Decolonization and the Remaking of Christianity

Decolonization and the Remaking of Christianity
Author: Elizabeth A. Foster
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2023-10-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1512824976

In the decades following the era of decolonization, global Christianity experienced a seismic shift. While Catholicism and Protestantism have declined in their historic European strongholds, they have sustained explosive growth in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. This demographic change has established Christians from the Global South as an increasingly dominant presence in modern Christian thought, culture, and politics. Decolonization and the Remaking of Christianity unearths the roots of this development, charting the metamorphosis of Christian practice and institutions across five continents throughout the pivotal years of decolonization. The essays in this collection illustrate the diverse new ideas, rituals, and organizations created in the wake of Western imperialism's formal collapse and investigate how religious leaders, politicians, theologians, and lay people debated and shaped a new Christianity for a postcolonial world. Contributors argue that the collapse of colonialism and broader cultural challenges to Western power fostered new organizations, theologies, and political engagements across the world, ultimately setting Christianity on its current trajectory away from its colonial heritage. These essays interrogate decolonization's varied and conflicting impacts on global Christianity, while also providing a novel framework for rethinking decolonization's modern legacies. Taken together, this book charts the relationship between decolonization and Christianity on a truly global scale. Contributors: Joel Cabrita, Darcie Fontaine, Elizabeth A. Foster, Udi Greenberg, David Kirkpatrick, Eric Morier-Genoud, Phi-Vân Nguyen, Justin Reynolds, Sarah Shortall, Lydia Walker, Charlotte Walker-Said, Albert Wu, Gene Zubovich.

Decolonizing Sociology

Decolonizing Sociology
Author: Ali Meghji
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2021-01-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1509541969

Sociology, as a discipline, was born at the height of global colonialism and imperialism. Over a century later, it is yet to shake off its commitment to colonial ways of thinking. This book explores why, and how, sociology needs to be decolonized. It analyses how sociology was integral in reproducing the colonial order, as dominant sociologists constructed theories either assuming or proving the supposed barbarity and backwardness of colonized people. Ali Meghji reveals how colonialism continues to shape the discipline today, dominating both social theory and the practice of sociology, how exporting the Eurocentric sociological canon erased social theories from the Global South, and how sociologists continue to ignore the relevance of coloniality in their work. This guide will be necessary reading for any student or proponent of sociology. In opening up the work of other decolonial advocates and under-represented thinkers to readers, Meghji offers key suggestions for what teachers and students can do to decolonize sociology. With curriculum reform, innovative teaching and a critical awareness of these issues, it is possible to make sociology more equitable on a global scale.

States-in-Waiting

States-in-Waiting
Author: Lydia Walker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2024-05-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1009305824

After the Second World War, national self-determination became a recognized international norm, yet it only extended to former colonies. Groups within postcolonial states that made alternative sovereign claims were disregarded or actively suppressed. Showcasing their contested histories, Lydia Walker offers a powerful counternarrative of global decolonization, highlighting little-known regions, marginalized individuals, and their hidden (or lost) archives. She depicts the personal connections that linked disparate nationalist struggles across the globe through advocacy networks, demonstrating that these advocates had their own agendas and allegiances, which, she argues, could undermine the autonomy of the claimants they supported. By foregrounding particular nationalist movements in South Asia and Southern Africa and their transnational advocacy networks, States-in-Waiting illuminates the un-endings of decolonization-the unfinished and improvised ways that the state-centric international system replaced empire, which left certain claims of sovereignty perpetually awaiting recognition. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Decolonizing Christianity

Decolonizing Christianity
Author: Darcie Fontaine
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2016-06-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1316679438

Decolonizing Christianity traces the dramatic transformation of Christianity from its position as the moral foundation of European imperialism to its role as a radical voice of political and social change in the era of decolonization. As Christians renegotiated their place in the emerging Third World, they confronted the consequences of racism and violence that Christianity had reinforced in European colonies. This book tells the story of Christians in Algeria who undertook a mission to 'decolonize the Church' and ensure the future of Christianity in postcolonial Algeria. But it also recovers the personal aspects of decolonization, as many of these Christians were arrested and tortured by the French for their support of Algerian independence. The consequences of these actions were immense, as the theological and social engagement of Christians in Algeria then influenced the groundbreaking reforms developing within global Christianity in the 1960s.

Did It Happen Here?: Perspectives on Fascism and America

Did It Happen Here?: Perspectives on Fascism and America
Author: Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 454
Release: 2024-03-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 132407440X

An essential primer for the thoughtful citizen. Since the election of Donald Trump, politicians, historians, intellectuals, and media pundits have been faced with a startling and urgent question: Are we threatened by fascism? Some see striking connections between our current moment and the tumultuous interwar period in Europe. But others question if these connections really reflect our current political moment or if they are another example of Eurocentrism and American provincialism speaking over a much more complex global political landscape.? Did It Happen Here? collects, in one place, key texts from the sharpest minds in politics, history, and the academy beginning with classic pieces by Hannah Arendt, Angela Davis, Reinhold Niebuhr, Leon Trotsky, and others. The book’s contemporary contributors include Ruth Ben-Ghiat on the trivialization of the term “fascism,” Jason Stanley and Sarah Churchwell on the Black radical perspective, and Robert O. Paxton on Trump. These writers argue firmly that fascism is alive and well in America today, but another set of contemporary voices disagree. Samuel Moyn demonstrates the limitations of historical comparison. Rebecca Panovka examines the uses and abuses of Hannah Arendt’s work. Anton Jager and Victoria De Grazia make the case that the social and communal conditions necessary for fascism do not exist in the United States. Still others, like Priya Satia and Pankaj Mishra, are critical of the narrow framework of this debate and argue for a global perspective. Did it Happen Here? brings together a range of brilliant intellectuals, offering vital takes on our evolving political landscape. The questions posed by editor Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins is one that readers will be debating for decades to come. Is fascism significantly influencing—even threatening to dominate—modern American politics? Is it happening here?

Britain, France and the Decolonization of Africa

Britain, France and the Decolonization of Africa
Author: Andrew W.M. Smith
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1911307746

Looking at decolonization in the conditional tense, this volume teases out the complex and uncertain ends of British and French empire in Africa during the period of ‘late colonial shift’ after 1945. Rather than view decolonization as an inevitable process, the contributors together explore the crucial historical moments in which change was negotiated, compromises were made, and debates were staged. Three core themes guide the analysis: development, contingency and entanglement. The chapters consider the ways in which decolonization was governed and moderated by concerns about development and profit. A complementary focus on contingency allows deeper consideration of how colonial powers planned for ‘colonial futures’, and how divergent voices greeted the end of empire. Thinking about entanglements likewise stresses both the connections that existed between the British and French empires in Africa, and those that endured beyond the formal transfer of power.

Christianity and Human Rights Reconsidered

Christianity and Human Rights Reconsidered
Author: Sarah Shortall
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2020-09-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108424708

This volume showcases the work of a new generation of scholars interested in the historical connection between religion and human rights in the twentieth century, offering a truly global perspective on the internal diversity, theological roots, and political implications of Christian human rights theory.