Rady Roldán-Figueroa

Dr. Roldán-Figueroa (he, him, his) is a Puerto Rican scholar whose research, publications, and teaching engage a diversity of themes and topics in the history of Christianity from the 15^th to the 20^th century. He specializes in early modern global Christianity, Christianity in colonial Latin America, the intersectionality of Catholicism, race, and colonialism as well as the history of Christian spirituality. He is the author of The Ascetic Spirituality of Juan de Avila (1499-1569) (Brill, 2010), and The Martyrs of Japan: Publication History and Catholic Missions in the Spanish World (Spain, New Spain, and the Philippines, 1597–1700) (Brill, 2021). He is also co-editor of four additional volumes: Collected Works of Hanserd Knollys: Pamphlets on Religion (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2017); Exploring Christian Heritage – A Reader in History and Theology (Baylor University Press, 3rd rev. ed. 2024); Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P.: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion (December 2018, Brill); and, The Transatlantic Las Casas: Historical Trajectories, Indigenous Cultures, Scholastic Thought, and Reception in History (Brill, 2022). He has published forty-one articles and book chapters and his articles have appeared in Critical Research on Religion, European History Quarterly, Sixteenth Century Journal, Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte/Archive for Reformation History, The Seventeenth Century, and History of European Ideas. He has been the recipient of several awards including a Lilly Theological Scholar Grant, a Lilly Teaching Fellowship in Religion and Philosophy, numerous awards from the Hispanic Theological Initiative and a Greenleaf Visiting Scholar award from the Latin American and Iberian Institute of the University of New Mexico. He is the holder of the 2023-24, Rev. Robert Randall Distinguished Professorship in Christian Culture at Providence College. His courses and seminars include, Christianity in Colonial Latin America, Mystical Theology and Modernity, Christianity Beyond Early Modern Europe, and Spirituality in Historical Perspective.

Publications

David Orique, O.P., Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Cynthia Folquer, O.P., and Dolores Poelzer, M.M., The Dominicans in the Americas and the Philippines (c. 1500–c. 1820): Devotional Life, Catholic Literary Culture, and Models of Holiness (Routledge, 2024).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, The Martyrs of Japan: Publication History and Catholic Missions in the Spanish World (Spain, New Spain, and the Philippines, 1597–1700) (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, The Ascetic Spirituality of Juan de Ávila (1499-1569), Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 150 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010).

C. Douglas Weaver and Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Exploring Christian Heritage: A Reader in History and Theology, 2nd rev. ed. (Baylor University Press, 2017).

William Pitts and Rady Roldán-Figueroa, eds., Collected Works of Hanserd Knollys, Early English Baptist Texts (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2017).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, ed., Early Modern Theologies of Race in the Age of European Expansion, special issue of the Journal of Early Modern Christianity 4.2 (2017).

David T. Orique and Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Bartolomé de las Casas, OP: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa and David T. Orique, O.P., eds. The Transatlantic Las Casas: Historical Trajectories, Indigenous Cultures, Scholastic Thought, and Reception in History (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2023).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa and Kathryn House, eds., Essays in Honor of Nancy Tatom Ammerman, Perspectives in Religious Studies vol. 49, num. 2 (Summer 2022). 

Published Articles and Book Chapters

David Orique, O.P., Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Cynthia Folquer, O.P., “Introduction,” in David Orique, O.P., Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Cynthia Folquer, O.P., and Dolores Poelzer, M.M., The Dominicans in the Americas and the Philippines (c. 1500–c. 1820): Devotional Life, Catholic Literary Culture, and Models of Holiness (Routledge, 2024).

David Orique, O.P., Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Cynthia Folquer, O.P., “Historiography of the Dominicans in the Americas,” in David Orique, O.P., Rady Roldán-Figueroa, Cynthia Folquer, O.P., and Dolores Poelzer, M.M., The Dominicans in the Americas and the Philippines (c. 1500–c. 1820): Devotional Life, Catholic Literary Culture, and Models of Holiness (Routledge, 2024).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Empire of Portland Cement, Concrete Blocks, and Specialty Shingles: Methodist Missions, Antonin Nechodoma, and the Implantation of a Colonialist Religious Aesthetic in Puerto Rico (1898–c. 1927),” Social Sciences and Missions 36, no. 3–4 (2023): 256–303.

