In Caminemos con Jes\u00fas, Roberto Goizueta offers the U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism as a lens through which to engage theological aesthetics, anthropology, and rationality. Goizueta works toward a theological and cultural pluralism founded in a preferential option for the faith of the poor through the process of acompa\u00f1amiento. Central to his exploration is U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism as a particular socio-historical context through which Catholic Latinos and Latinas do their theology. This theology is set within the context of everyday sayings, symbols, practices, and narratives of the people. Goizueta draws upon popular Catholicism\u2019s expression of faith in the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe (La Morenita), Jesus and Mary defined relationally to each other and to us, the person as sacrament, a theology of collaboration, community as the birthplace of self, and the \u2018in-between\u2019 (mestizaje) existence of migration. Through such enactment, practices, and narratives of the people, Goizueta hopes to offer a methodological model for doing theology from a particular socio-historical context.<\/p>\n
Through the Guadalupe story, Goizueta develops a relational anthropology and seeks to center both anthropology and theology in praxis, or human action (77). Drawing from Latin American Liberation Theology, Goizueta accentuates orthopraxis through the following two statements, \u201cTo know God is to do justice. To love God is to love one\u2019s neighbor.\u201d Influenced by Karl Marx\u2019s notion of human action or praxis as transformative, Goizueta believes, with Gutierrez and other Latin American liberation theologians, that the \u201cpraxis which grounds theological reflection is variously defined as historical praxis, Christian praxis, and liberating (or liberation) praxis\u201d (87).<\/p>\n
Goizueta\u2019s main contribution to the discussion is how he integrates aesthetic experience as a lens for interpreting human action (89). He finds that, particularly, in contrast with rational, logical thinking, aesthetics provides an important lens for interpreting empathetic love (91). Borrowing from Vasconcelos, Goizueta stresses how aesthetics express a unity between persons (96). Ultimately, Goizueta seeks to develop a correlation between aesthetics and ethics (or justice). The two must be held in tension to preserve the integrity of each. The aesthetic character of human action must be mediated by justice to prevent the physical objects of the Eucharist, for example, from merely becoming religious symbols; the eucharistic elements must also be understood as economic products\u2014as they are grown and produced by persons and socio-economic structures. In this sense, one must hold together the political and economic dimensions of aesthetic action (125). The celebration of every human life, for Goizueta, must be coupled with the ethical-political option for the poor. In this sense, the church\u2019s witness to God\u2019s glory and beauty has everything to do with its witness to God\u2019s love and justice (125).<\/p>\n
Goizueta\u2019s places his proposal before a postmodern challenge, in which truth and knowledge are always radically particular, contextual, and in flux (135). He seeks to develop a theological aesthetics that reaches beyond both modern and postmodern reason through popular Catholicism\u2019s foundation in relationship and lived human experience (relational, embodied, and affective) (140). The universal truth of U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism, Goizueta claims, is mediated by U.S. Hispanic praxis, and is, therefore, a \u2018situated universal\u2019 (156). At the same time, U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism is rooted in the relational anthropology of the praxis of other particular persons and communities, so that the truth emerges from this relationship between \u2018others.\u2019 In sum, he argues that truth (and the foundation for theological pluralism) is grounded in praxis in the interrelationship with others (157).<\/p>\n
In turn, this relational anthropology is the basis for Goizueta\u2019s theology of accompaniment arising out of U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism and specific commitment to the preferential option for the poor (173). According to Goizueta, the lives of U.S. Hispanics and the lives of the poor are identified with the home and with the city. Theology must, therefore, be located in homes and cities. To walk with the poor, one must locate oneself in the geographical places of the poor; this is the place for an experiential form of knowledge. This accompaniment must transcend the socio-political barriers, boundaries, and borders to find \u201cGod who is at home at the crossroads\u201d (210). This act of accompaniment is rooted in the act of walking with Jesus and the accompaniment of his body and blood in the Eucharist. Jesus\u2019 eucharistic presence is identified with everyday life; it is a sacramental act, an experiential from of knowledge.<\/p>\n
