Orlando Espín
University of San Diego
San Diego, California

 

 

 

 

 

Orlando Espín is professor of systematic theology at the University of San Diego. Espín earned a dual doctorate in systematic and practical theologies from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1984), specializing on the theological study of popular religions. He is the author or editor of eight books and over two hundred articles published in scholarly journals. Among his more recent (authored or edited) books are Grace and Humanness: Theological Reflections Because of Culture (2007), Building Bridges and Doing Justice: Constructing a Latino/a Ecumenical Theology (forthcoming 2009), Futuring Our Past: Explorations in the Theology of Tradition, ed. with G. Macy (2006), and An Introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious Studies, ed. with J. Nickoloff (2007).

Espín founded the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology and was its first editor-in-chief. He has twice been president of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the U.S., and was the first Latino ever elected to the board of directors of the Catholic Theological Society of America. He currently serves on the board of representatives of the national and ecumenical Hispanic Summer Program, and for the last ten years he has been mentoring Latino/a doctoral grantees of the Hispanic Theological Initiative. In 1994 he founded the research-oriented Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism and was its director to 2007.

Espín has received several national and international awards for his theological work. He holds one honorary doctorate (from Chicago's Catholic Theological Union), one honorary professorship (from the Universidad del Zulia, Venezuela), and in 2001 Germany’s Institute of Missiology formally recognized his work on popular Catholicism as one of the most important contributions to Catholic theology anywhere in the world today.