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Beyond the Black Legend: The Reception History of Las Casas in Late Sixteenth-century England,” in The Transatlantic Bartolomé de las Casas: Lascasian Heritage, Indigenous Cultures, Scholastic Thought, and Historical Reception, ed. Rady Roldán-Figueroa and David Orique (Brill, 2023).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa and David Orique, O.P., “Introduction: The Past and Present of Lascasian Studies,” in The Transatlantic Bartolomé de las Casas: Lascasian Heritage, Indigenous Cultures, Scholastic Thought, and Historical Reception, ed. Rady Roldán-Figueroa and David Orique (Brill, 2023).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa and Kathryn House, “Ammerman for a New Day: Challenges for Twenty-first Century Baptists,” Essays in Honor of Nancy Tatom Ammerman, Perspectives in Religious Studies vol. 49, num. 2 (Summer 2022): 95–110.

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Religious Nationalism, Racism, and Raza Hispánica (“Hispanic Race”) in Constantino Bayle’s, S.J. (1882–1953) Missiology (A Publication History Approach),” Critical Research on Religion (2022).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Spiritualité, Spirituality, and Espiritualidad: A Lexicographical Approach to the Conceptual History of the Modern Notion of Spirituality,” Church History and Religious Culture vol. 101, no. 4 (2021).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Roman Catholic Exegesis from the Spirituali to the Jesuits,” in The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation, ed. Jennifer Powell McNutt and Herman Selderhuis (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Learning from the Confessions of the European Reformations: Confessing the Faith against Populist Authoritarianism,” in Every Voice Heard, No One Silenced: Practicing Theology in the Local Church with the Whole Church for the Whole World, ed. in Steven R. Harmon and Amy L. Chilton (Mercer University Press, 2020).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “The Institutional Inner Logic of Sixteenth Century Discalced Franciscan Missions,” in Sixteenth-Century Mission: Global Mission in an Age of Reformation, ed. Edward L. Smither and Robert L. Gallagher (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “ ‘βαπτίζω Signifies to Dip or to Wash, but Never to Sprinkle’: London Baptists and Dipping as the Sign of Lay Supremacy, 1641–1645,” Church History and Religious Culture 99 (2019): 1–32.

David T. Orique and Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Introduction: Three Waves of Lascasian Scholarship,” in Bartolomé de las Casas, OP: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018).

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Bartolomé de las Casas, his Theory of the Power of Bishops, and the Early Transatlantic Episcopacy,” in Bartolomé de las Casas, OP: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2018).

William L. Pitts and Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Hanserd Knollys’ Life and Work,” in Collected Works of Hanserd Knollys, Early English Baptist Texts (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2017), 9–43.

Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Introduction: Race as a Category of Anthropological Difference in the Formative Stage of Peripheral Catholicism,” in Early Modern Theologies of Race in the Age of European Expansion, ed. Rady Roldán-Figueroa, special issue of the Journal of Early Modern Christianity 4/2 (2017).

“Martin Luther in Latin America: From the Counter-Reformation Myth of Latin American Catholicism to Luther as Religious Caudillo,” in Martin Luther. A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517-2017), ed. Alberto Melloni, Federica Meloni, and Stefania de Nardis (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017).

“Martin Luther in Lateinamerika: Vom Mythos der Gegenreformation des lateinamerikanischen Katholizismus bis zu Luther als religiösem Caudillo,” in Martin Luther. A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517-2017), ed. Alberto Melloni, Federica Meloni, and Stefania de Nardis (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2017).

“Martin Lutero in America Latina: Dal mito controriformistico del cattolicesimo latinoamericano a Lutero come caudillo religioso,” in Lutero: Un cristiano tra riforme e modernità (1517-2017), ed. Alberto Melloni, Federica Meloni, and Stefania de Nardis (Torino: Unione tipografico-editrice torinese, 2017).

“Religious Literature and its Institutional Contexts: Prelude to the Study of Spanish Accounts of Christian Martyrdom in Tokugawa Japan,” Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte/Archive for Reformation History (Special Issue: “The Global Impact of the Reformations: Long-Term Influences and Contemporary Ramifications” / “Die Weltwirkungen der Reformation: Zeitgenössische und langfristige Folgen der religiösen Reformbewegungen des 16. Jahrhunderts”), 108 (2017).

“The Mystical Theology of Luis de la Puente (1554-1624),” in Brill’s Companion to Jesuit Mystical Spirituality, ed. Robert Maryks (Brill, 2017).

