The Best Birthday Gift
I turn 39 today, and I never imagined I would be where I am today. So, celebrate with me! Here are a few things about me that I would like to share with you all. I was one of the worst students through out grades one through twelve, and somehow I ended up with a PhD teaching theology, mission, and spiritual formation. I have always been a little bit shy and ended up marrying the most amazing extrovert. And together we have two extremely opinionated and talkative little social butterflies.
I am in good health, even though I had covid last week for the third time. And, for the first time ever I am a published author. Yes! you read it right. My new book, A Human Catechism is fully out. So, celebrate with me, click the link, and buy a copy through Wipf and Stock Publishers directly, or through Amazon.
Here is what some friends are saying:
Joel offers an unflinching look into his own journey on becoming human and invites us to tag along as best we can. It’s not always easy to keep up with Joel, especially when the journey takes us into the difficult and dark alleys of life, but he invites us to go there with the skilled assurance of one who has done his work, and survived (is surviving) his own dark alleys that haunt him and the country he loves. As you might imagine Joel is a such a good story teller and offers brilliant theological reflection. But I also detected in Joel’s writing is a certain hint of shyness that lightly veils something so much deeper and trustworthy than the darkness he explores…one can see the unmistakable outlines of joy shining through. It’s the tested but unbridled and urgent joy of undergoing a God in whom there is no violence…and how that is returning Joel to himself, to God, and all Creation, and that includes us here at the Street Psalms Community!—Kris Rocke, Executive Director of Street Psalms, author of Geography of Grace
I have been waiting for a book like this! A book that is theologically and anthropologically robust while not avoiding personal and communal application. Joel gives his reader a true narrative road map towards an embodied theology and liberative psychology.. This book is an invitation towards a way of being human that is located in honesty and curiosity—Ron Ruthruff, Associate Professor of Theology and Culture, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology , author of The Least of These & Closer to the Edge
Here is a pioneering work in applying mimetic theory to the understanding of discipleship in the modern world. Based on Joel Aguilar’s own experience of becoming critical and self-critical as a follower of Christ within his homeland of Guatemala, a context he richly describes and shares, what he offers us nevertheless has far wider application. Joel’s “Human Catechism” opens up a three-dimensional way of living the Gospel with and alongside every different sort of “other”, as well as preparing us for all the traps and forms of blindness we may fall into on the way.—James Alison, Catholic Theologian and Author (The Joy of Being Wrong, Raising Abel, Faith Beyond Resentment and other publications)