Jesus the Liberator

Overview

Jesus the Liberator centers around three questions: the methodology of Latin American Christology; the message and mission of Jesus; and the circumstances and meaning of his suffering and death. Sobrino’s starting point is the suffering poor of El Salvador – one of the “crucified peoples” ofHistory. As Sobrino demonstrates, this vantage point reveals a different face of Christ, and consequently demands a different mode of discipleship. Rather than an “abstract” Christ who identifies with the powerful and counsels passive acceptance of unjust suffering, the poor have discovered a new image of Christ as “the Liberator,” one who lived and died in service of God’s kingdom inHistory.

Jon Sobrino, S.J., is a Spanish-born Jesuit theologian who has lived in El Salvador for more than three decades. His many books include Christ the Liberator, Spirituality of Liberation, No Salvation Outside the Poor, Where Is God? and Witnesses to the Kingdom: The Martyrs of El Salvador and the Crucified People. With Ignacio Ellacuria he has edited Mysterium Liberationis: Fundamental Concepts of Liberation Theology.