“Excerpts from Luis de la Puente, Spiritual Guide That Deals with Prayer, Meditation, and Contemplation of the Divine Visits and Extraordinary Graces as well as of Mortification and the Heroic Deeds That Come with It (1609, 1614),” in Brill’s Companion to Jesuit Mystical Spirituality, ed. Robert Maryks (Brill, 2017).

“Pedro de Ribadeneira, Literary Culture, and the Vida del P. Ignacio de Loyola (1583),” in Exploring Jesuit Distinctiveness: The Ways of Proceeding within the Society of Jesus, ed. Robert A. Maryks (Leiden: Brill, 2016).

“Literacy, Spirituality of Reading, and Catholic Literary Culture in Sixteenth-Century Spain,” Journal of Early Modern Christianity 2/2 (2015): 159-188.

“Martín de Roa, S.J. (1559-1637) and the Consolidation of Catholic Literary Culture in Spain,” European History Quarterly 45.1 (2015).

“Ignatius of Loyola and Juan de Ávila on the Ascetic Life of the Laity,” in Companion to Ignatius of Loyola: Life, Writings, Spirituality, ed. Robert A. Maryks (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2014), 159-178.

Martin Luther, Commentarius in Apocalypsin ante 100 annos editus/Preface to A Commentary on the Apocalypse, Published One Hundred Years Ago (1528). Introduction and notes by Rady Roldan-Figueroa, Luther’s Works: American Edition 59 (Concordia Publishing House, 2012).

“Tomás Carrascón, Anti-Roman Catholic Propaganda, and the Circulation of Ideas in Jacobean England,” History of European Ideas (2012). Edited by Richard Whatmore, Director, Sussex Centre for Intellectual History, University of Sussex.

“Father Luis Piñeiro, S.J., the Tridentine Economy of Relics, and the Defense of the Jesuit Missionary Enterprise in Tokugawa Japan,” Archiv für Reformationgeschichte/Archive for Reformation History 101 (2010), pp. 207-230.

“Religious Propaganda and Textual Hybridity in Tomás Carrascón’s 1623 Spanish Translation of the Jacobean Book of Common Prayer,” The Seventeenth Century 25.1 (2010), pp. 49-74.

“Antonio del Corro and Paul as the Herald of the Gospel of Universal Redemption,” in Paul in the Reformation, ed., R. Ward Holder (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp. 389-425.

“Translation, Guided Reading, and Anti-Roman Catholic Propaganda in the Reina-Valera Bible (1602): The Rendering of Deuteronomy 23,17[18],” in Infant Milk or Hardy Nourishment? The Bible for Lay People and Theologians in the Early Modern Period, ed. W. François and A. A. den Hollander, (Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 221). Louvain: Peeters Publishers, 2009, pp. 411-438

“‘Espirituación’: Juan de Ávila’s Doctrine of Union with the Holy Spirit,” Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme 2-3 (2005): 65-96 [Date of Issue: May 2007].

“La relaciónde 1625 por Francisco Crespo sobre los mártires de Japón: Introducción, edición y comentarios,” Encuentros en Catay 20 (2006), 64-85. [Fu Jen University, Taipei, Taiwan] [Date of Issue: 2007].

Filius Perditionis: The Propagandistic use of a Biblical Motif in Spanish Evangelical Biblical Translations of the Sixteenth Century.” Sixteenth Century Journal 4 (2006): 1027-1055.

“Reina’s Vision of the Reformed Ministry: A Reconstruction from the Fringes of the 1569 Spanish Translation of the Bible,” in Lay Bibles in Europe1450-1800, ed., M. Lamberigts and A. A. den Hollander, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium, 198 (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2006), p. 159-81.

“‘Justified Without the Works of the Law’: Casiodoro de Reina on Romans 3:28,” in The Formation of Clerical and Confessional Identities in Early Modern Europe, ed., Wim Janse and Barbara Pitkin, Dutch Review of Church History85 (2005): 205-224.

“Contemporary Anabaptists Historiography and Theology, and the Broadening of Baptist Identity,” in Truett Journal of Church and Mission 1 (2006): 5-11.

“B.F. Stockwell, Protestant Mentality, and the Missionary Appropriation of Sixteenth-Century Spanish Reformers.”Apuntes 23/3 (Fall 2003): 84-99.

