Orlando O. Espín teaches systematic theology at the University of San Diego, where he directs the Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism. He is president-elect of the Academy of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States. Espín’s specialties include popular religion, and he recently opened a dialogue between Catholic theologians and followers of Lukumi (Santeria).

Juan Martinez teaches Hispanic studies and pastoral leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., where he is assistant dean for Hispanic church studies. He is a Mennonite whose expertise includes Hispanic Protestantism and immigration.

María Pilar Aquino Vargas is a professor of theology and religious studies at the University of San Diego. Her specialties include Latina feminism, both in the United States and in Latin America. She wrote Our Cry for Life: Feminist Theology From Latin America (English translation Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2002).

Mark Juergensmeyer is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Global Studies, Sociology, and affiliate of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the founding director of the Global and International Studies Program and the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies. He is an expert on religious violence, conflict resolution and South […]

John Hospers is a philosopher, an emeritus professor at the University of Southern California and an editor at Liberty magazine. In 1972, he was the Libertarian Party’s first presidential candidate.

Mark D. Roberts is senior pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, Calif., and author of Dare to Be True: Living in the Freedom of Complete Honesty. He says people separate their religious convictions from their everyday lives, and the challenge for the church is to teach people how to connect them. 

Drew Halfmann is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Davis, and an expert on abortion policies.

The University of San Diego Center for the Study of Latino/a Catholicism is an organization dedicated to studying the theological influence of hispanics and Catholicism on society and church in the U.S. The center maintains an extensive list of Internet resources related to U.S. Hispanic and Latin American Catholicism.

Tremper Longman III is the Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif. He has been active in Bible translation and is a member of the committee that produced the New Living Translation.