A chaplain's perspective on Cubans' hope

A critical reflection on how Latino/a spirituality can influence the Hispanic ministry being done by Christian communities in the USA. I consider how the Latino/a Church is 1) relational, 2) affective, 3) pious or religious and 4) cultural.

2010

This book on the missiology of M. Richard Shaull makes a definite contribution to both the history of Christianity and missiology in Latin America and the Caribbean. The story of Millard Richard Shaull, a missionary from the United States who was transformed by historical praxis and pastoral ministry in Latin America, is worth telling. M. Richard Shaull was a pioneering voice in the movement called liberation theology in Latin America and the Caribbean. His solid theological background in the Reformed tradition, his attentive and open mind, and his prophetic vocation and vision discerned in the midst of suffering and hope provide for the development of a relevant theology of mission. John A. Mackay, a towering figure in the ecumenical movement, and Shaull's mentor at Princeton Theological Seminary, became his main source of inspiration and theological advice. It was in the 1950s that M. Richard Shaull started to reflect and write on the church and its mission in the sociopolitical turmoil taking place in countries like Colombia and Brazil. His active involvement over the years in the World Student Christian Federation (WSCF) and his influence in the founding of Church and Society in Latin America, an avant-garde ecumenical organization in the early 1960s, place him both in the larger map of the ecumenical movement, particularly the World Council of Churches, and in the ecumenical movement in Latin America and the Caribbean. Shaull influenced the lives of theologians like Rubem Alves, his student in Brazil and at Princeton Theological Seminary, whose own work as a liberation theologian made a profound impact in the initial development of liberation theology in Latin America with his book, A Theology of Human Hope (Corpus Books, 1969). Dr. Á ngel Santiago-Vendrell, Assistant Professor of Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary (Florida Dunnam Campus), has gathered an impressive amount of information, which he diligently organized. He has selected important primary sources, analyzed the correspondence, and placed documents in their historical dimension (some of them unpublished and known to the general public for the first time). He has also traced books and essays forgotten or lost in missionary archives and personal collections of missionary executives.

Christian Higher Education, 2007

Angélica, my princesa chula. Through you I found what is good and received favor from the Lord. You deserve this degree as much as I do. I love you! 2. My parents and two brothers. Papá, you are my example; mamá, you are my inspiration; Edgar and Rodrigo, you are my motivation to be better every day. 3. Kennet and Marjanna Thomas. You are more than our adoptive parents in this country; you have become an example to follow in the service to the Lord. 4. My committee members. Dr. Lumsden, you are my mentor and brother in Christ. Dr. Lawson, it was because of your encouragement and Christ likeness that I pursued this doctorate. Dr. Plotts, thank you for your friendship and the support of the Howard Center for Christian Studies. 5. All my friends at the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to join you in the amazing work of God in Cuba. 6. CONACYT. My appreciation for this Mexican Government Agency that gave me a scholarship for my doctoral program considering me worthy of representing my country.

Fundamentalismos: Alerta para la iglesia, 2015

This article offers an overview of the origins of Christian fundamentalism in the United States and its relationship with the broader evangelical movement and offers suggestions for how this movement might be constructively engaged by mainline Protestant churches in Cuba in the years ahead.

