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1. Origin and Development The seeds of liberation theology were sown on Latin American soil in the early 1960s. Young Catholic and Protestant theologians reflected on the people’s life of faith within the context of the people’s resistance to oppressive living and working conditions. Shortly after the birth of liberation theology in 1968, similar types of theologies arose in other regions of the world, from North America (black liberation theology), Africa (South African liberation theology), India,…

1. Origins For most of their 500-year presence in Latin America, Roman Catholic theologians and missionaries have employed methods and concepts taken largely from Western European theology. Most missionaries who came to Latin America had been previously schooled in scholastic theology, principally in the theological and philosophical writings of Augustine (354–430; Augustine’s Theology), Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1225–74; Scholasticism), and the Dominican theological school at Salamanca, Spain, founded by Francisco de Vitoria (ca. 1480–1546). Scholastic theology predom…