RIO DE JANEIRO, July 20 — Brazilian writer, philosopher and theologian Rubem Alves died yesterday aged 80 after a short illness, local media reported.

Alves died in hospital in Campinas from multiple organ failure ten days after he was admitted for respiratory failure brought on by pneumonia, according to Globo television and CBN radio.

The writer of some 160 widely translated works on education and psychology, Alves received a PhD from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1968.

Alves, an exponent of liberation theology — an interpretation of Christianity through the eyes of the suffering of the poor and marginalised — had numerous works published in English, among them What is Religion? and A Theology of Hope.

He also wrote a number of children’s books. — AFP