Liberation Theologies | Bibliography | North America Pt. 2
Chapter 8: The Liberation of North America, Part 2
Base Christian Communities at Home
755. Berrigan, Daniel. The Mission. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1986.
This is the spin-off text to the film; and it provides much of the theological background to the events and characters portrayed emblematically there. Much of the point of the film was the need for Christians to entrust the people themselves to become the subjects of their own salvation. Berrigan also reflects on the strengths of the base Christian communities that enable this.
756. Colonnese, Louis M., ed. Conscientization for Liberation. Washington, DC: Division for Latin America, United States Catholic Conference, 1971.
A collection of essays by Colonnese, Luis Ambroggio, Rafael Legaria, Cesar Aguiar, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Helen C. Volkmener, Paulo Freire, Julio de Santa Ana, Frank Church and others on the North American reception and perception of the changes in the Latin American church.
Topics include the sweeping cultural and political changes in Latin America, Latin American Catholicism and liberation theology, changes since Medellin, North American reactions to liberation theology, American Behaviorism and its “aseptic neutrality,” and new North American policy for Latin America.
757. Kinsler, F. Ross, ed. Ministry By the People. Theological Education by Extension. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
Calls for a reorientation of theological education to outreach programs that empower ordinary laypeople to carry on a Christian ministry in their daily lives. Good contextual theory for base communities in a North American context.
758. McKenna, Megan, “Base Communities in North America.” Pax Christi 12, 4 (1987): 18-19.
A review and brief analysis.
759. Nottingham, William J. The Practice and Preaching of Liberation. St. Louis, MO: CBP Press, 1986.
Jesus is the center and all of Christianity and its preaching. Today that church and preaching must face the fact of the oppression and suffering of millions in the Third World and our own relative prosperity. This is a book devoted to forming a preaching context and text that coveys the message of liberation to the First World.
Topics include the Bible and liberation, Jesus, preaching for conversion, local awareness and global awareness; and a practical guide for liberation preaching, including a selection of lectionary texts.
760. O’Halloran, James. Living Cells. Developing Small Christian Communities. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1984.
This is a how-to-do-it book for a North American audience interested in experiencing the immediacy of the base Christian community.
761. Schipani, Daniel S. Religious Education Encounters Liberation. Birmingham, AL: Religious Education Press, 1988.
Facing the twin facts that there are now more Latin Americans living in the United States than in all of Central America, and that liberation theology has become a leading and well-established school of thought, Schipani seeks to apply the insights of the Latin American experience to the educational problems and realities of North America. The book consists of five chapters based around liberation themes – conscientization, liberation and creativity; prophetic and utopian vision; praxis; faith seeking understanding; and the oppressed and the base community – and then seeks to apply the insights of liberation theology to our own religious educational systems. Pages 6-7 contain an excellent bibliographical essay on liberation theology and religious eduction.
762. Walsh, John J. Integral Justice. Changing People, Changing Structures. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
A primer to the processes of conscienticizing North Americans to the role of the church in working for justice, first through educating ministers and then through leading parishioners to take on Christian commitments on their own.
763. Wentz, Frederick K. Getting into the Act. Opening Up Lay Ministry in the Weekday World. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1978.
Written in the context of the Carter presidency’s call for a new moral equivalent of war in reversing America’s role as “greedy Goliath” and in the face of Third World suffering and the energy crisis of the late 1970s. Attempts to take the insights of liberation theology and apply them to the life and actions of North Americans through emphasizing the role of the laity in the mission of the church.
Discusses our notions of liberation and freedom, the church as a liberated minority, the situation of Protestantism in contemporary America, the impact of liberation theology, the need for new, liberated lifestyles in the context of the needs of the world as a whole, and the need to establish what Helder Camara has called “Abrahamic minorities,” living in the contemporary desert of North American culture; and more importantly, to unite these to bring about change.
764. Whitehead, Evelyn Eaton, and James D. Whitehead. The Emerging Laity. Returning Leadership to the Community of Faith. New York: Doubleday, 1986.
The recent emergence to leadership in the church by its laity is a fact and the context for these reflections on scriptural images of leadership and ministry, communities and power, communities and authority, new forms of leadership, personal and social empowerment, Jesus’ witness to the realities of power, the authorization of power through scripture and Christian history, purification of power, the power of the weak and the strong, idolatries and prophesy against power. The basis for a liberating theology of praxis for North Americans.
