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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2022
“What moves the human heart?”1 is a question the late Alejandro García-Rivera spent his life examining through his many works on theological aesthetics. In The Aesthetics of Solidarity, Nichole Flores furthers this work by framing her important contribution to the field in a new direction: “What often remains unexamined … is the role the very structures of liberal democracy itself plays in hindering robust participation among Latines2 and other marginalized groups. Understanding why this is the case invites an exploration of the relationship involving political liberalism, Latine theological aesthetics, Catholic social teaching, and Our Lady of Guadalupe.”3 In this captivating book she advances the overarching claim that “Latine theological aesthetics can help generate a framework for thinking about pluralism and participation within a democracy.”4
1 García-Rivera, Alejandro, The Community of the Beautiful: A Theological Aesthetics. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1999): 9Google Scholar. I am grateful to Dr. Tim Matovina for his close reading of an earlier draft and his insightful comments.
2 In US Latinax theological discourse, there are many different terms that are currently in use by different theologians. Along with a growing number, Nichole Flores has chosen to use “Latine” because it “conveys the broad scope of Latinx/o/a identity while still being able to be readily incorporated into both spoken Spanish and English.” See Flores, Nichole M., The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy. (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2021), 15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 3.
4 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 11.
5 Thomas Aquinas, Expositio in Dionysium De divinis nominibus; Thomas Aquinas, De Veritate, I, q. 3. See also Eco, Umberto, The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, trans. Bredin, Hugh, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988): 20–48Google Scholar; Tatarkiewicz, Wladyslaw, History of Aesthetics, vol. 2. (Mouton and Warsaw: PWN—Polish Scientific Publishers, 1970): 246–48Google Scholar.
6 Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics, vol. 1, Seeing the Form (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1982): 17–127.
7 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 9.
8 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 117.
9 Although Nichole Flores uses the term “Latine,” I use the term “Latinax” to refer to people of Latin American ancestry. The “a” in Latinax affirms the contributions that have been made by Latina women (often overlooked), and the “x” in Latinax recognizes both the fluidity of sexual orientation and identity, and the limitations to thinking strictly in male/female binary terms, which is also affirmed with the use of Latino/a.
10 Benjamín Valentín, Mapping Public Theology: Beyond Culture, Identity, and Difference. (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002): xx.
11 Valentín, Mapping Public Theology, xx.
12 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 12.
13 William T. Cavanaugh and Peter Scott, “Introduction,” in The Blackwell Companion to Political Theology, eds. Peter Scott and William T. Cavanaugh (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007), 3.
14 Duncan Forrester, “The Scope of Public Theology,” Studies in Christian Ethics 17, no. 1 (2004): 6.
15 Virgilio P. Elizondo, Guadalupe: Mother of the New Creation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 1997); Virgilio P. Elizondo, La Morenita: Evangelizer of the Americas (San Antonio, TX: MACC, 1980)
16 Roberto S. Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesús: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995); García-Rivera, The Community of the Beautiful.
17 Nancy Pineda-Madrid, “Holy Guadalupe … Shameful Malinche?: Excavating the Problem of ‘Female Dualism,’ Doing Theological Spade Work,” Listening: Journal of Religion and Culture 44 no. 2 (Spring, 2009): 71–87; Nancy Pineda-Madrid, “Traditioning: The Formation of Community, The Transmission of Faith,” in Futuring Our Past: Explorations in the Theology of Tradition, eds. Orlando Espín and Gary Macy (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006), 204–26; Nancy Pineda-Madrid, “Guadalupe's Challenge to Rahner's Theology of Symbol,” in Rahner Beyond Rahner: A Great Theologian Encounters the Pacific Rim, ed. Paul Crowley (Kansas City, MO: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), 73–85; Nancy Pineda-Madrid, “La Guadalupe, The Bible, Pentecost,” in Latino/a Theology and the Bible: Ethnic-Racial Reflections on Interpretation, ed. Francisco Lozada Jr. and Fernando Segovia (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021), 151–68.
18 David A. Sánchez, From Patmos to the Barrio: Subverting Imperial Myths (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2008).
19 María Del Socorro Castañeda-Liles, Our Lady of Everyday Life: La Virgen de Guadalupe and the Catholic Imagination of Mexican Women in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018); Theresa L. Torres, The Paradox of Latina Religious Leadership in the Catholic Church: Las Guadalupanas of Kansas City (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); Jeanette Rodriguez, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1994).
20 Timothy Matovina, Theologies of Guadalupe: From the Era of Conquest to Pope Francis. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019; Timothy Matovina, Guadalupe and Her Faithful: Latino Catholics in San Antonio from Colonial Origins to the Present. (Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2005).
21 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 20–21.
22 Paul Ricoeur, The Symbolism of Evil, trans. Emerson Buchanan (Boston: Beacon Press, 1969 [1967]), 16.
23 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 8.
24 Josiah Royce, The Problem of Christianity (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2001 [1913]): 30–31, 286–89, 292.
25 Josiah Royce, “Mind,” in Josiah Royce's Late Writings: A Collection of Unpublished and Scattered Works, ed. Frank Oppenheim, vol. 1, (Bristol, England: Thommes Press, 2001 [1916]): 75–76.
26 García-Rivera, The Community of the Beautiful; Goizueta, Caminemos Con Jesús; González, Michelle A., Sor Juana: Beauty and Justice in the Americas (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2003)Google Scholar.
27 Aquino, Jorge A., “The Prophetic Horizon of Latino Theology,” in Rethinking Latino(a) Religion and Identity, ed. De La Torre, Miguel A. and Espinosa, Gaston (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim, 2006): 101–25Google Scholar.
28 González-Andrieu, Cecilia, Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2012)Google Scholar; Tirres, Christopher D., The Aesthetics and Ethics of Faith: A Dialogue Between Liberationist and Pragmatic Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
29 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 37.
30 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 37.
31 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 120.
32 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 141–42.
33 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 136–41.
34 Sobrino, Jon, Christ the Liberator: A View from the Victims, trans. Burns, Paul (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001): 209–10Google Scholar.
35 Flores, The Aesthetics of Solidarity, 144–45.