Bóvedas Espirituales: a Theological Study of Cuban Family Religions
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Bóvedas Espirituales: A Theological Study of Cuban Family Religions by Leonel Abaroa Boloña A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Divinity, Trinity College and the Theology Department of the Toronto School of Theology In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College. © Copyright Leonel Abaroa Boloña 2013 Bóvedas Espirituales: A Theological Study of Cuban Family Religions Leonel Abaroa Boloña Doctor of Philosophy in Theology University of St. Michael’s College 2013 Abstract Cuban family religions are sets of religious practices often found in Cuban homes. In their cultural comprehensiveness and ritual, narrative and symbolic depths, Cuban family religions deserve and promise to be a fruitful topic of theological analysis, in light of elementary Christian incarnational demands. That is, family religions are understood as legitimate Christian theological loci. My proposed dissertation will be specifically concerned with theological analysis of the way sacred space is conceived and enacted in spiritual shrines, assumed here as archetypical enactment of Cuban family religions. This analysis will result in the enhanced ability of the Cuban churches to engage, in an informed and creative fashion, elements of the local culture that both carry social religious currency and display theological patterns with which Christian theology is able and missiologically bound to engage. ii Acknowledgements Thanks and praises be to God, forever merciful and loving. My entire course of study, research and reflection has only been made possible by God’s generosity and love. These I have learned about through friends and loved ones, who have held me and loved me just as God would. In many ways, I also owe my friends for this thesis. Special, heartfelt thanks to Don Wiebe, my thesis supervisor; Ibrahim Khan, Advanced Degree Programme Director, David Neelands, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College and Marsha Hewitt, Professor of Ethics and Contemporary Theology in the Faculty of Divinity at Trinity College. In them, I am by extension also thanking all the University of Toronto professors and staff persons who, one way or another, have made my studies and research leading to this thesis, not only possible, but efficient and academically profitable. I am forever indebted to the persistent support and commitment to my studies from the Archbishop Michael Peers Cuba-Malaita Theological Education Fund, made possible by the forethought and generosity of Archbishop Peers as well as by offerings of many individuals, parishes, dioceses and other church groups, and administered by the Department of Partners in Mission of the Anglican Church of Canada, staffed by Andrea Mann and Claudia Alvarez. My heart goes to Michael and Dorothy Peers. You have been friends, family and angels. My thanks also to the many individuals and communities who have supported, one way or another, my life and work during these years of study. Special thanks to the Bishops and people in the diocese of Toronto as well as among the General Synod staff in the Anglican Church of iii Canada; the Community of Saint John the Evangelist in the Episcopal Church USA; Iglesia Episcopal and Consejo de Iglesias de Cuba. My work and its results are indebted to every person who has shared with me his or her understanding and practice of family religions, every person who has welcomed and taught me and encouraged my curiosity and passion. Special thanks to my friends and colleagues from the Cuban communities of Seminario Evangélico de Teología in Matanzas and the Instituto de Estudios Bíblicos y Teológicos, in La Habana. To the parishes where I carried on my field research for my studies: Catedral de la Santisima Trinidad, La Habana; Todos los Santos, Guantánamo; El Buen Pastor, Esmeralda; Cristo Rey in Cuatro Esquinas; Santísima Trinidad in Los Arabos and La Santa Cruz, in Santa Cruz del Norte. Also, to the communities of Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Parroquia San Esteban and St. Thomas’s Anglican Church, as well as Massey College and Trinity College, all in Toronto, Canada, my extended families throughout these years of study and work. Tina Park, while fighting -and excelling in- her own battles, has been a loyal, loving friend and partner whose support, work and commitment have made this thesis, to say the least, readable. 