'To Release the Oppressed': Reclaiming a biblical theology of liberation

John Coffey, December 2009   5 comments

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Liberation is one of the great slogans of modern politics and one of the major themes of the Bible. The Exodus from Egyptian bondage was the foundational narrative of the Jewish nation, and Jesus inaugurated his ministry by announcing that he had come ‘to release the oppressed’. Scripture teaches that Christ brings redemption from slavery to sin, but it also depicts deliverance from material forms of oppression. This paper explains how that biblical theme has inspired early modern revolutionaries and nineteenth-century abolitionists as well as modern liberation theologians. While highlighting the failings of Christian liberationists (old and new), the paper concludes that we need a holistic theology of liberation which addresses the diverse forms of spiritual, relational and material enslavement that are rife in the twenty-first century.

Category: Cambridge Papers

Keywords: Christianity & Religion

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