He has a name; he is the Capitalism of private property and the Capitalism of the state" (Sigmund 85). The social, economic, and political undertones of Liberation Theology are not hard to see. While representing themselves as activists, their goal places primacy on the economic rather than the spiritual.

Nonetheless, Liberation Theologians have established "ecclesial base communities," which have been growing since the 1970s: "These are 'small, grassroots, lay groups of the poor or the ordinary people, meeting to pray, conduct Bible studies, and wrestle concretely with social and political obligations in their settings'"(Rhodes). Gustavo Gutierrez's theology is, essentially, a reaction against capitalistic relationships, in which supply and demand govern interactions:

Gutierrez and other liberation theologians say the church's mission is no longer one of a 'quantitative' notion of saving numbers of souls. Rather, the church's mission 'is at all times to protest against injustice, to challenge what is inhuman,...
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