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After three centuries of colonial rule, Brazil gained its independence in 1822. It is, by far, the largest
and most populous country in South America. In area, it is approximately the size of the continental United States. The main
language is Portuguese, and the majority of the population (80%) is Roman Catholic.
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Two of the most important thinkers in recent history came out of Brazil. One is Leonardo Boff, a Catholic priest and theologian
whom the Vatican ex-communicated for writing about the oppressive use of sacred authority by those with ecclessial
power. He published those views in Church, Charism and Power: Liberation Tbeology and the Institutional Church (1985).
Harvey Cox has written an excellent book on the controversy surround that publication in The Silencing of Leonardo Boff:
The Vatican and the Future of World Christianity (1988). In addition to confronting issues of ecclesial injustice, Boff
is also important for his writings on economic, political and even ecological oppression, all from the perspective of Christian
theology.
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| Paulo Freire, radical educator |
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| "Favelas," like this one in Rio de Janeiro, are slums, the site of much liberation theology praxis. |
The other is Paulo Freire, an educational philosopher, who is regarded as the founder of the movement for critical pedagogy.
He believed that literacy training, which he committed his life to doing in the blighted northeast of Brazil, was not merely
about learning to read the word, but about learning to read the world. The problem with standard education, what he called
"banking education," is that it treats students as passive receptacles of knowledge, thereby preparing them to a life of subservience
under the world's dominant structures of authority.
Read the oral presentation I delivered to my Portuguese class on Paulo Freire by clicking here.
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