Migrational Religion

OPTalksBooksvideo
Written By Open Plaza

Daniel Montañez and Dr. João Chaves discuss his new book on context and creativity in the Latinx Diaspora

Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer meets New York City’s Statue of Liberty. Image source: freakingnews

Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer meets New York City’s Statue of Liberty. Image source: freakingnews

 

Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021) by Dr. João Chaves offers an account of the dynamics that shape the role of immigrant churches in the United States. Many scholars have documented how migration from Latin America to the United States shapes the interconnected spheres of religious participation, political engagement, and civic formation in host countries. What has largely gone unexplored is how the experiences of migration and adaptation to the host country also shape the ecclesiological arrangements, theological imagination, and communal strategies of immigrant religious networks.

Dr. Chaves’s work acts as a case study of a network formed by communities of Brazilian immigrants who, although affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, formed a distinctive ethnic association. Based on six years of ethnographic work in eleven congregations across the United States, dozens of interviews with Brazilian pastors, and extensive archival history in English and Portuguese, Migrational Religion documents how such churches adapted to unique challenges, and reveals how the diasporic experience fosters incipient theologies in churches of the Latinx diaspora.

In this OP Talks feature, HTI scholar and Boston University doctoral student Daniel Montañez engages Dr. Chaves in conversation as part of a book-launch event organized by the Mygration Christian Conference, an organization founded by Montañez that explores “God's heart through stories of immigration.”

Original air date: 11 October 2021

 
 
 
 
 

“João Chaves understands his interlocutors as very few others do. He masterfully interweaves the stories of individuals, congregations, and transnational migrant networks, underscoring their impact across nations, cultures, and faith communities.”

—Raimundo C. Barreto
Associate Professor of World Christianity
Princeton Theological Seminary

 
 
Featured
João Chaves

Dr. João Chaves is Assistant Professor of Evangelism and Mission at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary and Associate Director for Programming at the Hispanic Theological Initiative (HTI). He holds a PhD in Religion from Baylor University, and has presented and published his research broadly, both in English and in Portuguese. Dr. Chaves is the author of four books, including Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021) and The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missions and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism (Mercer University Press, 2022). His forthcoming book, co-written with Mikeal Parsons, is titled Remembering Antônia Teixeira: A Story if Missions, Violence, and Institutional Hypocrisy (Eerdmans, 2023). He has contributed to numerous book reviews, peer-reviewed articles, and chapters in larger works. His ongoing projects include editing “Christianity, Race, and Ethnicity: Latinx Critical Conversations on Identity Construction and Religious Participation” for Perspectives in Religious Studies (Winter 2022) and co-editing, with T. Laine Scales, the forthcoming book Baptists and the Kingdom of God (Baylor University Press, 2023). Dr. Chaves is also co-editor for the Perspectives on Baptist Identity book series, published by Mercer University Press, and works with the Editorial Board for the HTI Series on Religion and Theology En Conjunto, a book series published by Baylor University Press.

Featured
Daniel Montañez

Daniel Montañez is a PhD student at Boston University in the area of theology, ethics, and philosophy, and an adjunct instructor for the Latino and Global Ministries Program at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Montañez’ research focuses on centering the voices of immigrants as an authoritative locus for theological reflection. He seeks to construct a social ethic of migration that can respond to the humanitarian crisis facing migrants in our modern world. He is the founder and director of Mygration Christian Conference, an organization that seeks to explore God’s heart through the stories of migration in the Bible. He also serves as Director for the Church of God Migration Crisis Initiative, a ministry that seeks to provide church leaders with the biblical, pastoral, and ministerial preparation to positively and proactively respond to the crisis facing our immigrant communities in the United States. Montañez holds an STM from Boston University, an MDiv from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a BBA in Management from St. Mary’s University. Born in Visalia, CA to a Mexican mother and a Puerto Rican father, he is dedicated to serving his Latine community at the intersection of the Church, the academy, and the public square.

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