The Northern Reaction
765. Berghoef, Gerard, and Lester DeKoster. Liberation Theology. The Church’s Future Shock – Explanation, Analysis, Critique, Alternative. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian’s Library Press, 1984.
Criticism from the Protestant evangelical view.
766. Bloesch, Donald G. Faith and Its Counterfeits. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1981.
Not seen.
767. Eppstein, John. The Cult of Revolution in the Church. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1974.
While Eppstein regrettably dismisses the violence used by the state against other states as a sad reality of international life, condoned or allowed by Christian theology, and admits that revolution was a prime motive in Puritanism and other periods of the Christian past, he is most uncomfortable with a “theology of revolution” that he sees taking over current theological thought.
He cannot conceive of any revolution that takes place without violence – this book was written before the people’s revolutions of the 1980s that overcame Marcos in the Philippines and most of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe nonviolently – and accuses proponents of such revolution as deceiving themselves.
A theology of revolution is the invention, he contends, of Marxists and Marxist priests and of evolving communist world tactics from the 1950s to the 1970s. Having set up his terms of discussion in this manner, Eppstein concludes that the just-war limits of war, and of revolution, makes it impossible for revolution to be justified in a Christian context.
“However the question be posed, there cannot be any case for the attempt to overthrow the existing political and economic structure – meaning of course, that of states outside the Communist orbit – without regard to the real differences and distinctive circumstances of time and place; and all sweeping generalities break down under honest examination.”
768. Ezcurra, Ana Maria. The Neoconservative Offensive. U.S. Churches and the Ideological Struggle in Latin America. Elice Higginbotham and Linda Unger, eds. New York: Circus, 1983.
On the general political struggle, and the church’s political, not really theological, role in it.
769. —. The Vatican and the Reagan Administration. New York: Circus Publications, 1986.
Includes Pablo Richard’s essay on the church of the poor in Nicaragua, Wayne Barrett’s essay on John Cardinal O’Connor’s back-room brand of church and secular politics on behalf of U.S. power and Reagan priorities, the U.S. crisis of confidence, the neoconservative entry into religious debate, their role in anti-Sandinista propaganda, and the Reagan administration and Vatican “confluences” on the ideological struggle in Latin America. Concludes with a reprint of Ratzinger’s Instruction on Certain Aspects (see 123-124).
770. Forrester, Duncan. Theology and Politics. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988.
Not seen.
771. Henry, Carl F. H. God, Revelation and Authority. God Who Speaks and Shows. Vol. 4. Waco, TX: Word, 1979.
Under chapters 22, “New Man and the New Society”; 23, “Marxist Exegesis of the Bible”; and 25, “The Marxist Reconstruction of Man,” Henry takes on the political theologies, theologians of hope, liberation theology and other worshippers of false gods. This is a massive work and obviously the result of much thought.
772. Kammer, Charles. Ethics and Liberation. An Introduction. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1988.
Approaches traditional Christian ethical teachings from the viewpoint of liberation theology to emphasize that our ethical systems and beliefs must be based on dogma and precepts that derive ultimately from God and not from human systems of practical law or convenience. Paradoxically – for traditional systems that is – the author also emphasizes that these ethics must be applied to all of human activity and creation and not simply to the “religious sphere.”
773. Kirk, J. Andrew. Liberation Theology. An Evangelical View from the Third World. Atlanta, GA: John Knox, 1979.
Examines both the scriptural approach of liberation theology and its contextuality. Topics include the historical background and origins, basic themes, and methodology; some leading exponents, including Gutiérrez, Segundo, Croatto, Miranda, and Assmann.
Kirk then examines these theologians’ interpretation of key biblical texts, enters into a critical dialog, and puts forth an alternative hermeneutic, placing scripture and revelation, not praxis, as the starting point, without returning to classic theological methodology. Select bibliography.
774. —. Theology Encounters Revolution. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980.
Attempts to discover whether a “theology of revolution,” grown quite popular in the 1960s, is a viable proposition at all. Examines the meanings of revolution, their historical settings and today, Third World theological reflections, an examination of various revolutionary theologies today in Europe (eastern and western), and North America, black theology and African theology, and liberation theology in Latin America.
Appendixes examine the role of the World Council of Churches and of violence. A final chapter discusses the scriptural bases for revolution.
