"The Second Coming" is a poem written by Irish poet W. B. Yeats in 1919, first printed in The Dial in November 1920, and afterwards included in his 1921 collection of verses Michael Robartes and the Dancer. The poem uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to allegorically describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe. It is considered a major work of modernist poetry and has been reprinted in several collections, including The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
Text
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Historical context
The poem was written in 1919 in the aftermath of the First World War and the beginning of the Irish War of Independence that followed the Easter Rising, at a time before the British Government decided to send in the Black and Tans to Ireland. Yeats used the phrase "the second birth" instead of "the Second Coming" in his first drafts.
The poem is also connected to the 1918–1919 flu pandemic. In the
weeks preceding Yeats' writing of the poem, his pregnant wife caught the
virus and was very close to death. The highest death rates of the
pandemic were among pregnant women—in some areas, they had up to a 70
percent death rate. While his wife was convalescing, he wrote "The
Second Coming".
A 2016 analysis by research company Factiva showed that lines from the poem were quoted more often in the first seven months of 2016 than in any of the preceding 30 years. In the context of increased terrorist violence (particularly in France), and political turmoil in the Western world after the Brexitreferendum in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States of America shortly thereafter, commentators repeatedly invoked its lines: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."
Views about the nature of Jesus's Second Coming vary among Christian denominations and among individual Christians, as well as among Muslims.
Terminology
Several different terms are used to refer to the Second Coming of Christ:
In the New Testament, the Greek word ἐπιφάνεια (epiphaneia, appearing) is used five times to refer to the return of Christ.
The Greek New Testament uses the Greek term parousia
(παρουσία, meaning "arrival", "coming", or "presence") twenty-four
times, seventeen of them concerning Christ. However, parousia has the
distinct reference to a period of time rather than an instance in time.
At Matthew 24:37 parousia is used to clearly describe the period of time that Noah lived. The Greek word eleusis
which means "coming" is not interchangeable with parousia. So this
parousia or "presence" would be unique and distinct from anything that
had occurred before. The word is also used six times referring to individuals (Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus,[1Co.16:17]Titus,[2Co. 7:6–72] and Paul the Apostle[2Co. 10:10][Phil 1:26][2:12]) and one time referring to the "coming of the lawless one".[2Thes 2:9]
Gustav Adolf Deissmann (1908) showed that the Greek word parousia
occurred as early as the 3rd century BC to describe the visit of a king
or dignitary to a city – a visit arranged in order to show the
visitor's magnificence to the people.
Last Day counterfeits
Some Christian writings say that there will be a great deception before the Second Coming of Christ. In Matthew 24, Jesus states in the following passage:
If anyone says to you then, 'Look,
here is the Messiah!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. False
messiahs and false prophets will arise, and they will perform signs and
wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect.
Ellen G. White, the early Seventh-day Adventist leader, wrote:
As the crowning act in the great
drama of deception, Satan himself will impersonate Christ. The church
has long professed to look to the Saviour's advent as the consummation
of her hopes. Now the great deceiver will make it appear that Christ has
come. In different parts of the earth, Satan will manifest himself
among men as a majestic being of dazzling brightness, resembling the
description of the Son of God given by John in the Revelation. (1:13–15).
The glory that surrounds him is unsurpassed by anything that mortal
eyes have yet beheld. The shout of triumph rings out upon the air:
"Christ has come! Christ has come!" The people prostrate themselves in
adoration before him, while he lifts up his hands and pronounces a
blessing upon them, as Christ blessed His disciples when He was upon the
earth. His voice is soft and subdued, yet full of melody. In gentle,
compassionate tones he presents some of the same gracious, heavenly
truths which the Saviour uttered; he heals the diseases of the people,
and then, in his assumed character of Christ, he claims to have changed
the Sabbath to Sunday, and commands all to hallow the day which he has
blessed.
According to the bible, the date is unknown. Only God the father knows when Christ will return.
Despite this, a number of specific dates have been predicted for
the Second Coming of Christ, some now in the distant past, others still
in the future.
Given that in his next statement Jesus notes that the exact day and
hour is unknown even to himself, the simple meaning of his previous
statement is that the Second Coming was to be witnessed by people
literally living in that same generation. Some, such as Jerome, interpret the phrase "this generation" to mean in the lifetime of the Jewish race; however, other scholars believe that if Jesus meant "race" he would have used genos (race), not genea (generation).
He makes similar predictions in five other places in the Gospels; Mark 9:1, Mark 13:30, Matt 24:34, Luke 9:27, Luke 21:32.
In Stenger's view, when the coming did not happen within the life-times
of his disciples, as Jesus prophesied, Christianity changed its
emphasis to the resurrection and promise of eternal life.
Ultimately Jesus' statement proves true in the light of the vision of
the return of the Son of Man later given to his disciple, John, on the
Isle of Patmos, specifically as found in Revelation 19:11-19.
According to historian Charles Freeman, early Christians
expected Jesus to return within a generation of his death and the
non-occurrence of the second coming surprised the early Christian
communities.
Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour.
Some Preterists see this "coming of the Son of Man in glory"
primarily fulfilled in Jesus' death on the cross. They believe the
apocalyptic signs are already fulfilled including "the sun will be dark" (cf. Mark 13:24–15:33), the "powers ... will be shaken," (cf. Mark 13:25–14:63, 15:5) and "then they will see" (cf. Mark 13:26–15:31, 15:39).
