Miguel A. De La Torre rejects hope as the ethical basis for a politically effective and truly liberative form of solidarity. Kelly Brown Douglas, on the other hand, articulates a critical retrieval of hope emphasizing the interpretive relationship between the cross, the lynching tree, and the resurrection. Reading De La Torre and Douglas’s works through Natalie Carnes’s theological aesthetics suggests that their respective works can be engaged as “iconoclasms of fidelity,” or the salutary breaking of idolatrous images toward recovering faithful ones. Examining #SprayTheirNames murals that were created in response to state violence against Black people in the United States, I argue that Carnes’s aesthetics framework holds the violence of the crucifixion and promise of resurrection in visual tension, thus decrying violent oppression while offering a beautiful and dangerous memory that catalyzes hope-filled movement in defense of Black lives.
Publications
2023
Flores, Nichole M. (2023) 2023. “A Beautiful and Dangerous Memory: Iconoclasm and Hope in the Aesthetics of Social Movements”. Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 43 (2): 309-29.
Flores, Nichole M. (2023) 2023. “Latine Perspectives on Care for Creation”. In The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Latinoax Theology, edited by Orlando O. Espin, 2nd ed., 347-64. Wiley-Blackwell.
2022
Flores, Nichole M. (2022) 2022. “Do We Change Our Minds in Public Life? On Christianity and the Possibility of Political Conversion”. Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics.
Flores, Nichole M. (2022) 2022. “Rootedness on the Slippery Earth: Migration in a Time of Social Upheaval”. In Religion, Protest, and Social Upheaval, edited by Matthew T. Eggemeier, Peter Joseph Fritz, and Karen V. Guth, 112-23. Fordham University Press.
2021
Flores, Nichole M. 2021. The Aesthetics of Solidarity: Our Lady of Guadalupe and American Democracy. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
2020
Flores, Nichole M. 2020. “Ethics from Marginalized Perspectives”. In Reimagining the Moral Life: On Lisa Sowle Cahill’s Contributions to Christian Ethics, edited by Ki Joo Choi, Sarah M. Moses, and Andrea Vicini. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis .
Flores, Nichole M. 2020. “Mercy as a Public Virtue”. Journal of Religious Ethics 48 (3): 458-72.
Flores, Nichole M. (2019) 2020. “Capitalism and the Face of the Opressed: A Response to Kathryn Tanner and Devin Singh”. Modern Theology 36 (2): 358-68.
2019
Flores, Nichole M. 2019. “A Response to Emily Reimer-Berry’s ‘Another Pro-Life Movement Is Possible’ - Power, Politics, and the Pro-Life Movement”. Catholic Theological Society of America. Pittsburgh, PA: Catholic Theological Society of America.
Flores, Nichole M. 2019. “Greed”. In Naming Our Sins: How Recognizing the Seven Deadly Vices Can Renew the Sacrament of Reconciliation, edited by David Cloutier and Jana M. Bennett, 73-88. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press .