775. Klenicki, Leon. “The Theology of Liberation. A Latin American Jewish Exploration.” American Jewish Archives 35 (April 1983): 27-39.
A negative appraisal.
776. Lefever, Ernest W. Amsterdam to Nairobi. The World Council of Churches and the Third World. Washington, DC: Ethics and Public Policy Center, 1979.
This is an exposé of the WCC, which as George Wills characterizes it, “is justly famous for both the intensity and the selectivity of its indignation.” The power and importance of Third-World theologies and their threat to the American empire are given due weight in the amount of neo-conservative attention devoted to debunking liberation theology and church activism around the world. The book is no exception.
Lefever and Wills pas judgment on the work of theologians around the world, declaiming categorically about what Christianity is and is not. They do not like the brand proposed by the WCC. Under the heading “The Triumph of liberation Theology: 1969-1979” are grouped campaigns to end racism, the role of violence, the Peoples Republic of China, the Nairobi assembly of 1975, and virulent attacks on the West as represented by transnational corporation and development. Other topics include Marxist links, confusion of ends and means, and true separation of church and state.
777. —. Nairobi to Vancouver. The World Council of Churches and the World, 1975-87. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987.
The exposé continues, much like the theological version of “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” This time Lefever tracks the culprits of the WCC to its activities against NATO’s nuclear first-strike policy, its role in Central America and the rise of the “people’s church” and the Sandinistas, in Afghanistan, South Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, its criticism of capitalism and accommodation in the Soviet Union. Overall Lefever sees a nefarious double standard that backs revolution all around the world as liberation theology rises in triumph. Lefever’s bibliography is curious: it contains books on politics and economics alone, with nothing of theology or religion.
778. McCann, Dennis. Christian Realism and Liberation Theology. Practical Theologies in Creative Conflict. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1981.
This critique of theology that stems from experience and suffering is decidedly in the tradition of Niebuhr’s “Christian realism.” That “realism,” both cozily academic and reactionary at this date, here exposes its discomfort and dislike of realities of a different sort. It is basically suspicious of the role of basic Christian communities and of individual Christians taking action that can be characterized as “political.”
McCann asserts that the Christian must leave the problems of the world to political solutions worked out by secular agents. Briefly reviews the leading liberation theologians, asserting that Gutiérrez, for example, has stretched Medellin’s option for the poor as a full endorsement of his position, that Segundo rejects “pacifism” as contributing to the status quo and calls for a liberating violence whose religious basis is illusionary, and that Segundo says the manipulation of the masses by a revolutionary elite dedicated to liberation is justified, and that he believes “the end justifies the means.”
779. McElevaney, William K. Good News is Bad News is Good News. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1980.
Critique of liberation theology and its biblical readings from the viewpoint of a comfortable, middle-class American.
780. McGovern, Arthur F. Liberation Theology and Its Critics. Towards an Assessment. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
Here is an attempt to move beyond ideology and to assess both liberation theology and northern reactions with fairness. Focuses on the most disputed aspects of the theology for a North American, capitalist-bred audience: the relationship between a theology and a [different] economic system, that is, in American theologians’ attempts to use Marxist socio-economic methods of analysis to define the base of experience for their peoples and God’s working in the world.
Reviews the history of the theological movement and of its major critics and attackers, as well as the on-the-ground praxis of this theology among base Christian communities.
781. —. Marxism. An American Christian Perspective. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1980.
Part 1 offers a thorough examination of Marx the man, his background, historical context and thought, Marxism since Marx, and the Church’s reactions, ranging from the anathemas of papal encyclicals to the church councils of the 1970s. Part 2 traces the impact of Marxism on Christian social thought and action, including the critique of capitalism in the Third World and a survey of liberation theology on pages 172-209. This part concludes with a section on the Chilean experience in the 1970s. Part 3 discusses objections to Marxism in key areas, such as its atheism and materialism, notions of property, class struggle and violence. The book concludes with personal reflections on the situation in the U.S.
782. Nash, Ronald H., ed. Liberation Theology. Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1984; Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1988.
This collection of all white men aims its considerable prowess at liberation theology in its Latin American form. Presents essays by Harold O. J. Brown, Michael Novak, Nash, James V. Schall, S.J., Clark H. Pinnock, Edward Norman, Robert C. Walton, Carl F. H. Henry, Dale Vree, and Richard John Neuhaus.
