EMQ » January–March 2020 » Volume 56 Issue 1
By Samuel Escobar
Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2019
384 pages
USD $45.00
Reviewed by Geoff Hartt, Executive Director of Hispanics for Christ (resourcing church-planting among Hispanics). His is Affiliate Professor at Sioux Falls Seminary, and has served as a local church pastor for over twenty years.
In his introduction, Samuel Escobar says that this work is a “brief exploration of spiritual life among Latin American people.” (6) In his effort to do this, he pursues the question “Who is Christ today in Latin America?” (8) He more than successfully answers this question by leading the reader in an in-depth historical, theological and missiological walk through the story of how the people in Latin America first heard of Christ, used him for their own ends, and are now seeing him for who he truly is. The book was first published in Spanish in 2012 but is now available in English.
The book follows a chronological timeline beginning with the introduction of the “Iberian Christ” brought by the Spainards to the New World (chapter two), but it quickly moves through “that other Christ” of the indigenous people of Latin America (chapter three) to the Protestant missionaries (chapter four). At this point, where Christianity had been established in its Catholic and Protestant forms, Escobar begins to chart the unique Latin American forces that have influenced the Latin American understanding of Christ. Catholicism, Protestant ecumenism, and revolutionary thinking have all sought to define “Who is Christ?” Chapters five through nine cover the events that shaped Latin American Christology in the twentieth century. The focus shifts in chapters ten through fifteen to the contemporary work of René Padilla and others who emphasized the kingdom of God, a praxis based on social analysis (219), and the growing Latin American presence on the theological scene.
In Search of Christ is a great addition to the library of anyone interested in the history of Christianity in Latin American, but its value goes beyond that. Escobar has chronicled the “self-theologizing” of the Latin American people. This may not have been his stated purpose but the book itself is an excellent example of self-theologizing. To his stated purpose, the author provides an incredible resource for research by students and missiologists. Escobar recounts all the Latin American conferences from the early Evangelical Conference of Panama in 1916 up until CLADE IV in 2000. In addition to a comprehensive review of the Latin American conferences of the last century, he also weaves a thorough bibliography of all who have written on Latin American Christology over this period (primarlity Spanish authors). Here one will find all the authors, titles, and topics one could need to research Latin American Christianity, theology, and missiology.
This book, along with the two listed below, are “must-haves” in one’s library to understand Christianity in a Latin American context.
For Further Reading:
González, Ondina E. and Justo L. González. Christianity in Latin America: A History. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Mackay, John A. The Other Spanish Christ. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2001.
