At the 2008 Convention of the Catholic Theological Society of America, the Hispanic / Latino/a Theology Consultation focused its attention on the theme of “Methods in Latino/a Theologies: Re-imagining Lo Cotidiano,” revisiting the discussion of sources and methods for Latino/a theologies first raised some twenty years ago by Orlando Espín and Sixto J. García. In his contribution to this discussion, Giberto Cavazos-González, OFM, Professor of Spirituality at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, focuses our attention on “La cotidianidad divina: a Latin@ Method for Spirituality,” as he describes the socio-spiritual method that opens the door to his study of Sts. Francis and Clare. In her contribution, systematic theologian Cecilia González-Andrieu of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, offers Theological Aesthetics and the Recovery of Silenced Voices,” which captures important political dimensions of theological aesthetics. Finally, in dialogue with Cavazos-González and González-Andrieu, ACHTUS Past-President Sixto J. García of St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida sheds new light on method in Latino/a theologies by reflecting on what he regards as four defining categories: passion, awe and wonder, personalism and philosophy. By presenting revised versions of these insightful studies in this electronic Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology, we hope to spark further discussion of the distinctiveness of Latino/a theologies.

La cotidianidad divina: a Latin@ Method for Spirituality[1]

 

Gilberto Cavazos-González, OFM

Catholic Theological Union, Chicago IL

 

Every theologian is a product of her/his background and life experience. For Latin@ theologians, culture, social location, life and faith experiences are important components of how we theologize. For this reason, before writing about a Latin@ method for doing Spirituality, allow me to introduce myself. I am the eldest of four sons born to Gilberto Cavazos and María Emma González. I was raised in northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley, Texas. I became a Franciscan in the Mid-West and was ordained after going to school in Chicago. My experience as a pastor and youth evangelizer in South Texas, convinced me to go back to school. I got my license and doctoral degree from the Pontificio Ateneo Antonianum in Rome. I am an active member of ACHTUS, the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States.

 

Cecilia González-Andrieu

Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles CA

Method for Latino/a Theology: Passion, Awe and Wonder, Personalism, and Philosophy

A Response to Cecilia González-Andrieu and Gilberto Cavazos-González

Sixto J. García

St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach FL

 

My response to Cecilia’s and Gilberto’s insightful and provocative presentations is best expressed by my own journeyof theological toil, joy, challenge and commitment as a member of ACHTUS. Orlando Espín served as the midwife of my gestation and birth as a Latino theologian. He called me to his office sometime during 1988, after the founding meeting held by the one founding sister and the seven founding brothers, and introduced me to the Academy. I had finished my Ph.D. in 1986, with a dissertation on Friedrich Wilhem Joseph Schelling’s Christology in his Philosophie der Offenbarung, and I challenge anyone here present to find a realm of interest (seemingly) more alien to Latino theological concerns with popular religion and lo cotidiano than my dissertation topic.