감사합니다 박지원. And, last -because this whole story begins with her, at the foot of her bóveda espiritual- my thanks and love to my mother. Mami, de no haber sido por ti, yo no estaría aquí. Without her, I would have never had a chance to be here. In many more ways than one. In grateful memory of Jane Rudel Jackson (1934-2007), my grandmother; and Leonardo J.W. Abaroa Hernández (1939-2002), my father. A Dios gracias. iv Table of Contents ii Abstract Acknowledgments iii 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Historical Context of Bóvedas Espirituales 1.2 Overview and Historiography 1.3 Verificationist and Emic Approaches to Religious Practice 1.4 The Spatial Turn 1.5 My Research Background 1.6 Goals & Research Methodology 1.7 Structure of the thesis 1.8 Implications 2. Bóvedas Espirituales in Cuban Homes 18 2.1 Definition and Description 2.2 Syncretism and religious practices in Cuba 2.3 Preceding Cuban Religious Traditions 2.4 Preliminary Conclusions 3. Christian Theology and Bóvedas Espirituales 41 3.1 Existing Scholarship on Folk Religions 3.2 Three Themes of Analysis of Folk Religions 3.3 Margins as Centers 3.4 The Dichotomy of Folk and Official Religions 3.5 Alternative Epistemes in Folk Religions 3.6 Theological Clues for Bóvedas Espirituales 4. Space and Spatial Analysis 61 4.1 Place, Space 4.2 Spatial Dynamics in Bóvedas Espirituales 4.3 Methodological Clues 4.4 Religious Experience and Theological Reflection 4.4 The Spatial Turn and Christian Theology 4.5 Towards a Spatial Analysis of Everyday Religion v 5. A Spatial, Theological Approach to Bóvedas Espirituales 87 5.1 Bodies and Bóvedas Espirituales 5.2 Bóvedas as Dynamic Spaces 5.3 Imagined Sacred Space 5.4 Elements for a Theology of Space for Bóvedas Espirituales 6. Conclusions 114 6.1 Overview of the Thesis 6.2 Review of Findings 6.3 Implications for theological analyses of folk religions 6.4 Final Reflections 7. Bibliography 128 vi Chapter One 1. Introduction Cuban family religions are sets of religious rituals, narratives, beliefs and practices adopted by individuals and families, usually organized around the home and the life of the family. They are a very specific form of Cuban folk religions, both in regards to their geographical location, the home, and their strong concern for the ritualization of links between the living and the dead. These family religions are also deeply embedded in Cuban culture, with particular importance given to the practice of bóvedas1 espirituales, or spiritual shrines. These shrines, or household altars, widely found in ordinary Cuban homes, are used for the remembrance of the dead as well as the practice of other elementary domestic religious ritual.2 Despite the prevalence of bóvedas espirituales in Cuban homes, as well as in the religious traditions embedded in the wider Cuban culture, established churches in Cuba have generally not capitalized in their own theological discourse or practice upon the narrative and ritual resources of Cuban family religions. My dissertation seeks to address this gap, arguing that Cuban family religious practices, as archetypically represented by bóvedas espirituales or spiritual shrines, are promising grounds for Christian theological reflection. 1 Bóveda, in Spanish, literally translates as the noun ‘vault’ and, in Cuba and other Latin American countries, it names the individual niches conforming a family mausoleum or cemetery tomb. 2 “… the bóveda espiritual (spiritual altar) that many Cubans keep in their homes, which functions as a portal for communication with deceased family members”, Kenneth Routon, “Open the Roads: Religious Sensibilities of Power and History in Havana, Cuba.” Ph.D dissertation, (Illinois: Department of Anthropology, Graduate School Southern Illinois University, 2006), 82. Routon’s work was solely concerned with domestic forms of Spiritist religious practice, which I will be describing as distinctive from what I am identifying as Cuban family religions. 1 2 This Introduction to the thesis will begin by contextualizing the history of bóvedas espirituales. I will then provide an overview of my thesis, which will be followed by a review of the concerned historiography. After highlighting my research background, I will elaborate on my research methodology, describe the thematic structure and, finally, suggest some practical implications of my thesis. 1.1 Historical Context of Bóvedas Espirituales In their strict historical genesis within Cuban religious traditions, bóvedas espirituales originated in the Espiritista tradition,3 and became popularized after being adopted by Cuban followers of Santeria (the Cuban iteration of Yoruba religion) by the end of the nineteenth century.4 At that time, the teachings and practices of European (Kardecian) Spiritism enjoyed wide appeal among Cuban whites, who associated it with modern, liberal ideas, seeing it as untarnished by the political influence of Spanish colonialism or the doctrinal control of Roman Catholicism. Some Spiritist ceremonies, initially adopted for the sake of local social conventions, quickly became the religious equivalent of hall games. The simple nature of Spiritism’s narratives and rituals, the absence of professional clergy, as well as the explicit invitation for anyone to communicate with the dead, contributed to the popularization of Spiritist practices.5 3 Spiritism [Espiritismo] is one of the most influential Cuban religious systems, with roots in the Spiritualism from the XIX-XX c. United States of America. Mainly focused on enabling communication with the dead, Cuban Espiritismo flourished in a time of civil war, political instability and social conflict, and has remained ever since a religious force in Cuba.