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Jesus Christ Liberator
Who is Jesus Christ for us today? By what names do we call him? Just as the early Christians developed different names for Jesus, so too must we discover the meaning of Jesus for our day. Jesus Christ Liberator is Boff's distinctive contribution to contemporary Christology. Boff writes, Christology thought out and vitally tested in Latin America must have characteristics of its own. The attentive reader will perceive them throughout this book. The predominantly foreign literature that we cite ought not to delude anyone. It is with preoccupations that are our alone, taken from our Latin American context, that we will re-read no only the old texts of the New Testament but also the most recent commentaries written in Europe."
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1972
9 people are currently reading
233 people want to read
About the author
Leonardo Boff
285 books72 followersLeonardo Boff, born as Genézio Darci Boff, in Concórdia, Santa Catarina, Brazil, on the December 14, 1938. He is the grandson of Italian immigrants from the region of Veneto who came to Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in the final part of the nineteenth century. He received his primary and secondary education in Concórdia - Santa Catarina, Rio Negro - Paraná, and Agudos - São Paulo. He studied Philosophy in Curitiba - Paraná and Theology in Petrópolis - Rio de Janeiro. He joined the Order of the Franciscan Friars Minor in 1959 and received his doctorate in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Munich - Germany, in 1970.
For 22 years he was the professor of Systematic and Ecumenical Theology at the Franciscan Theological Institute in Petrópolis. He has served as a professor of Theology and Spirituality in various centers of higher learning and universities in Brazil and the rest of the world, in addition to being a visiting professor at the universities of Lisbon (Portugal), Salamanca (Spain), Harvard (United States), Basel (Switzerland), and Heidelberg (Germany).
He was present in the first reflections that sought to articulate indignance toward misery and marginalization with discourse, which later generated the Christian faith known as Liberation Theology. He has always been an ardent of the Human Rights cause, helping to formulate a new, Latin American perspective on Human Rights with, “Rights to Life and the ways to maintain them with dignity.”
He has received honorary doctorates, in Politics from the University of Turin (Italy) and in Theology for the University of Lund (Sweden). He has also been honored with various awards, within Brazil and the rest of the world, for his struggles on behalf of the weak, the oppressed and marginalized, and Human Rights.
From 1970 until 1985 he participated in the editorial council of Editora Vozes. During this time he participated in the coordination and publication of the collection, “Theology and Liberation” and the entire edition of the works of C. G. Jung. He was Editor-in-chief of “Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira” from 1970 to 1984, of “Revista de Cultura Vozes” from 1984 to 1992, and of “Revista Internacional Concilium” from 1970 to 1995.
In 1984, he was submitted to a process by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, former Holy Office, in the Vatican. This was due to his theses linked to liberation theology exposed in his book "Church: Charism and Power. In 1985 he was condemned to “obsequious silence” and was removed from his editorial functions and suspended from religious duties. Due to international pressure on the Vatican, the decision was repealed in 1986, allowing him to return to some of his previous activities.
In 1992, under renewed threats of a second punitive action by authorities in Rome, he renounced his activities as a priest and ‘promoted himself the state of laity.’ “I changed trenches to continue the same fight.” He continues as a liberation theologian, writer, professor, widely hear conference speaker in Brazil among other countries, also as an adviser of social movements of liberating popular matrix, as the Landless Movement and the Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs), between others.
In 1993 he was selected as professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
On December 8, 2001 he was honored with the alternative Nobel prize, “Right Livelihood Award” in Stockholm, Sweden.
He presently lives in Jardim Araras, an ecological wilderness area on the municipality of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. He shares his life and dreams with the defender/educator of Human Rights from a new ecological paradigm, Marcia Maria Monteiro de Miranda. He has also become the “father by affinity” of a daughter and five sons, sharing the joys and sorrows of responsible parenthood. He lives, accompanies and recreates the unfolding of life in the “grandkids” Marina, Eduardo and Maira.
For 22 years he was the professor of Systematic and Ecumenical Theology at the Franciscan Theological Institute in Petrópolis. He has served as a professor of Theology and Spirituality in various centers of higher learning and universities in Brazil and the rest of the world, in addition to being a visiting professor at the universities of Lisbon (Portugal), Salamanca (Spain), Harvard (United States), Basel (Switzerland), and Heidelberg (Germany).
