Ivan Petrella (born November 8, 1969) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

social theorist and

liberation theologian Liberation theology is a Christian theological approach emphasizing the liberation of the oppressed. In certain contexts, it engages socio-economic analyses, with "social concern for the poor and political liberation for oppressed peoples". In ...

. He is the Secretary of Culture in Argentina's Ministry of Culture and currently teaches at

Universidad Torcuato Di Tella The Torcuato Di Tella University (''Universidad Torcuato Di Tella'', commonly referred to as UTDT or La Di Tella) is a non-profit private university founded in 1991. Located Buenos Aires, Argentina, it is focused primarily on social sciences. The ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

, Argentina. He was an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

in Coral Gables, Florida and co-executive editor of the “Reclaiming Liberation Theology” book series with SCM Press.

Education

Ivan Petrella holds a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, a Masters of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Religion and Law from Harvard University's Committee on the Study of Religion in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Theological views

As an Argentine liberation theologian that is also agnostic, Petrella's scholarship cuts across religious studies departments and divinity schools, the United States and Latin America, and theology and the social sciences.Mario Aguilar, The History and Politics of Latin American Theology, Volume II (London: SCM Press, 2008) p.170. Chapter nine is an overview of Petrella’s work. He is difficult to categorize. Historian Mario Aguilar notes that “for an Argentinean newspaper, he is a theologian, while for others in the United States he is a scholar of religion, two hats in one.”Mario Aguilar, History and Politics of Latin American Theology, Volume II p.170 His work “marks the appearance of something new and something different within the discourse of liberation theology as a world phenomenon.”Mario Aguilar, History and Politics of Latin American Theology, Volume II p.168 Petrella is particularly interested in bridging the divide between different liberation theologies including

black theology Black theology, or black liberation theology, refers to a theological perspective which originated among African-American seminarians and scholars, and in some black churches in the United States and later in other parts of the world. It context ...

, Latin American liberation theology, Womanist theology and Hispanic/Latino(a) theology. He also argues that disciplines like economics, political science, and law need to be transformed in light of liberation theology's preferential option for the poor and envision undercover liberation theologians posing as social scientists to engage that task: “Here the liberation theologian need not carry the label ‘theologian’ and works best under a different disciplinary guise. Could the future of liberation call for the dissolution of liberation theology as an identifiable field of production?”Ivan Petrella, Beyond Liberation Theology: a Polemic (London: SCM Press, 2008) p.150 He challenges those academic disciplines, which may operate in favour of the wealthy.

Public services

He is the Secretary of Culture in Argentina's Ministry of Culture. Previously he was an elected representative in the City of Buenos Aires state legislature.

Selected bibliography

*Petrella, Ivan (2008).
Beyond Liberation Theology: A Polemic
'. London: SCM Press. *Petrella, Ivan (2007). ''Theology for Another Possible World''. London: SCM Press. *Petrella, Ivan (2006). ''The Future of Liberation Theology: An Argument and Manifesto''. London: SCM Press. (Held in over 375 libraries according to WorldCat *Petrella, Ivan (2005). ''Latin American Liberation Theology: The Next Generation.'' Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books (Held in over 200 libraries according to WorldCat). **review: Theology. no. 856, (2007): 299 **review : Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 75, no. 1 (2007): 223-227

References

External links