Cecilia González-Andrieu and Tony Alonso: Bringing Beauty Back
On this episode of Meeting Our Moment, Jeremy Begbie talks to Cecilia González-Andrieu and Tony Alonso about Latinx community and theology.
Click below (or here) to hear Begbie, Alonso and González-Andrieu’s full, unedited conversation, including a discussion of the arts in times of violence.
Cecilia González-Andrieu
Cecilia González-Andrieu is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. With doctorate in theology and the arts from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, she is a leading figure and writer in the field of theological aesthetics, and especially well known for her advocacy of Latinx Theology. Among her many publications is her book Bridge to Wonder: Art as a Gospel of Beauty, where she argues powerfully that the pursuit of artistic beauty is crucial for bringing communities together, and for learning how to celebrate the theological insights of those who are not naturally at home in the world of written texts.
Tony Alonso
Tony Alonso is Assistant Professor of Theology and Culture, and Director of Catholic Studies at Candler School of Theology, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. For many years he’s worked at the intersection of theology and culture, with a particular focus on worship and ritual practices. A Latin Grammy-nominated composer of sacred music as well as a theologian, his recent book Commodified Communion offers a theological account of contemporary consumerism and its relationship to the Eucharist.
Learn More
Visit González-Andrieu’s faculty profile to learn more about her publications and advocacy. Her essays for America Magazine are available here. Visit Alonso’s academic profile to learn more about his publications and his website to learn more about his albums and their accompanying songbooks.
Alonso’s 2020 album Caminemos con Jesús was discussed in this episode. The album shares its name with a key Latinx/Liberation theology text by Roberto Goizueta, Caminemos con Jesús: Toward a Hispanic/Latino Theology of Accompaniment, which emphasizes Christ as the one who “accompanies” the poor and marginalized. González-Andrieu’s review of Alonso’s album contextualizes and translates the significance of the work’s connection to Goizueta’s Caminemos con Jesús. Alonso’s album has been called groundbreaking for bringing the movement of son cubano into call-and-response music for the liturgy.
You can engage further with González-Andrieu’s Bridge to Wonder through this Syndicate conversation. Also mentioned in the episode is The Community of the Beautiful: A Theological Aesthetics by Alex García-Rivera (González-Andrieu’s late mentor and one of the pioneers in the field of Theological Aesthetics) and Pope John Paul II’s 1999 Letter to Artists.