Nash sums up the theme of this hostile collection thus: “liberation theology in view in this book is the movement among Latin American Catholics and Protestants that seeks radical changes in the political and economic institutions of that region along Marxist lines. But of course Europe also has its stock of Christian theologians who believe that a hybrid social theology resulting from a cross between Christianity and Marxism is both desirable and necessary. And as a growing number of North American theologians translate their theoretical displeasure and distrust of capitalism into action, the language and literature of liberation theology becomes increasingly more prominent.”
783. —. Social Justice and the Christian Church. Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1983.
Not seen.
784. Nessan, Craig L. Orthopraxis or Heresy? The North American Theological Response to Latin American Liberation Theology. Atlanta, GA: Scholar’s Press, 1989.
This is an excellent survey of the Northern reaction. First examines Latin American liberation theology as a formal theology and in its context of poverty and oppression. Part 2 then examines some of the key responses from North America, including those of Shaull, Cone, Herzog, McAfee Brown, Radford Ruether, Sider, Wallis, and Krass, and the theology in the Americas group. It then samples certain criticisms, both from sympathetic and unsympathetic writers. The latter include Novak and Benne, Sanders and McCann, Neuhaus and Braaten, Wagner, Henry, Bloesch; and Migliore, Hodgson, Cobb, Delwin Brown and Ogden.
Part 3 then analyzes the theological “impasse” at present, the issues of the polarization, including Marxist analysis, the defense of democratic capitalism and Christian realism and other critiques, and the limitations of Latin American liberation theology. These include its philosophical basis, its methodology, its anthropology, and concept of liberation. The author concludes with a survey of the strengths of the theology, including its roots in Christian tradition, its understanding of Latin America, and the insufficiency of traditional academic theology. Excellent bibliography.
785. Neuhaus, Richard John. The Catholic Moment. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990.
A Lutheran theologian converted to high Catholicism, Neuhaus sees the “Catholic Moment” as the bright light being shed by John Paul II’s and Cardinal Ratzinger’s attack on liberation theology and its alleged attempt to equate political liberation with salvation. Yet he sees a chastened version as a sign of renewed vigor for the church.
786. Norman, Edward. Christianity and the World Order. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
Describes the change in Christianity in the preceding two decades through “politicization,” so that its thrust is no longer on metaphysics or internal spirituality, but on social and political change. In doing so the churches have lost their moral and religious influence, tagging along with the definitions of world problems created by secular thinkers and institutions. Examines the process of a political Christianity, the change of the clergy, the new imperialism caused by this politicization, and the social discredit this has caused. The author concludes with a call to regain the “indwelling Christ” of the spirit that transcends the cause of the moment.
787. Novak, Michael. Freedom with Justice. Catholic Social Thought and Liberal Institutions. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.
A thoughtful, if ideologically rightist, survey of Catholic social thought, beginning with definitions, moving on to various categories, including economic life, various utopianisms, and the U.S. bishops and new definitions of social and economic sin. Novak then reviews the development of Catholic social thought from 1848 to 1982, concluding with what he terms John Paul II’s “Creation Theology,” which is actually his theology of work as an alternative to liberation theology. Part 3 outlines some directions of future Catholic social thought.
788. —. Liberation South, Liberation North. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1981.
Essays by Segundo, Ralph Lerner, Joseph Ramos, Sergio Molina, Sebastian Piñera, and Roger W. Fontaine on the capitalist-socialist conflict, the Anglo-American model, Gustavo Gutiérrez’ theology, poverty and reform in Latin America, and the paths toward liberation.
789. —. The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982, esp. pp. 272-314.
Much of the criticisms of the Latin American liberation theologians of capitalist development are based on a faulty understanding of economics and the role of international capital. While dependency certainly has its shortcomings, this is not the fault of the wealthy industrialized nations, which have managed to provide a good life for the overwhelming majority of their peoples. The structural problems of Latin America are very much the result of their own cultural heritage and history of development. The models of democratic capitalism developed by the industrialized world are still valid tools for helping all the world’s impoverished peoples.
790. —. Will It Liberate? Questions About Liberation Theology. New York: Paulist Press, 1986.
Probably the most important and well argued of the Northern reactionaries, Novak is open-minded, even handed, and truly concerned with the issues of liberation, if not with theological salvation. Both North and South America have their own brands of liberation theology, he contends: in the South it is found in books, in the North in institutions, the basic freedoms of our lives, our ability to overcome the oppressions of poverty, class, race; to forge a new life and be the masters of our own destinies.
