Toward a Liberating Spirituality

Drawing on his own experience as a volunteer, the author begins with an account of the many ways that “faith” is expressed in the context of immigrant detention. He then explains the book’s core idea—liberating spirituality—by placing it in a decolonial, qualitative, and functional light. The book looks at the liberating spiritualities of six exemplary twentieth-century liberation thinkers from the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking “Américas”: Marxist philosopher José Carlos Mariátegui, educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, constructive theologian Virgilio Elizondo, cultural and feminist theorist Gloria Anzaldúa, mujerista theologian Ada María Isasi-Díaz, and ecofeminist theologian Ivone Gebara. The author discusses liberating spiritualities as non-reductive form of critical intelligence. Following this, the author offers an overview of the book and closes the chapter by returning to a story within the context of immigrant detention.