Gustavo Gutiérrez: Church

Gustavo Gutiérrez is Peruvian theologian. Explore interesting quotes on church.
Gustavo Gutiérrez: 64   quotes 0   likes

“Christendom is not primarily a mental construct. It is above all a fact, indeed the longest historical experience the Church has had. Hence the deep impact it has made on its life and thought.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation - 15th Anniversary Edition, Chapter Four, Different Responses, p. 34

Life

“By keeping historical events in their proper perspective, theology helps safeguard society and the Church from regarding as permanent what is only temporary. Critical reflection thus always plays the inverse role of an ideology which rationalizes and justifies a given social and ecclesial order.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation (1971), p. 12

Help

“Although until recently the Church was closely linked to the established order, it is beginning to take a different attitude regarding the exploitation, oppression, and alienation which prevails in Latin America. This has caused concern among the beneficiaries and defenders of capitalist society, who no longer can depend on what used to be - whether consciously or unconsciously - one of their mainstays.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation - 15th Anniversary Edition, Chapter Eight, Statement Of The Questions, p. 72

Dependency

“Faced with the urgency of the Latin American situation, the Church denounces as insufficient those partial and limited measures which amount only to palliatives and in the long run actually consolidate an exploitative system.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation (1971), p. 110

“The Church cannot be a prophet in our day if she herself is not turned to Christ.”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation - 15th Anniversary Edition, Chapter Seven, The Church In the Process of Liberation, p. 70

Christ

“Is the Church fulfilling a purely religious role when by its silence or friendly relationships it lends legitimacy to dictatorial and oppressive government?”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation - 15th Anniversary Edition, Chapter Five, Crisis Of the Distinction Of Planes Model, p. 40

Silence

“People are also more keenly and painfully aware that a large part of the Church is in one way or another linked to those who wield economic and political power in today's world…. Under these circumstances, can it honestly be said that the Church does not interfere in "the temporal sphere"? Is the Church fulfilling a purely religious role when by its silence or friendly relationships it lends legitimacy to a dictatorial and oppressive government?”

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Source: A Theology of Liberation (1971), p. 65

People , World , Way , Silence