Book Review: Santa Biblia by Justo Gonzalez

This was originally written for my New Testament class at Asbury Theological Seminary.

Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes by Justo L.

Gonzalez (Abingdon Press, Nashville: 1996) is a short and concise theology book expressing various interpretations of the Bible from a Hispanic perspective. Gonzalez plays the role of editor, compiler, and commentator on the views of pastors and professors, teasing out what it looks like to interpret “the Bible through Hispanic eyes (21).” He explains that this book is needed because “perspective is important for two complementary reasons: first, because it cannot be avoided; second, because it should not be avoided (15).” Perspective cannot be avoided because, despite the claims and efforts of modernism, we are still imperfect, biased, and sinful creatures who inevitably bring our experiences into the reading of Scripture. Furthermore, perspective should not be avoided because our differences are not merely hindrances to objectivity but actually gifts to one another. Like different views of the same landscape, the Holy Spirit gifts different cultures and people with different perspectives in order to build one another up within the one, catholic church. In light of this gift to the church, over the course of the book, Gonzalez defines five key elements of the Hispanic experience that informs their perspective and interpretation of Scripture: Marginality, Poverty, Mastizaje and Mulatez, Exiles and Aliens, and Solidarity.


Summary 
 The first and most unifying theme for the Hispanic experience is marginality. Marginality, at its most basic, is the experience of being “excluded from the center” and living outside the majority or mainstream (33). When one reads the Bible from the margins, one may notice dynamics and exchanges similar to ones marginal experience, bringing a perspective that someone reading “from the center” would miss. For example, one may notice that it was marginalized Hellenized Jews who instigated the persecution against Stephen, a Hellenized Jew turned Christian. “Thus it happens,” Gonzalez explains, “that among the Latino population some of the staunchest enemies of Hispanic causes are themselves upwardly mobile Latinos.” The experience of marginality also helps inform the perspective and practice toward outreach that comes from the center. Many churches, for example, love to think that they care about evangelism and being multiethnic but when it comes down to really changing the dynamic and culture of their congregation, little progress is made. We see this dynamic at play in Peter’s interaction with Cornelius, where we do not only see Cornerlius’ conversion but Peter’s, and even the Church’s, as these Jews come to understand who will make up the people of the new covenant. But to follow God and welcome in those on the margins, they must give up some dearly held practices and traditions. This is a change that many at the center are not willing to undergo.

The second perspective that Gonzalez lists is a particular instance of marginality: poverty. Poverty is common among Hispanics both in and outside of the United States, with many immigrants to the US coming for economic reasons. Speaking about “the Bible and the poor” is not merely a question of charity and economic responsibility, but what “the poor find in the Bible that is an important message to the entire Church (58).” For example, the experience of poor day laborers sheds important light on Matthew 20:1-16 and the parable of the laborers. Readers with steady, hourly jobs and a high value for fairness are usually dismayed at the landowner paying those who worked one hour the same as those who worked all day. In light of this perceived injustice, this Scripture may be interpreted as God’s grace transcending justice. Yet, to a day laborer who goes out early in the morning hoping for work, depending on that pay to feed his family, the landowners’ generosity is not unjust grace but a deeper expression of justice. It is not the laborer’s fault that they did not get picked up until the last hour. Therefore, the landowner treats them fairly, equally, and justly, but in a way that only makes sense to someone familiar with that level of poverty and kind of work. In the same way, God is not unjust or unfair to pour out His grace on those who repent just before they die, or to Gentiles in the Church who have come to know God in these last days. Instead, He sees the need of our souls and through the deeper justice of the Cross, we all receive the just payment of Christ’s body and blood. 

The next paradigm that Gonzalez offers is the experience of mestizos and mulatez, pejorative terms used to descibe the “half-breeds” between Spanish and Native people (mestizos) or between white and black people (mulatez). As Spanish colonists arrived in Central and South America, and as they brought over slaves from Africa, intermarrying and intercourse immediately created a complicated new cultural exchange and interaction that was a mixture of oppressive and dynamic. For many, being mixed made one a second-class citizen, who was oppressed at every turn and related to everyone but fit in nowhere. Today, however, many recognize that “Mexican culture is mestizo culture” and this intermixing has created a beautiful cultural dynamic (79). This dynamic is further at play as immigrants move to the United States and their children become mesitzos between American culture and that of their home country. In Biblical interpretation we can see how Paul must have felt like a mestizo in his context, a Greek speaking Roman citizen who is seeking to be a devoted Jew. Perhaps his persecution of Christians was “one of the ways in which these mestizo Jews could prove themselves to be true Jews (82).” Furthermore, Gonzalez shows how the typical interpretation of Paul’s conversation “from Saul to Paul” might be reading into the text something that is not there. Instead, like many mestizos, perhaps he simply was known by two names because of his two contexts. As his ministry shifted to the Gentiles, so did what he was most known as. It is important that Hispanics bring this mestizo experience into Biblical interpretation and the Church so that they, like Paul, can use their experiences in both worlds and cultures to bring together the church and advance the Kingdom.

