Ma?ana Theology

The Challenge of U.S. Hispanic Theology for Theological Education

in the 21 st Century

Marc Cortez

Western Seminary

Paper presented to the Evangelical Theological Society Portland, OR April 3, 2004

Introduction

The title of this paper, Ma?ana Theology, is taken from the title of Justo González’s recent systematic theology Ma?ana: Christian Theology from a Hispanic Perspective.[1] For González ma?ana (tomorrow) is an eschatological concept referring to a perspective that provides hope for an often marginalized and oppressed community and a prophetic judgment on the systemic realities that enable that marginalization and oppression.[2] In this paper, though, I will use the term to point to the significance of U.S. Hispanic theology for the “tomorrow” of theology in the United States.[3]

It would be difficult to have been present in the United States during the last three decades without noticing the growing presence of the Hispanic community, particularly in the south and the west as well as such key cities as New York and Chicago.[4] Many people are unaware that the United States is currently the fifth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world.[5] With a population of 38.8 million the Hispanic community now comprises 13.5% of the U.S. population and constitutes the largest minority group in the United States.[6] Not only is it the largest but it is also the fastest growing segment of the population. Between April 1, 2000 and July 1, 2002 the Hispanic population grew 9.8 % easily outpacing the overall population growth of 2.5 % and comprising fully one-half of the overall population increase during that time period.[7] At this pace, the Census Bureau projects that by 2010 the Hispanic community will have grown to 47.8 million (15.5 %) and by 2050 it is expected that they will number over 102.5 million or nearly one quarter of the overall population and nearly half the size of the non-Hispanic white population.[8]

The Hispanic community has not only grown significantly with respect to its demographic situation but it has also grown in terms of its theological contributions. The last three decades of the twentieth century saw a marked increase in both secular and theological scholarship as U.S. Hispanics began exploring their reality and its theological implications. Given the significance of this burgeoning population, their growing theological voice could become one of the most significant theological developments in the first part of the twenty-first century. In this paper, we will therefore consider some of the issues raised by the growing theological presence of the Hispanic community and the implications that this development has for evangelical theological education in the twenty-first century.

I will approach this task in two main parts. In the first part, I will summarize of U.S. Hispanic theology as a distinct theological perspective by briefly reviewing the three periods of its historical development and then considering its primary methods and sources. In the second part I will examine the current state of theological education with respect to U.S. Hispanic theology. In this section I will (1) summarize demographic information about Hispanic student and faculty involvement in American theological schools; (2) consider information provided by a recent survey of Hispanic leaders suggesting several weaknesses in American theological education; and (3) make some suggestions for moving forward with Hispanic theological education in the twenty-first century. Through this study we will see that although U.S. Hispanic theologians have begun to develop a theological perspective that is well worth listening to and may prove to be one of the driving theological forces of this century, American schools of theology are not yet succeeding in their attempts to meet this new development.

The Development of U.S. Hispanic Theology

The Rise of U.S. Hispanic Theology

The rise of U.S. Hispanic theology can be viewed as taking place in three stages: background, foundation, and development.[9] During the background stage (1946-1972), a number of post-WWII changes (e.g., urbanization, immigration, etc.)[10] in the Hispanic community brought about a number of secular responses (e.g., César Chávez’s United Farm Workers, more militant Hispanic groups like the Brown Berets and La Raza Unida, the Chicano movement, the Latino studies movement, and the Puerto Rican nationalist movement) and ecclesiastical responses (e.g., PADRES, las Hermanas, the Division for the Spanish Speaking, and the Hispanic-American Institute). While these groups primarily served to meet social and economic needs, they laid the groundwork for later theological developments.

