What to expect at this year's Winter Living Theology (WLT)

Theme  

Pilgrims of Hope in the Heart of Broken Humanity
Suffering, Memory, and Reconciliation in Times of Global Catastrophe
 

What will be covered

This year's WLT  will be looking at the theme of hope within an increasingly complex local, regional, and global world context. We will explore what it means to be pilgrims of hope within a wounded humanity. 

Over three days, we will delve into suffering, drawing from trauma studies and, most importantly, the wisdom of the victims themselves. We will then reflect on the stages of collective healing, inspired by the community of Jesus following his death at Golgotha and the event of his resurrection. On the final day, we will discuss reconciliation through memory, truth, and restorative justice as steps toward forgiveness. The people of South Africa have long grappled with these themes, which are now urgent for all humanity in various contexts.

This series of lectures explores a Decolonial Theology of Suffering and Hope, connecting the experience of the community of Jesus of Nazareth, confronted with messianic imagination and the violence of their time, with the struggles of today’s world.

The present context of global catastrophe (climate change, neocolonialism, patriarchy, extractivist capitalism, and the resurgence of authoritarian regimes) radicalizes the urgency of a Christian community experience that promotes hope incarnated in the life of people in resistance.

Program

Day 1  will look at Suffering and Hope: Humanity’s Struggles on a Global Scale.  We will explore the effect humanity has on the world and the impact of capitalism. This will include the voice of the victims on the peripheries. How does the economic and political climate of our country affect us? Our spirituality today—moving form resistance to re-existence.

Day 2 will explore memory as a healing process through justice, truth, and reparation. Looking at the collective memory of the 20th Century, how do we move from trauma to hope. The community of Jesus of Nazareth also faced trauma.  The resurrection of Jesus and collective healing experiences, especially for addiction and mental health.

Day 3 focuses on reconciliation: how to promote mutual recognition processes. Looking at  the mechanisms of violence. Forgiveness and reconciliation based on Jesus of Nazareth as the forgiving victim. The communal dimension of love: forgiveness as a process of restoration of the social body.

The single lecture will explore some of these themes and is titled : “Gaza as a Compass of Humanity.”

Who will benefit from WLT?

All are welcome—clergy, religious, lay people, any denomination.  The series is open to all who would like to share the hope that sustains us in this uncertain moment in human history.  Together, we will learn from our experiences of facing suffering and resisting for so long.  We will explore reconciliation projects and rituals that celebrate life triumphing over death. At the heart of it all, I wish to share the hope that sustains us in this uncertain moment in human history.

About the speaker:

Fr  Carlos Mendoza-Álvarez OP is a Dominican friar from Mexico. He has devoted his preaching ministry to theology for over thirty years as a professor in Mexico, Switzerland, and Brazil. He has also spent the last five years teaching at Boston College in the United States.  

 He has published twenty-five collective works, over fifty journal articles, and eight books, the latest of which is The Resurrection as a Messianic Anticipation: Grieving, Memory, and Hope from the Survivors’ Perspective. (2024)

Fr Mendoza-Álvarez is also a member of the board of directors of Concilium: International Journal of Theology. He holds graduate degrees from Studium OP, Mexico (Bach, Phil & Theol) and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland (MA, PhD and Habilitation). His research interests include: Fundamental Theology, Phenomenology and Postmodern Philosophy, Mimetic Theory and Decolonial Thinking. Fr Mendoza-Álvarez’s expertise lies in Faith and Reason, and Revelation and Tradition.

Another significant part of Fr Mendoza-Álvarez's preaching ministry has been supported by communities seeking hope amid challenging circumstances. The Indigenous peoples of southern Mexico, women, queer communities, and the relatives of the disappeared have served  as his teachers in life and thought.