RELIGN 156Religion and Liberation
Religion, Study of · 4 units · Undergraduate upper division (100-199)
Study traces ways religion and liberation have been understood to connect in the later 20th-century phenomenon called liberation theology. Started by James Cone’s embrace of Christian Black Power movement in the U.S. and Gustavo Gutiérrez’s Latin American theology against poverty, this method of religious interpretation spread across world and sacred traditions. Reading of central texts that sparked the movement, and sampling of various ways movement was picked up and adapted by people of other identities: queer, South African, Islamic, Palestinian, etc. Highlights key issues of the relationship between religion and liberation, political-religious theory, utopia, oppression, justice, and hope.
P/NP or letter grading.
When it runs
Not on the schedule for any of Fall 2025 through Spring 2027. UCLA publishes only that window, so this does not mean the course is gone — check the official listing.
Requisites
UCLA lists no requisites for this course.
Requires
Everything that has to come before this course, not just the courses named in the requisite above.
Nothing — this is an entry point.
Unlocks
What this course is a requisite for, and what those courses lead to in turn.
No course in the catalog lists this as a requisite.