Leonardo Boff (Genésio Darci Boff)

1. Introduction

Leonardo Boff (born Genésio Darci Boff, 1938) is a Brazilian theologian and public intellectual widely associated with liberation theology and eco-theology. Emerging in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council and amid Latin America’s military dictatorships, his work reinterprets Christian doctrine through the lived experiences of the poor and of ecologically degraded regions, seeking to connect religious belief with concrete social and environmental transformation.

Boff’s writings move across theology, social theory, political ethics, and environmental thought, making him a representative figure of post–Vatican II, praxis-oriented theology. Proponents see him as one of the principal architects of Latin American liberation theology, especially in questions of church structure, popular participation, and the option for the poor. From the 1990s onward, he also became a central voice in articulating integral ecology, arguing that the “cry of the earth” and the “cry of the poor” are structurally linked.

His work has been both influential and controversial. Supporters highlight his role in giving conceptual depth to base ecclesial communities, human rights struggles, and global ecological debates; critics, including some Vatican officials and more conservative theologians, have questioned his use of Marxist social analysis, his critiques of ecclesial authority, and his broad engagement with non-Christian spiritualities. Outside theological circles, philosophers and social scientists engage Boff primarily as a theorist of power, community, and planetary ethics, whose categories circulate in broader discussions of democracy, decoloniality, and environmental justice.

This entry examines Boff’s life context, phases of intellectual development, major works, core ideas on liberation and church, ecological thought, methodology, ethical proposals, philosophical engagements, reception, and historical significance within contemporary religious and political thought.

2. Life and Historical Context

Leonardo Boff was born in 1938 in Concórdia, Santa Catarina, in southern Brazil, to a family of Italian immigrant farmers. This rural, working-class background, with its experience of material scarcity and strong popular Catholicism, is widely regarded as formative for his later focus on poverty, community solidarity, and popular religiosity. Entering the Franciscan order, he was ordained in 1959 and took the religious name Leonardo, embedding his trajectory within a tradition that emphasizes poverty, fraternity, and care for creation.

His adult life unfolds against the backdrop of major Brazilian and Latin American transformations. The 1964 Brazilian military coup and subsequent dictatorship (1964–1985) shaped the environment in which Boff taught and wrote, particularly in Petrópolis at the Instituto Teológico Franciscano from the early 1970s. The growth of base ecclesial communities (CEBs), influenced by the Medellín (1968) and Puebla (1979) conferences of Latin American bishops, provided concrete pastoral settings for the praxis-oriented theology he helped systematize.

Internationally, his doctoral studies in Munich during the late 1960s and early 1970s occurred in a Europe marked by postwar reconstruction, critical theory, and student movements of 1968, exposing him to German political theology and contemporary philosophy. These currents intersected with Latin America’s struggles against authoritarianism and dependency, encouraging a hybrid theological style that combined European critical thought with Latin American social analysis.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, rising tensions between liberation theologians and the Vatican, particularly within the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), led to Boff’s disciplinary silencing and eventual departure from the Franciscan order. From the 1990s onward, amid the consolidation of Brazilian democracy, neoliberal reforms, and intensifying environmental concerns in the Amazon and beyond, he redirected much of his work toward global human rights and ecological crises, situating Brazilian realities within a planetary horizon.

3. Intellectual Development

Boff’s intellectual trajectory is often divided into several overlapping phases that correspond to shifts in emphasis and context rather than abrupt breaks.

Franciscan and European Formation

During the 1950s and 1960s, Boff’s training in Franciscan seminaries and later at the University of Munich immersed him in ressourcement theology, patristic studies, and post–Vatican II renewal. He encountered German political theology, including figures influenced by Karl Rahner, Jürgen Moltmann, and Johann Baptist Metz, and elements of critical theory. This period provided his systematic grounding in Christian doctrine while sensitizing him to questions of history, politics, and suffering.

Liberationist Ecclesiology and Christology

Returning to Brazil in the early 1970s, Boff became a key voice in emerging liberation theology. His early major works, such as Jesus Cristo Libertador and essays later collected in Igreja: Carisma e Poder, developed a Christology from below and a militant ecclesiology centered on base communities, participation, and structural sin. He sought to reinterpret doctrines—Christ, Trinity, sacramentality—in light of Latin America’s oppressed majorities.

