Santa Bibli The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes, Justo L. Gonzalez

Ramon Gutierrez’s When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away is an exploration of the merging of Spanish, Franciscan and Pueblo Indian cultures throughout Spain's “frontier” in its colonial American empire before Anglo contact. Gutierrez builds a foundation for his analysis by discussing Pueblo Indian life prior to outside contact, Franciscan theology, and the class structure of Spanish communities in each of its respective book sections. He examines meanings of the cultural interactions of gift exchange, ownership, trade, sexual rights, labor, kinship, social status, religious beliefs, and honor among many others using marriage as a window. His interpretation of the complex cultural meanings of marriage illustrates the ways in which the

The role of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain’s conquest and colonization of continental America was a two-fold process whereby under the façade of conversion and control lay the primary goal of gaining wealth, enforcing laws and the inevitable extension of control while condoning the beginnings of European slavery in the Caribbean.[i]

An important aspect of Todorov's thesis is his well-supported claim that it was precisely the claim to European racial superiority that Christianity strongly reinforced and provided justification for the actions of the Spanish, even in its most severe manifestation. In fact, Todorov invokes the unimaginably horrible image of Catholic priests bashing Indian baby's heads against rocks, allegedly to save them from damnation to hell, which their "savage" culture would have otherwise consigned them to. The logic of this deed and others like them illustrates the destructive influence of Christianity in the Colonial project, which lies at the root of the hegemonic self-image of Western experience--first defined from the perspective of Columbus and Cortes.

This review article is about the essay written by William C. Placher and it has been oriented from a reading assignment from a class. Sir William has managed to illustrate his meticulous thinking about the Bible. In this astute exposition, Placher contends for a model of scriptural power which is wealthier than that found in either what he calls "scriptural peculiarity" or radicalism. He keeps up that the message of the Scriptures is dependable when rightly comprehended (recognizing contrasts in type, social setting, and view of history), and he urges perusers to get sufficiently comfortable with the content to comprehend it accurately.

Gonzalez also explains how he feels like there have been many ‘macroevents’ and ‘macroformations’ that are going on now in the 20th century, which can be tied back to the 16th century and the Protestant Reformation. He talks about how history has shaped where the Hispanic culture is today, and how that ties into how they view theology and the Word.

According to Elizabeth Martinez in her article Latino Catholicism and Indigenous Heritage as a Subfield of Latino Studies: A Critical Evaluation of New Approaches affirms that, “Stages of sacrifice, seeking cosmic harmony, and other rituals, adopt a

After reading The Art of the Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter, I feel I have a better understanding of the literary techniques used in the biblical text. These are definitely techniques as readers we all need to familiarize ourselves with. He has opened my eyes to a deeper understanding of the Bible, but also specific stories within the Hebrew Bible, which I have always found fascinating. Through Alter’s analyzation, I can see how the use of the rubrics has enabled me to connect with the biblical characters. The techniques have helped bring the characters to life. Alter has convinced me that there is a need for intelligent reading of the biblical narrative. He has given me a literary perspective of the Bible in which I did not have before. The four general rubrics, words, actions, dialogue, and narration, have acted as helpful tools for me to use when reading the scripture. In the following paragraphs I will discuss how I was before reading Alter’s Art of the Biblical Narrative, and how I have changed my view of the biblical narrative because of his book.

At first glance, it would seem that the Christology in Latin America and India have similar themes as both are shaped by Liberation Theology. Although this is factual, the significance of the similarities in Christology is different in each setting. In the context of Latin America, “Christ as Liberator” is particularly salient to the unique history of that region (e.g. civil wars, genocide, economic instability, etc.). Particular attention is given to the aspect of the character of Christ that suffers, not only on the Cross, but with the oppressed and marginalized. The emphasis in Christology is not how the more heady and theoretical understandings of Christ, but the lived reality of Christ. A psychological

Recently I have been overwhelmed by the various conflicting views on the interpretation the bible. Many people say that to be a Christian you must follow and believe the bible verbatim. However, I realize that it is nearly impossible to do that because of the context in which it was written. Marcus Borg’s has successfully provided a logical way to read the bible, with still being able to respect and incorporate older Christian traditions, but also focusing and taking into consideration the modernized world and reality in which we read the bible today. Hence the essential subtitle, Taking The Bible Seriously But not Literally. I salute Borg’s for taking on the challenge of addressing a burning issue that separates two distinct group of

Such outrageous exclusion has perpetuated itself in contemporary times through Franco’s national Catholicism and the post-Franco Europeanization. It is in light of the latter that we can now understand Goytisolo’s words upon receiving the Cervantes Literary Prize: “Cuando me dan un premio, sospecho de mí mismo” (El País, 2015). Such suspicion is indeed a well-founded one, for his recognition as a major writer on the account of the Spanish state has only come after the exclusion of Iberia’s Semitic roots by Franco’s national Catholicism has been further secured through its ideological replacement via a Eurocentric ideology whose self-representation obfuscates in Asian and African foundations.

The historical-critical methods used in exegesis by biblical scholars in today’s era can be traced back to a handful of influential men who either, by extreme purposefulness or by no fault of their own, has ultimately turned the truth of the Scriptures against the faith of Church. The common denominator for using the Bible was, for all extensive purposes, political gain. Three significant contributors to “Politicizing the Bible” will be the focus of this paper.

In their attempt to respond to one of the earliest Christological question, "Who is Jesus?", Latin American theologians have used a variety of images to describe the identity of Jesus Christ. This paper highlights the contributions of Catholics, Protestants/ Evangelicals, and Pentecostal theologians from Latin America to the field of Christology in a context of poverty and social injustice. I propose that an analysis of the Latin American Christology without the significant contributions of the Latin American Theological Fellowship (FTL) in the development of a contextual Christology would be incomplete. Latin American Christology is not a finished product; rather, it is in an on-going process that attempts to remain faithful to the Scriptures

The wealth of early church attestation of the meaning of texts and collective tradition of witnesses is the second tool which provides insight for objective meaning. The Bible is a complex piece of “literary work” if it has no valid source. However, it is written by different authors viewing the life of Jesus from different perspectives as can be seen from the Gospels. The Torah attributed to Moses as its author may not be uniform in its teaching, however, there exists a “Mosaic unity” among them with each book standing alone and complementing the

Interpretation presents many challenges that can be difficult to overcome. There seems to be more challenges that arise when interpreting the Bible. Interpreters face many challenges and the validity of their methods are sometimes questioned. Although there are challenges to effective biblical interpretation such as distance of time and geographical location, difference in culture and language, and human pre-understanding and presupposition, these challenges can be overcomed.

The writer, Roger Nicole addresses the issues of proper interpretation of the scriptures in hermeneutic and culture perspective. He implies,” that one must avoid reading meaning into the text that are not inherent in the text.” He go on future to say,” We must allow the text to speak for itself without imposing on it a predetermined interpretation.” Study shows axiom (rule of interpretation) of biblical hermeneutics is that the interpreter must take into count the literary genre of the passage being interpreted along with the question of text grammars, philology, background and history (Nicole.p.356-57).The writer discusses the different between “prescriptive or descriptive texts. It is important in the hermeneutics process to distinguish what in Scripture is prescriptive, embodying God’s commandment to us, and what is descriptive, relating events or attitudes that may or may not be desirable (Nicole.p.357). Even though we Know that” God is the primary author of Scripture.” it is imperative that certain practices in both New and Old Testament are merely describe, or serve as a culture background of the activity even of some who were God’s children, without implying that we shall conform to these practices (Nicole. P.357)