As such, this Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology is on par with the other excellent editions in this wide-ranging series. Chris Rowland, currently a New Testament tutor at Oxford, is as good an editor as any, and this book helped me to understand current issues concerning liberation theology. Cambridge provides first-rate academic minds as in other disciplines, including, of course, scholars from the two-thirds world. Gutierrez rightly introduces the work, but then a compliation of essays helps the informed reader to understand the crucial concerns of contemporary scholarship. If it is 'dry,' as the previous reviewer perjoratively labeled it, then that's just because it's British - but hardly a source for criticism. I found it a helpful component of my informal study into liberation theology, as it helped to guide and complement my other reading. Probably doesn't need to be bought except by serious students of liberation theology; accessing the various essays in a library should be good enough for most.

The "Cambridge Companion" is a series of mostly "dry", but nonetheless informative, essays that give the reader some insight into the Liberation movement. Certain areas of this collection stand out. For example, Bastiaan Wielenga's description of Liberation Theology in Korea and India are particularly interesting. Also informative is Edward Antonio's explanation of Black Theology as an important contributor to the Liberation movement (70). Finally, Rowland's "Epilogue: The Future of Liberation Theology" is of special interest in that it discusses the continued "grassroots" strength of the Liberation movement despite the fact that the academic or "ivory tower" concern over the topic has waned in recent years.

I would only recommend this anthology for the student who is seriously studying Liberation Theology, and not for the layperson who is merely interested in an overview of the movement.