These theological developments begin in earnest with the 1972 founding of the Mexican-American Cultural Center (MACC) by Virgilio Elizondo which initiated the foundational stage of U.S. Hispanic theology (1972-1990).[11] During this phase most of the foundational ideas and methodologies were developed (many of them by Elizondo) and the several key theological organizations were founded.[12]

The final phase, the development phase (1990-present), has witnessed a publishing ‘boom’ as the second and third generations of Latino/a theologians have begun contributing to the discussion.[13] This period has thus continued to develop the primary themes of the foundational era while at the same time deepening U.S. Hispanic theologies understanding of its methodological commitments.[14]

The Methodology of U.S. Hispanic Theology

As we move on to consider the distinctive aspects of U.S. Hispanic theology we must realize that in many ways “[i]t is premature to begin speaking of a U.S. Hispanic theology in the sense of formulated propositions supported by a fully developed methodology.”[15] It is a dynamic theology that is still in process. But, as it has been developed to this point, it is characterized by a number of key distinctives with respect to its methods and its sources.

A Contextual Theology

As a contextual theology it explicitly embraces its socio-historical situation as the starting point of its theology. Thus theology is seen as developing “from a specific hermeneutical horizon derived from the socio-cultural context out of which it arises, from the theological tradition in which it is inscribed, from the basic preoccupations that accompany it, and from the challenges to which it wants to respond.”[16] This approach is driven by two convictions. First, U.S. Hispanic theologians affirm the post-modern critique of supposedly ‘objective’ modes of discourse and acknowledge the perspectivalism inherent in all human knowledge.[17] Second, Latino/a theologians maintain the importance of understanding and engaging one’s historical reality if one’s theology is to be vital and transformative.[18]

Furthermore, Latino/a theologians argue for the necessarily contextual nature of all theology. They object to the common practice of qualifying the so-called ‘advocacy theologies’ as U.S. Hispanic, Feminist, or Black while referring to the theology of more dominant groups simply as ‘theology’ leaving the impression that it alone is “acontextual, universal, and relevant to the entire church.”[19] So Justo González comments: “North Atlantic male theology is taken to be basic, normative, universal theology, to which then women, other minorities, and people from younger churches may add their footnotes. What is said in Manila is very relevant for the Philipines. What is said in Tübingen, Oxford, or Yale is very relevant for the entire church.”[20] Latino/a theologians argue that such “North Atlantic male theology” is just as contextual and perspectival as other ‘advocacy’ theologies.

As a contextual theology, U.S. Hispanic theology is thus not seeking to replace other theological perspectives or to limit its own perspective so narrowly that its insights are only applicable to other Hispanics. Rather, the goal is to thoroughly engage its own particularity such that it might have something to offer at the theological roundtable for understanding universal realities.[21]

An Empirical Theology

The emphasis of U.S. Hispanic theology on contextuality almost requires their methodology to have a strong empirical component. Seeking to seriously engage their socio-historical reality, Latino/a theologians take as their starting point “the socio-economic, political, or cultural realities grasped with the aid of the corresponding social sciences.”[22]

On this point, U.S. Hispanic theology has been greatly influenced by the insights of Feminist and Liberation theologians. Both of these approaches argue for a greater emphasis on the sociological mediation in theology as a means to more seriously addressing the current situation.[23]

A Liberative Theology[24]

An empirical analysis of the socio-historical situation of Latinos/as and the resulting awareness of poverty and marginalization characteristic of Hispanic life, quickly leads U.S. Hispanic theologians to an emphasis on liberation as a necessary part of their theology. Thus, it can be said that the “central tenet of any Latino/a theology is praxis, that is, doing the deed of justice.”[25] Similarly Pablo Jiménez calls it “a theology of survival that seeks to make sense of the reality of oppression – restoring a sense of human dignity to the community – guided by a vision of a new world based on justice and equality.”[26] Affirming this praxiological orientation of theology, Harold Recinos states that it is not possible to know God without showing justice to those on “the underside of history.”[27]

One key theme in U.S. Hispanic theology that develops from this liberative perspective is its preferential option for the poor. This notion is drawn from liberation theologians like Gustavo Gutierrez who argued that

God has a preferential love for the poor not because they are necessarily better than others, morally or religiously, but simply because they are poor and living in an inhuman situation that is contrary to God’s will. The ultimate basis for the privileged position of the poor is not in the poor themselves but in God, in the gratuitousness and universality of God’s agapeic love.[28]