The fourth paradigm of Hispanic interpretation is that of Exiles and Aliens, a kind of marginalization that particularly applies to those who are immigrants. Someone who has been through or is deeply impacted by immigration can much more easily relate to and understand the stories of immigration and characters in the Bible. This includes Moses, Joseph, Ruth and Naomi, Joshua, and Abraham. Gonzalez points to the experience of Israel's exile in Babylon as of particular importance, where they are called to settle down and have children even while they lament their distance and long to return. Just like Israel, it a very common experience for Hispanic immigrants to sing songs about their homelands and see themselves as pilgrims who will return someday.

Solidarity is the fifth and final important perspective for Hispanic Biblical interpretation. By solidarity, Gonzalez is referring to a strong sense of community and family. Within Hispanic culture, family is a very high value, including extended family of grandparents, cousins, and beyond, not just the nuclear family. Unfortunately, these extended families are often broken up by immigration, creating a sense of loss and disconnection. As these Hispanics interpret Scripture, therefore, they bring a strong sense of what it means that the Church is the “family of God” and “household of faith.” In fact, if they are separated from their family, the Church may become the extended family they are looking for. For these people, the church is not an optional addition to their personal faith. Instead, “for people whose experience of the gospel is that we ‘are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,’ the church is part of the gospel itself (109).”

Engagement & Relevance
Santa Biblia is a well written book that draws on a variety of sources and voices to give an important look into the Hispanic perspective on Biblical interpretation. Gonalez’s introduction is particularly helpful is setting the stage for why perspective is both needed and inevitable. The modernist experiment in biblical studies, and in every other way, has failed and it is important that we recognize that and live in light of our inability to know perfect, objective truth. Gonzalez does not seek to give a full, philosophical and epistemological treatise for how every perspective weaves together into biblical interpretation or how to keep us for falling over the cliff into postmodernism. More modestly, Gonzalez’s seems to be simply seeking to contribute to the conversation, provided another piece in the puzzle. He chooses to use the term “extramodern” instead of postmodern, a tweak I appreciate (15). For this modest goal, he accomplishes much and it is a helpful read.

However, there are a few times where I’m not sure he keeps from falling over the cliff into postmodern fragmentation. The most glaring example is a reference to the story of Abraham and Isaac, using a poverty perspective to interpret on the side of the ram, with the ram being the “impoverished of the land,” while Isaac is one of the “children of power” who is saved, while the poor are “sacrificed on the altar of capitalism (58).” In this interpretation,Abraham is an oppressive bourgeoisie and God is evil Capitalism itself. This is an example of contextualization going too far, where this man’s Hispanic (and maybe a little Marxist) eyes are simply, unfortunately, seeing things incorrectly and unorthodox. While Gonzalez is right to tear down modernism, we must, as the church, have a way to keep ourselves from falling over the cliff into postmodernism. It is too easy for someone to callously reply, “Who are you to say that interpretation is wrong?”

 As I move forward in my ministry career, I will continue to keep in mind contextualization and perspective, including my own, both for good and ill. But I am also thankful that in the Anglican tradition we view the interpretation of Scripture as a sacramental enterprise, reading the Word with the church throughout time and around the world. Overall, I am glad for having read Santa Biblia and it is a good, short introduction to practicing Biblical interpretation in context and from a particular perspective. However, I would argue that more than when this book was written 23 years ago, we need to be extremely careful today to guard against postmodern relativism. I have seen too many of my evangelical peers reject modernism and fundamentalism, only to find themselves having an epistemological crisis and falling into agnostic skepticism. I hope you can find a book that provides a better foundation and I wonder how an author like Hans Boersma (Weaving a Sacramental Tapestry, Scripture as Real Presence) could help fill that gap.