HTI Open Plaza

In this episode of OP Talks, Stephen Di Trolio Coakley talks to theologians Dr. Raimundo Barreto and Dr. João Chaves about the rising strength of Evangelicals in Brazilian politics that led to the 2018 election of far-right presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, who is currently locked in a runoff race with former left-wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The runoff election will take place at the end of October 2022.

Nearly a year ago, Dr. Barreto and Dr. Chaves published "Christian Nationalism is Thriving in Bolsonaro’s Brazil" in The Christian Century (18 November 2021). The article explores how Christian nationalism is not only a U.S. phenomenon but “particularly evident and virulent in Brazil,” and how the two countries’ phenomena are interconnected.

Although Dr. Barreto and Dr. Chaves are interested in exploring the rise of "Messianic Bolsonarismo," they trace its cause as a transnational phenomenon.

In this episode of OP Talks, Rev. Dr. Tony Lin talks to friend and colleague Rev. Mickey Correa about his work as a pastor in Washington Heights, preparing the next generation of clergy, and never forgetting about the "humanity of ministry." Rev. Correa is the Chief Program Officer at Blanton-Peale Institute & Counseling Center in New York City and serves as the pastor of Christ Church NYC Washington Heights ("Christ in the Heights"), one of the hardest-hit neighborhoods at the beginning of the pandemic. He leads bilingual worship, spiritual formation, and pastoral care at the small, multiethnic parish, where most of his parishioners are older. One of them, he says, joked, "A tí te mandaron a un asilo de ancianos [They sent you to a nursing home].” At the start of the pandemic, Rev. Correa felt pessimistic and worried about how his older congregation would navigate the crisis. But in big and small ways, he was reminded of the Latino spirit: "Even if you don't have all of the resources, everyone has a little something to contribute and, together, you can make a fiesta, together, you can make a feast." As time wore on, however, fatigue nevertheless set in.

"That enthusiasm to make community happen, that's part of our performative role as pastors,” says Rev. Correa. “You have to make sure that things run smoothly, but the performative aspect has moved into ‘this is now part of our professionalism.’" He adds that under-resourced congregations are now expected to do more; online services are now the norm, for example. "People are exhausted is what I've heard, and I have some clergy friends who have resigned or are in the process of leaving their church appointments because they are physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted.” 

As a trained social worker, Rev. Correa was taught not to think "in a linear fashion, but to think about the multiple things that form the ecology of someone." So what advice and resources might he offer practical theologians and seminary professors preparing the next generation of clergy? asks Rev. Dr. Lin.

"Jesus was a practical theologian,” says Rev. Correa. “He was about thinking, 'How do we use the loaves and the fishes to make sure everyone is fed?'…One of the most important things that often may get lost in seminary training is thinking from a macro-social system perspective that is not just going to be the local parish—again, I'm talking as a Methodist and from a Wesleyan theological perspective; Wesley would say, ‘the world is my parish.’ We are not called to just serve our little church or our big church in the corner of so and so. We are called to the world. That means we are not going to have the world's resources to be able to be pastors of the whole world, but we need to think from a very macro-social systems perspective. For me, I would [it means] being aware of the places [in which] you are going to be situated. If you are sent to work in a specific community, that you start thinking about what are some of the practical things that the entire human being needs: food, shelter, psychological resources, and mental health resources, healthcare - how are we thinking about those resources?”

Rev. Correa emphasizes the need to think about, “from an ecosystemic perspective, how pastors are not just going to serve the building—which unfortunately is what pastors often end up utilizing their resources and energy in and that ends up sometimes moving them out from ministry.” Instead, he encourages us, “to really think about the humanity of ministry. The humanity of ministry goes back to the face of Christ. The face of Christ is Mathew 25…the poor, the broken, the sick, the imprisoned."

'The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital' (University of New Orleans Press, 2022) by writer and activist Tony Diaz, known as El Librotraficante, was published ten years after Arizona officials enforced a ban on Mexican American Studies. Diaz drove throughout the Southwest on his way to Arizona—with a caravan of Houston activists that included poet Lupe Mendez, Liana Lopez, Bryan Parras, and Laura Razo—after the state banned high school Mexican American studies programs, thus outlawing curriculums that consisted of books like The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; The Months and Other Stories by Helena Maria Viramontes; Luis Urrea’s The Hummingbird’s Daughter and The Devil’s Highway, among others.

Diaz’s The Tip of the Pyramid addresses the power and importance of cultural and community capital as a source of “self empowerment of our gente.” In this episode of OP Talks, he discusses the new book with Dr. Angela Valenzuela, director of the University of Texas Center for Education Policy, and doctoral student and longtime educator Patricia Núñez. They also discuss his activism work with the nonprofit he founded, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, and the mobilization of librotraficantes to fight bans on Latino authors and ethnic studies.

Diaz notes that, with the national politicalization of school boards and book bans still taking place today, the need to work on behalf of the Latino community remains urgent. He shares a story about visiting the Mayan archaeological complex Teotihuacán in Mexico: While to some it is a tourist trap, for Diaz it proved to be a spiritual experience that made him feel both thrilled and angry. He remembers sitting on the steps of this ancient city, “having all these revelations in my mind” and thinking, “Wow, we have [been] brainwashed. I am standing on the proof of our gente’s power, beauty, intelligence, and this has been kept from me, and the fact that this structure here exists is testament to all that.” The media, Diaz laments, constantly fails to accurately represent the Latino experience: “The forms that exist, especially from corporate media and corporate publishing, do not fully convey our experiences and, in some cases, they just erase us.”

