The Bible and Cultural Studies Series Editors Hal Taussig Union Theological Seminary New York, NY, USA Maia Kotrosits Religion Department Denison University Granville, OH, USA
The Bible and Cultural Studies series highlights the work of established and emerging scholars working at the intersection of the fields of biblical studies and cultural studies. It emphasizes the importance of the Bible in the building of cultural narratives and thus the need to intervene in those narratives through interpretation as well as the importance of situating biblical texts within originating cultural contexts. It approaches scripture not as a self-evident category, but as the product of a larger set of cultural processes, and offers scholarship that does not simply use or borrow from the field of cultural studies, but actively participates in its conversations. More information about this series at http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14449
Efraín Agosto Jacqueline M. Hidalgo Editors Latinxs, the Bible, and Migration
Editors Efraín Agosto New York Theological Seminary New York, NY, USA Jacqueline M. Hidalgo Williams College Williamstown, MA, USA The Bible and Cultural Studies ISBN 978-3-319-96694-6 ISBN 978-3-319-96695-3 (ebook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96695-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018954651 The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: gaiamoments / Getty Images This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents 1 Introduction: Reading the Bible and Latinx Migrations/ the Bible as Text(s) of Migration 1 Efraín Agosto and Jacqueline M. Hidalgo 2 The Bible as Homing Device Among Cubans at Claremont s Calvary Chapel 21 Jacqueline M. Hidalgo 3 Gendering (Im)migration in the Pentateuch s Legal Codes: A Reading from a Latina Perspective 43 Ahida Calderón Pilarski 4 Channeling the Biblical Exile as an Art Task for Central American Refugee Children on the Texas Mexico Border 67 Gregory Lee Cuéllar 5 Out of Egypt I Called My Son : Migration as a Male Activity in the New Testament Gospels 89 Gilberto A. Ruiz 6 The Flight to Egypt: Toward a Protestant Mariology in Migration 109 Nancy Elizabeth Bedford v
vi Contents 7 Whence Migration? Babel, Pentecost, and Biblical Imagination 133 Eric D. Barreto 8 Islands, Borders, and Migration: Reading Paul in Light of the Crisis in Puerto Rico 149 Efraín Agosto 9 Border Crossing into the Promised Land: The Eschatological Migration of God s People in Revelation 2:1 3:22 171 Roberto Mata 10 Reading (Our)Selves in Migration: A Response 191 Margaret Aymer Author Index 203 Subject Index 207
Notes on Contributors Efraín Agosto is Professor of New Testament Studies at New York Theological Seminary in New York City. Previously, he was Professor of New Testament (1995 2011) and Academic Dean (2007 2011) at Hartford Seminary. He is the author of Servant Leadership: Jesus and Paul, 2005 and a Spanish-language commentary on 1 2 Corinthians, Corintios, 2008. Margaret Aymer is Associate Professor of New Testament at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Previously, she taught at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. She is the author of James: Diaspora Rhetorics of a Friend of God, 2014 and First Pure, Then Peaceable: Frederick Douglass Reads James, 2008. She is also a co-editor of Fortress Commentary on the Bible: The New Testament, 2014 and Islanders, Islands and the Bible: Ruminations, 2015. In 2013, she was the Robert Jones Lecturer at Austin Seminary, offering a discourse on the New Testament as Migrant Writings. Eric D. Barreto is an ordained Baptist minister and the Weyerhaeuser Associate Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. The author of Ethnic Negotiations: The Function of Race and Ethnicity in Acts 16, 2010, the co-author of New Proclamation Year C 2013: Easter through Christ the King, 2013, and editor of Reading Theologically, 2014 and Thinking Theologically, 2015, he is also a regular contributor to ONScripture.org, the Huffington Post, WorkingPreacher.org, and EntertheBible.org. vii
viii NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Nancy Elizabeth Bedford, Dr. theol., was born in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. She has been Georgia Harkness Professor of Theology at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary (Evanston) since 2003. Previously, she taught theology at Instituto Universitario ISEDET and Seminario Internacional Teológico Bautista (both in Buenos Aires). She has written or edited 8 books and written over 70 book chapters and journal articles, which have appeared in five languages. Her latest book is Galatians, A Theological Commentary, 2016. Her current project is on Christology from Latin American and Latino/a perspectives. Gregory Lee Cuéllar is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Previously, he was Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts and the Colonial Mexican Imprint Collection at Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas A&M University. Cuéllar is author of Voices of Marginality: Exile and Return in Second Isaiah 40 55 and the Mexican Immigrant Experience, 2008, as well as numerous journal articles and book chapters. He has two forthcoming books titled The British Museum and the Bible: The Indexes of Subjectivity in Modern Biblical Criticism and Borderlands Hermeneutics: Transgressive and Traumatic Readings of Scripture. He is also working on an art-based social action project called Arte de Lágrimas: Refugee Artwork Project. Jacqueline M. Hidalgo is Associate Professor of Latina/o Studies and Religion at Williams College. The author of Revelation in Aztlán: Scriptures, Utopias, and the Chicano Movement (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, this series), her research examines the power of scriptural imaginaries, narratives, and material cultures in shaping relations of race and gender in the American West. She also studies religion, scriptures, and culture among Latin@s in the United States more generally. Roberto Mata is Assistant Professor of Contextual Biblical Studies at Santa Clara University. His research explores the intersections of colonial power, ethnicity/race, and civic rhetoric in the Book of Revelation. In his analysis of biblical texts, Mata not only employs critical race, postcolonial, and borderlands theories, but also uses the current struggles and geopolitical situations of marginalized communities in the United States as loci of theoretical reflection. His forthcoming article, Self- Deporting From Babylon? A Latino/a Borderlands Reading of Revelation 18:4, reads the text from the location of undocumented Mexican communities in the United States, and their current struggle against attrition through enforcement strategies.
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS ix Ahida Calderón Pilarski is Associate Professor in the Theology Department at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender and culture/ethnicity/ race in the interpretation of the Bible. Areas that inform her analysis include Biblical Hermeneutics, Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Latina Studies, Cultural Studies, Ethnicity, and Race. She is the co-editor of Bread Alone: Reading the Bible Through the Eyes of the Hungry, 2014 and Pentateuco. Introducción al Antiguo Testamento/La Biblia Hebrea en Perspectiva Latinoamericana, 2014. Gilberto A. Ruiz teaches at Saint Anselm College (Manchester, NH) as Assistant Professor of Theology. His research interests include studying the New Testament gospels in light of first- and second-century Judaism and life in the Roman Empire, and interpreting biblical texts through analytical approaches that foreground the experiences and identities of modern readers, especially from minoritized perspectives and Latino@ perspectives in particular. He is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States, and on the topic of migration and biblical interpretation published an article in the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology that examines the Christology of John s Gospel in light of questions that arise from the immigration debate in the United States ( A Migrant Being At Work: Movement and Migration in Johannine Christology, 2011).
List of Figures Fig. 4.1 Genesis, El Centro de Detención, marker and crayon, 2015, 9 12, Arte de Lágrimas. Gallery. Courtesy of Arte de Lágrimas: Refugee Artwork Project 77 Fig. 4.2 Photograph of El Centro de Detención being made. Courtesy of Arte de Lágrimas: Refugee Artwork Project 78 Fig. 4.3 Genesis, Prefiero estar en mi casa, marker and crayon, 2015, 9 12, Arte de Lágrimas. Gallery. Courtesy of Arte de Lágrimas: Refugee Artwork Project 82 Fig. 4.4 Photograph of Prefiero estar en mi casa being made. Courtesy of Arte de Lágrimas: Refugee Artwork Project 82 xi