De La Torre Publishes Two New Books - Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethics of Reconciliation & The Hope of Liberation in World Religions

Courtesy of Orbis Books and Baylor University Press

Miguel De La Torre, associate professor of social ethics, recently published two books: Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethics of Reconciliation and The Hope of Liberation in World Religions.

In Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethics of Reconciliation (Orbis Books), De La Torre offers a new approach to reconciliation for the racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. He draws powerful lessons from the biblical story of the reluctant Jonah, a member of a subjugated people. God sends a member from the oppressed group to bring a word of redemption to those who benefit from empire – the powerful Assyrian empire of Jonah’s time and the powerful empire of the U.S. today. While calling for an end to the abuse for those of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, the author mines the Jonah story for paradigms and praxis which today’s U.S. marginalized communities can implement.

In The Hope of Liberation in World Religions (Baylor University Press), De La Torre offers groundbreaking work that seeks to identify how the theological concepts of liberation theology might be manifested within other world faith traditions. As the first book to attempt to find a “common ground” for liberation theology across religions, all of the contributors are scholars who share the religion or belief system they describe. Throughout the text, they endeavor to articulate liberationist concepts from the perspective of those who have been marginalized.

To order Liberating Jonah or The Hope of Liberation visit the Cokesbury Bookstore located on Iliff’s campus at 2295 Iliff Ave., #112 in Denver, call 303-765-1445, or order via cokesbury@iliff.edu or www.amazon.com.

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The Iliff School of Theology is a graduate theological school of the United Methodist Church, serving more than 38 different faith traditions. Founded in 1892, the seminary provides several degree programs, including a joint Ph.D. program with the University of Denver.