Conflict and Broadening of Scope

The 1985 silencing by the CDF and subsequent pressures prompted an explicit reflection on church power, human rights, and democracy. In this period, Boff moved more deliberately into interdisciplinary dialogue, drawing on sociology, political science, and ethics. As he transitioned from cleric to lay intellectual in 1992, his focus increasingly included global political structures, North–South inequalities, and planetary governance, while retaining liberationist commitments.

Eco-Theological and Planetary Ethics Phase

From the mid-1990s, with works like Ecologia: Grito da Terra, Grito dos Pobres and later Saber Cuidar, Boff reoriented his central problematic around ecology, arguing that social oppression and ecological degradation stem from a single civilizational paradigm of domination. He engaged systems theory, indigenous cosmologies, and environmental science, articulating an integral ecology and an ethics of care that extended liberation theology into a planetary framework. Proponents see continuity in his option for the poor; others describe this as a partial shift from a primarily socio-economic lens toward a broader cosmo-ethical horizon.

4. Major Works and Themes

Boff’s corpus is extensive; a few works are commonly regarded as particularly influential for understanding his thought.

Recurrent Themes

Across these works, a number of cross-cutting themes appear:

• Liberation as holistic: Salvation is interpreted in socio-political, cultural, and ecological terms, not only spiritual or individual ones.
• Praxis and reflection: Theology is framed as “second act” reflection on liberating praxis, shaped by the experiences of the poor and oppressed.
• Church and power: The institutional church is analyzed as a historical actor that can either reinforce or challenge domination.
• Trinitarian relationality: The Christian doctrine of the Trinity functions as a symbolic model for egalitarian and communal social arrangements.
• Integral ecology: Environmental devastation and social injustice are seen as two expressions of a deeper civilizational crisis.
• Care and compassion: Later works foreground cuidado (care) as the basic ethical stance toward humans, non-human beings, and the Earth.

Interpretive scholarship sometimes distinguishes an “early” Boff, centered on class struggle and ecclesial structures, from a “later” Boff focused on planetary ecology and spirituality, while others stress the continuity of a single liberationist project expanded in scope.

5. Core Ideas: Liberation, Church, and Power

Boff’s early and middle-period work is structured around the nexus of liberation, ecclesiology, and power relations within both church and society.

Liberation and the Option for the Poor

For Boff, liberation names a multifaceted process—personal, social, and spiritual—anchored in the experience of the poor and marginalized. He aligns with the broader liberation theology conviction that the “preferential option for the poor” is a hermeneutical and practical norm rather than only a charitable attitude. Proponents emphasize his insistence that theological truth claims must be tested against historical efficacy in promoting justice.

Church as Sacrament of Liberation or Oppression

In Igreja: Carisma e Poder, Boff develops a critical ecclesiology militante. He contrasts charism—the Spirit’s gifts distributed to all believers—with centralized, clerical power. The church, he argues, is historically ambivalent:

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“The Church will be either a sacrament of liberation or an instrument of oppression.”

— Leonardo Boff, Church: Charism and Power

He advocates for participatory structures, collegiality, and recognition of base ecclesial communities as genuine loci of church life.

Analysis of Power Structures

Boff extends his analysis from church to broader political and economic systems, using concepts of structural sin and institutionalized injustice. Influenced by Marxist and dependency theories (see Section 7), he interprets ecclesial hierarchies in relation to class, colonial, and patriarchal power. Proponents value this as unveiling hidden forms of domination; critics within the church have regarded it as overly politicizing theology or undermining the sacramental nature of hierarchy.

Trinitarian Model of Community

In A Trindade e a Sociedade, he offers a Trinitarian social analogy: the divine life as a communion of equal persons in mutual perichoresis serves symbolically to critique authoritarian social forms and inspire communitarian, dialogical structures. Some theologians see this as a creative retrieval of patristic insights; others argue that the analogy risks projecting human political ideals onto God.

