Lecture 11 Outline
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Foundational Faith Expressions
Outline of the 11th lecture in part one of the course. Part three of the course is entitled Foundational Faith Expressions.
Lecture #11--Foundational Faith
Expressions
I. Definition of Foundational Faith Expressions (as mentioned previously in our treatment of
Galilean Journey)
II. Theological themes of foundational faith expressions or “popular religion”:
I. Definition of Foundational Faith Expressions (as mentioned previously in our treatment of
Galilean Journey)
- Those religious traditions which the majority of a people…
- celebrate voluntarily;
- transmit from generation to generation;
- persist in celebrating with the clergy, without them, or even in spite of them.
- Put another way, foundational faith expressions are
- a ritual, symbolic response to their history and contemporary situation
- embodiments of the deepest identity of the people, their collective soul
- a locus theologicus (source for theology)
II. Theological themes of foundational faith expressions or “popular religion”:
- Paul VI, Evangelii
Nuntiandi (1975, #48):
- manifests thirst for God
- fosters generosity and heroic sacrifice
- increases awareness of God’s constant presence and love
- engenders evangelical values like patience, detachment, devotion, openness to others, and a sense of the cross in daily life
- at times mediated a distorted and even superstitious appropriation of Christianity
- As we have seen, among Mexican Americans in the Southwest, Mexican
Catholic religious traditions have at least three core meanings
(Elizondo, Galilean Journey,Chapter 3):
- reinforce identity and a sense of belonging
- enable people to endure struggles, suffering, even death
- celebrate hope and new life
- reinforce identity and a sense of belonging
- Other U.S. Latino theologians have added other understandings:
- enact rites of passage
- illuminate God’s action in daily life
- express desire for harmonious relations with nature
- remind devotees’ of need for mediators, both among heavenly saints and hacendados who so influenced their lives
- accompaniment
- reinforcing social hierarchy
- matriarchal core
- overcoming division: mestizo call to unity
- connectedness to ancestors (porous boundaries between death and life)
- Goizueta (Horizons):
- individual/community
- material/spiritual
- public/private
- life/death
- In Latin America: algunos
elementos del “world view” de
la religión popular (Parker):
- afirma la vida en un contexto de muerte
- afirma la mujer y el femenino en un contexto de patriarchismo
(especialmente por medio de la devoción a la Virgen María)
- afirma los sentimientos en una sociedad bastante intellectual
- afirma las fuerzas vitales y poderosas (Dios, la Virgen, los santos) que son más lá del entendimiento del ser humano
- afirma lo festivo en una sociedad lleno de lo formalafirma lo transendente en una sociedad que pone su fe entera en la ciencia
Copyright 2008,
by the Contributing Authors.
Cite/attribute Resource.
smata. (2006, June 22). Lecture 11 Outline. Retrieved August 29, 2008, from Notre Dame OpenCourseWare Web site: http://ocw.nd.edu/theology/latino-theology-and-christian-tradition/Lecture%2011%20Outline.
This work is licensed under a
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