His education and experiences with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship underscored Padilla's evangelical foundations and the priority he placed on the historical-critical approach to hermeneutics.[3] However, in 1959, Padilla was appointed a traveling secretary in Latin America for International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. In his work with universities throughout Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador, Padilla was faced with a tense sociopolitical context. Students were immersed in Marxist writings and grappled with the possibility of revolution. This was the context which produced not only Catholic liberation theology, but also challenged Padilla to develop a new evangelical social theology which he later termed "integral mission."[5]
Padilla brought his ideas to the global stage at the Lausanne Conference of 1974.[6] This had a significant effect on the nature of global evangelicalism and the growing priority of evangelicals in both evangelism and social activism.[7]
Padilla received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Wheaton College in 1992.[4] He became International President of Tearfund in 1996, with UK President Elaine Storkey. He was the father of the theologian Ruth Padilla DeBorst. C. René Padilla died on April 27, 2021, at the age of 88.[2]
^Carter, Jason A. (2018). "Preaching in the Global South". In Hutchinson, Mark P. (ed.). The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume V: The Twentieth Century: Themes and Variations in a Global Context. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 214. ISBN978-0-19-870225-2.
^Escobar, Samuel (2012). "Doing Theology on Christ's Road". In Jeffrey P. Greenman (ed.). Global Theology in Evangelical Perspective: Exploring the Contextual Nature of Theology and Mission. Gene L. Green. Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press. pp. 74ff. ISBN978-0-8308-6970-1.