Rejecting Eurocentric Christianity: Embracing Hopelessness

Northey Lecturer: Dr Miguel de la Torre

Date: 12 September 2024

Time: 6:30 pm

Venue: Pilgrim Theological College, 29 College Crescent, Parkville, 3052 and online (Zoom link will be emailed at 4pm on the day of the event)

Many living on the margins of colonial/missionary ventures have uncritically accepted eurocentric Christianity, a faith ideology which legitimizes and normalizes the current global economic hegemony. For any theological perspective to be liberative, it must first reject the very faith tradition which masks and justifies this worldview which fails to critically analyze the link between bowing one's knees to the eurocentric Jesus and the eurocentric power arrangements. By rejecting a theology of hope, and instead embracing a theology of hopelessness, a liberative ethical methodology of resistance can be developed.

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre – Cuban, international scholar, documentarian, novelist, academic author, and scholar activist, serves as Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO, USA. Dr. De La Torre’s academic pursuit is social ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. He has published forty-five books, six of which have won national awards and over a hundred articles. His most recent book Resisting Apartheid America: Living the Badass Gospel (Eerdmans, 2023) is the conclusion to the trilogy comprised of Burying White Privilege: Resurrecting a Badass Christianity (Eerdmans, 2018), and Decolonizing Christianity: Becoming Badass Believers (Eerdmans, 2021). As a Fulbright scholar, he has taught in several parts of the world. He is the co-founder of the Society of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion and was its executive director from 2013-2017. He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion. Among his many achievements are the most recent awards - the American Academy of Religion awards for “Excellence in Teaching” in 2020, and the “Martin E. Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award,” in 2021. De La Toree is also the screenwriter of Trails of Hope and Terror – a documentary on immigration, which has screened in over eighteen film festivals winning over seven awards. To know more, check out his website: www.drmigueldelatorre.com.