A Theology of Liberating Conversion

By David Traverzo

This book reviews the biblical, theological, church, and mission history of the nature and significance of what is "conversion" according to the Christian faith. A broader understanding of "conversion" is suggested with concrete and practical steps to carry out dynamic Christian discipleship in the 21

• Language: English
• Publisher: IngramSpark
• Release date: Feb 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869205186

Book preview

A Theology of Liberating Conversion:

The Mission of Jesus and the Church Today

David Traverzo, PhD

Copyright © David Traverzo 2023

All Rights Reserved

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the author's prior written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please get in touch with the author.

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1 Introduction

Chapter 2 Voices from the Past and New Perspectives

Chapter 3  A Practical Guide to Follow

Chapter 4 Towards a Theology of Liberating Conversion

Chapter 5 A Liberating Conclusion

Dedication

I have an outstanding cloud of witnesses: my parents who grounded me in the gospel and basic human decency. My mentors: Dr. Justo L. González. He imprinted his gift of writing in my soul. Dr. Orlando E. Costas and Bishop Mortimer Arias, giants of missional partnership. Dr. Coleman Brown, my Colgate Chaplain who affirmed my humanity and my value in life. Dr. Samuel D. Proctor, my professor who received me as a student and a disciple. Dr. William Sloan Coffin, Jr.; prophet, pastor, and personal friend. Bill offered me hope, amid the despair and the deep corruption.

To my heroes that ended Drug-Free with A Liberating Conversion: Pastor Louie Collazo (Teen Challenge) and Vitín (John 3:16, The Bronx).

My key life pastors: Reverend Miloslav Baloun (The United Church: Bronx, New York); Reverend Roland Ratmeyer (Brighton Heights Reformed Church: Staten Island, New York); and Rev. Luis Robles (El Valle, Nueva York; Assemblies of God. Archbishop Marina Mendez, a prophet of God and friend to the end. And my seminary professors, always with me on this journey of ups and downs. I owe my theological growth and biblical depth to these servants of God and these authorities of knowledge.

Acknowledgments

I recognize the countless mentors, colleagues, classmates, and friends who have helped shape my journey as a pastor, professor, preacher, organizer, and writer. Your guidance, nurturing support, challenging insights, and empowering influence have been pillars of my vocation and calling. Say your name, would you, please?

Those who have departed and remain in my heart, mind, and soul. Gracias, Sam Colón, for that smile, contagious laughter, and your witness to the end. I miss you dearly.

​I acknowledge the following for their support and affirmation.

To John Edgar Colón, my model for college life.

Dr. Alvin Padiilla; hermano y colega hasta el fin.

Dr. Edwin Aponte, amigo y colega. You are loved.

Dr. Harold Recinos, panín del Barrio y de la vida.

Dr. Mark Chapman. Brother Mark to the end…

I acknowledge the professional agency and encouraging support of Carla Herk, Emily Morgan, and George Morrison, Mike Miller, and Ray Wilson.  They have been instrumental to see this work completed. You help make a difference in a world that cries for liberation, hope, and peace.

May this essay be a testament to the collective wisdom that continues to shape the mission of Jesus in this world. Beginning in East Harlem, The South Bronx, Mayaguez: Puerto Rico, Kingston, and Mandeville: Jamaica; La Habana: Cuba, London, England, and Houston, Texas.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth passed away… Revelation 21: 1

Biography

Dr. Traverzo was born in East Harlem to Puerto Rican parents from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. He is a product of the New York City Public School system and a graduate of Colgate University (BA in Spanish Literature). He has an MA in Education, an M.Div degree both from New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He holds an earned Ph.D. in Social Ethics from Drew University. Prof. Traverzo has taught at numerous colleges, universities, and theological institutions in the USA, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. Dr. Traverzo was ordained by the Reformed Church in America in 1984. He was ordained Bishop by CIP (Congregating in Prayer) Inc. in The Bronx in 2015.

He has traveled extensively throughout the USA, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Mexico, St. Thomas, St. Martin, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Spain, and England. Prof. Traverzo has worked with diverse Protestant agencies for over forty: RCA, PCUSA, UMC, ABC, UCC, TEC, ELCA, CC/DOC, AG, COGIC, COGOP, AME Zion, and independent Pentecostal churches and councils in the USA and abroad. Dr. Traverzo has founded or helped to charter Puerto Rican, Latino, and church-based national, regional, and local organizations since 1973. This includes student, ministerial, academic, and professional associations. He is the founder of UNIDAD (the first Puerto Rican student association in the history of Colgate University) and The Latinos@Riverside in New York City. He served with Witness for Peace and the National Sanctuary Movement in the U.S., as a founding member of the Riverside Church Sanctuary Committee in the 1980s.

Prof. Traverzo is retired, a self-educated dog trainer, photographer, certified musician, former lifeguard, Life Scout (BSA), and studied Salsa/Mambo with Eddie Torres, The Mambo King. Dr. Traverzo is a cancer survivor and still plays full-court basketball for 90 minutes on a weekly basis.

Preface

I am a third-generation pastor and a first-generation professor. My maternal grandfather was a pastor with the Assemblies of God. My mother's paternal aunt was a Baptist missionary. From their youth, my parents were leaders with the Presbyterian Church in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

My father, Rev. Manuel A. Traverzo, was the second Puerto Rican pastor ordained in the history of the Reformed Church in America (RCA) without obtaining a Master of Divinity (M.Div). His ministerial experience, administrative skills, preaching/teaching acumen, and formal classes taken at New Brunswick Theological Seminary qualified him and his pastoral labor as equivalent, if not more, than any graduate of a Reformed Church seminary in the United States.

It was under my father's ministry that I had a personal and life-changing encounter with the Lord. It wasn't a Billy Graham type altar call. I didn't recite the sinner's prayer. No one prayed or laid hands on me to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior. It was a mystical experience.

While my Dad was delivering the message based on Matthew 18:18-20, I experienced in my mind, body, soul, and spirit the presence and transformative power of the Lord. I saw the Lord in a vision before my very eyes that was as real as the beating of my heart. The David Traverzo who walked into that service that morning, was not the same one who walked out. My life was radically and dramatically changed. I was never the same, again.

It was my Dad who guided and motivated me to attend the theological seminary of the Reformed Church in America in New Brunswick. Such a move institutionalized the change in my life. I was exposed to the long history of the Christian church, something I hadn't been taught in Sunday school classes at the local church. I learned what it meant to think theologically in a conscious, critical, and constructive manner. I honed my research and writing skills.

I was exposed to tens of hundreds of books and authors in the fields of biblical studies, systematic theology, Western, Latin American, and Caribbean history, educational theory, ethics, pastoral, and liberation theology. I read with insatiable hunger, rabid curiosity, and implacable enthusiasm. I explored the works of radical evangelicals such as Orlando E. Costas, Mortimer Arias, José Míguez Bonino. Prominent authors like Justo L. González, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Pablo Richard, Richard Shaull, Paulo Freire, Penny Lernoux, Henry Nouwen, Jürgen Moltmann, Emil Brunner, John Bright, James H. Cone, Robert McAfee Brown, Bill Weber, D. Campbell Wycoff, Cornel West, John H. Yoder, Ron Sider, and José P. Miranda spoke to me.

Through my readings, prepared assignments, formal exams, dozens of conferences attended, delivered, and hundreds of sermons heard, I learned that the Christian life, the gospel of Christ, the mission of the church, theological discourse, and understanding the event and experience called conversion were far more complex. This cornucopia of knowledge was wider and deeper than what I had been exposed to in my Christian upbringing, and ecclesial life.

After almost