Yet some critics note that many are missing, such as "But the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will
pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent
heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." (2 Peter 3:10).
And "Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then
all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man
coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." (Matthew 24:30)
It is the traditional view of Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians,
preserved from the early Church, that the Second Coming will be a
sudden and unmistakable incident, like "a flash of lightning". They hold the general view that Jesus will not spend any time on the earth in ministry or preaching, but come to judge mankind. They also agree that the ministry of the Antichrist will take place right before the Second Coming.
Many Christian denominations consider this second coming of Christ to be the final and eternal judgment by God of the people in every nation resulting in the glorification of some and the punishment of others. The concept is found in all the Canonical gospels, particularly the Gospel of Matthew.
A decisive factor in this Last Judgement during the second coming of Christ will be the question, if the corporal and spiritual works of mercy
were practiced or not during lifetime. They rate as important acts of
mercy, charity and justice. Therefore, and according to the Biblical
sources (Matthew 5:31–46), the conjunction of the Last Judgement and the works of mercy is very frequent in the pictorial tradition of Christian art.
Orthodox layman Alexander Kalomiros explains the original Church's position regarding the Second Coming in River of Fire and Against False Union,
stating that those who contend that Christ will reign on earth for a
thousand years "do not wait for Christ, but for the Antichrist." The
idea of Jesus returning to this earth as a king is a heretical concept
to the Church, equated to "the expectations of the Jews who wanted the
Messiah to be an earthly King." The Church instead teaches that which it
has taught since the beginning.
According to the Catholic Church, the second coming will bring
about the fullness of the reign of God and the consummation of the universe, mankind, and salvation. The Catholic Church believes there are three things that hasten the return of Jesus: the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in the liturgy; living with the mind of Jesus; and praying for the Lord to come, above all in the Eucharist.
The many denominations of Protestantism
have differing views on the exact details of Christ's second coming.
Only a handful of Christian organizations claim complete and
authoritative interpretation of the typically symbolic and prophetic
biblical sources.
A short reference to the second coming is contained in the Nicene
Creed: "He [Jesus] shall come again in glory to judge the living and
the dead; and His kingdom shall have no end." An analogous statement is
also in the biblical Pauline Creed (1 Corinthians 15:23).
Some Protestant churches proclaim the Mystery of Faith to be: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Latter-day Saints have particularly distinct and specific interpretations of what are considered to be signs stated in the Book of Revelation. Their scriptures
say that Christ will return, as stated in the Bible. Their church also
teaches that "When the Savior comes again, He will come in power and
glory to claim the earth as His kingdom. His Second Coming will mark the
beginning of the Millennium. The Second Coming will be a fearful,
mournful time for the wicked, but it will be a day of peace for the
righteous."
Jehovah's Witnesses rarely use the term "second coming", preferring the term "presence" as a translation of parousia. They believe that Jesus' comparison of "the presence of the Son of man" with "the days of Noah" at Matthew 24:37–39 and Luke 17:26–30 suggests a duration rather than a moment of arrival. They also believe that biblical chronology points to 1914 as the start of Christ's "presence", which continues until the final battle of Armageddon. Other biblical expressions they correlate with this period include "the time of the end" (Daniel 12:4), "the conclusion of the system of things" (Matthew 13:40,49; 24:3) and "the last days" (2 Timothy 3:1; 2 Peter 3:3). Witnesses believe Christ's millennial reign begins after Armageddon.
Christian opinions
A
recent survey (2010) showed that about 40% of Americans believe that
Jesus is likely to return by 2050. This varies from 58% of white
evangelical Christians, through 32% of Catholics to 27% of white
mainline Protestants.
In Rosicrucianesoteric Christian teaching, there is a clear distinction between the cosmic Christ, or Christ without, and the Christ within. According to this tradition, the Christ within is regarded as the true Saviour who needs to be born within each individual in order to evolve toward the future Sixth Epoch in the Earth's etheric plane, that is, toward the "new heavens and a new earth": the New Galilee. The Second Coming or Advent of the Christ is not in a physical body, but in the new soul body of each individual in the etheric plane of the planet where man "shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." The "day and hour" of this event is not known. The esoteric Christian tradition teaches that first there will be a preparatory period as the Sun enters Aquarius, an astrological concept, by precession: the coming Age of Aquarius.
Islam
Traditional view
In Islam, Jesus (or Isa; Arabic: عيسى ʿĪsā) is considered to be a Messenger of God and the Masih (messiah) who was sent to guide the Israelites (banī isrā'īl) with a new scripture, the Injīl. The belief in Jesus (and all other messengers of God) is required in Islam, and a requirement of being a Muslim. However, Muslims do not recognize Jesus as the Son of God, as they believe God has no equals, but instead as a prophet. The Quran states that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. Muslims believe that Jesus performed all the miracles in the Gospels (With God's permission), but do not believe that Jesus was crucified.
In the Quran, the second coming of Jesus is heralded in Az-Zukhruf (the Quran's 43rd surah or chapter) as a sign of the Day of Judgment.
And (Jesus) shall be a Sign (for
the coming of) the Hour (of Judgment): therefore have no doubt about the
(Hour), but follow ye Me: this is a Straight Way. 43:61
In his famous interpretation of the Quran or Tafsir al-Qur'an
al-Azim, Ibn Kathir also uses this verse as proof of Jesus' second
coming in the Quran.
