Liberation Theologies and Marxist Theory

Abstract In the aftermath of the 1968 student rebellions as well as the rhetoric of the cold war, the accusation against progressive theologians of having a Marxist agenda and therefore betraying the Christian faith was a common pattern. This article introduces Latin American liberation theology and its use of Marxist social analysis as well as story theology and social biography as applied by South Korean Minjung theology as an alternative methodological approach under an anti-communist military dictatorship in a country divided between the two power blocs of the cold war; this is rounded up by a side glimpse on the Chinese case, a country ruled by a communist party with a Christian minority and the recent revisiting of liberation theologies in times of the lasting global economic crisis. Methodologically the author applies aesthetics and hermeneutics to the issues at stake.