Kat Armas - Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength

Abuelita Faith offers a master class for those seeking liberation at the intersection of their own stories and Scripture. Many books explore theology, but very few offer such an expansive picture of God told through the eyes and stories of overlooked people. This book invites all of us to greater liberation through finding ourselves in Gods storythe story of our ancestors who showed up and made a way for us.

Brandi Miller , host, Reclaiming My Theology podcast

Abuelita Faith does something few writings are able to do. It gives us back our memories of God in the places that matter the most: our homes and bodies. Thinking, sensing, doing, and loving in the name of God have become white, male, rational, normative operations in the Western space. But Armas has found God operating powerfully in the underside of academia, the church, and the citythat is, at home, through the wisdom and practice of mujeres luchadoras (women in the struggle) and life givers, true teachers of the Spirit. Armas combines the best of postcolonial theories with biblically informed and ethically reconstructive approaches to everyday life. A must-read for those of us wishing for a different way of doing theology and faith.

Oscar Garca - Johnson , professor, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Spirit Outside the Gate: Decolonial Pneumatologies of the American Global South

Abuelita Faith is a celebration of women as genuine sources of theology. Leading from her experience as the daughter of Cuban immigrants, Armas shows us how the personal and biblical narratives of everyday women are essential to living unfragmented realities of life and faith. This is a book for churches, seminaries, men, and women.

Michelle Ami Reyes , vice president, Asian American Christian Collaborative; author of Becoming All Things: How Small Changes Lead to Lasting Connections across Cultures

With this stunning debut, Armas makes her mark as one of the most brilliant biblical scholars of her generation. Her beautiful and accessible prose brims with hope as she advocates for the marginalized and oppressed women in the biblical text with nuanced and original interpretations. Readers will encounter the liberative power of wrestling with the biblical text while they plumb the depths of the riches of Latinas wisdom traditions. I am deeply grateful for all the ways Armas has offered me gentle encouragement to see my ancestresses anew. Her voice is an important one for our time.

Karen Gonzlez , theologian, immigration advocate, and author of The God Who Sees

Abuelita Faith is perfectly named. Armas presents the traumatic history of the spirituality of marginalized women in a tender invitation as gentle as a grandmother setting a table. Like all good food, this book is meant to nourishnot only to open us to the lived experience of others but to find in their witness a sustaining grace. Armass delicate blend of history, experience, theology, and Scripture offers a rich meal that feeds our decolonization and reconstruction of Christian faith long after the last plate.

Emmy Kegler , author of One Coin Found: How God s Love Stretches to the Margins

In inspiring prose of metaphorical flor y canto (flower and song), Armas honors the spiritual dignity of our abuelas, mothers, and aunts, who are the unsung spiritual heroes of our Latine families. In the stories of women from sacred Scripture, she unearths the themes of their lessons and uplifts the abuelita faith that has shaped the Brown church for centuries.

Robert Chao Romero , associate professor, Csar E. Chvez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, UCLA; author of Brown Church

The combination of surgical scholarship and poetic storytelling makes this book a treasure and a healing balm for those of us trying to imagine a way forward in our faith.

Sandra Maria Van Opstal , executive director, Chasing Justice

Reading Abuelita Faith is like feasting on a faith prepared by generations. Through incisive cultural commentary, beautifully written memories of family, and the retelling of biblical narratives, Armas invites us into a faith that is relational and embodied.

Hillary L. McBride , psychologist, author, speaker, podcaster

Armas brilliantly weaves together Scripture, theology, history, postcolonial and feminist scholarship, personal experience, and culture to demonstrate that powerful named and unnamed women fill not only the Bible but also our lives. These women, including our abuelitas and other mentors, are theologians, teachers, and activists who embody the wise and loving way of Christ. Overlooking and underappreciating them impoverishes us and the world. Abuelita Faith is compelling, sharp, inspiring. I anxiously look forward to reading whatever else Armas publishes!

Marlena Graves , author of The Way Up Is Down: Becoming Yourself by Forgetting Yourself

As Armas tells of her own personal and communal formation under her abuelas gutsy, loving, and resistant spiritual life, she also carefully analyzes Scripture and evokes a tantalizing humanness in communion with God, family, and the world. Abuelita Faith is not an abstraction, an ideal, or an ideology; its a challenging witness to a vigorously embodied hope.

Mark Labberton , president, Fuller Theological Seminary

Sometimes I read and have to tell someone about it. Other times I read, and it makes me sit, feel, think, reread, and pause. Armass Abuelita Faith does just thatits a theological miracle. Her words dance and sing in ways that made me rethink what it means to dance and sing and write as a theologian. This story, these words, this type of love, is the path to our liberation.

Dante Stewart , writer and speaker

Armas invites us to attend the weekly game of dominoes, sit with her family, hear their stories, and make and create together with familia. She weaves together the wisdom of her ancestors with the stories of women in Scripture, providing insights into how to survive and thrive in ones faith. Pastors, educators, and those trying to make sense of their own stories in light of the biblical story need this book.

Patrick B. Reyes , award-winning Chicano author of The Purpose Gap and Nobody Cries When We Die