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Sergio Arce’s Theology in Revolution: Main Influences and Stages of Development

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Decolonizing Theology in Revolution

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Abstract

This chapter begins with a brief biographical sketch of Sergio Arce. Particular focus is given to his religious formation and theological education. The intention of this section is to describe some of the key influences and outline crucial historical shifts. Allusion is made to the complex history of the Cuban revolutionary process throughout the last five decades as a backdrop for the development of Arce’s theological thought. Finally, a brief review is provided of Arce’s key writings, written between the early 1960s and the late 1990s, identifying enduring concerns, themes, and significant shifts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sergio Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” in 40 años de testimonio evangélico en Cuba, ed. Reinerio Arce and Juana Berges (La Habana, Cuba: Caminos, 1999), 59.

  2. 2.

    Ibid., 61.

  3. 3.

    Ibid., 60.

  4. 4.

    Ibid., 64.

  5. 5.

    Sergio Arce, “Itinerario teológico,” in Panorama de la teología latinoamericana, ed. Juan José Tamayo and Juan Bosh (Navarra, España: Verbo Divino, 2001), 115.

  6. 6.

    According to Arce, Miguel de Unamuno is the thinker who was most influential in his intellectual development. Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” 80. In 1956, he wrote a thesis for a Master’s degree in theology at Princeton Seminary on the theological implications of Unamuno’s existential philosophical thought. See Sergio Arce, “La lucha y la paz en Miguel de Unamuno,” Thesis submitted to the faculty of Princeton Theological Seminary in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Theology (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary, 1956).

  7. 7.

    Ángel M. Mergal, Reformismo cristiano y alma española (Buenos Aires, Argentina; México D.F., México: Editorial La Aurora-Casa Unida de Publicaciones, 1949).

  8. 8.

    Arce, “Itinerario teológico,” 116.

  9. 9.

    Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” 63.

  10. 10.

    John A. Mackay, Don Miguel de Unamuno: su personalidad, obra e influencia (Lima, Perú: Universidad Mayor de San Marcos, 1918). Mackay’s theological thought was influential in other important ways; for example, through his well-known distinction between the “theology from the balcony” and the “theology of the way,” as two different manners of doing theology. While the image of “the balcony” evokes the abstract and ahistorical constructions of dominant theological traditions, “the way” points to theological reflections that take into consideration the social contexts. This methodological distinction would become a central aspect of Arce’s theological reflections. See John A. Mackay, A Preface to Christian Theology (New York, NY: Macmillan Co., 1946).

  11. 11.

    Sergio Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” in The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context, comp. Sergio Arce Martínez (New York, NY: New York CIRCUS Publications, 1985), 49; Sergio Arce, “Fe cristiana y responsabilidad social en los años ochenta,” in ¿Cómo es que aún no entendéis? Antología de textos teológicos. Volumen I, comp. Dora Arce and Reinero Arce (La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Caminos, 2009), 118. Paul L. Lehmann, Ethics in a Christian Context (London, UK: SCM Press, 1963).

  12. 12.

    In the late 1950s and early 1960, when he was professor of theology at Matanzas’ Seminary, he wrote two papers on the theologies of Barth and Tillich. See Sergio Arce, La doctrina de la justificación según Karl Barth, Círculo Teológico no.16 (Matanzas , Cuba: Seminario Evangélico de Teología, 1964); Sergio Arce, “Cristo y la liberación social,” in Teología en Revolución. Volumen I (Matanzas, Cuba: Centro de Información y Estudio “Augusto Cotto,” 1988), 45–56.

  13. 13.

    Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” 72.

  14. 14.

    Sergio Arce, “Un intento de analizar el significado teológico del ateísmo contemporáneo,” Mensaje, no. 6 (July–September 1967): 9. See Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, ed. Eberhard Bethge; trans. Reginald H. Fuller (London, UK: SCM Press, 1956).

  15. 15.

    Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” 63–65.

  16. 16.

    Arce, “Itinerario teológico,” 117.

