Abstract

This dissertation analyzes and describes the rhetoric of liberation theology with a poly-perspective rhetorical method derived from the five philosophic approaches of phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, semiotics, and semantics. The analysis procedure consisted of creating an intertextual dialogue with the texts of liberation theology and the five philosophic approaches. ;The results of this analysis demonstrated the openly rhetorical nature of liberation theology. This theology secularizes the kingdom of God and seeks to ground social, economic, political, and religious structures with Jesus' second greatest commandment "to love your neighbor as yourself." These theologians re-write history from a poverty context, fight for democratic socialism, reject developmentally based economic solutions, raise the consciousness of the poor in Latin America, and challenge the traditional role of the Catholic Church hierarchy with the goal of empowering the laity with a voice. The Latin American governments, which are embedded with multinational investors, use coercive tactics to discourage this movement. Yet, the martyrs of liberation theology generate further support from the poor people of Latin America. The United States, using the civil religious guise of "freedom and democracy," supports Latin American governments which grant them economic and military advantage regardless of the human rights violations of these governments. Evangelical Christians reject the secularization of the kingdom of God, Marxist class analysis, and the notion of salvation being equated with human morality rather than on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Liberation theology is raising the consciousness of the world church, and will eventually pressure Latin American governments to respond to human rights demands