic Education,”
73-92; “Renan,” 105-118; “Anarchy,” 223-226; “The State,” 239-240;
“Tyrannicide,” 301-303. Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 9 Exam
two: 19th Century Week 11: Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 10 The twentieth-century world, part 1 Thanksgiving Week 12: Sobrino, Archbishop Romero (1st half) Gutiérrez,
A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 11 The twentieth-century world,
part 2 For
Friday: Service-Learning Discussion Week 13: Sobrino, Archbishop Romero (2nd half) Optional
reading: Gutiérrez, Las Casas: In Search
of the Poor of Jesus Christ For Friday: Romero Week 14: Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation, Chapter 13 For
Friday: Service-Learning
Discussion Week 15: Synthetic
Discussion: What does it all mean? Term
Paper due, last class
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Program in Latin American and Latino Studies