of the Latin American Biblical University, Number 24, September 2005

F A CESof the Latin American Biblical University, Number 24, September 2005Teodoro UribeApdo. 901-1000, San José, Costa Rica, Tel.: (+506)283-8848 Fax: 283-6826E-mail: ubila@ice.co.cr Edited by: Jeannie McGinnis / Layout: Damaris Alvarez © 20051

On TheCoverTeodoro Uribedelights the UBLcommunity withhis musical talent.The lilt of thequena can oftenbe heard fillingthe evening air ashe plays bothtraditional andmodern melodies.Our emailaddress haschanged!Write us at:ubila@ice.co.crINSIDE RIBLA Meets AtUBL Teodoro Uribe –Searching for losttraditions Letter from UBLPresident, VioletaRochaTamayo visitStudy Centers in Latin Americaare a wealth of inspiration for UBLDr. Jose Enrique RamírezIn the last year, I have hadthe opportunity visit UBLaffiliated centers inColombia, Peru, Chile,Cuba and Bolivia. I alsogave a course in thenorthern part of Argentina.The experience in theseplaces, each different fromthe other, brought home tome some very interestingrealizations concerning ourinstitution. Quiet studentswho pass almost unnoticedthrough our classrooms,develop educationalministries that haveenormous impact in certainareas of their own countries.Persons that concludetheir studies as ‘justone more member of theirclass’, I have seen asinitiators of social developmentprograms in the farlyingregions of thiscontinent. Those whostruggled with the Spanishlanguage during their timein San Jose, astonish meOn June 27, UBL enjoyed a visit from distinguishedtheologian Juan José Tamayo, professor of religiousstudies at the Carlos III University of Madrid andthe University of Valencia, Spain.Dr. Tamayo is well known for his publications intheology, world religions, human rights, and philosophy,especially his book with Dr. Casiano Floristan,Fundamental conceptsof Christianity. In thisrecent visit, the facultyand student body tookpart in a dialogue withDr. Tamayo about hisbook Fundamentalismsand inter-religiousdialogue (Fundamentalismoy diálogoentre religiones,Madrid: Trotta, 2004.)later with the impact of theeducational programs thatsome of them haveintroduced into their localcultures. We find ourformer students movingfrom one side of theircountries to the other,educating, promoting, andlaunching developmentprograms in their regions.The social, educational,ministerial, and economicimpact that our graduateshave (and have had intheir countries for decades),is a source ofinspiration for those of uswho visit the centers. Itallows us to put intoperspective that which,from our campus in SanJose, we can only see bitsof. The strength, inspiration,and the future of ourinstitution lies in the hotand humid countryside ofthe Caribbean and in thefertile valleys of ourCentral America. Itcomes from the inner-citycommunities of the hugeMexican cities and the bywaysand villages of theAndes. It is here that wefind the true campus of theUniversidad BiblicaLatinoamericana, and thefuture of this communityfor which we exist. LatinAmerica. This LatinAmerica has the face of achild, of an Afro-latino/a,of an old person, of anIndian, of a poor person, ofa woman........ of hope.2

TEODORO URIBESearching forlost traditionsBy: Jeannie McGinnis“I do notbelieve that inorder to be aChristian, Imust abandonmy culture.”During the time of the ancient Inca... before thearrival of the Spanish..... before there were anypeople at all in the area which is now Huancayo, Peru,the DelMantaro valley was a huge lake. Inhabiting thelake was a snake named Amaru. Amaru was a territorialanimal and when a smaller snake invaded hisspace, he felt some resentment. The two serpents beganto battle and by the time they were finished, the valleyhad opened and all the waters had receded. In themiddle of this valley sat a rock. And it was on this rockthat the first couple appeared. That was the beginningof the Wanka civilization. The Wanka had their owngovernment, their own language, and their own god.It was a kindly god who lived on the Nevada deHuaytapallana, a beautiful plateau filled with flowers.The god, Wallallu Carhuncho, protected his peopleand their culture of farming and animal husbandry.The Wanka were a happy people who believed in celebratinglife. They kept a calendar of festivals andexalted every aspect of their existence. Until the arrivalof the Spanish and Catholicism. The Spanish consideredthe Wanka to be idol worshiping pagans and forcedthem to convert. Their festivals were taken over andgiven Catholic names. To become educated meant toleave behind one’s culture and assume the culture ofthe Spanish. Like all indigenous cultures, the Wankanculture began to die.Rev. Teodoro Uribe is a UBL student from the SaintPaul Andean Seminary in Huancayo, Peru. A memberof the Wankan culture, he is a Methodist pastor and iscurrently working on the thesis for his Licentiate degree.Uribe is a member of a committee that was set upwhen Antonio Otzoy, an itinerant professor contractedunder the indigenous project, (a UBL project funded bythe Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church) visited the St. Paulseminary to give a class in indigenous spirituality.“Through the Indigenous Project and UBL’s Biblical/Pastoral Institute, we are beginning to evaluate howwe do biblical and theological studies.” says Rev. Uribe.“In the past, when people began to study the Bible, theythought they had to leave their culture behind. But weindigenous are Latin American too and we want tolearn to study theology and the Bible within our ownculture and our own traditions. I do not believe that inorder to be a Christian, I must abandon my culture. Areligion that tries to kill traditions which support lifeis not from God.”The Wanka committee is working to prepare materialsand write articles and stories of their culture to be sent toProfessor Otzoy (a Guatamalan from the Mayan culture.)“We hope that our stories can be incorporated into futureIBP courses,” continues Uribe. “Until now we havepage 6 3

