Jon Sobrino

In this powerful book the great Latin American theolgian Jon Sobrino shows that global capitalism is driven by a cruel dynamic of oppression and greed, which inevitably dehumanises people, destroys the human family, and threatens mother earth. He argues it is the poor who, paradoxically, offer the only way to salvation for the World. We must work for a new civilisation that will give everyone access to material and cultural goods that make for a truly human life.

Jon Sobrino's latest book takes its starting point from tragedy and violence: a devastating earthquake in El Salvador, the terrorist attacks of September 11, and the subsequent bombing of Afghanistan. The topic of suffering and death has traditionally raised questions about the nature and existence of God. But for Sobrino the primary question is addressed to ourselves: Who are we human beings? What does it mean to be human in a world of inequality, injustice, and barbarism? In examining the cruelty of history from the standpoint of the victims, Sobrino finds a challenge not just to find meaning, but to answer a call to personal conversion, structural change, compassion, and solidarity. Ultimately, Christian faith finds hope in the cross - a cross borne not only by Christ, but by Romero, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the poor: "Because of that hope, no matter how hard it is to live through catastrophes, terrorism and barbarity, we cannot rule out the possibility of resurrection."

Jon Sobrino continues the magisterial christology begun in Jesus the Liberator. In that book Sobrino examined the identity of Jesus in relation to his message, his interlocutors, and the conflict that led to his death. In this second volume he takes up the Resurrection of Christ, the christology of the New Testament, and finally the christological formulae of the early church councils. Throughout Christ the Liberator Sobrino writes from the reality of faith, as set in motion by the event of Jesus Christ, and from the situation of the victims -- the "Crucified People" of history -- particularly the poor of El Salvador, with whom he works. With Christ the Liberator Sobrino's christology takes its place among the most significant contributions of Latin America to the church and theology today.

Across nineteenth-century Europe, the emergence of constitutional and democratic nation-states was accompanied by intense conflict between Catholics and anti-clerical forces. At its peak, this conflict touched virtually every sphere of social life: schools, universities, the press, marriage and gender relations, burial rites, associational culture, the control of public space, folk memory and the symbols of nationhood. In short, these conflicts were 'culture wars', in which the values and collective practices of modern life were at stake. These 'culture wars' have generally been seen as a chapter in the history of specific nation-states. Yet it has recently become increasingly clear that the Europe of the mid- and later nineteenth century should be seen as a common politico-cultural space. This book breaks with the conventional approach by setting developments in specific states within a trans-national context, offering a fresh and revealing perspective on one of modernity's formative conflicts.

The essays in Sobrino's latest collection bear on one of the most pressing signs of the times: the existence of a "crucified people, " the poor and oppressed of our world, whose suffering presents Christian faith with an urgent demand - that we "take them down from the cross." Writing from the Salvadoran context, he presents a "theology of mercy, " reflecting on the principles of mercy and solidarity as the mode of Christian witness and discipleship in a world of conflict and suffering. In a personal introduction that sets the tone, Sobrino describes the evolution of his own thinking under the impact of the Salvadoran reality. Part One focuses on the essential character of mercy, and on the importance of shaping the mission of the church and the task of theology. Part Two analyzes the crucified reality of the Third World with specific reflections on salvation, forgiveness, and the grace of being forgiven. Part Three presents two manifestations of mercy: the reality of priesthood and solidarity. Finally, in a moving Afterword, Sobrino focuses on his martyred fellow Jesuits of the Central American University, a group who paid the ultimate price of mercy.

This work is a presentation of the truth of Jesus Christ from the viewpoint of liberation - from Jesus's options for the poor, his confrontation with the powerful and the persecution and death this brought him. Building and expanding on his previous works, Jon Sobrino develops a Christology that shows how to meet the mystery of God, all God "Father" and call this Jesus "the Christ".

How is it possible to live a spiritual life? What should the kernel of this spirituality be, in this world of crises, challenges, and change? From his immersion in the violent and struggle-filled reality of Central America, Jon Sobrino articulates a way to imbue the practice of liberation with spirituality - a dimension that critics often charge is lacking in liberation theology. Without spirit, practice degenerates. Without practice, spirit remains vague, undifferentiated, even alienated. Sobrino argues that the only authentic Christian practice is the following of Jesus in one's own history, that that discipleship must be lived in the spirit of Jesus, in heart and soul as well as world and deed.