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Leonardo Boff (1938– ) is a recognized Brazilian theologian, philosopher, ecologist, and social critic who has written more than sixty books. He is best known for being one of most outspoken and controversial pioneers of the Latin American Liberation Theology (LALT) movement, which argued that the focus of theology should be the direct relationship that exists between faith and liberating sociopolitical action. In Salvation and Liberation (1984), Leonardo and his brother Clodovis Boff posited that LALT is a novel way of approaching theology because it develops a rigorous theological discourse of social, political, and economic liberations. As such, for Boff and the LALT movement, social and political theory became an essential tool for theology, along with its more traditional dialogue partner, philosophy.

Boff was born in 1938 in Concórdia, Brazil. In 1959 he entered the Franciscan Order and in 1964 became an ordained priest. Subsequently, he went to Europe to continue his studies and received a doctorate in philosophy and theology from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Münich in 1970. He came to the forefront of the liberation theology movement with the publication of his Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time (1978), in which he examines Christology through the historical Jesus and demonstrates the direct relationship between spirituality and political commitment to the poor. Following the arguments of Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez in Gutiérrez’s seminal 1973 A Theology of Liberation, Boff asserted repeatedly in his writings that the first step of the theological process is historical praxis, which is only then followed by a second step of reflection on praxis in light of faith. For this reason, he and other liberationists readily used political theory—Marxism, dependency theory, and critical theory— to interpret the sociopolitical setting, asserting that theology must reflect on orthopraxis (right practice) and not simply orthodoxy (right doctrine).While critics charged this method of politicizing the Christian faith and advocating communism, violent revolution, and atheism, Boff and other LALT adherents responded that all theology is implicitly political and that LALT, in contrast, simply speaks of politics explicitly.

Boff gained notoriety for applying the methods of LALT not only to the social situation but also to the institution of the church. In his Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church (1977), he argued that the grassroots base ecclesial communities movement was revolutionizing the church. However, in Church, Charism, and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church (1981), he directly critiqued the Roman Catholic Church’s appropriation of political and symbolic power to control the masses, vehemently contending that this power needs to be decentralized. The Vatican responded in 1984 through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI), by silencing Boff for ten months. Boff submitted, but when he was threatened with silencing again in 1992, he refused to abide and reluctantly left the priesthood. Undaunted, he continued to write and further developed arguments he had begun supporting feminism and the ordination of women in The Maternal Face of God:The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions (1979). He also discussed the application of LALT to ecological issues in Ecology and Liberation (1993) and Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor (1995).

Boff has taught at numerous universities in Brazil, been a visiting professor at Lisbon, Basel, Salamanca, Heidelberg, and Harvard universities, and served as an editor of numerous journals. He is currently professor emeritus of ethics, philosophy of religion, and ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

Bibliography:

Boff, Leonardo. Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time, translated by Patrick Hughes. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1978.
Church, Charism, and Power: Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church, translated by John W. Diercksmeier. New York: Crossroad, 1985.
Ecclesiogenesis: The Base Communities Reinvent the Church. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1986.
The Maternal Face of God: The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions, translated by Robert R. Barr and John W. Diercksmeier. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987.
Ecology and Liberation: A New Paradigm, translated by John Cumming. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1995.
Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor. Vol. 1 Ecology and Justice, translated by Phillip Berryman. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1997.
Boff, Leonardo, and Clodovis Boff. Salvation and Liberation, translated by Robert R. Barr. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1984.
Cox, Harvey. The Silencing of Leonardo Boff: The Vatican and the Future of World Christianity. Oak Park, Ill.: Meyer-Stone, 1988.
Gutiérrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, and Salvation, translated by Caridad Inda and John Eagleson. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1973.