La Cosecha: Harvesting Contemporary United States Hispanic Theology (1972-98).

La Cosecha: Harvesting Contemporary United States Hispanic
Theology (1972-98)
Eduardo C. Fernandez
Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press, $19.95, 206 pp.

Largely inspired by the pioneering work of Latin American liberation theologians, there is now a wide range of theologians who write within specific historical and/or existential contexts. Asian, African, and womanist theologies abound. As those theologies grow, they become more specific to reflect lived experience; hence, for example, the distinction between feminist and womanist theology, with the latter term used to designate women of color. Over the past thirty years, a growing number of theologians have recognized that the experience of Hispanics in the United States is not the same as their Central or South American counterparts'. For that reason, like-minded Hispanic thinkers have banded together to reflect on their Christian faith within the context of living in the United States. Their common purpose has given birth to a professional association and journal, both known by the acronym ACHTUS (Association of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States).

La Cosecha ("The Harvest"), Eduardo Fernandez's rewritten doctoral thesis presented at Rome's Gregorian University, is the first full-length assessment of the rise and significance of this relatively new theological movement. Hence, the bibliography at the end of the work is particularly valuable as it provides an authoritative listing of all the major works of Hispanic theologians over the last generation.

Anyone who pays attention to religious demographics in this country will not be surprised at the rise of such a theological enterprise. Fernandez himself notes that within a decade Hispanics may account for 50 percent of all Catholics in the United States. How the church responds to that rate, and to the perception that large numbers of Hispanics leave the church, is crucial. (Notre Dame has started a highly visible Center for Latino Studies, and aggressively recruited Hispanic faculty and students. Nearly 20 percent of this fall's incoming class is Hispanic).

As Fernandez traces its history, Hispanic theology derives mainly from the work of Paris-trained Texan Virgilio Elizondo (now at Notre Dame). Rightly called the "herald of U.S. Hispanic theology," Elizondo, one-time rector of San Antonio's cathedral, was first to ponder the significance of "reading the Bible in Spanish," the meaning of Our Lady of Guadalupe, as well as the theological resources behind Hispanic liturgical practices, popular devotions, and symbolic actions like the Christmas Posada. Subsequent theologians have built on his pioneering insights into popular religion (Orlando Espin and Timothy Matovina), pastoral issues (Allen F. Deck), theological methodology (Roberto Goizueta and Alex Garcia-Rivera), and the nexus between popular religion and the transcendent (Jaime Vidal). Fernandez also includes an account of the pioneering work of women theologians Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Maria Pilar Aquino, as well as Protestant theologians like the prolific Cuban-born Methodist, Justo Gonzalez.

Fernandez concludes with future trajectories of Hispanic theology and a survey of work to be done. Little, for example, has been written on Hispanic youth, or the ways that theological approaches founded on immigrant realities might change when American Hispanics begin to reach a more assimilated status. Fernandez is sensitive to the fact the very word "Hispanic" is a bit of an abstraction, since there are widely different cultural groups who live under that umbrella term. What is pertinent to one group may be irrelevant to another. As the current interests of many of these theologians become conventional opinion (Is there anyone who doubts that popular religion is an important resource for theological reflection?), a new stage of theological reflection may be needed. Finally, nagging pastoral issues, not least of which is the need for Hispanic priests in communities beyond the traditional Sunbelt states, require further thought.

In sum: I highly recommend this well-researched volume. It provides the best overall picture of Hispanic theological efforts within the United States. And it gives us the current status questionis in that it provides us a notion of where things are and leaves us with questions about where things will (or may) go.

Lawrence S. Cunningham is the John A. O'Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame.