Editing Social justice (section)

=== Liberation theology ===
{{Main|Liberation theology}}

Liberation theology<ref>In the mass media, 'Liberation Theology' can sometimes be used loosely, to refer to a wide variety of activist Christian thought. This article uses the term in the narrow sense outlined here.</ref> is a movement in [[Christianity|Christian]] [[theology]] which conveys the teachings of [[Jesus Christ]] in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions. It has been described by proponents as "an interpretation of Christian faith through the poor's suffering, their struggle and hope, and a critique of society and the Catholic faith and Christianity through the eyes of the poor",<ref>[[Phillip Berryman|Berryman, Phillip]], ''Liberation Theology: essential facts about the revolutionary movement in Latin America and beyond''(1987)</ref> and by detractors as Christianity perverted by [[Marxism]] and [[Communism]].<ref>"[David] Horowitz first describes liberation theology as 'a form of Marxised Christianity,' which has validity despite the awkward phrasing, but then he calls it a form of 'Marxist-Leninist ideology,' which is simply not true for most liberation theology{{nbsp}}..." Robert Shaffer, "[http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2007nov/shaffer.html Acceptable Bounds of Academic Discourse] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130904165644/http://www.oah.org/pubs/nl/2007nov/shaffer.html |date=4 September 2013 }}," Organization of American Historians Newsletter 35, November 2007. URL retrieved 12 July 2010.</ref>

Although liberation theology has grown into an international and inter-denominational movement, it began as a movement within the [[Catholic Church]] in Latin America in the 1950s–1960s. It arose principally as a moral reaction to the poverty caused by social injustice in that region.<ref name=Williams>''Liberation Theology and Its Role in Latin America''. Elisabeth Erin Williams. Monitor: Journal of International Studies. The College of William and Mary.</ref> It achieved prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. The term was coined by the [[Peruvian]] priest [[Gustavo Gutiérrez]], who wrote one of the movement's most famous books, ''A Theology of Liberation'' (1971). According to [[Sarah Kleeb]], "Marx would surely take issue", she writes, "with the appropriation of his works in a religious context...there is no way to reconcile Marx's views of religion with those of Gutierrez, they are simply incompatible. Despite this, in terms of their understanding of the necessity of a just and righteous world, and the nearly inevitable obstructions along such a path, the two have much in common; and, particularly in the first edition of [A Theology of Liberation], the use of Marxian theory is quite evident."<ref>Sarah Kleeb, [https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/70875/1/Kleeb_Sarah_L_201511_PhD_thesis.pdf "Envisioning Emancipation: Karl Marx, Gustavo Gutierrez, and the Struggle of Liberation Theology]"; Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion (CSSR), Toronto, 2006. Retrieved 22 October 2012. Copyright by Sarah Lynn Kleeb 2015</ref>

Other noted exponents are [[Leonardo Boff]] of Brazil, [[Carlos Mugica]] of Argentina, [[Jon Sobrino]] of El Salvador, and [[Juan Luis Segundo]] of Uruguay.<ref>Richard P. McBrien, ''Catholicism'' (Harper Collins, 1994), chapter IV.</ref><ref>Gustavo Gutierrez, ''A Theology of Liberation'', First (Spanish) edition published in Lima, Peru, 1971; first English edition published by Orbis Books (Maryknoll, New York), 1973.</ref>