Abstract
Almost thirty years ago, Prof. Samuel Escobar (PhD), at that time already one of the most well-known Latin American theologians, opened the eyes of a small group of young master’s students at the International Theological Baptist Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the different Christologies in our part of the Americas. I was one of those students. Coming from an evangelical background, most of us had experienced more practical differences in liturgy and the handling of saints than theological ones with the Catholic majority in our hometowns and countries. It hadn’t occurred to us that the images of Christ, clearly visible in the statues, drawings, and other elements at Catholic worship centers, but also hidden in evangelical hymns, poetry, and Sunday School lessons, among others, were an expression of how these different—and quite often mutually antagonistic—Christian traditions perceived Jesus Christ, their common Lord and Savior.
Samuel Escobar, together with René Padilla, became known to the larger evangelical world in 1974 through their active participation in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne. Some years before, both of them were part of a group of young Latin American theologians who founded the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (Latin American Theological Fraternity), known as FTL. During his time as general director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Canada and on staff with the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in Latin America for twenty-six years, Escobar had experienced firsthand the differences in the perceptions of Christ among different Christian traditions.
In his book, which is one of the few titles in missiology that was first published in Spanish before being translated into English and not the other way around, Escobar traces the history of the perception and understanding of Christ in Latin America. He starts with the “Spanish” Christ that the conquistadores brought to the New World, which, according to John A. Mackay, had strong North African influences because of the eight-century-long Moorish occupation of the Iberian Peninsula. This Christ had distinct European physical features; his facial expression was one of tenderness and mercy, but also helplessness. The predominant depictions of Christ show him as a smiling, innocent baby in the arms of his mother at the beginning of his earthly life or with an emaciated body nailed to a cross at the end of it. In either case, he seems impotent to help people in their needs or to change their circumstances for the better. “This Christ does not change the lives of those who follow him here and now, [but] only guarantees a happier future life” (30).
Escobar does an outstanding job of tracing the Christology in the writings of religious and nonreligious Latin American authors as well. He shows how the religion brought and imposed to the native population by the Iberian conquerors shaped their understanding of Christ. Escobar also shows how the indigenous population did not just accept the Christ and his (or its—sometimes one wonders whether he is still a person rather than merely a religious entity) foreign religion but shaped and transformed it into their own. This new Christian religion became known as popular religiosity. While Catholics defended the existence of this religiosity as evidence that the continent had been reached with the gospel, Protestant missionaries pointed out the syncretistic elements and the lack of ethical and moral consequences of this cultural religiosity.
Citing Mackay, Escobar points out that, amid the violence and oppression brought to the Americas by the conquistadores and their religious companions, there were also always some true “Christophers,” that is, “Christ bearers whose lifestyle and missionary activity were very different” (20). He doesn’t see the Protestant missionaries, who mainly came from Europe and North America, as bringing the real, biblical Christ to Latin America. The Christ brought by the Protestant missionaries was hard-working, active, more self-sufficient, saving sinners from their vices and eternal condemnation but expecting in return high moral and ethical standards from his followers. Both Catholic and Protestant missionaries tried to improve the lives of the indigenous peoples through sometimes questionable methods: in the early stages subjugation and settlement (a nomadic lifestyle was not helpful for the plantation owners and catechists) and later on through, for example, literacy and medical programs, agricultural aid and development, schools, and hospitals.
When Latin American evangelical preachers and thinkers came of age, they “proclaimed the Christ of the Gospels in ways that were faithful to the origins of the Christian faith and also relevant to the Latin American people” (90). They emphasized a personal relationship with Jesus, whose death redeems the sinners, to begin and continue the Christian life. This relationship is not an end in itself but, in evangelical terms, always reaches out to those outside of it, to the lost world.
The consideration by different authors of the distinct sociological, cultural, political, and economic Latin American context for their theological and christological reflections finds room in this book. Escobar skillfully explains how within Christianity both the political Right and the political Left thought that Jesus fit their agendas. He goes on to describe the self-critique and changes that happened within Catholicism before, during, and after Vatican II. In the midst of revolutionary times and thinking, the FTL was founded in 1970 in Cochabamba, Bolivia. Becoming a platform for young evangelical Latin American theologians, it has stressed the importance of a biblical framework not just for Christology but for all theological thinking; the importance of always considering the above-mentioned social, cultural, economic, and political context for and while doing theology; and the importance of crafting a contextualized theology of evangelization, social ethics, and the kingdom of God.
According to Escobar, “in the 1970s Latin America entered into the global theological scene as a protagonist” (216). It happened through liberation theologies that came primarily from the Catholic camp, where Jesus Christ is portrayed as liberator (Leonardo Boff) and where following Christ means to identify with the poor and oppressed and eventually to give one’s life as Jesus did (Jon Sobrino). It also happened through a new emphasis on holistic mission in the evangelical camp. Escobar goes on to describe further theological developments, especially in Christology, both in Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as responses, critiques, and self-examinations. In an appendix, Escobar offers a valuable overview of some present directions of Latin American evangelical theological reflection.
This fascinating book is much more than a mere treatise on Christology in Latin America. It is a history of theological thinking in Latin America that describes both the Catholic and the Protestant developments. It deserves a lifetime achievement award, just as its author deserves it. I believe it is a must-have and a must-read for every Latin American theologian and missiologist. My hope is that, by reading it, readers from all over the world will better understand us, the Latin American Christians, and our continent. To God be the glory! Thank you, Professor Doctor Escobar!