By: Dr. Tirsa VenturaRIBLADrs. Arnoldo Mora andFranz Hinnkelammertshare with thegroup. (author right)Meeting Held At UBLThe annual RIBLA meeting was held from the 17 th to the 23 rd ofApril of this year (2005) at the Latin American Biblical University inSan Jose, Costa Rica. Sixty biblical scholars from 16 countries in LatinAmerica and the Caribbean participated in the event. There was alsorepresentation from Canada, the United States, Japan, and Germany.The RIBLA (The Latin American Biblical Journal) meeting is anopportunity for men and women scholars who work in different areas ofbiblical studies in Latin American to study and dialogue together. Eachyear this group of biblical scholars meet in a different country in AbyaYala (an indigenous word for Latin America meaning ‘continent of life’.)During the meeting, the coming editions of RIBLA, along with theirthemes, and release dates are planned. It is also an opportunity fordiscussion and strengthening of the development of biblical studies onthis continent, and includes a time of Bible study for the participants.Academics from universities, seminaries, communities, and churcheswho study the Bible from the Latin American reality, particularly throughthe eyes and minds of women, Afro-latin-americans, indigenous, andyouth and children are invited to participate.The RIBLA meeting, as has already been stated, is important forLatin American biblical production. Even though professors such asIrene Foulkes and Elsa Tamez have long been a part of RIBLA, up tonow, a meeting has never been held in Costa Rica. To have the privilegeof hosting the RIBLA meeting on the UBL campus was yet anotheraffirmation of the commitment that the institution has with the Bibleon this continent. In addition, it is notable that around 45 of the 60persons which participated in the meeting were from outside Costa RicaThe majority of these people had prior knowledge of UBL but had neverbeen on the campus. This was an opportunity for them to learn moreabout the institution and its mission.The academic interchange and community experience throughoutthe week-long meeting, made possible the strengthening of our educationaland Latin American mission in relation to biblical production.One other important event during the week was UBL’s presentation of a4book in honor of Dr. Irene Foulkes, Ecce Mulher; as well as a book byUBL professor, Dr. José Enríquez Ramírez, Ruth, which permitted UBLto share a part of its own production in the area of biblical studies.The UBL School of Bible together with DEI (The Department ofEcumenical Investigation) were responsible for organizing this year’smeeting. ISEDET in Argentina will be the host for the next RIBLAmeeting which will be held in the second half of 2006.Bible Study – Gen. 1-11On this occasion, the biblical study was centered on Genesis 1-11and led by Dr. Milton Schwantes. Dr. Schwantes proposed that Genesis1-11 be studied as a block of connected stories based around chapters6-9.In Schwantes interpretation, the flood is presented as the principaltheme, which means that Gen. 1-2 must be read as a result of Gen. 11:10-25. Gen. 2:4b through chapters 3 and 4 would then need to be readtogether with 11:1-9 and chapters 5 and 10. In his proposition Miltoninsists that Genesis must be read back to front, and that chapters 1-3aren’t the right beginning for an interpretation from a sociological pointof view.The group reacted by warning that, while they had no problems withreading the book back to front, it should be kept in mind that whenreading from the point of view of specific groups (women, indigenous,and afros), that there are other important points. For example, in thecase of women, chapters 2 and 3 are important for the image of thewomen which appear there and how these have been taken advantage ofto justify oppression and the submission of women. (From Chapter 4on, women do not appear.) In addition, chapters five and ten, thegenealogy chapters, cannot be seen as secondary if we are interestedin a reading that takes into account, among other things, the constructionof the identity of humanity. Milton insisted that if the flood is nottaken as the central event in the book, there would be a loss in thereading that preserves the history of humanity... the new creation.

