ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a critique of liberation theology. It deals with three matters: the nature and influence of Catholic social teaching, the famed ontological reserve of liberation theology in regard to its infamous use of Marxist analysis, and then the question concerning the plurality of liberation theologies. A couple of central features of liberation theology deeply influence its engagement with Marxism: the tradition of Roman Catholic social thought and what may be called the ontological reserve. The second feature that thoroughly influences the interaction of liberation theology with Marxism is what may be called the ontological reserve. A brief consideration of other autonomous liberation theologies, especially black, feminist, and queer, shows that liberation theology is one particular manifestation of a wider phenomenon. The chapter expresses that Marxism and liberation theology might engage one another more fruitfully through a dialectical approach. It discusses fetishism and idolatry—a quilting point between Marxism and liberation theology.