Together, these ideas frame the church and society as contested fields where power can be exercised dominatively or reconfigured toward liberation and shared participation.

6. Eco-Theology and Integral Ecology

From the mid-1990s, Boff’s work increasingly articulates a comprehensive eco-theology under the rubric of integral ecology (ecologia integral).

Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

In Ecologia: Grito da Terra, Grito dos Pobres, Boff argues that environmental degradation and social oppression arise from a single civilizational paradigm characterized by domination, utilitarianism, and anthropocentrism. His oft-cited formula,

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“The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor are one and the same cry,”

— Leonardo Boff, Ecology: Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor

expresses the thesis that ecological and social crises must be addressed together. Supporters see this as an important conceptual bridge between environmentalism and social justice movements.

Integral Ecology

Integral ecology, in Boff’s usage, refers to the interweaving of:

• Natural systems (climate, biodiversity, ecosystems),
• Socio-economic structures (capitalist accumulation, inequality),
• Cultural and spiritual dimensions (worldviews, religiosity, values).

He proposes that fragmented approaches—purely technical, economic, or spiritual—cannot resolve a structurally interconnected crisis. This view has been noted as convergent with, and possibly influential on, Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’.

Cosmology, Spirituality, and Indigenous Wisdom

Boff integrates modern cosmology, particularly evolutionary and systems perspectives, with Franciscan spirituality and indigenous cosmologies that view Earth as a living, sacred whole. Proponents argue that this fosters a post-anthropocentric outlook, situating humans within a “community of life” rather than above it. Some critics question the theological compatibility of this synthesis with classical Christian doctrines, suggesting that it risks pantheism or diluting Christocentrism.

Political and Ethical Implications

His eco-theology entails global ethical and political proposals: a shift from a civilization of production and consumption to one of care, cooperation, and biocentric justice; new forms of planetary governance; and recognition of ecological rights alongside human rights. Environmental philosophers and ethicists selectively engage these ideas as contributions to debates on sustainability, Earth citizenship, and environmental justice, while also questioning the feasibility of the sweeping civilizational changes he envisions.

7. Methodology and Use of Social Analysis

Boff’s method is characteristically contextual, interdisciplinary, and praxis-oriented, integrating theological reflection with social-scientific tools.

See–Judge–Act and Praxis Hermeneutic

Influenced by Catholic social teaching and liberation theology, Boff often follows a “see–judge–act” structure:

1. See: Analyze concrete historical situations of oppression and ecological degradation.
2. Judge: Interpret them in light of biblical and theological resources.
3. Act: Orient praxis toward transformative action.

Theology is thus understood as “second act” reflection arising from and returning to liberating praxis, rather than a purely speculative discipline.

Use of Marxist and Dependency Analysis

Boff draws selectively on Marxist categories (class, ideology, alienation) and dependency theory to interpret Latin America’s position in the global economy and the church’s role within it. He frames structural sin in terms of unjust socio-economic systems, arguing that personal conversion must be linked to structural transformation.

Supporters see his method as a balanced “use but not adoption” of Marxism as an instrument of analysis; critics, especially within the Vatican in the 1980s, argued that this borrowing risked subordinating theology to a materialist worldview.

Interdisciplinarity and Epistemology

From the eco-theological phase onward, Boff incorporates ecology, systems theory, anthropology, and indigenous studies into his method. He emphasizes “epistemic privilege of the poor and of threatened ecosystems”, suggesting that those most affected by injustice and ecological harm possess critical insights into reality. Philosophers of knowledge have engaged this claim as a form of standpoint epistemology; some affirm its corrective to abstract universalism, while others question whether such epistemic privilege can be generalized without romanticizing marginalization.

Overall, Boff’s methodology aims to keep theology in continuous dialogue with empirical analysis and emancipatory praxis, while remaining contested regarding the weight assigned to different disciplines and perspectives.

8. Ethics of Care, Community, and Human Rights

In his later work, particularly Saber Cuidar (Essential Care), Boff develops an ethics of care (ética do cuidado) that extends earlier liberationist themes into a more explicitly anthropological and planetary register.

