Dr. Rene Padilla was an internationally known Latin America scholar, minister, and founder of a holistic approach to mission and ministry which he called integral mission, combining a passion for evangelism with a concern for social action.

He was born to evangelical parents in Quito, Ecuador, in 1932 and spent most of his youth in Columbia, where his family faced severe opposition for their faith. From his earliest memories, his world was marked by poverty and oppression. In 1953 he came to study at Wheaton College, where he met his future wife, Catherine. After earning both a bachelor’s and master’s degree, he returned home to work with the International Fellowship of Evangelical students, travelling to universities throughout Latin America. In 1965 he received his PhD from the University of Manchester. His keynote address at the Lausanne Conference in 1974 pushed the worldwide evangelical community to broaden their perspective to include issues such as poverty and social justice in their approach to mission. He and his wife, Catherine, founded the Center for Interdisciplinary Theological Studies in 1982.

Dr. Padilla authored, edited, and contributed to several books, including New Face of Evangelicalism: An International Symposium on the Lausanne Covenant (1976), Mission Between the Times: Essays on the Kingdom (2010), In Search of Christ in Latin America: From Colonial Image to Liberating Savior (2019) and What is Integral Mission? (2021).

Dr. Padilla died in April of 2021.

This lecture is also available on the Asbury Theological Seminary library website.