Liberationist Christianity and Political Ecology in Latin America

For sociologist Michael Löwy, liberation theology is the spiritual expression of a Christianity of liberation, which was the protagonist of the popular movements of the late 1950s, mainly in Brazil. Through the ecclesiastic base communities (CEBs) and the popular pastoral, liberation theology created the conditions for the emergence of a new political culture throughout Latin America. Consequently, the socio-cultural changes of the second half of the 20th century in Latin America cannot be explained without mentioning the development of liberation theology. Our objective in this article is twofold: on the one hand, we will observe the ecological dimension in liberation theology and, on the other hand, we will analyze the role of social/popular movements inscribed in liberation Christianity that propose another relationship with nature.

Keywords:
liberation theology; Anthropocene; political ecology; Latin America