Liberation Theology – Hegel via Marx
This text is a preview of History of the Reception of Hegel, volume II, to be published in 2026 by Reflexivity Press.
A Different World
The thinkers treated so far philosophized in Europe and North America, in universities and religious institutes. Liberation theology arose under quite different conditions: in Latin America, among the poor, in the context of dictatorship and oppression.
Gustavo Gutiérrez’s “A Theology of Liberation” (1971) was the founding text.[1] Its basic thesis: theology must proceed from practice, not from theory. The question is not “What is God?” but “What does God do?” – and the answer is: he liberates the oppressed.
The Hegelian Structure
Liberation theologians mostly read Hegel through Marx – but the Hegelian structure is unmistakable:
History as revelation: God reveals himself not only in the Bible, but in history – especially in the liberation struggles of the poor. The Exodus is the archetype.
Dialectic of theory and practice: Knowledge arises through practice, not before it. Whoever wants to liberate the poor must live with them.
Sublation of alienation: Liberation is not only political, but comprehensive – liberation from sin, alienation, death.
Rome vs. Liberation Theology
The Vatican’s reaction was mixed. Joseph Ratzinger, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, criticized the “Marxist analysis” and the reduction of redemption to political liberation.
The liberation theologians answered: one can use Marx’s analysis without adopting his atheism – just as Thomas had used Aristotle without adopting his paganism.
[Treated in more detail in Ch. 14.3]
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Gustavo Gutiérrez, Teología de la liberación. Perspectivas, Lima 1971; German: Theologie der Befreiung, Munich: Kaiser 1973. ↩︎