Editor James Nickoloff describes Gutierrez as being a theologian of liberation -- indeed, the advent of liberation theology in the twentieth century is one of the most dynamic and pervasive (and, at times, controversial) movements in theology in generations. Gutierrez is at the forefront of this movement. Gutierrez's theology of liberation rests on faith, hope and love, the traditional Pauline triad, but with radically different conclusions.

Gutierrez is a priest of the Roman Catholic church in Peru -- many of the early leaders in liberation theology came from the Latin American countries, and many from the Roman Catholic faith. In the poverty and oppression of the people in these countries, both by foreign and domestic corporations and by the governmental/military authorities, the need for liberation was born. In the lack of appropriate response from the wealthy and powerful church hierarchy (Roman Catholicism is by far the dominant religious institution in Latin America), the call for a pastoral and theological response grew from the base communities.

Gutierrez takes full advantage of the history of theology, including major works by twentieth-century theologians. In Gutierrez one hears echoes (directly and indirectly) of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Rahner, Paul Tillich and others -- however, he looks for concrete action in the social sphere that impacts communities rather than concentrating on individuals. Gutierrez also embraces a concept that makes many in the established church and theological strands uneasy -- the preferential option for the poor. Nickoloff includes a text in which Gutierrez discusses this in each part -- what is meant by 'preference', what is meant by 'option', and what is meant by 'poor'.

Gutierrez does not see liberation theology as just a political or social movement; in discussing St. John of the Cross, he states that without prayer, contemplation, meditation and study, one cannot have an authentic Christian life. However, this same holds true for the action in the world, and in community -- without this, there is no authentic Christian expression. Gutierrez addresses this new framework of the preferential option for the poor and the call for action toward liberation in the classic systematic theological topics -- ecclesiology, soteriology, eschatology, etc.

Nickoloff pulls together texts from the wide range of Gutierrez's work in a thematic arrangement which includes portions of all of Gutierrez's major works, many articles and lectures, and places them chronologically within the topics.

Each volume in this series also has a selected bibliography section -- this one for Gutierrez is divided into two sections -- major works by Gutierrez in English, and secondary scholarship on Gutierrez in English. The book is not well indexed, compared to other volumes in this series, but it is still a serviceable one. This is a very good book for scholarship. Much of Gutierrez's work is in Spanish (as is evidenced by the bibliography); some of his work was in English -- thus, some of the work here is in translation.