Churrasco

Mary Philip currently is staff at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and is adjunct faculty at Lewis University, but will soon move to take up the position of Assistant Professor for Lutheran Global Theology and Mission at Waterloo Seminary/Wilfrid Laurier University at Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

Just as a churrasco is a Brazilian barbecue of a variety of meats, Churrasco skewers together an ebullient and eclectic assortment of theological texts from around the world to honor and celebrate one of Brazil's most eclectic and creative theologians, Vitor Westhelle. Churrasco brings together different fields and disciplines, transgressing boundaries and allowing them to seep into each other. Though predominantly Lutheran, the authors hail from various denominations and contexts. Poised between in-depth doctrinal and practically reflective essays are poetically creative pieces. The contributions are exemplars of how to develop and foster language for God-talk and how to appropriate our God-talk in relationships with fellow human beings and with the environment. The topical range is wide and spans from the theology of the cross, to eschatology, postcolonialism, ecumenism, science and religion, the erotic, otherness, experience, literature, poetry, and the reformer Martin Luther. Unfettered by a common theme, the essays nevertheless connect and weave a tapestry; they raise key questions and they challenge theologians not only to rethink traditional concepts and contemporary views but also to reevaluate the task of theology itself.