Liberation theology is a religious phenomenon that burst onto the scene in the 1960s. A consciousness of injustice has always been prevalent in the Church, but liberation theologies, particularly the classical Latin American variety, evolved in protest against the inability of the Western Church and missionary circles, both Catholic and Protestant, to address the problems of systemic injustice. injustice." (Boch 443) To truly understand the criticisms of missiology articulated by Latin American and Asian liberation theologies, one must first understand liberation. What is liberation and what place does it have in Christian mission? Liberation theology attempts of giving a face to the poor, is no longer just a generalized indicator that implies that we are all poor in spirit, but truly illustrates the poor. Liberation theology interprets the poor as the “marginalized, those who lack any active participation or even passive to society.” (Boch 447) The poor are classified as people who feel a sense of helplessness and desperation because they have been subjected to “subhuman living conditions.” In missionary work there must be a cry for justice and not just a cry for conformity Simply trying to confirm that religious sectors resemble the Western world is not liberation Many believe that if Third World countries had access to Western technology it would help remedy the problem. Until the mentality of the masses is transformed, this would only be putting a band-aid on a broken bone; nothing would be done to try to put the bone back in place. The system of equality must be restored. By leveling the playing field and no longer subjecting people to degradation and......middle of paper......t for the rest of their lives you teach them how to fish. Missionaries must begin to break the chains of social injustice by first breaking the silence. Christians can no longer stand by and proclaim the good news without first calling for a sense of justice in the land. Works Cited Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991.Phan, Peter C. "World Christianity and Christian Mission: Are They Compatible? Insights from Asian Churches. (Cover Article)." International Missionary Research Bulletin 32, n. 4 (October 2008): 193-200. Academic research completed, EBSCOhost (accessed November 14, 2013). Romero, Oscar. “The political dimension of the Fiath from the perspective of the option for the poor”, The voice of the voiceless: the four pastoral letters and other declarations. Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1985