There are also hadiths that clearly foretell of Jesus' future return such as: Sahih al-Bukhari, Volume 3, Book 43: Kitab-ul-`Ilm (Book of Knowledge), Hâdith Number 656:
The Hour will not be established
until the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler,
he will break the cross (idol symbol of Christians), kill the pigs, and
abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts).
According to Islamic tradition, Jesus' descent will be in the midst of wars fought by the Mahdi (lit. "the rightly guided one"), known in Islamic eschatology as the redeemer of Islam, against the Masih ad-Dajjal (literally "false messiah", synonymous with the Antichrist) and his followers. Jesus will descend at the point of a white arcade, east of Damascus, dressed in saffron robes—his head anointed. He will then join the Mahdi in his war against the Dajjal.
Jesus, considered in Islam as a Muslim (one who submits to God) and one
of God's messengers, will abide by the Islamic teachings. Eventually,
Jesus will slay the Antichrist Dajjal, and then everyone from the People of the Book (ahl al-kitāb, referring to Jews and Christians) will believe in him. Thus, there will be one community, that of Islam. Sahih Muslim, 41:7023
After the death of the Mahdi, Jesus will assume
leadership. This is a time associated in Islamic narrative with
universal peace and justice. Islamic texts also allude to the appearance
of Ya'juj and Ma'juj
(known also as Gog and Magog), ancient tribes which will disperse and
cause disturbance on earth. God, in response to Jesus's prayers, will
kill them by sending a type of worm in the napes of their necks.
Jesus's rule is said to be around forty years, after which he will die,
(according to Islam Jesus did not die on the cross but was taken up to
heaven and continues to live until his return in the second coming).
Muslims will then perform the Salat al-Janazah (funeral prayer) for him and bury him in the city of Medina in a grave left vacant beside Muhammad.
The Ahmadi sect, who identify as Muslims, believe that the promised Mahdi and Messiah arrived in the person of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad (1835–1908). This is rejected by many Muslims, who consider the Ahmadiyya not to be Muslims.
The hadith (sayings of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad) and the Bible
indicated that Jesus would return during the latter days. Islamic
tradition commonly depicts that Jesus, upon his second coming, would be
an Ummati (Muslim) and a follower of Muhammad and that he would revive the truth of Islam rather than fostering a new religion.
The Ahmadiyya movement interpret the Second Coming of Jesus prophesied as being that of a person "similar to Jesus" (mathīl-i ʿIsā) and not his physical return, in the same way as John the Baptist resembled the character of the biblical prophet Elijah
in Christianity. Ahmadis believe that Ghulam Ahmad demonstrated that
the prophecy in Muslim and Christian religious texts were traditionally
misunderstood to suggest that Jesus of Nazareth himself would return,
and hold that Jesus survived the crucifixion
and later died a natural death. Ahmadis consider Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
(the founder of the movement), in both his character and teachings, to
be representative of Jesus; and subsequently, he attained the same
spiritual rank of Prophethood as Jesus. Thus, Ahmadis believe this
prediction was fulfilled and continued by his movement.
Other views and commentaries
Baha'i Faith
According to the Bahá'í Faith,
the Second Coming is based on the concept of an evolving, stepwise,
progressive process that coincides with the advancement of human
civilization from the beginning of humanity. The Bahá'í Faith
explains that the Founders of the major world religions each represent a
Return of the Word and Sprit of God as a new, unique personification
sent by God upon earth, Who introduces a new set of teachings and laws
and revelations, such that all major religions are part of Progressive Revelation (Baha'i)
with each Coming building upon the major world religions emerging from
earlier ages, verifying spiritual truths of a previous Dispensation, and
fulfilling its prophesies regarding a future Return or Coming. Thus,
the Second Coming of the Christ represents a continuation of God's Will
as one continuous faith, albeit having different names due to the
Founders of each religion as the voice of God, and as the "Way", the
"Light", the "Truth" at different times in history.
Bahá'u'lláh announced that the return of Christ, understood as a reappearance of the Word and Spirit of God, was manifest in His person:
O
thou who art waiting, tarry no longer, for He is come. Behold His
Tabernacle and His Glory dwelling therein. It is the Ancient Glory,
with a new Manifestation.
He
Who is the Lord of Lords is come overshadowed with clouds...He, verily,
hath again come down from Heaven even as He came down from it the first
time. Beware that thou dispute not with Him even as the Pharisees
disputed with Him without a clear token or proof.
He goes on to refer to himself as the Ancient of Days and the Pen of Glory. Baha'u'llah also said in this connection:
This
is the Father foretold by Isaiah, and the Comforter concerning Whom the
Spirit had covenanted with you. Open your eyes, O concourse of bishops,
that ye may behold your Lord seated upon the Throne of might and glory.
Baha'u'llah also wrote,
Say:
We, in truth, have given Ourself as a ransom for your own lives. Alas,
when We came once again, We beheld you fleeing from Us, whereat the eye
of My loving-kindness wept sore over My people."
Followers of the Bahá'í Faith believe that the fulfillment of the prophecies of the second coming of Jesus, as well as the prophecies of the Maitreya in Buddhism, and many other religious prophecies, were begun by the Báb in 1844 and then by the events occurring during the days of Bahá'u'lláh.
