Catherine and Justo Gonzalez provide a valuable resource for preaching and biblical interpretation. An account of liberation theology’s impact on the task of preaching is offered by two historians of doctrine who are intimately aware of the need to be open to marginalized perspectives in the church. Early Christian preachers had much to say on issues such as the origins and proper use of wealth, the rights and duties of the poor and rich, and the nature of ownership. The Gonzalezes recapture this early Christian spirit offering concrete ways that the interpretation of specific biblical texts may be enriched or corrected in order to speak directly to the whole life of the whole church.
Often used as a text in preaching courses, ‘The Liberating Pulpit’ helps to clarify and to bridge the gap between those whose preaching and hermeneutics tend to be more traditional and the various minorities who tend to read Scripture in a different way.
About the author
Justo L. Gonzalez, a United Methodist minister born in Cuba, is a retired member of the Rio Grande Conference of the United Methodist Church. After his basic college and seminary education in Cuba, he studied at Yale University, where he obtained three degrees: S.T.M. (1958), M.A. (1960) and Ph.D. (1961). In 1961 he joined the faculty of the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, teaching historical theology, and in 1969 he moved to Atlanta, where he now resides, in order to teach at Candler School of Theology (Emory University). Since 1977 he has been engaged in two main occupations: writing and promoting the theological education of Latinas and Latinos. Among his numerous writings in the field of Church History are his three-volume ‘A History of Christian Thought’, and the two volume set on ‘The Story of Christianity’. These and others of his books have been published not only in English and Spanish, but translated as well into Portuguese, German, Russian, Korean and Chinese.