UBL Departmentof CommunityWelfare reachingout to studentsFirst work team poses in the completed entrance.Almost Finished!UBL’s latest construction projectis close to being completed afterthe labors of two work teams inJuly and Aug. A team of sevenled by Angi Alphin spent ten daysin Costa Rica in July working onthe entrance to the two apartmentbuilding. In addition to applyingstucco to the walls, painting thegarage floor, and putting in a smallgarden, some very hard workerstook on the messy job ofdrywalling and sanding the ceiling.The second team, led by Rev.Jeannie Jensen began laying tile inthe ground floor apartment andpainting the interior. Thanks to atimely donation by Charles Mooreand friends, much needed doorsand windows will soon be installed.The upstairs apartment is completeand now being inhabited byUBL vice-rector, Daniel Chiquete.Megan Jensen concentrates on her work.BUT there’s still plenty to do.....The work on the apartments isnearly complete, but there’s stillplenty of opportunities for workteams on UBL’s campus. Due toour emphasis on the constructionproject, we’ve neglected otherparts of the campus and there is alot of painting, tile laying,stuccoing, and refurbishing thatneeds to be done. If you areinterested in bring a team in 2006,let Jeannie McGinnis know.Just send an email tojmcginnis@ubila.net.In June, the UBL department of communitywelfare began two educationalpsychology groups for students, professors,and administrative personnel onthe subject of Women’s issues andgender equality and Men’s issues andgender equality. The women’s groupis coordinated by Sara Baltodano, psychologyand pastoral counseling professor,and the men’s by Edwin MoraGuevara, psychology and pastoralcounseling professorBoth groups had a large number of participants,and were especially enjoyedby the students. The groups met withan educational objective and sharedevents from their lives, feelings, andlearned methods on how to provide support.During the sessions, brief summarieswere offered on the topics andvarious techniques applied in order toprovoke dialogue and sharing. The goalwas to promote not only growth as agroup, but also personal growth. Thedepartment also offers therapy for students,professors, administrative personneland their immediate families. Thedepartment hopes, for the near future,to continue with the gender groups andhas plans to offer two more, a parentaltraining group, led by UBL dean,Mireya Baltodano and group therapyon the subject of separation and divorce,led by Edwin Mora.Sara Baltodano (right) and students.5

In 1937, fourteen years after the foundingof the institution, Professor KennethStrachan developed an interest inproviding the seminary’s students with alibrary. He began by learning and workingin a library in the Evangelical College inDallas, Texas, and upon his return to CostaRica, put together a small library collection.Four years later, 300 volumes resided inwooden cases, and in 1957 the collectionreached the 3500 volume mark.Since its beginnings the UBL library hasoperated within a very tight budget. For6UBL’s Growing Librarynearly four decades the department was runby faculty staff with the assistance of students.In the early nineties UBL’s current librarian,Alvaro Perez, was hired. By 1994 spacebecame a major problem, which was finallysolved when the Library moved to a new,larger and much better facility on the newUBL campus.In the last ten years that the library hasbegun shifting from a traditional setting to amore modern one, introducing appropriatelibrary software for automation purposes.With the assistance of volunteer groups fromthe US the whole collection was bar-coded,security strips were added to all books, and alot of deteriorated books were repaired.Currently the library is slowly migrating froman old classification system to an up-to-datesystem. The Wilton M. Nelson HistoricalArchive was started in 1986, but since 2000,with the support of the Program for LatinAmerican Libraries and Archives, it hasgrown dramatically. It now houses severalhundred boxes of primary documents relatedto the history of the churches, mostlyProtestant, in Central América.The library constantly looks for ways toprovide increased and improved services to itsconstituency, which means not only theteaching staff and students but also thebroader community that relates to it. Thisobviously means appropriate collectionRecent celebration of library’s “new look”development in three basic levels (day to dayacademic needs, academic research in theshort term, and research work in the longrun). Collection development implies booksand periodicals either printed or in electronicformat. Technology changes dictatemigrating to digital formats and equipment isneeded for these changes.More recently, Internet access has beenadded to the library services and UBL isstudying on how to make better use of thisresource. There are also plans to provide inhouseproductions to support the institution’sacademic work, such as digital images,electronic text, and digital videos as UBLcontinues in its goal to make this theologicallibrary one of the finest in the Latin Americanregion.Alvaro Pérez... Teodoro Uribenever been interested in writingour own stores. Others (anthropologists,etc.) have come fromoutside to write about our traditions,but this is the first timethat we have ever written downthe stories about our own culture,our own traditions. Ourcultures are dying”, he added,“we are trying to recover the traditionsand values of our ancientculture. I don’t mean wewant to insulate ourselves fromthe modern world. I’m talkingabout the values and principalsof our Wankan traditions. But,I also want to bring back theWanka way of dressing and weneed to salvage our traditionalmedicine.”Uribe particularly mourns theloss of traditional medicine.“Andean medicine is very positive,”he stated. “My own elderbrother cured a man with cancerusing traditional medicine. Butwe no longer have the recipes.”The committee has plans tosearch out some of the olderWankas and learn from thembefore the ancient ways are lostforever and are hoping to findfunding to further this work.Not all Wankan traditions havegone by the wayside, Teodoroadmitted. The construction ofhouses is still carried out by thewhole community working together.Traditional music is stillplayed and is being incorporatedinto church services. And hischurch is now using traditionalcolored clothes on the altarrather than the white cloth thatwas brought in by the Catholics.But as Teodoro and his committeeare the first to admit, there isstill a long way to go.

