Summary Of Fr. Jon Sobrino's Christology

Fr. Jon Sobrino attempts to use a Christology ‘from below’ in an effort to highlight the words and actions of the historical Jesus with respect to understanding how the Christian world allows for abject poverty and oppression, especially in Central and South America. His belief that an unequal Christological focus on the divine Christ, ‘Christology from above’, blinds many to truly understanding who the Kingdom of God was meant for, as per the words of Jesus in the Gospels. Through the Christology of the human Jesus, one could come to understand that Jesus’ focus was not necessarily meant for the whole world, but in actuality He had a partiality for the poor. In other words, and as stated by Loewe, “…Sobrino insists the church of the poor
By learning who He was, and what He said and practiced, one would have a better understanding of why Jesus had a partiality for the poor and also learn why the Kingdom of God was meant specifically for the poor. First and foremost, Jesus understood Himself to be human. Sobrino’s Christology focuses on the fact that though Jesus had a unique and filial relationship with God the Father, in His actions and experience He was truly human. As stated by Sobrino, “…nothing has been said yet of Jesus that would completely differentiate him from other human beings” (158). In His humanity, Sobrino recognizes that Jesus of Nazareth was limited in knowledge and understanding, and obviously finite, by His death on the cross. Because of this, Sobrino summarizes Jesus’ consciousness with respect to God, “…it is not that Jesus did not know about God, but that his human understanding could not embrace everything in God”
The CDF believes that Sobrino somehow minimizes the relationship between Jesus and God in an effort to prove His humanity. The CDF teaches, as did Aquinas, that Jesus immediately at His conception had “an intimate and immediate knowledge of His Father” (8). The problem with this teaching by the CDF, as noted by Loewe, is that it comes, “…perilously close to denying the clear teaching of the Council of Chalcedon that in his humanity, Jesus was ‘like us in all things except sin’”(4). As such the CDF, by emphasizing Jesus’ divinity as the Logos, tends to separate Jesus from the community of humanity. Liberation theology and Sobrino’s Christology concerning Jesus of Nazareth, is built on the foundation that the poor and oppressed have something in common with the human Jesus. They share in the pain and suffering of His Passion culminating with His death on the cross. As recognized by Cook, “The basic argument rests in the ‘structural similarity’ between Jesus’ life and the reality of Latin America” (568). That argument fails if the basis of that similarity, a shared humanity, is somehow less than