They regard the fulfillment of Christian prophecies by Baha'u'llah in a
spiritual sense as the same pattern of Jesus' fulfillment of Jewish
prophecies in a spiritual sense, where in both cases people were
expecting the literal fulfillment of apocalyptic statements that led to
rejections of the Return, instead of accepting fulfillment in symbolic
and spiritual ways. Bahá'ís understand that the return of the Christ
with a new name was intended by Jesus to be a Return in a spiritual
sense, due to Jesus explaining in the Gospels that the return of Elijah
in John the Baptist was a return in a spiritual sense.
Furthermore, Baha'is point to instances in the Bible, wherever
the term, "The Glory of God" is used in the sense of being an entity, as
a reference to Baha'u'llah. In the Arabic language, the name,
Baha'u'llah, means the "Glory of God".
Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5–6).
Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression,
suffering and disease. As it says: "Nation shall not lift up sword
against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore." (Isaiah 2:4)
Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite
humanity as one. As it says: "God will be King over all the world ― on
that day, God will be One and His Name will be One" (Zechariah 14:9).
Regarding the Christian idea that these prophecies will be fulfilled during a "second coming," Ohr Samayach
states "we find this to be a contrived answer, since there is no
mention of a second coming in the Jewish Bible. Second, why couldn't God
accomplish His goals the first time round?" Rabbi David Wolpe
believes that the Second Coming was "grown out of genuine
disappointment. [...] When Jesus died, true believers had to
theologically compensate for the disaster."
Rastafari
In the early developments of the Rastafari religion, Haile Selassie (the Ethiopian Emperor) was regarded as a member of the House of David, is worshipped as God incarnate, and is thought to be the "black Jesus" and "black messiah" – the second coming of Christ. It was claimed that Marcus Garvey
preached the coming of the black messiah on the eve of Selassie's
coronation. Due to this prophecy, Selassie was the source of inspiration
of the poor and uneducated Christian populations of Jamaica, who believed that the Emperor would liberate the black people from the subjugation of European colonists.
Paramahansa Yogananda's commentary
In modern times some traditional Indian religious leaders have moved to embrace Jesus as an avatar, or incarnation, of God. In light of this, the Indian guru Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, wrote an extensive commentary on the Gospels published in 2004 in the two-volume set The Second Coming of Christ: The Resurrection of the Christ Within You.
The book offers a mystical interpretation of the Second Coming in which
it is understood to be an inner experience, something that takes place
within the individual heart. In the introduction of this book, Yogananda
wrote that the true Second Coming is the resurrection within you of the
Infinite Christ Consciousness. Also stated in the Book of Luke –
"Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom
of God is within you." (Luke 17:21)
Daya Mata wrote in the preface of The Second Coming of Christ
that the "two-volume scriptural treatise thus represents the inclusive
culmination of Paramahansa Yogananda's divine commission to make
manifest to the world the essence of original Christianity as taught by
Jesus Christ." In sharing her memories of when she wrote down his
words, she shares – "the great Guru, his face radiantly enraptured, as
he records for the world the inspired exposition of the Gospel teachings
imparted to him through direct, personal communion with Jesus of
Nazareth." Larry Dossey, M.D., wrote that "Paramahansa Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ
is one of the most important analyses of Jesus’ teachings that
exists....Many interpretations of Jesus’ words divide peoples, cultures,
and nations; these foster unity and healing, and that is why they are
vital for today’s world."
In modern culture
Jesus Christ returning to earth has been a theme in several movies and books, for example:
The Seventh Sign – 1988 film starring Demi Moore
about a pregnant lady who discovers the Second Coming of Christ has
rented a room from her, in order to begin the countdown that will
trigger the Apocalypse.
Left Behind – Film- and book-franchise (1995– ) built by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins based on the time-period before, during and after the Second Coming of Christ.
End of Days – 1999 action-adventure film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger about a policeman who must stop Satan before he ends the world.
Thief In the Night by William Bernard Sears
– The popular TV and radio personality plays the role of a detective in
writing a book about identifying the clues and symbols from the
Biblical prophecies of the return of the Christ that have been
overlooked or misunderstood, and settles on a shocking conclusion (2002)
[1961]. Oxford, UK: George Ronald. ISBN0-85398-008-X.
SCARS: Christian Fiction End-Times Thriller by Patience Prence – 2010 novel about a girl named Becky who struggles through the time of the Great Tribulation.
At the End of All Things by Stony Graves – 2011 novel about the days following the Rapture, and right before the Final War between God and Satan.
The Second Coming: A Love Story by Scott Pinsker
– 2014 novel about two men who claim to be the Second Coming of Christ.
Each claims that the other is a liar – but only one is telling the
truth.
Black Jesus - Comedy Central Adult Swim Television Series (2014- ) created by Aaron McGruder and Mike Clattenburg, tells the story of Jesus living in modern-day Compton, California,
and his efforts to spread love and kindness on a daily basis. He is
supported in his mission by a small-but-loyal group of downtrodden
followers, while facing conflicts involving corrupt preachers, ethnic
tensions, and the hate spreading activities of the manager of his
apartment complex.
Mr. Robot – USA Network television series (2015– ), uses visual and verbal references to biblical figures and events based on The Second Coming.
Latin American liberation theology met opposition in the United States, which accused it of using "Marxist concepts", and led to admonishment by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in 1984 and 1986. While stating that "in itself, the expression "theology of liberation" is a thoroughly valid term".