“The Christologies of Luther and Sobrino and Pastoral Care.” Apuntes (Spring 2001): 15-29.

“Latin American Women through Missionary Eyes: The Work of the Women Commission of the Panama Congress.” Apuntes (Winter 1998): 112-124.

 

Academic Presentations

• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Ecclesiastical Law and the Regulation of Daily Life in the Backwaters of the Spanish Empire: The 1645 Provincial Synod of San Juan Puerto Rico,” The Ten Commandments, Freedom, and the Early Modern Roots of Western Jurisprudence, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts (October 28, 2019).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Baptist Political Theology and the Defense of Dipping, 1641–1645,” Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, St. Louis, Missouri (October 19, 2019).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa and David Orique, “Bartolomé de las Casas and the 19^th Century Transatlantic Debate over Slavery,” II International Conference on Bartolomé de las Casas, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island (July 15–16, 2019).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Bartolomé de las Casas and the Forced Conversions of the Jews in the Unico vocationis modo,” III International Conference,” The Third International Congress on the History of the Order of Preachers in the Americas, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island (July 17–19, 2019).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Catholicism, Nationalism, Race, and Fascism: The “Spanish Missional Historiology” of Constantino Bayle, S.J. (1882–1953),” International Symposium on Jesuit Studies. Engaging Sources: The Tradition and Future of Collecting History in the Society of Jesus, Boston College, Boston, Massachusetts (June 11–13, 2019).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “The Sanctuary Movement in New England: The Unitarian Response and Community Church of Boston,” in The Sanctuary Movement as an Interfaith Response to a Humanitarian Crisis, Hillel House, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts (April 22, 2019).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Masculinity and Spiritual Heroism in Luis de la Puente’s Vida del Padre Baltasar Álvarez (1615),” Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, ABQ, New Mexico (November 1, 2018).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Theologies of the First Sanctuary Movement (c. 1980-c. 1990),” Herencia Lectures, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey (October 2018).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Martin Luther in Latin America: From the Counter-Reformation Myth of Latin American Catholicism to Luther as Religious Caudillo,” Reformation Lectures, St. Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire (October 2017).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Synodal Councils and Ethno-Cultural Diversity in the Formative Stage of Peripheral Catholicism: Mexico, Manila, and San Juan de Puerto Rico,” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (October 2017).
• Rady Roldán-Figueroa, “Nicolás de Arnaya, S.J., Disciple of Luis de la Puente,” Renaissance Society of America, Chicago (31 March 2017).
• “The Episcopal Office and the Defense of Humanity: Bartolomé de las Casas’s Theory of the Power of the Bishops,” Bartolomé de las Casas: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion, Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island (October 7-8, 2016).
• “Baltasar de Medina (1634-1697) and His Martyrology of St. Felipe de Jesús (1572-1597),” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Bruges, Belgium (August 2016).
• “Race in Bartolomé de las Casas’ De unico vocationis modo.” Sixteenth Century Society and Conference, Vancouver, BC, Canada (22 October 2015).
• “Anticlericalismo, filosemitismo e identidad protestante en el Carrascón.” Conversion, Overlapping Religiosities, Polemics, Interaction: Early Modern Iberia and Beyond. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid, Spain. 19 June 2015.
• “Pedro de Ribadeneira and the Definition of Jesuit Distinctiveness in Vida del P. Ignacio de Loyola (1583): How to Read the First Spanish Biography of the Founder of the Society of Jesus.” International Symposium on Jesuit Studies, Boston College (13 June 2015).
• Guest Speaker, “Spanish Accounts of Christian Martyrdom in Japan: Towards a Literary History,” sponsored by Boston University Center for the Study of Asia, Romance Studies Department, and Latin American Studies Program, at the Pardee School of Global Studies (24 October 2014).
• “Protestant Women Martyrs of Sixteenth-Century Spain and their Afterlife: A Topos in anti-Roman Catholic Literature.” Reformation Studies Colloquium, University of Cambridge (10 September 2014).
• “Enlisting Saints for the Cause of Catholic Missions: Marcelo de Ribadeneyra’s Historia de las Islas del Archipiélago Filipino (Barcelona, 1601).” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, San Juan, PR (October 2013).