  17. 17.

    To be precise, the title of the position was the Permanent Secretary up until 1969, after which time it was renamed to General Secretary.

  18. 18.

    Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” 71–72; Sergio Arce, “Camilo Torres and the Liberation of Theology,” in The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context (New York, NY: New York CIRCUS Publications, 1985), 135–160.

  19. 19.

    Sergio Arce, ed., Cuba: un pensamiento teológico revolucionario. Manual de las jornadas Camilo Torres (1971–1983) (La Habana, Cuba: Centro de Estudios del Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba, 1998).

  20. 20.

    Arce, “Un intento de analizar el significado teológico del ateísmo contemporáneo,” 57–58, 69.

  21. 21.

    James H. Cone, “From Geneva to Sao Paulo: A Dialogue between Black Theology and Latin American Liberation Theology,” in The Challenge of Basic Christian Communities, ed. Sergio Torres & John Eagleson (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1982), 272, 275.

  22. 22.

    Arce, “Camilo Torres and the Liberation of Theology,” 48.

  23. 23.

    Arce, “Amo a mi patria, amo a mi iglesia,” 70–73. A good example of how some Latin American Liberation theologians admit to having neglected Cuban theologians and the later reencounter between them can be found in Augusto Cotto, “El diálogo necesario entre Cuba y el resto del continente,” in Praxis cristiana y producción teológica. Materiales del Encuentro de teologías celebrado en la Comunidad teológica de México (8 al 10 de octubre de 1977), eds. Jorge Pixley and Jean Pierre Bastián (Salamanca, España: Sígueme, 1979), 239–248; See also Hugo Assmann’s comments in “Discusión” in Praxis cristiana y producción teológica. Materiales del Encuentro de teologías celebrado en la Comunidad teológica de México (8 al 10 de octubre de 1977), eds. Jorge Pixley and Jean Pierre Bastián (Salamanca, España: Sígueme, 1979), 48–49.

  24. 24.

    An example is Arce’s allusion to Fidel Castro and Che Guevara’s revolutionary faith commitment as a model and challenge for Cuban Christians. See Sergio Arce, “Is a Theology of the Revolution Possible?” in Religion in Cuba Today: A New Church in a New Society, ed. Alice L. Hageman & Philip E. Wheaton (New York, NY: Association Press, 1971), 204.

  25. 25.

    As Arce put it with little qualification, “the triumph of the Cuban Revolution took by surprise the Church in Cuba … without denominational distinctions; the church was theologically unprepared, ideologically reactionary, and pastorally inadequate.” Sergio Arce, “Teología cubana: teología en Revolución,” in La teología como desafío (La Habana, Cuba: Consejo Ecuménico de Cuba, 1980), 63; Sergio Arce Martínez, “Church and Revolution,” in The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context, 10–32; Sergio Arce, “La experiencia de los cristianos en el proceso revolucionario cubano,” in Fe cristiana y revolución sandinista en Nicaragua. Apuntes para el estudio de la realidad nacional (Managua, Nicaragua: Instituto Histórico Centroamericano, 1979), 184–190; Raúl Gómez Treto, “La experiencia de los cristianos en el proceso revolucionario cubano,” in Fe cristiana y revolución sandinista en Nicaragua. Apuntes para el estudio de la realidad nacional (Managua, Nicaragua: Instituto Histórico Centroamericano, 1979), 197–203.

  26. 26.

    Sergio Arce, “La teología cubana: contexto, aportes y desafíos,” Revista Caminos 37–38 (2005): 79; Arce, “Panorama de la teología protestante en Cuba,” Revista Caminos No. 6 (1997): 31.

  27. 27.

    Among those exceptions, I specially mention the Presbyterian minister and historian Rafael Cepeda. See Rafael Cepeda, Vivir el evangelio: reflexiones y experiencias (La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Caminos, 2003). See also Rafael Cepeda, “La iglesia en una tierra nueva,” in El tiempo y las palabras: artículos y mensajes de Rafael Cepeda (1947–1997), ed. Carlos R. Molina (Quito, Ecuador: CLAI, 2004), 65–72.

