impact on his interest in theology. He initially studied medicine at the National University of San Marcos in Peru in order to become a psychiatrist, then he realized he wanted to become a priest. He completed his theological studies in the Theology Faculty of Leuven in Belgium and in Lyon in France, where he studied under Henri de Lubac, Yves Congar, Marie Dominique Chenu, Christian Ducoq, and several others. It was also here where Gutiérrez was introduced to the Dominican and Jesuit ideologies, and was influenced by the work of Edward Schillebeeckx, Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, and Johann Baptist Metz. His time in Europe influenced Gutiérrez to discuss the openness of the Church to the contemporary world. He was also influenced by Protestant theologians such as Karl Barth and social scientists such as François Perroux and his idea of development. In 1959, Gutiérrez was ordained a priest. While studying in Europe, Gutiérrez was exposed to other, non-religious thinkers who had a profound impact on his ideology and the eventual formation of Latin American liberation theology. At the Faculty of Theology in Lyons, France he studied Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud - who he did a philosophy licentiate on at the University of Louvrain - and evolutionary theorists traditionally opposed or discouraged by the church. Marx's discussion of class struggle and the material conditions of poverty provided Gutiérrez a framework for understanding socio-economic inequality. Gutiérrez was at one time a parish priest of the Iglesia Cristo Redentor (Church of the Holy Redeemer) in Rimac, Peru. Foundations of liberation theology When he returned to Peru, Gutiérrez began to formulate his understanding of Latin American "reality" – the foundation and driving force of Latin American liberation theology. He states: "I come from a continent in which more than 60% of the population lives in a state of poverty, and 82% of those find themselves in extreme poverty." Gutiérrez focused his efforts on the rediscovery of love thy neighbor as the central axiom of Christian life. He felt the European theology he had studied did not reflect the oppressive material conditions in Latin America. In 2003, Gutiérrez reminisced that his "parishioners in Lima would... teach me volumes about hope in the midst of suffering". This relationship with Christianity would inspire his book On Job, published in 1987. An outline of Gutiérrez's theological proposal was drafted in his conference "Towards a Theology of Liberation" during the