Episode 20.
Luis, Professor at Boston University, spoke of several big topics, including Liberation Theology, religion as a complex entity, LGBTQ identity, and the importance of focusing on problems rather than identity. Luis unpacks complex theological ideas and connects them to everyday life. In addition to Christian theology and elements of the New Testament, we drew lines to Jewish concepts.
Highlights:
· Luis is comfortable with the various elements of his identity – Catholic, gay, Spanish immigrant in America, scholar – and how they fit together.
· Being part of a religious tradition does not require us to agree with every aspect of it. We don’t demand that in other relationships, so why make that exception?
· Liberation Theology, and other contextual theologies, start from the place of analyzing the immediate reality.
· The Hebrew Bible and New Testament talk about the real implications of God a lot, not about the nature of God in the abstract.
· Religion is a way of living, not a doctrine. It is a complex entity you can be in relationship with.
Quotes:
“To be faithful is not to believe in something. When you are faithful to someone, you don't believe what they believe. When you're faithful to someone, you have an ethical orientation to that person. You have a commitment, a practical commitment to that person.”
“The current mainstream association [in America] of Christianity with the nuclear family is nowhere to be found in the New Testament and is nowhere to be found in the first two-three centuries of Christianity.”
“When I was primarily an activist, my activism and was very informed by my intellectual work, and now that I'm in academia, much of the stuff that I teach and I write, issues from my activism.”
“The way we talk about the past is deeply informed by our ideas about the present.”
“Liberation theology never talked about personal identities. Never did, and it still doesn't. It talks about the problem of colonization. It talks about our problem of oppression and it talks about ways communities organized against that.”
Social Media links for Luis:
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/luis.menendez.antuna
Academia – https://luismenendezantuna.academia.edu
Boston University – https://www.bu.edu/sth/profile/luis-menendez-antuna/
Social Media links for Méli:
Email – info@talkingwithgodproject.org
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/melisolomon/
Talking with God Project – https://www.talkingwithgodproject.org
Transcript:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1851013/episodes/11251655-20-luis-menendez-antuna-focus-on-the-problems/edit
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