00:00:14.640 - 00:00:33.610

Yeah, good morning. I hope that you and yours are well and safe. I'm grateful that you have joined us for this. Um last day of the mid winter lecture series. I have enjoyed listening

00:00:33.610 - 00:00:53.620

to my colleagues presentations, worship and getting some interesting feedback from my first lecture and from my colleagues questions from my colleagues. This is a topic not only of my academic interest, but it's also very close

00:00:53.630 - 00:01:14.260

to my heart. Just as a reminder yesterday's presentation , I'm focused on what is it in the growth of Christianity in the Global South. Um and the subtitle was the uncomfortable religious factor of the world of

00:01:14.260 - 00:01:36.760

enchantment or what I called the daily life relationship with mystery and the vitality of the christian of Christianity in the Global South. And the general title of these lectures is when all answers do not answer new questions

00:01:37.540 - 00:02:04.240

unchartered territory in the world of enchantment, christian theology and ministry. Today, the final lecture in the Western felt Western Belt lecture series for this year tries to address the following question. Can the christian communities

00:02:04.250 - 00:02:35.350

of the global South teach us something about Christianity and the need for enchantment or better yet? And the need for the daily life relationship with mystery when the world of enchantment overruns our comfortable pastoral theology now?

00:02:36.640 - 00:02:54.060

Yeah, have you given any thoughts to the questions I shared with you yesterday? Let me remind you the questions and I'll just pause in between. Just two. Give you some time to think about this

00:02:57.740 - 00:03:39.850

. What personal religious and cultural factors? Restrain, limit, constrain you from engaging in the world of enchantment or better yet engaging in the daily life relationship with mystery. Second question, what about our christian

00:03:39.850 - 00:04:16.160

faith and our theological formation? Invite us to have a vocation as co participants with jesus and evocation of interpreters for our communities of the gospels, presence and action and vitality in the daily life relationship with mystery

00:04:17.140 - 00:04:45.090

of our congregants. Our congregants family members, our code against friends, those with whom. Sometimes our congregants are more are are more inclined to talk about religious questions then with us. What is it about

00:04:45.090 - 00:05:14.340

our christian faith and our christian formation that invite us to have that vocation? Yeah, let me review some of the key points in yesterday's lecture number one . Global South christians and christians community live dwell abide

00:05:14.350 - 00:05:45.070

, inhabit the world of enchantment or what I prefer to call that daily life relationship with mystery. The daily life relationship with mystery is predominantly found in grass roots primal religious traditions. Number two, this daily

00:05:45.070 - 00:06:15.260

life relationship with mystery is the vault were religious alternatives interplay as a historical fact, Christianity's growth and vitality depends on its interplay in and with the daily relationship with mystery that the community has in the Global South

00:06:15.440 - 00:06:47.260

when jesus and the Gospel large and partake in the daily life, relationship with mystery otherwordly and this worldly religious experiences and questions merch. Consequently we have new questions. This is the kind of question that Alina

00:06:48.640 - 00:07:14.990

is asking her pastor, third most christian theological educators from the Global South assume that the theological corpus we have learned and by the theological corpus, I mean here the Western theological corpus that we have learned.

00:07:15.250 - 00:07:40.730

It's a type of bench manual that fits all circumstances , even taking into account context realization. I also think that this is the opinion of many global North theological educators. We assume that our new questions can

00:07:40.730 - 00:08:13.670

be answered with old answers. I'll put it a little bit more pastoral. We assume that our new questions can be answered with answers from a different context with different historical, social and religious conditions. We

00:08:13.670 - 00:08:37.300

frequently forget that neither do people pour new wine into all wine skins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wine skins will be ruined. No, they pour

00:08:37.300 - 00:09:05.170

new wine into new wine skins and both are preserved . Perhaps another way to say this is when john um when john paul the second, I think it was actually said that it is not that there's a

00:09:05.170 - 00:09:28.080

new gospel, it is that we're beginning to understand it better. The bench manual assumes that the Gospel is a given like a number in an algebra equation . I rather like to think that the Gospel is

00:09:28.080 - 00:09:52.080

say variable in the algebra equation, changing the interaction of the factors in the equation. Yet at the same time with that interaction setting boundaries, providing direction , guiding decisions, we are challenged to discover and

00:09:52.080 - 00:10:16.720

provide no answers to these new questions and consequently rediscover the gospel onion. So sisters and brothers, let's go back to our leaders question. Remember she asked her pastor, Pastor, my ex husband is roman

00:10:16.720 - 00:10:39.470

catholic and practices Santeria. He asked me to give him some of the ashes of my dead daughter so that he can have his Santeria rituals. What should I do? Yeah. Kalidas question is an invitation