Exchange, 2010

In his at the University of Utrecht defended dissertation, the British theologian Paul John Davies analyses the extensive work of one of the most fertile and prominent Latin American Protestant theologians of the last century: the Argentinean José Míguez Bonino. With the title of the dissertation, based on one of Míguez's main theological works (English: Doing Th eology in a Revolutionary Situation (1975); Spanish: Fe en busca de efi cacia (1977)), Davies defi nes what he regards as the elementary orientation of Míguez's theology. It is a theology that wants to be subservient to Christians and churches that seek an answer to the question what form the obedience to Christ and the Gospel should take in their own context. Th at context is the Latin American, characterized by notorious poverty, military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s and an inward-looking Protestant Church. Míguez's theology is a praxis oriented theology and can therefore, according to Davies, be characterized as missionary theology; a 'theology permeated by the spirit of the apostolate'; a theology that wants to be contextual and dialogue with ideologies and other beliefs. Th eology's task is seen by Míguez as a service rendered to the Church in its mission (p. 47). It is always theology in dialogue, but also a theology that seeks eff ectiveness, that seeks to really contribute to social transformation, to liberation. Eff ectiveness (efi cacia) has for Míguez a theological meaning. 'Refl ection on eff ectiveness should establish the relationship between action and result in such a way that it corresponds to revelation and redemption.' Davies's study consists of seven chapters (and several very helpful appendices). Chapter 1 describes the central research question(s). Which theological method does Míguez use? How does this work out in Míguez's elaboration of three, for Míguez's theology elementary concepts: the Kingdom (eschatology), the church (ecclesiology) and the Trinity? How does Míguez relate his theology to the Latin American context? Davies rightly notes that posing these questions, however descriptive they might be, is more than worth the endeavour, since Míguez's theology encompasses a half-century in which, from 1945 onward, fundamental classical theological concepts erode, Western missionary thinking collapses and radical, new forms of doing theology are born. So a search for a new identity is urgent. Chapter 2 is a detailed biographical sketch, which places Míguez's own postwar theological development within the wider perspective of the Argentinean, Latin American and world context. Davies shows how only at the end of the 1970s 'the poor' start occupying the central role 'the Church' had had in Míguez's theology. Th ese are the decades of the Second Vatican Council, in which Míguez participated, his dissertation about the relationship between tradition and Scripture, his involvement in the World Council of Churches. Th ese are the days of Prague, Paris, but also of the dictatorship and disappearances in Argentina and so many other countries, and, on the other hand, new social projects like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Chile. When one perceives the task of theology (always as rearguard) as a service to the poor in their struggle for liberation, as Míguez starts to do, then a whole new way of doing theology has to be practiced. How can one theologize, and that in a thorough, fundamental way, about the social dynamics between Church and society? In chapter 3 Davies off ers a detailed description of Míguez's theological method and how it has been infl uenced by liberation theologians as Clodovis Boff , Juan Luis Segundo,

Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, 2003

The author uses the pastoral circle or "see-judge-act" practical theological method to review the status of Hispanic/Latino ministry. He takes note of new research findings, while stressing the importance of an integrating framework for shaping the Catholic Church's response to the multiple challenges presented by the Latino/a presence. Paul VI's Evangelii nuntiandi provides the needed framework with its stress on inculturation, liberation, and interreligious dialogue. Sections are then devoted to the challenges of popular religion, youth, the flight to other religions, multiculturalism, and pluralism. Finally, he names several practical implications and lays out a map suggesting where this may be heading.] T HE TRANSFORMATION OF U.S. Catholicism from a community of predominantly European ancestry to one of Latin American origin is now well underway. Essayist Gregory Rodríguez has written about the "Mexicanization" of American Catholicism. 1 In many U.S. church quarters today just as in civil society at large, there is more awareness and even acceptance of this ecclesial and societal sea change brought about by immigration in general and by Latin American immigration in particular. The U.S. Census for 2000 confirmed the predictions of an earlier decade to the effect that Latinos/as would become the largest U.S. minority. That census also confirmed what observers had been noting throughout the decade of the 1990s, namely, the significant presence of Latinos/as in virtually every part of the United States. That presence is no longer a merely regional ALLAN FIGUEROA DECK, S.J., earned a Ph. D. in Latin American studies at Saint Louis University in 1973 and an S.T.D. in missiology from the Gregorian University in 1988. He is president and executive director of the Loyola Institute for Spirituality, Orange, Calif. His widely used book, The Second Wave (1989), a study of Hispanic ministry, is currently being revised. He has also contributed to various collective volumes such as Evangelizing America (ed. T. P. Rausch); Reflections on Inculturation (ed. Frank Lucido); and Religion, Race and Justice in a Changing America (ed. G. Orfield and H. J. Lebowitz).

