In this book Clodovis Boff rigorously and passionately erects the methodological scaffolding that is necessary to construct a true theology of the political, a true theology of liberation. Much of the book is devoted to clarifying and articulating the boundaries of the relationships among theology, the political, the social sciences, hermeneutics, and praxis. As an element of that constructive work, Boff carefully points out the past and present theoretical shortcomings of political theology and the theology of liberation. Thus the book fills a methodological void that has hampered the full development of a theology of the political, and it blazes a path beyond what the author calls the "first phase" of liberation theology.