Justo L. González


Justo L. González is a Cuban-American Methodist historian and theologian. He is a prolific author and an influential contributor to the development of Latin American theology. His wife, Catherine Gunsalus González, is a Professor Emerita at Columbia Theological Seminary, and the two have co-authored several books.

Education

Justo L. González was born in Havana, Cuba on August 9, 1937, attended United Seminary in Cuba, received his M.A. from Yale, and then went on to receive his Ph.D. He was the youngest person to be awarded the historical theology doctorate at Yale.

Teaching

González taught at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico for eight years, followed by another eight years at Candler School of Theology of Emory University in Georgia. Now retired, he also served as adjunct professor of history at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, Georgia and at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a retired member of the Rio Grande Conference of The United Methodist Church.
He is a leading voice in the growing field of Hispanic theology, comparable to such figures as Virgilio Elizondo, Orlando Costas, and Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz. González is one of the few first generation Latino theologians to come from a Protestant background With Mexican-American United Methodist minister Roy Barton, González helped found the first academic journal related to Latino/a theology, Apuntes, published by the Mexican American Program of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He also helped to found the Association for Hispanic Theological Education, for which he has twice served as Executive Council Chair. He was the first Director of the Hispanic Summer Program and helped found the Hispanic Theological Initiative.
A festschrift has been published for him: Hispanic Christian Thought at the Dawn of the 21st century: Apuntes in Honor of Justo L. González, edited by Alvin Padilla, Roberto Goizueta, Eldin Villafañe with contributions from Roman Catholic and Protestant Latina and Latino theologians, historians, and biblical scholars.
Justo González is the main narrator for the video lessons of the Christian Believer study course from Cokesbury publishing.
Gonzalez is also the recipient of the Ecumenism Award from Washington Theological Consortium. This was awarded to him because of his ecumenical work that aims to unify churches with a variety of denominational backgrounds.

Writings

In 1984–5 González wrote a popular two volume textbook entitled The Story of Christianity that covers the history of the church from founding till the present in a readable style. He is also the author of a three volume work titled History of Christian Thought. Both works commonly are used as college and seminary textbooks.
Additional books include: