The Sacredness of Water

The lecture begins by exploring the global indigenous worldviews of water, specifically how it has its own spirit and agency. This indigenous worldview is then compared with a eurocentric worldview based on the commodification of water. The lecture then explores the damage done to water by the global adoption of the eurocentric worldview. The lecture concludes by exploring how a theoretical approach seeking decoloniality might lead toward liberative praxis.

 

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre

Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre is an international scholar, documentarian, novelist, academic author, and scholar activist. The focus of Dr. De La Torre’s academic pursuit is social ethics within contemporary U.S. thought, specifically how religion affects race, class, and gender oppression. Since obtaining his doctorate in 1999, he has authored over a hundred articles and published forty-five book. Dr. De La Torre presently serves as Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver.

A Fulbright scholar, he has taught in Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, Germany; and lectured in Costa Rica, Cuba, Palestine, Thailand, Taiwan. Within his guild he served as the 2012 President of the Society of Christian Ethics. He is the recipient of the 2020 AAR Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2021 Martin E. Marty Public Understanding of Religion Award. Within the academy, he served as a past-director to the American Academy of Religion, and served on the editorial board of JAAR. Additionally, he was the co-founder and executive director (2013-2017) of the Society of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion and the founding editor of the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion. Dr. De La Torre has written numerous articles in popular media and has served on several civic organizations. Recently, he wrote the screenplay to a documentary, Trails of Hope and Terror, on immigration which has screened in over eighteen film festivals winning over seven awards. Additionally, he has written an autofiction magical realism novel titled Miguelito’s Confessions.