The Vatican rejected certain forms of Latin American liberation
theology for focusing on institutionalized or systemic sin and for
identifying Catholic Church hierarchy in South America as members of the
same privileged class that had long been oppressing indigenous
populations from the arrival of Pizarro onward.
History
A major player in the formation of liberation theology was the Latin American Episcopal Conference (CELAM). Created in 1955 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, CELAM pushed the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) toward a more socially oriented stance. However, CELAM never supported liberation theology as such, since liberation theology was frowned upon by the Vatican, with Pope Paul VI trying to slow the movement after the Second Vatican Council.
After the Second Vatican Council, CELAM held two conferences
which were important in determining the future of liberation theology: the first was held in Medellín, Colombia, in 1968, and the second in Puebla, Mexico, in January 1979.
The Medellín conference debated how to apply the teachings of Vatican
II to Latin America, and its conclusions were strongly influenced by
liberation theology.
Although liberation theology grew out of these officially recognized
ideas, the Medellín document is not a liberation theology document. It
did, however, lay the groundwork, and since then liberation theology has
developed rapidly in the Latin American Catholic Church.
Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo
was a central figure after the Medellín Conference, who as priest in
Bogota he did not attend, and was elected in 1972 as general secretary
of CELAM, and then, its president in 1979 (at the Puebla conference). He
represented a more orthodox position, becoming a favourite of Pope John Paul II and the "principal scourge of liberation theology." Trujillo's faction became predominant in CELAM after the 1972 Sucre conference, and in the Roman Curia after the CELAM conference in Puebla, Mexico, in January 1979.
Despite the orthodox bishops' predominance in CELAM, a more
radical form of liberation theology remained much supported in South
America. Thus, the 1979 Puebla Conference was an opportunity for
orthodox bishops to reassert control of the radical elements, but they
failed. At the Puebla Conference, the orthodox reorientation was met by
strong opposition from the liberal part of the clergy, which supported
the concept of a "preferential option for the poor". This concept had been approved at the Medellín conference by Ricard Durand, president of the Commission about Poverty.
Pope John Paul II gave the opening speech at the Puebla
Conference. The general tone of his remarks was conciliatory. He
criticized radical liberation theology, saying, "this idea of Christ as a
political figure, a revolutionary, as the subversive of Nazareth, does
not tally with the Church's catechesis"; however, he did acknowledge that "the growing wealth of a few parallels the growing poverty of the masses," and affirmed both the principle
of private property and that the Church "must preach, educate
individuals and collectivities, form public opinion, and offer
orientations to the leaders of the peoples" towards the goal of a "more
just and equitable distribution of goods".
Some liberation theologians, however, including Gustavo
Gutiérrez, had been barred from attending the Puebla Conference. Working
from a seminary and with aid from sympathetic, liberal bishops, they
partially obstructed other clergy's efforts to ensure that the Puebla
Conference documents satisfied conservative concerns. Within four hours
of the Pope's speech, Gutiérrez and the other priests wrote a 20-page
refutation, which was circulated at the conference, and has been claimed
to have influenced the final outcome of the conference. According to a
socio-political study of liberation theology in Latin America, a quarter
of the final Puebla documents were written by theologians who were not invited to the conference.
Theology
Liberation theology could be interpreted as an attempt to return to the gospel of the early church where Christianity is politically and culturally decentralized.
Liberation theology proposes to fight poverty by addressing its alleged source, the sin of greed. In so doing, it explores the relationship between Christian theology (especially Roman Catholic) and political activism, especially in relation to economic justice, poverty, and human rights. The principal methodological innovation is seeing theology from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed. For example, Jon Sobrino argues that the poor are a privileged channel of God's grace.
Some liberation theologians base their social action upon the Bible scriptures describing the mission of Jesus Christ, as bringing a sword (social unrest), e.g., Isaiah 61:1, Matthew 10:34, Luke 22:35–38 — and not as bringing peace (social order). This biblical interpretation is a call to action against poverty, and the sin engendering it, to affect Jesus Christ's mission of justice in this world.
Gustavo Gutiérrez gave the movement its name with his 1971 book, A Theology of Liberation.
In this book, Gutiérrez combined populist ideas with the social
teachings of the Catholic Church. He was influenced by an existing
socialist current in the Church which included organizations such as the
Catholic Worker Movement and the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne, a Belgian Christian youth worker organization. He was also influenced by Paul Gauthier's The Poor, Jesus and the Church
(1965). Gutiérrez's book is based on an understanding of history in
which the human being is seen as assuming conscious responsibility for
human destiny, and yet Christ the Saviour liberates the human race from
sin, which is the root of all disruption of friendship and of all
injustice and oppression.
Gutiérrez also popularized the phrase "preferential option for the poor", which became a slogan of liberation theology and later appeared in addresses of the Pope.
Drawing from the biblical motif on the poor, Gutiérrez asserts that God
is revealed as having a preference for those people who are
“insignificant", "marginalized", “unimportant", "needy", "despised", and
"defenseless". Moreover, he makes clear that terminology of "the poor"
in scripture has social and economic connotations that etymologically go
back to the Greek word, ptōchos.
To be sure, as to not misinterpret Gutiérrez's definition of the term
"preferential option", he stresses, "Preference implies the universality
of God’s love, which excludes no one. It is only within the framework
of this universality that we can understand the preference, that is,
'what comes first'."
