Transformation Towards Liberation: Socio-historical Praxis in Light Of Christ

(Tina)Theresa Hannah-Munns
Liberation Theology
Peter Bisson
March 9th, 2005


The commitment to Christian social praxis must be anchored in a deeper understanding that the social and historical transformation of the world is in alignment with the Christian knowledge and faith in the eschatological promises that share the light of Christ’s fullness and his action within the world . With the recognition that the Christian Bible is a historical account, Gustavo Gutierrez (GG) answers the Kantian question of “What can I know?” by showing how the history of the world from creation down through the prophets and into today are all aspects of one history of salvation that starts with the first salvific act in Genesis and ends with the world within the creation of “ a new humanity”.

First GG established salvation as the universal call to a communion of people with people and a communion of all to God based on the openness towards forming community itself that shows the “presence of grace” as the “roots of human activity” . Sin is therefore also concretized within the salvation process of history with both describing different relationships with God. History is moving towards communion while sin is moving away from communion, both within the relationships between people and with God. Reading the signs of the times in order to create a just society within this historical world projects a knowledge that reaches beyond our current socio-historical process to the “spiritual redemption of all men (sic)” which is the fullness of salvation through Christ. Christ, anchored throughout history and in the eschatological promises, is the Liberator, and the example of how “Christian life is a Passover” where Christian praxis must move towards liberation in a social reality in order to faithfully co-create the openness to communion that will fulfill the eschatological tomorrow that is one process within one history. It is in this one history that the Christian can, through praxis, commit to the process of communion that relies on a deeper knowledge through faith in Jesus as the Liberator of all.