He was present in the first reflections that sought to articulate indignance toward misery and marginalization with discourse, which later generated the Christian faith known as Liberation Theology. He has always been an ardent of the Human Rights cause, helping to formulate a new, Latin American perspective on Human Rights with, “Rights to Life and the ways to maintain them with dignity.”
He has received honorary doctorates, in Politics from the University of Turin (Italy) and in Theology for the University of Lund (Sweden). He has also been honored with various awards, within Brazil and the rest of the world, for his struggles on behalf of the weak, the oppressed and marginalized, and Human Rights.
From 1970 until 1985 he participated in the editorial council of Editora Vozes. During this time he participated in the coordination and publication of the collection, “Theology and Liberation” and the entire edition of the works of C. G. Jung. He was Editor-in-chief of “Revista Eclesiástica Brasileira” from 1970 to 1984, of “Revista de Cultura Vozes” from 1984 to 1992, and of “Revista Internacional Concilium” from 1970 to 1995.
In 1984, he was submitted to a process by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, former Holy Office, in the Vatican. This was due to his theses linked to liberation theology exposed in his book "Church: Charism and Power. In 1985 he was condemned to “obsequious silence” and was removed from his editorial functions and suspended from religious duties. Due to international pressure on the Vatican, the decision was repealed in 1986, allowing him to return to some of his previous activities.
In 1992, under renewed threats of a second punitive action by authorities in Rome, he renounced his activities as a priest and ‘promoted himself the state of laity.’ “I changed trenches to continue the same fight.” He continues as a liberation theologian, writer, professor, widely hear conference speaker in Brazil among other countries, also as an adviser of social movements of liberating popular matrix, as the Landless Movement and the Base Ecclesial Communities (CEBs), between others.
In 1993 he was selected as professor of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Ecology at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).
On December 8, 2001 he was honored with the alternative Nobel prize, “Right Livelihood Award” in Stockholm, Sweden.
He presently lives in Jardim Araras, an ecological wilderness area on the municipality of Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro. He shares his life and dreams with the defender/educator of Human Rights from a new ecological paradigm, Marcia Maria Monteiro de Miranda. He has also become the “father by affinity” of a daughter and five sons, sharing the joys and sorrows of responsible parenthood. He lives, accompanies and recreates the unfolding of life in the “grandkids” Marina, Eduardo and Maira.
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June 27, 2024
A PRESENTATION OF JESUS AS A REFORMER/REVOLUTIONARY FOR THE OPPRESSED
Leonardo Boff (born 1938) is a former priest, as well as a theologian, philosopher and writer, who is currently Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. After being ‘silenced’ by the Catholic church for his supposedly ‘Marxist’ views, he ultimately left the Franciscan order and priesthood. He has written/cowritten many books, such as Introducing Liberation Theology; Faith On The Edge; Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor; Francis of Assisi: A Model for Human Liberation;Church: Charism & Power: Liberation theology and the Institutional Church; Christianity in a Nutshell; Jesus Christ Liberator; Salvation and Liberation: In Search of a Balance Between Faith and Politics]], etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1972 book, “This book… was put together in Brazil at a time when sever political repression was being exerted against broad segments of the church. The word ‘liberation’ was forbidden to be used in all the communications media. Thus the book did not say all that its author wanted to say; it said what could be said. Nevertheless the liberation message was understood by Christians… In this English translation an Epilogue has been added. It is written in the same spirit as the earlier chapters; its intent is to underline the liberative dimensions present in the life, message, and practical activity of the historical Jesus. But an atmosphere of greater tolerance now permits the author to introduce a more open and straightforward type of socio-analytical thought. It is my hope that the reading of this book will help more privileged Christians to join in fellowship with those who are more oppressed, to commit themselves to the messianic task of liberating human beings completely from everything that diminishes them and offends God.”
