558 - The Politics of Liberation

The Politics of Liberation
By John M. Swomley, Jr.
Elgin, Illinois, Brethren Press, 1984. 120 pp. $7.95.

For those interested in a succinct but nuanced introduction to a theologically- and biblically-informed reading of politics and liberation, as well as a politically- and liberation-oriented reading of theology and the Bible, this volume is highly recommended.

Designed to fill what is perceived as a gap in the literature about liberation and political theory, the text examines "the meaning of a politics of liberation, Hebrew and Christian theories of government, and modern concepts of political realism and idealism." It also discusses the "relation of power and ideology to liberation, and the roots of liberation in secular and biblical thought."

Deeply sympathetic but not uncritical of peoples' movements for liberation, Swomley offers a critical discussion of the commonly held views of politics as statecraft, of power as domination, and of ideology as false-consciousness. These are shaped by and reinforce the dominant ideology of political realism that builds a theory of politics and social change on a misleading valorization of the human as self-interested and fundamentally aggressive individuals as constitutive of political life.

Challenging such a view, the text seeks to develop a "consciousness of

559 - The Politics of Liberation

liberation, a new way of thinking politically" that understands politics as the "possibility of living, acting, organizing, and creating a public demand for a free society" where the creative ability of peoples to "oppose oppression" and accomplish the goals of liberation is affirmed. "Common humanity" and liberation become constitutive of political life.

Aside from its having clearly identified these wide-ranging and crucial issues that require further explication by students of political transformation, the significance of this text lies in its unmistakable basso firmo, namely, the affirmation of the fundamentally relational character of human life. For Swomley, this is symbolized by notions of "cooperation," "mutuality," and "love" embodied in communities that are struggling for liberation and are rooted in the primary symbol of freedom. While it appears that justice as dikaiosune, not freedom, can more fully re-present the foundation of the politics of liberation, still Swomley's text has contributed much to the exciting, often frustrating, discourse of the Judeo-Christian witness to personal and political transformation.

Lester Edwin J. Ruiz
The Cricket Center for Education and Research
Lawrenceville, N.J.