This collection of essays was written to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Second General Conference of Latin American Bishops, which convened at Medellín, Colombia, in 1968. Inspired by the Second Vatican Council and seeking to implement its vision, the bishops viewed the occasion as a decisive one for Latin America, which they saw as standing ‘on the threshold of a new epoch in the history of our continent’. It appears to have been a time full of zeal for emancipation, of liberation from every form of servitude, of personal maturity and of collective integration. Forty years later, however, it is appropriate to remember the event and to review the significance of liberation theology in light of all that has happened during the intervening period. The colloquium at the Milltown Institute, Dublin, which led to this book, sought to do precisely that: to establish where liberation theology now stands by questioning whether it really is a significant theological and ecclesial movement or merely a moment whose time has passed, and to investigate its enduring legacy.

The Editors: Patrick Claffey worked as a missionary in Togo (1977-1986) and the Republic of Benin (1997-2002) where his pastoral work focused on linguistic research and rural development. He did postgraduate research at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1999-2004), specialising in the area of African Christianity and socio-political development. He is currently Head of the Department of Mission Theology and Cultures, Milltown Institute, Dublin, and author of Christian Churches in Dahomey-Benin: A Study of their Socio-political Role (2007). Joe Egan completed his undergraduate studies in science and theology at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, before serving as a priest of the Society of African Missions in pastoral ministry in Nigeria (1980-1984). He resumed his theological studies in Rome, before returning to West Africa to teach theology in St Paul’s College-Seminary and at campuses in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Returning to Ireland in 1996, he lectured in theology at the Kimmage Mission Institute until its alliance with the Milltown Institute in 2003 where he now lectures in the Department of Mission Theology and Culture. He is author of The Godless Delusion (Peter Lang, 2009).

Inhaltsverzeichnis