"Father Ignacio Ellacuria, SJ, president of the University of Central America, leading Latin American philosopher, and liberation theologian, was assassinated with five Jesuit companions and two women on November 16, 1989. Love That Produces Hope brings together leading authorities on key aspects of Ellacuria's thought. The book introduces readers to the groundbreaking life and thought of Ignacio Ellacuria. His biography and writings embody late twentieth-century transformations and tensions that reshaped the life of the Catholic church among the crucified peoples of Central America. Love That Produces Hope evaluates the significance of Ellacuria's work, particularly his impact on theology, philosophy, and education. Ellacuria found hope in his faith that God's grace sustains the tenacious struggle of millions of men, women, and children to nurture those they love in the face of poverty and an uncertain future."--Publisher's website.

This book is the first comprehensive analysis of the thought of Ignacio Ellacuría, the Jesuit philosopher-theologian martyred for his work on behalf of Latin America's oppressed peoples. While serving as president of the Jesuit-run University of Central America in the midst of El Salvador's brutal civil war, Ellacuría was also a prolific writer. His advocacy on behalf of the country's persecuted majority provoked the enmity of the Salvadoran political establishment. On November 16, 1989, members of the Salvadoran military entered the university's campus and murdered Ellacuría, along with five other Jesuit priests and two women. Kevin F. Burke, SJ, shows why Ellacuría is significant not only as a martyr but also as a theologian. Ellacuría effectively integrated philosophy, history, anthropology, and sociopolitical analysis into his theological reflections on salvation, spirituality, and the church to create an original contribution to liberation theology. Ellacuría's writings directly address one of the most vexing issues in theology today: can theologians account for the demands arising from both the particularity of their various social-historical situations and also the universal claims of Christian revelation? Burke explains how Ellacuría bases theology in a philosophy of historical reality—the "ground beneath the cross"—and interprets the suffering of "the crucified peoples" in the light of Jesus' crucifixion. Ellacuría thus inserts the theological realities of salvation and transcendence squarely within the course of human events, and he connects these to the Christian mandate to "take the crucified peoples down from their crosses." Placing Ellacuría's thought in the context of historical trends within the Roman Catholic Church, particularly Vatican II and the rise of liberation theology in Latin America, Burke argues that Ellacuría makes a distinctive contribution to contemporary Catholic theology.

The Liberating Philosophy of Ignacio Ellacuría: Historical Reality, Humanism, and Praxis is the first systematic work on the philosophy of Ignacio Ellacuría to be published in English so far. The Spaniard-Salvadorian philosopher—murdered in Salvador in 1989 by the military—maintains that philosophy is a permanent task grounded in metaphysics as first philosophy, as developed within a historical reality and a preferential option for the poor. As explored by this collection edited by Luis Arturo Martínez Vásquez, Randall Carrera Umaña, and Luis Rubén Díaz Cepeda, Ellacuría's theory is a critical and practical proposal immersed in the colonial history of Central America, but its explanatory and normative power extends to oppressed people all around the world. The contributors to this volume, coming from Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Salvador, and Costa Rica, analyze Ellacuría's philosophy of liberation in conjunction with radical realism and strength, describing it as "a philosophy created by people concerned with the problems and history of our land—such as our colonial past, systemic poverty and dependency—and… responding to these concerns can offer alternatives for a true liberation of all the dominated peoples of the world."