Journal of Latin American Theology, Volume 17, Number 1

Book excerpt: This issue of the Journal of Latin American Theology presents some of the papers given at the Seventh Latin American Conference of the Red Internacional de Educación Superior Cristiana (RIESC). Designed around the theme “Higher Education, Christian Identity, and Public Impact in Latin America,” the authors herein explore the challenges and the people involved in the three primary tasks of a university: teaching, research, and community engagement through university extension projects. Alberto Salom Echevarría’s keynote address lays out the seven primary challenges that secular and faith-based universities alike are facing. The three articles that follow feature concrete examples of successfully facing some of the challenges. These are by Joel Aguilar and Ruth Padilla DeBorst with CETI; Alejandra Ortiz and Josué Olmedo with IFES; and Humberto Shikiya and Milton Mejía with Qonakuy. In the next four articles, professors in different fi elds interact with the RIESC conference theme from within their specifi c disciplines. This includes Adelaida Jiménez in educational sciences; José Alcántara Mejía in literature and the arts; Arturo González-Gutiérrez in engineering; and Ingrid Beatriz Martell in health sciences. After the fi nal statement from the conference, book reviews by Sidney Rooy and Arturo González-Gutiérrez continue the theme of Christian higher education. A fi lm review by Samuel Lagunas explores the worldview of a Protestant evangelical indigenous woman, and two poems close this volume with refl ections on God’s work as the Divine Educator and as the tender Creator of woman.