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Recinos, Harold J. and Magallanes Hugo, eds. Jesus in the Hispanic Community: Images of Christ from Theology to Popular Religion

Recinos, Harold J. and Magallanes, Hugo, eds. Jesus in the Hispanic Community: Images of Christ from Theology to Popular Religion. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009.  Pages, xxii + 225. Paper, $21.50. ISBN: 9780664234287.

 Reviewed by: Claudio M. Burgaleta, S.J., Fordham University

Harold J. Recinos and Hugo Magallanes, both professors of the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, have edited a volume containing the Christologies of U.S. Latina/o theologians from a broad spectrum of national, denominational and methodological perspectives. One undercurrent throughout this volume that at times surfaces in the references of a few authors, is Michelle A. González’s critique of the Christologies of U.S. Latina/o theologians. In her essay on Jesus in the Handbook of Latina/o Theologies (Chalice Press, 2006), she contends that U.S. Latina/o Christologies have neglected many of the classical and contemporary themes that have preoccupied the mainstream academy. These include, among others, the normative creedal formulations of the Patristic period, the contributions of the third quest for the historical Jesus, and the insights of Feminist Christologies. Furthermore, the Cuban-American theologian argues, a lack of attention to the issues that preoccupy the Christologies of the academy has isolated the impact of U.S. Latina/o theology. This volume is a reply to that critique. 

 

The book is divided into two parts: part one deals with constructive theology, and part two with popular religion. The essays in constructive theology, by far the most numerous, include the following themes:  “Elements for a Mexican American Mestizo Christology” by Virgilio Elizondo: “The Galilean Jesus as Faithful Dissenter: Latino/a Christology and the Dynamics of Exclusion” by Michael Lee; “Identifícate con Nosotras: A Mujerista Christological Understanding” by Ada María Isasi-Díaz; “Constructing a Cuban-Centric Christ” by Miguel A. De La Torre; “Encuentro con el Jesús Sato:  An Evangélica Soter-ology” by Loida I. Martell-Otero; “Christology from a Latino/a Perspective:  Pentecostalism” by Arlene M. Sánchez-Walsh; “Who Do You Say That I Am, Jesús or Jesse? A Reflection on Christology and Christian Identity” by Hugo Magallanes; “Exploring Latino/a Titles for Christ” by Zaida Maldonado Pérez; and “El Cristo Migrante/The Migrant Christ” by Luis R. Rivera. The second section that treats Christology in Latina/o popular religion is comprised of three essays: Qué Lindo es Mi Cristo: The Erotic Jesus/Christ in the Caribbean, Latin America, and Latino/a Protestant Christian Music” by Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi; “Three Visual Images of Jesus the Christ from the Latino/a Community: God the Vulnerable, God the Broken, God the Loving” by Eduardo C. Fernández, S.J.; and “La Capilla de Nuestro Señor de los Milagros: Encountering Christ at a Texas Shrine” by Timothy Matovina. While the majority of the essays cited above have not been published before, several of them have previously appeared in print, for example, the contributions of Elizondo, Lee, Isasi-Díaz, and De La Torre. Given the reference point that Michelle A. González´s article plays for a number of the authors, it would have been helpful if her article on Jesus from the Handbook of Latina/o Theologies would have been included in this volume. 

 

Michael Lee´s qualified apologia of Elizondo´s Christology in Galilean Journey against those who have critiqued his biblical foundations deserves to be highlighted. It answers some critiques from the perspective of the third quest for the historical Jesus by showing that Elizondo´s Christology is best understood as presenting not the historical Jesus, but the “historic Jesus.” The historic Jesus is the person remembered by the believing Latina/o community in Sacred Scripture and the living Tradition of that community who serves as a stimulus for understanding their own marginal identity and struggle for a more just and better life.

 

Other essays in this volume also dispel some common criticisms against the Christology of Latinas/os as being too contextual, too focused on a functionalist Christology exclusively concerned with the assistance it provides to counter oppression and injustice, and obsessed with the visual image of the Crucified Jesus. Fernández´s essay on three popular graphic depictions of Jesus that are venerated by Latinas/os is a fine example of historical and pastoral theology. He demonstrates how the painted images and statues of the Santo Niño and the Sacred Heart of Jesus not only exhibit a rich variety in the ways Latinos relate to the Savior beyond the very human, tortured and bloody body of the crucifix, but corrects a theologizing that narrows itself to Scriptural and dogmatic testimonies of Jesus as the definitive revelation of God. These and other visual depictions of Jesus remind us of the more holistic and expansive Christ of faith that the artistic and devotional practices of the sensus fidelium provide us.  

 

Similarly, Cardoza-Orlandi´s essay on what he terms the erotic images of Jesus that emerge from Latina/o Protestant Christian music demonstrate a joyful, affective and intimate spirituality with the Lord. One might question whether eros, in the tradition of mystical marriage of St. Catherine of Siena or St. Teresa of Jesus, is the best description for the love for the Savior that these songs reveal. Their words struck me more as expressions of agape or philia, both loving expressions of a joyful, non-sexual, affective intimacy demonstrated by friends of the same or opposite sex or by parents to their younger children or older children to their aged parents. But that these songs reveal a joyful and affective Christological spirituality is not in question.  They provides an important theological and spiritual resource for faith communities and the academy whose Jesus is all too often distant, cold, and unconnected with the struggles of the everyday-life of believers. 

 

No one volume can cover the complexity of Latina/o christology and the riches it has to offer non-Latino/a faith communities and the academy toward exploring the fullness of the mystery of Jesus Christ. Two such lacunae that bear highlighting are (1) an absence of the analysis of the Christology of the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” that many Latinos/as find so attractive. It is true that Sánchez-Walsh´s essay on Pentecostal Christology is a welcomed inclusion in this volume of a Latino/a perspective that is often ignored by both Protestant and Catholic Latina/o theologians. Yet the Christ who promises to end all types of suffering and the enjoyment of many material blessings in this life, preached in some mega-churches, needs scholarly attention beyond simple dismissal and condemnation by Latino/a Protestant theologians. (2) An in-depth assessment of how Latinas/os relate to the Eucharistic Jesus, an important, common, and special way that most Latinas/os encounter the Risen Lord on a regular basis could also have received more attention from the Catholic theologians in this volume.