Gutiérrez emphasized practice (or, more technically, "praxis") over doctrine. Gutiérrez clarified his position by advocating a circular relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxis seeing the two as having a symbiotic relationship.
Gutierrez' reading of prophets condemning oppression and injustice
against the poor (i.e., Jeremiah 22:13–17) informs his assertion that to
know God (orthodoxy) is to do justice (orthopraxis). Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), however, criticized liberation theology for elevating orthopraxis to the level of orthodoxy. Richard McBrien summarizes this concept as follows:
God is disclosed in the historical "praxis" of
liberation. It is the situation, and our passionate and reflective
involvement in it, which mediates the Word of God. Today that Word is
mediated through the cries of the poor and the oppressed.
Another important hallmark for Gutiérrez's brand of liberation
theology is an interpretation of revelation as "history". For example,
Gutiérrez wrote:
History is the scene of the revelation God makes of the
mystery of his person. His word reaches us in the measure of our
involvement in the evolution of history.
Gutiérrez also considered the Church to be the "sacrament of
history", an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace,
thus pointing to the doctrine of universal salvation as the true means
to eternal life, and assigning the Church itself to a somewhat temporal
role, namely, liberation.
Practice
One
of the most radical aspects of liberation theology was the social
organization, or reorganization, of church practice through the model of
Christian base communities. Liberation theology strove to be a bottom-up
movement in practice, with biblical interpretation and liturgical
practice designed by lay practitioners themselves, rather than by the
orthodox Church hierarchy. In this context, sacred text interpretation
is understood as "praxis". Liberation theology seeks to interpret the
actions of the Catholic Church and the teachings of Jesus Christ from
the perspective of the poor and disadvantaged. In Latin America,
liberation theologians specifically target the severe disparities
between rich and poor in the existing social and economic orders within
the nations' political and corporate structures. It is a strong critique
of the various economic and social structures, such as an oppressive
government, dependence upon First World countries and the traditional
hierarchical Church, that allow some to be extremely rich while others
are unable to even have safe drinking water.
The journalist and writer Penny Lernoux
described this aspect of liberation theology in her numerous and
committed writings intended to explain the movement's ideas in North
America. Base communities were small gatherings, usually outside of
churches, in which the Bible could be discussed, and Mass could be said.
They were especially active in rural parts of Latin America where
parish priests were not always available, as they placed a high value on
lay participation. In May 2007, it was estimated that 80,000 base communities existed in Brazil.
The
Brazilian Catholic Church is arguably one of the most theologically
progressive Catholic congregations due, in large part, to a history of
violent military and political conflicts as well as a divisive
socioeconomic climate. During Brazil's military rule
from 1964 to 1985, the Catholic Church and its members assumed
responsibility to provide services to the poor and disenfranchised,
often under threat of persecution. The Vatican II and Medellín
conference innovations in liberation theology entered the Brazilian
Church as the Brazilian lower classes experienced sharply deteriorating
economic and political conditions. Among these were an increase in
landownership concentration, a decline in wages and standards of living,
and a rise in the military state's political repression and violence,
including mass detainment, torture, and the assassination of political
opponents.
Base ecclesial communities
After
decades of repression from the government authorities, the
liberationist Catholic Church in Brazil is absent of traditional
centralization and encourages an increased lay participation. Faced with
a severe priest shortage, much of the Brazilian Catholic Church is
organized into Base Ecclesial Communities or, "CEBs" in which the Mass,
community spirituality programs, and community needs are led or
addressed by a single clergy member or a trained lay member in either a
small chapel or an individual's home. The CEBs introduced new social
ideas and democratic methods which led to many participants' active
involvement in popular movements of Brazil that worked for progressive
social change. An example of progressive social change initiated by the
CEBs is in Nova Iguaçu.
A health program began there to try to organize the population in order
to remedy widespread malnutrition, open sewers, and other health
hazards.
Eventually the neighbourhood initiative reached a national interest
level where it then became a mass movement in nearly every
neighbourhood. Initiatives like the health program in Nova Iguaçu
illustrate how CEBs have helped the transition from military to
democratic rule.
While liberation theology has brought about significant
progressive reforms in Brazil, anthropologist Robin Nagle questions the
effectiveness of Catholic Church theology in Brazil. Nagle concentrates
on the conflict between conservatives and liberationists in Recife,
Brazil, in 1990. The poor neighbourhood of Morro da Conceição had a
liberationist priest named Reginaldo who was expelled by the
traditionalist archbishop because the archbishop found Reginaldo's
politics and social theology annoying and adverse to his own agenda.
When Reginaldo and his followers refused to accept the expulsion and the
new priest, the archbishop called in the Military Police. Conversely,
the event did not cause a mass response because the liberationist agenda
aroused distrust and even hatred among many of its intended audience.
The main reason was that it was too much to ask poor parishioners to
embrace a Church focused more on the troubles of this life than solace
in the next.
While Robin Nagle claims that liberation theology is ineffective
for genuine social change, anthropologist Manuel Vásquez argues that
liberation theology embraced by CEBs create a twofold effect, because it
not only provided moral justification for resistance but it also served
as a means to organize the resistance. Many people come to the CEB
through conversion experiences, but also because they are keenly
concerned with the spiritual and infrastructural needs of their
community. Through his fieldwork in working-class neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro,
Vásquez reveals that CEBs combat disenfranchisement but also serve to
overcome the obstacles associated with materialism and globalization.
