Meetings
The 2005 Annual Colloquium
The Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States held its 2005 Annual Colloquium and General Meeting June 5-8 at St. Louis University.
The theme of the colloquium was: Identity: Politics and Theology
I. The Question of Identity as a Problem for Hispanic/Latino Catholic Theology
The question of identity is being hotly debated in the realm of politics. Some underlying philosophical dimensions of the “politics of identity” are addressed in the 2000 book of Jorge Gracia entitled Hispanic/Latino Identity: A Philosophical Perspective. Michelle Gonzalez’s 2003 essay in JHLT, “‘One is not born a Latina, One Becomes One’: The Construction of the Latina Feminist Theologian in Latino/a Theology,” drew attention to Gracias’s work as well as feminist theorists of identity. Apart from these fairly recent initiatives, however, insufficient attention has been paid the question of identity within our academy. It is not simply a matter of adding a theological gloss to a pre-existing set of definitions of race, ethnicity, nationality, etc.
Identity has to do what we contribute to both the academy and the Church. How is ACHTUS recognized and misrecognized by its many and varied audiences? The question of identity also relates to our self-recognition as theologians, the self-recognition of Latina and Latino Catholics in the United States and the crucial relationship between these two descriptions.
Not every aspect of the question of identity can be covered in one colloquium. The main challenge will be to pose the question of who we are becoming as Latina and Latino Catholic theologians in the United States and to provide responses that address not only our political but also our theological agency.
Session One: Identifying Latino/a Identity
Moderator: Orlando Espin, University of San Diego
Alberto López Pulido, University of San Diego
“Identifying Latina/o Identities: History, Emotions, and the Sacred of the Living”
Respondent: Rubén Rosario Rodriguez, St. Louis University.
Session Two: Racial Identity in a Theological Perspective
Moderator: Miguel Díaz, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN
J. Kameron Carter, Duke University Divinity School
“Resources for a Christian Theology of Race”
Jean-Pierre Ruiz, St. John’s University, New York
"Dealing with Difference: Religion and the Politics of Racial and Ethnic Identity."
Session Three: Mestizo Democracy
Moderator: Roberto Goizueta, Boston College
John Francis Burke, University of St. Thomas, Houston,
“Contra Mexifornia - The Prospect of a Mestizo Democracy.”
Respondent: Arturo Bañuelas, Tepeyac Institute, El Paso, TX
Session Four: Embodiment & Christian Identity
Moderator: Ana María Pineda, Santa Clara University
Angel Mendez, O.P., University of Virginia
"Spicing (the) Eucharist: The Mexican Mole, Gastroeroticism, and the Eucharistic Body"
Nancy Pineda-Madrid, Boston College, MA
"Guadalupe and the Reinvention of Femininity: Embodied Questions"
Peter Casarella: Presidential Address
Session Five: Enlace / Synthesis
Moderator: Carmen Nanko, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago.
Presenter: Eduardo Fernandez, S.J., Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
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The 2007 Annual Colloquium and General Meeting took take place June 3-6 in Los Angeles, CA. The theme of the Colloquium is Colloquium is: Building a Latina/o Ecumenical Theology: Protestant and Catholic Theological Perspectives on Some Significant Issues. Click here to download the program.
The 2006 Annual Colloquium and General Meeting took place June 4-7 in San Antonio, TX. The theme of the Colloquium was "Latino/a Catholic and Black Catholic Self-Disclosure." Click here to view the program.
