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Hispanic Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists in Texas

by the Rev. Dr. Paul Barton

Associate Professor of Hispanic Church Studies

Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

What is it like to be a member of a religious minority within the larger Mexican-American community while being a cultural minority within your Protestant denomination?

The Rev. Dr. Paul Barton, associate professor of Hispanic Church Studies at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest, explores that dimension in his recently-published book -- Hispanic Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians in Texas. Published by the University of Texas Press, Dr. Barton's book is the first comparative history of Hispanic Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists in Texas from the 1830s when Anglo-American Protestants began converting their Mexican-American Catholic neighbors up to Texas in the 1990s.

Professor Barton traces how los Protestantes have melded Anglo-American Protestantism with Mexican-American culture to create a truly indigenous, authentic, and empowering faith tradition in the Mexican-American community.

Dr. Barton, who joined the Seminary of the Southwest faculty in 1999, is a second generation Mexican-American and an ordained elder in the Rio Grande Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He was pastor of three Hispanic congregations in Texas and a campus minister after completing his master of divinity degree at Perkins School of Theology. He also earned the bachelor's degree from Southwestern University and the Ph.D. from Southern Methodist University.

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"Dr. Barton's book will provide an arena for significant dialogue among scholars, as well as between Catholics and Protestants, on the nature and significance of Hispanic Protestantism in the United States.... There is no question that this book is a significant contribution to the field. Indeed, there is no other book like it."

— Justo L. González, author of the highly praised volumes The Story of Christianity and History of Christian Thought and other major works

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from the University of Texas Press webpage on Professor Barton's book

The question of how one can be both Hispanic and Protestant has perplexed Mexican Americans in Texas ever since Anglo-American Protestants began converting their Mexican Catholic neighbors early in the nineteenth century. Mexican-American Protestants have faced the double challenge of being a religious minority within the larger Mexican-American community and a cultural minority within their Protestant denominations. As they have negotiated and sought to reconcile these two worlds over nearly two centuries, los Protestantes have melded Anglo-American Protestantism with Mexican-American culture to create a truly indigenous, authentic, and empowering faith tradition in the Mexican-American community.

This book presents the first comparative history of Hispanic Methodists, Presbyterians, and Baptists in Texas. Covering a broad sweep from the 1830s to the 1990s, Paul Barton examines how Mexican-American Protestant identities have formed and evolved as los Protestantes interacted with their two very different communities in the barrio and in the Protestant church. He looks at historical trends and events that affected Mexican-American Protestant identity at different periods and discusses why and how shifts in los Protestantes' sense of identity occurred. His research highlights the fact that while Protestantism has traditionally served to assimilate Mexican Americans into the dominant U.S. society, it has also been transformed into a vehicle for expressing and transmitting Hispanic culture and heritage by its Mexican-American adherents.

More about Professor Barton's book