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Jesus the Liberator: A Historical-Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth
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 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.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
About the author
Jon Sobrino
93 books35 followersJon 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 19, 2021
Just when I thought I could not read another book about Jesus that would shed new light, I read Sobrino.
Of course, I love his liberation theology perspective, but what I found particularly fascinating was his chapter on idolatry, which to me gave much deeper understanding as to why idolatry was so harmful. The practice being yet another extension and manifestation of empire/imperialism and essentially a method of domination over other humans.
Also profound was his discussion on the passion and crucifixion of Jesus. A man who suffered in solidarity. A man who bore witness on the cross to evil oppressive power. A man who freely gave his life because he was protesting, and serving his fellow humans. Ending his book with the crucifixion powerfully drove home this perspective.
Of course, I love his liberation theology perspective, but what I found particularly fascinating was his chapter on idolatry, which to me gave much deeper understanding as to why idolatry was so harmful. The practice being yet another extension and manifestation of empire/imperialism and essentially a method of domination over other humans.
Also profound was his discussion on the passion and crucifixion of Jesus. A man who suffered in solidarity. A man who bore witness on the cross to evil oppressive power. A man who freely gave his life because he was protesting, and serving his fellow humans. Ending his book with the crucifixion powerfully drove home this perspective.
May 6, 2021
Sobrino surveys the life and death of the historical Jesus with an eye towards his mission of bringing the liberation of the Kingdom of God to the poor and oppressed in history. Sobrino's real-life experience with the massacres and oppression of the Salvadoran poor and the murder of his fellow priests and friends make his insights ring with profundity that can only come from lived experience. The last two chapters, in which he meditates on the meaning and interpretation of Jesus' crucifixion in history and compares "the crucified people" of the modern world to the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, are among the most profound and moving I've ever read.
October 4, 2026
Jesus the Liberator
42/2026.
Jon Sobrino takes up the case of a Christology rooted in Salvadoran liberation theologians and the lived experiences of Salvadoran people during the wars of the 1970’s and 1980’s. My pastor introduced me to the framing of “kingdom vs anti-kingdom” he uses here, so I was glad to have a chance to explore liberation theology in this book.
Liberation theology tends toward the material (the end of oppression, human dignity and wellbeing, even as the world remains mired in evil. Salvation must be in combination with earthly liberation. Thus in a christology of liberation theology, Christ must be involved in the material liberation; the gospel provides ample opportunity to see Jesus care for the material needs of folk.
In Chapter 5, Sobrino gives us the gospel in one of the clearest and unencumbered framings I’ve ever seen: “Jesus proclaimed and served the Kingdom of God and was for this was sentenced to death. In all this - like any human being - he was faced with teh need to find and give meaning to his life and history. For him, this meaning was undoubtedly religious, and he expressed it by saying that what underpins reality is not an absurdity but something positive, and that this something positive is not an impersonal force, but something good and personal, a God whom he called Father.”
Sobrino’s central thesis, made with typical Jesuit rigor and beauty, is that Christ is still an active presence in Latin America, and that the people of the region are crucified by an array of forces: “unjust poverty, to which must be added ethnic, cultural, sexual and other oppressions,” and that liberation is correlated to these crucifying oppressions. It is a Christology rooted in the humanity of Jesus, and not solely the divine.
Sobrino’s view is that the Kingdom arises from within and from the anti-Kingdom; and of course Christ had to be within and from Empire and oppression in order to allow his message to penetrate such a space. This seems at tension with the American civil rights tenet of not being able to dismantle the master’s house using the master’s tools (Audre Lorde).
The later four chapters develop a theodicy of liberation theology, trying to reconcile the scandal of the crucified Christ with the horrors of El Salvador’s internal war and to make sense of how a good and powerful God can be reconciled with those horrors. He links this to a crucifixion of Christ’s body (the church) in the modern world, particularly among the poor and oppressed in developing countries.
42/2026.