  28. 28.

    Sergio Arce, “La mentalidad teológica del ser presbiteriano,” in Pensamiento Reformado cubano, ed. Francisco Marrero (La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Su Voz, 1988), 11–23.

  29. 29.

    Sergio Arce, “Misión y naturaleza de la iglesia,” Mensaje, no. 1 (April–May 1963): 13.

  30. 30.

    Ibid.

  31. 31.

    Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 35. By referring to the content of those divine activities, he asserts: “times such as these are times of divine creativity, and also of redemption. They are, in addition, times of judgment and reconciliation, that is, of sanctification” (Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 35).

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 34.

  33. 33.

    Ibid., 35. He adds that “(t)his activity will always be explosive, innovative, and revolutionary, because it is an activity which retrieves ‘something’ from ‘nothing,’ and which selects what ‘is not’ to undo what ‘is’” (Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 35).

  34. 34.

    Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 38.

  35. 35.

    Ibid., 39.

  36. 36.

    Ibid., 38.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., 38–39.

  38. 38.

    Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 38. In such a sense, he argued, “[m]aterial goods kept selfishly for our own exclusive gain not only distort the social nature of the goods, which are divine means of shedding his providential grace on all, but also preclude Christian witness” (Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 39).

  39. 39.

    On this issue, he claims that “for Christians work is an expression of the communitarian destiny of humanity, of the organic unity of the individual in society, of the communitarian condition of human beings, of their social being as well as social destiny. That human solidarity must serve as the purpose for human work. In the New Testament, it is called koinonia ” (Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 44).

  40. 40.

    Sergio Arce Martínez, “Itinerario teológico,” 119.

  41. 41.

    Louis A. Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2006), 259.

  42. 42.

    Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 43.

  43. 43.

    Ibid., 44.

  44. 44.

    Ibid., 43.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., 46.

  46. 46.

    According to Arce, “Marxism is more tractable instrument in the hands of God for carrying out the will of God in contemporary history than is the Church itself.” He added: “God speaks to us through Marxism, calling us to the task of renewing ourselves in the ethical and social realm, and also in the ideological and theological realm” (Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 46–47).

  47. 47.

    Arce, “The Mission of the Church in a Socialist Society,” 48–49.

  48. 48.

    Sergio Arce, “Fundamentos bíblicos para una antropología,” in La teología como desafío (La Habana, Cuba: Consejo Ecuménico de Cuba, 1980), 6–16. Arce presented this paper at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Havana. He seemed to be convinced that the solution for the encounter between “Marxism-apparently atheistic-and Christianity-apparently theistic-will be … a decisive factor in the development of the Latin American revolutionary movement” (Ibid., 7).

  49. 49.

    Arce, “Fundamentos bíblicos para una antropología,” 15.

  50. 50.

    Ibid., 11–15.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., 15.

  52. 52.

    Sergio Arce, “Evangelization: A Theological Perspective,” in The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context (New York, NY: New York CIRCUS Publications, 1985), 57.

  53. 53.

    Ibid., 56.

  54. 54.

    Ibid., 60.

  55. 55.

    For a detailed summary of economic efforts and social programs developed by the revolution during the 1960s, see Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 272–276.

  56. 56.

    Arce, “Itinerario teológico,” 123–125.

  57. 57.

    For a detailed historical recount of Cuba’s situation during the 1970s from sociopolitical, economic, and cultural perspectives, see Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 265–290.

  58. 58.

    Sergio Arce, “Theological Education and the Future of the Church in Cuba,” in Religion in Cuba Today: A New Church in a New Society, ed. and trans. Alice L. Hageman & Philip E. Wheaton (New York, NY: Association Press, 1971), 171.

  59. 59.

    Ibid., 168–169.

  60. 60.

    Arce, “Is a Theology of the Revolution Possible?”

  61. 61.

