This is an interview in Spanish that I did with Anyul Rivas and Natanael Disla about “the emerging movement in Latin America and the Caribbean”. Both Anyul and Natanael follow the discussions in North America and know Latin-American theologies and the realities of its churches in practice. How do we in Latin-America and the Caribbean want to shape the church emerging?

Gustavo Frederico: Natanael, what would be the emerging movement in Latin America?

Natanael Disla: We can’t say that there is an “emerging movement” in Latin America, at least as people know it in the United States currently. Changes have been proposed for decades in Latin America and the Caribbean, but these did not resonate deeply within the churches and faith communities.

Gustavo: What would be some of these changes and their causes?

Natanael:

1.       The human being as subject of theology. Theology was seen as “the study of God”, without taking into account the subject as producer of this theology, and not even the vital context that determined this theology. From this comes the preoccupation from Latin America and the Caribbean with placing the human being as subjects of theology... well, this has a whole historical baggage that blends with its theology.

2.       The action and social justice as the cyclical climax of the make-theology. The entrenchment of evangelical churches in the region and their dependency on the missionary societies at the time to carry on the mission and the pastoral went beyond the aesthetical fulfillment of the needs of the communities, leading to poking around the structural causes that caused these needs, and 3^rd...

3.       The inclusion of excluded individualities. There are suggestions not only that the church must be “the voice of the voiceless”, but that these voices “come to the forefront” without distinctions of any kind. I won’t try to be exhaustive, but I believe that these three points give us a general view of the changes that were proposed.