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Article: Liberation theology on the move. (liberation theology and the liberal society)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- September 20, 1985
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1985 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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AT THE beginning of August, at an American Enterprise Institute conference on "Liberation Theology and the Liberal Society," an unexpected new dialogue opened up. Hugo Assmann, a former priest still in good ecclesiastical standing with Cardinal Arns and other bishops in Brazil, is one of the founding fathers of liberation theology; in his view, the latter has entered a new phase.
Assmann mainly emphasized the urgent need to negotiate the debt crisis. (Tom Bethell, in the August 23 issue of NR, anticipated him.) His many empirical assertions invite rational debate, and this was already an advance. But the biggest advance lay in his embrace of democracy.