The Amnesty of Grace: Justification by Faith from a Latin American Perspective

by Elsa Tamez, Sharon H. Ringe (Translator)

"This study explores the meaning of justification in the framework of Latin American theology of liberation, which is a particular way of doing theology welcomed by both Catholics and Protestants. In this theology, the poor, 'oppressed and believing,' constitute the privileged locus of theology. That is to say, theology is done from their reality of oppression-liberation and their experience of God. Every great theological theme, every biblical reading, must be reexamined from that angle of vision." (from the Introduction, by Elsa Tamez)

Genres: Theology, Christianity, Religion

212 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 1993

About the author

Elsa Tamez is a Methodist and Liberation Theologian. She was born in Mexico in 1950. Prof. Tamez received her Doctor's Degree in Theology from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She received her Licentiate in Theology in 1979 from the Latin American Biblical Seminary, and a Licentiate in Literature and Linguistics at the National University of Costa Rica in 1986. She is a faculty member of the Latin American Biblical University in Costa Rica and a member of the team of researchers of the Ecumenical Department of Investigation (DEI) in Costa Rica. She is married with two children.

Among her most known publications in English are: The Bible of the Oppressed (1980), The Scandalous Message of James (1989), The Amnesty of Grace (1993), and When the Horizons Close: Rereading Ecclesiastes (2000). Her latest publication is Jesus and Courageous Women (2001). She has received several awards for her contributions to Contextual Biblical Hermeneutics.

Reviews

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I deeply appreciate Tamez' reading of justification from the perspective of the excluded person. The excluded person is the one in society without power, the one expected to sacrifice health, prosperity, and wellbeing in order for the society and the economy to function. Looking at the resurrection, not the crucifixion of Jesus as the necessary event in justification, Tamez sees it as a matter of life. The crucifixion of Jesus is the end of all sacrifices. The judgment of God comes in the resurrection and God judges not a person, but systems of injustice. Unjust systems are found guilty and destroyed, and the excluded are given life in the resurrection of Jesus.

[Jaret · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although it was a bit repetitious and the language was a bit too scholarly at some points for my taste (after all, one would think that a book on liberation theology would be accessible for the majority of the population), I really enjoyed this book. The historical perspectives that she gave on the different communities Paul wrote to in his famous letters were really helpful. I agreed with a lot of her points and I feel like my understanding of Justification by Faith has really grown through reading this book. The knowledge gained made this book very much worth the effort to read it. Vale la pena!