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when old answers do not answer new questions unchartered territory in the world of Enchantment, christian theology and ministry though that's the title of this Western Belt Um lectures for this 2021, I am honored and grateful for

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the invitation extended by President War Law, the faculty and the Austin Seminary community to deliver the Western World lectures, enjoin the distinguished speakers during this midwinter's lectures series. Some of my presbyterian colleagues and friends know

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that my father was a caribbean presbyterian, an active member of the Pc USA churches in Puerto rico. That was what I would call presbyterian. New charismatic , oh a charismatic presbyterian, a rare species in

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the Reformed tradition. Yet I would think that martin Booker would have no problem with that inclinations and emphasis on the Holy spirit. A leader involved the president , the presbyterian of san juan and boring kaine senator

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that was frequently yet lovingly teased by his sleigh peers and close minister friends because he seemed to be more Pentecostal than presbyterian. I was raised as a charismatic and an ecumenical presbyterian until I was asked to play

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the drums for a new church group in my aunt's disciples of christ church. It is a fact, however, that presbyterian institutions gave me a doctoral theological preparation And my 1st 16 years as a theological educator

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, Dr Rigby Bill and scott were companions in our doctoral in my doctoral formation, though in different programmes . I enjoyed our time together. The late Dog Oldenburg took a chance giving me the opportunity to teach

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at Columbia Seminary madam President, loud, amending home Katherine Gonzalez, erskine Clarke and come Merkerson to name a few, supported my work for many, many years at CTS for these institutions and these colleagues.

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I am grateful. Austin Seminary President Barlow and being David Jensen have also been very kind in extending me invitations to deliver lectures. The 2011 settles, lectures on Christian mission, teach a course and participate in

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the first round of the Frierson Distinguished Scholars conference once more. I'm grateful for the privilege and hospitality. You extended me those times. Finally I am grateful for a number of accomplishments of Austin Seminary for having

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hotel Aveiro and ruin. Armand varies in its faculty for supporting the vocational work of is Manuel Garcia as professor of christian ethics, who now enjoys retirement in P. R. With his family and continues to

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teach from time to time here at Austin and two for hiring and retaining Gregory Quasar as a professor of hebrew bible with trepidation. Since I might be mistaken , I believe that quesadilla is among the first latino

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and Latina permanent hires in the field of bible in the presbyterian Seminary. I do remember how guarded presbyterian schools were about hiring non Euro americans to bible positions . Yet Austin broke the patterns and quite er diligent

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and dedicated, thrived to make many of us proud . And here we are again, this presbyterians taking on other risk. Well thank you, thank you and thanks to all of you who joined Austin in

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taking the risk of inviting me for these lectures. So let's start. Aaliyah married, had two daughters divorced and remarried. She was a devoted roman catholic . She remarried a presbyterian lay leader, healthy ali

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to joined Jose in participating in the presbyterian church. She grew fond of the community, sang in the choir, participated in women's activities. She became an active member of the congregation. Ali does ex husband

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also a roman catholic practiced Santeria, one of the many grassroots religions in the Caribbean. He was very respectful of Al Qaeda's new religious affiliations. This was a healthy blended family. Ali da's older daughter died

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in an unexpected, terrible car accident. Almeida was devastated but strong because autopsies takes so long in the island. Her daughter's body was not returned to the family for a week. This was a difficult week

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for Alina. Time to grief. Time to think , time to pray, time for silence, difficult . But she was sustained by many sisters and brothers of the congregation who visited and prayed with her,

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Ali to decided to cremate the body of her daughter . She was supported by all the members of the blended family. After the funeral, Kalidas, ex husband, who for many years had offered abrasions to

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the santa Maria spirits, the Orishas for the protection of his daughters. Ask Almeida the following question, Alina, would you allow me to have some of those ashes of our daughter for my abrasions to my

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spirits, we will never know what a lead a would have done. As a practicing roman catholic. She could have given her ex husband the Ashes, She could have denied his petition. She could have

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consulted with her closest friends, she could have consulted with her priest. We will never know. But in the context of spanish caribbean protestantism in the context . Oh evangelical Carolina Allah knows what she needs to

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do. She needs to consult her pastor or elders of the congregation. And so she did ali to ask her pastor the following question. Pastor, My ex husband is roman catholic and practices Santeria. He

