Gustavo Gutiérrez quotes - page 2

Gustavo Gutiérrez is a Peruvian theologian and Catholic priest, considered one of the founders of liberation theology. His works focus on the relationship between faith and social justice, especially the struggles of the poor in Latin America. He has significantly influenced modern Christian thought and advocacy for the marginalized. Here are 32 of his quotes:

The Christian community ... is faced ever more clearly with the dilemma now confronting the whole continent: to be for or against the system, or more subtly, to be for reform or revolution.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Theology must be man's critical reflection on himself, on his own basic principles. Only with this approach will theology be a serious discourse, aware of itself, in full possession of its conceptual elements.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

The theologian ... will be engaged where nations, social classes, people struggle to free themselves from domination and oppression by other nations, classes, and people.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

Contemporary man has begun to lose his naiveté as ... the deep causes of the situation in which he finds himself are becoming clearer. He realizes that to attack these deep causes is the indispensable prerequisite for radical change. And so he has gradually abandoned a simple reformist attitude regarding the existing social order, for, by its very shallowness this reformism perpetuates the existing system.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

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

About the twelfth century the possibility of sharing contemplation by means of preaching and other forms of apostolic activity began to be considered. This point of view was exemplified in the mixed life (contemplative and active) of the mendicant orders and was expressed in the formula: contemplata aliis tradere ("to transmit to others the fruits of contemplation").

Gustavo Gutiérrez