Lecture 11 Outline

Foundational Faith Expressions

1. Definition of Foundational Faith Expressions (as mentioned previously in our treatment of Galilean Journey)
1. Those religious traditions which the majority of a people…
1. celebrate voluntarily;
2. transmit from generation to generation
3. persist in celebrating with the clergy, without them, or even in spite of them.
2. Put another way, foundational faith expressions are
1. a ritual, symbolic response to their history and contemporary situation
2. embodiments of the deepest identity of the people, their collective soul
3. a locus theologicus (source for theology
2. Theological themes of foundational faith expressions or “popular religion”:
1. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975, #48):
1. manifests thirst for God
2. fosters generosity and heroic sacrifice
3. increases awareness of God’s constant presence and love
4. engenders evangelical values like patience, detachment, devotion, openness to others, and a sense of the cross in daily lif
5. at times mediated a distorted and even superstitious appropriation of Christianity
2. 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):
1. reinforce identity and a sense of belonging
2. enable people to endure struggles, suffering, even deat
3. celebrate hope and new life
3. Other U.S. Latino theologians have added other understandings:
1. enact rites of passage
2. illuminate God’s action in daily life
3. express desire for harmonious relations with nature
4. remind devotees’ of need for mediators, both among heavenly saints and hacendados who so influenced their lives
5. accompaniment
6. reinforcing social hierarchy
7. matriarchal core
8. overcoming division: mestizo call to unity
9. connectedness to ancestors (porous boundaries between death and life)
10. Goizueta (Horizons):
11. individual/community
12. material/spiritual
13. public/private
14. life/death
4. In Latin America: algunos elementos del “world view” de la religión popular (Parker):
1. afirma la vida en un contexto de muerte
2. afirma la mujer y el femenino en un contexto de patriarchismo (especialmente por medio de la devoción a la Virgen María)
3. afirma los sentimientos en una sociedad bastante intellectual
4. afirma las fuerzas vitales y poderosas (Dios, la Virgen, los santos) que son más lá del entendimiento del ser humano
5. afirma lo festivo en una sociedad lleno de lo formalafirma lo transendente en una sociedad que pone su fe entera en la ciencia