A Postcolonial Theology of Life

A Postcolonial Theology of Life
Author: Jea Sophia Oh
Publisher:
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2011-12-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781935946014

We have here nothing less than a theology of life-life in the intensity of its postcolonial ecology, rippling through the creaturely interconnections of our planetary process, yet at the same time grounded in the beautiful local metaphors of an Asian counter-history. Jea Sophia Oh's luminous book is a must-read for all who care about the global socio-ecology, about process theology, about eco-femnism, about comparative theology-singly and together. -Catherine Keller, author of On the Mystery and Face of the Deep This exciting book begs classification as a second-generation exercise in postcolonial theology. It exceeds first-generation exercises in the sheer audacity of its eclecticism. Postcolonial theology fuses with ecotheology, and that amalgam combines in turn with comparative theology, transnational feminism, and contextual theology. It's enough to make one believe that theology may have a future after all in the twenty-first century. -Stephen D. Moore, author of Empire and Apocalypse and co-editor of Postcolonial Biblical Criticism and Planetary Loves: Spivak, Postcoloniality, and Theology Jea Sophia Oh promises and delivers a book on a multifaceted ethics that is a timely addition to the genre because it opens a scholarly space for rethinking an appropriate relationship among all living things. She bridges postcolonialism and ecotheology with the use of Salim as the philosophical underpinning for the argument that all forms of life are equal and divine. As we look at the physical and spiritual suffering and degradation caused by oppression of those that we deem to be subaltern, we say a resounding YES ! to the message of Hanul -becoming together. There is a poetic quality to the book which, like all poetry must be read carefully and thoughtfully. The reader will find that it is well worth the effort. -Melodie M. Toby, Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Kean University This book is a great introduction to eco-religious becoming and a great work of comparative theology in the context of Korean religious life. It will definitely introduce many readers to such concepts/terms as Donghak, salim, bab, hanul, and teum, which are not only contextually relevant for Korean theology but conceptually heavy-lifting in terms of "postcolonial eco-theology." Such a post-colonial hybrid ecotheology calls out for what the author describes as an ecocracy in place of the andro/anthropocentric notion of democracy and "globalization as usual." -Whitney A. Bauman, author of Theology, Creation, and Environmental Ethics: From Creatio ex Nihilo to Terra Nullius

Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology

Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology
Author: Pui-lan Kwok
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664228835

The burgeoning field of postcolonial studies argues that most theology has been formed in dominant cultures, laden intrinsically with imperializing structures. An essential task facing theology is thus to "decolonize" the mind and free Christianity from colonizing bias and structures. Here, in this truly groundbreaking study, highly respected feminist theologian Kwok Pui-lan offers the first full-length theological treatment of what it means to do postcolonial feminist theology. She explains her methodological basis and explores several specific topics, including Christology, pluralism, and creation.

Postcolonial Preaching

Postcolonial Preaching
Author: HyeRan Kim-Cragg
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2021-02-11
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1793617104

In Postcolonial Preaching, HyeRan Kim-Cragg argues that preaching is the act of dropping the stone of the Gospel into a lake, making waves to move hearts and transform the world wounded by colonial violence. The ripple effect serves as a metaphor and acronym to guide to preaching that takes postcolonial concerns seriously: Rehearsal, Imagination, Place, Pattern, Language and Exegesis (RIPPLE). Kim-Cragg explains each “ripple” in this approach and exercise of creating and delivering sermons. The author delivers fresh insights while drawing on some traditional homiletical perspectives in the service of a homiletic that takes the reality of racism, migration, and environmental degradation seriously. Moreover, Kim-Cragg demonstrates the postcolonial sermon in action by including annotated homilies. This book contributes to the very first wave of the application of postcolonial scholarship in preaching. Given the continuing extent and influence of colonial worldviews and legacies, this approach should become a staple in preaching over the next generation.

Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations

Evangelical Postcolonial Conversations
Author: Kay Higuera Smith
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2014-06-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0830896317

This groundbreaking volume arose out of the Postcolonial Roundtable in 2010, with contributors addressing the intersection of postcolonialism and evangelicalism. Looking at themes like nationalism, mission, Christology, catholicity and shalom, this volume explores new possibilities for evangelical thought, identity and practice.

Decolonizing Preaching

Decolonizing Preaching
Author: Sarah Travis
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2014-11-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1630876623

Colonialism and imperialism continue to impact the personal and social identities of North American preachers and listeners. In Decolonizing Preaching, Sarah Travis argues that sermons have a role in shaping the identity and ethics of listeners by helping them formulate responses to empire and colonization. Travis employs postcolonial theories to provide important insights for the practice of preaching today. She also turns to the social doctrine of the Trinity to offer a vision of the divine/human community that effectively deconstructs colonizing discourse. This book offers preachers and other practical theologians a gentle introduction to colonial history, postcolonial theories, and Social Trinitarian theology, while equipping them with tools to decolonize preaching and strategies for preventing, resisting, and responding to colonizing discourse. Travis effectively casts a vision of a "perichoretic space" in which preacher and listener encounter the living God-in-Trinity and are transformed, reconciled, and sent out to others in the church and beyond.

