CEHILA USA

CEHILA USA is an organization of Catholic, Protestant, and independent scholars, pastors, and students involved in the historical study of Hispanic Christianity in the U.S. It is the U.S. branch of a Pan-American organization dedicated to the historical study of Latin American Christianity, called CEHILA: Comisión para el Estudio de la Historia de la Iglesia en América Latina y el Caribe / Commission for Historical Studies of the Church in Latin America and the Caribbean. This organization was established in 1972 through the efforts of Latin American historian and philosopher Enrique Dussel. He and others were inspired by Vatican II and the Latin American Bishops Conference at Medellín in 1968 to create an organization that would examine the history of the church in Latin America from the perspective of the poor.

Annual Meeting

CEHILA USA meets annnually each spring at rotating institutions. The meeting provides participants with the opportunity to share their scholarship with each other and to receive responses to their submitted papers. CEHILA USA enjoys the participation of persons from various professions: Masters and doctoral students, pastors and lay church leaders, independent scholars, and professors of universities, Bible institutes, seminaries, and schools of theology.

Contact

For more information on CEHILA and CEHILA USA, contact the chairperson:

Dr. Paul Barton

Associate Professor of Hispanic Church Studies

Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

P.O. Box 2247

Austin, TX 78768

(210) 512-439-0338

pbarton@etss.edu

Advisory Board
Ana María Bidegain, Ph.D.
Arlene Sanchez Walsh, Ph.D.
Juan Martínez, Ph.D.

Dates for 2007 Annual Meeting

April 20-22, 2007

Notre Dame University

Commission for Historical Studies of the Church in Latin America

Mission

CEHILA's members--historians, theologians, anthropologists, social scientists and writers throughout the Americas--interpret historical events in the light of Faith. In the words of its founder, Dr. Enrique Dussel, CEHILA sees the history of the church as the history of the sacramental institution of communion, of mission, of conversion, as prophetic word that judges and saves, as the church of the poor. The poor receive special emphasis because the church has always been challenged by the task of evangelizing the poor: the indigenous people, blacks, the mestizos, the criollos, the workers, the campesinos.

Objectives:

To promote research, study and formation on the history of Christianity, of the churches and of religious denominations, of the religious reality in general in Latin America, the Caribbean and Hispanic communities in the United States.
To collaborate with public, private, civic and church organizations in academic research and in the preservation of documents.
To promote courses, seminars and symposiums.
To edit, publish and disseminate the results.
To maintain academic links with centers of research in history and in the general area of religion.
To carry out these objectives on three levels: academic, popular and eclesial.

Accomplishments

Cehila has accomplished the following in its 34 years to the church.

A general history of the Latin American Church in 10 volumes, including the first comprehensive history of the Hispanic church in the United States.
Mini-histories of the church in countries and regions.
Popular histories in various regions.
Histories of Protestant denominations.
Two general history conferences drawing hundreds of presenters.
25 symposiums on a great variety of themes, including women, urban workers, indigenous people, farm workers, frontiers and immigration.
Cehila has encouraged other historians to develop new perspectives of the history of the churches and to focus on areas and groups previously neglected.

Education

CEHILA has sponsored many long and short courses and held over 20 symposiums on a variety of themes ranging from indigenous people, women, urban workers, frontiers, immigration and the like.

CEHILA – COMISIÓN DE ESTUDIOS DE HISTÓRIA DE LA IGLESIA EN LATINOAMÉRICA Y CARIBE

PLANTEAMIENTOS-GUÍA

DOCUMENTO APROBADO POR LA ASAMBLEA DE CALI, COLÔMBIA

10 A 16 DE OCTUBRE DEL 2004

MISIÓN

CEHILA es hoy una red internacional e interdisciplinaria, formada por investigadores que rescatan críticamente la dimensión histórica del cristianismo latinoamericano y caribeño, en toda su diversidad.

VISIÓN

A partir de la reflexión histórica de la experiencia cristiana latinoamericana y caribeña, CEHILA busca ser un espacio de diálogo académico y ecuménico, comprometido en el fortalecimiento de la solidaridad y la defensa de la dignidad humana proporcionando elementos críticos que coadyuven a la transformación de la realidad a las y los diversos sujetos históricos.

PRINCIPIOS

*Investigar y producir nuevos conocimientos sobre la experiencia de vida de los/las cristianos/as a fin de que se reconozca y valore la dignidad de todos los seres humanos

*Promover, desarrollar y facilitar el estudio histórico del cristianismo y lo religioso en Latinoamérica y el Caribe

*Posibilitar un espacio académico autónomo de cualquier institución religiosa u opción política.

OBJETIVOS

*Desarrollar la investigación, el estudio, la formación sobre la historia del cristianismo en la realidad socio religiosa en Latinoamérica, el Caribe y en las comunidades latinas en los USA.

*Establecer intercambios científicos con centros académicos afines.

*Colaborar con asociaciones públicas y privadas, civiles y eclesiásticas en actividades de investigación, preservación de documentos, formación y divulgación

*Promover eventos para la socialización de conocimientos