Jon Sobrino encyclopedia topics

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 Salvadoran government. 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 Ellacuria, 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. To symbolize their hatred of the Jesuits' intellectual contributions and commitments to the people of El Salvador, the military operatives quite literally blew out their brains.

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), and "The Principle of Mercy" (1994).

Vatican Notification on the works of Father Sobrino

Because of the theological positions he took in his works, Sobrino was the subject of a theological critique statement and an admonishment by the Vatican and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in March of 2007.

The Congregation declared that Sobrino's "works contain propositions which are either erroneous or dangerous and may cause harm to the faithful." While certain of his teachings were declared false, the Congregation did not condemn or censure him, or prohibit him from teaching or lecturing - for now, this is to be decided by local bishops. His own bishop, Archbishop Fernando Saenz Lacalle, archbishop of San Salvador and primate of El Salvador, has said he may not teach theology or lecture in his archdiocese, which includes UCA, and removed the nihil obstat from his writings. Sobrino placed too great an emphasis on the human nature of Jesus Christ, downplaying Christ's divine nature.

The Congregation emphasized in the notification that it was issued as part of its service "to the people of God, and particularly to the simple and poorest members of the Church." They emphasized the people's "right to know the truth...about Christ," and therefore their corresponding duty to intervene. The notification was premised on Benedict XVI's teaching that the "the first poverty among people is not to know Christ."

According to the notification, Father Sobrino's erroneous propositions concerned: "1) the methodological presuppositions on which the Author bases his theological reflection, 2) the Divinity of Jesus Christ, 3) the Incarnation of the Son of God, 4) the relationship between Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God, 5) the Self-consciousness of Jesus, and 6) the salvific value of his Death.

At the root of what the Vatican saw as Sobrino's error is his affirmation that "the 'Church of the poor' is the ecclesial 'setting' of Christology and offers it its fundamental orientation." However, the Vatican believes that "only the apostolic faith which the Church has transmitted through all generations that constitutes the ecclesial setting of Christology and of theology in general."

Contrary to criticisms that the Vatican acted without due consultation and unfairly, the Vatican says that a Notification is made after notifying the author of the statements that are seen to be problematic and after awaiting a reply from the author who is given 3 months whereby to respond.

Nonetheless, according to some views, the Vatican Notification is simply a collection of theological opinions on Sobrino's work and so Catholics are free to disagree with its judgements and remain in total loyalty to their faith. According to this view, often espoused by theologians who are in favor of liberation theology, Sobrino has long been a servant and champion of the poor and his Christology has never been declared to be unorthodox in any way - not even by the 2007 Vatican notification, itself. Numerous Catholic organisations and Professional Associations (such as the Catholic Theological Society of America, The European Society for Catholic Theology and many committee members of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain) have issued statements declaring the Notification unjust, theologically questionable and unnecessary. Equally, such statements issued their support for Fr Sobrino and noted their appreciation for the enormous amount of work Fr Sobrino has done on behalf of the poor and for his theological insights.