Liberation theology was once caricatured as Marxism with a Christian tinge, or the Bible plus Kalashnikov. In fact, thinkers identified with the movement were involved in a serious theological exploration. They wanted to think coherently about Christian faith from the perspective of those mainly rural poor who were oppressed in Latin American nations, and how Christians should respond to their plight. The theological responses to their enterprise is relevant to the public conversation in Australia.
Some theologians questioned the narrow focus on the grounds that the Christian message is preached to all people and supposes a universal truth. Would not a partial or partisan perspective inevitably lead to a stunted theology and a distortion of Christian faith?
This question about universality was raised in practical terms by other Christian marginalised groups. If there was to be a liberation theology based in the lives of the Latin American poor, should there not also be a feminist theology that came out of the lives of marginalised women, a black theology that began with racial discrimination against Black Americans oppression, and so on?
The variety of theologies then invited reflection on how they could speak to one another and whether one theology had precedence over others.
In public conversation in Australia these theological questions are of marginal significance. But secular variants abound in which society is analysed in terms of the discrimination suffered by various minority groups at the hands of the majority or of those with power.
We need think only of the analysis of the treatment of women at the hands of men, of Indigenous Australians at the hands of non-Indigenous, of gay at the hands of straight Australians, of asylum seekers and recent immigrant groups at the hands of earlier arrivals, of tax payers at the hands of tax avoiders, of shooters and bare-headed cyclists at the hands of the prissy, of Catholics at the hands of secularists, of young and elderly Australians at the hands of those with political power, and so on.
In each case the story of the minority group is told as one of oppression and denial of rights by the majority or the powerful. Advocates point out the injustice, and demand society change its attitudes and redress discrimination through education, legislation and financial commitments to enable change.
In almost every case, the stories told about the suffering caused to individuals are moving, and the arguments made for changes in legislation and community