He points out, “today Jesus is known not only through the study, replete with faith, of the Gospel texts, but principally through the community of faith called church. It is within the church that an atmosphere of faith was created, that the Gospels were written, and that the common coordinates by which we confront and situate ourselves before Christ were established. It means, moreover, that Jesus entered the unconscious of our Western culture. There he is always present and can at any given moment be evoked and revived as an experience of faith. Even if the world were to become wholly atheistic, even then it would always be possible to believe in and attach ourselves to Christ, because he entered the substratum of our culture for all time and profoundly marked it.” (Pg. 39-40)
He explains, “The special focus in Latin America is not so much the church but the human person that it should help, raise up, and humanize. In Latin American theological thought, there reigns an accentuated theological skepticism: Here the church reproduced models and structures imported from Europe… This basically impeded healthy attempts to create a new incarnation of the church outside of the inherited traditional framework of a Greco-Roman understanding of the world. The future of the Catholic church, given the diminution of the European population, is undeniably in Latin America. It is in the more anthropological vision, in the new human being elaborated here, that we can gather elements to nourish a new, renewed Christian reflection.” (Pg. 44)
He notes, “To enter the kingdom it is not sufficient to do what the law ordains… A change of life is required, a complete turnabout of the old situation. It is because of this that the marginalized of the present order are nearer the kingdom of God than all others. To these, Jesus feels himself especially called… He breaks the social conventions of the period… How does Jesus react when confronted with this social stratification? He disdains it… He does not respect the division of the classes. He speaks with all. He seeks contact with the marginalized, the poor, and the despised… Jesus secularizes the principle of authority.” (Pg. 73-74)
He states, “The great difficulty encountered by Jesus in his disputes with theologians and masters of his time consisted in precisely this: We cannot resolve the question concerning what God wants from us by merely having recourse to the Scriptures. We must consult the signs of the times and the unforeseen in a situation… Obedience is a question of having our eyes open to the situation; it consists in deciding for and risking ourselves in the adventure of responding to God who speaks here and now.” (Pg. 92-93)
He argues, “It is also very improbable that Jesus would have claimed for himself the title ‘Son of man coming in power upon the clouds.’ There is no affirmation of Jesus which establishes a relationship between his earthly existence and his figure as universal Judge. Jesus might indeed have spoken of the future of the Son of man in the third person… he interpreted his relationship with the Son of man as a very close one… After the resurrection, the primitive community rightly identified Jesus with the Son of man, so that in many passages ‘the Son of man’ substitutes for the pronoun ‘I’ … After the resurrection the words of the historical Jesus could be understood as words concerning Jesus himself. Hence, a bridge was established between Jesusology and Christology.” (Pg. 148)
He asserts, “We believe that love is central and also essential to Jesus’ preaching. His message, however, if much wider and promises the total liberation of human beings and the cosmos for God. Love is the atmosphere in which this is hoped for, lived, proclaimed. We would, however, prefer to be on the side of the oppressed… than to be on the side of those who fanatically affirm the totality of orthodoxy but tolerate the injustices and barbarities that surround them and have lost the capacity to hear Christ’s words: When you have done this to one of these little ones, you have done it to me. The important thing is not to do Christology, but to follow Christ.” (Pg. 231)
He says, “[Jesus] preaches, to use the terminology of today, an authentic global and structural revolution: the kingdom of God. It is not liberation from Roman subjugation… It is total and complete liberation from all that alienates human beings, including sickness, death, and especially sin. The kingdom of God cannot be reduced to a single dimension of the world… Jesus is a dissenter and a revolutionary in that specific sense, which excludes violence… We should, however, make clear what we mean by ‘revolutionary’ and ‘reformer.’ … Reformers do no seek to create something absolutely new… In this sense Jesus was also a reformer. He was born a Jew and adapted to the customs and rituals of his people… Nevertheless, he went beyond this… He said new things… and in this he was a great revolutionary, perhaps the greatest in history. Revolutionaries… envisage … the changing of the social and religious game rules… Since Christ preaches and promises this good news for human beings … it is only in this exact sense that he can be called a revolutionary.” (Pg. 238-240)
He explains, “What sort of liberation are we talking about?... The liberation involved here has to do with economic, social, political, and ideological structures. It seeks to operate on structures, not simply on persons. It proposes to change the power relationships existing between social groups by helping to create new structures that will allow for greater participation on the part of those now excluded. Liberation Christology takes the side of the oppressed, feeling that it is compelled to do this by its faith in the historical Jesus. In our present historical situation noncommitment would signify acceptance of the existing situation and a subtle stand in favor of those already favored.” (Pg. 275)
He concludes, “In Latin America we still cherish a dream, for is it always permissible to dream. We dream of the day when the privileged intelligence of European theology will realize the important role it has to play in the process of liberation vis-à-vis its own churches and its own society… it can do much to help its fellow Christians on our continent to set out on the path to liberation. The theology of liberation, of Jesus Christ the Liberator, is the pain-filled cry of oppressed Christians… all they ask is that they be allowed to fight to regain their captive freedom… If Liberation Christology helps this messianic task, then it will have fulfilled its prophetic mission.” (Pg. 294-295)
This is an excellent book, that will be “must reading” for those seriously studying Liberation Theology.
