Receptive Ecumenism in a Latin American Context

Abstract

The question of Mary has been seen as an intractable problem in both Latinx and Latin American contexts, and requires a new approach. In both Pentecostal and Baptist communities in Latin America, for example, the Catholic devotion to Mary is seen as an alternative to and replacement for a Christ-centred faith and form of worship. Without attention to reception, this problem is impossible to address since it is very specific to context and cultural attitudes. This chapter attempts to glean wisdom from Jerry Sandidge—a Pentecostal theologian who engaged the Roman Catholic teaching on Mary—and Ralph del Colle and Jeffrey Gros—Catholic theologians who addressed Pentecostal attitudes to Mary. The offering of insights from both sides is a way to get a conversation started about Receptive Ecumenism. Insights are offered from Latinx theology and the Argentine ‘theology of the people’ to reconfigure the question of Mary and ecumenism in such a way that the reception of the doctrines among the Spanish-speaking communities comes to play a larger and more determinative role in our thinking about Christian unity.