The growing national crisis of Peru in which death seems to triumph over life, especially for the poor, has not dimmed the hope of Gustavo Gutiérrez and others for the ultimate success of the poor to achieve liberation from poverty and injustice. Hope, for Gutiérrez, is far from wishful thinking. The case for hope results from the application of a complex epistemology which includes social scientific analysis, the “utopian imagination,” and faith in the God of Jesus Christ to the present socio-ecclesial reality of Peru. Among the reasons for hope are the fact of the church's evangelization of the poor, the new spirituality coming to birth among the poor, the rejection of fear in the face of the mounting persecution and martyrdom of Christian believers, and the universal church's adoption of a preferential option for the poor.