Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified People from the Cross

by Jon Sobrino

The essays in Sorbino’s latest collection bear on one of the most pressing signs of the 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.

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 24, 2015

About the author

Jon Sobrino, S.J. is a Jesuit Catholic priest and theologian, known mostly for his contributions to liberation theology.

He received worldwide attention in 2007 when the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a Notification for what they see as doctrines which are "erroneous or dangerous and may cause harm to the faithful."

Life

Born into a Basque family in Barcelona, Sobrino entered the Jesuit Order when he was 18. The following year, in 1958, he was sent to El Salvador. He later studied engineering at St. Louis University, a Jesuit University, in the United States and then theology in Frankfurt in West Germany. Returning to El Salvador, he taught at the Jesuit-run University of Central America (UCA) in San Salvador, which he helped to found.

On November 16, 1989 he narrowly escaped being assassinated by the Atlacatl Battalion, an elite unit of the Salvadoran Army. By a coincidence, he was away from El Salvador when members of the military broke into the rectory at the UCA and brutally murdered his six fellow Jesuits, Ignacio Ellacuría, Segundo Montes, Juan Ramón Moreno, Ignacio Martin Baro, Amando López, and Joaquín López y López, and their housekeeper Elba Ramos and her 15-year old daughter Celina Ramos. The Jesuits were targeted for their outspoken work to bring about resolution to the brutal El Salvador Civil War that left about 75,000 men, women, and children dead, in the great majority civilians.

Investigated by the Vatican throughout his career as a professor of theology, he has remained an outspoken proponent of peace, joining protests in 2008 of the continued training of Latin American military officers in torture techniques at the School of the Americas at Fort Benning, GA.

Works

Sobrino's main works are Jesus the Liberator (1991) and its sequel, Christ the Liberator (1999), along with Christology at the Crossroads (1978), The True Church and the Poor (1984), Spirituality of Liberation (1990), The Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified People from the Cross (Orbis, 1994), No Salvation Outside the Poor: Prophetic-Utopian Essays (Orbis, 2008). See also Stephen J. Pope (ed), Hope and Solidarity: Jon Sobrino's Challenge to Christian Theology (Orbis, 2008).

Reviews

[Ryan Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't stop thinking about this book. On the one hand Sobrino presents some uniquely profound and thought-provoking ideas about mercy, justice, and liberation in these essays, well worth reading. But it is the fact that just a few years prior to the publication of this collection his friends and fellow Jesuit priests were assassinated in their home (along with their housekeeper and her 16-year old daughter) by a US funded and trained government death squad that really elevates this collection. Sobrino would have been killed as well if he hadn't been away lecturing.

This stark reality gives teeth to Sobrino's discussion of the way the plight of the poor and those who support them works in history to bring to pass salvation. Their names and memories are threaded throughout the essays, and the last two are dedicated to, and eulogize them. Their martyrdom was the turning point in the Salvadorian civil war, with international pressure and outrage eventually ending the conflict. Sobrino states clearly that solidarity with the poor often means being killed along with them, and the backdrop of the Jesuit martyrs forcefully underscores the real risk of siding with the oppressed against the oppressors. His clear love for his murdered friends and his unyielding devotion to the poor and oppressed leave the book on a profoundly sad but hopeful note.

[Evy Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. I appreciated its insights about forgiveness, many of which I had not previously thought about. Pretty difficult to read, definitely something you need to do in chunks.