Sometimes curiosity gets the better of me.

This is what happened in this instance.

Normally my reading preferences are predictable and fall within the same tradition.

This book is rather intriguing, and whilst not strictly a biography, the biographical detail was well written and a captivating narrative.

Romero, who was assassinated for speaking out against corruption, sought by word and deed to enshrine in his life one that was a lived-out faith and unafraid of his social responsibilities.

The book contains some of his sermons, radio speeches, and diary excerpts. I didn't read through all of these, but they are a helpful addition to the book.

This book will appeal specifically to those within Roman Catholicism. Yet those who are interested in what has happened across the globe to the Church in the modern era will also find it of interest.

I was reading this book while listening to the BBC news in the background yesterday and was intrigued when I heard that the Vatican had declared that Oscar Romero would be canonized into a Saint.
This book provides insights on the man and his fight against an oppression, especially from a state and a people who expected him to stay silent and stick to his priestly duties. I was saddened upon reading about how he was assassinated and do hope that his legacy does live on. This was an eARC from NetGalley and I'm certain upon release, the formatting would be upgraded for a more seamless reading.

What we find in Oscar Romero is the mind of a martyr, resolved to follow the path God had given him to the end. This is very much what he did.
What Romero reflects is love for enemies, a hunger for justice, and an advocacy for the oppressed that challenges deeply. Romero is not merely a social justice promoter, not only a preacher who found a version of the gospel that is foreign to most of us. He is a fusion of both of those things, a result much richer than the sum of its parts.
This book will make you uncomfortable. It should. You should let it. Romero lived under constant threat of murder, a citizen of a country that openly oppressed the church. Yet he did not leave. He stayed and fought in the name of both Jesus and the voiceless, the disappeared, the silenced. Many of us will never know what it's like to have a life under that kind of pressure, but we should stay intimately familiar with our brothers and sisters who are.

Blessed Archbishop Óscar Romero has often been lauded as an advocate and martyr for the oppressed, poor and otherwise downtrodden, an advocate for peace within a world of violence. This collection offers topical selections from the writings of Archbishop Romero, spanning from personal letters and journal entries to sermons and radio talks. It also includes a brief biography of the man, which provides great context for understanding the regional theological framework and local political climate he operated within.

For someone like me, who really has very little operational knowledge of the Archbishop this book served as a great introduction to his life and thought. He really provides significant pastoral insight into understanding better the social teaching of the Catholic Church and how it is applied into violent and oppressive circumstances. He also serves as an inspiring example of how one can change from a passive supporter of the status quo into a revolutionary advocate for the way of Christ in the face of violence and suppression. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in becoming more familiar with Romero in his own words, or to those who have heard the name but know little about the actual individual.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

PUBLISHER NOTES: Step 6, Day 4 first sentence does not make sense (typo) (Loc 620); Fig 5.4 wrong image

[Note:  This book was given free of charge by Net Gallery/Plough Publishing House.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.]

Sometimes books, like other creations (this happens a lot especially in songs and movies) suffer because of a problem of framing.  One may find a great deal that is praiseworthy in content that is presented, but one finds the framing of that content to be troublesome, and one hesitates to praise the content because the person who wrote this book is being co-opted for an unacceptable political approach that he himself rejected.  Such is the case with this book.  Insofar as my comments about this book are complementary, they are about the writing of the ostensible author of the book, an archbishop who was assassinated in 1980 during the midst of a brutal civil war in El Salvador by the military and government authorities who he criticized for their injustice.  That said, this book is framed in the context of liberation theology, a theology similar to the contemporary social gospel of my own nation that I particularly abhor [1].  I think the archbishop was right to reject the narrowly focused and Communist-influenced liberation gospel that was being peddled by the radicals of his time and remains on offer today, even as he spoke the truth to corrupt and brutal authorities who ended his own life far too soon with an assassin's bullet.

This book consists of excerpts from the diary and homilies of Oscar Romero between 1977, when he became Archbishop of San Salvador and showed that rather than a "safe" candidate he was one willing to speak out against the evils the elites of the country were committing, and his death in 1980.  These materials are divided into nine chapters:  The Creator, The Word Made Flesh, Redemption, The Call, The Way, The Church, The Kingdom, Liberation, and All Things Made New.  In these contents the author shows himself to be directly critical of both the left-wing and right-wing polarization that was present in El Salvador as well as the Roman Catholic Church at the time and that remains present in decadent cultures and societies like our own.  Despite my disagreement with the author's views on soteriology, as he seems to provide a picture of good works leading to redemption rather than from the outward working out of a salvation by grace, there is much to appreciate here.  The author is certainly on sound ground in speaking up on behalf of the vulnerable and those who have no voice and in favor of justice, even if his brave and principled stance cost him his life, as it did so many others in his tiny and troubled nation.

Even so, it is one thing to celebrate that Romero's words have lived on long beyond his own tragic and violent death and another thing to celebrate the purposes to which his life and message have been turned.  The foreword to this book is written by someone whose hands were blown off in a bomb attack by a political opponent and who openly claimed to be part of the Liberation movement and politically involved against apartheid in South Africa.  As a reviewer who has no particular interest in supporting either left-wing revolutionary politics or right-wing reactionary regimes, I find the framing of this book intensely off-putting and offensive as it presents a false dilemma between those two views, which I find equally abhorrent.  Thankfully, after a lengthy foreword and an introduction of who Romero was, as some of the readers of this book may not know, about 100 or so of this book's 140 pages are devoted to the writings of Romero himself, avoiding the specific references to most of the violent acts that would be unfamiliar to the readers of the book while focusing on the author's religious beliefs and their implications for the El Salvador of his time.  There is much here that will encourage those who seek justice, even if they have no particular fondness for contemporary social justice warriors and other left-wing activists.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/10/30/book-review-nourished/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/10/12/book-review-a-field-guide-for-everyday-mission/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/05/22/book-review-red-letter-revolution/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/05/12/book-review-get-out-of-gods-way/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/02/27/book-review-the-way-of-the-dragon-or-the-way-of-the-lamb/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.blog/2017/01/23/book-review-the-seven-stories-that-shape-your-life/