Marx and the Bible : José Miranda ’ s Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression

This paper critically examines the “liberation theology” of José Porfirio Miranda, as expressed in his Marx and the Bible (1971), with a focus on the central idea (and subtitle) of this work: the “Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.” Miranda’s critique is examined via certain key tropes such as “power,” “justice,” and “freedom,” both in the context of late twentieth-century Latin American society, and in the state of the post-Christian and post-Marxist world more generally, vis-à-vis contemporary liberal justice theory. Close examination of the ramifications, potentialities, paradoxes and subtle evasions in Miranda’s critique, leads not to a dismissal of his work from a liberal-capitalist, secular Marxist, or orthodox Christian perspective but rather a feeling that Miranda does not go far enough. Thus, this paper concludes with an amplification rather than a denial of Miranda’s critique, but one that is not a carte-blanche paean to liberation theology. As Miranda’s work shows, the path of liberation remains, like any dangerous and difficult undertaking, strewn with briars and thistles. Karl Marx is, along with Charles Darwin and Sigmund Freud, the most influential figure of late 19th-century European thought, and, even more so than the other two, his works have made his a household name on virtually every continent—a name not always loved, certainly, but one that is easily recognized. In terms of sheer numbers, one hundred and one years after the publication of The Communist Manifesto, in 1848, and a scant half-century after the issue of the third volume of Das Kapital, roughly one-third of the world’s people were living in regimes overtly committed to Marxism. Even after the fall of communism in Europe in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and its devaluation in much of the rest of the world, it remains an important critique of the prevailing liberaldemocratic and capitalistic hegemony. In Latin America, in particular, the fertility of Marxism has blossomed and, somewhat ironically, “liberation theology”—the use of Marx’s ideas in conjunction with Christianity—may be the last bastion of actual Marxism in the world. This paper critically examines the “liberation theology” of José Porfirio Miranda, as expressed in his Marx and the Bible (1971), with a focus on the central idea (and subtitle) of this work: the “Critique of the Philosophy of Oppression.” Miranda’s critique is examined via certain key tropes such as “power,” “justice,” and “freedom,” both in the context of late twentieth-century Latin American society, and in the state of the post-Christian and post-Marxist world more generally, visà-vis contemporary liberal justice theory. Close examination of the ramifications, potentialities, paradoxes and subtle evasions in Miranda’s critique, leads not to a dismissal of his work from a liberal-capitalist, secular Marxist, or orthodox Christian perspective but rather a feeling that Miranda does not go far enough. Thus, this paper concludes with an amplification rather than a denial of Miranda’s critique, but one that is not a carte-blanche paean to liberation theology. As Miranda’s work shows. The path of liberation remains, like any dangerous and difficult undertaking, strewn with briars