Gustavo Gutiérrez\u27s Liberation Theology: A Hermeneutic of Utopian Hope

Gustavo Gutiérrez has spurred and legitimated burgeoning theological reflection from the underside of history: liberation theology. Though scholarship has been extensive on the topic, concepts vital to his theological project remain mired in essentialization and simplifications. Such inconclusive discourse has manifested itself into dangerous syntheses that threaten to undermine the efficacy of liberation theology. A primary indictment of Gutiérrez’s theology is the emphasis on politic and how it threatens the entire project. In this paper I will look at a largely ignored mediating principle, Utopian Hope, and how it serves as a discursive paradigm which avoids two problematic extremes: over-spiritualization with no concern for the this-worldly, and political messianism which lacks a grounding in a more fundamental spiritual framework. Utopian hope and Church instantiate a profound mediating resource which link spirit and action in a careful balance