Care as Fundamental Ethical Attitude

Boff proposes care as the foundational ethical category underlying responsible human existence. Drawing on phenomenological and psychological insights as well as Franciscan spirituality, he argues that human beings are constitutively beings-of-care, oriented toward others, the community, and the Earth. Proponents link this with broader care ethics traditions, noting convergences in emphasizing relationality and vulnerability.

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“We are not lords of the Earth, but its sons and daughters, part of the community of life that preceded us and will continue after us.”

— Leonardo Boff, Saber Cuidar

Community and Social Bonds

Boff extends care to the realm of community, emphasizing solidarity, participation, and mutual responsibility. He critiques individualistic and competitive social models, proposing instead communities modeled on co-responsibility and shared resources. His earlier Trinitarian analogy (see Section 5) continues to inform this emphasis on relational communio.

Human Rights and Planetary Rights

Boff situates human rights within a broader framework of Earth rights or the rights of nature. For him, classic human rights discourse, while crucial, remains incomplete if it does not recognize the intrinsic value and rights of non-human beings and ecosystems. Supporters regard this as a pioneering attempt to merge human rights theory with environmental ethics; some legal scholars and philosophers, however, question the coherence of attributing “rights” to ecosystems and prefer alternative normative vocabularies (e.g., duties, stewardship).

Critical Responses

Some Christian ethicists appreciate Boff’s expansion of moral concern but worry that his broad planetary ethic may blur specific Christian obligations or ecclesial distinctiveness. Secular ethicists sometimes find his spiritual language difficult to translate into pluralistic frameworks, yet engage his insistence that no sustainable ethical order can ignore interpersonal care, social justice, and ecological integrity as interdependent domains.

In sum, Boff’s ethics of care seeks to integrate personal compassion, communal solidarity, human rights, and ecological responsibility into a single normative horizon.

9. Engagement with Philosophy and Critical Theory

Although trained as a theologian, Boff’s work is in constant dialogue with modern philosophy and critical social theory.

Dialogue with European Thought

During his Munich studies and afterward, Boff encountered German idealism, phenomenology, and critical theory. He interacts, directly or indirectly, with thinkers such as Karl Marx, Max Weber, Jürgen Habermas, and the Frankfurt School, primarily around themes of ideology, emancipation, and rationality. He appropriates these resources to analyze capitalism, state power, and ecclesial authority, while reframing them within a theological and Latin American context.

Political Theology and Public Ethics

Boff participates in the broader field of political theology, alongside figures like Johann Baptist Metz and Jürgen Moltmann, but from a Global South perspective. He extends their focus on memory of suffering and hope into concrete analyses of dictatorship, democracy, and human rights in Latin America. Philosophers of religion note his contribution to redefining political theology as a praxis-centered, decolonial project, rather than solely a European postwar discourse.

Decolonial and Post-Anthropocentric Currents

In his eco-theology, Boff converges with decolonial thought (e.g., Latin American critiques of Eurocentric modernity) and post-anthropocentric philosophies (such as environmental ethics and some strands of posthumanism). He draws on indigenous cosmologies and criticizes Western dualisms of nature/culture and subject/object. Proponents see in this an anticipation of “pluriversal” philosophies; critics point to potential romanticization of indigenous traditions or insufficient attention to internal diversities and conflicts within them.

Philosophical Reception and Debate

Philosophers engage Boff’s work in multiple ways:

• As a case study in standpoint epistemology (poor and oppressed as epistemic subjects).
• As a normative proposal for Earth citizenship and planetary ethics, compared with cosmopolitanism.
• As a contribution to debates about institutional power and legitimacy, especially in discussions of church and civil society.

Some critics argue that his arguments sometimes move quickly from empirical diagnoses to sweeping normative conclusions, or that they rely heavily on symbolic and theological language that may not easily translate into secular philosophical discourse. Nonetheless, his work is widely referenced in discussions where religious, political, and ecological questions intersect, particularly in Latin American and liberationist philosophical literatures.

10. Reception, Criticism, and Debates

Boff’s work has generated extensive debate within ecclesial, academic, and political spheres.

