Assumptions and Research Interests at the Center
Assumptions
- The Center assumes that all of its sponsored research projects will lead to national symposia and/or publications.
- It is further assumed that all sponsored research projects will methodologically incorporate (in varying degrees appropriate to each project) the intercultural, feminist, interdisciplinary and ecumenical perspectives to which the Center has committed itself.
- In its projects and publications the Center will define "Catholicism" as the "overall western Catholic Tradition" (thereby incorporating into its object of study the Roman Catholic, Anglican/Episcopalian, and other ecclesial and theological traditions which locate themselves within the Center's broad definition of Catholicism).
- The Center assumes that the Latino/a Catholic tradition, as it exists in the U.S., is and will remain inter-American (as clearly implied, for example, in the Exhortation Ecclesia in America).
Center's Interest Areas and Topics for Future Research
- Continuation of the overall project on the 're-invention' of Catholic systematic theology from a Latino/a perspective (and consequently, most major areas/topics of systematic theology.
- Intercultural theologies and methods, and their consequences for U.S. Latino/a and non-Latino/a theologies.
- Latina and non-Latina feminist critical theories.
- Popular Catholicism (and popular religion, in general) as theological source.
- Globalization and immigration, and their effects on theology and the Church.
- Symbols, icons and idols in U.S. Latino/a culture and religion.
- Development of an ecumenical, intercultural, and intertextual U.S. Latino/a theology.
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