Intercultural Church: Bridge of Solidarity in the Migration Context

This volume is among the first to reflect on the contemporary phenomenon of migration from an ecclesiological perspective. It sets the context of migration and cultural encounters within a global capitalist economy. Expounding on the concept of interculturality through the use of several theoretical frameworks, such as those of Stuart Hall and Pierre Bourdieu, the authors locate cultural practices in the context of power. A. M. Brazal and E. S. de Guzman describe and evaluate contemporary metaphors for the church, and identify new ecclesiological models which have emerged in response to various migration contexts. Intercultural Church: Bridge of Solidarity in the Migration Context is proposed to imagine new directions for church in an ever-changing society.


About the Author
Agnes M. Brazal is a Filipina lay theologian, organizer, and "bridge-builder". Currently director of the Office for Research and Publications and coordinator of the Graduate program (PhD/MA) at the St. Vincent School of Theology, Philippines, she was also past President and founding member of the DaKaTeo (Catholic Theological Society of the Philippines) and one of the first coordinators and "mothers" of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia (association of Catholic women theologians in Asia). She has been a planning committee member of the Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church since 2007 and editorial board member of the journals Asian Christian Review and Budhi. She obtained her STL/MA and STD/PhD in Theology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Emmanuel Serafica de Guzman, Ph.D., is a theologian from the Philippines. He is a full time professor of Systematic Theology at St. Vincent School of Theology (SVST) - Adamson University, in Quezon City, Philippines, where he is also the Director for Theological and Pastoral Services. Among the regular courses he teaches are "Introducing Theologies of Migration" and "Ecclesiology and Ministries in Migration Context," which he conducts in SVST and at the Loyola School of Theology, Ateneo de Manila University, in Quezon City. He is also a regular lecturer of "Introducing Pastoral Studies" at East Asia Pastoral Institute, Quezon City; "Shifting Paradigms of Culture, Church and Mission" at the Euntes Mission Center, Zamboanga City (Philippines); and various systematic theological courses at Notre Dame Center for Catechetical Formation, Cotabato City (Philippines), and at the Institute of Philosophy and Religion, in St. Louis University, Baguio City (Philippines).