This divine preference for the poor is demonstrated throughout Scripture in God’s continued “predilection for the weak and abused of human history.”[29] A commitment to the viewpoint of the poor and oppressed in society is therefore an epistemological presupposition based on the conviction that “[t]heir expressions of God are much more accurate and closer to the truth about God than the best theologies about God, formulated by persons who are removed from the everyday struggles of God’s chosen ‘little ones’ of this world.”[30]

A Communal Theology

For U.S. Hispanic theologians, la comunidad (community) is not only basic to ecclesiology and anthropology, as it is in many other theologies, but it also serves as a fundamental methodological presupposition. Teología en cojunto (or pastoral de conjunto) is a phrase used to describe Latino/a theology’s commitment to doing theology communally and collaboratively.[31] In other words, they emphasize their role as members of a particular theological community who seek to interpret and articulate the faith experiences of that community and they also seek to do their theology in collaboration with other theologians and theological perspectives.[32] Latino/a theology thus rejects the individualistic paradigm that has often served as the model for doing theology and instead argues that “there should be no such thing as an individual theology.”[33] “Hispanic theology,” according to David Maldonado, “is better understood as being rooted in the collective work of the whole.”[34] That this is a methodological commitment can be seen in the large number of anthologies produced by Latino/a theologians many of which are produced only after an extended period of collaborative interaction by the authors.[35]

The Sources of U.S. Hispanic Theology

Having briefly considered the methodology of U.S. Hispanic theology, we must now consider the theological sources that they use. Although their basic sources are the same as that of the Wesleyan quadrilateral (Bible, experience, tradition, and reason) the ways in which they use those sources are distinct.

Reading the Bible in Spanish

Although various Latino/a theologians approach the Bible differently,[36] the Bible nonetheless serves as an important source for all Latino/a theologians, Catholic and Protestant alike, with nearly all Hispanics receiving it as a supernatural work meriting profound respect.[37] Justo González has been particularly influential in this area with his suggestion that Hispanics can and should read the Bible ‘in Spanish.’

By reading the Bible ‘in Spanish’, González does not mean reading it in the Spanish language. Though some scholars argue that the very act of reading the Bible in a Spanish translation has a unique impact on theological understanding, González has something else in mind.[38] He is referring instead to a hermeneutical approach to the Bible that embraces the unique perspective of U.S. Hispanics.[39] Such a reading must therefore be ‘noninnocent’ and recognize the political dimension of all interpretations.[40] This reading strategy must be guided by four rules.[41] First, the interpreter must embrace the perspective of the weak and powerless.[42] Second, we must remember that most of the Scriptures were intended to function publicly rather than privately. Third, while the Bible should be read noninnocently, we “must remember that the core principle of scriptural ‘grammar’ is its availability to children, to the simple, to the poor.”[43] And fourth, the Bible must be read in the vocative – it addresses us and calls us to action. Each of these rules reflects a significant aspect of U.S. Hispanic hermeneutics.

Religiosidad Popular and Mestizaje

We have already seen how significant Latino/a experience is for their theological methodology but it provides a key theological source as well. One key theological source derived from the experience of the Hispanic population is the notion of mestizaje (or mulatez). Though it was developed as a theological source by Elizondo,[44] it was originally formulated as a philosophical concept by José Vasconcelos in the 1940’s to refer to the creation of a new race, la raza cósmica (the cosmic race), that is being produced through the coming together of multiple races and cultures in the Hispanic peoples.[45] As it is used by Latino/a theologians it does not refer to the ‘melting pot’ notion where some tertium quid is produced through the merging of two different races but to a union whereby the various aspects of the mestizaje remain in tension with one another, “brought together in a particular instantiation of a living human being that can understand and identify with both.”[46] The biological and cultural mestizaje that is taking place in the Hispanic population is thus “a source of theology, a hermeneutical lens for understanding our situation, and an eschatological hope.”[47]