The 2007 Annual Colloquium and General Meeting of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States focused on the theme, “Building a Latino/a Ecumenical Theology: Protestant and Catholic Theological Perspectives on some Significant Issues.” Not content simply to rehearse the usual themes of ecumenical dialogue around issues about which Christians of different denominations agree or disagree, this gathering of Latina/o Roman Catholic and Protestant scholars worked together in dialogue with each other to craft a Latino/a ecumenical theology.

Outside the Survival of Community there is no Salvation:

A U.S. Hispanic Catholic Contribution to Soteriology

Culture, Ecumenical Dialogue and a Renewed Pneumatology

Presidential Address

Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States

Corpus Verum: Toward a Borderland Ecclesiology

Roberto S. Goizueta

Boston College

Ecclesiology a lo mestizo/a y mulato/a:

What Happens to Church When We Move latinamente

Beyond Inherited Ecclesiologies?

From Pájaro to Paraclete: Retrieving the Spirit of God in the Company of Mary

Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández

Catholic Theological Union

Grace and Justification:

How Can We Shape Soteriology and Theological Anthropology a la latina

A curious coincidence of two events set in motion the thinking that now finds expression for your consideration in this essay, with its deliberately ambiguous title, "Good Fences and Good Neighbors? Biblical Scholars and Theologians." First came the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Board of Directors’ self-proclaimed "historic decision" "to hold stand-alone AAR Annual Meetings beginning in 2008." That is, as of 2008 the AAR will to discontinue the practice, begun in 1970, of holding its annual meeting jointly with the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). The AAR Board explained, "While the AAR has enjoyed a long and beneficial relationship with the SBL, which has included joint and/or concurrent annual meetings, the Board’s decision comes primarily out of the recognition that the identities and missions of the two associations are distinct and different and that the current structure of the annual meetings has become unwieldy. We have decided that independent annual meetings will best serve AAR’s mission." The Board expressed its view that this decision "seems to us the best way to serve the Academy and its members, to clarify the Academy’s identity vis-à-vis the other societies and in relation to the wider American [sic] academic environment, and to foster the ongoing diversity, intellectual richness, and vitality of the AAR."

On behalf of the Editorial Board, welcome to the electronic Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology. In 1993, the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States launched the Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology as a peer-reviewed quarterly that provided a venue for the growing body of theological analysis of the religious reality of the Latinos and Latinas in the United States, a population that is steadily increasing in number and in significance for the life of the church. Recognizing the opportunities for a wider readership across the United States, in Latin America, and around the world, the electronic format of the Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology takes advantage of advances in information technology to make this research available to an ever broader and more diverse readership of scholars, pastoral agents, students, and others. We are pleased to bring you "Migrations and Unexpected Interreligious Dialogue" by Dr. Orlando O. Espín of the University of San Diego, as well as "Good Fences and Good Neighbors? Biblical Scholars and Theologians," by this editor. These articles join contributions by Dr. Miguel H. Díaz of St. John’s University / St. Benedict’s College, Collegeville, MN, and by Dr. Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández of the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, IL. We are pleased to announce that very shortly, your subscription to the electronic Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology will also give you access to the full text of the articles that appeared in volumes 1 through 10 of the print version of the Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology. In addition, we will feature an expanded book review feature.

Most Christian theologies of religions have directed their attention (considerable in the last forty years) to either laying the necessary theological groundwork for dialogue with the world's great non-Christian religions (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism, with an occasional bow to numerically smaller religions), or to a Christian theological evaluation of the world's religions. However, these important contributions from Christian theologians of religions have seldom methodically analyzed the universe of the so-called "popular" religions-- the actual religions of the vast majority of humankind. Much less have theologians wondered about the mutual impact that these "popular" religions might have on each other at the "popular" level.