People as prophets: liberation theology as a radical perspective on accounting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present Latin American liberation theology, a contextual theology, as a radical perspective to inform and critique accounting and issues of accountability. Design/methodology/approach – The notion of sacred and secular is explored as a dualism that limits theological insights at the socio-political level. By rejecting dualism, liberation theology presents an alternative ontological stance. Findings – Studies in critical accounting have focussed on the repressive nature of accounting. This paper provides critical accounting with a theological insight that has the potential to inform an emancipatory or enabling accounting project. Originality/value – Enabling accounting has been studied from the perspective of gender, class, ethnicity and environment. Adopting liberation theology as a critical perspective provides a means of critiquing extant accounting practice from the episteme of the economically marginalised and a Christian mandate for who to enable and why