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book links young Hispanic theologians to Raners thought
ON BEING HUMAN: U.S.
HISPANIC AND RAHNERIAN PERSPECTIVES By Miguel H.
Díaz Orbis, 154 pages, $25 |
REVIEWED By ALLAN FIGUEROA
DECK
Miguel H. Díaz , academic dean at St. Vincent de Paul
Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Fla., opens a new chapter in the
development of U.S. Latino theology with this book. An adaptation of his
University of Notre Dame doctoral thesis, it is part of Orbis
cutting-edge Faith and Cultures Series.
Cuban-American Miguel Díaz is one of an outstanding new
generation of lay Latino theologians actively involved in the Academy of
Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States founded in 1988 by an older
generation of Latino scholars. Pioneers like Virgil Elizondo can now joyously
speak of a growing cohort of theologians -- the vast majority laywomen or men
-- advancing the agenda of U.S. Latino theology.
In five concise and lucid chapters, Díaz compares and
contrasts the theological contributions of Latinos/as María Pilar
Aquino, Virgil Elizondo, Orlando Espín, Alejandro García-Rivera,
Roberto S. Goizueta, Sixto García, and Ada María
Isasi-Díaz with those of Karl Rahner, arguably the most influential
20th-century theologian.
Díaz focuses on themes from theological anthropology in all
these writers. The Latinos/as formulate the issues in terms of notions such as
mestizaje (that unique mingling of races and cultures that constitutes a
Latino way of being), the formative role played by popular religion, the
ongoing struggle for life, creatureliness, accompaniment and solidarity, and
relationality.
These themes are described and explained in terms of the
turn to the subject or to the human that has been
characteristic of theology in the 20th century and, we expect, the 21st
century. Among mainstream Western theologians, no one did more to advance the
cause of theological dialogue with human realities than did Rahner with his
masterly treatment of such fundamental issues as sin, grace, salvation and the
human person.
Rahners theology engages Latino theology at several points
even though U.S. Latino and Latin-American liberation theologians, rightly at
times, criticized Rahner and a fortiori other mainstrean European
theologians. Usually their theologies lack historical sense and disregard the
powerful influence of perspectives rooted in culture, ethnicity, social class
and gender that powerfully influence the pursuit of truth. Feminist and
liberation theologies, of course, have led the way in making just this
point.
In the final chapter, Díaz engages in a rich and nuanced
conversation regarding similarities and contrasts in the respective approaches
taken. This is a relatively small book that condenses a great deal of Rahnerian
and U.S. Latino theology exceedingly well.
The author writes crisply and does a superb job of making
Rahners profound insights accessible to the general reader.
Díazs familiarity with the sources is impressive. He seems to have
read everything as evidenced by the helpful, rich footnotes and extensive
bibliography. This is no small accomplishment. Díaz demonstrates the
reality of a certain teología de conjunto among the
Latinos/as he analyzes; that is, he highlights certain communal experiences and
values like solidarity that inform U.S. Latinos/as as they do their
theologies.
His concise, on-target reflections reveal that U.S. Latino
theology is maturing and becoming more substantive. Moreover, he has done a
service to U.S. Latino theology by demonstrating the methodological
consistencies among the theologians chosen while respecting the integrity of
each thinker. More important, he brings U.S. Latino theology into a systematic
dialogue with one of the best of First World theologies.
In doing so, Díaz is moving U.S. Latino theologians beyond
what may have appeared to be a narrow, one dimensional focus -- on themselves
and their people -- to a constructive dialogue with mainstream
theological currents. After the initial boom and the novelty of
U.S. Latino theologys existence gradually wears off, recent works such as
Jesuit Fr. Eduardo Fernándezs La Cosecha: Harvesting
Contemporary U.S. Hispanic Theology (Liturgical Press) and this one open a
new phase in the evolution of U.S. Latino theology.
Díazs monographic approach emphasizes the untapped
richness of theologies of the human. Fr. Robert J. Schreiter notes this in his
foreward and places Díazs project in the larger context of
globalization: Theologies of the human like U.S. Latino and Rahnerian
theologies respond to the growing interest in the common humanity of all that
ultimately is a source of unity for a human race torn and threatened by its
vast diversity.
This reviewer was surprised, however, that the work does not
integrate the language of inculturation more explicitly. I believe this could
be done easily and would give the book an even more obvious link to the vast
literature and concern regarding how culture is the way people
express and constitute their humanity. That simple idea was not sufficiently
developed in this reviewers opinion.
In any event, the entire theological community now has a major
resource for pursuing an ever-deeper dialogue regarding the meaning of the
human reality in the light of Christian revelation.
I hope it will build bridges among thoughtful Christians and all
people of good will by lifting up a theological anthropology that affirms the
common graced humanity of each and every human being.
Jesuit Fr. Allan Figueroa Deck, director of the Loyola
Institute for Spiritualiy in Orange, Calif., and a Loyola Marymount University
adjunct professor, was co-founder and first president of the Academy of
Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, and is author of
Frontiers of Hispanic Theology in the United States (Orbis).
National Catholic Reporter, October 26,
2001
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