Although liberation theology may still be considered a “current event,” nevertheless, given its very evident and widespread impact on Latin American Christianity and elsewhere, it seems fairly safe to state that it is the most important theological movement which has emerged in Latin America in the four centuries since evangelization. Many authors would further contend that liberation theology symbolizes the coming of age of the Latin American church: from a peripheral, somewhat dormant and intellectually dependent church to one which actively contributes to Catholic and Protestant thought throughout the world. For this reason alone, without mentioning the many political ramifications of liberation theology, it merits attention as one of the key themes in Latin American church history. The aim of this article is threefold: to briefly outline the origins and development of liberation theology; to examine the different ecclesial, social and political factors which influenced its development, and finally, to indicate what direction liberation theology seems to be taking currently.

We pray [any reader] not to nibble with critical teeth at this work of ours, which has been diligently twisted into shape by love rather than knowledge…

Since its discovery nearly two centuries ago, Las Casas' summary of the diario de a bordo of Columbus' first voyage has fascinated, beguiled, and exercised historians, who have used it time and again in attempting to recreate the events, course, and atmosphere of this momentous occasion. In doing so, most have treated the summary as a quintessential day-by-day account of the events it describes, despite the fact that the document as we have it is at least a third-hand transcription by Bartolomé de las Casas, who was effectively its author, or at least its senior co-author. Despite this tendency to treat the diario as a primary source then, in truth it is, even more than most historical sources, a prism rather than a window on the past, and a prism unfortunately not governed by any known laws of historical optics.

Waldo Frank, who is now forgotten in Latin America, was once the most frequently read and admired North American author there. Though his work is largely neglected in the U.S., he was at one time the leading North American expert on Latin American writing. His name looms large in tracing the careers of Latin American writers in this country before 1940. Long before Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the Good Neighbor policy, Frank brought back to his countrymen news of Latin American culture.

Frank went to South America when he was almost forty. The youthful dreams of Frank and his fellow pre-World War I writers and artists to make their country a fit place for cultural renaissance that would change society had waned with the onset of the twenties.1 But they had not completely vanished. Disgruntled by the climate of "normalcy" prevailing in America after World War I, he turned to Latin America. He started out in the Southwest. The remnants of Mexican culture he found in Arizona and New Mexico enticed him to venture further into the Hispanic world. In 1921 he traveled extensively in Spain and in 1929 spent six months exploring Latin America.