Gutierrez

pp. 101-123

in: , No longer the same, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011

Abstract

Each of the theologians we"ve looked at so far ends up hardening the boundaries of the Christian situation, and consequently misses out on the possibility of transformative encounter with religious others and thus, potentially, with the divine Other. In this chapter we examine how a fourth theologian fares: Gustavo Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez is the only one of our four theologians to make an explicit turn to the marginalized and to focus on their struggles for liberation from the structures that marginalize them. Indeed, he envisions "Liberation from every form of exploitation, the possibility of a more human and dignified life, the creation of a new humankind."¹ Thus it is reasonable to expect that his theological discourse will be more open to encounter with religious others than that of the other three. The picture, however, is more mixed than we might expect.