Ignacio Ellacuria

Book excerpt: Essays by a modern Jesuit martyr challenge the way that theology should be done and the gospel should be lived. Ignacio Ellacur a, a Spanish Jesuit theologian, philosopher, and rector of the University of Central America in San Salvador, was one of the key intellectual authors of liberation theology. On November 16, 1989 he and other members of the Jesuit community of the university were massacred by Salvadoran army troops. This volume offers twelve important essays by Ellacur a, at last providing English-speaking readers with a comprehensive introduction to his theological thought. Traditional topics such as Christology, ecclesiology, theological method, and spirituality are interwoven with reflections on colonialism, liberation, religion and politics, the philosophy of Xavier Zubiri, and the legacy of Archbishop Oscar Romero in a volume that not only chronicles the thought of one of the most fertile minds of the last century, but challenges the way theology should be carried out for the century to come.