DR. DANNY CARROLL RODAS believes that to better understand the Bible, those who can’t get to Israel can visit Central America instead. Not only for biblical visuals like agrarian lifestyles, but because Old Testament issues like violence and poverty are everyday matters.

Dr. Carroll, who is half-Guatemalan, worked in Guatemala’s capital during the struggling nation’s 36-year civil war. Dictators have given way to cartels.

“In America, you can stay in the ivory tower and avoid social issues. In Guatemala, that’s impossible,” he says. “As soon as you leave the seminary, you are in the hustle and bustle of a city all jumbled with poverty and violence. You go to the Old Testament because you have to find answers....We need the Old Testament so much these days: to hear God’s voice in times of global conflict. It’s so real, and that’s why we need it—as well as its hope.”

Dr. Carroll taught many years at El Seminario Teológico Centroamericano before moving to Denver Seminary. Now at Wheaton, he hopes to develop a greater Latino/a presence on campus. He is on the steering committee of the Hispanic Theological Initiative.