Gustavo A. Gutiérrez

Gustavo A. Gutiérrez is professor emeritus of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is a Roman Catholic theologian and Dominican priest who is considered the father of liberation theology. Gutiérrez earned a degree in medicine from the Natinal University of Peru in Lima, studied philosophy and psychology at the Catholic University of Leuven, theology at the Catholic University of Lyon and at the Gregorian University in Rome. He earned a doctorate in theology at Lyon in 1985. The author of numerous books and articles, Gutiérrez is perhaps best known for his Teología de la liberación (1971; A Theology of Liberation), the foundational text of liberation theology. In that work, Gutiérrez developed a new spirituality based on solidarity with the poor and called on the church to help change existing social and economic institutions to promote social justice.