    Ibid., 193–194.

  62. 62.

    Ibid., 194.

  63. 63.

    Arce, “Is a Theology of the Revolution Possible?” 196. As can be seen, there are obvious similarities and differences between Latin American liberation theologians’ “classic” formulation of the theological task and his understanding of it, as a critical reflection upon the witness of the church in a specific context, in this case a Marxist-Leninist revolution, in light of the Biblical testimony.

  64. 64.

    Arce, “Is a Theology of the Revolution Possible?” 214.

  65. 65.

    Ibid., 196–197.

  66. 66.

    Sergio Arce, “Hacia una teología de la liberación,” in Cuba: un pensamiento teológico revolucionario. Material de las jornadas Camilo Torres (1971–1983), ed. Sergio Arce (La Habana, Cuba: Centro de Estudios del Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba, 1998), 45–126; Sergio Arce, La teología como desafío, Selecciones Bíblico-Teológicas (La Habana, Cuba: Consejo Ecuménico de Cuba, 1980), 43.

  67. 67.

    Leonardo Boff, Trinity and Society, 243.

  68. 68.

    Arce, “Hacia una teología de la liberación,” 45–62.

  69. 69.

    Ibid., 54.

  70. 70.

    Ibid., 62.

  71. 71.

    Ibid., 62–78.

  72. 72.

    Sergio Arce, “Hacia una teología de la liberación: un enfoque contemporáneo del quehacer y la responsabilidad teológica,” in Cristo vivo en Cuba, ed. Uxmal Livio Díaz (San José, Costa Rica: DEI, 1978), 18.

  73. 73.

    Ibid., 19–20.

  74. 74.

    Ibid., 23–24.

  75. 75.

    Primer Encuentro Latinoamericano de Cristianos por el Socialismo (La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Camilo Torres, 1973), 8–22, 198–200.

  76. 76.

    Sergio Arce, The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context, 10–32, 64–100; Sergio Arce, “El hombre nuevo: ideología y encarnación,” in ¿Cómo es que aún no entendéis? Antología de textos teológicos, vol. I (La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Caminos; Seminario Evangélico de Teología, 2009), I: 79–90; Sergio Arce, “Unidos en la construcción de un mundo mejor,” in Teología en Revolución. Volumen II (Matanzas , Cuba: Centro de Información y Estudio “Augusto Cotto,” 1992), 23–42; Sergio Arce, “Cristo y la liberación social,” 153–201; Sergio Arce, “Pedagogía de la esperanza,” in La teología como desafío (La Habana, Cuba: Consejo Ecuménico de Cuba, 1980), 28–37; Sergio Arce, “La formación teológica en una sociedad socialista,” Communio Viatorum, no. 4 (1974): 221–239; Sergio Arce, “La agresión a las tradiciones religiosas en los pueblos de Indochina,” Mensaje, no. 27 (October–December 1972): 8–26.

  77. 77.

    Arce, “La agresión a las tradiciones religiosas en los pueblos de Indochina”; Sergio Arce, “Cristo y la liberación social,” in Cristo vivo en Cuba, ed. Uxmal Livio Díaz (San José, Costa Rica: DEI, 1978), 70–71.

  78. 78.

    Juana Berges and Reinerio Arce, eds., 40 años de testimonio evangélico en Cuba (La Habana, Cuba: Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba, 2000).

  79. 79.

    Arce, “Itinerario teológico,” 129–130.

  80. 80.

    Arce, “Cristo y la liberación social.”

  81. 81.

    Sergio Arce, “Theology and Contemporary Atheism,” in The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context (New York, NY: New York CIRCUS Publications, 1985), 117.

  82. 82.

    Ibid.

  83. 83.

    Ibid., 112.

  84. 84.

    Ibid., 103.

  85. 85.

    Sergio Arce, “Christian Faith and Ideology,” in The Church and Socialism: Reflections from a Cuban Context (New York, NY: New York CIRCUS Publications, 1985), 133.