00:10:39.470 - 00:11:09.060

to her pastor to enter her world. Of the daily life relationship with mystery. Regretfully, the pastors answer to a lead as questions followed the Eradication religious strategy discuss yesterday. Do you remember primal religious traditions

00:11:09.640 - 00:11:39.440

which exuberantly embody the daily life relationship with mystery are either demonic or superstitious Oligarch's pastor responded in the following way. We do not believe in any of those religions. We do not care about them. You

00:11:39.440 - 00:12:07.220

can do whatever you want with the ashes because those religions, those religions are unimportant and bear nothing um , on your daughter's eternity I share with you. Two possible reactions from Al Qaeda. First of all

00:12:07.230 - 00:12:41.420

, the pastor never answered her question. Do whatever you want. Second possible reaction is the dilemma has been upgraded because the answer has no context. For example, that this world implication would be if Ali

00:12:41.420 - 00:13:05.530

not decides not to share the ashes of her disease , Daughter, how will her ex husband respond another ? This worldly implication is if she does share the ashes, how will christian family members respond to her

00:13:05.530 - 00:13:37.630

decision. Moreover, this worldly questions emerge, such as Ali to maybe asking should she attended these rituals ? Ultimately, they are using my daughter's ashes. On the other hand, we also have the other

00:13:37.640 - 00:13:58.460

worldly implications. If I share the ashes, Ali , that would think will Rachel's have any consequences in my daughter's life. Beyond that. Well, the spirit of God protect my daughter in the afterlife.

00:14:01.240 - 00:14:28.010

If rashes are being used in Santeria rituals, is the spirit of God and the santa Maria. Spirits compatible. Are they related? And if they are how and perhaps one that I've find very interesting,

00:14:28.010 - 00:14:48.360

this possible otherworldly reaction implication, I mean, how should I pray? How should I pray? These are just a few examples of the questions that global South christian communities face and up to my knowledge.

00:14:48.840 - 00:15:16.700

Theological education in the Global South is far from addressing . Yet my deepest concern is the last opportunity from the pastor grounding his answer in a foreign, distant bench manual with a theological response that does not belong

00:15:16.700 - 00:15:46.630

to Al Qaeda's daily life relationship with mystery or even more problematic, providing an answer that does not recognize the communities. Daily life relationship with mystery renders the gospel silent, irrelevant marginal. It removes jesus and

00:15:46.630 - 00:16:19.440

the Gospel from the vote and implicitly leaves an open space for any response to any respond to be identified . I say christian response or a no response to be identified as D christian responds. I hope that

00:16:19.440 - 00:16:45.120

I have been able to both communicate and illustrate the challenge The global South christian theologians, pastors and leaders face. Numbers are promising and perhaps many see the success of missionary work, but numbers do not show

00:16:45.120 - 00:17:11.000

the whole picture. In fact, they do not show the real picture, just as the world religions slides yesterday do not tell you and I the story of interplay between Christianity's growth and folk religionists and other

00:17:11.010 - 00:17:44.830

religions decline vitality and growth in the Global South happens in the vote in the vault of the daily Life relationship with mystery. No questions come, but we need to work a new answers because the bench manual

00:17:44.830 - 00:18:18.430

answers of the Western theological body of literature at best helps guides at worse, which is usually how it is used dismisses and denies the legitimate the legitimacy of the questions. So you can see the challenge sisters

00:18:18.430 - 00:18:40.580

and brothers in the Global South and perhaps as pastors and leaders who receive Global South christians to come and speak and talk and talk about christian mission and perhaps as a theological institution that engages in receiving and providing

00:18:40.580 - 00:19:06.980

hospitality and theological theological education for this. Um for global South christians, this is a critical question for those of US, professors and theologians and instructors that are invited to the Global South to teach, to

00:19:06.980 - 00:19:27.330

teach about our traditions, to teach about the christian religion. Are we giving? Are we providing answers that do not fit their questions? It certainly might be easier for us to provide our answers rather than

00:19:27.340 - 00:20:00.540

instead of providing our answers. What we can offer is dialogue, conversation exploration. So join us in prayer, join us in theological reflection, join us in this exciting and challenging journey of the vitality of

00:20:00.540 - 00:20:25.170

Christianity in the global south. Now, my Dear Sisters and brothers, I have been a theological educator in predominantly protestant mainline and evangelical seminaries, schools of theology and now a christian university. I have been

00:20:25.170 - 00:20:48.480

and continue to be an active member in local latino Latina christian communities, disciples of christ Pentecostals Methodists, but this all of them with immigrants and some of them undocumented immigrants. But I have been honored to

00:20:48.480 - 00:21:11.510

teach and learn with students across generations. Yet predominantly anglo american students, I have been asked to engage with local congregations, many of them anglo american. After 30 plus years of living my Christian vocation as