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asked me to give him some of the Ach is of my dead daughter so that he can have his Santeria rituals. What should I do by the way , do not forget Kalidas question. Maybe you should

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write it down. She will be asking you this same question very soon. In the global South, though not usually train in these theological and pastoral questions , pastors, elders and deacons dwell in a congregation

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ethos where they are perceived as and many actually practice the roles of shamans, mediums and spiritual seers. Not to be confused with the vocation of spiritual directors . One of the key reasons why christian leaders in

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the Global South carry this spiritual responsibility is because many of our christian communities share the ethos and worldview of Enchantment, but I use this term hoping to capture your attention. Yes, MAx Weber, the scholar

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who wrote the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism , a critical theorist in the field of religious studies studies, offered an interesting set of terms to say , Enchantment and disenchantment, to describe the consequences of

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the process of ration rationalization and secularization in the modern societies. Recently, an essay by Richard Henkin Jenkins entitled Disenchantment, Enchantment and Re Enchantment. Max Weber at the millennium offers a critique to max Weber's theories

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, taking into account the complex relationship between modernity, personal modernity and the re emergence of religious passions and commitments in the global North. The essay is worth reading, but this is not what I want to

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talk about without digging into weather's terms and theories, and Jenkins critique, I want to offer you a different approach, a Global South approach. I want to invite you to think about enchantment, not as

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the magical world of bever, but rather as a daily life relationship with mystery. The world view of primal religions. In many of our global South christian communities, There are two givens, mystery is to

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be experienced in this dimension of life. It is this worldly and second christians live a complex relationship with mystery. Yes. Popular and academic literature on the demographic shift of the christian religion, that is the

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vitality and growth of the faith is to be found in the Global South and in immigrant communities in the global North emphasize the statistics and the correlation with global North christian communities. There is a growing literature that

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focuses on Christianity in the Global South africa, asia latin America, the caribbean, and that literature works to discover the unique characteristics of the faith in those contexts. Hence, scholars write about worship, biblical

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interpretation, church structures, indigenous missionaries, conversions, sacraments, etcetera. Scholars South african Christianity african Christianity , particularly anthropologists and sociologists recognize the complex relationship between african traditional religions, the daily life relationship with mystery

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and the vitality of the christian faith. Yet there is a very little theology addressing questions and practices once jesus and the Gospel Lodge and partake in the daily life relationship with mystery. Very little theological work.

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So sisters and brothers, let's explore the relationship between Global South Christianity and the daily life relationship with mystery . And give me a minute so I can sure get you the power point. Okay. Mhm.

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This daily life relationship with mystery is rich all over the world. Yeah. In the global South, the other worldly is in this world, consider LDL , Ella's Martos. How many of you have seen

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the movie Coco and have in your playing list? The song. Remember me or required to me, my wife compelled my oldest son to see Coco and by the end of the movie, he had tears

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in his cheeks and his memory of his grandparents. My parents became never ending frequently. He texts me to ask me about my my presbyterian, charismatic dad and my deeply theological mother during the black lives matter

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, protest many from our immigrant communities sought ways to keep the memory of Brianna, Taylor, Michael Brown and George Floyd and many others alive, cosmic questions are raised in this pandemic. Religious leaders in the

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global south and in some circles in the global north wrestle with difficult this worldly questions that happened other worldly tone. Where are the spirits in this pandemic? Will that be okay? Although they are dying out

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of time? Are there rituals to protect the religious practitioners of the pandemic? And then you have those who seek direction with the medium on Wednesday night and joined a christian church service on sunday because they are

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playing all their cards for health and protection for them and from the end for their debt. What is the relationship between daily life relationship with the mystery and grass roots Christianity? I invite you to watch a

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global starts high quality visualization in Youtube. You can find it under world religions ranking Population growth by religion 1800 2 20 100. I'm unable to show you the video, but I can show you some pictures

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of the tool. My first light shows That my first light shows you the world religion population in 18 oh five notice the high number of folk religion ist and other religions followed by Christianity. The terms used

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by the authors of this interesting educational tool are basically lumping in these two categories. What today we would call primal religious traditions such as african traditional religions, voodoo, um Vonda native american and armory Amerindian religions