  86. 86.

    Ibid., 126.

  87. 87.

    Ibid., 134.

  88. 88.

    Ibid., 130.

  89. 89.

    Arce, “Camilo Torres and the Liberation of Theology,” 135. See also his intervention at the well-known Encounter of Theologians in Mexico City in 1977, in Pixley and Bastián, eds., Praxis cristiana y producción teológica., 48.

  90. 90.

    Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba, Confession of Faith (1977) of the Presbyterian-Reformed Church in Cuba (La Habana, Cuba: Orbe, 1978).

  91. 91.

    Arce, “Itinerario teológico,” 131–132; Adolfo Ham, “La misión de la iglesia y la teología en la Cuba de hoy,” in Cristo vivo en Cuba, ed. Uxmal Livio Díaz (San José, Costa Rica: DEI, 1978), 35.

  92. 92.

    Ham, “La misión de la iglesia y la teología en la Cuba de hoy,” 36–37; Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom of God: The Doctrine of God, trans. Margaret Kohl (London, UK: SCM Press, 1981), 238.

  93. 93.

    Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 270–272.

  94. 94.

    Ibid., 289.

  95. 95.

    Ibid., 289–290.

  96. 96.

    Hugo Assmann, Enrique Dussel, Raúl Vidales, Luis Rivera-Pagán, and James H. Cone were some of the liberation theologians who participated in that Encounter.

  97. 97.

    Jürgen Moltmann, “An Open Letter to José Míguez Bonino (March 29, 1976),” in Liberation Theology: A Documentary History, trans. and ed. Alfred T. Hennelly (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990), 195–204.

  98. 98.

    Moltmann and Cone have noted how instrumental Arce’s presence was to starting that process. Jürgen Moltmann, Experiences in Theology: Ways and Forms of Christian Theology, trans. Margaret Kohl (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 219; Cone, “From Geneva to Sao Paulo,” 272.

  99. 99.

    Some examples of this new phase of dialogue and mutual learning were the international meetings of theologians and social scientists that took place in Matanzas’s Seminary in 1979 and 1983, Arce’s contributions to debates with US theologians, and his participation in encounters on feminist theologies. See Sergio Arce and Odén Marichal, eds., Evangelización y política (Matanzas , Cuba: Centro de información ecuménica “Augusto Cotto,” 1981); Sergio Arce, “El bloqueo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba: una aproximación desde la perspectiva de la teología cubana,” in Pensamiento Reformado cubano, ed. Francisco Marrero (La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Su Voz, 1988), 69–91; Sergio Arce, “Who Are We as Theological Educators?” Cuban Encuentro. Quest for a Liberating Intercultural Theological Education and Papers from Black Theology Project Dialogues in Cuba, ed. John C. Diamond Jr. & Gayraud Wilmore, The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center XV, no. 1–2 (Fall-Spring 1987): 72–81; Sergio Arce, “El papel y la responsabilidad de la mujer en el mundo actual: igualdad, desarrollo, paz,” paper presented at the Encuentro de mujeres de las Américas (Habana, Cuba, 1979); Sergio Arce, “La mujer y la paz: una reflexión teológica,” in Segundo Encuentro Continental de Mujeres Cristianas por la Paz, 20–25 de mayo, 1983, Conferencia Cristiana por la Paz de América Latina y el Caribe (Matanzas, Cuba: Centro de Información y Documentación “Augusto Cotto”), 133–142.

  100. 100.

    Arce, “Teología cubana: teología en Revolución,” 75.

  101. 101.

    Ibid.

  102. 102.

    Ibid.

  103. 103.

    Sergio Arce, “Perspectivas de la tarea teológica a partir de la praxis de la construcción de una nueva sociedad,” Punto y Aparte, abril 1981, 17.

  104. 104.

    Ibid., 18.

  105. 105.

    Ibid.

  106. 106.

    Arce, “Fe cristiana y responsabilidad social en los años ochenta,” 112–116.

  107. 107.