Novak is not being blind to the theological issues of liberation theology, nor to the very real contributions of that theology to illuminating the structures of oppression in Latin America. He clearly recognizes the fact that fundamental structures must be altered in Latin America before the freedoms that the Latin Americans crave, and that North Americans (or the white, male, and prosperous ones) enjoy. It is the means of achieving this in which he differs from his colleagues in the South.
Novak contends that in the intellectual circles of both South and North it is fashionable to bash the North American system, and those precise elements that make for stable, sustained economic, social and political freedom; and that now the time has come to defend the basic truths of Americanism and our own brand of “liberation theology.”
While one cannot fault this approach for its intent, one wonders whether Novak has not taken to heart much of the criticisms of the liberation theologians of precisely the kind of “civil religion” that he preaches, and whether he does not ignore the very different contexts of the two forms of liberation – and the intrinsic nature of the liberation – that the Latin and North Americans discuss. For Novak a material freedom seems to be the liberation he holds high, while at the same time condemning what he contends is Latin America’s flirtation with materialistic forms of progress, most importantly Marxism.
While he sees much to admire, the final question he puts to the Latin Americans is itself the essence of North American materialistic pragmatism: “will it liberate?” i.e., don’t give me theory: what is the bottom line? He faults the theologians for not having the socio-economic vision of economists or political scientists. At the same time, much of Novak’s and his colleagues’ strongest argument in the attack on liberation theology comes when they condemn American theologians, North or South, whenever they do discuss anything but theology.
Novak is even-handed in his respect for the Latin American theologians and admits openly that neither liberation nor liberalism will bring about the kingdom of God, but that both are essays that must be debated, but openly and with the view that the North has created the material conditions for true liberation. While open to the future proof of a socialism that the Latin Americans prophesy, Novak clings to tested results. In the end Novak’s theology is a political theology of the North American status quo, whose reality is not as bright as he contends, nor as dark as he contends Latin American critics make it. Ultimately one wonders whether he and the Latin American theologians are really talking on two separate planes of reality, about two very separate series of questions and problems.
Topics discussed in detail include the Latin American attack on the North, the ultimate efficacy of their social model, the chief tenets of their attack, the pope and liberation theology, “creation theology” (that is, the papal counter theology of work), Latin American statistical profiles, basic concepts of liberation theology (Novak’s choice, the historian-ethicist Dussel as his model over a careful reading of Gutiérrez, Segundo, or Boff, is problematic), the meaning of dependency and the poor, interpretations of “socialism” by Cubans, Latin American intellectuals, Segundo, Gutiérrez and political thinkers; the workings of socialism in Latin America, a liberal North American “constitution” (or catechism), and an analysis of Ratzinger’s Instruction. Novak includes a series of appendixes: anecdotes on the progress of freedom in Latin America.
791. —, ed. Capitalism and Socialism. A Theological Inquiry. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1979.
While the subtitle reads “A Theological Inquiry,” none of the participants – Irving Kristol, Seymour Martin Lipset, Peter Berger, Novak, Ben Wattenberg, or Penn Kemble – are particularly known for their theological work. This is, instead, an early manifesto of the neo-cons. The basic message is that theologians and clergy should stick to “religion” and leave “politics” to ideologs, such as the authors included here. They might have heeded their own advice and left theology to the theologians.
792. —. Liberation Theology and the Liberal Society. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1987.
A collection of addresses devoted to the dialog between Latin American and North American forms of liberation and liberalism. Contributors include Novak, William P. Glase, Hugo Assmann, George Weigal, Peter Berger, Arthur McGovern, Arturo Fontaine, Mark Alcoff, and others on democracy and the debt crisis in Latin America, underdevelopment, dependency theory, the systematics of liberation theologians, and the effects on economic growth of Latin American political systems.
793. Ogden, Schubert M. Faith and Freedom. Toward a Theology of Liberation. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1979.
This is an attempt to meet the challenge of liberation theology by an analysis of what Ogden considers the four major failings of these theologies. These are: that they are not theology but witness or ideology; that they are anthropocentric, dealing with God’s meaning for us, and not the true nature of God; that they confuse secular liberation with theological salvation; and that they too narrowly focus on one form of bondage: of race, sex, economy, etc., without taking into account the entire experience and meaning of true religious emancipation.