Postcolonial Public Theology

Postcolonial Public Theology
Author: Paul S. Chung
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2016-02-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1625649029

Postcolonial Public Theology is a tour de force--theological reflection transformed by encounter with the most compelling intellectual discourses of our time. It offers prophetic challenge to the hegemony of economic globalization. Evolutionary science's encounter with life's limit questions requires an ethically responsible practice of scientific rationality, measured by sufficient, sustainable livelihood for all. Interreligious engagement compels us to take seriously the realities of cultural hybridity and social location in reimagining a polycentric Christianity. Postcolonial Public Theology makes the case for public theology to turn toward postcolonial imagination, demonstrating a fresh rethinking of public and global issues that continue to emerge in the aftermath of colonialism. This book provides students and scholars in these various fields an interesting framework from which to continue to dialogue about the relevance of this literature and, in particular, the continuing importance of Christian theology in the public arena.

In Counterpoint

In Counterpoint
Author: Kristine Suna-Koro
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2017-05-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532619901

What does postcoloniality have to do with sacramentality? How do diasporic lives and imaginaries shape the course of postcolonial sacramental theology? Neither postcolonial theorists nor sacramental theologians have hitherto sought to engage in a sustained dialogue with one another. In this trailblazing volume, Kristine Suna-Koro brings postcolonialism, diaspora discourse, and Christian sacramental theology into a mutually critical and constructive transdisciplinary conversation. Dialoguing with thinkers as diverse as Edward Said and Gayatri Spivak as well as Francis D'Sa, S.J., Martin Luther, Mayra Rivera, and John Chryssavgis, the author offers a postcolonial retrieval of sacramentality through a robust theological engagement with the postcolonial notions of hybridity, contrapuntality, planetarity, and Third Space. While exploring the methodological potential of diasporic imaginary in theology, this innovative book advances the notion of sacramental pluriverse and of Christ as its paradigmatic crescendo within the sacramental economy of creation and redemptive transformation. In the context of ecological degradation, In Counterpoint argues that it is vital for the postcolonial sacramental renewal to be rooted in ethics as a uniquely postcolonial fundamental theology.

Interdependence

Interdependence
Author: HyeRan Kim-Cragg
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2018-05-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498241808

This book calls attention to an urgent need for postcolonial feminist approaches to practical theology. It not only advocates for the inclusion of colonialism as a critical optic for practical theology but also demands a close look at how colonialism is entangled with issues of race, ethnicity, gender, class, disability, and sexual orientation. Seeking to highlight the importance of the interdependence of life, the author challenges and contests the notion of independence as the desirable goal of the human being. Lifting up the experiences of overlooked groups--including children at adult-centered worship, queer and interracial youth in heterosexual and white normative family discourse, and non-human species in human-centered academic and theological realms--the book contributes to expanding the concerns of practical theology in ways that create healthy community for all human beings and non-human fellow creatures. It also takes up issues of multiple religious belonging and migration that practical theology has not sufficiently explored. These illuminating new possibilities promise to renew and even transform church communities through the inclusion of often-neglected groups with whom God is already present.

Postcolonial Politics and Theology

Postcolonial Politics and Theology
Author: Kwok Pui-lan
Publisher: Presbyterian Publishing Corp
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2021-12-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1646982304

Postcolonial Politics and Theology seeks to reform and reimagine the field of political theology—uprooting it from the colonial soil—using the comparative lenses of postcolonial politics and theology to bring attention to the realities of the Global South. Kwok Pui-lan traces the history of the political impacts of Western theological development, especially developments in the U.S. context, and the need to shift these interlocking fields toward non-Western traditions in theory and practice. A special focus of the book is on the changing sociopolitical realities of American Empire and Sino-American competition, illustrated in Donald Trump's slogan of "Make America Great Again" and Xi Jinping’s hope for a “China Dream.” The shifting of U.S. and Asian relationships highlights the need to move our theological and political categories away from a vision of strongman domination and toward a postmodern, postcolonial, and transnational world, especially exemplified in the Asia Pacific context. Throughout, Kwok overturns the idea of centering one cultural framework and marginalizing others in favor of living into a multiplicity of deeply contextual theologies. She explores how these theologies are being developed in global, postcolonial contexts, through struggles for democracy and civil disobedience in Hong Kong, by efforts to reclaim selfhood and sexual identity from exploitative colonial desire, through the work of interreligious solidarity and peacebuilding, and in the practice of earth care in the face of ecological crisis.

The Cambridge Companion to Christian Political Theology

The Cambridge Companion to Christian Political Theology
Author: Craig Hovey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 321
Release: 2015-11-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1107052742

This volume explores contemporary Christian political theology, discussing its traditional sources, its emergence as a discipline, and its key issues.