Jesus Christ Liberator: A Critical Christology for Our Time

by Leonardo Boff

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0883442361
• ISBN13: 9780883442364
• Release Date: October 1978
• Publisher: Orbis Books
• Length: 323 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece of theology.

The Epilogue in Boff's book, Jesus Chris Liberator, provides an overview of his Christological model. For Boff, living out one's faith requires an engagement with the socio-historical forces of our time, recognizing that systemic oppression is the norm for millions of people living in the Third World. Everything starts from this point of departure for Boff. Under this praxis, it is imperative for those doing theology to first incorporate into their methods, social and political critiques of domination for the sake of transforming systemic oppression for those who labor under its yoke. In this sense, Boff sees Jesus of Nazareth as liberator from oppressive social conditions and his Christology is built upon this overriding norm. The overarching theme or thesis for the entire book lays claim that any Christology is necessarily partisan by its allegiance to social factors, and determined to a large extent by its social location. It cannot be otherwise for Boff, and I agree with his analysis. As Boff succinctly notes everything begins from a social context, so everything that flows from that starting point will by colored by the particular theologian's social location. As Boff notes, "Every Christology is partisan and committed. Willingly or unwillingly christological discourse in a given social setting with all the conflicting interests that pervade it. That holds true for theological discourse that claims to be "purely" theological, historical, traditional, ecclesial, and apolitical." Two aspects stand out in Boff's construction. The first is socio-liberation theology and the second is, "the social setting that is a departure for this Christological reflection." In this view, Jesus the Liberator cannot be separate or distinct and apart from the historical moment that one finds oneself. Faith in this sense is always a process of engagement with the historical moment one finds oneself embedded within; and thus, it seeks to develop strategies and implement action to overturn the forces of oppression for the downtrodden. Furthermore, Boff argues that the role of the theologian taken out of the socio-historical moment that one finds oneself is dishonest and false. Boff is clearly an advocate for a process orientated Christological view that changes or adapts as history is lived in the moment under the weight of its ever-changing circumstances. Obviously, this is problematic for those who cling rigidly to their orthodoxies, dogma, and monolithic Christology wedded to the status quo. Conversely, Boff's Christology is dynamic and alive, thus pitting itself or pressing against the monolithic patriarchal forces, which contribute to oppressive and narrow conditions asserting the status quo at all costs. As Boff tells us - and this runs as a foundational claim throughout his book - every Christology, "Is relevant to its own way depending on its functional relationship to the socio-historical situation; in that sense it is a committed Christology. So

HAVING KILLED THE MESSENGER LET US CONTEMPLATE THE MESSAGE OF LOVE

Jesus came preaching radical and universal peace and justice and love, and got killed by the earthly and religious powers. The message to love only grew stronger, and wider, and longer. This book brings us tools to know Jesus, and Christ, and to live Christ's love in our present reality of hatred and dearly beloved divisions. First published thirty years ago from a Portuguese text first published in Brazil five years earlier, this book might finally be safe for us to read, comprehensible, consumable. We might finally be free to allow this book to guide our feet upon the path of God's peace. Friar Boff was long respected as a primary theological scholar working in LAtin America, with a large work of writings, including academic and heartfelt meditations of the history, meaning and the breathing of our most basic prayers, including Lord Is My Shepherd: Divine Consolation in Times of Abandonment, Praying With Jesus And Mary: Our Father, Hail Mary, Way of the Cross--Way of Justice, etc. He has examined carefully the basic mysteries of our Faith, including Holy Trinity, Perfect Community, Trinity and Society (Theology and Liberation Series), etc. He has written profound hagiographies, including of the founder of his order in Francis of Assisi: A Model for Human Liberation and the wonderful The Prayer of Saint Francis: A Message of Peace for the World Today. He has served as theology professor, having studied systematic theology in Paris and in Munich, Germany as a young man. He is a valued and solid source, referred to by several other theologians, inclduing Mother Timothy Prokes in her Mutuality: The Human Image of Trinitarian Love. Here then we gratefully receive his Christological study, which begins not only with an overview of the topic but also provides us the careful and precise analytical tools by which the professional scholars do theology, specifically, Christology. As usual with Friar Boff's academic theological works, it is well constructed and comprehensive. We begin in Part one with a sweeping review of "The History of the History of Jesus" which examines various Christological methodologies and approaches through the history of Christianity. Part two examines "The Hermeneutic Problem" asking by what means and in what way may we come to know and begin to understand Jesus Christ today, introducing therein the concept of Christology in Latin America from its unique historic, cultural, economic, etc., perspectives. Part three asks "What did Jesus really want?" reminding us first that to comprehend the answers we must understand the questions, and concluding that He took on our deepest longings. Part Four describes Jesus Christ as Liberator of the Human Condition and oppressed conscience, revealing how the Kingdom of God implies a revolution of the human world. Part Five exposes Jesus as a "person of extraordinary good sense, creative imagination, and originality." Her is the heart of this message. Friar Boff reveals Jesus as "authen