Leonardo Boff (born 1938) is a former priest, as well as a theologian, philosopher and writer, who is currently Professor Emeritus of Ethics, Philosophy of Religion and Ecology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. After being ‘silenced’ by the Catholic church for his supposedly ‘Marxist’ views, he ultimately left the Franciscan order and priesthood. He has written/cowritten many books, such as Introducing Liberation Theology; Faith On The Edge; Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor; Francis of Assisi: A Model for Human Liberation;Church: Charism & Power: Liberation theology and the Institutional Church; Christianity in a Nutshell; Jesus Christ Liberator; Salvation and Liberation: In Search of a Balance Between Faith and Politics]], etc.
He wrote in the Preface to this 1972 book, “This book… was put together in Brazil at a time when sever political repression was being exerted against broad segments of the church. The word ‘liberation’ was forbidden to be used in all the communications media. Thus the book did not say all that its author wanted to say; it said what could be said. Nevertheless the liberation message was understood by Christians… In this English translation an Epilogue has been added. It is written in the same spirit as the earlier chapters; its intent is to underline the liberative dimensions present in the life, message, and practical activity of the historical Jesus. But an atmosphere of greater tolerance now permits the author to introduce a more open and straightforward type of socio-analytical thought. It is my hope that the reading of this book will help more privileged Christians to join in fellowship with those who are more oppressed, to commit themselves to the messianic task of liberating human beings completely from everything that diminishes them and offends God.”
He points out, “today Jesus is known not only through the study, replete with faith, of the Gospel texts, but principally through the community of faith called church. It is within the church that an atmosphere of faith was created, that the Gospels were written, and that the common coordinates by which we confront and situate ourselves before Christ were established. It means, moreover, that Jesus entered the unconscious of our Western culture. There he is always present and can at any given moment be evoked and revived as an experience of faith. Even if the world were to become wholly atheistic, even then it would always be possible to believe in and attach ourselves to Christ, because he entered the substratum of our culture for all time and profoundly marked it.” (Pg. 39-40)
He explains, “The special focus in Latin America is not so much the church but the human person that it should help, raise up, and humanize. In Latin American theological thought, there reigns an accentuated theological skepticism: Here the church reproduced models and structures imported from Europe… This basically impeded healthy attempts to create a new incarnation of the church outside of the inherited traditional framework of a Greco-Roman understanding of the world. The future of the Catholic church, given the diminution of the European population, is undeniably in Latin America. It is in the more anthropological vision, in the new human being elaborated here, that we can gather elements to nourish a new, renewed Christian reflection.” (Pg. 44)
He notes, “To enter the kingdom it is not sufficient to do what the law ordains… A change of life is required, a complete turnabout of the old situation. It is because of this that the marginalized of the present order are nearer the kingdom of God than all others. To these, Jesus feels himself especially called… He breaks the social conventions of the period… How does Jesus react when confronted with this social stratification? He disdains it… He does not respect the division of the classes. He speaks with all. He seeks contact with the marginalized, the poor, and the despised… Jesus secularizes the principle of authority.” (Pg. 73-74)
He states, “The great difficulty encountered by Jesus in his disputes with theologians and masters of his time consisted in precisely this: We cannot resolve the question concerning what God wants from us by merely having recourse to the Scriptures. We must consult the signs of the times and the unforeseen in a situation… Obedience is a question of having our eyes open to the situation; it consists in deciding for and risking ourselves in the adventure of responding to God who speaks here and now.” (Pg. 92-93)
