Contributions to Kingdom Theology

The great majority of people in Latin America are poor and oppressed. Theologians have the challenge to present the gospel as good news despite the fact that their lives are at risk in most places regardless of the ideology they endorse. To do this, theologians need more than church doctrines, creeds, and traditions to sustain them in ministry. The kingdom of God provides them the eschatological answer and guides them in preaching the gospel as good news by promoting justice and peace. Based on Rahner s critique of Aquinas, Latin American theologians have been working on a Christology that sees the importance of the humanity of Jesus and its implications for theology and anthropology. For theology, theologians no longer assume that they know who God is. They ask specifically for the God of Jesus of Nazareth since they are aware that idolatry is still a problem in the church. Furthermore, when looking for the content of their preaching, theologians ask for the way Jesus went about doing it. The answer the gospels give is that Jesus preached the kingdom of God. Inspired by Jesus'' preaching, Latin American theologians have developed a kingdom theology.