Though rooted in everyday faith practices, Goizueta\u2019s methodology and theological analysis can be thick with technical language. What I take from Goizueta\u2019s analysis is the rootedness of faith in both aesthetical and ethical praxis. For Goizueta, relational anthropology is understood in an aesthetical experience of unity and love that must be mediated through ethical interaction in which the justice of another is appreciated and upheld. This mutual interaction between persons reflects beauty and justice, and, as Goizueta claims, points toward experiential truth. The expression of faith is an act rooted in the intersection of the beauty and justice of God in Jesus Christ. This intersection is nurtured at the crossroads in the \u2018in-between\u2019, mestizo\/a existence of U.S. Hispanic theology. This hybrid existence is an important point of integration for the people of God toward not only right knowledge, but right relationship with one another and with God.<\/p>\n
For Goizueta, this intersection with a relational anthropology is the foundation for theological and cultural pluralism. From my own perspective, the integration of aesthetics and justice is necessary in a Christian community of faith because of the commitment to love one another as a reflection of God\u2019s love toward humanity. Love of God and love of neighbor should always be held together, rooted in both aesthetics and justice, and thus should naturally give rise to a theology of accompaniment within the body of Christ. I draw upon Goizueta\u2019s relational anthropology within ecclesiology as an impulse toward further faithfulness in witness to God\u2019s peaceable reign understood through a living tradition and community of faith.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Goizueta\u2019s particular attention to popular expression of faith and how this embodies both aesthetics and justice offers important insight into understanding ecclesial formation in light of migration. Additionally, his attention to a theology of accompaniment speaks to the role of the church in traveling with migrants on their journey. In light of these insights, some further questions for exploration are: how might the integral relationships between aesthetics and justice be expressed and lived out ecclesially for and with migrants? That is to say, How is this manifested in their ecclesial contexts? What are the practices and ways of life that embody a theology of accompaniment? Goizueta locates accompaniment within the city and in particular neighborhoods, but what does a theology of accompaniment look like for a particular community of faith in a neighborhood? Naturally, each of these questions remains to be explored within a particular community of faith.<\/p>\n
Goizueta opens his book with an important analogy for how a community of faith accompanies migrants. Reciting the poem taught to him by his father, a Cuban exile, Goizueta describes the migrant\u2019s existence through the words of Antonio Machado: \u201c\u2018Caminante, no hay camino, se hace camino al andar.\u2019 (Traveler, there is no path, the path is forged as one walks.)\u201d (1). This reality for migrants is paralleled with the ecclesiological invitation, \u201c\u2018Caminemos con Jes\u00fas.\u2019 (Let us walk with Jesus.)\u201d (1). Goizueta borrows these words from a Holy Thursday liturgical procession offered by the Mexican-American parishioners of San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas. He describes his own life as living between these two statements: \u201cNo hay camino\u201d\u2026 \u201ccaminemos con Jes\u00fas\u201d (1).<\/p>\n
These are the cries of the exile who resides in the \u201csolitude and loneliness of an alien country\u201d (1). Yet, as Goizueta notes, the inviting words, \u201cCaminemos con Jes\u00fas,\u201d arise from the same person who has discovered a new home in the midst of exile. This home is different from a stable and secure, physical place. Rather, here, these words are shaped into an ecclesiological invitation, now a home as \u201ca community of persons, who as exiles themselves, are together \u2018Walking with Jesus\u2019\u201d (1).<\/p>\n
Within these images lies the tension between theology of place and theology of pilgrimage embodied within a faith community living in the midst of global migration. The language of the liturgy and the bodily movement of the procession integrate being in exile with Jesus walking amongst the Body of Christ. Attention to language, liturgies, narratives, and practices speak to how a faith community lives together with and walks with migrants. It challenges a community of faith to continually self-reflect\u2014How are we accompanying and journeying with our neighbor, a migrant, and our savior, Jesus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Title:\u00a0\u00a0 Caminemos con Jesus: Toward a Hispanic\/Latino Theology of Accompaniment Author:\u00a0 Roberto S. Goizueta Publisher:\u00a0\u00a0 Maryknoll, NY:\u00a0 Orbis Books, 2003 Reviewer:\u00a0\u00a0 Nell Becker Sweeden, Ph.D. student in Practical Theology In Caminemos con Jes\u00fas, Roberto Goizueta offers the U.S. Hispanic popular Catholicism as a lens through which to engage theological aesthetics, anthropology, and rationality. Goizueta works […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7324,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2105],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7324"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1831"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1951,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1831\/revisions\/1951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cpt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}