For this exercise, I actually went back to my application for the grant that is allowing me to be here. I was reminded that a principle reason that I came to Germany was because I understood that German culture had something to do with how the theologians I studied wrote and what their questions were. I especially think of Johann Baptist Metz, who is considered the founder of so-called political theology. He writes that his theology is, intentionally, a post-Auschwitz theology. For Latin American theologians, we say that we are writing theology while our people are in Auschwitz (in other words, in conditions of oppressive misery.) In both, though, there is a consideration for the way that culture affects the thinker’s tasks and questions.
Germany is a country which many people know about, but not many get to live here and engage with its people. I am anxious to get there and be able to dethrone some of the general conceptions of its history that I have. It will be an important experience to be in a place where I can only communicate minimally in the spoken language. Being a natural bilingual in Spanish and English, I can communicate with the vast majority of the world. This will be my first time living amongst a people with such a different culture and language. This means that I will have to be uncomfortable and also admit ignorance and take on humility more often than I have otherwise been tasked with.
When I think of my time in Germany and what I hope to get out of it, I think about what it means to be learning a language for the sake of scholarship. In many ways, it is a desire to go to the roots of a philosopher or theologian’s thought to be able to construct something valuable from it, engaging with their texts.