Señor de la Esperanza

Renato, un amigo peruano, me hizo conocer este video del grupo Siembra candando una canción comusionado por mi parroquia cuando yo estuve allí en los años 80.  Me conmueve encontrarlo en el internet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOYO4kj4hW0&feature=related

Allí tambien se encuentre otros videos del mismo grupo, tan conocido desde más de 30 años en el Perú comprometido.

Recent Trends in Liberation Theology: Pluralism and Eco-theology

   I don't think I posted this before. It is a talk I gave at the 2009 Call to Action Conference in Milwaukee. It announces some topics that will be central to a workshop at the World Forum on Liberation Theology next month in Dakar, Senegal. It also relates quite nicely with the topics discussed in the preceding blog on evolutionary theology, which I am currently trying, slowly, to digest.  
   The title of the workshop, “Recent Trends in Liberation Theology” is vast.  I will speak mainly of some trends emanating from the Latin American Theological Commission of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) with whom I have most contact. I realize that, in doing so I am cutting a narrow slice of all that is going on: EATWOT has also an active Women’s Commission. It is organized internationally to include Africa, Asia and also minorities in the USA. Moreover EATWOT is not the only association of Liberation Theologians.  There is also the important work of Amerindia, a group that has contributed enormously to shaping the thinking of the Latin American Catholic Church. I repeat that I will speak only of two threads in one commission of this ecumenical association. Nevertheless those two threads already provide more than enough material for the time we have together.

Evolutionary Christianity

Since the beginning of December an interesting series of interviews has been taking place on the internet regarding a shift in thinking due to the story of the universe as explained by Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme and many others:

http://evolutionarychristianity.com/  I direct you here because it is best to get a sense of the project as a whole before going to the download page. Nevertheless, the specific interviews can be found at
audio-downloads/

 I draw your attention particularly to the intervention of Thomas Morewood. While you are there you might want to listen to some of the others as well. They include people like Diarmuid O'Murchu, Bishop Spong, Matthew Fox,  and many others: Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical.

This shift in thinking is breaking out throughout the world and not just among Christians. While religion may have played a negative role in many moments of history -- and that story is far from over -- it must be noted that that role has been a failure of religion in its deepest sense rather than an expression if its role. There is an important job ahead to challenge religion to accept task of building a more human world by rethinking its whole set of traditions and finding for itself a very largely transformed role in our world.

Hope: hiding round the corner

    Among the songs and prayers leading up to Christmas, we find this one from Germany in the 14th century:
     Behold a rose of Judah
     From tender branch has sprung,
     From Jesse’s lineage coming,
     As those of old have sung.
     It came a flower bright
     Amid the cold of winter,
     When half spent was the night.

     In a very beautiful poetic way it describes the flowering of hope for our world, “when half spent was the night.” They are words that we can read today, centuries later, and still find deep meaning.
     One of the important struggles many people have today is not just keeping hope alive but of searching for hope itself, for something that will make hope flower in the heart.
     I would like to believe that the flowering of hope is always just around the corner, present but not always evident to our line of vision. It will never come forward unless we keep journeying and struggling. Nevertheless, it is there and it is waiting for us and reaching out to us.

Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year !!