794. Rand Corporation. Latin American Institutional Development. The Changing Catholic Church. (Memorandum RM-6136-DOS). Luigi Einaudi, Richard Maullin, Alfred Sepan, and Michael Fleet, eds. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1969.
Examines the new move in the church of Latin America to separate itself from the state in order to avoid identification with the status quo and to exercise its “prophetic mission” to criticize living conditions and government programs that do not meet moral criteria for social justice.
795. Rockefeller Report on the Americas. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1969.
The emerging left and the religious left are among the chief threats to “development” in the region. Both need careful monitoring and control.
796. Schall, James V., S.J. ed. Liberation Theology in Latin America. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1982.
Schall immediately links liberation theology to secret arms caches, Molotov cocktails, friends of Fidel Castro, Camilo Torres hiding out in the jungle. He runs with his themes from there. In Latin America political problems are still mistaken for religious ones; Marxism has got its insidious hold on complacent intellectuals; while good old Uncle Sam is unjustly blamed for every failing of that region and society.
Though it is sometimes hard to discern his true feelings and beliefs under his breezy Time magazine tone, to Schall, liberation theology is born out of a Latin inferiority complex: a desire to change good old Catholicism because it is blamed for too much of the region’s backwardness. What is their solution to plop Latin America onto world center stage? Liberation theology, a perfect blend of South American flavor with Germanic terminology, dedicated to rewriting all the “major elements and themes of Christianity.” Marx’s hold on the thinkers there will surely bring about a neo-Constantinianism as action supersedes thought and familiar biblical phrases are used over and over again for partisan purposes.
Schall follows this introduction with a discussion of where such theologies lead. After a breezy discourse on heresy in Christian history we are treated to a parade of no-longer à la mode theologies, including existentialism, the “death of God,” the secular city, small is beautiful, and “self-styled theologies of hope.” The whole trendy crowd is dismissed before we come to the latest fashion statement, a blend of Fidel, political and revolutionary theology and the ilk. Need one go on?
Schall then invites his friends to lend a bash; the “theological” cast includes Jeanne Kirkpatrick, editorials in Civiltà Cattolica, Michael Novak, Roger Heckel, and John Paul II in ample doses. Of the thousands of books and articles written by and about liberation theologians, Schall includes a bibliography of fifteen items, rather skewed to lead the reader to the polemical side.
797. Wagner, C. Peter. Latin American Theology. Radical or Evangelical? Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1970.
Not seen.
The Sanctuary Movement
798. Bau, Ignatius. This Ground Is Holy. Christian Sanctuary and Central American Refugees. New York: Paulist Press, 1985.
This is a thorough and excellent examination of the issue of sanctuary. Topics include the development of the Sanctuary Movement, U.S. immigration law on refugees and its history, the federal prosecutions of sanctuary workers, and the legal implications of the movement itself. Bau then examines the ancient tradition of sanctuary in Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman history, and the law of sanctuary in England from the Anglo-Saxon to Renaissance periods. He next studies the practice in U.S. history from the colonial era, through the underground railroad of the Civil War era to the Vietnam War period. A final chapter discusses the theological nature of the Sanctuary movement and its place within liberation theology.
Excellent bibliographies on the history of sanctuary, legal articles on the Sanctuary Movement and cases, New York Times reports and other related topics.
799. Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America. Sanctuary. A Justice Ministry. Chicago: Chicago Religious Task Force on Central America, 1983.
Not seen.
800. Corbett, Jim. The Sanctuary Church. Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1986.
This pamphlet is less about the movement than about the theological and historical traditions of sanctuary and then about the conflict between the post-Constantinian church and the U.S. legal system.
801. Crittenden, Ann, Sanctuary. A Story of American Conscience and the Law in Collision. New York: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1988.
A well annotated and indexed account of the movement, the undercover operation, arrest, trial and convictions.
802. Davidson, Miriam, Convictions of the Heart. Jim Corbett and the Sanctuary Movement. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1988.
A dramatically told story of the Quaker witness of the Corbetts in their work for the Sanctuary movement, the trials and convictions of the Sanctuary workers, and the spread of the movement as a practice of solidarity with the oppressed of Central America.
803. Golden, Renny, and Michael McConnell. Sanctuary: The New Underground Railroad. Chicago: Guild Books; Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1986.
The best introduction and survey then available.