Jon Sobrino takes up the case of a Christology rooted in Salvadoran liberation theologians and the lived experiences of Salvadoran people during the wars of the 1970’s and 1980’s. My pastor introduced me to the framing of “kingdom vs anti-kingdom” he uses here, so I was glad to have a chance to explore liberation theology in this book.
Liberation theology tends toward the material (the end of oppression, human dignity and wellbeing, even as the world remains mired in evil. Salvation must be in combination with earthly liberation. Thus in a christology of liberation theology, Christ must be involved in the material liberation; the gospel provides ample opportunity to see Jesus care for the material needs of folk.
In Chapter 5, Sobrino gives us the gospel in one of the clearest and unencumbered framings I’ve ever seen: “Jesus proclaimed and served the Kingdom of God and was for this was sentenced to death. In all this - like any human being - he was faced with teh need to find and give meaning to his life and history. For him, this meaning was undoubtedly religious, and he expressed it by saying that what underpins reality is not an absurdity but something positive, and that this something positive is not an impersonal force, but something good and personal, a God whom he called Father.”
Sobrino’s central thesis, made with typical Jesuit rigor and beauty, is that Christ is still an active presence in Latin America, and that the people of the region are crucified by an array of forces: “unjust poverty, to which must be added ethnic, cultural, sexual and other oppressions,” and that liberation is correlated to these crucifying oppressions. It is a Christology rooted in the humanity of Jesus, and not solely the divine.
Sobrino’s view is that the Kingdom arises from within and from the anti-Kingdom; and of course Christ had to be within and from Empire and oppression in order to allow his message to penetrate such a space. This seems at tension with the American civil rights tenet of not being able to dismantle the master’s house using the master’s tools (Audre Lorde).
The later four chapters develop a theodicy of liberation theology, trying to reconcile the scandal of the crucified Christ with the horrors of El Salvador’s internal war and to make sense of how a good and powerful God can be reconciled with those horrors. He links this to a crucifixion of Christ’s body (the church) in the modern world, particularly among the poor and oppressed in developing countries.
April 6, 2026
Jon Sobrino’s excellent book, Jesus the Liberator, is the first in a duology that explores a Christology from the perspective of liberation theology. The book focuses on the central themes of the historical Jesus leading up to his crucifixion, including his mission, the Kingdom of God, and the prophetic praxis that defined his preaching. Sobrino’s central thesis is that Christology often lacked an important focus on the mission of Jesus and the message that it carried, and that a theological re-centering around the contents of the Kingdom of God, and Jesus’ prophetic praxis, is important not only for the context of Latin America, but also for reclaiming Christology from individualistic tendencies in the Christian faith, and systematically oppressive ideologies.
The book can be dense for those not familiar with Christology, especially in the first few chapters, but when Sobrino finally expands upon the topics of the historical Jesus and his mission, his prose and argumentation shine. I particularly enjoyed the last two chapters on the “Crucified God” and the “Crucified Peoples,” which are extremely profound and captivating. The former engages with Jürgen Moltmann's work (and a few others) on the subject of the “Crucified God,” and what it means for God to be present and suffering during Jesus’ death, and how that extends to the suffering the current world sees, especially in societies like in Latin America where death, violence, and oppression stalks people everyday. The latter builds upon the work of Sobrino’s colleague, Ignacio Ellacuría, who experienced an untimely death at the hands of right-wing death squads in El Salvador during the Salvadoran civil war. Sobrino particularly proposes two ways of seeing the “Crucified People,” through Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant,” and through the lenses of martyrdom. Sobrino argues that there is a need to redefine martyrdom in the context of the poor and oppressed in Latin America, and that their suffering ultimately makes them the Crucified Christ present in today’s history.
This book is a classic in liberation theology and probably one of the most important works on Christology in the 20th century.