00:21:11.510 - 00:21:36.640

a theological educator in the US. contest context. I think I can share with you some of my experiences and questions about christian communities here in the US and the relationship with the daily life, relationship with

00:21:36.640 - 00:21:57.920

mystery. Okay, so with some trepidation with, with a lot of respect and with an open heart I share with you some thoughts, probably some provoking thoughts. First, as I indicated yesterday, Weather's

00:21:57.930 - 00:22:18.450

theory of this enchantment with the influence of rationalization and modernity does not hold water to the extent that scholars thought. I already mentioned Jenkins essay, where one of his arguments is the re enchantment of the world

00:22:19.240 - 00:22:47.360

by both religious practices and ideologies for good and for bad, generated by an imagination in need of a sense of community and meaning. Jenkins um reminds me of Pontus Alex little book on Christianity and other religions

00:22:48.540 - 00:23:14.560

where Tillich reminds us of the Kwasi religions or the pseudo religions, those expressions that ultimately are also um , providing meaning and significance to the life of people . In my experience, I have taught students who

00:23:14.560 - 00:23:48.270

do have the daily life relationship with mystery and such relationship is fueled and sustained bye literature, art, music, excellent eric and charismatic experiences, love for dirty, ceased rituals that connect with them with mystery

00:23:51.540 - 00:24:22.950

. And yet in many of my conversations with them , their congregation and their pastors are no where to be found. They mentioned their parents, they mentioned their friends, they mentioned perhaps somebody from another religion

00:24:22.540 - 00:24:44.690

, a friend from another religion. They mentioned faculty members. Everything that they have mentioned, most of them is outside of the circle of the life of a vibrant congregation. So I wonder who is guiding

00:24:44.790 - 00:25:08.010

their journey in their daily life relationship with mystery. Have they been exposed to the rich christian tradition regarding these longings? Yeah. Or are they left to the ambiguous winds of social media, the internet and

00:25:08.010 - 00:25:33.570

who knows? Who knows who's answering their questions second and perhaps more troubling sisters and brothers, Ali Da's pastor lost a unique opportunity like I said yesterday because of her context, Ali to perceive her pastor as

00:25:33.570 - 00:25:56.670

a shaman, a medium, a spiritual seer. Hence she stopped her pastor for spiritual guidance expertise in the field of daily life relationship with mystery. So I framed my second comment as a question to you

00:25:56.740 - 00:26:30.710

. How do our christian communities perceive pastoral leadership when it comes to consultation conversation? Inquiries, sharing thoughts and imagined relationships that flow from their daily life relationship with mystery? How do our christian communities perceived who

00:26:30.720 - 00:26:59.140

we are? Are our communities comfortable bringing their questions to us? Or do they prefer to take their questions someplace else in order to avoid all kinds of feelings associated with questions that merch this worldly and other

00:26:59.140 - 00:27:27.340

worldly concerns. To paraphrase jesus questions to his disciples as a christian leader, who does the community say you are? Allow me to give an example of my two comments. It was a short term intergenerational

00:27:27.340 - 00:27:51.700

medical mission trip to a very poor global south country . The mission team followed some of the best cross cultural practices in christian mission integration off and with nurses and doctors from the context arrangements to primarily use available

00:27:51.700 - 00:28:17.680

national resources, participation of nationals in all aspects of the mission trip. Limited use of resources from the missions teams, context preparation and distribution of tasks, engagement with the community et cetera, worship testimonies,

00:28:17.680 - 00:28:40.170

cross cultural conversations. All of these were part of what I would call a very good framework for a short term medical mission work. After a simple surgery for a child. A national nurse with a doctor

00:28:40.170 - 00:28:57.350

from the mission group completed their work. Yeah, one hour later the national nurse could not wake up the child when the doctor came to the surgery tent , the child had already died. According to the

00:28:57.350 - 00:29:15.710

information shared with me by the mission team, it seems that both the national mirrors and the mission doctor made some mistakes in the administration of the anesthesia. Could you imagine the pain, the suffering, the

00:29:15.710 - 00:29:48.810

uncertainty that overwhelmed both the national christian community and the visiting Mission medical team? Honestly, I have no idea yet. The testimony of hope became embodied in the closing worship service where the national christian leaders of

00:29:48.810 - 00:30:11.490

the community celebrated the Eucharist as a symbol of suffering . A cross of jesus christ and the covenant of salvation, the Cup of Salvation and hope perhaps most illustrative of jesus and the gospel lodging and partaking in

00:30:11.490 - 00:30:41.910

the daily life relationship with mystery was the casket in the service. While celebrations intersected with crying and sobbing abrasions of gratitude to God Cross fertilized with prayers of lament and sorrow. The gratitude for the medical mission