804. Lernoux, Penny. People of God. (See 120).
Pages 258-79 give a concise summary of the movement and a discussion of its broader significance in the context of liberation and in the struggle to implement the call of Vatican II for Catholics to involve their religious commitments to the world at large.
805. Loder, Ted. No One But Us. Personal Reflections on Public Sanctuary. San Diego, CA: Lura Media, 1986.
On the decision of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown, PA to offer Sanctuary.
806. MacEoin, Gary, ed. Sanctuary. A Resource Guide for Understanding and Participating in the Central American Refugees’ Struggle. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985.
Originally a project of the Tucson Ecumenical Council, this is a collection of essays grouped around certain themes: historical precedent and overview; the theological basis and biblical perspectives; the situation in Central America; ethical, legal and human-rights issues; the words of the refugees themselves; and the challenge to the North American conscience that the movement entails. Contributors include Elie Wiesel, MacEoin, Davie Napier, Elsa Tamez, Robert McAfee Brown, Richard Shaull, Renny Golden, Yvonne Dilling, Marshall Meyer, Marta Benavides, Jim Wallis, Jim Corbett and others.
807. McDaniel, Judith. Sanctuary. A Journey. Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Books, 1987.
This is a very personal collection of poetry, brief reminiscences, and essays that reflect the author’s experience as a Witness for Peace and hostage of the Contras in Nicaragua, in the Seneca Peace Camp, and in work with the Sanctuary Movement. It brings these all together into the single reality of peace and human liberation.
808. The Sanctuary Movement. Oakland, CA: Data Center, 1985.
Not seen.
809. Simpson, Dick, and Clinton Stockwell. The Struggle for Peace, Justice, Sanctuary. Chicago: Institute on the Church in Urban-Industrial Society, 1985.
Not seen.
810. Tomsho, Robert. The American Sanctuary Movement. Austin, TX: Texas Monthly Press, 1987.
A survey of the movement that includes accounts of individual flight, the response of the Reagan administration, the crackdown on the movement, the informants, and the State Department’s double standards.
First Americans: Native American and Hispanic Theology
See also PeaceDocs, Texts, Native American.
811. Acuña, Rodolfo. Occupied America. The Chicano’s Struggle Toward Liberation. 3d ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988.
A history from earliest times to the present. Good background, with bibliography.
812. Allen, Paula Gunn. The Sacred Hoop. Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.
Topics include regaining lost gynocratic heritage, women realizing their own strength through their spiritual traditions, remythologizing as a means toward self-definition, recapturing the heart and soul of American Indian literature, ceremony, and the spiritual foundations of native American poetry.
A final section deals with the political and social struggle of native American women, recasting the history of the white conquest and of the Indian tradition, academic interpretations, the lesbian in American Indian culture and spirituality. Contains a good select bibliography by topic.
813. Arroyo, Antonio M., ed. Prophets Denied Honor. An Anthology on the Hispanic Church in the United States. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1980.
This is a large collection of texts on Hispanic Christians in the U.S. and in Latin America. It includes texts on the historical development, on Mexican and Puerto-Rican intellectual traditions, on the formation of a Hispanic church, and the meanings of liberation for the Hispanic church. Authors include Virgilio Elizondo, Octavio Paz, Clara Lair, Baltasar Carrero, Cesar Chavez, Piri Thomas, Patricio Flores, Juan Hurtado, Ada Maria Isasi Diaz, and others. Excellent bibliography.
814. Brant, Beth. A Gathering of Spirit. Writing and Art by North American Indian Women. Rockland, ME: Sinister Wisdom, 1984.
See Carson (991), item 245.
815. Day, Mark. Forty Acres. Cesar Chavez and the Farm Workers. New York: Praeger, 1971.
A review of the movement and of its personalities.
816. Deloria, Vine. God Is Red. New York: Grosset & Dunlop, 1973; Dell, 1983.
Traces the native American movement in the U.S., then traces their religion on a number of themes: time and space, creation, history, death, human personality, the group, the impact of Christianity and contemporary American culture, tribal religions, the aboriginal world and Christianity, and Indian religion today. Throughout Deloria stresses that native American religion is a foundation for self-identity, and the liberation of all native Americans since the sacred is interwoven inextricably with the fabric of everyday life.
817. Elizondo, Virgilio. Christianity and Culture. An Introduction to Pastoral Theology and Ministry for the Bicultural Community. Huntington, IN: Sunday Visitor, 1975.
