For many evangelicals, liberation theology seems a distant notion. Some might think it is antithetical to evangelicalism, while others simply may be unfamiliar with the role evangelicals have played in the development of liberation theologies and their profound effect on Latin American, African American, and other global subaltern Christian communities.

Despite the current rise in evangelicals focusing on justice work as an element of their faith, evangelical theologians have not adequately developed a theological foundation for this kind of activism.Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice fills this gap by bringing together the voices of academics, activists, and pastors to articulate evangelicalliberation theologies from diverse perspectives. Through critical engagement, these contributors consider what liberation theology and evangelical tenets of faith have to offer one another.

Evangelical thinkers—including Soong-Chan Rah, Chanequa Walker-Barnes, Robert Chao Romero, Paul Louis Metzger, and Alexia Salvatierra—survey the history and outlines of liberation theology and cover topics such as race, gender, region, body type, animal rights, and the importance of community. Scholars, students, and churches who seek to engage in reflection and action around issues of biblical justice will find here a unique and insightful resource. Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice opens a conversation for developing a specifically evangelical view of liberation that speaks to the critical justice issues of our time.



Rev. Dr. Mae Elise Cannon is the executive director of Churches for Middle East Peace and an ordained minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). She formerly served as the senior director of advocacy and outreach for World Vision US on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She is the author of Social Justice Handbook and Just Spirituality, and coeditor of Evangelical Theologies of Liberation and Justice.







Andrea Smith is a cofounder of Evangelicals 4 Justice and a board member of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies. She is currently chair of the Ethnic Studies Department at UC Riverside. Her books include Conquest, Native Americans and the Christian Right, and Unreconciled (forthcoming).



Introduction (Mae Elise Cannon and Andrea Smith)



Part I: Liberation Methodologies

1. Centered Versus Bounded: Moving Beyond Divide and Conquer Strategies for Liberation (Paul Louis Metzger)

2. Evangelical Theologies of Liberation (Soong-Chan Rah)

3. Is It Time for a Womanist Theology of Reconciliation? (Chanequa Walker-Barnes)



Part II: Engagement with Liberation Theology Movements

4. Toward a Perspective of "Brown Theology" (Robert Chao Romero)

5. Justicia Familiar: Misión Integral in the United States (Alexia Salvatierra)



Part III: Rethinking Sin

6. A Born-Again Theology of Liberation (Andrea Smith)

7. The GroaningCreation: Animal Liberation and Evangelical Theology (Sarah Withrow King)

8. Holy and Acceptable: Liberation from Evangelical Fat Shame (J. Nicole Morgan)

9. Liberation: Self and Community in Relationship (Terry LeBlanc and Jeanine LeBlanc)



Part IV: Theological Resources from the Margins

10. Lean In to Liberating Love: The Birth of Evangelical Theology of Liberation at Gordon-Conwell's Center for Urban Ministerial Education (Peter Goodwin Heltzel, Pablo A.Jiménez, and Emmett G. Price III)

11. Toward an Indian Liberation Theology for the Shudra and Dalit (Rajkumar Boaz Johnson)

12. Strange Freedom: Liberation for the Sake of Others (Mae Elise Cannon)



Part V: RethinkingOur Evangelical Heritage

13. Liberating Barabbas: And the Things That Make for Peace (Drew G. I. Hart)

14. Jubilee, Pentecost, and Liberation: The Preferential Option of the Poor on the Apostolic Way (Amos Yong)

15. SacramentalTheology (Dominique DuBois Gilliard)



Contributor Biographies

Scripture Index