This research examines the phenomenon of liberation theology in the Central American country of El Salvador. Liberation theology is a social and political movement as well as a religious movement. Thus, this examination considers each of these facets of liberation theology in El Salvador. The political aspects of liberation theology bring the movement in El Salvador into contact and confrontation with the Vatican and the United States, and the social aspects of the movement bring it in to contact and confrontation with the elite class within the country. These contacts and confrontations also are addressed in this examination.
In 1968, the Conference of Latin American Bishops, "echoing and extending the ideas of Pope John XXIII, gave a new interpretation to the role of the Church. Peruvian priest and theologian Gustavo Gutierrez gave the philosophy the name 'liberation theology.'" Liberation theology made the Roman Catholic Church more sensitive to the needs of the poor and more focused on improving this world instead of waiting for the life in the next. Liberation theology also discredited the old solution of "more alms" in favor of organizing the poor for political participation. While some priests who favored liberation theology also endorsed socialism, liberation theology in El Salvador in the 1990s is less radical than it was two decades years ago, and many former revolutionaries have turned their focus to more democratic political strategies.
The surprising growth of Protestantism in El Salvador has also had a liberalizing effect. These sects differ greatly from the older Protestant churches that were so instrumental in the economic and social transformation of northern Europe and North America. Those churches promoted an ethic of hard work, thrift, and self-reliance·"the 'worldly asceticism' that Max Weber considered necessary to capitalist achievement. The newer, more charismatic Protestant churches attrac...