Finding God in hip-hop and liberation theology

Jesuitical

America Media

News, News Commentary, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.7 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Catholics probably won’t hear hip-hop at Mass anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean the genre doesn’t have a lot to say about God and the plight of God’s people. Much like liberation theology starts from the experience of the poor when talking about God, hip-hop, which originated in the South Bronx in the 1970s, expresses the struggles for justice and freedom of people living on the margins of America. That’s the case this week’s guest, Alex Nava, makes in his new book, Street Scriptures: Between God and Hip-Hop. Zac and Ashley ask Alex about the history of liberation theology and about the liberating potential of hip-hop. In Signs of the Times, we give an update on the crackdown Catholics and other opponents of the Ortega regime in Nicaragua and discuss the slick “He Gets Us” ads for Jesus at the Super Bowl. Were they an effective way to evangelize—or a massive waste of money? Links from the show: Pope Francis denounces imprisonment of Nicaragua’s Bishop Rolando Álvarez What the Jesus Super Bowl ads get right (and wrong) about evangelization Street Scriptures: Between God and Hip-Hop What’s on tap? French 75 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Jesuitical, a podcast by the Young Hip and Lay editors of
0:15.5	America Media. That lay part means we aren't Jesuits but we work with them.
0:19.0	Join us each week for a smart Catholic take on faith culture culture in the news often over drinks I'm
0:24.3	Ashley and I'm joined by Zach Davis it is good to be with you Ashley I feel
0:28.4	recovered from my my birthday this weekend from you feel wiser older Yeah, from the Super Bowl.
0:35.0	Someone already, yeah, someone commented that I spent the first episode of my 30s criticizing
0:40.8	college kids and their newfangled robot
0:42.8	You weren't even 30 yet at that point so I can only imagine what's going to happen.
0:45.8	Oh just wait. Old man yells at Cloud in the sky is coming with a force
0:50.7	these upcoming seasons of Jesuitical.
0:54.4	And who are we talking to this week?
0:56.1	So joining us this week to talk about religion and hip-hop is Alex Nava, and Alex is a professor
1:01.8	of religious studies at the University of Arizona and the author of a new book street scriptures between God and hip-hop and
1:08.9	Alex teaches a course at the University of Arizona on religion and hip-hop so he is the perfect person to get into this topic with.
1:15.5	Yeah and he's steeped in liberation theology specifically so we talk about the connections between
1:20.4	hip-hop as a music genre and in that specific strain of Catholic theology.
1:24.7	So it's a great conversation, stick around for it, but first what are we drinking this week,
1:28.3	Zach?
1:29.3	This is our last drink before we go on our Lenton Fast. Long-time listeners of the show will
1:34.9	note that you know these 40 days where we normally have a cocktail or a
1:39.7	beverage on the show to kind of just like lower the stakes make it more conversational during
1:44.2	Lent we abstain from that so this is our last one and we are drinking a French 75 which is
	...

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