SILT 2010: Theology, Migration, and the Borderlands
University of San Diego
Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice
April 26–28, 2010
University of San Diego campus*
Overview:
The Spring Institute for Lived Theology brings together a select group of scholars, pastors, and activists from around the country for two and half days of reflection and consultation. "Theology, Migration, and the Borderlands” considered the United States/Mexico border as a rich theological text and sought to understand how different theological commitments and convictions—including Christologies, hermeneutics, anthropologies, ecclesiologies, among others—shape different ways of thinking about migration and the borderlands.
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Schedule:
- Session I (April 26) : Setting the Theological Stage - Orlando Espín, University of San Diego
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
Listen to the Q&A (MP3 file).
- Session II (April 26) : Shaping Perspectives on Immigration: Can the Bible help Us? - M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas), Denver Seminary
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
Listen to the Q&A (MP3 file).
- Session III (April 26) : Chasing the Coyote Christ: Border Crossing as Spiritual Discipline - John Fanestil, Executive Director of the San Diego Foundation for Change
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
Listen to the Q&A (MP3 file).
- Session IV (April 26) : Borderlife and the Religious Imagination - Daisy Machado, Union Theological Seminary
- This presentation (held in San Diego's Peace and Justice Theatre) was open to the public. During her talk, Machado explored the intersections of race, religion, and the U.S./Mexico border to show how these have come together in popular religious beliefs and practices to both respond to and to shape borderlands life for Latino communities in the borderlands. Attention was given to the themes of curanderismo and healing as found in traditional curandero figures such as Niño Fidencio, Teresita Urrea, Don Pedro Jaramillo, and also in the more contemporary unorthodox figure of Santa Muerte. Machado addressed how these religious beliefs and practices also respond to the realities of borderlands life such as poverty, displacement, immigration, invisibility, and violence.
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
Listen to the Q&A (MP3 file).
- This presentation (held in San Diego's Peace and Justice Theatre) was open to the public. During her talk, Machado explored the intersections of race, religion, and the U.S./Mexico border to show how these have come together in popular religious beliefs and practices to both respond to and to shape borderlands life for Latino communities in the borderlands. Attention was given to the themes of curanderismo and healing as found in traditional curandero figures such as Niño Fidencio, Teresita Urrea, Don Pedro Jaramillo, and also in the more contemporary unorthodox figure of Santa Muerte. Machado addressed how these religious beliefs and practices also respond to the realities of borderlands life such as poverty, displacement, immigration, invisibility, and violence.
- Session V (April 27) : Immigration and Ecclesiology: Embodying gospel citizenship in the ‘Sanctuary City’ of San Francisco - Craig Wong, Executive Director, Grace Urban Ministries in San Francisco
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
Listen to the Q&A (MP3 file).
- Session VI (April 27) : Vicissitudes of the Margins: An HIV/AIDS Theological Journey - Angel Mendez Montoya, Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City
- Session VII (April 27) : A Hybrid God in Motion: Theological Implication of Migration, a Latin@́ Perspective - Carmen Nanko-Fernández, Catholic Theological Union in Chicago
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
Listen to the Q&A (MP3 file).
- Session VIII (April 28) : Resisting Militarization of US Borderlands: The Case of the Coup in Honduras - Monica Maher, Committee on Human Rights Studies, Harvard University
- Session IX (April 28) : Migrant Outreach in San Diego’s Canyons- panel discussion, chaired by Maria Pilar Aquino, University of San Diego. Panelists include Elaine Elliott, Director of Community Service Learning at the University of San Diego and Rev. William Radatz, Survivors of Torture, International in San Diego
Listen to the session (MP3 file).
2010 Spring Institute for Lived Theology speakers:
Orlando Espín is professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego, where he founded and directs the interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism. He is the author or editor of eight books and a dictionary, in addition to numerous articles. He has received several national and international awards, holds an honorary professorship and an honorary doctorate. Espín has twice been elected president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS), was the first Latino/a elected to the board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America, and founded and was first chief editor of the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology.
M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas) is Distinguished Professor of Old Testament at Denver Seminary and adjunct professor at El Seminario Teológico Centroamericano in Guatemala. He is the founder of IDEAL (Instituto para el Desarrollo y Adiestramiento de Líderes), the Spanish language training program at Denver Seminary. He has published three books and edited or co-edited nine others. He is the author of Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible (Baker Academic, 2008), which has also been translated into Spanish (Casa Creación, 2009). He holds the PhD in Old Testament from the University of Sheffield.
John Fanestil, an ordained Elder in the California-Pacific Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, is the Executive Director of Foundation for Change, a social justice foundation working in border and immigrant communities of the San Diego/Tijuana region. In 2006, Doubleday released Fanestil's first book, Mrs. Hunter’s Happy Death: Lessons on Living from People Preparing to Die. His writing has been featured in The Christian Century and the San Diego Union-Tribune, among other publications.
Daisy L. Machado is Professor of the History of Christianity at Union Theological Seminary in New York, New York. Born in Cuba and raised in New York city, Dr. Machado considers herself a borderlands dweller, learning from childhood the importance and risks of crossing borders—racial, linguistic, religious, and political. She has been teaching on the Texas/Mexico border for more than fourteen years, helping her students see firsthand the struggles of colonia residents on the both sides of la frontera. Machado is currently writing a book on the prosperity gospel in the U.S. Latino church with a special focus on the G-12 Movement imported from Colombia into many church communities.
Monica Maher is the Associate Director of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies. Her scholarly, pastoral and advocacy work has focused on theological responses to violations of women's rights, specifically feminicide in Mesoamerica. She has worked with women's groups in Mexico, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, the South Bronx and Boston.
Angel F. Méndez Montoya, OP, is a member of the Southern Dominican Province in the United States. He currently teaches theology and philosophy at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. He has a doctorate in philosophical theology from the University of Virginia and was scholar in residence at Cambridge University.
His latest book is The Theology of Food: Eating and the Eucharist (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009).
Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández is assistant professor of Pastoral Ministry and director of the Ecumenical Doctor of Ministry Program at the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. She is past president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States (ACHTUS). Among her publications is the book Theologizing en Espanglish: Context, Community and Ministry (Orbis, 2010).
Craig Wong is the executive director of Grace Urban Ministries, a congregation-based nonprofit that serves children, youth and families in San Francisco. A graduate of UC Berkeley, he did campus ministry with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship for several years. He also serves on the advisory board of the Christian Community Development Association, and writes a column for Evangelicals for Social Action's PRISM magazine.
María Pilar Aquino is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, and is a past Visiting Professor of Theology at Harvard Divinity School. She is the author, editor, and co-editor of twelve books and has published numerous book chapters and journal essays focused on religious interventions for social transformation from the perspective of feminist theologies of liberation.