Recently, as occasionally in the past, I’ve been reading a lot of liberation theology. Or perhaps it should be “liberation theologies.” I use that term somewhat loosely; not everything that usually comes under that category heading is regarded as such by its adherents. I’m not sure what better label covers all the diverse special interest theologies that claim an experience of oppression as one of, if not the major, source and norm of their theological reflections. Perhaps they could all be called “special interest theologies,” but I’m sure many of them would protest that. I’ve also occasionally called them “protest theologies.” But, of course, they would not want to be relegated to that description. There doesn’t seem to be any label that fully accurately fits them all, and yet it seems there should be because they all display a, to me, disturbing common tendency.
Before describing that tendency I’ll name some of the theologies I’m talking about here: Latin American Liberation Theology, Native American Theology, Feminist Theology, Womanist Theology, Gay (or Queer) Theology, Black (or African-American) Theology, and Theology of the Disabled. What do these (and others like them) have in common? First, and most obviously, they are theologies done by (not for) persons who claim to experience oppression by majority-dominant cultures. They claim that traditional theology has been done by oppressors (white, straight, affluent males), that traditional theology is biased by that perspective such that they, the oppressed, cannot identify with it or do theology in that mode. Second, they are theologies that identify their particular experiences of oppression as a source and norm for theological critique and reconstruction. Third, they believe that their particular experience of oppression gives them a privileged insight into God (and truth about God) because God has a preferential option for the oppressed.
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