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Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Feminist Reconstruction of Biography and Text (Wipf and Stock, 2014) by Dr. Theresa A. Yugar invites readers to accompany Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a seventeenth-century Mexican protofeminist, ecofeminist, poet, and nun, on her lifelong journey within three communities of women in the Americas. 

Dr. Theresa L. Torres researches the impact of religion and spirituality in the lives of Latina leaders and the role of Latinas in religious and civic organizations.

In this episode of OP Talks, the two Latina theologians–Dr. Yugar is Peruvian American and Dr. Torres is second-generation Mexican American–discuss Latinx women's leadership in the context of Sor Juana. 

HTI Open Plaza enters Pride Month 2024 with a discussion among historian Dr. Felipe Hinojosa,  Felipe E. Agredano, a professor of ethnic studies and Chicano studies, and Emory University doctoral candidate Daniel Ballon-Garst about the long queer Apostolic history that dates back to the early 1900s. At the time, the movement was taking hold in Los Angeles, where Spanish-speaking Mexicans and Mexican Americans were part of the church's outreach. 

Agredano, a third-generation Apostolic Pentecostal, has facilitated the Apostolic Round Table for LGBTQIA+ Pentecostals for nearly two decades. He has been part of the production team of the documentary Nuestro Canto (1995), a history of the Apostolic Church in song, and a member of the Harvard University Kuumba Singers. Agredano was also the executive producer of the musical Arena: A House MUSIC-al (2019), a coming-of-age story written by Abel Alvarado about a gay man growing up in a devout Apostolic family in 1990s Los Angeles. 

Ballon-Garst’s research at  Emory involves a historical study of black and brown queer Pentecostals and Evangelicals in the United States in the twentieth century, drawing connections from these historical movements and actors to current queer religious movements, including queer transnational religious movements in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

"If we look at the 1920s,” says Agredano, “some of the early [church] musicians [who] were involved and were not out–and perhaps never out–in public, they were participating. They were doing ministry. They were suggesting songs, liturgy. They wrote the message of the Apostolic church." The first church that was purchased, he explains, was in “Calexico, California, right across from Mexicali, the Mexican border…and we can trace back the participation of the ministers of music who were not out, who were living alternative, non-normative lifestyles, never married, yet they were still participating."

In this episode of OP Talks, Rebecca Rhodes Blackburn, a PhD student at Chicago Theological Seminary, talks to Rev. Dr. José Francisco Morales Torres, Assistant Professor of Latino Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary, about his recent book Wonder as a New Starting Point for Theological Anthropology: Opened by the World (Lexington Books, 2023), in which he creates “a new theological anthropology that begins with wonder.”

In a capitalistic world, says Rev. Dr. Morales, “everything and everyone becomes a commodity.” He goes on to describe his line of thinking: ”And so what I debated is, in fact, [that] we become so much [of] a commodity that it flattens what it means to be human. And so I talk about not just humans as commodities but also [about] humans as being kind of valued by what they can produce for profit—and usually for somebody else's profit. So really, that was kind of the overarching problem.” According to Rev. Dr. Morales, this has “affected the way we talk about God and the way people who say they talk about God—i.e., churches, religious communities—the way they talk about God. And so I said, there needs to be another way to address this issue.” At its core, the book aims “to reignite mysteries in terms of mystery, what it means to be human.”

Dr. M. Daniel Carrol Rodas speaks to Dr. Dominick D. Hernández, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Semitic Languages in the Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, about his most recent book Engaging the Old Testament: How to Read Biblical Narrative, Poetry, and Prophecy Well (Baker Academic, 2023) and his quest to help “people be good readers of the Old Testament.”

The book aims to help people who are interested in the Old Testament consider how they are interpreting the material. “There is a hermeneutical component to this and not just an informational component,” says Dr. Hernández about his book’s appeal to a wide range of ages.

“The major thing I was trying to do was to help readers of the Bible recognize that the writers of the Bible were also writers,” he explains. “Writers write to be read. We recognize that intuitively when we read To Kill a Mockingbird. We recognize that intuitively when we read Don Quixote de la Mancha. Sometimes, we don’t recognize that intuitively when we approach the Bible.” This error in reading, Dr. Hernández observes, is what leads to such fractured interpretations of the Bible.

In this episode of OP Talks, Dr. Antonio (Tony) Alonso and Rev. Dr. Ted A. Smith discuss his latest book The End of Theological Education (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2023), which explores how to envision theological education in this time between the times. 

Rev. Dr. Smith refuses to tell the story as one of progress or decline. He emphasizes why it’s important to reimagine a broader mission: “First, to democratize our imagination, to see all the things that people are already doing [beyond the dominant models in institutions], especially people far from centers of power and concentrations of capital.” The other reason, he tells Dr. Alonso, “is so that people don’t despair. The ending of this one model is not the ending of theological education.” In the book, Rev. Dr. Smith encourages us to understand theological education in relation to its ultimate purpose: “knowledge of God,” he writes, “knowledge so deep, so intimate, that it requires and accomplishes our transformation.”

Along with the book, this conversation is part of the Theological Education between the Times (TEBT) series, an initiative out of HTI member school Emory University Candler School of Theology that "gathers diverse groups of people for critical, theological conversations about the meanings and purposes of theological education. The project begins with a recognition that theological education is between the times, on the way. And it works in the confidence that we do not walk this road alone."

In this episode of OP Talks, Rev. Dr. Tony Lin talks to Dr. Robert Chao Romero and Dr. Jeff M. Liou about their recent book 'Christianity and Critical Race Theory: A Faithful and Constructive Conversation' (Baker Academic, 2023). Dr. Romero and Dr. Liu each contribute chapters that constructively engage a tenet of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Their efforts address the fact that, In the last decade, CRT has become political fodder, fueling GOP political campaigns and divisive discourse, especially among North American evangelical Christians.

"You’ll see in our book the way we use critical race theory to examine educational institutions, or churches, or church documents," Dr. Liou emphasizes. The two scholars ask "a particular set of questions that are really important and helpful, that have to do with the legacy and impact of race on these old systems and structures.”