Dr. Vincent Lloyd, Director of Africana Studies at Villanova University, talks to theologian and social theorist Matt Vega about his doctoral research around racial capital, which Vega examines through personal, theological, and academic lenses. Vega’s understanding of the relationship between race and capitalism, he says, was greatly influenced by political scientist Dr. Michael C. Dawson, who administered Vega’s “Race and Capitalism” Qualifying Examination at the University of Chicago. (Vega highly recommends watching this breakdown of race and capitalism by Dr. Dawson.)

Vega’s recent essay on racial capitalism is part of the Critical Theory for Political Theology 2.0 series on the Political Theology Network. In this episode of OP Talks, he encourages theologians to think through the relationship between race, capitalism, and theology for three reasons:

1. "First, there’s the origin reason. So, modern conceptions of race and the origins of capitalism as a distinct mode of production emerged within the context of mission."

2. "The second reason is the conversation reason. I think studying racial capitalism is important for theologians to foster cross-cultural conversations about how dynamics of race and capitalism might both be at work, rather than thinking about one at the exclusion of the other."

3. "The last reason it’s important for theologians is because I think it should push us to think about the sources we have within our traditions [with which] to think about or respond to racial capitalism."

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Dawson, Michael C. “Why Race and Capitalism Not Racial Capitalism? (Critical Race Studies): Racial Capitalism(s) I.” Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto, 25 March 2021.

Dawson, Michael C. and Emily A. Katzenstein. “Articulated Darkness: White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and Capitalism in Shelby’s Dark Ghettos.” The Journal of Political Philosophy 27.2, June 2019: 252-268.

Jennings, Willie James. The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. Yale University Press, 2011.

Lloyd, Vincent. Black Dignity: The Struggle Against Domination. Yale University Press, 2022.

Jones-Rogers, Stephanie E. They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. Yale University Press, 2020.

Robinson, Cedric James Robinson. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Zed Press, 1983. [PDF]

Vega, Matthew. CRITICAL THEORY FOR POLITICAL THEOLOGY 2.0: Racial Capitalism. Political Theology Network, 3 May 2022.

En este episodio de OP Talks, presentado por Stephen Di Trolio Coakley, el Dr. Rafael Vizcaíno comparte cómo su historia como migrante y su deseo de dedicarse a la filosofía lo llevaron a los campos de Estudios Decoloniales y de la Filosofía de Liberación. El tropo de la fetichización es central en la filosofía de liberación latinoamericana y su propuesta de un método “antifetichista,” como lo analiza el Dr. Vizcaíno en un ensayo reciente; "Liberation Philosophy, Anti-Fetishism, and Decolonization [Filosofía de la liberación, el antifetichismo y la descolonización]" ofrece una genealogía del tropo de la fetichización elaborado en la obra del filósofo de liberación, el argentino-mexicano Enrique Dussel.

El Dr. Vizcaíno escribe: “…the anti-fetishist method consists of deciphering the man-made character of oppressive power relations that behave as if they were necessary and unchangeable transhistorical absolutes […el método antifetichista consiste en descifrar el carácter hecho por el hombre de las relaciones de poder opresivas que se comportan como si fueran absolutos transhistóricos necesarios e inmutables].”

A partir de un trabajo reciente de antropología cultural que demuestra cómo la noción de “fetichismo” se desarrolla a partir de una antropología eurocéntrica de la religión unilateral que tergiversa elementos de las religiones afroatlánticas, él argumenta que, sin una revisión seria de las premisas metafísicas del “anti -fetichismo,” la filosofía de liberación corre el riesgo de perpetuar un eurocentrismo que va en contra de los intereses de descolonización epistémica a los que está comprometida. El Dr. Vizcaíno esboza las perspectivas de un método decolonial “antifetichista” que podría superar la mala interpretación eurocéntrica de las religiones afroatlánticas.

The late Msgr. Neil A. Connolly served as a parish priest for close to 60 years. After his ordination at age 24, he spent eight weeks in Ponce, Puerto Rico, taking part in a pioneering New York Archdiocesan language-immersion program in Spanish. The young Irish-American priest quickly adapted to an environment that was predominantly Latino. His priesthood would be defined by the South Bronx and Puerto Rican migration as he learned to both serve and be part of a community that struggled for a decent life. Passionate about issues of social justice, Fr. Connolly was a champion for lay leadership and community organization. While vicar for the South Bronx in the 1970s, he co-founded and was chairman of South Bronx People for Change, a Church-based, direct-action membership organization. Community organizer Angel García has served as its Executive Director.

 In this episode of OP Talks, Dr. Michael E. Lee, Director of Fordham University's Francis & Ann Curran Center for American Catholic Studies, talks to García about his recent book 'The Kingdom Began In Puerto Rico: Neil Connolly’s Priesthood in the South Bronx' (Fordham University Press, 2021). In this history of faith and community building, García chronicles the work of Rev. Connolly from 1958 to the 1980s.

Reflecting on Fr. Connolly’s ministry in the Bronx, García says, “When one thinks about it…you’ve been an altar boy, you’ve gone to these traditional churches [and] seminary preparation. And then you come here, and you’re looking for the church, and they say, ‘It’s right here. It’s a bodega. This is where the church is.’ And Fr. Connolly essentially surrendered himself to that.”