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. By 1835, you will serve that other religions and christians are almost equal. That we can assume conversions to Christianity from religions such as Hinduism buddhism and Islam. What we can observe and what we can

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historically ground is the link between the decline of other religions and the growth of Christianity. Notice also that Falk religionists are decreasing as Christianity grows. Yeah, By 1865, you can see a repeated pattern with

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folk religionists and Christianity almost equal. Do take into our into consideration that by this time the growth spurt in the global south has not begun reminding us that Canada us northern and southern europe are the christian regions

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of the era. By the time of the Edinburgh Conference of 1910, Christianity has a stronghold among world religions and notice how its growth could be linked to the decline of Falk Religionists and other religions. There

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is no doubt that the increasing and a robust number of christians In the world by 1910 generated the enthusiasm of missionary work and the purpose of the Edinburgh conference , yet Moving fast forward to 1961 that year,

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when the International Missionary Council joins the World Council of Churches 1963, when the World Mission Evangelism Commission of the World Council of Churches has its meaning in Mexico Under the theme mission in six continents, you can

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see the significant growth of Christianity and the decline of false religionists and other religions. By this time, a few perceptive scholars began to see the demographic shift , recognizing the growth of the unaffiliated primarily in the

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global north and the vitality of Christianity in the global south. And again, with the growth of Christianity , the decline of false religionists and other religions is evident. Yeah, this previous slide, I'm sorry

00:23:02.140 - 00:23:22.670

. This previous slide gives us a picture. I'm sorry. This previous slide give us a picture of our current situation with Christianity as the largest religion followed by islam and notice the significant decrease in false religionists

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and other religions. Yeah, yet it is critical to remember where is Christianity growing today and where it is expected to grow? Is this growth the exclusive result of missionary work, both by nationals and foreigners

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. Is this growth the result of devastation and suffering sisters and brothers. If we take the growth of religions without a careful field work assessment, We end up with the two primary theological interpretations in the encounter

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of Global South Christianity and primal religious tradition. In other words, with the daily life relationship with mystery in the Global South, the interpretation offer to conclusions , Christianity eradicates primal religious traditions because they are demonic

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or because they are magical, superstitious backward. A testimony to ignorance in my teaching experience. Even among global South christians, this are the primary interpretations. Yet in the grassroots christian communities, the vitality of

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the faith comes through the engagement and bond with the daily life relationship with mystery when jesus and the Gospel Lodge and partake in the daily life relationship with mystery , the christian community is affirmed, but it's also

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challenged. It faces uncertainty and yet it struggles to be faithful. It is a lead, it's Leeming in a paradox, and as you know, all paradoxes lead to new things. This engagement and bond

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remind me of a chorus frequently san among grassroots charismatic Protestants Cuando el pueblo bell sr alaba adios! So setting cosas Marawi Juozas when the people of God praise God. No and wonderful things occur among global south

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christians, there is always an expectation and the people seek to see, to listen, to imagine, to hell, to be restored to be transformed. Not because the sacred comes to them, but because

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jesus and the Gospel will do something extraordinary in their daily life relationship with mystery, jesus in the Gospel are here to change the order and provide something new in their experience and relationship with mystery. Now,

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my dear sisters and brothers do not be mistaken. I'm not talking about Exa Terek, naive seduction that works as a drug to an addict. No, this is both the academic and common stereotype. We

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still have primal longings or we are just not educated enough. But let me give you an example to the contrary. A single elderly man man, member of the Pentecostal church in the Caribbean was diagnosed with

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terminal cancer. He was offered treatment, which he accepted as a good Pentecostal. He asked his sisters and brothers to pray and pray. They did and prayer work, but not as expected after treatments and

00:28:48.220 - 00:29:11.450

a lot of prayer, the single elderly man returned to his christian community, his Pentecostal christian community to give testimony. What are you expecting? Usually when we associate Pentecostals and prayer, we are expecting a

00:29:11.450 - 00:29:38.410

miracle. Indeed The typical expected one. The man was healed, the cancer was removed. And yet these were his words almost verboten in his testimony. I give thanks to God for the forgiveness of my

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sin and the salvation of my soul. The typical beginning phrase of any good Pentecostal when he or she speaks to his fellow brothers and sisters, he continued during my terrible days of fighting cancer. There were