Ecclesial Reception

Within the Roman Catholic Church, Boff became a focal point of controversy in the 1980s. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) criticized aspects of his use of Marxist analysis, his interpretation of ecclesial authority, and his presentation of Christology and Trinity. His 1985 silencing and subsequent restrictions were seen by some church authorities as necessary to safeguard doctrine, while supporters interpreted them as evidence of institutional resistance to prophetic critique.

The election of Pope Francis and the publication of Laudato Si’ led observers to note convergences with Boff’s eco-theology, prompting discussion about a partial rehabilitation of liberationist and ecological themes within official Catholic teaching. Nonetheless, full consensus on his earlier ecclesiological positions has not been reached.

Academic and Theological Critiques

Among theologians and scholars:

• Supporters highlight his synthesis of praxis, theology, and social analysis, crediting him with deepening liberation theology’s ecclesiology and expanding it into ecological domains.
• Critics contend that he sometimes reduces complex doctrines to socio-political functions, or that his Trinitarian social analogy risks turning theology into an ideological projection.
• Some eco-theologians applaud his integral ecology but question the precision of his engagement with scientific literature or the risk of spiritualizing ecological discourse.

Philosophical and Secular Debates

In secular philosophy and social theory, Boff is often engaged selectively:

• Advocates of environmental justice and decolonial thought reference his linkage of social and ecological oppression.
• Skeptical readers argue that his reliance on theological premises and spiritual language limits the applicability of his proposals in pluralistic contexts.
• Debate continues over the feasibility of his calls for radical civilizational change and planetary governance grounded in care.

Political and Social Movement Reception

In Latin America, Boff has been an intellectual reference for grassroots movements, base communities, and some sectors of the left, who see in his work a resource for articulating faith-based commitment to social and ecological struggles. Others within progressive circles criticize what they perceive as a shift from class struggle to a more diffuse eco-spiritual discourse, debating whether this represents strategic broadening or a dilution of radical critique.

Overall, his reception is marked by polarization and cross-disciplinary engagement, with his ideas functioning as a catalyst for continued discussion on theology’s role in politics and ecology.

11. Legacy and Historical Significance

Boff’s historical significance is often assessed along multiple axes: liberation theology, ecclesial politics, environmental thought, and global ethics.

Liberation Theology and Church Debates

Within the history of liberation theology, Boff is recognized as one of its chief systematizers, especially regarding church structures, base communities, and Trinitarian social models. His conflict with the Vatican became emblematic of the broader tension between liberationist movements and centralized ecclesial authority, shaping perceptions of what forms of theological dissent are possible within the Catholic Church. Historians of religion frequently cite his case when analyzing post–Vatican II struggles over doctrine, authority, and inculturation.

Contribution to Eco-Theology and Integral Ecology

Boff is widely regarded as a pioneer of eco-theology in the Global South and a key proponent of integral ecology. His formula linking the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor has circulated beyond theological circles into environmental policy debates, NGOs, and social movements. Some scholars argue that his work helped prepare the conceptual ground for the Catholic Church’s ecological turn under Pope Francis, although the extent of direct influence remains debated.

Influence on Global Ethics and Political Thought

By articulating notions such as Earth community and planetary citizenship, Boff has contributed to emerging discourses on global ethics and cosmopolitanism that take ecological limits and cultural plurality seriously. His integration of indigenous wisdom, systems thinking, and human rights is referenced in decolonial and post-development literature as an example of alternative civilizational imaginaries.

Broader Cultural and Intellectual Impact

Beyond academia, Boff has served as a public intellectual in Brazil and Latin America, writing for broad audiences and participating in media and social forums. Supporters view him as a bridge figure between popular religiosity, intellectual debates, and social movements. Critics note that his wide public presence sometimes blurs distinctions between scholarly argument, pastoral exhortation, and political commentary.

In historical retrospect, Boff is often situated as a figure who helped shift Christian and broader ethical discourse from a focus on individual salvation and institutional stability toward an integrated concern with social liberation, democratic participation, and planetary survival, making him a key reference point in the evolution of contemporary theology and public ethics.