This is a theology for the Chicano community of North America. It surveys the changes of the modern world: mechanization, urbanization, secularization, democratization, economic enslavement. It then reviews the development of the Catholic church and the role of Vatican II. Elizondo next examines pastoral theology in light of the council; the biblical tradition in both Old and New Testaments; and the meaning of mission in the bicultural community. This book provides much of the theological background for a base Christian movement in North America.
818. —. The Future Is Mestizo. Life Where Culture Meets. Oak Park, IL: Meyer Stone Books, 1988.
A liberationist interpretation of the Mexican American experience: from disruption, alienation and marginalization in a society of the mainstream, toward a recognition of the strengths of their own culture, and thus toward an encounter with North American culture on equal terms. The result of this enpowerment and activism is the realization of a new fellowship both on the part of the “mainstream” and on the part of those formerly excluded. “Universal Mestizaje” is the result, a recognition of the common power of people to confront structures of domination and empty technologies and to create a new culture that recognizes diversity and difference and in so doing creates a newly liberated society, not imperial or dominating, and a new stage in human evolution.
819. —. Galilean Journey. The Mexican-American Promise. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1983.
The Chicanos of the Southwest, while seen as a marginalized minority amid the boom of the sun belt, have actually impressed the culture of both the region and the entire nation with a profound sense of the unity of the religious and the secular life. This enpowerment of rootedness and of identity has given them the strength to begin to wage the struggle for political and economic enpowerment that will enrich not only their own culture but that of the entire nation, of which they remind us, they are among the very first.
820. Guerrero, Andrés Gonzales. A Chicano Theology. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987.
Discusses the key elements of a Mexican-American theological experience and understanding, including the role of the Virgin Mary in spirituality and in understanding the role of the divine in human affairs.
821. Hall, Douglas John. Lighten Our Darkness. Toward an Indigenous Theology of the Cross. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1976.
Not seen.
822. Hoffman, Pat; foreword by Cesar Chavez. Ministry of the Dispossessed. Los Angeles, CA: Wallace Press, 1987.
Not seen.
823. Jenkins, J. Craig. The Politics of Insurgency. The Farm Worker Movement in the 1960s. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.
A political history of the movement. Excellent bibliography.
824. Levy, Jacques E. Cesar Chavez. Autobiography of La Causa. New York: W.W. Norton, 1975.
A biography of the man and the United Farm Workers to 1975. Throughout whenever Chavez does reflect on the struggle and its nature, he is explicit about its fundamentally Christian outlook to justice.
825. Matthiessen, Peter. Sal Si Puedes. Cesar Chavez and the New American Revolution. New York: Random House, 1970.
A personal, firsthand account of the United Farm Workers and of Cesar Chavez under the attack of the Nixon administration.
826. Rendon, Armando B. Chicano Manifesto. The History and Aspirations of the Second Largest Minority in America. New York: Macmillan, 1971.
Not seen.
827. Sandoval, Moises. On the Move. A History of the Hispanic Church in North America. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.
The Commission on Church History of Latin America is undertaking a history of every church in Latin America on the eve of the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage. This is the first volume of that series. Traces the origins and development of the Hispanic church and culture in North America and illustrates its growth from a subdued, marginalized, and ignored “minority” element to a new force that is awakening to its own heritage, power, and theological identity. This is an excellent introduction to “Chicano theology” and necessary background to understanding the dynamics of this North American variety of liberation theology.
828. Starkloff, Carl F. The People of the Center. American Indian Religion and Christianity. New York: Seabury Press, 1974.
A good introduction to the fundamental convergences and many of the differences between the native American and Christian perceptions of the universe, humanity, and one’s ethical and spiritual place in it.
829. Theology in the Americas. Position Paper of the Native American Project. Detroit II. Detroit, MI: Theology in the Americas, 1980.
Topics include the identity of native peoples and Christianity perceived through native American eyes. Central to these are the dichotomy between native American reverence for the earth as divine and European practice. Inherent in this dichotomy is the stark contrast between Christian belief and Christians’ practice and structures.
A part of the sad past of Christian European and native American confrontation has been structures – schools, church, government, economic and social – that have attempted to eradicate the unique identity of the native Americans and their belief systems, on creation, the earth and humanity’s relationship to it, which are now finally coming into their own and winning converts from Christianity.
