Dr. Samuel Silva Gotay

Caribbean Lutherans

History & Biography

“José David Rodríguez's book is the first academic history by a Puerto Rican about the Lutheran church, which arrived with the rest of the Protestant churches after the Hispanic American War. The book has an excellent introduction on Lutheran Protestantism in the Caribbean starting in the seventeenth century, when Dutch, German, and Danish missionaries first arrived on the islands. Dr. José David Rodríguez was the program director of the Hispanic Ministries program and director of the PhD program at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago in the US, as well as rector (president) at the Institute of Theological Education (ISEDET) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a fitting researcher to write this history, as he was raised in the Lutheran tradition and his father was a professor of theology at ISEDET in Argentina and at the Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, where students from all Protestant denominations on the island attend. The book contains a rich chapter on the development of the leadership role of women in the Lutheran church, which gives us a more contemporary vision of the history of his denomination. Few studies on denominational history in Puerto Rico have been made with equal academic rigor, even among those of the Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, and United Evangelical churches, as well as the other Protestant denominations that arrived alongside the Lutherans after 1898. Caribbean Lutherans is therefore not only a contribution to the history of the church, but no doubt also a valuable contribution to the history of Puerto Rico as a whole.”

Luteranismo en el Caribe

History & Biography

“bautista, metodista, presbiteriana, episcopal y evangélica unida, así como las otras denominaciones protestantes que llegaron junto con los luteranos después de 1898. Por lo tanto, Luteranismo en el caribe no solo es una contribución a la historia de la iglesia, sino sin duda también una valiosa contribución a la historia de Puerto Rico en su conjunto.”

Dr.