00:29:57.910 - 00:30:23.050

times that I was ready to give up, but God provided me with a miracle. I was never alone. All of you cared for me. All of you visited me in the morning, in the

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afternoon, in the evening and even at night I was never alone. And this is the miracle that the Lord has given me. I am not alone . The daily life relationship with mystery is the undercurrent

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that keeps Christianity with vitality. The daily life relationship with mystery. It's like the wifi that keeps the internet flowing outside. What might be important is the internet Christianity. Hence the interpretations and justifications for eradication

00:31:25.340 - 00:31:44.500

. Just as the graph shows, folk, religionists and other religions fade while Christianity and Islam grow, the matter of fact is that the eradication theory blinds us because it's giving us a secular reading of the

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context. The daily life relationship with mystery is neither demonic or superstate or superstitious, but rather is the vault were jesus and the Gospel Lodge and party were jesus and the Gospel inter playing with other religious alternatives

00:32:14.940 - 00:32:44.330

in the global south. The daily life relationship with mystery is the it's the ground, it's doubt, it's the building block, it's the raw material from which Christianity fuels its vitality and its growth. I

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hope this is giving you an insight into now the character of Aaliyah's question. So let's go back to her dilemma. Remember faster. My ex husband is roman catholic and practices Santeria. He asked me to

00:33:08.940 - 00:33:45.980

give him some of the ashes of my dead daughter so that he can have his Santeria rituals. What should I Dual? Andrew worlds? Gives us a key to understand Kalidas dilemma. Andrew walls gives us

00:33:45.990 - 00:34:02.650

a key to understand ali rest Alima. As I was saying, it is not easy to swallow, but it certainly a challenge for communities of faith that live under the vault of the daily life relationship with

00:34:02.650 - 00:34:25.870

mystery. I paraphrase one of his statements in in an essay entitled Structural Problems in Mission, found in walt's book, the Missionary movement in christian history. It is the very concept of a fixed universal compendium

00:34:25.880 - 00:34:52.910

of theology, a sort of bench manual, which covers every situation referring to Western theological literature that needs to be challenged. We see theology and route and route to and realize its occasional nature its character as

00:34:52.920 - 00:35:19.760

responds to them to the need to make christian decisions . The conditions of Africa, for instance, are taking christian theology into new areas of life where Western theology has no answers because it has no questions.

00:35:21.140 - 00:35:44.130

In other words, the answers given by Western theology were answers that were particular to the context of those Western communities, but their answers, their questions a are not the same as our questions in the global

00:35:44.130 - 00:36:07.000

South. Therefore, certainly the answers of the theological corpus of the West or do not help us in answering our questions in the global South or for that matter, Ali does questions again. I say Wall

00:36:07.000 - 00:36:30.950

States, but christians, not westerners and westerners outside Africa will need to make some responses to the questions raise in the africa arena or in latin America or in Asia. As christians interaction proceeds with indian culture

00:36:30.430 - 00:36:55.530

. Perhaps the most testing environment that the christian faith has yet encountered. The theological process may reach not only who areas of discourse but resumed some of those which earlier pioneers like origin began to enter. I

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want you to think about holidays question and I want you to think about not using the eradication strategy to answer her questions. And while you are trying to think and reflect on alitalia's question, remember her question

00:37:24.250 - 00:37:50.040

is should I share the ashes of my dead daughter with my ex husband, for him to use them in his son to area rituals. As you consider that question, I would like for you to also

00:37:50.040 - 00:38:25.330

consider these two questions. What personal religious and cultural factors restrain, limit constrain you from engaging in the world of enchantment, from engaging in the daily life relationship with mystery. Second question, what about our

00:38:25.330 - 00:38:57.200

christian faith and our theological formation invites us to have a vocation as co participants with jesus and interpreters for our communities of the and interpreters for our communities of the Gospels. Place an interaction in the daily life

00:38:57.210 - 00:39:23.550

relationship with mystery of our parishioners. What about our christian faith and our theological formation invites us to become co participants with jesus and interpreters for our communities of the way in which the Gospel inter place with the

00:39:23.550 - 00:39:30.100

daily life, relationship with mystery. Thank you so