Liberation Theology/Base Communities (South America)
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Abstract Liberation theology is a radical, predominately Catholic movement of theologians, bishops, priests, nuns, and laity that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s across Latin America. Bishops, gathering in regional conferences, called for the church to abandon long-standing alliances with the rich and powerful and instead take the side of the poor and oppressed. Theologians, who wrote books and presented papers using Marxian concepts, put forward a new way of doing theology?from the perspective of the poor. It was the poor, gathering in small groups to discuss the Bible, known as base ecclesial communities (CEBs), which offered a new interpretation of scripture based on their experiences, leading to unprecedented grassroots activism. In the 1970s and 1980s CEB members were actively involved in revolutionary movements in Nicaragua and El Salvador, and in other parts of Latin America they played important roles in democratization movements.
