Lecture 9 Outline

Galilean Journey:  From Margination to New Creation

1. Chapter 7: The Galilee Principle - “What human beings reject, God chooses as God’s very own.” (p. 91)
1. Starting point is Galilean identity – for Mexican Americans, this means embracing their mestizo heritage and identity – the message of the Galilee principle is the dignity of all as children of God – this comes as good news to rejected who must struggle to embrace their own goodness, dignity, humanity
2. Three types of poverty: material, psychological, cultural/spiritual (when dominant group imposes its image not only as the right image, but as the only truly human image and/or only image that truly reflects the image of God, see p. 97)
3. Galilee principle means Mexican Americans a “bridge people” of the Americas
2. Chapter 8: The Jerusalem Principle - “God chooses an oppressed people, not to bring them comfort in their oppression, but to enable them to confront, transcend, and transform whatever in the oppressor society diminishes and destroys the fundamental dignity of human nature.” (p. 103)
1. Elizondo confronts Mexican American culture as well as dominant culture, e.g. lack of social consciousness among wealthy Latin Americans, in-fighting due to stubbornness and absolutism, inability to overcome this to unite for common efforts (there is no word for “compromise” in Mexican American Spanish), easier to blame others than look at how we need to change, indirect communication can lead to poor communication, difficulty in disagreeing openly without taking personal offense, unrestrained vengeance due to deep sense of honor and family unity (pp. 108-109)
3. Chapter 9: The Resurrection Principle - “Only love can triumph over evil, and no human power can prevail against the power of unlimited love.” (p. 115)
1. mestizaje as festive prophesy
2. need to engage both the prophetic and the festive, two must be kept in healthy tension
3. prophetic fiestas of Mexican Americans parallel the inclusive table fellowship of Jesus and the early church – they are a powerful countersign to a divided world and give hope of a new humanity
4. book ends with strong quotes on fiestas
5. end with critical evaluation of book’s strengths and weaknesses