Christianity was brought to Latin America through violent means, and today it holds 40 percent of the worlds Catholics, although Pentecostalism is rising. Beginning in the late 1400’s, the monarchs of Spain and Portugal used their conquest of Latin America to also push their religious values. This wave of domination was considered a religious crusade equally as a political move of colonization and Imperialism. The “patronato real”, or royal patronage gave the Spanish and Portuguese monarchs complete authority over the Catholic Churches in their new land. This meant the bishops, priests and all church missionary activity, was governed by the political rulers. Another dimension to this oppression was race. The conquistadores used the indigenous people for work but this ended partly because the Church began to view them as children of God, and partly because they were being wiped out through over work and foreign disease. This catapulted Latin America’s involvement with the slave trade and between 1650 and 1860 over ten million African slaves were brought to Brazil, the Caribbean and other Spanish colonies. With Africans, indigenous, creoles (born in New World), mestizos(mixed) and penninsulares (from Spain or Portugal), race became another way to oppress and categorize human worth and divide the Catholic and Christian experience.
The experience of the high cast Catholic and the low cast were very different. Penninsualres and creoles thought of the lower casts as children and incapable of spiritual thought. When trying to missionize to them indigenous culture was referenced because it made the transition easier. What resulted was a new form of “Popular Catholicism, meaning Christianity created by the people.” (Jacobsen, 79) The Latin American Independence movements of the 19th century made a shift in the religious sphere, but not as dramatic as the revolutionary enlightenment ideals that flourished in the United States. In Latin America, postcolonial rule, the role of religion largely rested upon which political party was in power. “Favor was shown to the Church when conservatives were in office, and restrictions were placed on the Church when liberals were in charge.” (Jacobsen, 83)
What ultimately led to the formation of liberation theology was this build of a dramatic differences in the way in which the Church was viewed by the growing gap of rich and poor that translated into slanted and oppressive politics. Post WWII countries were forced to chose between dictatorships that aligned with either communist, or democratic capitalism. US backed “democratic” dictatorships further alienated people and put pressure on the church to respond. With the creation of Vatican II there was increased emphasis within the Church on the poor. This ultimately translated into a new theology focusing on liberation through a sense of equality reached when people who are oppressed, marginalized and poor are reached out to and lifted up internally free. Pentecostalism has seen a more dramatic rise in the past century also because of the great divide between rich and poor. Pentecostal worship services are joyfull and full of hopeful song, this is a bright light in the reality of living in barrios or fevalas. Pentecostalism was less formal than Catholic mass also translating to hose living in poverty as more accepting and welcoming.
Leaders in the Liberation Theology movement like Oscar Romero of El Salvador preached the salvation of men and society through an intimate connection with each other and equally the poor and suffering. By building base communities that regular gathered, Bible teachings could be explored and translated onto the local structural level. This combined Christian doctrine with grassroots activism. Just as Christianity began in Latin America interwoven with politics, liberation theology was an intermixed political/religious way of dealing with the aftermath of oppression, organically grown from the hands of the oppressed. Liberation Theology like “popular” Catholicism was a way of reclaiming the sacred as personal and putting it into action to create a better reality.
I think the west could learn from the development of Liberation Theology that there is God in community, in poverty and in simplicity. It seems that as Western Christianity (and Asian Christianity) have grown, so has the idea that the gospel delivers salvation, be it through the next life. It is theology heavy on the external dimensions. Liberation theology seems to work on the inner self by relating outwardly to those having a different experience and then opening up to the possibility of social change in the now. By being liberated from “economic oppression and racial prejudice” practitioners can be open spiritually.