    Ibid., 118.

  108. 108.

    Arce, “Fe cristiana y responsabilidad social,” 118–120.

  109. 109.

    Ibid.

  110. 110.

    Ibid., 126.

  111. 111.

    Sergio Arce, “The ‘Embargo’ of the U.S.: A Cuban Approach from the Point of View of the Theology in Revolution,” in GottesZukunft-Zukunft der Welt. FestschiftFür Jürgen Moltman Zum 60.Geburstag, ed. Herman Deuser, Gerhard Marcel Martin, Konrad Stock, and Michael Welker (Munich, Germany: Chr. Kaiser Verlag, 1986), 396.

  112. 112.

    Arce, “El bloqueo de Estados Unidos contra Cuba,” 73.

  113. 113.

    Arce, “The ‘Embargo’ of the U.S.: A Cuban Approach from the Point of View of the Theology in Revolution,” 400.

  114. 114.

    Ibid., 396.

  115. 115.

    Sergio Arce, “Human Rights and Democracy in Latin America and Caribbean,” in Let Us Win Peace by Defending Life. Continental Consultation of the Latin American and Caribbean Christian Peace Conference, Quito, August 11–17, 1986 (Prague, Czechoslovakia: Christian Peace Conference, 1986), 55.

  116. 116.

    Ibid., 54.

  117. 117.

    Ibid., 59.

  118. 118.

    According to Pérez, “Soviet oil and petroleum by-products, delivered at prices below world market, had accounted for an estimated 90 percent of Cuban energy needs.” (Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 292).

  119. 119.

    Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 303.

  120. 120.

    And these commitments bore good fruit; as Pérez notes, Cuba’s infant mortality rates after seven years of the special period in 1997 (7.2 per 1000) “remained the lowest in Latin America and among the lowest in the world” (Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 296).

  121. 121.

    Marifeli Pérez-Stable, ed., Looking Forward: Comparative Perspectives on Cuba’s Transition (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007), 2–3.

  122. 122.

    Pérez quotes Fidel Castro’s speech on July 23, 1993: “Today we cannot speak of the pure, ideal, perfect socialism of which we dream because life forces us into concessions. … Now life, reality, and the dramatic situation the world is experiencing … oblige us to do what we would never have done otherwise if we had the capital and the technology to do so.” And also: “Who would have thought that we, so doctrinaire, we who fought foreign investment, would one day view foreign investment as an urgent need?” (Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 305–307).

  123. 123.

    Theron Corse, Protestants, Revolution, and the Cuba-U.S. Bond, 138.

  124. 124.

    Rafael Cepeda, Elizabeth Carrillo, Rhode González, and Carlos E. Ham, “Causas y desafíos del crecimiento de las iglesias protestantes en Cuba,” in La siembra infinita: Itinerarios de la obra misionera y la evangelización protestante en Cuba, ed. Rafael Cepeda and Carlos R. Molina Rodríguez (Ginebra, Suiza; Matanzas, Cuba; Quito, Ecuador: CMI; SET; CLAI, 2011), 171–194.

  125. 125.

    CIPS, Religión y cambio social: el campo religioso cubano en la década del 90 (La Habana, Cuba: Ciencias Sociales, 2006).

  126. 126.

    In the IV Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, which was celebrated in 1991, Party members agreed to the elimination of the clauses that prevented people with religious beliefs from becoming members of the party. In the same way, as part of the constitutional reform of 1992, the article that characterized the Cuban State as atheist was removed, and in its place its non-confessional character was affirmed. Discrimination because of religious reasons was frowned upon, which included obstacles to a person’s service in public office and access to specific university careers because of their religious beliefs. Various Authors, Religión y cambio social, 24.

  127. 127.

    Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 297.

  128. 128.

