When Theology Listens to the Poor

by Leonardo Boff

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062541625
• ISBN13: 9780062541628
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 147 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Durably and Beautifully published, Theology for oue age of overwhelming inexorable poverty, torture,

Rarely do publishers now care to print books on such thick high quality paper, with durable hardcovers and ink as the series of books which Harper's published a generation ago of a few of the brilliant Catholic theological works of Friar Leonardo Boff, including this present volume which serves not only as solace, comfort and a guide for the searching Catholic soul, but also a joy to hold and to handle, without fear of falling apart, of gentle Franciscan brown coloration. Thus we find in this scholarly theological text a careful lay out and exploration of issues relevant our Faith and the Poor to whom first the Gospel of Jesus was preached Christmas eve to the shepherds in the night fields. The first of seven sections examines a "creative acceptance of Vatican II from the Viewpoint of the poor," including the Council as both point of arrival and of departure, opening a chance of Christianity for the Poor. The second section examines the Mission of the CHurch in Latin America as following the Good Samaritan in healing a broken people, promoting and defending the rights of the poor and of a minimally decent living standard. Friar Leonardo finds the Good Samaritan alive and well and living in Bahia. THe third section further presents the Rights of the Poor as the Rights of God, and explores, as does the final sections of Sacramentum Caritatis, the commitment of the Church to Human Rights, particularly in bring these rights for the first time to the poor. A chapter of this seciton presents the Theological foundations of rights for the impoverished masses. This central seciton ends with the role of evangelization as a service of God and promotion in defense of Human Rights. The fourth seciton examines the role of the Supernatural in Liberation, and presents the theological meaning of the supernatural and the action of Grace, and the relationship of Christ's Salvation with Human Liberation, among other theological issues. The fifth section asks how may we celebrate the Eucharist in a world of injustice, the central thesis of Sacramentum Caritatis, and places the Last Supper as a celebration of joy (and of love) in a context of death. Without a quest for communion, the Eucharist is an Offense to God, and urges neither political hypocrisy nor Eucharistic laxity. The sixth section asks how we ought to preach the Cross in a crucified society today: What meaning does Christ's suffering and death hold for a suffering people, and finds the highest theological art in speaking of Death and the Cross. This section is truly a moving culmination of the text in the hands of this brilliant Catholic theologian, exploring different aspects of the meaning of Death. If you have only time for the meditation of one section in this excellent book, please start here, knowing you have passed the foundation lain before, but do use this section for your lectio divina, particularly in our Lenten season, but at any time of trial and suffering and of death, as today, the F