• “Spanish Accounts of Christian Martyrdom in Tokugawa Japan, c. 1597-c. 1945: Ideational Representations and their Circulation in Spain, the Philippines, and New Spain,” Wednesday, Center for Southwest Research and Latin American and Iberian Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico (12 June 2013).
• “Father Luis de Guzmán, S.J. (1543-1605) and his Historia de las misiones (Alcalá, 1601) as a Defense of the Society of Jesus,” Renaissance Society of America, San Diego, California (6 April 2013).
• “Neither did we think much to consult […], neither did we disdain to revise”: The Translators of the King James Bible and their Use of Cypriano de Valera’s Spanish Bible.” International Colloquium, “Vernacular Bible and Religious Reform,” Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 30 November 2012.
• November 2-3, 2012: Guest Speaker at the Eastern Fellowship of the American Society of Missiology Annual Meeting (New York). Subject: “Bartolomé de las Casas and the Spirituality of De unico vocationis modo.”
• “Martín de Roa, S.J. and the degrees and offices of Catholic women in his Vida de Doña Ana Ponce de León (1604, 1615), Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Cincinnati, Ohio (October 2012).
• “London Baptists and the Theological Defense of Believer’s Baptism by Immersion c. 1645,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Forth Worth, TX (October 2011).
• “La Oración de Recogimiento: Historia y Práctica,” New Brunswick Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, NJ (October 2011).
• “Hanserd Knollys and Baptist Religious Radicalism,” Reformation Studies Colloquium, University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK (September 2010).
• Organizer of three panels for the 2010 meeting of the Renaissance Society of America, Venice, Italy. Subject: “Early Modern Spanish Spirituality.”
• “Juan de Ávila and the Spirituality of Reading.” Renaissance Society of America, Venice, Italy (April 2010).
• “Preaching the Death of the King: Funeral Sermons on the Occasion of King Philip II’s Death.” Centre for Seventeenth-Century Studies: Twelfth International Conference (13-16 July 2009), Durham University, Durham, UK.
• “Tomás Carrascón y su traducción castellana de le versión jacobina del Libro de oración pública o Liturgia inglesa (1623).” I Congreso Internacional Reforma Protestante y Libertades en Europa,” (30 March – 1st April 2009), Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain.
• “Juan de Ávila and the Criticism of Old Christian Spirituality in his Audi, filia of 1556,” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, St Louis (October 24, 2008).
• “Reading, Intellectual Capital, and the Religious Exile Tomás Carrascón,” Early Modern Reading Conference, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (April 10-12, 2008).
• “The Economy of Relics of Martyrs According to Spanish Sources (1614-1663),” Renaissance Society of America, Miami (2007).
• Chair, Panel: “The Reception of the Apostle Paul in the Sixteenth Century,” Renaissance Society of America, Miami (2007).
• “‘Relaciones de Martirios’: Or, the Literary Representation of Christian Martyrs in Japan.” Renaissance Society of America, San Francisco (March 2006).
• “‘Los Someticos’: Biblical Glosses Against Sodomyin the Reina-Valera Bible (1602),” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Atlanta (October 2005).
• “Francisco de Osuna y el contenido, valor y límites de la experiencia religiosa,” Seminario Teológico Unión Evangélica Bautista Española, Madrid (June 2005).
• “Teresa de Ávila y el contenido, valor y límites de la experiencia religiosa,” Seminario Teológico Unión Evangélica Bautista Española, Madrid (June 2005).
• “Casiodoro de Reina on Romans 3: 28.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Toronto (2004).
• “Reina’s Vision of the Reformed Ministry: A Reconstruction from the Fringes of the 1569 Spanish Translation of the Bible.” Lay Bibles in Europe 1450-1800 – International Conference, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam (April 22-23, 2004).
• “Canon and Identity in the Spanish Protestant Bible (1569, 1602).” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Pittsburgh (2003).
• “The Demonic and Political Power According to the Spanish Exile Casiodoro de Reina.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Pittsburgh (2003).
• “The Ecclesiology of a Refugee Church: The Case of the Confession de Fe Christiana.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, San Antonio (2002).
• “The Catechisms of Luther and Valdés: A Comparative Study of their Main Ideas and Theological Assumptions.” Sixteenth Century Studies Conference, Denver (2001).
• “B.F. Stockwell, Protestant Mentality, and the Missionary Appropriation of Sixteenth-Century Spanish Reformers.” Paper read at the Seminary Scholar Research Forum, Boston University School of Theology (2001).