The social and political impact can be viewed in terms of initial
consciousness-raising, the motivation for involvement, the sense of
community they develop, the experience of grassroots democracy, the
direct actions they engage in, and finally, directly political actions.
Liberation theology and indigenous Brazil
The Tapeba
Anthropologist
and author Max Maranhão Piorsky Aires analyzes the influence of
liberation theology on the transformation of the indigenous Tapeba people
of Brazil from poor, uneducated inhabitants neglected by the state to
rights-bearing and involved citizens. Specifically he largely attributes
the work of the Brazilian Catholic Church to the progression of the
Tapeba. The Catholic Church enlisted state authorities, anthropologists,
and journalists to help uncover the identity of neglected indigenous
peoples of Brazil. Early recognition by missionaries and followers of
liberation theology stimulated indigenous identification of the Tapeba
population as a possibility for attaining rights, especially land,
health, and education.
The Church gathered and contributed historical knowledge of indigenous
territory and identity of the Tapeba in Caucaia that ultimately
succeeded in the tribes obtaining a legally codified identity as well as
a rightful place as Brazilian subjects.
Gurupá
In Gurupá,
the Catholic Church employed liberation theology to defend indigenous
tribes, farmers, and extractors from land expropriation by federal or
corporate forces. New religious ideas, in the form of liberation
theology, have fortified and legitimized an evolving political culture
of resistance.
Meanwhile, the Church-supported Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs) have
promoted stronger social connections among community members that has
led to more effective activism in Gurupá. Anthropologist Richard Pace's
study of Gurupá revealed that CEBs assured safety in united activism,
and, combined with liberation theology, encouraged members to challenge
landowner's commercial monopolies and fight for better standards of
living. Pace references a specific incident in the CEB of Nossa Senhora de Fátima,
in which a community of 24 families of farmers, timber extractors, and
traders resisted an extra-regional timber extraction firm. The community
negotiated an agreement with the firm that gained them a higher
standard of living that included imported goods, increased food
availability, and access to health care. While severe social
dislocations such as government-initiated capitalist penetration, land
expropriation, and poor wages persist, small-farmer activism is
fortified by liberation theology and receives structural support from
unions, political parties, and church organizations.
Vatican reaction
Joseph Ratzinger
In March 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
(CDF), made ten observations of Gustavo Gutiérrez's theology, accusing
Gutiérrez of politically interpreting the Bible in supporting temporal
messianism, and stating that the predominance of orthopraxis
over orthodoxy in his thought proved a Marxist influence. Ratzinger
objected that the spiritual concept of the Church as "People of God" is
transformed into a "Marxist myth". In liberation theology he declared,
the "'people' is the antithesis of the hierarchy, the antithesis of all
institutions, which are seen as oppressive powers. Ultimately anyone who
participates in the class struggle is a member of the 'people'; the
'Church of the people' becomes the antagonist of the hierarchical
Church."
Ratzinger did praise liberation theology in some respects,
including its ideal of justice, its rejection of violence, and its
stress on "the responsibility which Christians necessarily bear for the
poor and oppressed". He subsequently stated that no one could be neutral in the face of injustice, and referred to the "crimes" of colonialism and the "scandal" of the arms race.
Nonetheless, media reports tended to assume that the condemnation of
"liberation theology" meant a rejection of such attitudes and an
endorsement of conservative politics.
In 1984, it was reported that a meeting occurred between the CDF
and the CELAM bishops, during which a rift developed between Ratzinger
and some of the bishops, with Ratzinger issuing official condemnations of certain elements of liberation theology. These "Instructions" rejected as Marxist the idea that class struggle is fundamental to history, and rejected the interpretation of religious phenomena such as the Exodus and the Eucharist
in exclusively political terms. Ratzinger further stated that
liberation theology had a major flaw in that it attempted to apply
Christ's sermon on the mount teachings about the poor to present social
situations.
He asserted that Christ's teaching on the poor meant that we will be
judged when we die, with particular attention to how we personally have
treated the poor.
Ratzinger also argued that liberation theology is not originally a
"grass-roots" movement among the poor, but rather, a creation of
Western intellectuals: "an attempt to test, in a concrete scenario,
ideologies that have been invented in the laboratory by European
theologians" and in a certain sense itself a form of "cultural imperialism". Ratzinger saw this as a reaction to the demise or near-demise of the "Marxist myth" in the West.
Throughout the 1990s, Ratzinger, as prefect of the CDF, continued
to condemn these elements in liberation theology, and prohibited
dissident priests from teaching such doctrines in the Catholic Church's
name. Leonardo Boff was suspended and others were censured. Tissa Balasuriya, in Sri Lanka, was excommunicated. Sebastian Kappen, an Indian theologian, was also censured for his book Jesus and Freedom.
Under Ratzinger's influence, theological formation schools were
forbidden from using the Catholic Church's organization and grounds to
teach liberation theology in the sense of theology using unacceptable
Marxist ideas, not in the broader sense.
Towards reconciliation under Pope Francis
According to Roberto Bosca, a historian at Austral University in Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio
(later Pope Francis) had "a reputation as an opponent of liberation
theology during the 1970s" but he "accepted the premise of liberation
theology, especially the option for the poor, but in a 'nonideological'
fashion."