00:30:41.910 - 00:31:06.380

team married the pain and confusion of national christians who would never expect such a tragedy, the frustration, contrition and for some, a small trauma experience of the medical mission kissed the celebration and hope of the

00:31:06.380 - 00:31:33.950

national christians this worldly, this early merge with other worldly, all of it on the the canopy of the spirit who works in the daily life relationship with mystery. This was a life changing event deeply across

00:31:33.950 - 00:32:05.210

culture, deeply christian and deeply mysterious. And I wonder how many of the medical mission team would have come to us as christian leaders to seek insight interpretation , faith lessons, theological understandings and if they came

00:32:05.360 - 00:32:27.420

, would we be able to address questions, for example, questions of evil and questions regarding our commitment to do well in these medical mission trips? Otherworldly and these were the questions would we be able to

00:32:27.420 - 00:32:53.540

address questions regarding the providence of God and questions about the context of poverty again, other worldly and this worldly questions? Would we be able to answer questions regarding deaths and questions regarding the complexity of working with

00:32:53.540 - 00:33:21.040

people who speak different languages again? Questions of the other worldly and questions of this world. Questions regarding the fragility of the global south christians and the privilege of the global north christians again, this worldly and

00:33:21.050 - 00:33:47.860

otherworldly implications. Yeah. My last comment, also in form of questions, is based on the questions I ask you to think about. Do our current interpretations of our christian tradition, denomination limit our curiosity

00:33:50.040 - 00:34:16.530

to explore who and what jesus does in the daily life relationship with mystery of our congregants, Their families and their friends. Yet what about our tradition and denomination invites us to explore the ways in which our

00:34:16.530 - 00:34:45.350

christian communities dwell in the daily life relationship with mystery . They do. My dear sisters and brothers, our traditions and denominations are christian history is rich, but we're not using that richness. We are rather

00:34:45.940 - 00:35:27.610

using too quickly the disenchantment strategy. And therefore, is it possible that our christian sisters and brothers sick guidance and orientations in their daily life relationship with mystery with others except us? Yes. Mhm. I

00:35:27.610 - 00:36:06.590

only have one slide that I like to share with you in this last lecture. It is the painting of two or more Indians from the amazons, rescuing , rescuing. Yeah. Or dropping what seems to

00:36:06.590 - 00:36:30.390

be a white priest from or in the jungle. The picture of the painting was taken by a colleague of mine from Perkins when he traveled to Sao paolo rossi. I have been looking for more information about

00:36:30.390 - 00:36:52.470

the painting, but what I have found so far is that the painter could have been walled amar cordell a pioneer in the arts in latin America. For sure, I need to find more information. Yet

00:36:52.480 - 00:37:16.500

I will share with you what my interpretation of the painting is. You see, I see in this painting the cosmic daily life relationship with mystery in the life of the Amerindians. And I see them saving

00:37:16.510 - 00:37:47.750

the church perhaps from entering the world or from entering a world that the church does not know. And yet things that they have all the answers. I think that the painting reminds me that if in fact

00:37:47.750 - 00:38:15.740

the Amerindians are dropping in the jungle, the priest , it reminds me that before you go in you need to discover and learn. Perhaps we all need to rediscover and relearn again. I wonder is the

00:38:15.740 - 00:38:36.950

Amerindian lifting or slowly letting go so that the church enters a different world, willing to allow new questions and a new imagination, enact new ways of being church. New ways of worshipping, new ways of

00:38:36.950 - 00:38:52.180

reading the bible, new ways of relating to one another, new ways of listening to one another. But most importantly, a new way to see in our communities. They're dirty li life, relationship with

00:38:52.180 - 00:39:29.340

mystery in a new way of relating with the Gospel and perhaps consequently, are we willing to sick to be christian leaders with the people who long for our good answers? Or is the Amerindian removing the church

00:39:30.520 - 00:40:05.290

? Because actually our answers simply make the people go elsewhere? Perhaps Allah can help us see, listen and relate in new ways in order to rediscover that jesus and his Gospel have something to say, something

00:40:05.410 - 00:40:30.920

new to say, something new, to embody something new to do, something to redeem a new way of reconciliation, a new way of transformation, not in the world of this enchantment, but in the

00:40:30.920 - 00:41:00.140

daily life relationship with mystery that not only global South christians are, but that our sisters and brothers in our congregations, their families and their friends also live in This is the challenge. Will our ministry,

00:41:00.010 - 00:41:32.900

will our vocation, will our congregations be open to their new questions and will we be allowed to be challenged and be invited to seek no answers in the Gospel of jesus christ so that we can understand the

00:41:32.900 - 00:42:09.130

gospel better? Yeah, I pray and hope that the holy Spirit will guide us and that our communities be places for no questions to be asked and new answers to be provided. May God help us?