The book can be dense for those not familiar with Christology, especially in the first few chapters, but when Sobrino finally expands upon the topics of the historical Jesus and his mission, his prose and argumentation shine. I particularly enjoyed the last two chapters on the “Crucified God” and the “Crucified Peoples,” which are extremely profound and captivating. The former engages with Jürgen Moltmann's work (and a few others) on the subject of the “Crucified God,” and what it means for God to be present and suffering during Jesus’ death, and how that extends to the suffering the current world sees, especially in societies like in Latin America where death, violence, and oppression stalks people everyday. The latter builds upon the work of Sobrino’s colleague, Ignacio Ellacuría, who experienced an untimely death at the hands of right-wing death squads in El Salvador during the Salvadoran civil war. Sobrino particularly proposes two ways of seeing the “Crucified People,” through Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant,” and through the lenses of martyrdom. Sobrino argues that there is a need to redefine martyrdom in the context of the poor and oppressed in Latin America, and that their suffering ultimately makes them the Crucified Christ present in today’s history.
This book is a classic in liberation theology and probably one of the most important works on Christology in the 20th century.
July 24, 2026
Would be phenomenal if it weren’t for all the pelagianism lying underneath the surface. Still, it presses the reality of human suffering deep into the theological conversation, and is therefore an essential perspective. Keep Paul and Augustine close at hand, and I’m not sure much can go wrong. Sobrino’s tortuous gospel of the Crucified One can do us a lot of good.
October 26, 2025
Una reflexión teológica sin desperdicio. Visibilizar a los invisibilizados de la sociedad es precisamente la acción dinámica para liberarlos del sistema que los oprime.
August 16, 2014
A book with a deservedly high reputation amongst the Liberation Theology set, this Christology is the first part of two by Spanish Jesuit Fr. Jon Sobrino who has lived and worked in El Salvador since 1958. This is a "Christology from below," focused on the human life and work of Jesus, as opposed to the pre-existent and cosmic Christ. Sobrino convincingly shows how Jesus' focus was never on himself but on the Kingdom of God and on God-who-is-Father. In discussing the death of Jesus, Sobrino makes appropriate connections to the idea of "the crucified God," with reference to Moltmann's treatment of the same idea, and then to "the crucified people," i.e., the Body of Christ on earth and particularly in Latin America -- the poor for whom the Good News was brought and who continue to be oppressed by the powers of this world.
For me, this was an important addition to my own studies in Liberation Theology and other current strands of thought in theology. I heartily recommend it as a book which makes a powerful case for justice and "Kingdom work" within the context of a fuller understanding of Christ.
For me, this was an important addition to my own studies in Liberation Theology and other current strands of thought in theology. I heartily recommend it as a book which makes a powerful case for justice and "Kingdom work" within the context of a fuller understanding of Christ.
January 10, 2015
Jon Sobrino is a prominent theologian, a Spanish Jesuit Catholic priest serving in El Salvador. Sobrino's main works are Jesus the Liberator (1991) and its sequel, Christ the Liberator (1999). He outlines his Christology according to the perspective of the poor, whom he describes as “a crucified people living in hope.” He contends that because of the liberating options that Jesus offered the poor, his actions led to confrontation with the powerful resulting in his persecution and death. But Sobrino's comments, such as “Jesus is not the ultimate for himself,” have resulted in official discipline from the Vatican. In 2007, the Papacy declared that Sobrino's “works contain propositions which are either erroneous or dangerous and may cause harm to the faithful,” and that he placed too great an emphasis on the human nature of Jesus Christ, downplaying Christ's divine nature. Despite this, Sobrino maintains his insistence that the ultimate for Jesus is not the Church, but the kingdom of God in the midst of the poor.
Jon Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator: A Historical Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993), 7-10.
Jon Sobrino, Jesus the Liberator: A Historical Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1993), 7-10.
June 22, 2007
This is a powerful book. Jon Sobrino provides a reinterpretation of our understanding of Jesus through the lenses of the historical Jesus of Nazareth and through the contemporary "crucified peoples" of El Salvador and Latin America. This book can change the way you think about Jesus and the Christian faith.
July 22, 2008
a very provocative a critical read on an understanding of Jesus Christ from the view of victims. Changed my life...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews