A review of "Jesus the Liberator: A Historical-Theological Reading of Jesus of Nazareth" by Jon Sobrino, Paul Burns and Francis McDonagh

Abstract

In the first part of this book Sobrino establishes the importance of the setting in which Christology is done. He draws attention to the historical situation of poverty, suffering, dispossession and oppression in Latin America and argues, convincingly, that these realities provide important settings for the rediscovery of elements in the sources of revelation which have remained buried for too long. One comes to know Christ better from the standpoint of the poor and knowing them better one will seek out the poor wherever they are. This helps to underscore the point that knowing Christ is, in the last resort, following Christ. Having established the importance of the historical situation in which Christology is done today, he inevitably has to begin his own work by attending to the historical Jesus before he draws any conclusions about the Christ of faith. There he finds that 'in the world of poverty the poor and Jesus of Nazareth converge and point to each other'.