SEMINARIOINTEGRADO2005The World Council of Churches chose“God, in your grace, transform theworld” as the theme of the Ninth GeneralAssembly of the World Council of Churches(WCC), planned for February 2006 in PortoAlegre, Brazil. UBL, as a WCC missionpartner, adopted this same theme for itsintegrated seminar.This years seminar had thirty-four studentsenrolled from 13 countries (Argentina, Brazil,Bolivia, Canada, Colombia, Chile, CostaRica, the Dominican Republic, the UnitedStates, Nicaragua, Peru, Germany, andVenezuela) and 10 denominations (Pentecostal,Methodist, Baptist, Congregational,Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Moravian,Mennonite, Evangelical).UBL’s integrated seminar is an annualevent which combines biblical, theological,pastoral, and social reflection around aspecific chosen theme. The seminar is arequired class for all licentiate students andan opportunity for students from all overLatin America and the Caribbean to workand study together.In addition to UBL professors, visitingprofessors Dr. Xabier Pikaza, Dr. ArnoldoMora, and Dr. Wim Dierckxsens took part inthe seminar. Extra-curricular activitiesincluded the painting of a mural in thestudent coffee lounge under the direction ofartist Anne Spickel, a trip to ‘La Selva’, anexperimental biological station located in theBraulio Carrillonational park, acandle makingworkshop, andworshipservicesorganized bythe students.XABIER PIKAZASpeaks at Mackay ConferenceThe annual John A Mackay Conference took placeMay 24-26 on the subject of “Inter-religiousdialogue. Each year UBL presents this importantacademic undertaking with a carefully chosenspeaker. This year’s invited guest was Spanishtheologian, Dr. Xabier Pikaza. Born in 1941 in theBasque country, Pikaza was a professor of religionand theodicy in the Universidad Pontificia inSalamanca from 1975-2003 and is considered anexpert in religious orientation. He has written manybooks, among them: Dios como espíritu y persona,El Dios cristiano/ Diccionario teológico,and Hombre y mujer en las religiones.The conference was well attended and an event inwhich the entire community of UBL, as well as alarge number of invited friends of the institution hadthe opportunity to listen and discuss with Dr.Pikaza on the subject of Inter-religious dialogue.He spoke each of the three days on a differenttheme, the first being “Man and Woman in religionand culture”, the second, “American Indian Religions:challenges”, and finally, “Inter-religiousdialogue, a plan for life and a culture of peace”.Each day’s theme was responded to by a UBLprofessor or student after which a general discussionwas held.In addition to the three day long conference, Dr.Pikaza also participated in UBL’s annual IntegratedSeminar by giving an intensive week-long course,“Grace in biblical traditions”.7

It is with great sadness that we have received the news of the tragedies in bothLondon, England and the southern United States, particularly New Orleans,with its thousands of people left dead and homeless by Hurricane Katrina.Both of the incidences have caused pain and suffering to those affected and totheir entire countries. It also grieves us greatly that the war in Iraq with itsmany thousands of causalities continues with no end in sight.Letter fromUBL rectorThis university has its roots in Latin America, a continent that has suffered forso much of its existence in violence and poverty. As a theological institutionthat works to advance peace as well as promoting justice and equality to thepoor, we feel in solidarity with the efforts of the churches and other organizationsof England and the United States as they seek to provide aid to the peopleaffected by the bombing and the floods. We pray that the people of Iraq willsoon see an end to the violence that they face each day.The entire UBL community keeps those who are suffering from these tragediesin their thoughts and prayers as we renew our commitment to our struggle forjustice and peace in this world.“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.”Violeta Rocha A.F A CESof the Latin American Biblical UniversityApdo. 901 - 1000, San José, Costa Rica.Tel. (506) 283-4498/283-8848 Fax. 283-6826 UBL.faithweb.com8IMPRESOSCORREO AEREO - AIR MAIL