In previous essays, I have mentioned that one of the criteria that is used to evaluate a particular theological system is its emphasis on the role that the Bible plays in it. We have seen this in Euro-American theology, in Latin American Liberation Theology, and we will see it again in Hispanic-American theology.
Fernando Segovia, a Professor of New Testament at the Vanderbilt Divinity School states in this article that neither the task of theologizing nor the task of interpretation -both highly interrelated and interdependent activities-takes place in a social vacuum, independent of the social location, however defined, of the theologian or interpreter in question. He informs us that such a theoretical position is by no means new, but it has come into much greater prominence, and with much greater vehemence, in the last quarter of the twentieth century than ever before. He explores the emerging readings of the Bible from within one such specific social location, namely that ethnic sector of American society generally referred to as Hispanic-Americans, a sector in which he himself stands and from which he speaks (Segovia in We Are a People: Initiatives in Hispanic-American Theology. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1992, p.21).
In an article entitled "Reading the Bible as Hispanic-Americans" for the New Interpreter's Bible, Segovia posits that no reading of the Bible can claim or pretend to be ahistorical or acultural. He says that the clause lets it be known that, at the very least, ethnic background and sociopolitical status do have an effect on the reading and interpretation of the Bible. (The New Interpreter's Bible. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994, p. 167). For Segovia, the main concern is not a literalist approach to Scripture, nor whether the Bible is divinely inspired or not. Nor is he concerned with the issue of what doctrines can be supported by Scripture. For Segovia, the main issue is how does the cultural and social context of the reader color her/his thinking when reading the Bible, and also, how does that context generate the reader's assumptions and presuppositions relative to biblical theology?
Segovia then goes on to trace the work of four Hispanic-American theologians who represent a variety of ethnic and religious sectors, thereby bringing to light, in a broad interpretative fashion, the reading strategies adopted with regard to the Bible from within such a distinct social location. The four theologians are the following:
Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, a Cuban American and Roman Catholic, who at one time taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York. She is known in theological circles for mujerista (womanist) theology. For Isasi-Diaz, the point of departure for reading Scripture is the experience of Hispanic-American women in an Anglo-Saxon dominant culture, facing oppression from both a sexist world (as women) and a racist world (as Hispanic), with a specific focus on such oppression within religious systems. Mujerista theology is defined, therefore, as a liberative praxis, a reflection that has as its goal liberation; its basic parameters are described as follows: First , it does not differentiate between reflection and action, or between theology and ethics. Second, it does not operate out of the interpretive lens of a patriarchal (male-dominated) church, but rather out of the experiential norm of Hispanic-American women. Third, it is not sectarian but communal in character. Finally, it has survival as its primary goal. Such survival is portrayed in terms of liberation rather than equality, with the following specific aims in mind: a radical change in the oppressive structures of society, conscientization regarding the profound internalization of such oppressive structures, with individual conversion as a necessary first step; and an eschatological vision of a new society (Segovia in We Are A People, p. 33).
In mujerista theology, therefore, one finds at work the common principle of a canon within the canon, with a twist: only parts of the Bible are accepted as normative and authoritative; such parts, moreover, are so judged on the basis of a superior canon-a feminist, Hispanic liberative canon. In effect, while the program of liberation has urgent need of the Bible, the Bible itself is seen as subject to the program of liberation. Thus the Bible emerges as both liberating and oppressive, with the canon within the canon determined from the outside. (Segovia, p. 33).
Harold Recinos, a United Methodist minister and Puerto Rican born in New York City. Recinos has engaged in a critical exercise in pastoral theology from the perspective of liberation, a theology of and for the barrio (neighborhood). Recino's use of the word "barrio" denotes specifically the "ghetto" or "inner city." meaning that neighborhood where the poor and the marginalized live and are condemned to live.
For Recinos, the point of departure for theology is quite concrete: the socio-cultural situation of the large Puerto Rican communities who live in the barrios of northeastern U. S. cities (with New York City as the primary example) and its disastrous and lasting consequences for the countless individual lives in question, including the author's. The barrio is faced with a dehumanizing situation akin to apartheid and marked by racial discrimination, cultural aggression, political marginalization, and economic oppression. Given such systematic conditions, the people of the barrio find themselves overwhelmed by a host of social ills, from inordinately high levels of poverty and unemployment to widespread crime and violence, ultimately yielding a profound attitude of self-blame and fatalism (Segovia, 34).
At the heart of barrio theology, therefore, lies the Bible and more specifically, a particular reading of the Bible. For Recinos, such a reading of the Bible comes from the perspective of the barrio and its conditions, and yields a recovery of biblical Christianity: not only the realization that the sociocultural story of the barrio is shared by the people of God in the Bible, but also the discovery of a God who sides with the marginalized, with the barrio and works for their liberation (Segovia, p. 35-36).
For barrio theology, therefore, the Bible is indeed central and authoritative. Its message throughout, in both Old and New Testaments, is one of liberation: God is with the poor and for the poor. However, such a message demands a specific kind of reading, an open and explicit reading from the perspective of the oppressed, from a sociocultural situation parallel to that of the people of God in the Bible, and with liberation in mind. Thus, the liberation of the barrio is grounded in and informed by the Bible: the program of liberation is ultimately the program of the Bible itself. (Segovia, p. 36).
Virgilio Elizondo, a Roman Catholic priest of Mexican-American extraction. Elizondo has developed what he calls a theology of mestizaje, a theology of liberation for Mexican-Americans based on the principle of racial and cultural inclusion. For such a theology, it is the concrete sociocultural situation of Jesus himself as preserved in the Gospel accounts that is central and authoritative, insofar as Jesus, given his own origins as a mestizo from the borderlands of Galilee, and his message of universal inclusion, anticipates the situation and liberation of Mexican Americans (Segovia, p. 37).
For Elizondo, as in the case of mujerista theology, therefore one can see in mestizaje theology the principle of the canon within the canon at work once again, but with fundamental difference in application. Here, the Bible is not subject to a superior canon, but rather a specific strand within the Bible is singled out as the superior canon. Likewise, the Bible is not judged liberating and authoritative from the outside, but rather the Bible itself, is authoritative and liberating in the light of this canon, passes judgment from within. This superior canon is identified in terms of the Gospels, though it would be more accurate to say that it is the Synoptic Gospels that Elizondo has in mind; in fact, for Elizondo, the canon consists of the Synoptic Gospels insofar as they faithfully reproduce the life of Jesus of Nazareth (Segovia, p. 40).
Justo Gonzalez, a Cuban American and minister of the United Methodist Church, specializing in Church History. Gonzalez emphasizes what he calls a theology of "manana (tomorrow)" for all Hispanic-Americans.
For Gonzalez, manana theology represents the theology of a people "in exile": a people who will be around for many mananas to come; who hope for an altogether different manana in the light of God's reign. (Segovia, p. 42). For Gonzalez, the message of liberation demands a specific way of reading, a reading from the perspective of exile. As a result, a basic correspondence is posited between the people of God in the Bible and Hispanic Americans: a people "in exile," alien, and powerless. (Segovia, p. 45).
You, the reader, are now invited to share your comments on how different theologians define the role of Scripture in Hispanic-American theology. Feel free to share your opinions and views with us.
Grace and peace,
Dr. Juan A. Ayala-Carmona
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