Julio de Santa Ana

Julio de Santa Ana (* 1934 ) is a liberation theologian from Uruguay .

resume

Santa Ana first began to study law, but he quickly dropped out. He then studied Protestant theology in Buenos Aires (until 1956) and philosophy in Montevideo. In 1960 a scholarship from the World Council of Churches (WCC) enabled him to study at the Protestant theological faculty of the University of Strasbourg , where he received his doctorate in 1962 on a religious studies topic.

In 1963 he began to work as the Secretary of Studies of the Federación de Iglesias Evangélicas del Uruguay and as director of the Centro de Estudios Cristianos del Rio de la Plata . He also worked as editor of the magazine Cristianismo y Sociedad , the publication of the ecumenical-theological movement Iglesia y Sociedad en América Latina (ISAL, German Church and Society in Latin America). This represented an important space for reflection for the emergence of a Protestant liberation theology in Latin America. In addition to the activities already mentioned, Santa Ana also acted as general secretary of ISAL.

In 1968 Santa Ana took part in the work of the Christian Peace Conference by participating in the III. All-Christian Peace Assembly in 1968 in Prague , where he gave a lecture on the economic situation in the Third World. He was elected a member of the International Secretariat and the Continuation of Work Committee at the conference.

The gradual establishment of a military dictatorship influenced by the doctrine of national security in his home country Uruguay forced Santa Ana to go into exile in Europe in the mid-1970s, where he subsequently worked for the WCC in Geneva. In this context, he founded the Commission on Churches' Participation in Development (CCPD, German Commission for Church Development), on whose behalf he traveled to Costa Rica in 1976. There he met the Brazilian liberation theologian Hugo Assmann , who was considering founding an ecumenical research institute in the Central American country. Santa Ana provided funding for this plan through the CCPD. Together with other liberation theologians who had found protection in Costa Rica from the South American military dictatorships, Assmann then founded the Department Ecuménico de Investigaciones (DEI), which began its work in 1977. Santa Ana is closely connected to the DEI to this day.

Santa Ana later became Professor of Religion and Social Sciences at the Methodist University of São Paulo, where he also served as Vice Director of the Ecumenical Center for Evangelism and Popular Education (CESEP). In 1994 he returned to Europe to teach at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute .

meaning

The Methodist Santa Ana belongs to the first generation of Protestant liberation theologians with José Míguez Bonino , Rubem Alves and Emilio Castro . In contrast to those named, who have their theology a. a. develop in critical discussion with Karl Barth and Jürgen Moltmann , Santa Ana pursued a more religious-scientific approach in his early theological work . Few of his works have been translated into German.

Publications (selection)

• The religious situation in Latin America. In: Rolf Italiaander (ed.): The endangerment of religions. A symposium of the world religions. Oncken Verlag, Kassel 1966, pp. 182-219.
• Good news for the poor. The Challenge of the Poor in Church History. Jugenddienst-Verlag, Wuppertal 1979.
• The political economy of the Holy Spirit. In: Young Church. No. 12 (supplement), December 1990. Verlag Junge Kirche.

Web links

• Department Ecuménico de Investigaciones (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf Italiaander (ed.): The endangerment of religions. A symposium of the world religions. Oncken Verlag, Kassel 1966, pp. 304f.
2. ↑ José Míguez Bonino: Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation. Fortress Press, Philadelphia 1975, pp. 48f.
3. ↑ Reinhard Frieling: Liberation theologies. Studies in theology in Latin America. Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, p. 72.
4. ↑ DEI - Historia ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . DEI website. Retrieved March 30, 2010.
5. ↑ Julio de Santa Ana: Priest and Prophet. In: Daniel S. Schipani, Anton Wessels (Ed.): The Promise of Hope. A tribute to Dom Hélder. Institute of Mennonite Studies, Amsterdam 2002, p. 9.