2019

Advances Suggested by this Book This book follows on a series of consultations conducted around the world on the theme of World Christian Revitalization. It is the last word of those consultations even as it aims to be the start of future conversations. It builds on seven consultations over seven years and two major grant-funded projects. New Comparisons This book focuses on Spanish-speaking Central America and the Caribbean with its core cases drawn from Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Cuba. Additional cases are included in the initial, global view, drawing particularly on cases from previous consultations in East Africa, North India and Nepal, and the Philippines. Comparisons are drawn across megachurches and microchurches, Catholics and evangelicals, churches of the poor and churches of the professional classes, and diverse forms of government and political power. New Conversations These globally oriented consultations began in Wilmore, Kentucky in 2009, Edinburgh in 2010, and Toronto in 2011. The second series of consultations were conducted under a second grant-funded project, this time with a focus on world regions, first in Nairobi in 2013, Dehradun, India in 2014, the Philippines in 2015, and Costa Rica in 2016. Every consultation aimed to create new conversations across various confessional traditions, such as evangelicals and Catholics, as well as between academics and practitioners, seminaries and church leaders. This final consultation in Costa Rica in 2016 built on that legacy in the theological dialogues between diverse perspectives and traditions. Each moment was itself a conversation, from the opening dialogue between an African scholar and a Central American scholar of mission and World Christianity, to the jointly authored papers and presentations in extended sessions. The conversations were strengthened by in-depth remembrances of the growth of evangelical churches in Costa Rica and the ongoing liberationist vitality of churches of the poor throughout the region. The final panel offered new syntheses on the findings

2018

This dissertation examines how the experience of migration and the context of reception influences religious ideas and practices. Using the experience of two branches of a Colombian Evangelical church, one in Miami, Florida and one in Madrid, Spain, I explore the extent to which context of reception and the experiences of migrants shape their narratives, ideas about belonging, and evangelism strategies. Blending neo-institutionalism theory and lived religion, this comparative ethnography highlights how local, national, and transnational factors play a role in the religious practices of people. Throughout the dissertation, I highlight how adaptation is constrained by both internal and external factors that include, but are not limited to what previous literature on religious adaptation would suggest. While much of the literature comparing the role of religion in the lives of immigrants in the US and Europe has focused on examining whether or not religion is beneficial or damaging for migrants' well being, I shift my focus to religious adaptation, and not on religious compatibility. Ultimately, I explore how blending lived religion and neo-institutionalism can tells not just about immigrant religion, but also about how people and organizations adapt to an increasingly globalized and transnational world. Since I started graduate school, my favorite part of reading any article or book has always been to look at the acknowledgments. A part of me thinks I've enjoyed it a little too much. And thus I find myself going through a lot of different, sometimes contradicting emotions, as I sit down to write my own. One the one hand I feel an intense sense of accomplishment. A part of me always felt like I would never make it this far. But if the best dissertation is a finished dissertation, then this one is amazing. There is also a unique feeling of freedom: while the entire process of writing these following pages has been overshadowed by a constant fear of not have enough to say, here I feel like I will have too much to say. First and foremost, the members and leaders of Casa Sobre la Roca in Colombia, the US, and Spain who welcomed me with open arms and allowed me to become a part of their community. I hope that the following pages do some justice to the incredible stories of bravery, resilience, and hard work that people shared with me. Thanks to my committee for the continued support and guidance as I worked on this project. Carolyn Chen's work was an inspiration for this dissertation. I was incredibly lucky to have her as my main advisor during the early stages of this projects. I had to switch advisors halfway through the dissertation, but I hope her early advice and wisdom are evident in the entire project. Wendy Griswold helped me turn my initial, often contradictory ideas, into something that made a little bit more sense. And finally, thanks to Mary Pattillo for providing much-needed motivation when I needed to write (and for introducing me to Liz).

New West Indian Guide / Nieuwe West-Indische Gids