He argues, “It is also very improbable that Jesus would have claimed for himself the title ‘Son of man coming in power upon the clouds.’ There is no affirmation of Jesus which establishes a relationship between his earthly existence and his figure as universal Judge. Jesus might indeed have spoken of the future of the Son of man in the third person… he interpreted his relationship with the Son of man as a very close one… After the resurrection, the primitive community rightly identified Jesus with the Son of man, so that in many passages ‘the Son of man’ substitutes for the pronoun ‘I’ … After the resurrection the words of the historical Jesus could be understood as words concerning Jesus himself. Hence, a bridge was established between Jesusology and Christology.” (Pg. 148)
He asserts, “We believe that love is central and also essential to Jesus’ preaching. His message, however, if much wider and promises the total liberation of human beings and the cosmos for God. Love is the atmosphere in which this is hoped for, lived, proclaimed. We would, however, prefer to be on the side of the oppressed… than to be on the side of those who fanatically affirm the totality of orthodoxy but tolerate the injustices and barbarities that surround them and have lost the capacity to hear Christ’s words: When you have done this to one of these little ones, you have done it to me. The important thing is not to do Christology, but to follow Christ.” (Pg. 231)
He says, “[Jesus] preaches, to use the terminology of today, an authentic global and structural revolution: the kingdom of God. It is not liberation from Roman subjugation… It is total and complete liberation from all that alienates human beings, including sickness, death, and especially sin. The kingdom of God cannot be reduced to a single dimension of the world… Jesus is a dissenter and a revolutionary in that specific sense, which excludes violence… We should, however, make clear what we mean by ‘revolutionary’ and ‘reformer.’ … Reformers do no seek to create something absolutely new… In this sense Jesus was also a reformer. He was born a Jew and adapted to the customs and rituals of his people… Nevertheless, he went beyond this… He said new things… and in this he was a great revolutionary, perhaps the greatest in history. Revolutionaries… envisage … the changing of the social and religious game rules… Since Christ preaches and promises this good news for human beings … it is only in this exact sense that he can be called a revolutionary.” (Pg. 238-240)
He explains, “What sort of liberation are we talking about?... The liberation involved here has to do with economic, social, political, and ideological structures. It seeks to operate on structures, not simply on persons. It proposes to change the power relationships existing between social groups by helping to create new structures that will allow for greater participation on the part of those now excluded. Liberation Christology takes the side of the oppressed, feeling that it is compelled to do this by its faith in the historical Jesus. In our present historical situation noncommitment would signify acceptance of the existing situation and a subtle stand in favor of those already favored.” (Pg. 275)
He concludes, “In Latin America we still cherish a dream, for is it always permissible to dream. We dream of the day when the privileged intelligence of European theology will realize the important role it has to play in the process of liberation vis-à-vis its own churches and its own society… it can do much to help its fellow Christians on our continent to set out on the path to liberation. The theology of liberation, of Jesus Christ the Liberator, is the pain-filled cry of oppressed Christians… all they ask is that they be allowed to fight to regain their captive freedom… If Liberation Christology helps this messianic task, then it will have fulfilled its prophetic mission.” (Pg. 294-295)
This is an excellent book, that will be “must reading” for those seriously studying Liberation Theology.
April 30, 2020
Una de las mejores cristología que he leído, bien documentada con sus citas bíblicas. Jesús el libertador nos deja claro que no estamos m ante una creencia filosófica si no ante un esperanza como punto de apoyo para vivir y hacer de este mundo un lugar mejor.
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January 6, 2012 I've read in french version. The priority is the liberty but what is our primacy is liberation..
March 15, 2012
All seminarians really should read this text. Boff makes some excellent arguments for liberation theology.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews