Liberation Theology was vigorously suppressed in the American empire - US-backed death squads assassinated Abp. Romero of San Salvador in 1980; US-trained soldiers murdered and raped Jesuit leaders of Liberation Theology and their staff at the University of Central America in 1989; and in between the US carried out a major war against the Catholic Church. Many of the victims of Reagan’s efforts in Central America were clergy and church workers - for clear and explicit reasons, officially stated at the School of America, which trains Latin American officers: one of its advertising points to this day is that the US Army helped "defeat liberation theology."
One of the earliest statements - which begins with a discussion of Althusser and modern biblical scholarship - remains one of the best:
Gustavo Gutierrez, "A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation" (1971 & later eds.).
See also
Herbert McCabe, "The class struggle and Christian love" <http://bit.ly/mqsYSg> (1987).
On 5/5/11 12:30 PM, Steven Johnson wrote:
> On Thu, May 5, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Dissenting Wren
> <dissentingwren at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
> James Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland
>> Southeast Asia - fundamental rethinking of questions of state formation
>>
>>
> If you are interested in biblical scholarship from a Left perspective,
> Richard A. Horsley of U. Mass. discusses James Scott's thesis, and argues
> that the early Jesus movements applied similar strategies of resistance as
> Scott is talking about. I encountered this thesis in Covenant Economics: A
> Biblical Vision of Justice for All, which is outstanding.
>
> Horsley has devoted a whole book to the topic, Hidden Transcripts and the
> Arts of Resistance: Applying the Work of James C. Scott to Jesus and Paul,
> which I hope to read someday.
>
> There is quite a growing body of scholarship along these lines, shedding
> light from recent historical and social science insights on what Karl
> Kautsky broadly anticipated decades ago. What this shows, among other
> things, is that the whole culture war going on today between Bible thumpers
> and Bible bashers concerns issues (theism vs. atheism, creationism vs.
> evolution, etc.) that biblical writers were not even interested in. Rather,
> they were interested in social liberation, and expressed themselves using
> ancient modes of thought. This, I think, can help us see past both religious
> and anti-religious preoccupations that are dominated by middle class
> interests and perspectives, and points to more effective ways to engage the
> whole Bible Belt / Fox News crowd that would cite Jesus and Rush Limbaugh in
> the same breath.
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