La Vida Sacra: Contemporary Hispanic Sacramental Theology (Celebrating Faith: Explorations in Latino Spirituality and Theology)
La Vida Sacrais an exceptional, welcome, and timely work. Its ambitious and focused examination weaves together cosmic sacramentality, pastoral practice, and culturally relevant understandings of ministry. It speaks from a particular setting in a way that makes it must reading for anyone interested in contextualized ministry in the shifting currents of the twenty-first century. (Edwin David Aponte, professor of Religion and Culture and Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean, Lancaster Theological Seminary)The authors do a fine job not only of examining and analyzing experience but also incorporating the scholarly insights of, among others, a wide variety of U.S. Hispanic theologians and liturgists...For anyone seeking a broader approach and willing to enter into the Hispanic perspective provided by the authors, it is a pioneering work well worth studying and provides a well-grounded theological understanding of an important aspect of sacramentality. (Raul Gomez-Ruiz, S.D.S.Worship)Bridging the divide between pastoral and academic theologies, the book brings the spiritual and theological resources of a marginalized people to bear on the larger Catholic tradition in a way that can only enhance our appreciation of the richness of the sacramentality of both the people and of the overall tradition. The book would make an excellence text for graduate, seminary, or upper-division undergraduate courses. (Theological Studies)This contemporary Hispanic sacramental theology is both pastoral and spiritual. The book would make an excellent text for graduate courses in sacramental theology. (The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Latin American History, October 2008)By as early as 2030, one in four Americans will be of Hispanic descent, no doubt influencing how we do church in the U.S. When we consider the rapid increase in numbers of Hispanic congregations and Latino/as within predominantly Euroamerican churches, we are struck with the lack of attention given by the academy to pastoral practices rooted in the Hispanic experience. Drs. Fernández and Empereur masterfully explore church sacraments and rituals conducted from a community-based Latina/o perspective. Not only is this book required reading for anyone wishing to be sensitive to the spiritual needs of the Hispanic community, but it also challenges non-Hispanics to consider what they can learn from Latino/as so Euroamericans can better enrich their own spiritual lives. (Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latino/a Studies, Iliff School of Theology)