Racism and God-Talk: A Latino/a Perspective

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NYU Press, Jul 19, 2008 - Religion - 308 pages

2011 Winner of the Book Awards Contest in the Discipline of Theology Presented by Alpha Sigma Nu

The apostle Paul wrote that "All of you are one in Christ Jesus." Given Paul’s vision of God’s kingdom defined by the breakdown of all distinctions and relationships of domination—no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female—how do we make sense of ethnic particularity within the church’s theological formulations?

Racism and God-Talk explores the biblical and religious dimensions of North American racism while highlighting examples of resistance within the Christian religious tradition. Social historians have seldom analyzed the problematic of race from a primarily theological perspective. This volume undertakes a critical examination of explicitly theological and confessional perspectives for understanding and transforming North American racism.

Rosario Rodriguez offers insights from Latino/a theology for broader scholarly and social discussions concerning racism, borders, and immigration. The first to analyze race and racism from a Latino/a theological perspective, the volume makes use of a broadened conceptualization of "mestizaje," or mutual cultural exchange, to challenge the church to recognize the effects of racial and ethnic particularity in all theological construction.

From inside the book

Contents

Introduction
1
The Fundamental Contradiction
23
The Theological Response
151
Toward a Mestizo Church
236
Notes
251
Index
291
About the Author
297
Copyright

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Page 34 - And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. 26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; And Canaan shall be his servant.
Page 208 - Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.
Page 187 - Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Page 144 - When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...
Page 173 - See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.
Page 129 - But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher?
Page 173 - He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities — all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.

About the author (2008)

Rubén Rosario Rodríguez is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. He is the co-author of Teología: Latino/a Contributions to Systematic Theology.

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