Before becoming Pope, Bergoglio said, "The option for the poor comes
from the first centuries of Christianity. It's the Gospel itself. If you
were to read one of the sermons of the first fathers of the Church, from the second or third centuries, about how you should treat the poor, you’d say it was Maoist or Trotskyist. The Church has always had the honor of this preferential option for the poor ... At the Second Vatican Council
the Church was redefined as the People of God and this idea really took
off at the Second Conference of the Latin-American bishops in Medellín."
Bosca said Bergoglio was not opposed to liberation theology itself but
to "giving a Catholic blessing to armed insurgency", specifically the Montoneros, who claimed liberation theology as part of their political ideology. Blase Bonpane, a former Maryknoll father and founding director of the Office of the Americas, said "The new pope has not been comfortable with liberation theology."
On September 11, 2013, Pope Francis hosted Gutiérrez in his residence, where he concelebrated mass with Gutiérrez and Gerhard Müller, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Some saw this meeting as a sign of warming relations between the hierarchy and liberation theologians. The same month, L'Osservatore Romano published an article by Archbishop Müller praising Gutiérrez.
On January 18, 2014, Pope Francis met with Arturo Paoli, an Italian
priest whom the Pope knew from Paoli's long service in Argentina. Paoli
is recognized as an exponent of liberation theology avant la lettre and the meeting was seen as a sign of "reconciliation" between the Vatican and the liberationists.
Miguel d'Escoto, a Maryknoll priest from Nicaragua, had been sanctioned with an a divinis
suspension from his public functions in 1984 by Pope John Paul II, for
political activity in the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua.
Pope Francis lifted the suspension in August 2014, in response to a
request by d'Escoto.
At a 2015 press conference in the Vatican hosted by Caritas International,
the federation of Catholic relief agencies, Gutiérrez noted that while
there had been some difficult moments in the past dialogue with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
liberation theology had never been condemned. Although he saw an
increasingly clear emphasis on Church teachings on the poor, he did not
consider that liberation theology was undergoing a rehabilitation, since
it had never been "dishabilitated".
In January, 2019, during the World Youth Day
in Panama, Pope Francis discussed changing attitudes to liberation
theology during an extended discussion with a group of thirty Jesuits
from Central America. He noted that he had a devotion to the martyred
Salvadoran Jesuit priest, Rutilio Grande, even before he came to know Óscar Romero
well. Francis commented that "Today we old people laugh about how
worried we were about liberation theology. What was missing then was
communication to the outside about how things really were."
In 1983 US vice presidentGeorge H. W. Bush
said he could not comprehend how Catholic theologians could harmonize
Catholicism and Marxism and support revolutionaries in Central America.
"I'm puzzled. I just don't understand it."
Latin American integral mission
Integral mission or holistic mission is a term coined in Spanish as misión integral in the 1970s by members of the evangelical group Latin American Theological Fellowship (or FTL, its Spanish acronym) to describe an understanding of Christian mission which embraces both the evangelism and social responsibility. Since Lausanne 1974, integral mission has influenced a significant number of evangelicals around the world.
The word integral is used in Spanish to describe wholeness (as in wholemeal bread or whole wheat).
Theologians use it to describe an understanding of Christian mission
that affirms the importance of expressing the love of God and
neighbourly love through every means possible. Proponents such as C. René Padilla of Ecuador, Samuel Escobar of Peru, and Orlando E. Costas of Puerto Rico
have wanted to emphasize the breadth of the Good News and of the
Christian mission, and used the word integral to signal their discomfort
with conceptions of Christian mission based on a dichotomy between
evangelism and social involvement.
The proponents of integral mission argue that the concept of
integral mission is nothing new – rather, it is rooted in Scripture and
wonderfully exemplified in Jesus’ own ministry. "Integral mission" is
only a distinct vocabulary for a holistic understanding of mission that
has become important in the past forty years in order to distinguish it
from widely held but dualistic approaches that emphasize either
evangelism or social responsibility.
Camilo Torres
The priest Camilo Torres (a leader of the Colombian guerrilla group ELN) celebrated the Eucharist only among those engaged in armed struggle against the army of the Colombian state. He also fought for the ELN.
Black theology seeks to liberate people of color from multiple
forms of political, social, economic, and religious subjugation and
views Christian theology
as a theology of liberation—"a rational study of the being of God in
the world in light of the existential situation of an oppressed
community, relating the forces of liberation to the essence of the
Gospel, which is Jesus Christ," writes James Hal Cone, one of the original advocates of the perspective. Black theology mixes Christianity with questions of civil rights, particularly raised by the Black Power movement and the Black Consciousness Movement.
Palestinian liberation theology
Palestinian liberation theology is an expression of political theology and a contextual theology that represents an attempt by a number of independently working Palestinian theologians from various denominations—mostly Protestant
mainline churches—to articulate the gospel message in such a way as to
make that liberating gospel relevant to the perceived needs of their
indigenous flocks. As a rule, this articulation involves a condemnation
of the State of Israel,
a theological underpinning of Palestinian resistance to Israel as well
as Palestinian national aspirations, and an intense valorization of
Palestinian ethnic and cultural identity as guarantors of a truer grasp
of the gospel by virtue of the fact that they are inhabitants of the
land of Jesus and the Bible. The principal figure in Palestinian liberation theology is the Anglican cleric Naim Ateek, founder of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem.
