Alves was born on September 15, 1933, in Boa Esperança, Minas Gerais, Brazil. He obtained his Bachelor of Theology degree at the Presbyterian Seminary in Campinas, Brazil, in 1957. He went on to obtain a Master of Theology from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, United States, in 1964. After completing this degree, Alves returned to Brazil amidst a US-sponsored military coup against the democratically elected Brazilian government. At the time, the new military regime was attempting to purge Brazil of communist sympathizers. The Presbyterian Church of Brazil provided the new government with the names of six intellectuals to serve as scapegoats and to avert persecution themselves. Immediately upon his return to Brazil, Alves went into hiding. More than forty accusations were made against Alves and others, including claims that they taught that Jesus was sexually involved with a prostitute, celebrated when their children denounced Americans, and were funded by the Soviet Union. Alves reports that these accusations were ineffective, saying, "the positive side of the document was that it was so, that not even the most could believe that we were guilty of so many crimes." Alves continued to elude government authorities. Within two months of his arrival in Brazil, he returned to the United States covertly with assistance from Brazilian Freemasons and the Presbyterian Church in the United States, which secured an invitation from Princeton Theological Seminary for him to commence doctoral studies there. Alves did not enjoy his studies at Princeton. He sorely missed his homeland, and felt constrained by the requirements of the doctoral program. Although he ultimately wrote his dissertation according to the requirements of his professors, Alves was not pleased with it, saying, "I wrote uglily, without smiles or poetry, for there was no other alternative: a Brazilian student, underdeveloped, in a foreign institution, must indeed submit himself, if he wants to pass." He completed his doctoral dissertation, Toward a Theology of Liberation, in 1968, and received "the lowest possible grade" needed to receive his doctorate at Princeton in 1968. Alves later critiqued the direction some writers took liberation theology, saying "it has little to say about the personal dimension of life. If a father or mother comes with their dead child, it's no consolation to say, 'In the future just society there will be no more deaths of this kind.' This brings no comfort!" However, he also described liberation theology as "absolutely essential", describing his own version of liberation theology with these words: "The origin of my liberation theology is an erotic exuberance for life. We need to struggle to restore its erotic exuberance, to share this with the whole world."
Besides his activities as a university professor and researcher, Alves was a prolific writer of books and articles in journals and newspapers on education, psychology and life in general. From 1986 he was a regular columnist in Correio Popular, the main newspaper in his hometown, Campinas, in São Paulo state. He published more than 40 books, several of which have been translated into German, French, English, Italian, Spanish and Romanian. During his career he collaborated with notable personalities, including Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day, and Paulo Freire. His book, The Poet, The Warrior, The Prophet, is an important text in the field of theopoetics. During the last years of his life, Alves wrote several children's books. Alves died on July 19, 2014, in Campinas, Brazil.
Legacy
Alves has been described as an "unsung hero", and is often omitted from brief descriptions of liberation theology.
Books
International
246 pages. Revised version of his doctorate thesis, originally titled Towards a Theology of Liberation.