    Immediately after the downfall of the Soviet Union and the Socialist bloc, the US government intensified its hostile policies against the Cuban people and its government through economic and political sanctions and laws that expanded and sharpened the destructive economic effects of the embargo upon the Cuban people. Through the Torricelli Act (“Cuba Democracy Act”) and the Helms-Burton Act (“Cuban Liberty and Democracy Solidarity Act”), enacted under the administrations of George H.W. Bush and William Clinton, respectively, the USA provided an extraterritorial scope and a “legal” character to its historical efforts to destroy the Cuban Revolution. See Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 298–302; Joaquín Roy, Cuba, the United States, and the Helms-Burton Doctrine: International Reactions (Gainesville, FL.: University Press of Florida, 2000).

  129. 129.

    Pérez, Cuba between Reform and Revolution, 320.

  130. 130.

    Ibid., 295–311.

  131. 131.

    Sergio Arce, “Jesús alimenta a las multitudes: una crítica a la economía de mercado,” Cristianismo y Sociedad, no. 114 (1992): 12.

  132. 132.

    Ibid., 15.

  133. 133.

    Ibid., 18–19.

  134. 134.

    Ibid., 21.

  135. 135.

    See Sergio Arce, “Economía y teología,” in Economía y teología (La Habana, Cuba: CECIC, 1995), 3. While Arce did not cite a specific bibliographic source, it seems to me that perhaps he was referring to Michael Novak’s The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism (New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Publications, 1982). See also Michael Novak, Freedom with Justice: Catholic Social Justice and Liberal Institutions (New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers, 1984); The Catholic Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1993); Will It Liberate? Questions about Liberation Theology (New York, NY: Paulist Press, 1986).

  136. 136.

    Arce, “Economía y teología,” 3.

  137. 137.

    Ibid., 11–13.

  138. 138.

    Ibid., 9.

  139. 139.

    Sergio Arce, “Una reacción bíblico-teológica a la apertura actual de Cuba al mundo de hoy,” Revista ARA no. 1 (1996): 5–10.

  140. 140.

    Sergio Arce, “Los valores: un aproche teológico a una de las problemáticas de la actualidad cubana,” ARA: Análisis de la Realidad Actual. Ética y Valores en la Cuba de Hoy (I), no. 2 (1997): 29.

  141. 141.

    Arce, “Una reacción bíblico-teológica a la apertura actual de Cuba al mundo de hoy,” 8–9.

  142. 142.

    Ibid., 7.

  143. 143.

    Arce, “Panorama de la teología protestante en Cuba,” 39; Arce, “Los valores: un aproche teológico a una de las problemáticas de la actualidad cubana.”

  144. 144.

    Sergio Arce, “Cuba: un brevísimo análisis de lo ético en su pensamiento teológico y en su praxis revolucionaria,” Revista Mensaje, (November 1997): 38–47.

  145. 145.

    Sergio Arce, La teología como testimonio: reflexiones teológicas desde un contexto revolucionario (Quito, Ecuador: FUMEC, 1992); Arce, “Panorama de la teología protestante en Cuba”; Arce, “La teología cubana: contexto, aportes y desafíos”; Arce, “Itinerario teológico”; Arce, “Teología en Revolución: Caracterización de un quehacer teológico en Cuba revolucionaria,” in La misión de la iglesia en una sociedad socialista: Un análisis teológico de la vocación de la iglesia cubana en el día de hoy (La Habana: Editorial Caminos, 2004); Sergio Arce, Las siete y las setenta veces siete palabras (Sermones predicados entre el domingo de Pentecostés de 1995 y el domingo de Pentecostés de 1997) (Quito, Ecuador: CLAI, 1997); Sergio Arce, Teología Sistemática: Prolegómenos (Matanzas, Cuba: Seminario Evangélico de Teología, 2002); Sergio Arce, “Religión, marxismo y reforma intelectual y moral,” Cuba Socialista (1998).

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    Ary Fernández-Albán

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Fernández-Albán, A. (2018). Sergio Arce’s Theology in Revolution: Main Influences and Stages of Development. In: Decolonizing Theology in Revolution. New Approaches to Religion and Power. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02342-3_3

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