BOFF, LEONARDO (1938 - ) , Brazilian theologian committed to the premise that Christian belief demands a radical transformation of society.
Background
Boff's writings are the most important expression of what is called liberation theology. He took his starting point from Jesus' eschatological proclamation: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark 1:15). This text has been variously interpreted. Does it refer to a future Day of Judgment? Does it express first-century Jewish hopes for freedom from Roman rule? Can the Church itself be the kingdom that Jesus came to establish? Boff found the explanation in another Gospel text, where Jesus refers to himself the words of Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord ... has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.... to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18). He interpreted Jesus' proclamation as a call for the empowerment of the victimized and the building of a just and fraternal society. He wrote: "Our definitive, eschatological salvation is mediated, anticipated and rendered concrete in the partial liberations that take place at every level of historical reality."
Career
He became a Roman Catholic priest of the Franciscan order, and in 1971 professor of systematic theology at the Petropolis institute.
Boff's theology is thus both eschatological and supportive of the revolutionary transformation of oppressive political and economic structures. It also accepts a sophisticated hermeneutic: a recognition that thought is not purely neutral and objective, but rather depends upon the thinker's life situation. He wrote: "it is the overall context of dependence and oppression at every level of life that prompts Christology in Latin America to ponder and love Jesus Christ as Liberator."
Censored, silenced, and continuously investigated by the Vatican, Boff worked patiently for two decades within the institutional Church. On June 28, 1992, he announced that the restrictions placed upon him had at last become too tight; he resigned from the priesthood and from the Franciscan order, to continue his work as a Roman Catholic layman.