10 notable Christian ministry leaders, influencers who died in 2024
Gustavo Gutierrez – Oct. 22, 2024
Gustavo Gutierrez, the Roman Catholic priest and professor credited with launching the influential and controversial Liberation Theology movement, died at age 96.
Born in Lima, Peru, Gutierrez was a member of the Dominican Order and in 1971 had his seminal work, A Theology of Liberation, first published. It would become a best-seller and hold a strong influence in Latin America and among progressive Christians in the United States.
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His theology placed a strong emphasis on helping the poor and the oppressed, with critics arguing that his views downplayed the importance of evangelism and were too sympathetic to socialism.
Orbis Books, which released the English translation of Gutierrez’s A Theology of Liberation in 1973, stated that “Gustavo was not only the ‘father’ of liberation theology, but truly the cornerstone of the Orbis program” and that “his influence of course is not measured by sales alone.”
“Apart from his historic contributions to the Church in Latin America and the emergence of liberation theology, his work, and the theology he inspired, fundamentally transformed the work of theology in North America and throughout the world,” the publisher continued.
“It is felt not only in the church's embrace of the ‘preferential option for the poor,’ but in the many schools of contextual, post-colonial, and liberation theologies that have emerged throughout the world.”
