Presentation

Abstract

Several significant anniversaries inspire the content of this issue of Yachay: the 250th anniversary of Pastoral Theology as an academic discipline; the 25th anniversary of the Pastoral Theology Major at the San Pablo Faculty of Theology, Universidad Católica Boliviana; the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis's encyclical Laudato si’; the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Creatures; and the 100th anniversary of Marcel Mauss's The Gift (Essai sur le don). We begin with two articles that challenge certain anthropological reductionisms of our time, proposing contrasting epistemologies that promote the flourishing of every person and of all creation through renewed pastoral practices. These are followed by two articles on contextualized pastoral care in specific times and places, from Bolivia and Europe. Another article puts Mauss's concept of the gift into dialogue with its Christian understanding, and the final one contextualizes the promotion of the Quechua language. Two of the miscellaneous texts address pastoral theology from a synodal perspective: one focusing on a renewed catechesis, and another regarding a synodal liturgy. A third text deals with pastoral care for climate migrants, and a fourth approaches popular religiosity practices in a mountainous area. We conclude with a book review that places love as the root of the gift, both of which are cross-cutting themes in this issue of the journal.