ABSTRACT
There was a widespread assumption in the 1980s that liberation theology had come of age. The early passionate manifestos of those such as Hugo Assmann had been replaced by a deluge of substantial theological works which entered the theological debate bearing the wounds of oppression and injustice in Latin America, and also the clear marks of the European academy. Liberation theology remained highly controversial, but it had to be taken seriously. This prolific and controversial theological movement presented itself in the 1980s as a mature and confident theological school of which account had to be taken world-wide. Then came the extraordinary events of 1989, when the Communist dictatorships of Eastern Europe collapsed in quick succession while other exemplars of a Marxist polity like China, Cuba or Vietnam became isolated and suddenly appeared strangely old-fashioned and irrelevant. It is not difficult to understand the attraction of Marxism to liberation theologians, particularly perhaps in Latin America.
