Taking Up the Mantle

J. Daniel Salinas

Description

In “Taking Up the Mantle” Dr Daniel Salinas helps the reader understand the development of Latin American evangelical theological thought over the past hundred years. Salinas challenges new generations to pick up the task of contextually living out the biblical message, learning from the example of the godly men and women that came before them. History is full of faithful servants who read their Bibles and their surroundings to communicate the message for the church and the world, and this ‘double listening’, as John Stott referred to it, is required today. From the Panama Congress of 1916 to the end of the millennium, this book introduces us to figures from the Latin American church and encourages us to continue their legacy today.

Informations

• Publié par: Langham Creative Projects
• Date de parution: 14 janvier 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783682072
• Langue: English

Extrait

The Latin American evangelical community’s discovery of its theological voice has not taken a straight or an obvious path, at least for those who stand on the outside looking in with interest and concern.
In Taking Up the Mantle: Latin American Evangelical Theology in the 20th Century , J. Daniel Salinas rambles expertly across the broken landscape of that process as it took shape in the twentieth century. A careful historian, Salinas is alert both to the “conciliar” aspects of the story he tells and to the argument that the region’s “theology” has found its voice in the lived spaces provided by the pulpit and the everyday life and service of Latin America’s “Bible people.”
A good deal of the tale involves the struggle to grow out of – or break free from – the overwhelming influence of Latin America’s nearest northern neighbor. If the evangelical gospel arrived with American missionaries, is the shape and texture of that gospel not “good enough” Latin American theology? Many have thought the answer must be “no,” but decades passed in the development of the positive theology that might grasp the passed baton. A common insistence of Salinas’s protagonists is that this theology must be deeply rooted in often excruciating Latin American social realities rather than imported in pristine form from a very different and arguably less troubled context. The buffeting visited upon the region by ideological Left-Right winds has made the articulate reformulation of Christian belief and practice an ever-contested task.
J. Daniel Salinas’s brief assessments at the end of each chapter of this story are worth their weight in gold. I find Taking Up the Mantle an exhilarating story, competently and courageously told by an insider who has managed a historian’s appropriate distance. It deserves to be read widely and must now be considered the standard English-language treatment of a story that, one trusts, has only begun.
Rev David A. Baer, PhD
Former President & CEO, Overseas Council, Indianapolis, USA
In this original work, J. Daniel Salinas corrects at least two major misconceptions about Latin American theological reflection: that its only expression is liberation theology and that it has been mostly non-existent in evangelical circles. Excerpts of documents that cover more than a century demonstrate that theological dialogue among Latin American Protestants, from very early in the twentieth century, was already concerned with the realities of the context, and that although most evangelical theological reflection has not been the product of scholastic activity, it has not been shallow or provincial. This is a must read to get a comprehensive perspective on Latin American evangelical theologies during the twentieth century.
Elizabeth Sendek, MA
President, Biblical Seminary of Colombia, Medellin, Colombia
J. Daniel Salinas makes plain that the theological thought of the Latin churches in the early twentieth century was mainly a “repetition of whatever had arrived,” not least via missionaries from the North. Moreover, some of what arrived hindered the development of a contextualized evangelical theology. The exhilarating part of Salinas’s historical overview is the example of numerous towering Latin American figures who struggled valiantly and against many obstacles to articulate a theology that addressed biblically the conditions and questions of Latin America itself. Salinas explains that the task has been “chaotic, unpredictable, polarizing, and divisive.” The sober message is that while these Latin American scholars and leaders have been exemplary – and in many ways successful – many challenges remain. Salinas’s work underscores the reality that the task of developing a Latin American evangelical theology remains a current and ongoing challenge.
John G. Bernard, DMin
President, United World Mission

Taking Up the Mantle
Latin American Evangelical Theology in the 20 th Century
J. Daniel Salinas
Global Perspectives Series

© 2017 by J. Daniel Salinas
Published 2017 by Langham Global Library
An imprint of Langham Creative Projects
Langham Partnership
PO Box 296, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 9WZ, UK
www.langham.org
ISBNs:
978-1-78368-206-5 Print
978-1-78368-208-9 Mobi
978-1-78368-207-2 ePub
978-1-78368-209-6 PDF
J. Daniel Salinas has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988 to be identified as the Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or the Copyright Licensing Agency.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-1-78368-206-5
Cover & Book Design: projectluz.com
Langham Partnership actively supports theological dialogue and an author’s right to publish but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions set forth, and works referenced within this publication or guarantee its technical and grammatical correctness. Langham Partnership does not accept any responsibility or liability to persons or property as a consequence of the reading, use or interpretation of its published content.

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Contents

Cover


Foreword


Acknowledgments


Abbreviations


Introduction


1 Beginnings


Panama 1916


Montevideo 1925


Havana 1929


Other Theological Trends at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century


2 The First Generation of Latin American Evangelicals Doing Theology: From Panama 1916 to Buenos Aires 1946


La Nueva Democracia


Luminar


The Other Spanish Christ


The Balcony and the Road


CELA I, 1949


3 The Second Generation: From Buenos Aires 1949 to Cochabamba 1970


Certeza and Pensamiento Cristiano


Cuadernos Teológicos


CELA II, 1961


ISAL


CELA III, 1969


4 Evangelicals Searching for Their Identity and Theology: The Seventies and Eighties


FTL


Anglo-Saxon Clothing, Manifest Destiny, and Cultural Christianity


A New Theological Reflection


Pentecostals and Historical Churches


Women and Theology


Pastoralia


5 Definition and Maturity


CONELA and CLAI


Multidirectional Dialogue


Theological Agendas


Misión


Third World Theologies


Dialogue with Foreign Theological and Missiological Agendas


Female Theologians


CLADE III


Pentecostalism’s Growth


Conclusion


Bibliography


About Langham Partnership

Endnotes
Foreword
There is a need for a book like this in English and we have to thank J. Daniel Salinas for his effort in carrying on a conscientious work of research and writing it down. As he says, outside Latin America those that do research and write about theological issues tend to think that liberation theology is the only theology that has come from that continent. This book will no doubt contribute to correct that narrow perspective.
It was necessary to identify the theology that backed the Protestant missionary activity in Latin America starting at the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth. An original contribution of this book is the identification and description of the dispensationalism that colored the mission theology of the faith missions that eventually surpassed the work of the denominational mission boards that had pioneered Protestant expansion in Latin America. On the other hand, the book also offers a valuable summary of the theology that was characteristic of the ecumenical missionary enthusiasts after the famous conference of Edinburgh 1910.
J. Daniel Salinas is a specialist in the development of Evangelical Theology in the last three decades of the twentieth century. His doctoral thesis on the subject was published in 2009. [1] Now in this new book he offers us a summary of those findings including references to Latin American Theologians that were part of the ecumenical movement related to the World Council of Churches.
New developments in the religious scene of Latin America include the explosive growth of Pentecostalism and significant post Vatican II changes within the Roman Catholic Church including the presence of an Argentinian Pope in the Vatican. If all this is to be understood, it is necessary to become familiar with the process of ecclesiastical and theological developments that this book so aptly describes.
Samuel Escobar
Professor in the Facultad Protestante de Teología UEBE, Madrid, Spain
Acknowledgments
I thank the following persons and organizations for making this book possible:

• Global Research Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary for the generous sabbatical;
• Scholar Leaders Internati